Chang Sheng Sect!
Ji Jinmo looked at Nan Shiying and asked, "What kind of power do you think the Chang Sheng Sect is?"
"In Da Yuan, the Chang Sheng Dao Sect has always used divine authority to contend for the right to speak in the world with imperial power. By using gods to fool the common people and harvest faith, divine authority once overshadowed imperial power, causing Da Yuan's power to be overshadowed, and imperial authority gradually became a subordinate of divine authority. Even who inherited the throne was decided by the Chang Sheng Dao Sect."
"They supported you back then?"
Nan Shiying sneered, "I chose Yue Sinan!"
Ji Jinmo's eyes darkened, and a bone-chilling cold emanated from him. Despite the piercing cold, Nan Shiying, pressed against Ji Jinmo's chest and feeling his scorching warmth, didn't notice it at all.
"What do you mean by 'chose him'?" Ji Jinmo gritted his teeth.
Nan Shiying explained, "It's like a symbiotic relationship!"
"Back then, Da Yuan and the Chang Sheng Sect were already inseparable. There was a struggle for the throne among the Da Yuan princes and princesses, and within the Chang Sheng Dao Sect, there was a struggle for the Son of God."
"Each candidate for Son of God would support a prince or princess they favored. If the prince or princess won the throne, they would become the Son of God and move into the palace to become the National Preceptor. After the death of the previous Sect Leader, they would succeed to the position of Sect Leader of the Chang Sheng Dao Sect."
"So it wasn't the Chang Sheng Dao Sect that supported me, but rather Yue Sinan and I who won this battle."
Ji Jinmo was silent for two seconds. The thought that someone had stood by her side from beginning to end a hundred years ago, and that they had supported each other until the end, made him feel as if he had fallen into a vinegar vat and was almost suffocated by the sourness.
He couldn't possibly be jealous of someone who had been dead for a hundred years!
"What happened later?" Ji Jinmo asked.
"Later?"
"Later, after Yue Sinan died, I annihilated the Chang Sheng Dao Sect."
Ji Jinmo: "..."
There was no record of this in the history books. Instead, they documented her various great deeds such as suppressing aristocratic families, severing external relatives, and engaging in conquests. "Yue Ming, who established the Medicine King Valley, was also from the Chang Sheng Dao Sect, wasn't he!" Since she had annihilated the Chang Sheng Dao Sect, why would Yue Ming, after Yue Sinan's death, go to such lengths, willing to abandon everything, to fulfill Yue Sinan's last wish? After all, if Yue Ming had had any selfish intentions, the person now sleeping in the coffin, capable of rebirth and living another life, would have been Yue Ming.
Nan Shiying gave an example: "If you died, and I usurped the throne, changing the country's name from Lin Yuan to Da Yuan, and you instructed your royal guards to obey me before your death, do you think the guards would be loyal to your dying wish, or would they want to kill me for usurping the throne because of your death?"
Ji Jinmo pressed his temples. The example was very good, but it was not to be used again.
"Then, based on your understanding of the Chang Sheng Sect, what do you think they truly want?" The goal is crucial. After she had almost wiped out the Chang Sheng Sect from Da Yuan, the surviving forces had lingered on until the present day, hundreds of years later. However, the tip of the iceberg that had been revealed was enough to glimpse the outline of this force. For such a behemoth, there had been no news of them in either the martial arts world or the imperial court. If they hadn't discovered the shadow of this force while eradicating the remnants of Miao Jiang, they probably wouldn't have known until now that such a force existed in the imperial court and the martial arts world.
Nan Shiying's fingers tapped unconsciously on the table as she pondered.
All living beings, though seemingly seeking different things, are ultimately pursuing only two objectives—power and longevity.
If the Chang Sheng Sect desired power, they would not be hiding in the shadows. They would have supported a puppet of power, like they did their ancestors, or declared themselves king. In any case, they would not be lurking in the shadows, stirring up trouble.
Therefore, what the Chang Sheng Sect desires should not be power, but longevity.
Even immense power is no match for the relentless passage of time. Only longevity can truly stand in the torrent of time, looking down upon all living beings, and laughing at the vicissitudes of the world.
Is this why she didn't follow Yue Sinan's plan to regress to infancy and relive her life using the Nirvana Pill?
"Longevity!"
"The Chang Sheng Sect discovered that I discovered Nirvana."
Upon hearing Nan Shiying's words, Ji Jinmo instantly connected all the events. The timeline went back thirty years, when the Chang Sheng Sect discovered Yue Sinan's arrangements and later discovered Nan Fengluan's body in the Medicine King Valley, attempting to obtain the secret to longevity from Nan Fengluan.
Ji Jinmo looked at Nan Shiying and suddenly felt like laughing. Should he also thank the Chang Sheng Sect? If not for their covetousness of the Nirvana Pill, and whatever they did to cause her death when she was supposed to have regressed into an infant, and her soul returning through Nan Shiying's body on their wedding day, he might have missed her for his entire life.
"What are you laughing at?"
"It's completely inexplicable. Do you think I'm telling a joke?"
Nan Shiying's eyebrows furrowed. Ji Jinmo flipped his wrist and placed the prayer beads on the table. "No, I was just thinking that if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have met you."
Nan Shiying was slightly stunned.
It was true. If she had grown up from infancy, by the time she reached adulthood, Ji Jinmo would have reached his forties. At that time, the Nan Qu troupe could have performed a classic play, 'You were born before me, and when I was born, you were already old.'
Nan Shiying nodded. "Yes, we should thank them. So, to express our gratitude, let's send them to reincarnation!" Her eyes were filled with a smile, and even her voice was tinged with mirth, but the words she spoke carried a chilling murderous intent.
The scum of the Chang Sheng Sect deserved to be companions with the dirty silt at the bottom of the River Styx in hell.
"Alright!"
"How about 'five-limb separation'?"
Ji Jinmo slightly raised his gaze, looking at Nan Shiying.
Nan Shiying said, "It's a form of torture. A person is tied to a platform several meters high but only half a meter long and half a meter wide. Only their abdomen touches the platform, while their head and limbs hang down naturally. Then, ropes are used to bind their necks and limbs. The other end of the ropes is attached to huge stones weighing several hundred pounds. First, the stones are placed on a platform at the same height as the platform, and then they are pushed off at the same time. The weight and impact of the stones will forcefully tear off the person's head and limbs."
"Oh, the inspiration comes from 'five horses splitting the corpse'."
Ji Jinmo's lips twitched, as if with a slight spasm.
As she narrated, her eyes glowed from within, her eyebrows raised, and when she got excited, she used her hands and feet to demonstrate how interesting this punishment was.
As expected of the empress who once killed her way through aristocratic families and almost slaughtered the entire Chang Sheng Sect.
Ji Jinmo lowered his head and looked at the red coral in his hand, feeling as if each bead had been soaked in blood for hundreds of years.
Its color suddenly exuded a profoundness washed by the years.
Nan Shiying noticed him looking at the prayer beads in his hand, took them, rubbed them for a moment, and then looked up at him, asking, "Why doesn't it have a patina?"
Ji Jinmo: "..."