"Jade Nation."
His lips curled.
Jade Nation belonged to White Cloud Star—a place that had no fucking business meddling in Immortal Rain Valley.
A foreign power. A star-walking empire?
"Now why would they be sniffing around here?"
A mystery worth digging into. But—he sighed, rolling his shoulders. "Tsk. Bad luck."
"MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY!"
"What—?"
BAM!
Before he could process anything further, a stampede of disciples barreled into him, shoving him aside like he was a loose cabbage in a market brawl.
He staggered, barely catching his balance as hundreds of them charged forward, howling like lunatics on payday.
Their target?
A pack of Golden-Tailed Lions—beasts the size of pavilions, each one strong enough to tear apart warships.
And yet—
The disciples swarmed them like a pack of starving dogs chasing a fat goose.
Su Xiaobai blinked.
Then sighed.
"Did I hype them up too much?"
He chuckled, shaking his head, brushing off his sleeves—
And then—he saw it.
A shadow.
Moving against the flow.
Not toward the horde.
Not toward the battle.
But away.
A figure slipping through the cracks, weaving through, making a beeline for the sect’s main entrance. Su Xiaobai’s smile stretched, Heh.
Gotcha.
"Found you."
His body vanished, grinning in the dark.
The sect’s main entrance blurred past him as he slipped beyond its walls, the roar of battle fading behind him.
Ahead, the shadow—Yue Xi.
She was fast.
Too fast for an ordinary disciple. Too graceful, her movements too refined to be mere panic.
They passed through the half destroyed outskirts of Yunnan city, Su Xiaobai smiled remembering his handiwork, before his feet skimming across the surface of the Silent Mist Lake in the front, its black waters rippling beneath him.
Beyond the lake, the terrain shifted—twisting cliffs, jagged rock formations, and a stretch of barren earth known as the Ashen Wastes.
And still, she ran.
Through the ruins of an ancient pagoda, across the skeletal remains of a collapsed bridge, her figure flickering between the broken stone pillars like a ghost in flight.
But in the end—
She couldn’t outrun fate.
SWOOSH!
A palm print smashed into the ground before her, cracking stone, blocking her path.
BAM!
"!!" Yue Xi skidded to a halt, her breath sharp, her body coiled like a cornered fox.
And from the darkness, Su Xiaobai stepped forward, his breath heavy, exhaustion settling into his bones.
But still—his lips curled into a smile.
"What’s the rush?"
Ahead of him, Yue Xi stiffened, her figure wrapped tightly in a flowing black robe. She turned, her round gray eyes flashing with disbelief.
"You…?" Her voice was laced with shock and suspicion. For the first time, Su Xiaobai saw her without the veil of arrogance—just pure surprise.
Her grip tightened around the hilt of her blade. "Why did you follow me? Speak quickly before I kill you!" Her Qi erupted, the air shaking as her battle stance shifted—ready to strike at any moment.
They were now hundreds of miles away from the sect, deep in the Ashen Wastes, where jagged cliffs stretched like the ribs of a fallen beast, and eerie mists coiled around their feet like grasping fingers.
Here, there were no sect rules. No eyes watching. No one to stop her.
If she wanted to kill him, she could.
Su Xiaobai sighed.
"You think you can kill me?"
His voice was light, teasing—but his eyes held nothing but confidence.
Yue Xi’s expression darkened. She had nearly forgotten about that damned armor of his, the thing that had blocked her every attack before.
She clenched her teeth, then glanced around, and Su Xiaobai immediately knew—She was thinking of running.
Shit. He had chased her all the way here, and she was about to disappear again. His words came fast, sharp—desperate enough to catch her attention.
"Are you from Jade Nation?"
Yue Xi’s body froze.
Her head snapped toward him, her eyes widening in genuine shock.
"What—? How did you know?"
Su Xiaobai knew immediately—he had hit the mark.His smile deepened.
"How did you even come here from White Cloud Star?" His voice was steady, measured. "Is there a spatial rift connecting our worlds?"
But then, he remembered—this woman didn’t trust him.
Not even for a damn second.
His mind spun, and then—he took a gamble.
"I was thrown into space by accident." His voice turned casual, as if it wasn’t a big deal. "I got stuck here. I need your help to return."
Silence.
Yue Xi’s face went black.
Her expression flickered—doubt, calculation, confusion.
She didn’t trust him. That much was clear. Explore more at freewebnovel
But if he wasn’t from White Cloud Star, then how did he know about Jade Nation? About White Cloud Star itself?
Her voice was cold.
"Where are you from?"
Su Xiaobai met her gaze, his expression reminiscing.
"Wuxia Province."
Yue Xi’s posture loosened slightly.
Wuxia Province.
A place behind the Celestial Wall, shielded from the horrors of White Cloud Star.
Unlike the small kingdoms outside, which struggled against the Hunters, Wuxia Province had the backing of great powers.
Jade Nation was one of those small kingdoms.
A mere vassal, surviving off scraps of support from Wuxia Province.
Knowing this, her guard lowered—just a little.
After a long pause, she finally spoke.
"We were here to retrieve an artifact. One that once belonged to us."
Her voice was calm, but her eyes burned with resentment.
"Our Holy Mother has been planning this for thousands of years. It doesn’t matter if you tell your people. They won’t be able to chase us."
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Su Xiaobai shrugged.
"Who wants to chase who?" He shrugged, then his tone sharpened. "But tell me—how did your artifact end up here?"
Yue Xi’s eyes turned icy.
"Hero Tianjian Xun."
The name reverberated through the cold night, carrying a weight far heavier than Su Xiaobai expected.
"Our Holy Mother once lent him the Spirit of the Light God, what you people call the Light Spiritual Tablet. It was our nation’s greatest defense against the Hunters."
She took a deep breath, her voice trembling with old fury.
"But after establishing the Celestial Wall, he ascended—and he never returned it."
Su Xiaobai stiffened.
Tianjian Xun.
He had heard that name before.
"Isn’t that just the legacy of the Tianlong Emperor?" he muttered, confused.
But then—his thoughts clicked into place.
His eyes sharpened.
"Oh…"
A slow grin spread across his lips.
"So he didn’t ascend."
"He crash-landed here."
His voice was filled with realization.
"He either created the Tianlong Dynasty himself, or—"
His eyes flickered.
"—someone took credit for his fall."
Yue Xi’s lips pressed into a thin line.
"I don’t care."
Her words were firm, but her voice wavered with pain.
"Without the Light Spirit, our Jade Nation has weakened. We’ve shrunk. We’ve become dependent on others to survive."
Her fingers clenched into fists.
"You people live safely behind your walls. Behind your empire’s power." Her eyes burned with bitter resentment. "We? We have to fight for every goddamn breath we take."
Su Xiaobai exhaled slowly.
He understood.
Unlike Immortal Rain Valley, White Cloud Star was not a peaceful place.
Every day was a battle for survival.
For those living outside the Guardian Walls, life was worse than hell.
And he—
He had lived on both sides.
Inside the walls, as one of the elite.
And outside, as prey.
"I get it."
His voice was quiet, but it carried.
Yue Xi looked at him, searching for mockery, disbelief—something.
But she found none.
For a moment, she hesitated.
Then—
She scoffed.
"You don’t get anything."
But her fists loosened.
Her hostility dimmed.
Su Xiaobai smiled bitterly.
Even if he wanted to return, a part of him didn’t want to go back. Other than retrieving his people and getting revenge, there was nothing for him there.
Even his hatred was starting to feel distant.
His thoughts drifted—
To the history buried in time.
The History of the Tianjian Xun & White Cloud Star!