Hua Hong of old was nowhere near powerful enough to withstand the backlash of the Yiren King’s Sword, let alone emerge unscathed from a divine formation. Someone had to have saved her. Divine arrays held immense power, and rescuing someone from the backlash of the Locking Spirit Array would have come at an extraordinary cost. The Yiren King, who had remained at the peak of the supreme lord rank for a hundred years, had not been injured. So who had saved Hua Hong?
Bai Shuo looked up abruptly, realization dawning on her. “It was Hua Yong, wasn’t it?”
Hua Hong’s smile faded.
“Hua Yong… Hua Yong…” Bai Shuo muttered, and suddenly the pieces fell into place. “The creature we encountered that night—the one in the blood pool—is the Yiren crown prince, isn’t it?!”
The aura around Hua Yong and that monstrous presence was identical.
Seeing Hua Hong’s silence, Bai Shuo knew she had guessed correctly.
So that’s it!
All the nagging questions she’d had suddenly made sense. Despite Hua Yong’s superior spirit bones a hundred years ago, he was now nothing more than a strong brute. Hua Yong’s existence had indirectly caused the death of the Yiren Queen, and Hua Hong hated him to her core. Yet, in the palace, although she had fought him mercilessly, she hadn’t killed him. And just now, Hua Hong had agreed to help her rescue the captives but had changed her mind the moment she learned the creature in the blood pool was Hua Yong.
Perhaps the Yiren King had reactivated the dark array not for himself, but for his son.
“You’re refusing to help because of Hua Yong? The dark array in the stone hall is meant for him, isn’t it?” Bai Shuo asked, piecing it together.
Hua Hong sighed and shot a half-annoyed, half-grateful look at Fan Yue. “Thanks a lot, ancestor.”
Fan Yue didn’t react to her frustration. All he wanted was to take Bai Shuo and leave quietly. But as long as his master insisted on saving Chong Zhao, he had no choice but to reveal Hua Hong’s true intentions.
“He saved my life three times. I owe him a life debt.” Hua Hong spat out the grass stem she had been chewing and stretched lazily.
“Three times? I thought it was just the backlash from the Yiren King’s Sword and the Locking Spirit Array. How was it three times?” Bai Shuo asked.
“I was injured by the divine power in the Locking Spirit Array. Though I survived, my spirit bones were completely shattered. Hua Yong gave me his spirit bones.”
Hua Hong spoke lightly, but Bai Shuo’s eyes widened in shock.
Yiren couldn’t cultivate spiritual energy. Their only path to strength lay in cultivating their spirit bones.
“Don’t look at me like that. If I’d been conscious back then, I would rather have died than taken his bones. When I woke up, I was already outside the Foreign City, with no family, no identity—only the spirit bones Hua Yong left inside me. Without spirit bones, he wouldn’t have survived long. If not for a strange twist of fate that brought me back to the Foreign City, I would’ve thought he’d died long ago. Most likely, the Yiren King used some dark magic to transform Hua Yong into that creature, just to keep him alive.”
“Since Hua Yong survived, why does the Yiren King need to sacrifice the celestial and demon disciples? Even if he reshapes Hua Yong’s spirit bones, the death of so many would be an unforgivable offense. Do you think the celestial and demon clans would ever spare the Yiren people?”
Hua Hong glanced at Bai Shuo. “Girl, you’re sharp, but you’re too naïve. When no one in the Foreign City can draw the Yiren King’s Sword anymore, do you think there’s any future left for the Yiren?”
“But there’s still the Locking Spirit Array. As long as the divine formation remains, no one can invade the Foreign City. The Yiren can protect themselves.”
“That’s just a pitiful, prolonged survival. What’s the point?” Hua Hong looked at her with indifference.
Bai Shuo paused, recalling the words the Yiren King had once spoken in the grand hall. The Yiren, abandoned by the three realms, had been trapped in this solitary city for a thousand years.
“Hua Lin has grown old. I have turned my back on my people. Hua Yong is their only hope. He could never allow his only son to live as a half-human, half-ghost. Even if it meant sacrificing his own life, Hua Lin couldn’t save Hua Yong’s life. Only by sacrificing the spirit cores of hundreds of celestial and demon disciples, along with the Wu Tong heart flames, can he truly reshape Hua Yong’s spirit bones.”
"Not just reshaping his spirit bones," Fan Yue suddenly spoke up, looking at Hua Hong with a calm, icy gaze. "The Yiren King wants to make a god."
“What?” Bai Shuo’s pupils contracted in shock. “Mumu, did you just say the Yiren King wants to do what?”
“To slaughter the disciples of both clans would be to declare war on the Three Realms. Even if Hua Yong’s spirit bones are restored, a new Yiren King couldn’t protect the entire Yiren race. Only a god could do that. The plan is to make Hua Yong a god.”
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