Chapter 161: Under Moonlight, In The Pavilion, The Wedding Dress Like Fire

Outside the mirror.

The gathered cultivators silently stared at the scene in the mirror.

“The Jiang family was already an aristocratic clan, but later it suddenly rose and leapt to become the most prominent house in Beixuan.”

“So it turns out the one who made the Jiang family prosper back then was the Heavenly Emperor?”

“In just a few dozen years they achieved the Jiang family’s millennial ambition. One must say, the Heavenly Emperor truly is terrifying!”

Jiang Minghuang was also endlessly stunned.

Back then the three clans of the Upper Realms stood in balance. The Jiang, Zhen, and Ji families’ strengths were nearly equal.

A balance unbroken for countless ages.

Yet in the short time of his seclusion he discovered the Jiang family’s power had surged tremendously!

Only now did he learn that it had all been the doing of Gu Changqing!

At this moment Jiang Minghuang realized that during his seclusion he seemed to have missed far too much.

He had not known about his sister’s engagement.

Now it seemed likely his father had known he would oppose the marriage, and thus had forced him into seclusion during that period.

And after he emerged, he never saw his sister again.

His father never told him the cause of his sister’s death.

Later, he followed Gu Changqing in wars across the heavens, until by chance he discovered his sister had become an artifact spirit and was sacrificed into the Heaven Burying Bell.

Even so, he was unwilling to believe it, until Gu Changqing committed one atrocity after another.

Only when Ye Chen came to subvert him did he fully realize that his elder brother was no longer the man he once was!

Jiang Minghuang now stared unblinking at the image. He intended to peel apart, one by one, the events that had occurred during his seclusion.

…

Outside Jubei City.

The Jiang family’s banners stood out, towering amidst the vast, surging army.

At the north gate, an armored man held an ancient bell and gazed into the distance.

By his side, a woman of ethereal chill was today clad in red as fiery as flame!

“Why…wear red today?”

Gu Changqing was surprised.

In his impression, she had always been aloof, dressed in plain white linen, cool and elegant.

Such brightness as today was rare.

The red dress added some brilliance to the woman, but unchanged was the chill that kept people at a thousand-mile distance.

“To see you off.”

Jiang Yunli spoke, his voice calm yet tinged with a certain frost.

She took a white robe from her bosom and draped it over Gu Changqing’s shoulders with her own hands, softly saying two words. “Triumphant return.”

Gu Changqing nodded.

He swept down from the gate, the white robe billowing, pure as snow.

He advanced slowly, the vast army following behind.

Members of the Jiang family stood on both sides of the vast army, sending off this peerless general who had single-handedly safeguarded the Jiang family’s peace.

The army moved slowly forward. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were silent, only the muffled, rhythmic footfalls could be heard.

Suddenly.

From the city gate resounded a clear, stirring drumbeat.

Doom!

Doom doom!

Doom doom doom…

The drums at the gate began with a heavy strike, then two more, and then the drumbeats fell dense like rain, echoing one by one across the sky.

Everyone looked up or turned their heads, including Gu Changqing, as they watched the gate.

On the ramparts, someone beat the drums.

A red robe like fire!

The young woman held drumsticks and struck the drum with force.

The resounding drumbeats shook the void and trembled in each person’s heart.

The Jiang family’s legitimate daughter personally sent them off!

How noble!

What status!

In that moment the soldiers’ spirits surged. They shouted in response, brimming with fervor.

The gloom of heading to the battlefield, possibly to die, was swept away in an instant. Like the clear war drum, battle fervor boiled in their hearts, the masses united as one.

Gu Changqing’s expression was somewhat absent.

It seemed the garment was no longer a simple red dress but a wedding gown.

Amid the rain-like drumbeats, the vast army fell in behind Gu Changqing as he departed.

…

Outside the mirror.

The gathered cultivators couldn’t discern anything.

Only Jiang Minghuang wore a complicated expression.

He, of course, knew his sister intimately.

The drums at the gate seemed to send off the army, but in fact he could feel his sister was more so seeing off Gu Changqing.

Gifting the white robe, personally seeing him off, personally beating the drum…

At this moment, relying on his knowledge of his sister, Jiang Minghuang conceived a notion that overturned his understanding.

His sister had fallen in love.

She had feelings for Gu Changqing… she had fallen for him…

This assumption felt like a heavy blow to Jiang Minghuang, utterly overturning his perceptions.

He couldn’t believe that his sister, a woman cool as jade, always sensible and obedient, could fall for a man while betrothed.

But the fact was exactly so.

As Jiang Yunli’s own younger brother, others might not see it, but how could he not see the affection in his sister’s eyes when she draped the white robe over Gu Changqing?

But on reflection, it made sense.

They had lost their mother when they were young. From then on the sister had been very sensible.

Her life actions always followed their father’s arrangements and decisions.

She never defied him.

As the elder sister and like a mother, she bore too many burdens for him and for the Jiang family all her life.

While Gu Changqing fought for decades and fulfilled the Jiang family’s millennial ambition. Such a dazzling man could naturally stir the heart of a sister who bore so much.

“So my sister, you actually liked him?”

“But even so, he still refined you into an artifact spirit?”

Jiang Minghuang felt a deep sorrow, a pain hard to express.

He could not believe the depth of despair that must have been hidden in his sister’s heart when she was sacrificed into an artifact spirit by the one she loved!

…

The scenes in the Bronze Ancient Mirror shifted continuously.

Time passed swiftly. In a blink, three years were gone.

Gu Changqing, after a hundred battles, finally returned to the Jiang family.

At Jubei’s gate, the red dress remained.

When he left she sent him off in red. When he returned she greeted him in red.

Only this time, the two did not have much exchange.

Jiang Yunli’s gaze was complex. She stood calmly at the gate, silently watching the vast army return below.

That night.

Gu Changqing practiced cultivation at home as usual.

Outside, a maid’s crisp voice called, “Master, the family head has sent someone to invite you.”

Gu Changqing did not think much of it.

Following the maid who came to invite him, he arrived at a side courtyard.

He pushed open the closed courtyard gate.

But he saw no maidservants, no house steward, no guards.

Nor did he see the head of the Jiang family.

Only a figure in red sat in the pavilion holding wine. Under the moonlight, the young woman’s skin was pure white, her red clothes dazzling, exceptionally radiant.