My Enemy Became My Cultivation Companion
Chapter 104 - 87: He Destroys My Ancestral Clan!

Chapter 104: Chapter 87: He Destroys My Ancestral Clan!

With one call of "Uncle," the underground palace fell silent.

Lin Yan’s face darkened, while Chen Yi and the others’ figures were half-hidden in the shadows. For a moment, no one spoke first.

It was Chen Yi who broke the silence. He looked at the somewhat flustered Lin Family Young Lady and chuckled lightly:

"Sister-in-law, your complexion seems pale. Have things been going well lately?"

Hearing this, Lin Yan’s gaze froze momentarily, then turned stormy.

Lin Wanxiao noticed the shift in atmosphere and panicked internally, managing only an awkward "Hmm," without so much as an expression of thanks.

"Come by my mansion someday; as an uncle, it’s only proper I look after you a bit. Don’t be shy."

Chen Yi spoke with an air of casual familiarity, as if they were truly close.

Meanwhile, Lin Yan’s eyes grew sharp and murderous.

"It’s been a while, Chen Qianhu. Who would’ve thought I’d run into you here?"

Lin Yan’s voice was hoarse, his fingers pressing harder onto the Compass.

His father’s Golden Body was destroyed, killed outright at the Lin Mansion; half the Capital City sank into the earth. The years of planning by the Lin Family, as well as their past influence, all crumbled in an instant.

And at its root was none other than this man, the West Factory Thousand Households standing before him—and the demon queen he served.

And now, Chen Yi, alive and well, stood before him, bantering with his legally wedded wife.

"What did that demon queen give you? You protect her so fiercely, even forgetting my father’s kindness entirely."

Lin Yan manipulated the bronze Compass in his hands, as though he were towering atop the massive Fengyu Mountain God, gazing down from on high,

"You destroy what you eat and betray those who feed you. I’m not a scoundrel like you. I follow the family principles—give me an explanation, and I’ll leave your corpse intact."

The Fengyu Mountain God began to move, its colossal body slowly approaching Chen Yi.

Chen Yi silently drew his blade.

Yin Weiyin, standing to the side, grew tense as well, pulling talismans and paper figures from within his robe.

Lin Wanxiao blinked at the unfolding scene. She didn’t understand why Lin Yan and Chen Yi had suddenly turned on each other—her mind was in a daze. As a woman, she had long grown accustomed to silence amid feigned harmony.

Each step of the Fengyu Mountain God made the underground palace tremble, its mountainous form rendering the humans tiny and insignificant.

Its enormous frame carried the corroded surface of bronze, exuding an oppressive aura of antiquity, and Chen Yi nearly forgot to breathe.

At that moment...

The Empress Dowager stepped forward slowly.

Lin Yan was initially puzzled, then his eyes widened in disbelief.

On her blood-red palace attire, faintly illusory white nine tails began to emerge.

The Empress Dowager moved.

She suddenly surged forward, wind rushing and dust billowing from the ground. She leaped several feet, her unembellished palm striking the shoulder of the Fengyu Mountain God.

Bang!

The gargantuan mountain god buckled at the knees, like a towering mountain range bowed low by the force!

"What foul creature dares to kill my son?"

She struck again.

An invisible force poured out with the blow, and Chen Yi could vaguely see ancient golden script in her palm. Under the strike, the Fengyu Mountain God’s knee collided with the ground, forcing it to kneel on one leg.

"You want to kill him just because I’m gone?"

The Empress Dowager coldly queried, then struck a third time.

With the third blow, the Fengyu Mountain God collapsed entirely onto both knees, the ground cracked into a terrifying pit, and half the underground palace seemed to quake. Lin Yan, manipulating the mountain god, grew increasingly panicked.

Immediately, Lin Yan seemed to catch something in her words, turned pale, and shouted:

"He’s not your son!"

The words fell, and Chen Yi’s face subtly changed, his hand tightening on his blade’s hilt.

"He’s Chen Yi—your nemesis, the Chen Family from Jin Country that wiped out your An Clan."

Lin Yan shouted like a man grasping at straws.

A flicker of confusion passed through the Empress Dowager’s phoenix-like eyes. She lowered herself to the ground, hands clutching her head.

It was as though some hidden memory was surging forth.

In her memory, Luoyong City had been defending for days before succumbing. Western Jin’s cavalry crushed the streets as if smashing everything into rubble. At first, the soldiers went door to door demanding money and grain; those who paid most bought survival. But later, when every household had been extorted, the insatiable soldiers turned to plundering, killing, and raping.

The commander surnamed Chen had condoned the massacre and pillage; she remembered fleeing with her face covered, only to see piles of "two-legged sheep" being sold, among which was her aunt’s face!

Even though she later sought refuge in the Capital City and became empress of the palace, the scenes of family destruction and slaughter haunted her as ghosts in her nightmares.

"Dead, all dead... all wiped out."

The Empress Dowager swayed as she muttered, her phoenix eyes bloodshot.

The Fengyu Mountain God broke free from its constraints, slowly climbing to its feet, its shadow engulfing them like a mountain.

Chen Yi broke into a cold sweat.

Why at this very moment...

"The Chen Family of Jin Country annihilated the An Clan, destroyed your ancestral shrine! And yet you call him your son?"

Lin Yan manipulated the mountain god and snarled hideously at her.

Looking between Chen Yi and the female crown, he began to laugh maniacally.

If he didn’t act, the crazed Empress Dowager might... turn and kill them both herself.

"The Chen Family of Jin Country... eradicated my An Clan line."

The Empress Dowager stumbled like a madwoman,

"I called him my son, yet he destroyed my lineage?"

Amid her repetitive self-questioning, seemingly lost for a moment, she closed her eyes. When she reopened them, it felt as though she had returned to the ancient past.

A man crowned with a diadem stood against the Nine Tripods, with Tushan before him. Blood flowed through the flower-laden Tushan like rivers.

The Tushan Clan knelt on the ground, witnessing Xia Qi slaughtering not only her tribesfolk but also her entire lineage before her own eyes.

She stood, watching as her son killed one loved one after another.

"He destroyed my lineage..."

The Empress Dowager muttered repeatedly, then screamed hoarsely,

"He destroyed my lineage!"

Chen Yi froze in place, Lin Yan laughed even harder.

But the next second,

"He is my son—he is my son!"

Tears streamed down her face. The Empress Dowager sobbed,

"If he weren’t my son, how could he have destroyed my lineage?!"

Lin Yan’s laughter froze.

The roles reversed.

He would never have expected that those very words would make Chen Yi and Xia Qi from Tushan’s memories overlap once more.

The Fengyu Mountain God, which had just risen, was instantly slammed back into the ground!

Thunderous crashes sent dust clouds rolling.

Lin Yan panted heavily, encircled by an aura of death. In his panic, he instinctively called out:

"Crown Prince, save me!"

As those words echoed, a sudden surge of immense suction arose behind him.

The donkey-headed Crown Prince’s figure flashed and disappeared.

In an instant, as the dust cleared, Lin Yan’s form vanished before the group, and the Compass containing the Tushan remains fell to the ground.

Only Lin Wanxiao remained in place, staring blankly at the unfolding scene.

Without the Compass’s control, the Fengyu Mountain God remained motionless, prostrate like a small mountain.

Chen Yi turned to the Empress Dowager, preparing defensively to draw his blade, but the Empress Dowager suddenly reached out and pulled him into an embrace.

"Yi’er, it really is you..."

She clasped Chen Yi’s head, her hands holding the back of his head tightly, pressing him deeply against her chest, as though he were still a helpless infant.

Pressed so firmly, Chen Yi found it hard to breathe; the tense atmosphere shattered under the crushing maternal grip. He tried to break free, but the empress pressed even harder, and soon Chen Yi felt tears wetting the back of his head.

Yin Weiyin, watching this scene, felt inexplicably wistful, as though she were back to the days when she wore double braids and was pressed into her mother’s embrace until her cheeks burned.

However, after growing up and studying the Way, leaving home, even while staying in the Prince Mansion, such scenes became rare.

Her mother seemed unable to understand her world, and she could not understand hers in return.

"But... these things, do they even matter?"

She whispered in her heart, her gaze becoming clearer.

The Supreme Way of Forgetting Emotions—these were all things meant to be forgotten. Without immortality, everything was but fleeting guests in the heavens and earth.

After much time, the Empress Dowager finally released Chen Yi.

Escaping the warm, fragrant, yet stifling cage of reunion, Chen Yi took a few breaths and muttered inwardly,

...It’s a bit overwhelming.

The Empress seemed completely immersed in her role as a mother,

all the seriousness and tension dissipated when faced with this maternal figure, replaced by an utterly chaotic sentimentality.

Tch...

She’s in character, but I am not.

Chen Yi took several deep breaths, intending to speak, but the Empress Dowager had already turned her gaze toward Lin Wanxiao.

The Lin Family Young Lady shuddered, hands and feet trembling, glancing around frantically for Lin Yan, but finding no trace of him anywhere.

The Empress Dowager narrowed her phoenix eyes, taking step after step closer.

In desperation, Lin Wanxiao cast a pleading look toward Chen Yi and instinctively cried out:

"Un-Uncle?"