The Forbidden Path to Immortality
Chapter 81

Night deepened, and the imperial palace slumbered like a colossal beast.

At first glance, nothing seemed unusual tonight. Yet, Li Xun couldn’t calm his heart. Even in meditation, his breathing was uneven and restless.

Something about Yin Wanderer's reaction today gnawed at him. She had heard both of Lin Wuyou’s plan to leave and Li Xin’s intended rebellion date; yet showed no reaction at all. Could the information from Consort Qin have been wrong?

As these thoughts churned in his mind, he suddenly froze. There was a sound outside. Not loud, but carrying an unfamiliar tension. He frowned, snatched up his sword, and had just stood when a thunderous explosion shook the room. A blaze lit up the courtyard outside, pouring red light straight into his chamber.

“Daoist Li, corrupting the emperor, defiling the imperial harem, embezzling imperial treasures, colluding with traitors. You are guilty of treason! Soldiers, take him down!”

A chorus of shouts erupted in all directions. The sheer force of it was overwhelming, like an elite army launching a coordinated strike. Even with his cultivation and heightened senses, Li Xun was momentarily stunned.

But now wasn’t the time to think. Without hesitation, he shoved the door open. All along the corridor, he passed stumbling eunuchs and terrified maids. In the front courtyard, soldiers were already breaking into rooms, weapons drawn, ready to kill.

Someone spotted him and shouted, “The traitor is here!”

Instantly, dozens of soldiers surged toward him with swords raised. Archers appeared on the rooftops, bows drawn.

Li Xun couldn’t even be bothered to speak. His jade-green sword flashed from its sheath, and without the need for a single incantation, a tide of sword qi exploded outward. The oncoming soldiers were thrown back like rag dolls.

“Loose!” the commanding officer bellowed.

Arrows rained down like a storm. But in the next instant, Li Xun had vanished, leaving only wounded soldiers groaning on the ground. The officer blinked in confusion, then felt a cold edge press against his throat. He didn’t even manage a cry before the blade was at his neck.

“Who sent you?” Li Xun asked. It was a simple question, but to the officer, it sounded like something out of a nightmare.

His mind went blank, and the truth slipped out before he could stop himself: “On Chancellor Jin’s orders—” He cut himself off too late. Li Xun's kick sent him flying off the rooftop, landing in a bloody heap below.

Li Xun moved like water, his sword dancing effortlessly as soldiers dropped around him like dumplings into boiling soup. His body was calm, but his thoughts were churning. Why was someone else involved? And how had their plans been exposed?

He found no answers. Chaos had already erupted across the palace. Cries rang through the night:

“Prince Fu is rebelling! Chancellor Jin and General Hu have entered the palace to protect the emperor!”

“No! Jin Zhicheng and Hu Qing are the real traitors! They’ve taken the emperor hostage! Officials, bring your guards and protect His Majesty!”

“The false state preceptor has murdered the emperor!”

“The emperor is dead!”

At first, the rumors were scattered. Then they spread like wildfire through the palace, and beyond.

Dizzy with all the conflicting shouts, Li Xun flew into the air. From above, he saw four or five fires raging in different corners of the palace. Imperial guards and terrified servants ran in all directions.

And then came another roar of battle; this time from beyond the palace walls. Li Xun turned. Fires had broken out in the west and south parts of the capital.

In the blink of an eye, flames spread through half the city. People screamed and fled in all directions, but nothing could stop the blaze. The night sky glowed crimson like blood, as bright as day.

Staring down at the destruction, Li Xun felt a chill crawl through his limbs and stab into his brain.

He finally began to understand. But he didn’t have time to think it through. The only thing that mattered now was… his family.

The chaos in the capital was completely outside what Prince Fu had planned. In a mess like this, who knew if anyone could protect them? Li Xun wasted no more time. He turned in midair and flew straight toward Prince Fu’s manor.

He’d barely covered a hundred paces when a sudden chill pricked the back of his neck. The temperature in the sky plummeted, and the true breath surging through him spiked violently. The sudden force shook the very air around him.

Li Xun sensed it coming, but by the time he tried to raise his sword to defend himself, he realized just how powerless he was against such an overwhelming strike.

In a single heartbeat, an icy finger touched the back of his head. A thread of true breath stabbed into his mind, and everything went black.

At that moment, everything became clear.

Yin Wanderer!

This... this was the chaos!

---

Back at the inn, Lin Wuyou’s voice echoed through empty halls. Everyone else was gone. The crackling of flames sounded like a swarm of insects crawling ever closer. Red light flooded through the windows, and a strange scent, half flesh and half smoke, filled the air.

Lin Wuyou wrinkled her nose and sniffed. Then quickly covered her mouth: “Ugh! Filthy! It stinks! Just like Aunt Qing said!”

She peeked out at the growing fire, then her eyes lit up. “I was starting to think tonight would be boring. But this... this is perfect! Aunt Qing? Aunt Qing?”

Flames roared louder outside. Houses collapsed one after another. Some of the fire licked its way to the inn.

Qing Luan sat calmly in the center of the main hall, watching the girl flit about. She hadn’t reacted until that moment. When Lin Wuyou called her name, a sharp glint flashed in her eyes.

Lin Wuyou turned back, pouting. “Aunt Qing, are you even listening to me?” As she spoke, she took a few steps forward, the flames outside crackling even louder.

One step. Two steps…

Just as Lin Wuyou took her second step, a low whistle rolled from Qing Luan’s lips like a whisper of wind. And in that instant, the entire inn trembled.

In perfect sync, a figure cloaked in blood-red burst through the wall behind her, trailing sparks and fire as he lunged straight at the girl!

But right then, Lin Wuyou’s body flickered, becoming almost translucent. No matter how fast the attacker moved, all he grabbed was a fading afterimage. By the time he reached her, she was already behind Qing Luan, breathing a long sigh of relief.

“Whoa, scary stuff! Uncle, has no one ever told you that’s a really rude way to say hello?” she patted her chest, pretending to be spooked, but her smiling face betrayed not a trace of fear.

A booming laugh rang out. The blood-robed man, Blood Wanderer, swept his wide sleeve, deflecting the sword-qi Qing Luan had silently unleashed. He didn’t look the least bit embarrassed about his failed ambush. On the contrary, he clapped his hands and laughed. “The daughter of Qixia, huh? Takes after neither her father nor her mother… not even a shadow of Qing Luan the Immortal. This strange little temperament of yours, where’d you pick that up?”

Lin Wuyou stuck out her tongue and ducked back behind Qing Luan, clearly deciding to keep her mouth shut from now on.

“Wei Bufan. What are you doing here?” Qing Luan spoke at last.

Her voice wasn’t exactly icy, but every word felt weighed and restrained, as if even speaking with others was beneath her. Like talking dirtied her lips. Her aloof tone gave the impression she looked down on everything and everyone.

Blood Wanderer, knowing her well, only chuckled. “Gu Zhixuan sure hid things well. Last time I saw him, not a hint of it… So tell me, Qing Luan, did you finally get over that little obsession with cleanliness? Or has Gu Zhixuan improved enough to share a bed with Qixia and Qing Luan, all three at once?”

A flash of killing intent shot through Qing Luan’s eyes. She loathed such talk, especially when it brushed against the scandalous. And Blood Wanderer had stepped right on that nerve. Her composure was strong, but not infinite. And kindness had never been her strong suit.

Though she still didn’t understand why Blood Wanderer had come looking for trouble, she wasn’t in the mood to ask anymore. One hand flipped within her sleeve, and suddenly, the world turned upside down.

Blood Wanderer threw his head back with a wild laugh, his blood-colored silhouette soaring skyward. Beneath him, the inn and over a dozen nearby buildings collapsed into dust.

Qing Luan rose too, untouched by even a speck of ash. Her long sleeves swept outward, the air itself groaning under the pressure. In a single breath, the fires in a several-li radius were snuffed out; only to rage back with even greater fury.

Blood Wanderer's fingers stretched wide, then clenched shut with explosive force. The two of them were pushed apart, each retreating in opposite directions.

Still mid-flight, Blood Wanderer suddenly spun like a crimson whirlwind. His robe fluttered wildly, and in the blink of an eye, he became a blurry mass of blood and light—then boomed outward, expanding into a tidal wave of blood that surged across the sky, painting the heavens with violence and madness.

Qing Luan met this full-power attack with her usual chilling grace. Her sleeve arced through the sky like the wing of a divine bird cleaving the firmament. Swift, elegant, and unstoppable.

A soft, blue-green arc of light briefly glimmered in the heavens before vanishing. Down below, panicked civilians froze, their ears ringing with a strange buzzing. The sound was faint, but endless, weaving through the air like a ghost.

In the sky, clouds vanished as if evaporated in a blink. Qing Luan’s single strike had cleared the heavens of mist and moisture across dozens of li.

The resonating shockwaves continued to bounce back and forth, vibrating tens of thousands of times in seconds. Any one of those pulses could’ve shredded steel like paper.

Qing Luan’s cultivation was ancient and deep, honed over tens of thousands of years. But Blood Wanderer, being a Grandmaster of his generation, was no weakling either. The two of them were evenly matched. If this kept up, their duel might last three days and nights without a clear victor.

With the fight locked in a stalemate, certain eyes drifted from the sky… to the ground.

And there, only a young girl remained. Clever and mischievous, but clearly still a child. Judging by demonic standards, Lin Wuyou was no more than a human child of three or four.

So when Qin Wanru stepped closer, she didn’t expect the little girl to suddenly glance back, smile sweetly, and say, “Ooh, such a pretty lady! Big sis, I don’t recognize you. What’s your name?”

Qin Wanru blinked in surprise. At last, she understood why Li Xun always looked so exasperated whenever this girl came back with him.

Luckily, she wasn’t the type to lose her cool easily. Even being caught didn’t fluster her. She smiled gently, brushing a strand of hair from her temple. “You’re quite the beauty yourself, Miss Wuyou. My surname is Qin. You can call me Sister Qin, hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.”

“Okay!” Lin Wuyou’s eyes sparkled, her voice sweet and innocent. “But my mama says I’m not supposed to get too close to strangers. At least not unless she or Auntie Qing is around. So… today doesn’t count!”

She wrinkled her nose with exaggerated disappointment. Completely adorable.

Qin Wanru couldn’t help but smile. But then her expression shifted. In a flash, she stepped forward.