"Just say it. Bottling it up will only make you feel worse."
Yang Xiao sighed softly.
He didn't have a good solution for this kind of situation. All he could do was be a listener.
"The truth is, I never met my father. He was gone before I was even born. Everything I know, I learned from my mother."
"If... if my mother hadn't died in that 'accident,' I probably wouldn't have ended up like this."
Xue Yi wiped the tear stains from the corners of her eyes and began to recount her story in her usual, detached tone.
She was an orphan.
Or rather, a posthumous child.
Before the man known as the Evil Sword became the Evil Sword, his name was Lü TianGao.
His ambition was as high as the heavens.
His talent was extraordinary.
He was the first True Inheritor of the Pure Yang Sword Sect, the future Junior Sect Leader, and the next Sect Leader of the Pure Yang Sword Sect. Yet, he had a roguish and untamable personality. He had no interest in the junior female disciples of his Sect, instead falling for a secular woman with no strength to even truss a chicken.
Xue Yi's mother, that is.
"I still remember, every time my mother told me about him, she would say what an incredibly outstanding man my father was. It was as if there was nothing in the world he couldn't handle, nothing he couldn't do."
"And that last time was no different. He said he was leaving to do something that would shake the world. My mother waited, full of hope, only to receive the news of his death."
"And this broken fragment of the Evil Sword."
At this, Xue Yi's tears couldn't help but fall again.
Perhaps, in her heart...
...her father, the Evil Sword, was merely an illusion.
But her mother was real.
The anchor for her most sincere emotions.
"So your mother later spent her days and nights facing this piece of the Evil Sword, pining for your father?"
Yang Xiao had guessed the beginning of the tragedy.
Xue Yi nodded.
"From then on, her health deteriorated day by day. When I was still very, very young, she finally withered away and died, passing this Evil Sword into my hands."
Speaking to this point, Xue Yi paused.
A trace of terror flashed in her eyes.
It was as if she had returned to her childhood.
So helpless.
So afraid.
"After you received this Evil Sword, it burrowed into your body and began using you as nourishment to grow, while also granting you considerable power, correct?"
"That's right."
Yang Xiao shook his head. "Did you know that with your aptitude, if you were to cultivate normally, it would be far easier than gaining power from the Evil Sword?"
"As for your father, I believe he was outstanding, but he still can't compare to you. Now, I can give you a chance to start over. Do you still want this Evil Sword?"
"Start over? Is that possible?"
Xue Yi was incredulous.
But Yang Xiao just smiled. "Others might not be able to, but I, Yang Xiao, can."
It was a sentence that sounded incredibly arrogant.
But to Xue Yi's ears, it didn't provoke any revulsion.
On the contrary, she nodded in agreement.
"You truly are outstanding. More outstanding than me, and more outstanding than my father."
Seeing this woman praise him so earnestly and with such a serious expression, Yang Xiao actually felt a little embarrassed. However, he hadn't misspoken about Xue Yi's situation.
In Xue Yi's current state, that of the living dead, you probably couldn't find a single person in the entire Celestial Cloud Region who could solve her problem. But Yang Xiao could.
Because he was the Human Race Medicine Ancestor, the Flame Emperor's son.
At the same time, he was also the renowned Overlord Heaven Flame Emperor of the Ancient Era.
"Thanks to the Desolate Divine Fruit, your physical body won't change at all for a thousand years. Not even I can undo that. But that's fine. In any case, a thousand years inside this Northern Wilderness Sword Mansion is only one year in the outside world."
"You've already been here for three hundred years, right? That makes the remaining time even shorter. This is the perfect opportunity to restore your Divine Soul. As long as your Divine Soul is repaired, I have plenty of ways to replenish the Essence Blood you've lost."
"Mm, I believe you."
Xue Yi looked very obedient.
It seemed that after pouring her heart out, her relationship with Yang Xiao had become much closer.
And in terms of her temperament, without the influence of the Evil Sword, she had clearly returned to a much more normal state.
"This is a Divine Soul cultivation Technique, especially suited for someone with an Innate Sword Body. Start cultivating it. Repairing a Divine Soul isn't so easy, but I'll concoct some potions that will be very beneficial for you."
He passed a spiritual Technique called Sword Heart Clarity to Xue Yi.
Seeing the woman so obediently find a quiet room to cultivate, without the slightest hint of doubt or resistance, Yang Xiao was in a great mood.
Gaining a subordinate with an Innate Sword Body would make any superior feel quite pleased.
Especially in a place like the Celestial Cloud Region.
An Innate Sword Body was an existence as rare as a phoenix feather or a qilin horn. If properly nurtured, she would definitely be an immense asset.
'Of course, if I hadn't become the master of the Northern Wilderness Sword Mansion, I probably wouldn't have cared so much.'
'After all, nurturing subordinates and building up a faction was too troublesome for me. I was solely focused on achieving the Dao of the Dominator and exacting bloody revenge on the Lord of Immortal Dao who toyed with me.'
'I had no mind for such things.'
'Take the Carefree Sect, for example.'
'I only casually left behind some inheritances and let Cheng Boxuan manage it.'
'I didn't personally spend much time cultivating talent to expand my own power.'
'But now...'
'That damn Northern Wilderness Divine King! He said that to become the master of the Northern Wilderness Sword Mansion, I had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting the entire Celestial Cloud Region from the invasion of the Immortal Dao. He even made me use over eighty percent of the Northern Wilderness Sword Mansion's resources to cultivate the geniuses of the Celestial Cloud Region. What the hell!'
'Such harsh and tedious requirements.'
'If I hadn't been in such a hurry to save Yang Lin and Yang Ziling, I never would have agreed.'
'But the situation was critical, and that shameless phantom left behind by the Northern Wilderness Divine King—the very same phantom in the Inheritance Tower that appeared sometimes as a youth, sometimes as a middle-aged man, and sometimes as an elder—showed me the situations of Yang Ziling, Yang Lin, Lu Fangliang, Yang Tian, and the others, one by one.'
'Seeing all that, if I didn't agree, I wouldn't be able to save them.'
'How could I possibly refuse?'
'The most outrageous part is, I'm forbidden from entering any Land of Inheritance below the Divine King level. I can only go to the Lands of Inheritance of the four great Divine Kings. The Lands of Inheritance of Divine Kings...'
'Thinking of the dangers of the Celestial Poison God King... made me want to curse his mother.'
'I was only able to enter and leave the Poison King Valley freely because the Celestial Poison God King was once my attendant child, and I myself am the Human Race Medicine Ancestor.'
'But as for the others...'
'Take the Land of Inheritance of the Golden Roc God King, ancestor of the Golden-winged Rocs, for example. With my current strength, would I dare go in?'
'Then there's the Taoyan God King on the 1st Layer, another ruthless figure. The Golden Crow Corpse Bone that Lu Fangliang obtained was left behind by him. He even dared to provoke the top-level Divine Beast Golden Crow Race. What could possibly be in his Land of Inheritance?'
'The mildest one was probably the Heaven-Fighting Divine Palace on the 2nd Layer.'
'But that was only because the Heaven-Fighting Divine King wanted to leave a path for his son. Otherwise, how could I have succeeded so easily?'
'No, what success did I even have?'
'I only got a single Low Grade Divine Artifact.'
'As for the other inheritances and treasures, did I get a single one?'
'That Northern Wilderness Divine King is such a scam artist. But still, the Time Secret Pattern that old bastard left behind is the most mysterious and terrifying of all Secret Patterns. To have gained that is already pretty good, not to mention...'
Yang Xiao's gaze fell upon the Blood-Colored Broken Sword struggling in his hand.
"For now, besides the Time Secret Pattern, you are probably my greatest gain, Bloodthirsty Celestial Cyan!"
Yang Xiao smiled faintly.
'This thing is probably even better for me than the Heaven-Fighting Divine Palace.'