Chapter 23: The Embarrassing Poison Emperor; Storming the Underworld (Patreon)

When Huandu Qingtian sent covert scouts, the Way of Great Peace didn't hesitate to root them out — and made sure to publicize the whole affair.

Afterward, they generously shared with Huandu Qingtian all the intelligence on Beyond the Circle they'd gathered over the years.

"Resisting the threat from Beyond the Circle is a cause we share," they added. "If you wanted this intelligence, you could've just asked. Why sneak around?"

The move left Huandu Qingtian utterly humiliated, yet he couldn't afford to lose his temper over it.

After all, if he flew into a rage after the Way of Great Peace had so generously handed over intelligence, the whole world would brand him an ingrate who bit the hand that fed him.

Meanwhile, the man behind it all wore a mischievous grin.

Just picturing Huandu Qingtian seething with rage he couldn't dare show, Gusttave let out a soft, satisfied snort.

Huandu Qingtian sat on the throne of the Nanguo palace, his face dark enough to drip ink.

Spread across the imperial desk lay the Way of Great Peace's "generous gift" — a thick stack of intelligence on Beyond the Circle, beautifully bound, clearly indexed, even thoughtfully organized with a classification system. From illustrated catalogs of creatures from Beyond the Circle to mental-corruption defense techniques, from summarized frontier garrison experience to optimal supply-line routes — nothing was left out.

It was ten times more detailed than Nanguo's own military reports.

"This is outrageous!" Huandu Qingtian slammed his palm on the desk, jolting the teacup so hard it bounced three times. "They're doing this on purpose! Trying to humiliate me on purpose!"

Below the dais, Nanguo's Young Prince kept his head lowered, the corner of his mouth twitching down, then up, then down again, before finally settling into an extremely delicate curve. "Please calm yourself, Your Majesty. What the Way of Great Peace did was... perhaps a bit too 'enthusiastic,' but the intelligence itself is genuine, top quality. We haven't really lost anything."

"Haven't lost anything?!" Huandu Qingtian's beard practically curled from anger. "My men were captured on the spot, and the very next day the whole world knew I was secretly stealing knowledge from the human race! Now even that old fox from the Far West Regions has sent me a letter, asking whether I 'need instructors dispatched to help train Nanguo's troops' — that old wretch who can't even get his own son to listen to him, and he thinks he's qualified to ask me that?!"

The Young Prince silently swallowed back the words, But Your Majesty, you really were stealing their knowledge.

[March 7th: Hahahahaha, I'm dying laughing! Huandu Qingtian's public humiliation here is on par with Captain Zhang Zheng arresting his own boss on the spot!

[Hu Tao: This Director hereby declares that the Daoist of Great Peace has won this year's Best Troll Award! First they catch your men, then they hand you exactly what you wanted, free of charge — what do you call that? That's called crushing both your pride and your dignity in one move!

[Kaeya: This one's called, "If you wanted it, you should've just said so — how was I supposed to know you wanted it?" — followed immediately by broadcasting to the entire world that you'd been reduced to begging.

Of course, as time passed, Wise and Belle slowly grew old, their youthful beauty fading.

But Gusttave stayed by their side the whole time, right up until their final moments.

With a heavy heart, Gusttave held funerals for them.

At the funerals, Gusttave said nothing at all — he simply watched in silence.

Even though they'd already signed the Pledge of Love, the sorrow of parting still overwhelmed him.

Feixiao kept watch beside him for a full day and night, uncharacteristically holding back both her temper and her sharp tongue, only occasionally brushing the tip of her tail across the back of his hand where it hung limp at his side — as if to confirm he was still alive.

Tingyun handled everything — receiving guests, running the funeral rites, arranging what came after — managing the whole affair from start to finish without a hitch.

Only when she passed the memorial hall did her steps falter for a moment. Behind her folding fan, her almond eyes lowered slightly, and she murmured, "Seeing my lord like this... makes me almost envy Sister Wise." A moment later, Feixiao pelted the back of her head with shards of ice.

Huohuo didn't say a single word the entire time. She stood beneath the Bitter Love Tree, gazing toward the memorial hall, for a long, long while.

[March 7th: Waaah, I could just die crying. Even knowing the Pledge of Love exists, this lifetime's farewell still cuts way too deep!

[Kiana Kaslana: Gusttave, pull yourself together! Your wives will still be your wives next lifetime — don't act like this is goodbye forever! (choking up)

[Zhongli: Birth, aging, sickness, and death, the endless cycle of reincarnation — these are simply the natural order of heaven and earth. Yet when love runs this deep, even knowing you'll meet again down the road can't sever the sorrow of parting here and now.

[Jing Yuan: The helplessness of the long-lived, I suppose, is watching those beside you drift further away, stage after stage. Even knowing reincarnation promises reunion, there's no escaping the parting of this particular stretch of the road.

Fortunately, Gusttave's naturally optimistic nature kept him from sinking into despair. A few days later, he left Tushan, which he'd led for decades, and set out once more to travel the world — though this time, he was searching for someone.

He meant to find the Huangquan Clan and enter the underworld where they sent souls on to their next lives.

Since Tushan's Pledge of Love business involved plenty of cooperation with the Huangquan Clan, Gusttave quickly tracked down where they made their home.

The waters of the River of Forgetfulness shimmered with a sickly green glow, and crooked soul-guiding lanterns swayed in the ghostly wind like they were dancing at a club. Nearby, wisps of minor ghosts drifting closer to see what the commotion was about were struck by a wave of oppressive pressure so intense their spirit-bodies nearly scattered; they shrieked and dove for the riverbed.

"Who goes there! This is sacred ground of the underworld — the living are forbidden!"

Two furious shouts rang out as two earthworm-shaped Acheron guards charged forward with steel forks, their ferocious faces shoving right up to Gusttave's.

But Gusttave didn't bother with words — he flattened them with a single palm strike, then drew out the treasure he'd spent years refining.

It was a long spear that glowed blue from tip to shaft. (Think of Ultraman Ginga's Ginga Spark Lance.)

He then hurled it one-handed, and it pierced straight through the entire underworld.

Afterward, he strolled through the gates of the underworld as casually as if out for a walk.

The underworld had no powerful figures of note, and after Gusttave's little display, no one dared bar his way any further.

Every member of the Huangquan Clan watched him, trembling from head to toe.

His unhurried, casual bearing reminded them of the last person who had stormed the underworld — the Third Young Master of Aolai Kingdom.

And now, the world had gained one more figure just like him — the Daoist of Great Peace.

Once inside the underworld, Gusttave spotted a strange object — or perhaps a creature — that "swallowed" the souls of humans and yao, sending them off somewhere in the world to be reborn.

From this strange creature, Gusttave sensed a familiar presence — the same presence he'd once felt from the giant Bitter Love Tree and from creatures from Beyond the Circle.

In that instant, Gusttave understood: the creatures from Beyond the Circle hidden within the Circle weren't limited to the giant Bitter Love Tree — this strange thing overseeing reincarnation was one of them too.

The Third Young Master of Aolai must have known about this thing too — and had clearly left the Huangquan Clan with deep scars, since even the faintest hint of him still made every one of them shudder with dread.

And it seemed that neither the Third Young Master of Aolai nor the Huangquan Clan had ever found a way to deal with it.

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