Legend of the Perfect Emperor

During their trip back, Tian Yi pondered about the thousands of people he saw at Dragon's Peak.

'I have left the house one time and I saw many people on that day, but those people… I have not seen any of them before…'

'Young and old, mortals and immortals, there were so many different kinds of people there.'

'This bounty… What kind of bounty is it?'

He opened his eyes and looked at Caiyi who also had her eyes closed.

"Sister Caiyi…" He called out to her.

Caiyi slowly opened her eyes. "Hm?"

"Um… You said that you wanted to find His Highness, right…?"

"That's right. And so is everybody else," she said.

A drop of cold sweat appeared on his forehead. "C-Can I ask why? What is this bounty His Highness's father had put on him?"

"Oh, although I called it a bounty, it cannot really be considered one. His Majesty had said that whoever could bring back His Highness to the Celestial Palace will have any one of their wish granted." Caiyi said as the scene of Tian Qiang announcing that explosive news replay inside her head. "Ah, His Majesty had everybody shocked to the core at that moment— it was a spectacular moment."

"....."

Tian Yi was speechless. To bribe everyone under the heavens to look for him; it just wasn't fair.

"If… What if Sister Caiyi manages to find His Highness and successfully brings him back to his home? What would you wish for?" he asked her.

Caiyi pondered his question for a moment before finally speaking. "Well, first of all, only an idiot would really bring His Highness back to the Celestial Palace for a mere wish…"

"Huh?" Tian Yi was dumbfounded by her contradicting words. What did she mean by that?

Caiyi saw and understood the confusion on his face and smiled. "His Highness ran away for a reason, and if we bring him back despite knowing that fact, we'd only be stabbing ourselves in the heart even if we have our wish granted— that's what I believe."

Still confused, Tian Yi asked, "But what about all those people back there? Were they not there to find His Highness and bring him back?"

Caiyi burst out laughing. "If anyone of them had any brains, they would never bring His Highness back to His Majesty— even if they have him tied up like a blind chicken!"

Her words only confused him even further into the distance.

"Then why are they looking for him if not for the bounty?" he asked.

"Everybody that was there have their own desire and reason for seeking His Highness— though most of them might end up being the same in the end…" Caiyi shook her head.

"Then for what reason is Sister Caiyi seeking for His Highness?" Tian Yi narrowed his eyes slightly.

Caiyi grinned at his question and winked at him. "That's a woman's secret."

He did not know why, but a chill attacked his spine the moment he saw her grin.

"W-What is this 'woman's secret'?" he asked.

"It is something only females should know about!" she quickly answered.

"There is something like that out there?" he found that term somewhat fascinating. There were secrets out there only females are allowed to know? This is something new he'd never heard of before.

Since the thing he wanted to know the most were secrets that only females are allowed to know, Tian Yi no longer asked her any more questions, silently waiting for the boat to take them back to Qing Shan City.

The ride did not last long, half an hour at most.

Upon returning to Qing Shan City, Caiyi asked Tian Yi if he had any place to stay to which he nodded.

"Very well. If you need anything from me in the future, you know where I live and where to go. It was fun today, Shuyi." Caiyi extended her slender hands to shake Tian Yi's.

Tian Yi nodded with a smile. "It was a pleasure for me, too."

The two shook hands, and at that moment, Caiyi silently probed Tian Yi by sending her Spirit Qi through their handshake.

A wisp of Spirit Qi from her full cultivation silently made its way into Tian Yi's body like a ghost.

'Your hidden identity will no longer be hidden after this!' she silently laughed inside her heart.

Before Tian Yi had even joined the Sacred Heaven's Temple, and before he'd even spoken with her at the statue, Caiyi was already suspicious of his identity. Although she did not know who he was, his body was just too strange for someone like her not to take notice.

His Spirit Qi was completely hidden without even a drop leaking out; it was simply impossible. Forget about mortals, even crippled mortals that could not cultivate would have Spirit Qi emitting from their body! Spirit Body? Nonsense! Although she does not know of every Spirit Body out there, she has enough knowledge to know that a Spirit Body that can perfectly hide one's Spirit Qi does not exist under all Nine Heavens, nor will it ever exist!

And the most suspicious thing of all was how Tian Yi had sealed the cultivation of a cultivator two realms above himself as easy as breathing!

And even if she ignored the difference in their cultivation, a Cultivation Technique that allowed one to seal another's cultivation is way too heaven-defying and valuable for someone as ordinary-looking as Tian Yi to have! It was a heavenly Cultivation Technique that even Gods covet!

As for the Celestial Coin… that had caused many headaches to Caiyi from trying to figure out how he had obtained such a valuable object. It was something that cannot simply be found by chance, especially not something that could have possibly 'fallen from the sky.'

There were too many things that cannot be explained about this 'ordinary' young man, which is why she decided to prob him before they separated. However, that decision would end up being one of the biggest regrets in her life.

Only an instant had passed since their hands came into contact, but Caiyi's Spirit Qi had already seen everything there was to about Tian Yi— everything except his Dantian— the source of a Cultivator's heaven-defying powers and where they hold the Spirit Qi they absorb to cultivate.

One can say that without a Dantian, a Cultivator would no longer be a Cultivator but a mere mortal that cannot cultivate.

And since she didn't find anything wrong with his body, she decided to probe deeper into his body, his Dantian.

"T-THIS IS!!!"

Caiyi's eyes widened with shock from what she saw, her body trembling violently.

BOOM!

As if she was hit by an invisible explosion, her body flew backward like a lifeless doll being tossed, destroying a few pieces of furniture in her path before hitting the wall a few feet away.

Falling onto the floor in a low-crawl position, Caiyi coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood, her gaze at the ordinary young man filled with shock and fear. "Y-You…" she murmured in a dazed voice, wondering what in the name of all Nine Heavens had just happened to her.