The Twilight Emperor

Returning it was out of the question, so Xu Xian simply claimed it was lost.

Lu Yuan did not believe him for a second.

He was certain that Xu Xian had pocketed it, and he even remarked that he never expected Xu Xian to be such a person.

To even cheat his own people.

Originally, Lu Yuan had not quite believed the unfavorable rumors circulating within the sect.

He thought people were just following the crowd and had even felt the rumors were unfair to the young man.

But now,

he believed every word of them.

Every time he looked back, he wanted to slap himself for being so naive.

Xu Xian was still trying his best to defend himself, asking Lu Yuan, "Do you have any idea how dangerous this trip was for me?"

"Do you know I almost died at the hands of a late-stage eighth-rank greater demon king?"

"Do you know I actually fought a demon god?"

"Can you even imagine how critical the situation was back then?"

Lu Yuan spread his hands. "And so?"

Xu Xian summarized, "So, under those circumstances, isn't it perfectly reasonable for the cloak to go missing?"

"Heh!"

Lu Yuan laughed in anger. Who would believe such a blatant lie?

"Why didn't you go missing yourself?"

"Do you really not believe me?"

"I would sooner believe a ghost than you."

Xu Xian stopped pretending and told Lu Yuan to follow him.

Lu Yuan followed without hesitation, and so the two of them left Zuiwan Residence, treading under the final glimmers of the night's stars and moon.

They crossed the Longevity Bridge.

They landed in a deserted mountain stream outside the sect.

Lu Yuan leaned against a large tree by the stream with his arms crossed. "Go on then. I want to see how else you plan to talk your way out of this."

After going through so much trouble to bring him here, Lu Yuan really wanted to see what Xu Xian was actually up to.

"Keep your eyes wide open and watch closely."

Xu Xian dropped those words and, right in front of Lu Yuan, transported the old tortoise and the stone stele out of the Divine Sword Pool.

Before the transport, he did not hesitate to waste a charge of his Heaven-Sealing Trapping Formation to isolate the surrounding area.

The old tortoise and the stone stele.

They hid some unknown secret, and before the mystery was solved, Xu Xian believed that the fewer people who knew, the better.

Even his senior sisters and brothers were no exception.

It was better to avoid adding unnecessary worries.

The stone stele crashed into the stream, and the sleeping old tortoise was startled awake. It muttered a curse before being dragged out of the world of the sword mound by the stone stele.

A suffocating pain washed over it as its head grew heavy and its vision went dark.

It fainted on the spot.

Seeing the stone stele appear out of thin air and sensing the unfamiliar aura and fluctuations coming from it, Lu Yuan uncharacteristically set aside his playful demeanor.

His gaze swept over the stone stele and the chains again and again.

He was lost in deep thought.

"This is..."

Xu Xian felt a bit disappointed seeing Lu Yuan's reaction.

Clearly, judging by his response, Lu Yuan did not seem to recognize this stone stele.

Of course,

along with the disappointment, there was also a sense of relief. He was glad Lu Yuan was not in league with this old tortoise.

It was not that being in league with the old tortoise made someone a bad person.

But if Lu Yuan were on the old tortoise's side, then his stance would be opposite to Xu Xian's.

After all, Li Taibai was Xu Xian's master.

He had to stand on his master's side no matter what.

He did not know if others were bad,

but his master was definitely a good man.

For the sake of all living beings, he established the Wendao Sword Sect to balance the world, and with his own strength, he ended the tens of thousands of years of conflict among the four races in Fanzhou.

He even sealed the Sky Gate single-handedly.

Lu Yuan's attention finally shifted along the chains to the turtle that was only the size of a bowl, and the complexity in his eyes deepened.

He stepped closer and pointed at the turtle on the ground, asking, "What is this thing?"

"A little turtle."

Lu Yuan was speechless. Of course he knew it was a turtle, and a small one at that...

He continued to ask, "Is it dead?"

Xu Xian glanced at it and said with some uncertainty, "Probably not."

The old tortoise was flipped on its shell with its head, limbs, and tail exposed and hanging limply. It was spread out in all directions.

It really did look dead!

Lu Yuan gave it a kick and said instinctively, "It looks like you've put it through quite a lot."

Xu Xian was startled. "You can tell just by looking?"

Lu Yuan said exasperatedly, "Nonsense. I am not actually blind."

Even though

everyone in the sect called him a blind man because he always wore a ribbon over his eyes.

Xu Xian remained silent.

In the mountain stream at dawn, a stone stele stood tall while two young men crouched on the ground, whispering and muttering over the 'dead turtle'.

They went back and forth.

"Well? Can you see anything?"

"No."

"Don't you usually know a lot?"

Lu Yuan understood Xu Xian's meaning. He wanted to learn something from him, but honestly, he really could not see much.

He only gave a fair assessment, "Looking at this stone stele, it is older than me. This old tortoise is likely older than me as well."

Xu Xian nodded instinctively. He could tell Lu Yuan was not lying.

Lu Yuan asked, "Where did you get it?"

"The Demon Abyss!"

"Where in the Demon Abyss?"

"Beneath the Nether Pool."

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "I have never been there."

Xu Xian called that a waste of breath and asked casually, "Do you know of Xuanwu?"

Lu Yuan said flatly, "Obviously."

"Then have you ever seen it?"

Lu Yuan said speechlessly, "Nonsense!"

Xuanwu, Zhuque, Qinglong, and Baihu were the four holy beasts of legend. Who had not heard of them?

As for whether he had seen them?

Where would he even go to see them?

He might as well go back to sleep and see if they appeared in his dreams.

But on second thought, something felt wrong. Xu Xian would not have brought it up for no reason. A bold guess flashed through Lu Yuan's mind.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he said, "This fellow couldn't possibly be?"

Before he could finish, Xu Xian said with certainty, "It is not."

"Uh..." Lu Yuan was choked up and cursed, "Then why the hell did you mention Xuanwu?"

Xu Xian stopped being mysterious and decided to tell Lu Yuan everything he knew.

It was a Nether Tortoise.

It was born in the Era of Primal Chaos.

Later, it was suppressed in Fanzhou.

He also happened to mention the Li family from the Upper Realm.

After Lu Yuan heard this, he looked as if he were deep in thought.

"So that is how it is!"

Xu Xian gave him a long look and said, "At this point, stop holding back. Tell me everything you know."

After some internal struggle, Lu Yuan frowned and said, "I do know a few things, though I do not know if they are accurate."

Xu Xian took a small step closer to Lu Yuan.

"Speak."

Lu Yuan also shifted a bit to maintain the distance between them as he began to explain, "Well, after the Era of Primal Chaos came the Era of Ancient Immortals."

"Mhm."

"Legend has it that in the early Era of Ancient Immortals, a war of the fallen emperors did indeed break out."

"Mhm."

"After that battle, there were no more immortal emperors in the world."

"Oh?"

Lu Yuan said, "The war of the fallen emperors was rumored to have been triggered by an immortal emperor from the Boundary Sea. It later involved the ten thousand races and led to a world-wide conquest. As for the outcome, history books only left a few brief lines."

"Legend says that sovereign was forced back into the Boundary Sea."

"Looking at it now, the rumors might not necessarily be true."

"Based on what you are saying, that sovereign might have been like this old tortoise, suppressed right here in Fanzhou..."

Lu Yuan analyzed.

Xu Xian rubbed his chin. Lu Yuan's analysis was not much different from his own thoughts. He had been thinking the same thing.

"What was that sovereign called?"

Lu Yuan glanced at Xu Xian and said calmly, "He was simply called Jun."

"Hmm?"

"His title was the Twilight Emperor, the Undying Great Emperor!"