Chapter 76#

Tribulation Cloud#

The thing he asked Zhu Anning to get from the bottom of the ice lake was the Silk-Tethered Lotus.

If the scene Yin Yuheng dreamed of was real, then the Silk-Tethered Lotus should still be in the ice lake.

Besides the Silk-Tethered Lotus, there was also the Kunlun Mirror. Yin Yuheng intuitively felt that the Kunlun Mirror had a very important role and arranged for many people to look for it. However, the speed at which news of the Kunlun Mirror arrived still exceeded his expectations.

Three days later, Yin Yuheng received an unsigned letter.

The envelope was blank, but Lu Yan, as a Golden Crow, had a keen perception of all demonic energy. The moment he touched the letter, he frowned.

“There’s demonic energy,” Lu Yan said seriously. “The demonic energy is very pure; the sender isn’t an ordinary demon. This letter might have come from the Demon Lord.”

Yin Yuheng opened the letter and found that it actually contained the whereabouts of another fragment of the Kunlun Mirror—at the junction of the Demon Realm, the Demon Tribe, and the Li Dynasty, there was a snowy plain. In the center of the snowy plain, there was a spatial rift, and the Kunlun Mirror fragment was left at the edge of the rift.

“Is it trustworthy?” Lu Yan asked, unable to help but frown after reading the letter.

Yin Yuheng tapped his index finger on the table, pondered for a moment, and said, “Let’s go take a look.”

The Demon Lord’s personality was unpredictable, but Yin Yuheng intuitively felt that the other party might not bear any ill will.

Previously, there was the gift of the Biluo Lead on Kunwu Mountain, and now this letter informing him of the Kunlun Mirror’s whereabouts. Yin Yuheng felt that the Demon Lord might have his own agenda.

Yin Yuheng intended to go to the snowy plain himself, but Lu Yan stopped him in time. Lu Yan was absolutely unwilling to let Yin Yuheng take any more risks, so he simply took over the matter and headed to the snowy plain himself, while Yin Yuheng was forced to continue resting in bed.

Yin Yuheng: “…”

Both the Li Dynasty and the Demon Tribe had deep foundations and no shortage of medicinal ingredients. Yin Yuheng had been bedridden for half a month and had tried all sorts of spiritual elixirs and miraculous medicines until his mouth tasted bitter. He really couldn’t stay in bed any longer, so as soon as Lu Yan left, he found a day with good weather and strolled out.

————

Yin Yuheng’s destination was the Star-Plucking Platform.

The Star-Plucking Platform was a restricted area of the Imperial City, and no one except those of the Yin bloodline could enter. Yin Yuheng had always liked watching the stars on the Star-Plucking Platform; with no one around, it was quiet and lonely, perfect for solitary reflection.

This was a mysterious formation created by the Yin ancestors with the strength of the entire nation. Above, the stars rotated; below, the jade stones formed mountains, marshes, and great rivers, encompassing the entire world, capable of tracing origins and calculating heavenly secrets.

But what is the Heavenly Dao, and what are heavenly secrets?

No matter how mysterious the Star-Plucking Platform’s formation was, it had its limits. It could not calculate the future of all things in heaven and earth, nor the vast fate of the human race.

Yin Yuheng sat cross-legged in the center of the Star-Plucking Platform, gazing up at the stellar trajectories above. Xiao Bai didn’t know what Yin Yuheng was thinking and didn’t dare to make a sound to disturb him.

After an unknown amount of time, Yin Yuheng suddenly called out softly, “Father, how much longer do you plan to remain in seclusion?”

The Star-Plucking Platform was vast, and his voice was very soft, vanishing as soon as it left his lips.

Yin Yuheng stood up and looked down the ninety-nine steps of the Star-Plucking Platform, seeing only pitch-black darkness and vast mist, with no path ahead.

That was the foundation of the Star-Plucking Platform’s great formation, which even the Yin imperial family could not easily enter.

Few people knew that the Emperor of the Li Dynasty was here in death-seclusion.

Yin Yuheng watched for a while, then suddenly stepped down.

Xiao Bai exclaimed in his consciousness, “The place of seclusion, you can’t go there!”

Yin Yuheng sneered, “If he has the ability, let him jump up and give me a beating.”

Yin Yuheng had never been beaten. When he was young and in poor health, everyone in the palace pampered him like the apple of their eye. His father, the majestic ruler of a nation, had to coax him with gentle words to take his medicine. In his childhood, Yin Yuheng wasn’t a well-behaved child either, but his father never had the heart to scold him, only helping him clean up his messes with a mix of laughter and tears.

But when the Emperor left, it was so sudden and hurried that he didn’t even have time to settle Yin Yuheng properly. After hastily entrusting his youngest son to Li Guanghan, he entered the Star-Plucking Platform and never left again.

Yin Yuheng often thought of his father, but occasionally he felt a bit of resentment.

The Crown Prince overseeing the state sounded very prestigious, but he was young and found it hard to win people over. Even with the support of his brothers and sisters, it was very difficult at first. Later, forced to follow the plot and encountering many things, even in his most difficult moments, there was never any sign of his father coming out of seclusion.

It had been many years since they parted.

When Yin Yuheng was unhappy, he would watch the stars on the Star-Plucking Platform. But he had never walked down the ninety-nine steps, until today.

The further down the Star-Plucking Platform he went, the heavier the chill became. The closer he got to the formation’s foundation, the more he felt a bone-piercing coldness.

When he reached the tenth step from the bottom, Yin Yuheng reached out and found that frost had already formed on his sleeves.

“Brother Heng, your body won’t be able to take it…” Xiao Bai was deeply worried.

“It’s fine.”

The Golden Crow feather hanging on his chest swayed, and a warm current instantly surged through his body, insulating him from the cold. Yin Yuheng pressed it gently and continued downward.

He stopped before the final step. The surroundings had darkened completely, pitch-black, and the stars above could no longer be seen. Only the Golden Crow divine fire on the feather emitted a soft glow.

Everything around was empty and chaotic. Yin Yuheng could feel countless spiritual energies intertwining and surging within the formation’s foundation, gathering into a vast river that came and went in torrents.

Amidst Xiao Bai’s cries, Yin Yuheng gripped the feather on his chest and gritted his teeth as he took a step forward.

His head buzzed for a moment, and by the time Yin Yuheng came to his senses, he had already been pushed back out of the formation’s foundation by a gentle surge of spiritual energy.

Yin Yuheng looked up sharply: “Father?”

That spiritual energy just now felt exactly like the sensation his father gave him in his memories. While he was in a daze, a gentle sigh drifted from somewhere unknown.

“Do not proceed further, leave quickly.”

It was indeed his father’s voice. Yin Yuheng said, “Father!”

He wanted to find his father’s figure, but Xiao Bai suddenly spoke up: “Brother Heng, that was just a sound-retention technique.”

Yin Yuheng was stunned for a moment.

Xiao Bai added hesitantly, “Brother Heng, here… there’s no aura of a living person.”

Yin Yuheng fell silent.

An unknown amount of time passed, so long that Xiao Bai was about to speak again when Yin Yuheng finally whispered, “Is he no longer here?”

The surroundings were empty, spiritual energy surged silently, as quiet as an eternal tomb. Yin Yuheng stood in this cold darkness, his back looking a bit lonely, white frost blossoms forming on the hem of his clothes.

————

Actually, Yin Yuheng had suspected this for a long time.

Before the Emperor of the Li Dynasty went into seclusion, the edict for the next emperor’s succession had already been written, with a solemnity akin to settling final affairs.

Yin Yuheng was very sharp and followed all the way to the Star-Plucking Platform, but in the end, he couldn’t stop his father. His father gently rubbed his hair, seemingly wanting to say something, but ultimately hesitated and only said, “Take good care of yourself.”

Yin Yuheng asked him when he would come out of seclusion, but his father only smiled.

“As the ruler of the human race, one has their own responsibilities.”

At that time, Yin Yuheng knew that his father’s seclusion had more to it than met the eye.

Later, Yin Yuheng represented the Li Dynasty on a mission to the Demon Realm and had a private audience with the Demon Lord in the supreme hall of the demons.

Calling it an audience, he could actually only see a blurry back. The Demon Lord seemed to be fishing, not looking at him, only concentrating on the water’s surface: “You’re his son? Not bad.”

When this great figure of the Demon Realm spoke of his Human Sovereign rival, there was actually a hint of nostalgia. His posture while talking to Yin Yuheng was very relaxed, and his tone could even be described as affectionate.

The Demon Lord sighed again, “Unfortunately, going against heaven’s will leads to a fate full of misfortunes.”

Yin Yuheng’s pupils constricted slightly as he stared fixedly at the Demon Lord.

The Demon Lord flicked his fishing rod and smiled, “Don’t be nervous. Who knows, maybe misfortune can be turned into a blessing, and fate can be changed against heaven’s will?”

“Your father will no longer appear in the world, the Demon Emperor’s life is coming to an end, and it is almost time for me to leave as well. The future of the world will depend on you younger generations—Tch, the fish got away again, bad luck today.”

Yin Yuheng noticed the wording the Demon Lord used when referring to his father; it wasn’t “seclusion,” but “no longer appearing in the world.”

Seemingly knowing what he wanted to ask, the Demon Lord interrupted Yin Yuheng’s unspoken words: “Heavenly secrets cannot be spoken. You will understand in the future.”

Standing beneath the Star-Plucking Platform now, Yin Yuheng understood in his heart that he probably wouldn’t see his father again.

This was the foundation of the Star-Plucking Platform’s formation; Yin Yuheng had heard legends of sacrificing oneself to the formation. When the Human Sovereign went into seclusion back then, was it really just seclusion?

Amidst Xiao Bai’s exclamation, Yin Yuheng suddenly bent over and, with a “wah” sound, spat out a mouthful of blood. He raised his hand and touched the corner of his eye; his fingertip was actually stained with a bit of moisture.

————

A clap of thunder exploded in the sky.

On the streets of Chaoge, everyone stopped in their tracks, put down whatever they were holding, and looked up at the sky.

Thick dark clouds blotted out the sun, pressing down layer by layer. Within the clouds, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and a violent wind suddenly rose.

“Someone is undergoing a tribulation?” In the State Preceptor’s Manor, Li Guanghan frowned.

When cultivators broke through a realm, a heavenly thunder tribulation would descend, but a phenomenon of such scale was clearly the magnitude of a Spirit Transformation stage tribulation.

But how difficult it was to achieve the Spirit Transformation stage; there might not even be one in hundreds of years. In the city today, who had the ability to break through to the Spirit Transformation stage?

While wondering, Li Guanghan discovered that the place where the tribulation clouds were gathering was actually the Star-Plucking Platform.

The Star-Plucking Platform was a restricted area, only accessible to the Yin imperial family. And among the imperial family, there was only one person who liked going there.

Li Guanghan stood up abruptly.

Yuheng is still young, and his cultivation is nowhere near the point of breaking through to the Spirit Transformation stage. Perhaps I’m worrying too much?