# Chapter 1907: Nine Heavens Crow's Final Cry of Shattered Jade
“Po Yun!!”
Huo Rulie’s roar froze Huo Poyun’s hand an inch from the barrier, and also shocked Yan Wancang and Yan Juehai to the core.
Because he had yelled “Po Yun,” not “Great Realm King.”
Huo Rulie’s face was blood-red, his fire-like hair trembling slightly in the countdown… Looking closely, a few streaks of white had somehow appeared among his locks.
“How long will you keep being willful? How long will you keep being foolish?!”
His voice was hoarse, every word a roar. It was as if he had forgotten that the man before him was no longer his disciple, but the Yan Shen Realm King to whom he must bow.
“Sect Master Huo!” Yan Wancang and Yan Juehai tried to stop him at the same time.
“Shut up!” Huo Rulie waved his arm and stepped forward several paces until he was within arm’s reach of Huo Poyun. “Po Yun, you have always been the greatest pride of my life. In a certain sense, you were even a gift from heaven to me.”
“Although you are only my disciple, your place in my heart is no less than Yè’er’s. Back then, when you returned from the Zhou Tian Divine Realm with the power of a Divine Lord, I laughed wildly in front of you, but when I was alone… I wept for three days and three nights! I roared with pride in front of countless people that I had no regrets in death.”
“…” Huo Poyun’s hand still hung in the air, motionless.
“The Yan Shen Realm rose to an upper star realm because of you. The vast Yan Shen Realm was honored because of you, and respected you as king. But… ever since Yun Che returned, what have you become?! What have you done?!”
“Do you have any dignity left as a Golden Crow inheritor? Do you remember that your every word and action concerns the fate of the entire Yan Shen Realm? Do you know that your foolishness has nearly doomed the Yan Shen Realm more than once?!”
“Sect Master Huo!” Yan Wancang’s voice was like blazing flames, finally drowning out Huo Rulie’s angry roar. He sighed heavily. “He is the Great Realm King… enough.”
“Great Realm King…” Huo Rulie laughed bitterly. “No, he is ultimately nothing more than a disappointing disciple. Entrusting the Yan Shen Realm to him is not the greatest pride of my life, but… my greatest mistake.”
“The only reason the Yan Shen Realm still exists in peace is because the Yun Emperor remembers the old ties… or perhaps he simply finds it beneath him to bother.”
Yan Wancang and Yan Juehai closed their eyes at the same time, pain on their faces.
They knew that Huo Rulie had finally poured out everything he had held back for two years… regardless of the consequences.
It was then that Huo Poyun slowly lowered his arm and turned around.
But when his eyes swept over, what reflected on the three of them was not anger, but a calmness that almost seemed foreign to them.
“Master, Sect Master Yan, Sect Master Yan.” He spoke, his voice gentle. “This unworthy junior and unqualified realm king… I must have caused you deeply painful disappointment over the years.”
His demeanor and words stunned the furious Huo Rulie. “Po Yun, you…”
“No matter how childish a child is, there always comes a time to grow up.” Huo Poyun laughed self-deprecatingly. “I no longer have the qualifications or the face to continue being childish. That ridiculous obsession I had with Yun Che… no, with the Yun Emperor… I should have let it go long ago.”
Huo Poyun’s words caused the eyes of the three sect masters to tremble. Yan Wancang said excitedly, “Great Realm King, do you really… really…”
“Mm.” Huo Poyun nodded, a smile on his face. “After mastering the Nine Suns Heavenly Wrath, my Golden Crow World-Incinerating Record has had difficulty progressing further. The only reason I stepped into this forbidden barrier was merely to witness the ‘Nine Heavens Crow’s Final Cry of Shattered Jade’.”
“Although it is a forbidden flame that burns oneself to ashes, it still belongs to the Golden Crow World-Incinerating Record, to the Golden Crow divine power. As the inheritor of the Golden Crow’s power and will, if I cannot cultivate it, it means that what I carry will forever be an incomplete Golden Crow World-Incinerating Record.”
“Nine Heavens Crow’s Final Cry of Shattered Jade?” Yun Che frowned.
The Golden Crow World-Incinerating Record he had originally cultivated came from the Golden Crow remnant spirit in the Jinwu Thunder Flame Valley of the Huan Yao Realm.
Later, in the Yin Xue Realm, Mu Xuanyin won the complete Golden Crow World-Incinerating Record for him from Huo Rulie.
But that complete Golden Crow World-Incinerating Record did not contain this “Nine Heavens Crow’s Final Cry of Shattered Jade” at all. He had never even heard of it.
And the name itself, those seven characters, exuded a deep sense of finality and tragedy.
“And it is certainly not meant to prove anything to the Yun Emperor.” Huo Poyun’s smile deepened, carrying even more self-mockery. “If the day ever comes when I shatter like jade and the crow ends, it will only be for the sake of the Yan Shen Realm.”
“So, Master, two sect masters, please do not worry.”
“…” The distorted flames of rage on Huo Rulie’s body scattered chaotically. He looked at Huo Poyun now, his lips trembling violently, unable to speak for a long time.
“Good, good!” Yan Wancang nodded with great weight, a faint mist of tears in his eyes. “The three of us always believed that, in the end… you would never disappoint us.”
“However, my past foolish actions have already been committed; there is no way back. If one day the Yun Emperor descends punishment, I will kneel and beg forgiveness, and will never act on emotion again. If it can protect the safety of the Yan Shen Realm, I will not hesitate even to cripple myself.”
“But,” he smiled and shook his head, speaking in a very calm tone, “just as my master said, at the height the Yun Emperor has reached now, I’m afraid he doesn’t even deign to look down on me.”
“Po Yun, it is best that you think this way.” Huo Rulie finally spoke, his lips still trembling. “Those harsh words I said just now were spoken in anger… You have always been the greatest pride of my life. That has never changed.”
“I understand. Master’s lesson just now was also completely correct.” Huo Poyun looked at Huo Rulie with utmost sincerity. “Once I cultivate the Nine Heavens Crow’s Final Cry of Shattered Jade and walk out of this place, I hope my progress can once again make my master laugh heartily.”
“…” Yun Che did not continue watching, nor did he probe into the so-called “Nine Heavens Crow’s Final Cry of Shattered Jade.” He turned around and said, “Wuxin, let’s go.”
As the distance grew, Yun Che’s speed increased, and they quickly left the Burial God Fire Prison region.
But he remained silent for a long time.
“Father, are you… in a bad mood?” Yun Wuxin asked softly.
She knew a little about Huo Poyun’s matter.
Yun Che looked ahead, as if talking to himself: “When people gain something, they also often lose something.”
“Then… what ‘loss’ is troubling Father now?” Yun Wuxin asked.
“In this life, I am destined to have no friends.”
He spoke these words without much loss or regret, only some melancholy.
“Why? Because… Father stands too high?”
Yun Che smiled faintly and said slowly, “When you regard someone as a friend, if they fall into a low point, you will be anxious and sad for them, and you will not hesitate to use every method and power to help them.”
“When they rise high, you will be happy for them, sharing in their glory. But if they rise too high, higher and higher, you will instead feel lost, sad… until one day, they reach a height where you must look up to see them. They still treat you as before, willing to go through fire and water for you, but you can no longer regard them as a friend. Even their help makes you feel uncomfortable.”
“Why…?” Yun Wuxin had not yet experienced such things, so naturally she could not understand.
“Because true friends require equality,” Yun Che said.
“…” Yun Wuxin moved her lips but still did not understand.
“That man just now… his name is Huo Poyun. He was once a solitary genius. Precisely because he was too aloof and too much of a genius, he never had any friends. I was the first person he truly regarded as a friend.”
“But I walked too fast, rose too high… I dimmed his proudest Golden Crow flame, and I ‘took away’ the woman who first made his heart flutter…”
Friends… power… a beloved woman…
“But at that time, although I noticed the change in his thoughts, I did not notice the repeated heavy blows I had inadvertently dealt him… It is only right that he should resent me.”
Yun Wuxin said, “But if he had once sincerely regarded you as a friend, how could he really come to resent you just because of the sense of disparity that arose in his own heart?”
Yun Che said wistfully, “Human emotions are complex. A thousand people have a thousand kinds of complexity. Some people find it hard even to see themselves clearly, let alone others.”
Huo Poyun resented him, yet when he fell into demonhood and was pursued by the world, he risked great consequences to save him… and did not want him to know.
Yun Wuxin thought for a moment, then said, “But Father, don’t you have Uncle Xia and Uncle Xiao? Don’t you regard them as friends?”
“They are different,” Yun Che said. “Yuanba and I grew up together. Xiao Yun and I share the same parents. Between us, it is essentially family.”
“Now that I have become the Yun Emperor, there is no one in the world who can stand as my equal. There can never be any true friends again.”
“That’s okay.” Yun Wuxin laughed. “Father is already busy enough dealing with so many women. Where would he have the leisure to make friends?”
Yun Che was amused by Yun Wuxin’s words, and even the slight heaviness in his heart dissipated because of it. He pinched his daughter’s ear: “You are becoming more and more disrespectful. If your mother finds out, she will surely scold me again.”
“No, I’m perfectly innocent and obedient in front of Mother, hehe.” Yun Wuxin’s beautiful smile carried a touch of small pride.
Laughing and playing, they sped eastward.
…………
Eastern Divine Region, Yin Xue Realm.
For Yun Wuxin, who had spent most of her life in the Bing Yun Fairy Palace, the snow-covered Yin Xue Realm naturally evoked a sense of familiarity. Along the way, she kept exclaiming with joy.
But as they neared the Bing Huang God Sect, she began to grow nervous.
Because inside the Bing Huang God Sect was not only the awe-inspiring Mu Xuanyin, but also someone very special to her and to her mother.
“Father, when I see the Bing Yun Ancestor, how should I address her?” she asked seriously, with some trepidation.
“That question…” Yun Che looked thoughtful. “Your mother should call her Grand Ancestral Master. So you should probably follow that and call her Grand Ancestral Master too.”
“But your mother also became sisters with her sister. I used to call her senior, but now she is my sister-in-law, which makes her your aunt.”
Yun Wuxin: (|||￢ω￢)
“So, Grand Ancestral Master… Senior… Bing Yun Immortal Mistress… Little Aunt… Whatever. Just pick whichever you like. Or you could try calling her ‘Fairy Sister’.”
“No way!” Yun Wuxin immediately vetoed. “I must not be discourteous as a junior! Father only comes up with bad ideas.”
“Hahahaha.” Yun Che laughed heartily. He didn’t think it was a bad idea at all.
“Aunt Caizhi said that Aunt Xuanyin is the strongest person in the world besides Father. Is that true?” Yun Wuxin asked again.
“In terms of the Profound Way, indeed.” Yun Che nodded. “Also, she is the only person in this world who could come within ten li of me without being detected.”
“Oh? Father sounds quite troubled.” Yun Wuxin blinked, her face full of mischief. “Is it because you’re afraid of being caught by Aunt Xuanyin when you’re doing something naughty?”
“That’s not the core issue,” Yun Che said with a light sigh. “The biggest problem is that she is not only very skilled at, but seems to quite enjoy, secretly spying…”
At this point, he seemed to think of something and quickly corrected himself: “Ahem, she enjoys secretly protecting me. Probably because I caused her so much worry in the past. Even now, she might still use this method from time to time to quietly observe and eliminate potential dangers around us.”
As he spoke, his gaze unconsciously swept up, down, left, and right…
“Eh?” Yun Wuxin laughed. “So Aunt Xuanyin actually has such an adorable side.”
“She was once my master, now my wife. To have Xuanyin is the greatest fortune of my life.” Yun Che looked at the vast white snow ahead and sighed with a smile.
“…” Yun Wuxin brought her lips close to her father’s ear and whispered, “So Aunt Xuanyin really is secretly watching us, isn’t she?”
“Just in case,” Yun Che replied in an equally quiet voice.
Yun Wuxin: (*^▽^*)
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