Lifespan Extraction: I Ascend As The Immortal Beast Tamer
Chapter 40: Gu Quixan, A Sinister Ploy

Chapter 40: Gu Quixan, A Sinister Ploy

— 3 days later —

After 3 very eventful days of touring the grand Capital City of Quixan, Valley Master Yu’s joyful mood lasted all the way up until it came time for her to see her father. A cloud of sadness hovered over her, making Zar feel a bit awkward.

He had no clue what to say in a situation like this. Or if he should say anything at all.

But when they got out of a golden carriage outside the gates to a massive palace in the center of the city, he realized that he made the right move. The expression Valley Master Yu was making while the Royal Palace attendants guided the both of them in was all he needed to see to know that this sort of pain was not meant to be shared.

After being walked up several extravagant flights of stairs and passing by hundreds of rooms, Valley Master Yu dismissed the Palace Attendants. She needed not their presence for what lay beyond the diamond-framed door in front of her.

*Creak—*

The moment she stepped inside the room, her feet creaked against the floor, not due to lack of structural integrity, but because of what the dismal sight before her did to her.

On a large singular bed placed at the far end of a spacious room, there lay an old bed-ridden man. His cheeks were sunken, his limbs thin and frail, and he wore a deep grimace on his wrinkled face.

Clearly, he was in a lot of pain.

"Father..."

Looking at Yu Quixan’s side-view in passing, Zar saw none of the joyful woman he accompanied for the last 3 days.

He only saw a girl grieving for her father...

A noble man who’d soon be for the afterlife...

For a while, Zar just stood at the back of the room, leaning against a wall. He made no sounds. Interrupted none.

He was simply there...

And for Yu Quixan, that was enough.

After a few minutes, Yu Quixan whispered something into her father’s ear before rising to her feet. Zar wasn’t able to make out what she said, but he was positive she had been wanting to say it for a long time now, whatever it was.

"Let’s go," said Valley Master Yu, her voice a whole lot colder than it was before they arrived at the Palace.

Zar nodded.

Suddenly!

*Thwam!*

Before Zar and Valley Master Yu could exit the room, a very rude door slamming caused them to stop and narrow their eyes.

"Dear Niece, why are you looking at me like that? Aren’t you happy to see your Uncle??"

A raspy, grating voice came from outside the opened door, with a fat, pompous-looking man striding in a second later. He wore clothes that even Ministers would be envious of. His hair was non-existent, and his face was quite hard to look at, but his aura more than made up for both.

[Gu Quixan (7th Layer Void Crossing) 2340/3620/4000]

’His potential is limited to the Void Crossing Realm, but his present cultivation is still extremely high,’ Zar thought. ’The highest I’ve ever seen.’

Powerful.

Extremely so.

And for some unknown reason, Yu Quixan’s lips curled up in hatred at the appearance of this man calling himself her Uncle.

"You may be a brother of Father, but you are no Uncle of mine," she scowled while walking past him as if he weren’t even there. "And you won’t get away with what you’ve done," she coldly added before disappearing down a corridor with Zar. "I’ll make sure of it."

After their departure, Gu Quixan’s amicable expression instantly twisted in fury as he gnashed his teeth. His hands were tightly clenching his sleeves, a plethora of vile thoughts swirling around inside his hairless head.

’You may be the 1st Princess now, but once this incompetent younger brother of mine kicks the bucket, I’ll take back what my father denied me centuries ago,’ he thought. ’And after I become Emperor, I’ll cripple your cultivation and force you to my bedside! I’d like to see where that disdainful smirk of yours is then!!’

Taking one last look at his decrepit younger brother on his deathbed, Gu Quixan revealed an evil grin.

’The traceless, tasteless Seven Underworlds Poison is close to finishing that trash off. Just a little longer now.’

After that malicious thought filtered through his mind, he waved his sleeves and left the room with the servants he brought with him to help disgrace Yu Quixan.

Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out as planned, but there was always next time...

Meanwhile, outside the enormous Royal Palace, as Zar and Yu Quixan were stepping up into their carriage, he decided to overstep his bounds a little.

"That man; is he really your uncle?" he asked. "You two appeared to be at odds..."

Yu Quixan stiffened in her seat. Slowly, she turned toward Zar, and with a complex tone, replied, "Yes... His name is Gu Quixan, and he’s my biological uncle. But since being denied his birthright by Grandfather hundreds of years ago, his already evil personality worsened.

And if I’m correct, then he’s the reason Father is dying earlier than he’s supposed to...

His lifespan as a Peak Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator should be more than a thousand years. And yet he’s supposedly dying from the Five Marks of Decay while being only a bit over five hundred years old.

It makes no sense..."

Zar nodded, rubbing his chin in thought.

What she said made sense. But as an Emperor of a Mortal Dynasty, Gu Quixan likely had too many enemies to count.

Who was to say that it wasn’t someone else’s fault that he was currently lying on his deathbed?

"I know what you’re thinking," Valley Master Yu said with a downcast air about her. "And as I have no concrete proof that it was him who did it, you could very well be right... But... but sometimes you just have to go with your gut. And my gut is telling me that it was my father’s eldest brother who reduced him to such a pitiful state."

Zar could sense the immense amount of anger in her voice, but being so used to keeping everything bottled up, she knew not how to properly express it. She just kept scowling and sighing in alternating cycles.

After an incense stick’s worth of time riding in the lavish royal carriage, Zar ultimately asked, "If that Gu Quixan is purposefully poisoning your father, then... excuse me for saying: why has he not died yet? Although I couldn’t tell what realm Gu Quixan was at, I know he’s very powerful... Wouldn’t he have more efficient methods for secretly murdering someone close to him?"

Yu Quixan hesitated at this question, but since resolving herself to be more open, she naturally couldn’t lie her way out now. Thus, she exhaled a tired cloud of air before saying, "The poison being used to kill my father is one I don’t know, and of an extremely high rank at that.

But as an Alchemist, I’ve been constantly concocting pills that I’ve covertly snuck into my father’s mouth every time I visited. And it was because of the counteracting effects of those pills that I’ve been able to extend Father’s lifespan.

However, it won’t last forever... The poison is working much faster and more lethally as of late. Even the Rank 8 Life-saving Elixirs I’ve been feeding him will eventually lose all their effect..."

Realizing that she revealed something she probably didn’t mean to, Zar feigned visible surprise. "Rank 8...? But to concoct Rank 8 pills, you have to at least be of the...."

Figuring out where she slipped up, Yu Quixan sighed, but didn’t appear all that opposed to revealing the truth. She then told him all about her cultivation and alchemy exploits, even explaining that the reason she came to the Blazing Sun Sect was to get away from her family.

Specifically, to get away from her 1st Uncle...

Zar pretended to be surprised through it all, and did a very good job at acting. But by the end, a bit of guilt started to well up inside him.

She told him so much, and yet he was withholding basically everything...

But even if he felt bad about it, he still refused to tell her anything.

What if she learned of his Godling identity?

The whole reason he was constantly upgrading his Heavenly Transfiguration Martial Skill — even getting it to the Half-Heaven Rank — was all so as to make sure no one ever figured out what he truly was.

Whether they’d hate him or hunt him for something he couldn’t help, he’d never give them the chance to choose.

It was better that way...

’Hundreds, thousands, even millions of years later, everyone around me will be no more than ash and bones,’ Zar thought while quietly sitting through the rest of the ride back to the inn. ’By then, I’ll be invincible and won’t have anything to feel bad about. I’ll look back and find all of this so funny... Surely...’

Surely...

The next day, Zar and Valley Master Yu departed from the Royal Capital of Quixan. According to the words of the mortals, they returned to the land of immortals, nesting themselves atop an unreachable mountain peak.

Going to each their own Medicine Valley, Zar and Yu Quixan parted under a weird, hard-to-explain atmosphere...

But as with most things, time cured all.

— Over a dozen years later —

Even after so long, Emperor Quixan was still hanging on. But after visiting him with Valley Master Yu a few more times, he learned that the Emperor’s lifeforce would run out of juice in less than ten years. Something that wouldn’t change no matter how many high-rank pills he was secretly fed.

Zar could tell that it was eating away at Valley Master Yu, but what could be done?

He may be of the absolute pinnacle of the Half-step Body Integration Realm, but even that wasn’t enough to cure what ailed him.

"Haiz..." Zar sighed, but had his mood improved upon glancing at his current lifespan.

*Ding~!*