He cried out in joy, his voice trembling, "Your... Your Highness!"
Huai said nonchalantly, still leaning on his hand, "You asked for my forgiveness and I gave it to you. What? You don't want it?"
The old man immediately waved his hands in front of him in a panic. "No, no, Your Highness! How could I dare disrespect your mercy? I'm just so, so happy that I forgot to thank you properly."
He quickly clasped his hands together in a formal salute and gave Huai a deep, deep bow. "Thank you! Thank you, Your Highness, for saving this old life."
Huai just nodded, then asked again, "So why did you come here with my sect's disciples?"
Before the man could answer, Lin Feng jumped in, laughing. "Master! He tried to recruit Bai Wei just now. When Bai Wei refused and said that if he ever needed another master he already had someone in mind... this old man said he wanted to meet that person, and if that person wasn't strong enough, Bai Wei would have to accept him as his master instead."
Wuhe chuckled softly beside Huai. He knew exactly who Bai Wei meant by 'someone in mind'. It was definitely Huai.
But Huai was thinking about a completely different problem. Why is even Lin Feng calling me 'master' now? What is wrong with everyone? Does everyone have some strange hobby of calling me master?
Bai Wei also stepped forward in front of the man and said seriously, "The person in front of you is my senior brother and our Sect Leader, Huai. He is the person I had in mind to take as my master."
Huai almost cursed out loud. He quickly sat back up and fixed his composure. Again. Again! Now even Bai Wei...
The man immediately shook his head in terror. "How could I! How could I possibly try to take a disciple from His Highness? I can't even see his true realm at all..."
Huai chuckled a little. "Actually, I have some questions I want to ask you."
The man nodded his head at once. "Just ask, Your Highness. How could I dare not answer your questions?"
Huai asked, "Why are you here in this lower plane?"
The man answered respectfully, "Your Highness, I came here during a fight. My enemy and I fought for thousands of years in the vast Void Sea. I managed to injure him and I fled down to the lower realm to escape. I was also severely injured myself. My appearance changed over time, and I became like that old man you saw."
Huai frowned slightly and asked again, "How many years have you been in this plane?"
The man answered, "Not long. Maybe a hundred years at most."
Huai nodded to himself. At least this person hadn't been here for thousands of years while watching the ancient humans suffer without helping. If that had been the case, he would have taken his gift back immediately.
Huai sighed. "You can stay in my sect. I will return there in a few days. If you want, you can stay here for now."
The man immediately bowed again, overjoyed. "As you command, my Lord! You can ask anything of me, and I will do it for you."
Huai nodded, and the man respectfully backed out of the main hall.
As soon as he left, Wuhe leaned over and whispered something into Huai's ear. Huai listened and nodded.
In the next second, Wuhe also disappeared from his seat.
Inside the main hall, Huai asked someone to bring Lin Yu back.
After a few seconds, she was brought in.
Lin Yu saw her brother standing among the new people. She immediately ran toward him and threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly.
Lin Feng hugged her back just as tightly. He gently patted her head, his own voice breaking a little. "Lin Yu... how are you?" A few drops of tears fell from his eyes.
Bai Wei and the others standing to the side watched them with huge, happy smiles on their faces.
Now safe in her brother's arms, Lin Yu started sobbing endlessly.
"Sob... brother! I... I thought you were dead," she cried. "My master saved me back then... sob... and then just a few days ago, His Highness told me that you were still alive..."
Lin Feng chuckled softly while continuing to pat her head. "Aren't I standing right in front of you now? I had just gone out to find some snacks for you. When I came back to our family home... everything was gone. I couldn't even find you. But later, I was accepted by the Eternal Sect."
Huai, Mei Ling, and the others watched the two siblings in silence, a look of pity in their eyes. A single, simple accident had torn two siblings apart from each other, and had even taken their entire family's lives.
***
Outside the main hall, the old man now young again walked out happily. He had only taken a few steps when a voice called to him from behind.
"Are you from the Azure Sky Divine Realm?"
The man's eyes went as wide as possible. He immediately turned around and saw a person walking toward him.
It was Wuhe.
He immediately bowed low. "Your Highness! Are you also from the Azure Sky Divine Realm?"
Wuhe waved his hand dismissively. "You don't need to show me that much respect. I'm just a mere Immortal Sovereign right now. In your eyes, I'm probably just an ant, right?"
The man felt a chill run through his whole body. He shook his head and his hands frantically. "No, no! How could I dare disrespect someone who was just sitting beside His Highness inside the main hall?"
Wuhe chuckled. "You noticed that?"
The man nodded. "I can guess, Your Highness. You must be someone with a terrifying background... you're just hiding your power right now."
Wuhe shook his head. "You're right about the first half, but I'm not hiding my power. I simply haven't regained my power back yet."
The man frowned, and then a thought struck him. "Your Highness... did you reincarnate?"
Wuhe nodded.
The man let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "Now I understand! Now I know why His Highness favors you so much. Hahaha. So, Your Highness, you were from our Azure Sky Divine Realm? That means His Highness is too..."
Wuhe shook his head in denial. "No, he is not. He came from another place entirely. As for me, I was from the Azure Sky. Maybe you don't know, but I once had a small but beautiful empire there, known as the Golden Lotus Empire. Its name has probably changed by now."
Wuhe didn't notice at first, but the moment he said that name, the man's legs started to shake in fear. He stumbled backward and thumped down onto the ground.
Wuhe frowned and quickly reached out to help him up.
"What... what happened to you?"
The man grabbed Wuhe's hand and stood up, his voice shaking as he asked, "My Lord! Are you... are you the Golden Lotus Divine Emperor?"
Wuhe was stunned. Yes, that was the title he was given in his past life. If this man, who had only come down a hundred years ago, knew that name... then his empire was still famous in the Divine Realm even now.
He asked hurriedly, "Is it still there? My empire..."
The man sighed deeply, then bowed to him with utmost respect. "Your Highness, let me introduce myself properly. I am called the Heavenly Fate Divine Lord, Wu Tianji. I used to calculate fate for others, and because of one fate I calculated and announced, I attracted the attention of the strongest forces in the Divine Realm. I was invited to join them, but I refused. That is why they sent a powerful Divine King to kill me."
Wuhe nodded, listening, but he asked again urgently, "But what does that have to do with my empire at all? It was just a small empire."
The man looked at him with a sad expression. "There is no empire called the Golden Lotus Empire in the Divine Realm anymore... but..."
Wuhe was confused. "But what?"
The man said slowly, "There is a place called the 'Golden Lotus Forbidden Ground' in the Azure Sky Divine Realm."
He continued, and with every word, Wuhe became more and more certain of what had happened back then.
The man said, "After you were killed by your own cousin, he took the throne and became the next Emperor of the Golden Lotus Empire."
"But the days were never as beautiful as they were under your rule. He was arrogant and cruel. He tortured the common people, even mortals. He forced them into endless mining for spirit stones. The taxation became brutal. I cannot even begin to describe his cruelty..."
Wuhe gritted his teeth in anger. His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles turned white as he listened to everything. The empire he had worked so hard for, for many long years, had all been ruined and tampered with by his own cousin. If he could regain his cultivation realm right now, he would go back there and kill him with his own hands.
Wu Tianji continued, his voice low, "His tyranny became so intense that if anyone dared to reject him, he would kill them and hang their bodies up in the villages and cities, just to show everyone the consequences of disobeying him... until..."
Wuhe asked through clenched teeth, "Until what? Did someone from those higher forces finally take action?"
Wu Tianji shook his head. His soul still trembled in fear just from remembering that day. He had been there when that incident happened.
"About fifteen years after your death, everyone still believed you were killed by your enemies, not by your own cousin..."
Wuhe frowned as well. Yes, he had almost forgotten that detail. His cousin had killed him inside a secluded valley where no one was around. He had first drugged him with a terrifying poison, then killed him with a powerful weapon. Even now, Wuhe still didn't know where his cousin had found that weapon from. If he had not been betrayed by his own blood, there would have been no one in his own territory capable of killing him.
He looked at Wu Tianji. "How did you know it was my cousin who killed me?"
Wu Tianji sighed deeply. "At that time, everything was under your cousin's rule and his tyranny. Then suddenly, a beautiful and terrifying phenomenon appeared above the capital city. A person was standing in the sky, above countless divine beasts that had appeared out of nowhere. Even those hidden ancient forces and the strongest experts who were in secluded cultivation came out and looked up toward the sky in awe..."
Hearing up to now, Wuhe became a little flustered. Did my brother attract some hidden powerhouses or something...?
Just then, a system notification rang clearly in his head.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host, for unraveling a secret from your past life.]
[New Mission Triggered!]
[**Find The Details**
Find out completely what happened to your empire after your death.
Completion: 20%
Rewards: Coordinates to a fragment of your lost memories.]