174: Chapter 174 Ye Lanxi: Is Your Husband Really You?

Peach blossom petals drifted silently from the air within the Formation.

Ye Lanxi's feet landed on the ground covered in peach blossom petals; the petals were crushed underfoot, splashing out pink juice.

She lowered her head to glance at her feet, her Phoenix eyes filled with confusion.

Something was wrong.

Where was Cangmang Divine Mountain? Where were the Seven Peaks? Where was the Ye Family's protective Formation?

Peach blossoms filled her vision, petals flew across the sky, and the air was permeated with a cloying, sickly-sweet fragrance.

A Killing Formation.

Ye Lanxi's first reaction was that it was a Killing Formation.

She had seen too many Formations that used illusions to lure enemies only to deliver a fatal strike when they were vulnerable.

Her husband had left years ago and never returned; who knew if he had died in such a Formation?

She forcibly mobilized the remaining thirty percent of her Desolate Ancient Sacred Body blood Qi, causing golden spirit patterns to spread from her neck to her arms, circulating rapidly beneath her skin.

She assumed a defensive posture, crossing her arms to protect her chest, stepping back half a step with her right foot, and lowering her center of gravity.

But this movement pulled at her tattered battle robe.

The purple fabric had long since been shredded beyond recognition in the previous battle; her left shoulder was bare, her right shoulder was bare, and the slit in her skirt at her waist ripped all the way from the base of her thigh to her ankle.

Her crossed-arm stance pulled the remaining fabric over her chest to its limit, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin below her collarbone that was so dazzling in the peach blossom light that one could not look away.

The Ancient Desolate spirit patterns flickered on that exposed skin, the golden lines tracing every inch of her firm physique, and the Divine patterns on her abdomen pulsed as if breathing, making her even more beautiful.

Ye Lanxi was completely unaware of her disheveled state.

Her entire focus was on vigilance, her Phoenix eyes scanning the surrounding peach blossom forest, attempting to locate the position of the Formation eye.

But that fragrance did not give her a chance.

Peach blossom petals drifted endlessly from the Void Realm, each petal carrying the aura of the Formation.

Those auras did not travel through the Meridians, nor did they attack the Physical Body; instead, they bypassed all physical defenses of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body and headed straight for her Divine Sense.

Ye Lanxi's body stiffened.

The fatal weakness of a Body Cultivator—the Divine Soul.

The Desolate Ancient Sacred Body refined the Physical Body to the extreme, making it tough and impervious to blades and spears, but the strength of the Divine Soul could not keep up with the Physical Body.

This was a common ailment for all Body Cultivators.

The aura of the Formation pierced through her Divine Sense barrier with effortless ease.

Ye Lanxi's Phoenix eyes lost focus for half a breath.

The light of the golden spirit patterns began to disorder, the flickering frequency changing from steady to erratic.

Her arms, which had been crossed to protect her chest, slowly lowered to her sides, her fingers uncurling and curling, curling and uncurling.

That face, previously full of Battle Intent, changed bit by bit.

The sharp light in her Phoenix eyes faded, replaced by a layer of misty water.

Her pupils dilated, her focus scattered; those Phoenix eyes that could once make even old Quasi-Emperor monsters bow their heads now became soft, fragile, and defenseless.

A flush began to spread from the roots of her ears, crawling over her neck, up her cheeks, and finally burning to her forehead.

Her entire face glowed with an abnormal crimson; it was not the excitement after a battle, but a completely different kind of heat.

Her breathing became disordered.

The rise and fall of her chest became increasingly pronounced, each inhalation accompanied by a slight tremor, and as she exhaled, her lips slightly parted, a wisp of heat escaping from between her teeth.

Her tattered battle robe rose and fell with her rapid breathing, and the snow-white skin that could not be covered shimmered with a layer of fine sweat in the pink light of the peach blossoms.

Lu Chen stood three zhang away, watching Ye Lanxi's transformation.

He was at the Great Emperor Peak, and he had something that was a reward from his sign-in System in the past—the Immortal-Grade Thousand Illusion Heart-Bewitching Formation!

The effect was much more intense than he had anticipated.

Ye Lanxi moved, but not in an attacking motion.

She stood in place, the focus of her Phoenix eyes passing through Lu Chen, through the peach blossom forest, and landing in a place that Lu Chen could not see.

She was seeing an illusion.

Ye Lanxi's lips moved slightly, but she made no sound.

Peach blossom petals swirled around her, and the power of the Formation drilled into the depths of her Divine Sense, unearthing her deepest buried memories.

—

Before the great gate of the Ye Family.

A younger version of her stood on the stone steps, holding an infant Ye Qingxian in her arms.

The man beside her wore a green battle robe, a long sword hanging at his waist, and was bending down to tease the child in her belly.

"This little girl Qingxian, her eyes take after you."

The man said with a smile.

"Nonsense, only her nose takes after me; her eyes are clearly yours."

The young Ye Lanxi blushed and pulled the swaddling clothes closer to her chest.

The man straightened his waist and reached out to ruffle her hair.

"Three months, at most three months, and I will be back from the forbidden zone."

"You say that every time; it's always three months."

"This time it's true."

The man's hand slid from the top of her head to her cheek, his thumb brushing across her cheekbone.

"Wait for me to return, and I will take you and Qingxian to tour the mountains and waters."

Ye Lanxi's Phoenix eyes grew wet.

She stood in the peach blossom forest, two lines of tears sliding down her cheeks and dripping onto the front of her tattered battle robe.

She waited three months, and what she waited for was a broken sword and a blood-stained transmission Jade Slip.

The illusion did not stop.

The Ye Family Council Hall.

Dozens of Ye Family Elders sat in a circle, and in the center stood a gaunt-faced old man, holding a genealogy record in his hand.

"Lanxi is not of the Ye Family Bloodline; her surname is actually Qi, and she is a woman of an outside surname brought in by a son-in-law. Now that Hao'er is deceased, according to clan rules, she should remarry an eligible Cultivator of the clan to continue the Daoist tradition."

The young Ye Lanxi stood in the hall, pregnant and trembling all over—not because of fear, but because of anger.

"I will not marry."

"You will not marry?"

The old man sneered.

"You, a widow of an outside surname, on what grounds can you say 'no' in the Ye Family?"

Ye Lanxi clenched her teeth in the peach blossom forest, tears streaming down her face.

The illusion continued to churn.

She ultimately did not remarry, and those were the years she was ostracized.

Her Spirit Stone supply was reduced, her cultivation resources were withheld, and her residence was moved from the main hall to a side courtyard.

In the end, she used the secret techniques she knew, along with her previous Family assets, to peacefully raise the fetus in her belly!

This pregnancy lasted for over a hundred years!

Nearly five hundred years later, Ye Qingxian was born; there were phenomena in heaven and earth, and Ye Qingxian was valued by the Family.

But her situation actually became even stranger; she did not completely rise in status because of her daughter, but it was a bit better than before!

Yet she continued to Cultivate bitterly.

At night, after her daughter fell asleep, she would Cultivate desperately alone, pushing her Desolate Ancient Sacred Body to the limit time and time again, her Meridians breaking inch by inch and then reshaping inch by inch.

Finally, she achieved the Nine-Turn Quasi-Emperor and the Major Achievement Desolate Ancient Sacred Body.

The day she turned things around.

The gate of the Ye Family's Heaven-Reaching Hall was kicked open by her, and the old man who had suggested she remarry years ago knelt on the ground, his face full of terror.

Two sleeping Great Emperor Old Ancestors awoke and said only one sentence.

"Although she has no Ye Family Bloodline, she has preserved the Bloodline for the Ye Family. She is also the wife of the former Family Head, and her cultivation is currently the number one in the Ye Family! The position of Ye Family Head, Lanxi deserves it without question."

Some Ye Family hardliners questioned the Old Ancestor's decision!

But the Old Ancestor said:

"In this world today, how many Quasi-Emperor Peaks are there, and how many Major Achievement Holy Bodies? Great Emperors haven't appeared for many tens of thousands of years; the most recent one was probably Ling Yuling over 50,000 years ago. If we don't adapt, the Ye Family will be finished sooner or later!"

She won, but what did she win?

Inside the Formation, Ye Lanxi's tears could not stop flowing down.

The image of the illusion returned to the day she and her husband first met.

A tea stall in a small city.

She was a traveling Loose Cultivator, and he was a passing Sword Cultivator.

He paid for a bowl of tea for her.

It was the fate of just a bowl of tea.

It was this bowl of tea; she had waited several hundred years just to wait for the second bowl.

Ye Lanxi's body was trembling—not the tremor of blood Qi surging, but the tremor of someone who had suppressed their emotions for too long and finally could not hold on any longer.

Lu Chen stood to the side, watching her changes, his scalp tightening in waves.

This woman was just a furious lioness a moment ago, full of Killing Intent, wanting to fight him to the death.

Now she was crying like a child.

One moment she was gnashing her teeth, the next she was streaming with tears, and then suddenly she laughed—laughing uglier than crying, her shoulders heaving.

Lu Chen had the thought of stopping; he shouldn't have used this Formation.

It had dug up the most tender scars at the bottom of her heart.

Ye Lanxi raised her head.

In her eyes, the illusion was complete; Lu Chen's black robe turned into a green battle robe, the outline of his hair tied with a wooden hairpin turned into the appearance of another person—the features were blurry, but the aura was scorching and familiar.

Ye Lanxi stood up.

Her steps were unsteady; she stepped on the petals, swayed twice, and then stood straight.

Her Phoenix eyes were brimming with tears, her lips trembling again and again.

"Husband..."

When these two words were spat out from her mouth, they lacked her usual coldness and domineering nature; they were cloyingly sweet, carrying several hundred years of grievances and longing, her voice so soft it could drip water.

"Is it really you? You've returned? Qingxian has grown so big, why did you only come back now..."

The hairs on Lu Chen's back stood up.

He took two steps back.

"Madam! Wake up!"

"Look clearly at who this Emperor is! I am not your dead husband! I am your daughter's Revered Master!"

Ye Lanxi did not hear him.

Or rather, she heard him, but under the influence of the illusion, Lu Chen's voice had turned into another man's voice.

What Lu Chen, what her deceased husband! She saw them both, but she couldn't distinguish between them!

She ran toward Lu Chen—one step, two steps, three steps.

Her waist swayed gently with every step, the tattered battle skirt lifting and falling with her pace from the slits on both sides, her two slender legs stepping forward alternately, the Ancient Desolate spirit patterns on the inner sides of her thighs shimmering with a dim gold in the pink floral light.

Her Phoenix eyes were blurred, her lips slightly parted, and her face, still stained with dried tears, was filled with greed and longing.

Lu Chen continued to retreat.

"Madam! Stand still!"

But Ye Lanxi did not stop.

In less than a breath's time, she walked to Lu Chen.

The Body Cultivator strength of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body was extremely powerful; she wrapped her arms around Lu Chen, and Lu Chen found it very difficult to break free!

Then she stopped, looked down at her tattered battle robe, and frowned.

Her right hand lifted, her fingers hooking onto the remaining half of the waistband at her waist.

The waistband loosened, and the purple fabric slid from her waist, piling up at her ankles.

Lu Chen's Adam's apple bobbed.

Ye Lanxi's hand did not stop; her fingertips moved to her shoulder, hooking onto a thin strap of her protective battle armor on her left shoulder.

That was the Ancient Desolate Ye Brocade Armor, a Quasi-Emperor-level defensive Magic Treasure, covering from her shoulders to her waist and abdomen, woven from Ancient Desolate profound iron wire.

The thin strap was pulled open by her, and the battle armor slid off her left shoulder, revealing the entire snow-white shoulder and upper arm, the Ancient Desolate spirit patterns circulating beneath the skin, the curve of her shoulder blade casting a soft shadow in the floral light.

The battle armor clattered to the ground.

Lu Chen did not dare to move at all! It wouldn't do to turn off the Formation now; he would be misunderstood!

He could only pray in his heart: Madam! Don't take it off, please don't take it off.

Ye Lanxi's right hand moved to the other shoulder.

The armor strap on her right shoulder was pulled open by her, held between her teeth.

Yes, she used her teeth, and her other hand was already unfastening the buckle of the inner armor on her chest.

Her movements were unhurried, her Phoenix eyes fixed on Lu Chen, the tearlight and the blurred heat intertwined.

"Husband, didn't you say you would take me to tour the mountains and waters when you returned?"

Her voice was soft to the bone, every word coated in honey, the sweetness and grievance stirred together, brewing a pot of aged poisonous wine.

The armor on her right shoulder slid off.

Her entire upper body was left with only a form-fitting silk inner armor, so thin that one could see the golden spirit patterns circulating on the skin within, clinging to every inch of her curves.

Her fingers hooked onto the collar of the silk inner armor.

A gentle tug.

The silk slid down halfway.

From her collarbone to her chest, the full curves surged out from the edge of the inner armor, her snow-white skin covered in a layer of fine, thin sweat, the Ancient Desolate spirit patterns flickering and fading amidst that undulating expanse.

Lu Chen's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.

This fight could not continue.

Ye Lanxi's body had already lunged forward, her arms holding his neck, her scorching body temperature pressing against his chest through the piece of silk inner armor.

"Don't leave... don't leave again this time..."

PS: I got carried away writing this chapter, over 3000 words; that's enough, right!