Chapter 1682: Facing the Truth (Part Two)

Gong Chenying stared at the man before her. This junior brother she had trusted implicitly was speaking in riddles—first saying he didn’t have a new partner, then saying he did. To her, this meant he had a guilty conscience and was looking for excuses to make them accept the situation.

Zhao Min and Gong Chenying were far too intelligent; they had already guessed the general outline of the story from Li Yan’s hesitance. Faced with this, the explanations Li Yan had rehearsed countless times in his head vanished, leaving him tongue-tied.

He felt guilty. The promise he had made was still fresh in his mind, and he didn’t know how to face them.

“I didn’t meet her in the Immortal Spirit Realm. It happened by accident in the lower realm…” Li Yan began, bracing himself. Before he could finish his first sentence, the silent Zhao Min spoke.

“Su Hong? Was your return this time also through her?”

Zhao Min’s dark eyes were fixed on him. Hearing him emphasize that he knew the woman in the lower realm, she immediately thought of Su Hong. Much of the information they had received over the years had come through her. Su Hong was a woman whose beauty could easily cause a man to lose himself. Zhao Min and Gong Chenying had discussed her more than once.

They had been shocked to discover that Li Yan hadn’t just known her on the Desolate Moon Continent; he had met her on the Verdant Continent and the Wind God Continent as well. These were meetings across continents, not just a few thousand miles apart. And every time, she had appeared before him at specific moments. With a woman’s intuition, they sensed a profound danger from Su Hong—the feeling of someone coveting their most precious treasure.

At the time, they were searching for Li Yan, so they welcomed her help and consciously avoided thinking about the nature of her relationship with him. It was a form of self-deception; as long as Li Yan didn’t act intimately with her, they were content. But today, it seemed Li Yan was finally going to confess.

Li Yan was startled by Zhao Min’s sudden question. He hadn’t even mentioned Su Hong, yet she had guessed she was in the upper realm. When he told them about his time in the lower realm, he had deliberately omitted Su Hong, viewing her only as a close friend. But now he wasn’t an ignorant youth anymore; their relationship had grown increasingly complex over time. He had tried to avoid anything that crossed the line, but Uncle Lian had bluntly told him that Su Hong had been searching for him for centuries, eventually ascending to the upper realm specifically to find him.

Li Yan had decided to avoid the Return-Home Trade House in the future, but Zhao Min’s words made his heart leap. He truly had no other intentions toward Su Hong, yet he felt defensive.

Zhao Min and Gong Chenying watched his eyes and saw the shift in his expression. Strangely, this made them feel a slight sense of relief. It wasn’t that they were ready to accept Su Hong, but rather that this development didn’t exceed their expectations; it fell within their existing suspicions.

However, Li Yan’s next words took them by surprise.

“This… this has nothing to do with Miss Su. While we have a friendship, it is a normal relationship between fellow Daoists. It stems from the fact that I helped her once, so she assists me in return; there is some mutual obligation involved. The matter I am referring to happened back on the Forsaken Continent… specifically, when you, Min’er, entered the Sacred Demon Palace. While I was in my sect at that time, something happened… I… I thought it was just an accident, so… so I never told you. But… but…”

Li Yan forced himself to remain calm and began his “confession.”

“A female cultivator from the Forsaken Continent? An accident…” Zhao Min’s heart skipped a beat. She thought of the Fallen Star Valley, the sect Li Yan had joined; there were surely many female cultivators there. But she didn’t press him, waiting for him to continue.

Gong Chenying was also surprised by the extent of Li Yan’s romantic entanglements. His words didn’t dispel their suspicions about Su Hong; now there was another woman? While Zhao Min was in the Sacred Demon Palace and Gong Chenying was worrying herself sick over Li Yan’s fate at Little Bamboo Peak, he had already become involved with another woman…

Li Yan settled his mind and recounted everything that had happened on the seabed, and how he had later encountered Mu Guyue in the Immortal Spirit Realm. He omitted the Earth-True Domain but told them about the secret realm he had been swept into while fleeing from the Great-Winged Golden Roc. He met Mu Guyue there, who was in the same predicament.

As he spoke, he grew calmer. Aside from omitting the secrets of the Earth-True Domain and the Soul Suppression Palace, he told them the truth. He even explained how he had reached an agreement with the largest sect in that secret realm to open a passage and escape.

The two women were utterly stunned. They thought it was about Su Hong, but he said it wasn’t. They thought it was a woman from his old sect, but it wasn’t… it was a demoness. Not just any demoness, but a Black Demon. And not just any Black Demon, but a Demon General who had once invaded the Desolate Moon Continent.

Once he finished, Li Yan fell silent. He didn’t want to explain further; he felt exhausted. He couldn’t hide Mu Guyue’s existence; her identity would eventually come out, so it was better to be direct.

Dead silence filled the room. Zhao Min closed her eyes, her body trembling slightly. They had suspected Su Hong, but they also trusted Li Yan and believed a woman of her background and beauty wouldn’t settle for being one of three wives. But Li Yan’s confession was earth-shattering: the other woman was a member of their mortal enemy, the Black Demon race. And she was likely a general whose hands were stained with the blood of Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators. Zhao Min was furious, though she didn’t explode immediately.

“Mu Guyue? Mu Sha? You say the child she bore you is already at the Nascent Soul realm?” Gong Chenying eventually spoke softly. She was a member of the Tianli Clan; her lifelong focus had been on their enemies, the wind beasts, rather than the Black Demons. Because of Li Yan, she had even seen her own clan ally with their sworn enemies. Thus, her concept of “mortal enemy” had faded significantly. She couldn’t forgive the wind beasts for her mother’s death, but she could accept the peace they now brought to her people.

She didn’t accept Mu Guyue—this was about her feelings for Li Yan—but she didn’t have the same visceral reaction as Zhao Min.

“He should be a Nascent Soul cultivator, as he was born much earlier than Zhaoyan. At that time, Min’er and I were likely still in the subterranean passage of the Verdant Continent,” Li Yan said. He had envisioned this confession many times, but the suffocating atmosphere still made him feel awkward and suppressed.

“Why is his surname Mu and not Li?”

“Oh… that is because she was afflicted by the aphrodisiac poison of the Primordial Mystical Golden Dragon. When she regained her senses, she wanted to kill me. But she only knew I was from the Desolate Moon Continent, so she kept the child, intending to use his essence blood as a medium to track me down and kill me later. That is why she named him Mu Sha (TN: ‘Sha’ means ‘to kill’).”

“She recognized you as a cultivator from the Desolate Moon Continent? Did you know each other before? What was her cultivation when she invaded the continent?” Gong Chenying was as sharp as Zhao Min; she quickly caught the potential holes in his story.

“She was the Nascent Soul cultivator in charge of guarding the Heaven-Blasting Thunder during the battle at Wind-Cool Mountain. As you know, I was on a mission to destroy those weapons. She saw me from a distance as I fled. She tried to kill me then, but was blocked by Ancestor Mo Qing and the others!”

“Husband, your fate with her is truly profound. To meet her again and again across different realms and spaces!” Zhao Min spoke suddenly, her voice cold. She remembered something that happened before they fled the Sacred Demon Palace. She had seen Li Yan at the courtyard she rented for him in the Fallen Star Valley and felt something was wrong. She had even asked him then if something had happened in his sect. He had seemed unsettled, his gaze flighty. Looking back at the timeline, her intuition had been correct.

He had been ‘acting out of a guilty conscience.’

Li Yan couldn’t respond to that; he simply sat there with a look of shame. After a few breaths, he spoke again.

“She… she does not wish to become my formal cultivation partner. She intends to return to the Black Demon race in the Immortal Spirit Realm. She will allow Mu Sha to acknowledge me, but she herself will never set foot on the Desolate Moon Continent again!”

“Oh? She doesn’t want to marry you?” Gong Chenying was surprised.

“She does not,” Li Yan replied truthfully.

Gong Chenying scanned him again. ‘Is this some stalling tactic? To make us accept the son first and then slowly introduce the mother…’

Seeing her expression, Li Yan said, “I can swear on my life that everything I’ve said today is true. Bringing Mu Guyue into the Li family is my own wish. She knows of your existence and the hatred between our races. As a Black Demon, she will not bow her head, and she knows you won’t either, so she insists on not marrying.”

Another strange silence followed. After a long while, Zhao Min still had her eyes closed. Gong Chenying spoke.

“Junior Brother, you should leave for now. This news is too sudden; Min’er and I need to think about this.”

Li Yan nodded quickly. “Of course!”

He hurried toward the door and vanished from the room. Once he was gone, Zhao Min opened her eyes. They were slightly red, but she didn’t let any tears fall; her pride wouldn’t allow it.

“Senior Sister Ying!” she bit her lip and looked at Gong Chenying.

Gong Chenying was staring at the door. She felt a mix of complex emotions. She had often felt guilty for not bearing a child for Li Yan and had looked forward to the joy of motherhood. Now, she discovered that Li Yan already had a son and a daughter.

“Junior Brother wouldn’t lie about this. We know his character. And what are the Black Demons like? You are half-demon yourself, so you know better than anyone. Whether they are Black or White Demons, they are incredibly proud. To marry a human is a disgrace to them, and she was a general.”

In the courtyard, Li Yan stood under the great tree, staring at the sky. A massive weight had been lifted from his heart. He didn’t know the outcome, but he had finally confessed everything. He had also expressed his wish to bring Mu Guyue into the family. He had said what needed to be said, but he didn’t know how to soothe their anger. He grew even more determined to avoid Su Hong in the future…

For the next few days, Zhao Min and Gong Chenying did not appear, remaining in seclusion within the cultivation room.