Li Chou seldom dreams about things before he was three years old.
Human memory has a time limit. Few people can remember things before the age of three. Li Chou also has only vague impressions.
He would dream of large patches of dark shadows and the bumps of horses' hooves rolling over stones on the road, as if they were running in a panic and had no peace at night.
This nightmare often appeared in his dreams and accompanied him for many years.
Li Chou's most profound memory was the day when he was taken back to the Qi Kingdom Palace by palace servants from the General's Mansion. He didn't remember exactly how old he was. The strange thing was that the memories before and after were very vague, except for that day, which was deeply engraved in his memory.
On that day, surrounded by countless palace ladies, he bathed, burned incense and drank tea, and directly put on the crown and robes that symbolized the prince. He was led to the Vermillion Bird Terrace in the Qi Palace, where the prince's enthronement ceremony was completed under the attention of all officials.
Li Chou was still young at that time, and could hear the ministers' undisguised discussions behind the curtain.
They thought that the newly crowned prince was only two or three years old, so they talked about him without any reservations and became more and more unscrupulous.
"Your Majesty has been on the throne for more than ten years, and there has been no news of any concubine in the harem being pregnant recently. Could it be that..."
Of course, it is impossible for a child to appear out of thin air. Considering the fact that the king often left the palace during the past year, it is not difficult to guess what happened.
This was what surprised the ministers the most. His Majesty had been on the throne for decades, and the harem had never been full, but in order to balance the power of the previous dynasty, he accepted all the requests from various noble families to send their daughters to the palace.
But the problem is that for so many years, none of the wives has given birth to a child, but now a son suddenly appears. His Majesty acted decisively and directly announced the appointment of the prince. Anyone can see this emperor's favor.
"Given your Majesty's personality, if he were really outside the palace... Alas."
"It seems that the prince was brought back to the palace from the general's mansion."
"General Zuo is your Majesty's most trusted confidant, no wonder."
Those who serve as officials in the court and stand under the Golden Throne are all shrewd people. Now that their brains have changed, what else do they not understand
Since the emperor favored her at such a young age, the mother of the young prince must be extremely favored. But since the emperor did not disclose the identity of the prince's mother before conferring the title of crown prince, but appointed a concubine in the harem as the prince's godmother, it is still too little to not even announce it, and not even confer the title of crown prince on the birth mother. There is no other reason to think that the mother's status is too low.
Some smart people had already expected that the mother's identity must be extraordinary, and she might even be a prostitute. Otherwise, why didn't His Majesty announce it directly? He was probably afraid that after the announcement, the little prince would not be able to be canonized legitimately.
Li Chou was too young at that time and did not understand the meaning of these words. He sat quietly behind the curtain, holding a katydid cage in his hand, grinning an innocent smile, trying to put his fingers in to tease the katydid.
Just when he was having fun, the hall in front of him suddenly fell silent.
Then, the sound of officials kneeling on the ground could be heard, and loud shouts came one after another: "Your Majesty."
The footsteps came closer and closer, like one step after another falling on a sharp blade, and stopped in front of the bead curtain.
Xiao Lichou looked up confusedly and saw the man's resolute, unshaven face. The man's gaze was undisguisedly gloomy and cruel, but when it touched his face, he froze for a moment, then suddenly softened.
The King of Qi hesitated for a moment and put his hand on his head.
The man's palm was very broad and thick, and it felt extremely hot when placed on his head, which made Li Chou's heart calm down immediately.
He vaguely remembered that he seemed to have seen this man who often came to see him silently in the general's mansion.
"From now on... you will be the crown prince of Qi."
After that, Li Chou never saw those gossipy ministers again. Later, he vaguely heard that they were dragged out and chopped into pieces and fed to dogs during court sessions.
There is no doubt that the King of Qi was a tyrant. He had used all kinds of tortures that had never been heard of in history.
The national strength of the neighboring Chu State has always been stronger than that of Qi, but in recent years it has been visibly declining, allowing Qi State to catch up and destroy the country in one fell swoop.
Being appointed as the crown prince since childhood, Li Chou had to learn many courses for the crown prince, and his schedule was packed from early morning to night every day.
Whenever he returned to the East Palace and fell into a deep sleep, he could occasionally feel a shadow covering his face. The man's rough hands gently tucked the corners of the quilt for him and quietly watched his sleeping face.
He knew that it was his father who was gently stroking his forehead. His movements were clumsy and gentle, and those ministers who were frightened by the tyrant's reputation would probably be so shocked if they saw it.
Li Chou had never seen the "mother of low status" as described by the ministers, and his father had never mentioned her either. But even though there were countless beauties in the harem, there was only one prince, Li Chou, in the huge palace.
Privately in the palace, my father would even lift little Li Chou above his head, or on a sunny day, he would ignore the ministers' objections and carry him to the Golden Throne Hall for the morning court, whispering in his ear with a smile, and commenting on which minister's outfit was the funniest.
In the eyes of others, the King of Qi is an out-and-out tyrant. But in Li Chou's eyes, he will always be his best father.
But all this was overturned on the night when Li Chou was seven years old.
That night was his seventh birthday. His father sent someone to pick him up early after class. After class, he ran happily towards the front hall in the dark night, holding the calligraphy he had just finished.
From a distance, Li Chou seemed to see his father standing in front of the palace, lowering his head slightly. The little prince's eyes lit up, and he was about to rush forward and hug the man's waist.
In an instant, an extremely bright sword light cut through the night sky, staining the palace with an indelible blood color.
“Boom—”
The head of the King of Qi rolled down.
The bright yellow dragon robe was also splattered with sticky blood, and half of its tall body fell heavily to the ground.
In front of him stood a young man dressed in white and holding a long sword.
The boy's hand holding the sword hung by his side, blood dripping from the tip of the sword, his eyes were cloudy.
Behind the young man was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, with blood flowing like a channel, deeper than the palace walls and more terrifying than the night.
Blood, blood everywhere. People who died with their eyes open everywhere.
In the huge palace, it was so quiet that the only sound could be heard as the fire licked the palace.
The little prince's smile froze on his face. He opened his eyes wide under the palace pillar and looked at the two people standing over there. He tried to shrink himself into the shadows, his whole body as cold as a piece of ice.
The next day, after the guards forced open the palace gates, they saw a scene that looked like hell on earth.
Last night, the entire palace underwent such a drastic change without a sound, which was frightening. A country cannot be without a king for a day. Now that the palace has been completely destroyed, everyone naturally wants to withdraw from Suzaku City first and then establish another capital. After all, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is not dead yet, and the bloodline of the Qi royal family is still there. As long as the green mountains are there, there is no need to worry about running out of firewood.
But what no one expected was that when the ministers were discussing, General Zuo suddenly drew his sword and pointed it directly at the only intact dragon throne in the Golden Palace.
The soldiers rushed into the palace and surrounded everyone, with the swords in their hands shining brightly, their posture was self-evident.
"General Zuo... When the late emperor was alive, you were his trusted minister. Now that the late emperor's body is still warm, you are actually plotting a rebellion!"
An old minister who insisted on his own opinion shouted, "Only the blood of the Li family can inherit the throne of Qi State. Who do you think you are?!"
General Zuo sneered, "The late emperor is gone, and the prince is still young. Anyone who is capable can get this throne. Besides, do you know who the current prince's biological mother is? If it weren't for the late emperor's stubbornness, this bastard would have died long ago... If it weren't for the oath I swore in front of the late emperor, humph."
The seven-year-old Li Chou closed his eyes and lay on the ground without saying a word. His hands behind his back tightened into claws, digging into the ground until blood flowed.
I don't know if that blood is his blood or the river of blood flowing from his father's corpse.
Li Chou had lived in the General's Mansion before he was three years old, and even his father had brought him from the General's Mansion to the Imperial Palace. Therefore, Li Chou was very close to General Zuo, one of his father's few trusted confidants.
He didn't expect that he would hear such a treasonous conversation right after waking up. For the sake of the supreme position, the other party actually disregarded the great principles and had murderous intentions.
Li Chou's heart was very cold, but fortunately, no matter how cold it was, it was not as cold as the moment he saw his father die.
That night, he took off his prince's robe, put aside the jade seal he carried with him, and secretly left through the underground passage of the East Palace. The moonlight shone down obliquely, and the shadow on his face became clearer and clearer.
When my father was alive, he was cruel and tyrannical. Even without General Zuo, the court would still be afraid of him. Now that the throne is vacant, no one can protect Li Chou, the fledgling prince. If he doesn't escape, he will end up dead.
Li Chou simply didn't want to be the crown prince anymore. All he wanted now was revenge.
This thought devoured his mind like wildfire, dragging Li Chou into the abyss of revenge.
He knew that the Taoist priest in green and the young man in white that he had met that day were not ordinary people. They could easily draw sword lights, make people outside the palace unable to hear the sounds inside the palace, and fly away on clouds and mist.
In a certain sense, that was already enough to be called an immortal technique. But Li Chou didn't believe that they were immortals. Immortals were high above, with their hands unstained with blood. They were not worthy of slaughtering mortals.
After leaving Qi State, Li Chou struggled in the mortal world, stumbling and suffering.
Fortunately, he not only possessed spiritual roots, but also had extraordinary talent. Soon after, he was accepted as a disciple by a casual cultivator.
San Xiu was a ghost cultivator in the late Jindan stage, who acted erratically and used cruel methods. Li Chou was in his early teens at that time, and suffered a lot at his hands. He was thrown into the worm cave tomb, his life hanging by a thread, and he was even used as a living medicine man for drug testing, enduring the pain of thousands of ants gnawing at his heart.
Li Chou knew that the ghost cultivator had no intention of recruiting disciples. He just needed a servant to do odd jobs, a medicine man to test medicine, and a spy to explore the way. Before him, the ghost cultivator had deceived countless people with the same method, and finally extracted their souls when they were on the verge of death to sacrifice his life-saving magic weapon, the Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner.
But Li Chou was not an easy character to deal with. He was in urgent need of strength, and if he took the proper route, he would not be able to take revenge, so he tried to get the skin of the tiger and used himself as bait.
Two years later, the ghost cultivator's path was too evil and was besieged by the righteous people. Li Chou, who actually tipped off the righteous, watched from afar with a sword in his arms, curling his lips as he watched the ghost cultivator die, and his sight inadvertently swept across a young man in white.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
Li Chou will never forget that face in his life.
After asking around, Li Chou finally found out that the young man in white was the first disciple of the world's number one sect, a sword cultivator who had recently become famous in the world of cultivation.
The master and disciple are both top figures in the world of cultivation. The leader of the Taoist sect has reached the stage of transcending tribulation, and the young man has also recently broken through to the Nascent Soul stage.
Li Chou has just established his foundation, which is a world of difference between him and them. If he wants to take revenge, a head-on approach will certainly not work.
A plan was vaguely taking shape in his mind, and his handsome brows were filled with deep scheming and unpredictable cunning.
Ghost cultivators also learn ordinary magic before building their foundations, and they do not directly turn into heartless living dead. So after Li Chou hastily collected the body of the ghost cultivator, he carefully wiped off all traces on his body, disguised himself as a disciple who went to Taiyan Sect to become a disciple, and knelt in front of the sect gate for a long time.
Li Chou was not 100% sure that Qingxuzi would accept him, so he deliberately bribed a few disciples and spread the news throughout the town.
Qingxuzi practiced the ruthless way, was cold and indifferent, and was hard to be moved. He could only calculate the time and start with another person.
Fortunately, Li Chou's luck is pretty good.
"Master, please accept my disciple's greetings."
In the quiet room of the main peak, the young man in black knelt down slowly, a hint of joy of successfully becoming a disciple showed on his face, but his nails pierced deeply into the flesh, and he kowtowed twice to the murderer of his father.
Qingxuzi, who was sitting at the top of the table, glanced at him indifferently without saying hello. His spiritual sense suddenly pierced into Li Chou's sea of consciousness like a sharp knife.
The young man froze, and suddenly dropped all his disguises, allowing the divine sense to detect him completely. After a long time, when cold sweat soaked through his inner clothes, he heard the cold voice of the Taoist priest in green, "From now on, you will be given the name Ling and the name Chou together with your senior brother."
After a long while, Li Chou finally found his voice: "... Yes, Master."
He warned himself that only by sleeping on straw and tasting gall, bearing humiliation and heavy burdens, taking every step carefully, and enduring the suffering that ordinary people cannot endure, can one achieve great things.
From that night on, Li Chou was no longer the crown prince of Qi, but a man who lived for revenge.
He will be ruthless, he will become a demon, and his hatred will burn throughout his heart before he can finally achieve his wish.
But Li Chou didn't expect that even though he thought he had planned everything, there would always be unexpected things beyond his control.
After becoming a disciple, he maintained a respectful distance from the other two disciples. He did not flatter or curry favor with them, nor did he distance himself too much. Not long after, Master Qingxuzi announced that he would go into seclusion, and after the seclusion ended, he went down the mountain to travel. The other brother stayed in the sect.
One night, the white-robed swordsman returned from a gathering with his friends, drunk.
Under the moonlight, he lay in the spiritual spring, his whole body soaked and filled with a strong smell of alcohol, even his wrists and fingertips were covered with a light pink color.
The sword cultivator's expression had lost its original frosty look. Water droplets hung on his eyelashes and his cheeks were slightly flushed, just like the first peach blossom in the world, as beautiful as a peach or plum.
The young man was wearing a training suit and sitting aside with a sword in his arms, his expression was obscure and difficult to discern.
The sparse shadows of the trees blocked the moonlight, cutting out a dividing line between light and darkness on his face.
Lingyun.
Li Chou looked at the swordsman in front of him. For some reason, he felt that the raging anger and hatred in his heart were suppressed by this scene, and he felt extremely empty.
He held the sword, kept his eyes open, and silently repeated the name for a long time, unable to sleep.
At that time, Li Chou didn't know that this name would be entangled with him for countless days and nights in the future.
On one hand, there is national hatred, family feud, and blood feud.
On the one hand, it is a deep love that is hard to control.
They were like raging fire and cold ice, tearing at Li Chou's body and ripping him off to destruction with a roar.
Everything, everything has already been predetermined.
Unfortunately, neither of them noticed it at that time.
In the early morning, the red sun rises and the light appears.
The swordsman slowly woke up from his hangover, held his aching temple, felt the heat soaking around his body, and suddenly raised his head.
The young man holding the sword sat under the tree all night. The morning dew wet his clothes and hair, and condensed into frost marks on the ends of his hair.
He hadn't slept all night, staring at the person in the spiritual spring with an expressionless face.
Ling Yun was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously raised a slightly awkward smile, "Junior brother, good morning."
Li Chou looked at him steadily, and just when Ling Yun thought he was about to get no answer, a voice rang out in the courtyard.
"Good morning." The young man in black paused and said in a muffled voice: "Senior Brother."