Chapter 23: Secret History of the Royal Family!

As a provincial governor and a scion of the imperial house,

Haerchi already ranked among the innermost circle of the Demon Qing court.

To him, even Wang Su was merely an insect to be crushed at a whim, let alone Li Chang'an, who currently amounted to far less.

By all accounts, he should never have concerned himself with such trivial matters.

The sole reason this particular name struck such a sensitive chord within him was that his subordinate had laid special emphasis on the boy's tender age of seven or eight.

The second, and perhaps greater reason, was that the name Li Chang'an somehow conjured a dark secret dating back to the very founding of the Demon Qing dynasty.

—After the imperial progenitor crushed the previous dynasty and established their realm, all the wealth and power of the mortal world became naught but dust and passing smoke to him.

The Great Ancestor turned his gaze toward the martial path, chasing the illusory dream of immortality.

In those early years, the Ancestor seemed hale and hearty, yet after a few winters passed, he vanished from the imperial palace one day without a sound.

To this day, his disappearance remained a celebrated enigma; common folk whispered that he had wandered off in search of eternal life, while others claimed he had achieved spiritual perfection and ascended to the heavens.

Naturally, these were merely the rumors circulating within the upper echelons of the Demon Qing court.

The tales told by the Central Plains people were far more malicious, claiming the Ancestor had succumbed to cultivation madness, or that the sheer weight of his youthful slaughters had consumed him in karmic fire.

The theories were endless, each more varied than the last.

In short, it was an elusive and forbidden subject even within the royal court, one that ordinary officials and even noble princes could never truly fathom.

Yet the truth of the matter had indeed been settled, though because the conclusion was so utterly staggering, it was shared only among an infinitesimal few.

When the Ancestor first pursued the martial arts, his health was perfectly sound.

But in his desperate bid to break through to the realm of the Martial Emperor, he attempted countless methods, yet always fell short of that critical, final step.

What manner of sovereign was the Great Ancestor?

How could he ever resign himself to halfway measures and abandon his quest?

Since the righteous path offered no passage, he turned to depraved and heretical means; to absorb more inner force, he went so far as to procure the ancient blood of demons and replace his own lifeblood with it.

The desperate gambit actually bore fruit.

After fusing with the demonic blood, the Ancestor's strength surged magnificently, and though he did not entirely achieve the status of a Martial Emperor, he successfully took that one step further, truly touching the threshold of that supreme peak that stood above tens of millions of men.

Perhaps only the Martial Gods of legend could have pressed him down.

Yet such reckless elevation did not come without its price, leaving the Ancestor neither fully man nor fully ghost, constantly ravaged by the backlash of the demonic lineage and raging energy within him.

To resolve the conflict between his vital force and the foreign blood, the Ancestor began to pore over the ancient historical annals of the Tianyang Continent.

No one knew what forbidden knowledge he uncovered there.

Regardless, it was not long before the Ancestor descended into absolute madness.

He spent the vast majority of his days wandering aimlessly through his secluded chambers, enjoying only the rarest moments of clarity.

According to the accounts he gave during those fleeting lapses into sanity, he claimed he could discern illusions from foreign worlds, and in his daze, could even glimpse an unpredictable future.

During his final moment of lucidity before his disappearance, the Ancestor left a message scrawled upon paper, bearing only three hastily written characters.

Those three words were none other than...

Li Chang'an.

This was a secret known to a mere handful of legitimate imperial relatives within the entire Demon Qing administration.

And Haerchi, being the maternal uncle to the reigning emperor,

happened to be one of those precious few who possessed this knowledge.

Upon learning that name long ago, the royal court had dispatched secret agents across the land to investigate anyone sharing it, even arresting and interrogating a multitude under various trumped-up charges.

Yet at the time, their efforts yielded absolutely nothing.

Now, centuries later, the name 'Li Chang'an' had surfaced once more among a band of rebels, paired with the eerily specific age of seven or eight years old...

It was little wonder that Haerchi's sensitive nerves were violently jarred.

At the thought, Haerchi narrowed his eyes, a dangerous gleam flashing within them.

—Whether this was a mere coincidence or harbored some deeper mystery, it was undoubtedly an affair worthy of his utmost attention.

His mind made up, Haerchi slowly rose to his feet and commanded coldly, "Guard! Summon the hounds of the Prison Warden Bureau to my presence. This official intends to apprehend a soul."

...

Fengzhou Province, Sanhuang County.

Li Chang'an fixed his gaze on Wang Su, who stood a short distance away, and spoke, "What are your plans now?"

Surveying the ruined county yamen, Wang Su offered a bitter smile and said, "Originally, I intended to quietly hold this town, cultivate our strength for a time, and withdraw only after securing enough ironware and grain..."

"But now, you have utterly upended the entire Sanhuang yamen and delivered a stinging slap to the face of the Demon Qing court. I dare not follow the original plan any longer."

Pausing briefly, Wang Su suddenly inquired, "Chang'an, do you have any good ideas?"

Li Chang'an fell silent at the question.

Seeing this, Wang Su suddenly recalled the boy's age and laughed self-deprecatingly, "I truly must be losing my wits to ask you such a thing when you are not even eight years old yet."

Because Li Chang'an's everyday behavior was so monstrously precocious, Wang Su had unconsciously begun to overlook his youth entirely,

to the point of openly presenting him with a monumental dilemma that even grown men could not resolve.

Li Chang'an did not offer an excuse.

Glancing toward the pale-faced Li Dashan and his wife a short distance away, he said, "Master, let me settle my parents first. As for the subsequent plan, I will share it with you shortly."

Hearing this, Wang Su shook his head with a faint smile and replied, "Go on then. This old man could use a moment of quiet reflection as well."

...

Watching the approaching Li Chang'an, who felt both so familiar and yet so strange,

Li Dashan and Huang Xiaoru could not restrain the tears that welled in their eyes.

When they were being interrogated by Magistrate Chai earlier, the couple believed they would never again see their extraordinarily gifted eldest son in this lifetime.

They had never imagined that Li Chang'an possessed such heaven-defying capability, painting the entire yamen in a river of blood to drag them back from the very gates of the underworld.

Li Chang'an skipped the pleasantries, offering a small smile as he spoke directly, "Father, Mother, go back and pack your belongings quickly. We must leave Sanhuang County."

Looking at his son, Li Dashan spoke haltingly, "Child, since you have such ability, you must flee on your own. Do not worry about us. So long as you can live in peace, your parents are willing even to face death."

Though Li Dashan was a mere carpenter, he had seen enough of the world to comprehend the gravity of slaughtering so many officials within the yamen.

To ordinary folk like them, it was nothing short of the heavens collapsing.

Thus, the moment they were out of danger, his first instinct was to urge Li Chang'an to abandon them as burdens and flee for his life.

Li Chang'an could not help but roll his eyes, replying with a touch of exasperation, "Father, what are you saying? If I went to all this trouble and braved such risks only to abandon you now, wouldn't that make me look utterly foolish?"

Softening his tone, he continued, "Rest assured, I know the weight of my actions. Rather than worrying for my safety, you should worry for the Demon Qing court. After all, those who oppose me have yet to find a pleasant end."

Hearing his son's half-jesting reassurance,

Li Dashan's trembling heart steadied slightly. After a moment's calculation, he nodded resolutely and said, "Very well, I will go back with your mother to pack our things immediately."

Li Chang'an nodded, watching them depart into the distance before casting a silent, meaningful glance toward his senior disciple-brother, Lyu Changning.

Lu Changning understood his meaning and gave a helpless smile, following far behind the two of them to act as a bodyguard.

...