Li Mo’s tone echoed with grief and helplessness. At the time, he was no more than a youth of sixteen or seventeen. How great did his willpower and fortitude have to be, to bear the cries of a hundred thousand kin? How great his courage, to utter the command that would doom them all?

And yet no one else on the Chenyuan continent knew the truth; they styled him a god of slaughter, the Slaughtering King, a mark of praise and reverence—and yet to him it was only a reminder of an agonizing decision he had to make, relived time and time again. Only Li Mo knew what he had given up that day, and the mantle he now carried: to be misunderstood by his fellow kin, to be hated, to be plagued by his own conscience!

Yun Ruoyan felt as though she could now understand why Li Mo seemed so cold, why he always dressed in black, and why, despite being only in his twenties, he already seemed so jaded and indifferent.

Yun Ruoyan’s heart throbbed for the youth of sixteen who had to kill his kin, who bore a mountain’s worth of responsibility all on his own. Sensing his rigid body and tight muscles, she hugged him in an attempt to get him to relax.

“Li Mo, do you know who it was that set these demonic parasites on your kin?” Killing the perpetrator of these crimes was the only possible revenge.

“It was the first elder of the silver dragon clan. He was badly injured by my father during a battle that year, and he chose to exact revenge on the beastkin as a whole. He had one of his clan enforcers infiltrate the Chenyuan continent, stirring up the beastkin and inciting them into rebellion against the humans, hoping that the humans would slaughter them all.”

When Li Mo found out about this affair, he requested that the Li emperor make him the general of the forces tasked to quell the rebellion. Because the Li emperor knew something of his parentage, he agreed.

The reason Li Mo took on the role of general was to prevent this needless fight. He found the generals of the beastkin army and made his identity known, revealing the scheme of the silver dragon’s clan first elder. The generals were naturally willing to follow Li Mo, and they all surrendered to him.

Seeing that his scheme had failed, however, the enforcer of the silver dragon clan chose to give up his life’s cultivation in a last-ditch effort to infest the beastkin army, a hundred thousand strong, with demonic parasites that would turn them into bloodthirsty barbarians.

If all hundred thousand beastkin soldiers were to be parasitized and allowed to run rampant, then the Chenyuan continent would have become a living hell. Li Mo had no other choice than to call for their deaths.

“When those beastkin found out that they would become demons in their own right, they begged for death to the last. I swore to them that I would behead the silver dragon clan’s first elder in vengeance for their suffering and consolation for their sacrifice.”

Yun Ruoyan firmly gripped Li Mo’s shoulders. “In that case, I too shall help with this goal. Let his head forever hang in this valley; let it serve as his eternal remorse!”

Li Mo hugged her back, his body cool but warmer than it had ever been. “This is only one of my secrets. Next, I’ll take you to see a certain person, a person whom I have to protect with my life.”

Yun Ruoyan thought of the madam she had heard reference to back in the southern tower, the madam whom Li Mo had called Mother. However, Li Mo had once told Yun Ruoyan that his mother had been seized by the silver dragon clan, and this was something that had plagued Yun Ruoyan for quite some time—though it seemed that this question would be quickly resolved.

On his sword, they flew past the Yueli Mountains, toward another valley further in the distance.

The second day after Yun Ruoyan’s trip to the Farsighted King’s Manor, right as Li Mo was about to head to the Yun manor to ask for Yun Ruoyan’s hand in marriage, he received a command from his mother telling him to bring Yun Ruoyan over to see her.

At first, Li Mo was a little hesitant, but he made up his mind to do so after having this conversation with Yun Ruoyan.

Empress Xue Tong had only ever treated Yun Ruoyan as a cultivation tool since the first she had heard of her from Li Mo. However, after learning from the first elder of Kongming Academy that she possessed the bloodline of the demonic dragons, she intended to make use of her as a pawn in her plans.

More specifically, she would make use of her to reach an agreement with the demonic dragon clan to team up and destroy the silver dragons completely. If this alliance were to be successful, however, Yun Ruoyan would have to play an important role in the negotiations. As a result, she had to meet this allegedly exceptional girl in person.

Two hours later, Li Mo brought Yun Ruoyan to another, unfamiliar valley. Perhaps because it was turning dark, or because it was relatively uninhabited, this valley looked far darker and sinister than the previous one.

A grand, imposing castle loomed in the distance, partially destroyed and in quite some disrepair.

“Li Mo, is this…”

“Yes, the castle of the beastkin kingdom. I was born right here.”

Li Mo took Yun Ruoyan’s hand and walked her to the castle, murmuring, “This was also where I grew up, and the castle’s the source of many of my cherished childhood memories. However, during my sixth year here, my life fell apart.”

“Your Highness, you’re here! The madam has been waiting for quite some time.” Su Bei greeted them near the entrance, dressed entirely in black and with an expansive hood covering his head.

“This is Su Bei, another of my guards. However, he’s been tasked to remain here to guard this place,” Li Mo explained.

Of Li Mo’s guards, Su Nan was the only one she had some familiarity with; Su Dong, Su Bei, and Su Xi were names that she had only heard Li Mo mention in passing. [1]

However, Yun Ruoyan did remember Su Bei’s voice: he was the man whom Li Mo had been talking to moments after she had woken from unconsciousness.

“And this must be Miss Yun. Miss, please follow me.” Su Bei bowed and unhooded himself, revealing his true appearance. His face was stoic and resolute, and a long, angled knife scar stretched from his forehead all the way down his jaw through his left cheek, making him look more severe.

The more she looked at it, the more she found his face similar to someone she knew—Zhuo Yifeng! Of course, Zhuo Yifeng was still just a youth, but the stoic, resolute aura that he projected felt virtually identical to Su Bei’s.

Yun Ruoyan didn’t know the relationship between Zhuo Yifeng and Su Bei, and she didn’t think too much about it. Treating it as a mere coincidence, she nodded at Su Bei and followed him and Li Mo into an underground tunnel.

Quickly, the three of them reached the end of the tunnel, leading into a secret vault. Su Bei slowly opened the doors as Yun Ruoyan turned to Li Mo, her heart starting to beast faster and faster. This madam that Su Bei was serving, that Li Mo swore to protect with his life—could it be the woman that she was thinking about?

With anxiety, confusion, and some amount of excitement, Yun Ruoyan took a few steps forward and entered the chamber before Li Mo.

“Miss Yun, it’s good to meet you.” The moment she stepped into the vault, a pleasant but cold voice spoke to her.

Yun Ruoyan looked up to see a statue in the spacious room, one of a woman seemingly carved in white jade. Arrayed around her were all sorts of rare spiritual herbs, pills, and treasure, and the vault was filled with a potent, concentrated haze of spiritual energy.

“Miss Yun, I’ve heard Mo’er talk about you many a time. Now that we’re finally meeting, I can indeed affirm your beauty with my own eyes.”

“You’re…”

“She’s my mother, the honorable Empress Xue Tong of the beastkin kingdom,” Li Mo began.

He walked up to Yun Ruoyan, then bowed toward her mother. “Mother, I’ve brought Yan’er here to pay respects to you.”

“Yun… Yun Ruoyan greets the Empress Xue Tong.” After a moment’s hesitation, Yun Ruoyan hurriedly mimicked Li Mo’s actions and bowed toward the jade statue.

“You may rise,” Empress Xue Tong replied mildly. “Miss Yun, is my countenance frightening to you?”

“No, Your Highness! I was just a little taken aback.”

Empress Xue Tong was clearly an immobile jade statue, but Yun Ruoyan could feel her gaze linger on her.

“Li Mo has mentioned you to me a few times,” she began hesitantly. “He said that you were taken away by the silver dragons, so I am a little shocked to see you here.”

She frowned at Li Mo, as if blaming him for her confusion.

“Li Mo didn’t lie to you,” Empress Xue Tong sighed. “I was truly abducted by the elders of the silver dragon clan. The entity speaking to you is nothing more than a fragment of my soul. The reason Li Mo hid this matter from you was not because of a lack of trust, but rather because this matter is of life-and-death importance to me. If the silver dragons were to find out that I still existed on the Chenyuan continent, even in this form, they would surely try to send people after me—and the two of you.”

Empress Xue Tong’s voice turned cold once more.

“As such, my presence here is a responsibility and danger to all those in the know. Your marriage with Li Mo will undoubtedly chain and embroil you in this matter, and I hope you’ll understand your newfound responsibilities clearly.”

1. 東 (dong), 南 (nan), 西 (xi), 北 (bei) represent the four cardinal directions, so this is a matched quartet of names.