Chapter 49: Bloodline Suppression is Only Natural; Getting By.

Chapter 49: Bloodline Suppression is Only Natural; Getting By.

"I'm your damn father!"

In the mourning hall, the eerie wind ceased, and the funeral banners fell still.

In this scene, it was hard to say which was more terrifying: a ghost seething with deep resentment, or a reanimated corpse with its head lolling.

Fu Yu looked at this "Li Daoxuan" who had risen from the coffin, the corner of her mouth twitching.

A man of such upright virtue couldn't become a yin ghost or a vengeful spirit, yet he had actually been possessed by that idiot Li Xueke.

Fu Yu gazed heavenward: she could only hope it was a bloodline thing.

If this were his reincarnation, it would be far too disillusioning.

A short while earlier.

Li Xueke saw clearly the karmic ties between himself and the people below the altar. The Royal Sword vibrated sharply in his hand.

The bond between husband and wife, the affection between father and son, the camaraderie among comrades, the sincerity of close friends—

Emotional ties... were easily discarded like worn-out shoes in the face of the common interests of a vast social class.

He lifted his sword and leaped down from the sacrificial altar.

"Boom!"

The bricks and stones beneath his feet shattered, a web of cracks spreading in all directions.

Amid lightning and thunder, the group of cold-faced, lavishly dressed nobles below the altar looked exactly like a row of soulless zombies.

They stared at him blankly, not blinking an eye.

Li Xueke did not choose to fall on his sword, deviating from the predetermined fate. The secret realm could no longer manifest the subsequent scenes.

He angled his sword.

"Boom!"

A bolt of lightning struck the blade of the Royal Sword, a stark, blinding white.

Li Xueke lowered his gaze and swung his sword!

The row of zombie-like, opulent figures before him were severed in unison.

A cold tremor ran through his heart.

"Those who walk different paths cannot work together."

He had already entered the Dao. Killing these people was all too easy.

Killing these obstacles to spreading the Dao would allow him to continue advancing his...

Li Xueke's gaze suddenly sharpened.

After these people died, the karmic threads behind them did not dissipate. Instead, they began to wriggle and swell like maggots.

One after another, new "zombies" replaced them, sprouting before his eyes like bamboo shoots.

Li Xueke sneered, "No matter how many come, I'll kill them all!"

Sword in hand, he soared into action, going on a rampage and slaughtering these inhuman beings.

Below the altar, blood pooled into an ocean.

Yet, the silent, zombie-like enemies continued to emerge endlessly from the darkness as deep as night, inexhaustible.

Kill the powerful, and new powerful figures would arise in the world.

The more Li Xueke killed, the colder his heart grew.

He could not describe what he was facing—it seemed like a behemoth lurking behind the curtain of darkness, nurturing human greed and evil.

Righteous ideals were like meteors illuminating the night sky, like epiphyllums blooming brilliantly for a moment, only to fade into eternal night.

Yet, the sordid dealings for profit remained eternally solid.

He was unwilling, he struggled, and the more he killed, the more despair he felt.

The hands gripping the Royal Sword trembled faintly.

Countless overlapping voices whispered admonishments in his ears.

"Li Daoxuan, oh Li Daoxuan, harmonizing with the mundane world is the true path."

"Throughout history, it has always been this way, without exception."

"Open your eyes and see, behind you, there is no one."

"Your successor, Li Ji, rectified the chaos, becoming a sage ruler and enlightened monarch, securing his place in the annals of history. This is the true glory of the imperial family!"

"And you, betrayed and abandoned by all!"

"In what way are you superior to Li Ji!"

The dark night, thick as ink, pressed in on Li Xueke from all sides, weighing down his spine, forcing him to bow his head.

Li Xueke gritted his teeth and sneered.

"What harmonizing with the mundane world? It's clearly colluding with the corrupt!"

He swung the Royal Sword in all directions, seeing no end. His body grew colder, his hands heavier and more fatigued, his heart frozen, sinking heavily.

He knew he was not wrong.

Yet, the unseen, intangible enemy was far too powerful, impossible to kill completely—he didn't even know what he was fighting against.

Loneliness, coldness, endless darkness, no hope in sight.

The more Li Xueke killed, the more despair he felt.

Impossible to finish, simply impossible to finish!

His strength gradually drained, his eyes gradually losing their light.

Instinctively, he knew he had ultimately failed, died, his once-imagined brilliant endeavors collapsed midway, vanishing into dust.

He shook his head forcefully, his ears as if filled with molten lead, his neck too heavy to support his head.

To fall on his own sword seemed the easiest way out.

In his despair, a distant scene flickered before his eyes—

The aloof Sword Immortal, half-step to godhood, had left a protective Sword Intent upon him.

Beside the Sword Immortal, a woman of unearthly beauty lounged lazily, tilting her head to smile at him: "If the sky falls, Jun Bu Du and I have got your back. You just do what you must."

Li Xueke was thunderstruck.

She... who was she?!

She was... a figure who struck fear into the hearts of those in the immortal path... a powerful being who walked the line between good and evil... she was... she was...

From the depths of his soul, a realization dawned that sent chills down his spine.

A name was on the tip of his tongue!

Emperor Witch Fate Master!

Her divine name... Fu Yu... Fu Yu?!

Li Xueke jolted awake.

Upon waking, darkness filled his vision, his head swimming.

Before he could fully regain his senses, he heard the conversation between Fu Yu and Li Ji outside the coffin.

Li Ji? His 'filial' son? The successor? The sagacious emperor who restored order?

Fury boiled up in Li Xueke. He threw off the coffin lid and sat bolt upright!

"I am your father!"

Their eyes met.

Li Xueke's pupils shrank to pinpricks: "..."

He *was* afraid of ghosts.

No one had warned him beforehand that his good son was actually a sinister, horrifying ghost?

Li Xueke froze—not that he could breathe anyway, being a headless corpse.

He didn't even need to play dead, since he was already dead.

Li Xueke stood motionless in the coffin, momentarily at a loss.

Fortunately, someone in the mourning hall was even more terrified than him.

"Clang!"

The Royal Sword in the ghost Li Ji's hand clattered to the ground. Its pupils trembled violently and its knees went weak, nearly buckling.

"F-father..."

It trembled from head to toe, instinctively backing away.

In its panic, it stole a hurried glance upward.

The father in the coffin looked icy, expressionless, stiff as a board—absolutely horrifying.

As it was completely at a loss, it saw the father's corpse open its mouth, emitting a dry, raspy voice: "What did you just say? Who were you going to kill? Was it her?"

Li Xueke slowly turned his head to look at Fu Yu.

This fool of a ghost actually dared to offend a deity?

Li Xueke frantically signaled Fu Yu with his eyes: Fate Master! Quick, destroy it!

Fu Yu: "?"

Why look at me? Do it yourself. I'm just an ordinary, unremarkable eunuch.

Li Xueke tilted his head, blatantly prompting: "Divine Shaman, after you."

Fu Yu: "...Human Emperor, after you."

They stared each other down, one dead, one alive.

Li Xueke: "A deity slaying a ghost is the natural order."

Fu Yu: "A father disciplining his son is the natural order."

The ghost Li Ji, being passed back and forth, finally snapped: "Ahhhhh—enough! You've had enough! How dare you insult me like this! I am the Sagacious Emperor! I am the Lord of Heavenly Mandate!"

Thick, murky ghostly energy surged from its body, filled with resentment, its fangs protruding past its lips.

Fierce, resentful, brimming with malice.

"Why can't I attain the Kingly Way! Why can't I ascend to the heavens in a single step! Why must I grow old and die like lowly mortals!"

"Why! Why!"

"I am clearly the chosen one of heaven! Those who praise me in this world are a hundred times more than those who praised my father! Why couldn't I comprehend the Kingly Way even unto death, why!"

"Oh, I see—" Fu Yu said, as understanding dawned. "So you used some underhanded methods, usurped your father's title of Human Emperor, buried yourself in the Human Emperor's tomb, hoping to inherit his Kingly Way underground. Little did you know, you turned yourself into an evil ghost bound to the tomb, forever denied peace."

Li Ji's face turned sinister: "You talk too much."

If not for its fear of Li Daoxuan's corpse standing stiffly in the coffin, it would have already pounced and torn Fu Yu to shreds.

Fu Yu remarked idly: "Not only do I talk a lot, I also know where the Kingly Way is."

Li Ji's body shuddered, ghostly energy billowing out. Millennia of desperate desire instantly turned into streams of bloody tears: "Where is the Kingly Way!"

Fu Yu sneered: "I thought you knew very well in your heart—when you betrayed Li Daoxuan back then, didn't you completely forsake the Kingly Way? Since you forsook it, even if it were right before your eyes, you would only turn a blind eye and miss it."

She turned her head, looking at the Paper Effigy Boy.

"Li Ji deceived himself, thinking that as long as he repeatedly proved no one could guess Li Daoxuan's true cause of death, he could wash away the sin of patricide. And the rules, the 'Way' within this tomb, precisely also needed such a 'game' to seek justice for its master, Li Daoxuan."

The Paper Effigy Boy blinked very, very slowly.

Fu Yu: "Your master has come back to life. Why still follow this tomb ghost?"

The Paper Effigy Boy creakily turned its head to look at Li Xueke standing in the coffin.

From the side, it appeared to have almost no thickness at all, profoundly unnatural.

Li Xueke: "..."

What in the world is this now! It's more terrifying than any ghost!

Before he could even recover, the Paper Effigy Boy nimbly hopped and landed on his shoulder.

Li Xueke nearly fainted dead away.

The Paper Effigy Boy sat on his shoulder, dangling its two paper legs. Its flat, featureless face swiveled with a rustle, its two bright red cheeks almost smushing into Li Xueke's face.

"Master, hee hee, master."

Li Xueke turned his head stiffly like a real zombie, staring at Fu Yu with a gaze full of blame.

Fu Yu comforted him: "It's been in this tomb for thousands of years, marinated in resentment. Anyway, you don't look like you did back then, so you'll have to make do. See, it doesn't even mind you."

Li Xueke: "..."

The ghost of Li Ji knew the jig was up. Though terrified of his father, he was also filled with bitter resentment. His eyes flickered with malice for a moment. Gritting his teeth and hardening his heart, he bent down, picked up the longsword, and charged forward. "I am the Holy Sovereign! The Kingly Way is mine! Aaaah!"

The Paper Effigy Boy clingingly wrapped its arms around Li Xueke's neck, showing it recognized only him.

Li Xueke: "?!!"

A pair of thin, brittle paper arms, icy cold, encircling his neck—it was downright deadly.

Li Xueke shuddered so hard he nearly scared his own head off.

With such a bizarre ghostly thing clinging to him, even the blue-faced, fanged Li Ji started to look downright handsome.

He glared, steadied his head with one hand and raised the Royal Sword with the other, charging straight at Li Ji.

"Clang!"

The two swords crossed. Father and son, their features similar—one shrouded in ghostly aura, the other stiff as a thousand-year-old corpse.

The standoff lasted barely a moment before the ghostly aura around Li Ji suddenly faltered.

Having his father's pale, lifeless face thrust right in his face would make any son instinctively cower and lose nerve.

Seeing the other's fearful look, Li Xueke instantly got his fatherly mojo back.

"You unfilial brat!"

He let out an icy roar from millennia in a coffin. Stiffly raising his sword, he brought it down squarely on Li Ji's head. "Disloyal and unfilial! Unrighteous and unkind! Fatherless and ruler-less!"

Li Ji shook like a leaf, shrinking lower with each sword strike.

Any courage to fight back vanished completely.

Li Xueke, fueled by paternal authority, only fought more fiercely!

He swung his sword in a continuous barrage, not bothering with any proper sword techniques, simply beating and pummeling Li Ji head-on like a father disciplining his son with a stick.

Ghostly energy scattered from Li Ji's body. At first, he could still raise his sword to block, but soon he was beaten into dropping his weapon, covering his head, and scrambling out the threshold in a desperate roll, fleeing toward the courtyard below.

Li Xueke pressed his advantage, leaping over the threshold with sword in hand, shouting, "Don't you dare run!"

Li Ji cried, "For a big stick, flee; for a small stick, endure! Father... spare your child, please, Father!"

This only made Li Xueke's fury soar to new heights.

"If I don't beat you to death today, this unfilial son, then I'm not called Li Xue—Xuan, Li Daoxuan!"

He'd almost blurted out his own name.

Li Ji scurried away like a rat, covering his head. "Mother, Mother! Mother, where are you! Father is going to kill me!"

But the palace gate was blocked.

The Blood Ghost Xiao Zhuzi and the corpses that had risen from the Jingletang had all gathered at the sound.

A whole row of twisted, gruesomely dead ghosts formed a blockade for the Late Emperor, gleefully watching the show.

"The Emperor beating his son—not much different from us common folk."

"Such fatherly kindness and filial piety, the joy of family bonds!"

"Filial sons are made under the rod, even His Highness needs a beating!"

Li Xueke could be seen occasionally reaching up to steady his head as he chased Li Ji, who was dodging around the pillars under the corridor, hacking at him until ghostly energy gushed out and his body shrank smaller and smaller.

His pleas for mercy also gradually grew clearer and more childlike.

Suddenly, in an instant, the ghost reverted to its appearance from when it was seven or eight years old. A pair of small hands covered its head as it lifted its eyes blankly.

"F-Father Emperor..."

Li Xueke looked down at it.

For a fleeting moment, he heard the sounds of happy laughter and chatter from thousands of years ago.

"Father Emperor, Father Emperor, your son will definitely learn from you and become a good emperor!"

"Father Emperor, are you becoming an immortal? Father Emperor is so amazing! Teach me, child wants to learn the Kingly Way too, to protect all the common people!"

"Father Emperor, on your journey to Ningzhou, you must take care of your health and return safely!"

"Father Emperor..."

Li Xueke closed his eyes.

Slowly, he raised his hand. Not to steady his own teetering head, but guided by distant memory, he gently stroked the little ghost's fluffy hair.

When Li Xueke opened his eyes again, Li Ji saw the most familiar gaze.

"If the son is not taught, it is the father's fault."

Hearing these words, Li Ji truly felt terror of utter annihilation.

His whole body trembled. His throat felt stuffed with icy cotton, unable to utter any plea for mercy.

The icy Royal Sword swept across his throat.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust—it is time for everything to end."

This was Li Daoxuan's own voice.