I Am the Fated Villain

Chapter 1741. The Princess of the Yaoguang Ancestral Court, Daughter of the Middle Lord

“Is this the predecessor of the Weiyang Immortal Court?”

The wisp of azure smoke, graceful and elegant, manifested in front of him, her blurred face carrying a hint of confusion.

Guangge nodded slightly, his gaze falling on the chessboard before him, his expression still contemplative.

“The Weiyang Immortal Court only came into existence after the Yaoguang Ancestral Court collapsed. In other words, the Yaoguang Ancestral Court was actually the predecessor of the Yaoguang Immortal Court.”

“However, after the disintegration of the Yaoguang Ancestral Court, and before the founding of the Weiyang Immortal Court, there was another era. But due to certain circumstances, that era has been forgotten by people.”

He glanced at the wisp of smoke, speaking calmly and unhurriedly.

“Yaoguang Ancestral Court?”

Upon hearing this, the wisp of smoke froze in thought. The expression on her blurred face shifted with the four words—sometimes silent, sometimes frowning, sometimes in pain, sometimes struggling, sometimes bewildered, as if trapped in some agonizing memory of the past.

Guangge simply watched her quietly, making no sound to disturb her. He then looked at the chessboard. With a touch, the originally scattered chess pieces suddenly transformed into a rain of black and white light, and a vague vortex of time and space appeared within the luminous rain.

The Scavenger’s Book hovered silently nearby. The wisp of smoke could not help but be drawn to the vortex, her gaze following it.

On the other side of the vortex was a scene as calm as a lake.

Majestic palace halls and immortal pavilions stretched out, clouds drifting, carved beams and painted rafters, colors rising in mist, all resembling celestial palaces and divine towers, dazzling and impossible to fully behold.

Across the world, immense voices echoed, countless figures bowed in reverence, all living beings paying homage. This was an ancient and magnificent kingdom, flourishing to the extreme, with immortals and gods appearing in the world, and Daoism thriving.

Immortal and divine paths had both reached some pinnacle; the gap between mortals and immortals no longer existed, and even ordinary beings could pursue the path of the divine and immortality.

The ruler of this nation had created a flourishing immortal-mortal era. Under their dominion, there were ten thousand eight hundred thousand “middle-worlds,” with billions upon billions of subjects, and myriad races paying tribute.

“Yaoguang…”

The Scavenger’s Book’s spirit murmured, her blurred face showing grief and nostalgia as she watched the grand scenes of light and shadow. Upon closer inspection, two clear streaks of blood appeared near her eyes.

Her previously blurred face gradually solidified.

On the chessboard, light and shadow intertwined, the time-space vortex rose and fell, with the flow of time streaming like a vast starfield in motion, or like an ancient book being slowly turned, with historical scenes continuously unfolding within.

One scene after another flashed by, depicting the founding of a nation, its birth, prosperity, peak, and zenith—like an enormous ancient history laid open for viewing.

Guangge was actually surprised. He had intended only to intervene in the current chaotic situation and to deduce the causal chain of a hidden figure behind the scenes, but he had stumbled upon a new discovery.

The origin of the Scavenger’s Book was deeply intertwined with the former Yaoguang Ancestral Court.

Although the Scavenger’s Book was not a prime relic of the original civilization, it was nevertheless a supreme civilization artifact, forged from the powers of many worlds, far from ordinary.

Its origins were connected to the Yaoguang Ancestral Court’s collapse, and more specifically to the power that arose from its ruins.

The Yaoguang Ancestral Court was a Daoist order founded by the Middle Lord, and it would have had a prime relic of the original civilization under its guardianship.

However, that relic had long since vanished, its location unknown.

After the collapse of the Yaoguang Ancestral Court, a new Daoist power rose from its remnants. Yet this power had been hidden by the sands of time, lost to history, scarcely known.

Had Guangge not traced the past of the Yaoguang Ancestral Court through the river of time, he would hardly have discovered that this power ever existed.

All lines of causality had been cut, deliberately buried in the flow of history. Dense mist obscured everything, yet he still discerned clues, causal connections, and some intriguing scenes.

The Scavenger’s Book’s spirit had once said that she was betrayed by those closest to her, that all cultivators in the world had wronged her.

At that time, Guangge had paid it no mind and had never considered truly aiding her. He had only verbally promised to help her eventually be released from the book and to rebuild her Daoist foundation.

If he had not, while deducing the Weiyang Immortal Court, glimpsed these causal threads through the river of time, he likely would never have remembered her, nor realized her connection to the post-Yaoguang Ancestral Court power.

“Hoho…”

A silver-bell-like laugh suddenly rang out, and the spirit of the Scavenger’s Book wept silently.

Her face was streaked with blood, her voice chilling and strange.

Guangge, as expected, showed no change in expression, completely unmoved.

After the collapse of the Yaoguang Ancestral Court, a nation called Yaoguang arose from its ruins. Its ruler declared herself the Yaoguang Empress.

Under her leadership, the Yaoguang Kingdom thrived, even rivaling the peak prosperity of the former Yaoguang Ancestral Court.

Shortly after the nation reached its zenith, the empress unexpectedly bore two daughters: the elder named Han Jing, the younger Han Xiu.

Before founding the Yaoguang Kingdom, the empress had apparently already been pregnant.

After giving birth to the two princesses, her health rapidly deteriorated. The two princesses, still minors, lost their mother and were left to depend on each other.

“After the death of the Yaoguang Empress, the kingdom fell into chaos. Although there were loyal ministers of the empress to support them, the two princesses were too young to grasp power.”

“Fortunately, the elder princess, Han Zhang, inherited her mother’s will. At a critical moment, she stabilized the situation, leveraging the empress’s remaining strategies to seize control.”

“Thus, at a tender age, she held power alone, becoming a new iron-willed empress, with methods as formidable as the former Yaoguang Empress…”

“Should I now call you Princess Han Jing?”

Guangge’s voice remained calm, narrating the history as if it were simple fact.

“Hoho…”

The Scavenger’s Book’s spirit laughed, the sound clear as silver bells, yet the blood tears on her face became more pronounced.

Her blurred face solidified slightly; snow-white, streaked with long blood marks, hair flowing, her gaze mournful, carrying endless sorrow and chill.

“You know everything; nothing can be hidden from you,” she said.

Her hollow gaze withdrew from the vortex, no longer looking at the scenes.

Guangge waved casually, and all light and shadow on the chessboard disappeared. The pieces remained in their original positions, as if everything had been an illusion.

“I did not wish to know, but now I had no choice.”

He spoke casually, his gaze devoid of pity, calm as always.

The Yaoguang Empress was likely the wife of the Middle Lord who founded the Yaoguang Ancestral Court. The Middle Lord’s surname was Ji.

After the collapse of the Yaoguang Ancestral Court and the Middle Lord’s Dao ceased, the empress succeeded him in leading the court.

Thus, the Scavenger’s Book’s spirit, Han Jing, was actually the eldest daughter of the Middle Lord.

The main leaders who once resisted the Daylord’s forces—Middle Lord, Western Saint, Southern Venerable, Eastern Emperor, Northern Deity—were only recently known to Guangge; previously, he had not looked into them.

As for why Han Jing ended up sealed within the Scavenger’s Book, reduced to a spirit bound to it, that involved the internal strife within the Yaoguang Kingdom.

Guangge, however, did not concern himself with right or wrong in these matters. What mattered to him now was Han Jing’s identity.

She was a princess of the Yaoguang Ancestral Court, and the daughter of the Middle Lord, one of the leaders who had resisted the Black Calamity.

After the collapse of the Yaoguang Kingdom, multiple dynasties rose and fell, each lasting a considerable period.

The last historical state, called the Yaoguang Kingdom, became the predecessor of the Weiyang Immortal Court.

From the fall of the Yaoguang Kingdom to the founding of the Weiyang Immortal Court, a vast causal thread ran through history, with a hidden figure orchestrating events.

In fact, this included the founding of the Yaoguang Kingdom itself and was connected to that hidden figure.

Their hand extended from the distant primordial era straight to the present. Even behind the formation of the Zhengyi Alliance, traces of this figure could be found.

Guangge was usually indifferent to such long-planned schemes or minor tricks, but this time, the hidden figure’s plan touched upon his own arrangements, sparking his interest.

“If I’m correct, the prime relic of the original civilization once held by the Middle Lord is likely now in the hands of that person.”

“Only after the Black Calamity era ended did it dare to show its presence. It seems that beings from the Pre-Natal Era have not yet completely perished,” Guangge mused.

If one laid out the entire span of time in the Vast Expanse, it could be divided into two eras: before the creation of the Vast Expanse, and after.

Before the Vast Expanse, chaos reigned, purity and impurity were undivided, a formless primordial state, known as the Pre-Natal Era.

After the Vast Expanse, the subsequent eras—including the Black Calamity, Primordial, and Ancient Eras—are collectively referred to as the Post-Natal Era.

Some surviving ancestral gods are actually beings from the Pre-Natal Era.

The Pre-Natal Era spanned incomprehensibly vast time, and could itself be subdivided into smaller periods.

Beings born in chaos during the Pre-Natal Era possessed innate five-elemental power, intelligence, and insight, surpassing those of the Post-Natal Era.

Only after the Three Primordial Ancestors separated purity from impurity, forming the Vast Expanse and the Primordial Realm, did the later Post-Natal worlds exist.

“You promised me I would be freed from the Scavenger’s Book.”

Han Jing’s voice suddenly interrupted Guangge’s thoughts.

By now, she had regained her presence, her face again blurred, though the two streaks of blood tears were still faintly visible. Her tone carried extreme hatred and grievance, a vengeful energy forming rivers and oceans behind her.

As former empress of the Yaoguang Kingdom, during the end of the era, when spiritual energy waned and the great collapse and reckoning came, she had endured the harsh winter of the era alone, for the sake of billions of her subjects.

But at her weakest, her sister—once the person she trusted most—had colluded with ministers to betray her. Her flesh was used as fuel to forge the civilization relic, and her soul sealed within it as its spirit.

Only by the relic guarding the fortune of the kingdom could the Yaoguang Kingdom survive the next epochal reckoning.

Thus, she became the greatest victim, betrayed by the sister she had most trusted.

“I will not break my promise. But the Yaoguang Kingdom no longer exists. Even if you recall the past after all these years, it is meaningless.”

“Then who do you seek revenge against?” Guangge glanced at her.

“I can feel that my sister’s bloodline still exists in the world, alive to this day. I once cast the deadliest curse upon her, to repay all the debts of karma owed to me. If she cannot repay, it will fall upon her descendants,” Han Jing said, her words filled with hatred and malice.

Guangge looked at her with some surprise, then suddenly smiled.

“What if I told you that your greatest enemy is not your sister, but someone else entirely?”

Han Jing froze. Guangge’s powers were immense, near-omniscient—she knew this. Otherwise, he could not have so easily uncovered the hidden truths of the Yaoguang Kingdom.

“What do you mean? What will you do to tell me?”

Her blurred face fixed upon Guangge, her gaze urgent.