"Who is the coward lurking in the shadows?! How dare you slander our Lord Chixiao!"
"Impudence! Lord Chixiao is not someone you can defame! Show yourself and accept your death!"
Ziyang and the other Chixiao people were still wiping away their old tears, grieving over the final dissipation of Lord Chixiao's lingering spiritual will. Hearing someone so brazenly slander their Monarch, their fury ignited instantly. They all rose to their feet, shouting angrily in all directions.
"Slander your Lord Chixiao? Hehehehe…" The woman's ethereal, drifting voice came again: "Back then, your Lord Chixiao was not yet 'Lord Chixiao'. He was just a greenhorn novice, viewed by all as a demonic heretic. By chance, he met the Borderland Queen of the Great Northwest. The Queen admired him, and despite the pressure, not only took him in but also taught him immortal arts."
"Yet he, using who knows what methods, captured the Borderland Queen's heart. After deceiving her into dual cultivation, he simply walked away. When the Borderland Queen found him, he met her with cold indifference. He would rather cripple his own cultivation than sever all ties with her, leaving the Queen heartbroken and languishing in sorrow…"
"Tell me, is he not heartless and ungrateful? Is he not cold and ruthless? Is he not a damned, deceitful scoundrel who swindles heaven, earth, and emotions? Have I slandered him?"
"Back then, during the World Martial Assembly, your Lord Chixiao again used who knows what methods to seduce the Imperial Dynasty's Empress. After the seduction, he walked away once more. The Empress, to find him, was even willing to abandon her throne. Yet he never appeared again…"
"Tell me, is he not heartless and ungrateful? Is he not cold and ruthless? Is he not a damned, deceitful scoundrel who swindles heaven, earth, and emotions? Have I slandered him?"
"Back then, in a duel with the world's Number One Female Sect Master, he made an absurd demand before all under heaven: if the Sect Master lost to him, she must sleep with him. Little did anyone know he had already set a trap, deliberately toying with the Sect Master, then using despicable means to make her sink step by step into depravity, hehe… After the Empress sank, he walked away once more…"
"Tell me, is he not heartless and ungrateful? Is he not cold and ruthless? Is he not a damned, deceitful scoundrel who swindles heaven, earth, and emotions? Have I slandered him?"
"Back then, your Lord Chixiao again used who knows what despicable methods to seduce the Immortal Dynasty's Eldest Princess. And the Eldest Princess, for his sake, did not hesitate to break with the Immortal Dynasty. And he… chose to walk away yet again…"
The woman's illusory voice continued, recounting one after another of Lord Chixiao's romantic histories from back then…
From the Northwest Queen, the Imperial Empress, the Number One Female Sect Master, to the Immortal Dynasty's Eldest Princess, the Shangshan Palace Mistress, the Elder Youyue…
The words were fierce, the tone furious, laced with endless cold mockery and heated satire…
To this, Ziyang and the other Chixiao people offered no retort. Though they desperately wanted to defend Lord Chixiao, they truly did not know how to begin.
Because the tales of Lord Chixiao and those legendary women from the ancient era had long spread across the world. They had even been compiled by busybodies into storytelling material, becoming the 'Twenty-Four Romantic Crimes of the Heartless Lord Chixiao,' known to every soul in the modern era.
As for whether these things were true, they did not know. They only knew the whole world spread them thus…
In the garden of the Wind-Cloud Branch Hall, Su Hua also gazed towards the west, as if she too had sensed the voice originated from the Taixuan Stele.
Since her reincarnation, she had always paid attention to Lord Chixiao. She was not unaware of the so-called Twenty-Four Romantic Crimes of the Heartless Lord Chixiao circulating in the world. Not only did she know, she was clear that these events were indeed true. For this reason, she had personally investigated. It was only after her investigation that she learned that while the so-called twenty-four crimes were real, they were not as exaggerated as the rumors claimed. Moreover, Lord Chixiao was not the heartless man portrayed in the tales.
At the very least, she knew that the 'walking away' spoken of by the ethereal woman was not an act of heartlessness by Lord Chixiao, but something he was forced into.
Take, for example, the Borderland Queen who dominated the Great Northwest. Back then, Lord Chixiao chose to leave precisely because he faced countless persecutions. To avoid implicating the Borderland Queen, he had no choice but to depart. Later, besieged by countless experts, it wasn't that Lord Chixiao lacked the ability to escape. He knew that if he fled, these people would surely trouble the Borderland Queen. Therefore, he crippled his own cultivation—to avoid implicating the Borderland Queen, and to prevent her from worrying over him.
Besides the Borderland Queen…
The Imperial Empress, the Number One Female Sect Master, the Immortal Dynasty's Eldest Princess, the Shangshan Palace Mistress, even Elder Youyue…
Lord Chixiao's final departures were all because he was mired in trouble and had no choice but to leave.
Precisely because she had investigated the truth, Su Hua believed that pinning the label of 'heartless man' on Lord Chixiao was rather far-fetched.
Her admiration for Lord Chixiao did not mean she approved of all his actions. Su Hua might not approve of his perceived heartlessness, but she knew Lord Chixiao absolutely deserved the four words: 'romantic yet fickle.'
As an admirer, she deeply appreciated Lord Chixiao's heroic spirit of taking sole responsibility for his actions.
As a woman, she inwardly looked down upon Lord Chixiao's fickle, romantic dalliances among the flowers.
However, what puzzled Su Hua was this: the ethereal voice came from the Taixuan Stele. Could it be the Taixuan Superior One residing within the stele?
Regarding the Taixuan Stele, Su Hua would investigate it every time she came to the Great Northwest. Yet, to this day, she still did not know what exactly the Taixuan Stele was. As for the Taixuan Superior One said to reside within it, she had never exchanged words with them, nor had she ever seen them.
Listening to the ethereal voice, it was clearly filled with mockery and satire, and behind that mockery lay boundless resentment.
This greatly confused Su Hua. Who was the Taixuan Superior One? What was their relationship with Lord Chixiao? Why was their resentment so deep?
Beside her, Huode squatted on the ground, head bowed, puffing on his long-stemmed pipe.
Under normal circumstances, hearing someone mock Lord Chixiao right in front of Gu Qingfeng would have Huode roaring with laughter, even fetching a stool and cracking melon seeds to enjoy the spectacle.
But at this moment, he did not laugh, and could not laugh. Because Huode had once heard Gu Qingfeng say that the Taixuan Superior One residing within the Taixuan Stele was very likely to be the World Sovereign Empress, Jun Xuanji.
Whether it was her or not, Huode was not sure.
But one thing he was absolutely certain of: if the Taixuan Superior One residing within the Taixuan Stele truly was the World Sovereign Empress Jun Xuanji, then Gu Qingfeng was absolutely in for trouble this time—big trouble.
Who in the world didn't know that the first of Lord Chixiao's Twenty-Four Romantic Crimes was 'The Fickle Monarch and the Devoted Consort'?
Who didn't know that back then, Lord Chixiao defied the Immortal Dao Judgment to publicly declare his love to the World Sovereign Empress?
Who didn't know that Lord Chixiao was merely toying with her, yet the World Sovereign Empress took it to heart?
Who didn't know that for Lord Chixiao, the World Sovereign Empress broke with the Nine Heavens, and to be with him, abandoned her identity as the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden?
Who didn't know that faced with the fickle Monarch, the World Sovereign Empress was heartbroken, her hair turning white overnight? She fell into the demonic path, staining the Lonely Moon with blood, and swore a heavenly oath: in this life, it would be him or her, a fight to the death.