235: How many times do I have to admit that I am a bad person?

The Upper Thousand Provinces are far away, so far that a Lower Realm Cultivator would find it difficult to reach even in a lifetime.

Yet, the Upper Thousand Provinces are also very close, so close that one only needs to step over the tongtian pillar to ascend.

As soon as they stepped onto the top of the tongtian pillar, the colossal flying boat, adorned with the Qin Family cloud pattern, was already suspended, waiting. Its massive shadow enveloped the entire pillar-top platform.

Feng Qingjue looked up at the ship's body, which could be called a mobile fortress, and felt her breath catch.

She unconsciously whispered, "Actually... there's no need to use such a massive flying boat."

She thought this was a grand display Qin Wangchuan had specially arranged for her.

"Is it big?"

Ye Jianwei, standing nearby, softly interrupted, a smile that seemed to know everything playing on her lips, and said no more.

Feng Qingjue and her group silently boarded the flying boat, standing by the rail and looking down. The sea of clouds surged below, and the mortal world was like dust.

After surveying her surroundings, her gaze finally returned to Qin Wangchuan's tall and distant back.

Taking a deep breath, she asked the question that had been weighing on her heart:

"Why did you... fool the masses?"

She was referring to Qin Wangchuan's scheme of hiding his strength and gathering everyone together.

Her voice echoed on the spacious deck, and the Qin Family attendants standing by instantly changed their expressions, bowing their heads, not daring to speak.

It seemed she did not know the identity of this lord.

Otherwise, she would not dare to speak like this.

"Fool the masses?"

Qin Wangchuan did not look at her, but repeated these four words, his tone devoid of emotion, yet it made Feng Qingjue feel an invisible pressure.

"If you think so..." He tilted his head slightly, as if pondering a simple question, then a faint, indifferent curve appeared at the corner of his lips.

"Then I am."

He took a step forward. Beyond the flying boat lay the boundless world, and as he stood between heaven and earth, his voice clearly reached everyone's ears:

"All beings are foolish."

"And I am the villain who toys with them."

Feng Qingjue was not satisfied with this answer.

She had seen the clarity in his brows when he played the zither, and felt his transcendent demeanor—how could such a person willingly bear a bad name?

"To say all beings are foolish... are you placing yourself above all beings?" Her question carried a final trace of struggle, as if seeking confirmation of an answer she dared not deeply consider.

For some reason, Feng Qingjue did not want Qin Wangchuan to be a villain.

"Why not?"

However, Qin Wangchuan's response shattered all her illusions.

He stood at the rail, the sea of clouds surging beneath his feet, his voice carrying an ancient loneliness:

"I am indeed above all beings."

"Without the resolve to look down upon all beings, how could one become unparalleled through the ages, the strongest in history?" He turned, his gaze truly falling on Feng Qingjue for the first time.

In those unfathomable eyes, a light burned that made her heart palpitate.

"Do you want to hear my ideal?"

Ideal?

Feng Qingjue was about to listen intently, but saw Qin Wangchuan gently shake his head.

He leaned against the ship's rail, gazing at the boundless sky, the sea of clouds surging beneath his feet, his voice carrying an ancient rhythm:

"No."

"That is no longer an ideal spoken aloud—"

The young man's fingertips gently brushed the outside of the rail, and the swirling clouds gathered and dispersed between his knuckles.

"But the Dao beneath my feet."

"The Dao where all laws return to their source, and all beings find their dwelling."

All laws return to their source, all beings find their dwelling.

These eight words exploded like thunder in Feng Qingjue's heart, shaking her Divine Soul.

It was as if a Dao stretching across eternity unfolded before her—a vision that had never appeared even in her wildest dreams.

"Is this... possible?" She almost blurted it out instinctively.

"Of course it's impossible, but not without a way."

Qin Wangchuan's answer was crisp and decisive, imbued with an all-knowing clarity.

"All laws are too chaotic to return to their source—then I will reshape all laws, becoming the sole origin."

"All beings are foolish, impossible to unify—then I will use power to make them submit, transforming countless 'others' into 'my own people'."

At this moment, the flying boat was passing through a thunderstorm, and the electric flashes illuminated his sharply defined profile, making it flicker between light and shadow.

"Much blood will be shed, many will die." The young man's tone was terrifyingly calm. "But the world will change."

Feng Qingjue opened her mouth, her voice a little dry: "But how do you know what it will become? What if, in the end... this path is wrong?"

Qin Wangchuan's gaze remained calm:

"If this path is wrong—"

"Then let my bones become the guidepost for future generations to change the Dao."

Feng Qingjue stared blankly at the man before her, her fingertips unconsciously digging into her palm.

At this moment, she finally understood what kind of existence this person truly was.

This former mortal empress recalled the vows she had made, her ideals about ascending to the heavens, which now seemed shallow and insignificant before this grand, almost insane, vision.

"No wonder he said... too shallow..."

A barely audible murmur escaped Feng Qingjue's lips, complex light swirling in her eyes.

Just as she was about to speak again, a respectful voice sounded at the opportune moment:

"Your Highness, we have arrived."

As the flying boat slowed, the scene below gradually became clear—

It was a circular martial arena even larger than the one in the Middle Thousand Province, already bustling with people.

When the shadow of the Qin Family flying boat swept across the venue, countless gazes simultaneously shot towards the sky.

"The rumors are true!"

"They're finally here!"

"Is it truly the Qin Family Divine Son himself?"

Even Chu Wujiu and others, who had been waiting for a long time, looked up at the sky. "Oh, they're here."

Feng Qingjue was about to lean forward to look afar when her peripheral vision caught a figure passing by, and she instinctively turned her head to look.

Just then, Qin Wangchuan raised his hand and removed the mask that concealed his face.

The moment his five fingers closed, the mask shattered with a crisp sound.

Thousands of shimmering lights burst forth like a rain of stars, and in the instant the dazzling fragments scattered, Feng Qingjue's breath caught.

She saw a pair of molten gold eyes.

She was standing closest, close enough to see every trembling eyelash.

But in those eyes that reflected the entire world—

Her own existence was absent.

At the same time, brilliant golden flames ignited on Qin Wangchuan's green robe.

With each step he took, the golden flames intensified.

The green robe gradually disintegrated in the dancing starlight, as if shedding a mortal disguise, slowly revealing the luxurious inner robe of dark mystic black with gold embroidered patterns.

On the robe, a lifelike five-clawed Golden Dragon pattern slowly moved.

Its Dragon eyes were like torches, its golden scales shone, and every scale shimmered with intense golden radiance.

This dormant True Dragon was fully awakening as its master shed his disguise, radiating a majesty that no one dared to look at directly.

In the howling wind, the Dragon robe fluttered. Qin Wangchuan stood on the edge of the ship's rail tens of thousands of feet high, his unbound, majestic aura and noble dignity seamlessly integrated, as if an Immortal had descended upon the world.

"Wait here." He did not turn around, his gaze overlooking the bustling world below. "Once I conclude matters here, we will depart for the Immortal Court."

"It won't be long."

Before his words finished, Qin Wangchuan had already leaped from the flying boat, his figure plummeting like a sharp sword.

Feng Qingjue instinctively walked to the spot where he had just jumped, leaning over the rail to look down, only to see a surging crowd, far exceeding the scale of the Middle Thousand Province Grand Competition.

The Prodigies who had traveled with her couldn't help but exclaim:

"What kind of Heaven-Defying reward could gather so many Prodigies here?"

Ye Jianwei, who was about to follow, heard this and lightly left a remark:

"There is no reward."

She also removed the mask from her face, and with a crisp sound, the mask turned into specks of light in her palm.

This was no longer useful.

Feng Qingjue's expression froze: "No reward?"

Ye Jianwei's lips curved slightly:

"To be able to contend with my Young Master, the Qin Family Divine Son, is itself a rare honor."

"This opportunity surpasses thousands of rewards in the world."

With that, her white robes gracefully fluttered as she followed Qin Wangchuan, leaping from the flying boat and disappearing into the sea of clouds.

Leaving Feng Qingjue behind, murmuring, only now realizing the identity of this Qing Wangchuan.

"Although I knew he was from the Qin Family, I didn't expect him to be the Qin Family's... Divine Son?"

She had, of course, heard her uncle speak of the title of Divine Son; it was the supreme individual of the Qin Family clan.

But a Qing Wangchuan who claimed to be a Talisman Cultivator, and the high and mighty Qin Family Divine Son—these two identities were too disparate, making it difficult for her to connect them for a moment.

Just then, a flying boat bearing the Chen Family crest broke through the clouds, and before it had even fully stopped, Jiang Yan's wailing could be heard.

During his time on the ship, he had naturally learned Qin Wangchuan's true identity.

"Big Brother lied to me again! He really is the Qin Family Divine Son!"

"No! Does this count as him lying to me, or not lying to me?"