This secret was one the Yun Clan's elder circle guarded in deepest silence. Had it not been that the "Soul-Tracing Secret Rite" made Yun Qing's soul so unusual, and that the Double Pupils could glimpse the origin of all things, even he would have had no way to see through so earth-shaking a secret.
Yun Huang was the "child of destiny," formed and born within the forbidden ground of the ancestral shrine — brought forth when the Yun Clan poured the strength of the whole family into an ancient secret method to draw in the source immortal-essence of an Immortal Emperor, scattered and dispersed through heaven and earth, gathering vast and mighty fortune-fate, and fusing it besides with a strand of "Innate Essence" the Yun Clan had accumulated over ten thousand years!
His very existence was a reckless gamble the Yun Clan had staked to continue its splendor and meet some great calamity to come! The so-called identity of "trueborn son of the Yun Clan" was no more than a flawless birth fabricated to let him blend rightfully into the family and take up its authority.
The reincarnated primordial spirit of an Immortal Emperor — the karma it touched was vast as the sea. To make an enemy of such an existence, one careless step, and the whole board would be overturned...
Most crucial of all, according to the "plot" Yun Qing had come to know, this Immortal Emperor ancestor actually had an inexplicable bastard-loathing streak! He truly wanted to seize the man and shake him and demand a clear answer: Little Brother, the times have changed — this is a world of immortal cultivation! Where on earth did you catch this disease?!
He could only guess that this Immortal Emperor perhaps rejected all "impure" ties of blood, or perhaps carried some unknown entanglement from a past life. In any case, under the iron laws Yun Huang had set, the concubine-born children of ordinary talent walked the clan as though on thin ice.
And of all things, Yun Qing's identity this life happened to be precisely the concubine-born eldest son of the Yun Clan! Dancing right in the middle of the Immortal Emperor's minefield, you might say.
Cross swords with a child of destiny like this? Yun Qing had never once entertained so unwise a notion. With destiny in hand, anyone who opposed Yun Huang was a mantis before a chariot — nothing but ash scattered on the wind.
And so he had decided to lie low and play it saf— ahem... decided to cultivate a harmonious, affectionate, cultivation-world brotherhood with his Immortal Emperor little brother.
Yun Qing understood with perfect clarity: before this little brother destined to hold sway over all the ages, the wisest road, the one with the greatest hope of survival, was to win his trust while the dragon still lay hidden in the deep, and to secure a place at his side.
Thus, what he had shown today was a deference that lost nothing of his backbone; what he had displayed was the potential of Dao Embryo and Double Pupils; and what he had conveyed, above all, was the clear posture of "not the slightest disloyalty, glad to be your vanguard." He had even deliberately let slip a trace of warmth beyond the bounds of a mere subject — an elder brother's "gentle forbearance" — trying to touch the loneliness Yun Huang hid beneath his blazing divine majesty.
For now, it seemed this Lord Immortal Emperor unexpectedly took to that sort of thing?
Suddenly, Yun Qing's brow drew faintly together as he circulated the Chaos Dao Embryo. In the hidden apertures of his meridians, several wisps of an unusually stubborn blazing-sun energy were coiled. The aura was faint — not as though the man had left it deliberately, but as if it had simply invaded formlessly and lingered in his body.
These strands of divine power clung like maggots to the bone, ceaselessly giving off a searing, corrosive sensation.
Yun Qing tried to wrap and refine them with chaos-energy, but the process was exceedingly slow. "Merely the aura it naturally sheds carries such might..."
"Truly unfathomable. A good thing I didn't choose to meet it head-on today." He was inwardly shaken, and his wariness of this "little brother" climbed another notch.
The Primordial Radiance Divine Body was overbearing beyond compare; the reincarnated Immortal Emperor, fierce past all measure. Yun Qing could only console himself: there was no shame in clinging to the thigh of a powerhouse who overawed an entire age.
Only, in the deepest reaches of his heart, the unyielding soul of a modern man could not help but twitch once — before being pressed down again.
The 《Handbook》 in his mind flipped open of itself. The little figure that was Yun Qing pondered and set brush to paper with flying strokes. Yun Huang was deep of thought and strong in his hunger for control; today's exception perhaps sprang from an acknowledgment of the value of his talent, or perhaps was a reward for his "knowing how to read the times." From true acceptance, there still lay a chasm across the heavens.
"The road is blocked, and long..." Yun Qing let out a faint sigh. Henceforth he would have to prove a value that could not be replaced, drawing step by step nearer the core of power, becoming the one and only exception within that great affliction, the "bastard-loathing streak."
A blade that could cut through every bramble; a shadow that could share the loneliness; and perhaps... even a faint warmth wholly unlike cold authority — a warmth by the name of "elder brother."
Yun Qing drew back his thoughts and turned. His gaze fell upon Yun Shuo, who was ever so cautiously touching this and prodding that, and in his ice-locked eyes a trace of warmth at last thawed open.
In this Yun Clan, where the strong set the rules and strength decided one's dignity, he needed supreme power — not only to climb to the very summit of cultivation, but to protect these rare kin at his side.
This cruel road of cultivation, this path that was at once brother's and subject's, was destined to be strewn with blades.
But he, Yun Qing, having already set foot upon it, swore he would walk it into a broad and glorious avenue!
Beyond the window, the cold, clear glow of the boundless night sky spilled down, tracing his standing figure ever more upright and resolute.
And beneath that same moonlight, within Qiwu Hall, incense curled in wisps.
Yun Huang, in a rare moment of ease, reclined against the green-jade daybed by the window.
He wore a robe of moon-white, its fabric like cloud, like mist, only its lapels and the edges of its collar and sleeves worked in the finest crimson-gold thread with an intricate hidden pattern of streaming clouds and raging flames. It set off his exquisite features with all the more majesty and nobility; an air of stern eminence clung to him head to foot, so that strangers dared not draw near.
Yun Huang's fingertips stroked a spirit-jade teacup, his golden eyes gazing out the window, his thoughts churning.
'Yun Qing...'
That name, ever since the Spirit-Testing Rite, had left a clear mark upon his heart.
Chaos Dao Embryo, Ancient Double Pupils. Such peerless gifts, rare across all antiquity, converging at once upon a single person.
And on top of that, his standing as a concubine-born elder brother...
There was also the composure with which the man had faced him — that line, "willing to be the Young Lord's vanguard," spoken so sincerely, so naturally, that he had nearly "believed" it.
Yet the more perfect a thing, the more it warranted suspicion. The memories of a past life clung like an abscess to the bone: faces that seemed loyal would, in the end, all twist and betray. Baseborn — that identity in itself was enough to stir his deepest revulsion.
"Does Yun Qing truly rest content beneath This Lord, to be an obedient subject, a... 'good elder brother'?" A trace of derision crossed the depths of Yun Huang's eyes. He had never believed in loyalty without cause — least of all from these brothers of "impure" blood.
"Ding."
His knuckle rapped lightly against the smooth armrest of the daybed, giving off a small, regular sound.
"I hear he has a full brother of the same mother, one named Yun Shuo?" A cold gleam flashed in the depths of Yun Huang's eyes.
"Deep brotherly affection — a fine touchstone, that." His fingertip tapped soundlessly against the cold armrest. "No small reputation. Then let This Lord see just where you mean to point this blade you've honed in the secret realm!"
Yun Huang raised a hand, his fingertip lightly touching the void with blazing-sun spiritual power. A formless ripple stole quietly out toward... the direction of Qingyu Hall!
The twin supremes of the Yun Clan had thus first met. None knew it, but the track of fate had already quietly swerved.