Chapter 1019: Hatred Caused By Love
The princess instantly opened her eyes the moment Li Qiye came over. Her expression quickly changed upon seeing him. Even though she was once renowned across the nine worlds, her emotions still surged at this time.
“Crash!” The silver river reflected the fluctuations of her emotions. The lotus flower emitting the colorful lights suddenly pulsed black and white as if a storm was approaching. 1
“Don’t be so flustered. If you act rashly right now, all of your efforts will be wasted.” Li Qiye comforted her slowly with a touch of gentleness in his expression.
The princess’ pretty eyes were fixated on Li Qiye at this moment. Just her glare alone seemed to be able to pin him to the ground. This intrigued Wo Longxuan and she stared at Li Qiye like a curious child, then back at the princess. Intuition was telling her that they had a story between them, and a woman’s intuition was always right.
Li Qiye gently waved his sleeve towards her and said: “Wait outside, we need to talk in private.”
Despite being overwhelmed with curiosity, she didn’t want to interfere, so she quietly left.
“Chu Yuntian!” The princess stared intensely at him after Wo Longxuan left. The emotions contained in her voice as she called this name were indecipherable, either of hatred or pure apathy.
“It’s me.” Li Qiye sighed softly and answered. He met her gaze directly.
She continued to stare at this man before her, a man that she had been chasing after her whole life, a man that did not exist. She didn’t know what feeling this was. Was it hate or…
“Should I call you Dark Crow or Chu Yuntian?” The princess’ voice was cold to the limit, capable of sealing the nine heavens and the sun in a glacier.
Li Qiye turned back into his true form and gently sighed: “It is all in the past. I am neither the Dark Crow nor Chu Yuntian, I am Li Qiye.”
“Is that so?” The princess chillingly glared at him with murderous intent: “How many forms do you actually have? Li Qiye for this generation, what about the next?”
“No. There is only one Li Qiye and only one Dark Crow.” Li Qiye shook his head.
“What about Chu Yuntian then!” She coldly spoke: “Identities like Chu Yuntian, how many do you have? Dozens, or hundreds?”
Li Qiye spoke with some reluctance: “It was only a misunderstanding that year, I didn’t mean to…”
“Misunderstanding?!” The cold princess loudly shouted: “Misunderstanding! You think that it was just a misunderstanding…”
She looked quite agitated at this moment. Her cold demeanor hid traces of unwillingness and resentment…
Li Qiye had no retort. He looked at her and slowly said: “Regardless of the past, I want to congratulate you on finally being able to prolong your life. To be able to see your peerless charm again, it is truly one of the greatest views in the nine worlds.”
The princess went silent for a moment. She sat on her lotus and only stared coldly at him. Eventually, she spoke without emotion: “You think it is over with just that?”
Li Qiye met her gaze: “I didn’t have that intent back then. One can only say that Mother Nature toys with people.”
“So this is Mother Nature’s fault?” The princess snorted coldly, perhaps from self-deprecation, then sneered: “You are saying that it was just my one-sided crush, that I asked for it. To chase you from one generation to the next, and in the end, it was only for a scheme!”
Li Qiye paused for a moment. He didn’t expect things to unravel the way they did back then.
Li Qiye softly spoke: “You were young back then, just a little girl.”
During that time, the Middle Continent Ancient Kingdom was extremely powerful. It could even be said that the Ancient Ming were wary of the kingdom. Unfortunately, it chose to cooperate with the Ancient Ming.
At that time, the dynasty had an extremely heaven-defying item that related to a particular secret. Li Qiye had wanted to destroy the Ancient Ming at that time, but he had far from enough aces in his hands. Moreover, during that generation, the Ancient Ming produced many geniuses, particularly Immortal Emperor Tian Tu who was magnificently brilliant during his youth.
At that time, Li Qiye thought of the dynasty’s item. He turned into a young man and created an identity named Chu Yuntian to infiltrate the dynasty.
In fact, he didn’t directly meet with the princess back then and only watched her from afar under the moonlight.
She was only a lonely little princess during that period. The king of the Middle Continent Kingdom was an unnaturally strong Godking. However, his ambition was untethered as he made frequent contact with the Ancient Ming.
Despite being from noble birth, the princess was quite lonely with only her shadow for a friend. Their glances under the moonlight made this man named Chu Yuntian leave a deep impression on her.
“Because I was young and naive back then, so you seduced me.” The princess sneered while glaring at him.
“I didn’t want to do it, you were a good girl.” Li Qiye weakly spoke: “I cared about you and didn’t want you to walk on the same path as your father.”
“So I should be thanking you?” The princess chuckled sarcastically: “Did you worry about me, or did you worry about the location that this silver river was hiding?”
Li Qiye contemplated for a moment before meeting her gaze, deciding to hide nothing: “Yes, I infiltrated the dynasty back then in order to obtain this item. However, I really cared for you as well. You had a three saint aptitude so I hoped that you could go on a different path.”
“A path that didn’t block your way, right?” Her cold smile in this moment contained none of the sentiments of one: “If that’s what you think, then there’s nothing I can do.”
Li Qiye freely met her eyes: “If you think that cooperating with the Ancient Ming is the way to go, then there’s nothing I can do, we have no need for further discussion. That is my bottom line. Those who cooperate with the Ancient Ming shall be destroyed by me, all of them! It is that simple.”
The princess looked at him coldly and spoke: “Yes, you’re right, I don’t care for that mess relating to the Ancient Ming anyway.”
“I knew that you and your father were different, and in the end, you set out on a different path.” Li Qiye gently nodded: “If you doubt me, I won’t deny it. Later on, when I infiltrated the Ancient Ming, I was aiming for the item. As for my concern for you, that began after I met you.”
The princess sneered: “Really now? Were you always so calm like this? All of your words and phrases in your letters, were they written so emotionlessly? Gosh, it seems like the savior of our nine worlds is someone without the slightest defect in character. I was in the wrong, I was the dumb little girl who ruined our lord’s great plan, I’m the bad guy!” She finally revealed her resentment!
“No…” Li Qiye spoke softly: “I am not a great man. I admit that when I sent letters to you, there was another objective to it. Outside of caring about you, I really wanted to know the location of the silver river!”
When Li Qiye disguised himself as Chu Yuntian to infiltrate the Middle Continent Kingdom, he managed to enter the most heavily guarded location of the imperial family. His goal was to find the whereabouts of that item.
Due to the limitations of his identity, he couldn’t meet the princess face to face and couldn’t speak to her. However, the two of them always secretly sent letters to each other.
“Is that it?” The princess responded: “This is all that the words in those letters encompassed? You didn’t try to seduce an ignorant girl so that she would fall in love with a person named Chu Yuntian, a person that doesn’t even exist?! All just to make her tell you those secrets?!”
“I…” Li Qiye slightly opened his mouth, wanting to say something else, but he stopped while lamenting in his mind.
As the Dark Crow back then, he really didn’t want to do so. The princess back then was young and lonely, void of the love of her father or friends. Just like that, a young man who showed concern for her entered her life!
Because of this inadvertent misunderstanding, the princess eventually fell in love with Chu Yuntian, someone who didn’t even exist!
Li Qiye slowly said: “Back then, I was only teaching you how to cultivate through those letters.”
During their correspondence via letters, Li Qiye became quite close to her. He carefully taught her using those letters since he didn’t want her to walk on the same path as her father. Furthermore, it was to leave behind a great spark for the human race because the princess had exceedingly high talents with her three saint aptitudes.
And so, the princess misunderstood his careful guidance as something else and came to love Chu Yuntian. This made her reveal everything to Li Qiye. Later on, when Li Qiye found out and wished to salvage the situation, the misunderstanding had already become too deep.
“Teaching!” The princess shouted loudly again: “Yes, yes, the great teacher of Immortal Emperors guiding me, this is my honor. There is nothing else other than this!”
1. I would imagine the silver river as a galaxy.