CHAPTER 553: CHAPTER 552: ONLY SHE CAN KILL XIAO PINGFENG

If those dark times hadn’t been endured by him alone, he wouldn’t have found them so unbearable.

Before she left, she arranged for everyone—her maternal family, their children, even the nanny and the nanny’s children. But she had excluded him entirely.

Yan Wanqing... how could you be so cruel?

Why did you abandon him?

He thought they were the closest confidants, sharing everything.

But at the end of their rope, she chose to bear everything alone.

Xiao Pingfeng could neither understand nor empathize.

He felt ruthlessly abandoned...

"Yan Wanqing, I will not forgive you, this time I will keep you firmly by my side..." even if it means breaking your wings, I absolutely won’t let you go!

There was no more affection in those dark eyes, only a boundless, turbulent undercurrent...

Chu Kingdom’s camp.

Chu Qi, dressed in soft armor, stood inside the tent.

His expression was far from good.

"Su Bai, send my regards to His Majesty," Song Huaxu said indifferently from the side.

Su Bai, in a white dress with half of her face covered by a black mask, still couldn’t hide her stunning beauty.

The eyes that used to sparkle were now hollow and lifeless.

After Song Huaxu spoke, Su Bai obediently turned to Chu Qi and bowed, "Su Bai greets Your Majesty, may Your Majesty live forever and ever."

She even intended to kneel.

Chu Qi immediately stepped forward to support her, his expression very angry, "It’s not her, this is not her! She would never kneel before me! Song Huaxu, what on earth have you done to Yan Wanqing!"

Song Huaxu’s expression was inscrutable, "Your Majesty jests, this is her." He lifted his hand to gently pull off Su Bai’s mask, revealing a face identical to before, "If this isn’t her, then who is it?"

"Song Huaxu, you well know I don’t mean that." At this moment, Chu Qi could no longer hide his towering rage. He drew the sword beside him and stabbed at Song Huaxu, "I want you dead!"

The sword slashed through the air, aiming directly for Song Huaxu’s throat at high speed, but he didn’t show the slightest panic.

Faster than the sword was a white figure, a hand blade striking down from above, splitting the sword in two at the midsection. At the same time, Su Bai quickly and without blinking an eye struck towards Chu Qi’s chest. Chu Qi dodged, and as he managed to avoid her, Su Bai followed up, initiating several exchanges in the tent. Seeing Chu Qi beginning to sweat profusely from his forehead, only then did Song Huaxu lazily say, "Su Bai, do not be presumptuous."

Upon hearing his voice, Su Bai stopped pursuing.

Chu Qi, breathing heavily, threw the broken sword directly onto the ground.

His blue eyes were bloodshot.

Nurturing a tiger invites calamity.

It was about him, wasn’t it?

To have allowed someone like Song Huaxu to be by his side for three years!

With a great battle imminent, he has no way to deal with him, especially now that he has Su Bai by his side protecting him closely.

Thinking of this, Chu Qi laughed to himself.

The strands of hair in front of his forehead slowly fell, and he raised his right hand, threading his fingers through the strands to cover half of his face as his laughter grew louder.

The eunuchs and Palace Maids inside the tent dared not breathe too heavily.

Song Huaxu watched this scene with a smile that was not quite a smile, the only one who still had an expressionless face was Su Bai, whose peach-blossom eyes no longer held the vitality of past days.

"What is Your Majesty laughing about?" Song Huaxu waited for Chu Qi to finish laughing before he slowly spoke.

Chu Qi, while laughing, casually sat on the steps, looking up at Song Huaxu from a distance.

"I laughed at your boundless ambition, laughed at me for overestimating myself, foolishly trying to contend with Heaven."

He raised his hand and poked at the sky, implying something, his handsome face filled with irony, "Can man triumph over Heaven?"

Song Huaxu’s eyes narrowed, his elongated pupils exuding an aloofness that set him apart from the world... and a rare hint of compassion.

"Heavenly Dao is hard to violate, Your Majesty is the Human Sovereign, you should be able to understand."

Chu Qi mulled over the intelligence he had painstakingly gathered these days, looking at the old man whose face showed age but whose posture was still that of his portrait, slowly corresponding to the image.

"How many years have you lived on this continent?" Chu Qi directly asked.

Song Huaxu shook his head, his eyes filled with confusion, "I don’t remember, it’s been too long."

"You have been stirring up wars through these dynasties, even established a cult called the Divine Church of Light, all to incite a war that would end the world. Is this your destiny to live on?"

Chu Qi did not understand: "If the heavens do not like to see us living, why create us at all? To create and then destroy by their own hands, and then let them proliferate again, to destroy again, are they idle with nothing better to do!"

Song Huaxu’s expression remained unchanged: "The Heavenly Dao has its own cycle, these things must enter the cycle at a certain stage; otherwise, balance cannot be maintained. The more people there are, the poorer and more miserable they become. Rather than everyone suffering, it’s better to destroy this world and create a new, happy, and blissful realm. The Heavenly Dao cares a lot about the experiences of life."

"That’s all nonsense!" Chu Qi shouted loudly, "What about her then? You turned her from a living person into a senseless puppet, what about her sense of being?"

Song Huaxu’s expression was subtle: "Your Majesty, she is not within the Heavenly Dao."

At these words, Chu Qi was stunned, "What do you mean? Why is she not within the Heavenly Dao? Yan Wanqing she..."

Song Huaxu raised his hand to interrupt, "Your Majesty, enough has been said today. Revealing more of the heavenly secrets will overburden your Human Sovereign’s fate, and the Heavenly Dao will impose a punishment. You only need to know that the Chu Kingdom is a nation chosen by the Heavenly Dao to survive, and its people are safe, that’s all. The unification I promised you, I will not go back on my word."

"Song Huaxu." Chu Qi sat on the steps, yet his commanding presence was still robustly exuding, he stared at him, determinedly: "You came from Penglai, the Immortal Island, right?"

Song Huaxu slightly raised his eyebrows: "Your Majesty’s abilities have indeed surprised the poor Daoist. Indeed, since I was sensible, I have been in Penglai, later inspired by the Heavenly Dao, I came here of my own accord to fulfill my mission."

"Are you planning to take Yan Wanqing to Penglai?" Chu Qi diverted the topic again.

This time Song Huaxu pursed his lips, and after a long while, he finally spoke: "The poor Daoist does not tell lies, yes, she belongs there."

"So the real Yan Wanqing has been hidden by you," Chu Qi raised his hand pointing at Su Bai, "She’s a counterfeit, right?"

"Your Majesty, celestial secrets must not be disclosed. We need her for this war," Song Huaxu kindly waved toward Su Bai, and Su Bai obediently walked over. He raised his hand and touched the top of Su Bai’s head: "Such a good girl."

Su Bai obediently lowered her head, standing there like a small animal.

"Chu Kingdom’s military might is far inferior to Dawei, and Xiao Pingfeng is even more like a war deity. Only she is our ultimate weapon; only she can help us directly kill Xiao Pingfeng, and win this war!" Song Huaxu’s persuasive voice entered Chu Qi’s ears, "Don’t you want to win, Your Majesty? Don’t you want to unite the whole world?"

"The things you spoke of, I was interested in until yesterday, but now, I want to discuss another condition with you," Chu Qi slowly got up and walked over.

"I want to enter Penglai with you."