# Chapter 249: Heavenly Pool Secret Realm (Part 1)
Ling Kun frowned, thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "It's to the southeast, yes. Why?"
Xuanyuan Yufeng stood up, her face turning extremely ugly. Since the various sects had left one after another, the guest area of Tian Jian Villa was mostly empty. The only sect remaining in the southeast area was... Bing Yun Fairy Palace!
"Uncle Ling, do me a favor..."
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The moon was bright, the stars sparse.
Ling Yuefeng walked through the air. He did not head toward Ling Yun's courtyard, but instead changed direction midway and arrived before the courtyard of Bing Yun Fairy Palace.
The air in the courtyard where Bing Yun Fairy Palace was staying carried a unique coolness. Ling Yuefeng closed his eyes and gently sniffed the atmosphere, as if savoring something. After a moment, he opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the room where Chu Yuechan was staying. A light was still burning in that room. However, as his gaze lingered on the light from that room, he sensed strands of bone-chilling cold seeping from within... He knew he had been discovered. Chu Yuechan's current cultivation level was in no way inferior to his own.
Ling Yuefeng took a light breath, condensed his voice into a thread, and transmitted a message to Chu Yuechan: "I am Ling Yuefeng. I wish to have a private conversation with Fairy Bingchan. Would Fairy Bingchan be willing to come out and meet me?"
"What is it? Speak!"
Chu Yuechan did not appear. Her reply consisted of only three short words, each devoid of any emotion, so cold they could almost freeze a person into an ice sculpture.
In the entire Cang Feng Empire, there was absolutely no second person who would dare speak to Ling Yuefeng like this—not even Bing Yun Palace Master Lin Yuxian. Faced with such cold words from Chu Yuechan, Ling Yuechan could only force a bitter smile and said, "It has been many years since we first met during the Ranking Battle that year. But since then, I have visited Bing Yun Fairy Palace more than twenty times over ten years, yet never managed to see you again—until this Ranking Battle..."
"Ancient matters, no need to bring them up! If Villa Master Ling has something important, please speak directly." Chu Yuechan said coldly.
Ling Yuefeng let out a short sigh and said, "That year, my feelings for you were known to all under heaven, and I believe you were not unaware. Even back then, bearing the world's ridicule and my father's scolding and curses, I still went to Bing Yun Fairy Palace time and again, just for the chance to see you once more... Now, so many years have passed, and my memories of you remain fixed on that year. Even today, my greatest wish in life is still to see you one more time... I no longer dare to hope for your favor, only that you would allow me to take one look, to know what you look like now..."
Ling Yuefeng was a man of deep affection, yet he was also someone who rarely developed such feelings. Before meeting Chu Yuechan, all his energy had been devoted to the way of the sword. But when he encountered Chu Yuechan, her heavenly beauty stole his very soul, and all his emotions erupted without reservation. Thirty years had passed since then. By common reasoning, such a long time should have diluted any feelings, but in Ling Yuefeng's heart, Chu Yuechan's shadow had never faded. Whether that should be called his excessively deep and regretless devotion, or Chu Yuechan's overwhelming charm, was hard to say.
"You already have a wife and children. You and I are merely strangers who have met a few times. There is no need for us to meet. What I look like now has nothing to do with you. If there is nothing else, Villa Master Ling, please take your leave. Disturbing a female guest late at night is not the proper conduct expected of you, Villa Master Ling!" Chu Yuechan's voice began to carry a hint of suppressed anger.
"Alas, your temperament is still the same as back then." Ling Yuefeng's expression was sorrowful. "I only wanted to see you once, to fulfill a wish, nothing more. I have no other thoughts. After seeing you, I will leave immediately, and I will never disturb you again in this life..."
"Hiss!!"
With a slight tearing sound, an ice shard flew from nowhere, shooting straight toward Ling Yuefeng's face. Ling Yuefeng reached out and caught the ice shard in his hand. A wave of intense cold quickly spread from his palm into his heart.
Without taking his leave or saying another word, Ling Yuefeng turned and walked away. His desolate silhouette soon disappeared into the night. Back then, as the young master of Tian Jian Villa, he had been outstandingly handsome and refined, with extraordinary eloquence. Countless women admired him. Yet he had stubbornly fallen for the most unsuitable person... With Ling Yuefeng's power, reputation, and status in the Cang Feng Empire, there was virtually nothing in his life he could not obtain and no wish he could not fulfill—except for Chu Yuechan. Heaven had given her the most perfect appearance, but also the coldest heart, making her the eternal regret of Ling Yuefeng's life.
Not far away, in a corner hidden by the night, Xuanyuan Yufeng's face was twisted in rage, her entire body trembling.
With Ling Kun's profound force isolating them, neither Ling Yuefeng nor Chu Yuechan detected their presence. Although their conversation was conducted via sound transmission, it was all silently intercepted by Ling Kun. Xuanyuan Yufeng had still harbored a sliver of hope, but now, having personally heard the words Ling Yuefeng spoke to Chu Yuechan, her internal organs felt as if they were about to explode from fury.
"Ling Yuefeng... you really are a devoted lover... Thirty years, thirty whole years, and you still can't forget this woman... I thought you were brooding over the Ranking Battle, and I comforted you for so long... But it turns out... you were thinking about this woman! And right under my nose, you were planning to meet her in secret!"
Every word from Xuanyuan Yufeng was filled with deep resentment and fury: "I, Xuanyuan Yufeng, lowered myself, brought shame to my family, married into this Tian Jian Villa, weathered storms for over twenty years... and I still cannot compare to a woman who made you suffer ridicule back then, who wouldn't even deign to see you! Ling Yuefeng... you have truly done right by me!!"
When a woman harbors enough jealousy and hatred, she often becomes the most terrifying demon. Ling Kun, after all, belonged to the same sect as Ling Yuefeng, so he naturally did not want to see the matter spiral out of control. He quickly advised, "Yufeng, you don't need to be this angry. You've lived with Yuefeng for over twenty years; you should know best what kind of person he is. What he said just now was very clear—he only wanted to see that woman once, nothing more, no other intentions. I've also heard that back then, Yuefeng pursued her for years, visiting Bing Yun Fairy Palace many times over a decade, but never succeeded. It seems he is merely taking the opportunity of her visit to Tian Jian Villa to put an old wish to rest."
"Besides, as the Villa Master of Tian Jian Villa, who could bully Yuefeng? Yet now he is treated coldly by this woman, with every word stripping him of all dignity. As his wife, you should be feeling for him first. If you go back and quarrel with him over this, what good will it do, except to make him unnecessarily resent you? On the other hand, if you do not take offense and continue to treat him as before, he will instead feel guilty and treat you even better than before, don't you think?"
"Not take offense? How could I possibly not take offense?" Xuanyuan Yufeng's chest heaved, but the anger in her voice had subsided significantly. She fixed her gaze on the light in Chu Yuechan's room and said in a low voice, "Some of what Uncle said has reminded me. Indeed, I shouldn't blame Yuefeng. The fact that he has been unable to forget her all these years actually shows that he values love... And if this woman were to vanish from the world, then these things I do not wish to see would never happen again! And there is another person... Chu Yuechan harmed Yuefeng, and another person harmed Yun'er. Yun'er has been listless these past few days—who knows, he might follow in his father's footsteps."
"You mean... Xia Qingyue?"
"I want to... destroy this Bing Yun Fairy Palace that has ruined my husband and son!" Xuanyuan Yufeng's brows lowered as she said coldly.
Ling Kun's brows twitched, and a strange gleam flashed through his eyes. He did not dissuade her from this impulsive, jealous, hateful, almost insane remark. Instead, he nodded, "If that is truly what you think, then of course I have no reason not to help you. However, Bing Yun Fairy Palace is not an ordinary sect after all. Destroying it would be easy, but one must consider the influence it has built up over a thousand years... How about this: after you return with me to Tian Wei Sword Domain, take the initiative to mention this matter to the Ninth Elder. He has always thought of you fondly and would never refuse any request of yours. When the time comes, I will take charge of this matter, and within three years, I will make Bing Yun Fairy Palace vanish from the world without a trace—no one will ever find out it was the work of Tian Wei Sword Domain, and nothing will be traced back to you. How about that?"
The words about destroying Bing Yun Fairy Palace had only slipped out in Xuanyuan Yufeng's extreme fury. She hadn't expected Ling Kun to agree so readily. If one of the Four Sacred Grounds were to step forward, destroying Bing Yun Fairy Palace would be as easy as turning over a hand. Xuanyuan Yufeng, who bore a deep grudge against Bing Yun Fairy Palace, naturally had no reason to refuse. She nodded and said, "I will do as Uncle says. Yufeng thanks Uncle here."
"Heh, a small matter." Ling Kun chuckled, his smile pregnant with meaning.
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Deep in the northern part of the Tian Jian Mountain Range lay a flat, open space. Amid the sword aura that permeated the imposing Tian Jian Mountains, this place felt like a different kind of pure land—peaceful in atmosphere, with even the wind being unusually gentle.
At noon, a group of people arrived here. These were the ten sects that had ranked in the top ten of this Ranking Battle. And here was the entrance to the Heavenly Pool Secret Realm. Everyone who came wore expressions of varying degrees of excitement, especially the young profound practitioners who had never entered the Heavenly Pool Secret Realm before. Their eyes gleamed with wonder as they rubbed their hands together, as if countless opportunities were already within reach.
However, Yun Che was not among these people. In the Cang Feng Imperial Clan's group, there was only Qin Wushang.
Ling Yuefeng stood at the front of the group, looking solemnly at everyone, and said, "In a little while, the entrance to the Heavenly Pool Secret Realm will appear. Before that, there are a few things that I, Ling, must briefly remind you of."
"The Heavenly Pool Secret Realm can only accommodate up to fifty people at a time. That means each sect here can send at most five people. Which five enter is naturally for you to decide. Once inside the secret realm, the time you may stay is two days—that is, twenty-four hours. After twenty-four hours, everyone will be forcibly sent back here. However, there is one type of person who will not be sent back..."
Ling Yuefeng's voice turned cold: "That is the dead!"
[One more chapter]
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