Chapter 2653

"This place isn't used often," Yan Aohan said. "Generally, those who come here have significant backgrounds. Most of the time, I don't receive them personally; Old Pan handles it. The ones I receive personally can be counted on one hand. You were one in the past, and now Yan Xibei is the other."

Yan Aohan led Zhu Yanyi to the central seat. "But you were a surprise back then. Yan Xibei is here only for closure."

Yan Aohan was not a man of excessive sentiment. She held deep affection for Zhu Yanyi, but her feelings for Yan Xibei were truly severed. Meeting Zhu Yanyi was to renew their bond; meeting Yan Xibei was to sever this familial tie. The motives were different, though the location happened to be the same.

"Old Pan accompanied you then, but I am with you now," Zhu Yanyi reminded her with a smile, noting the difference.

"Does this count as another form of 'things remain, people change'?" Yan Aohan asked Zhu Yanyi with a smile.

Zhu Yanyi couldn't help but laugh.

Yan Xizhong led Yan Xibei in, just seeing Yan Aohan and Zhu Yanyi chatting and laughing. "Mom, Dad, I’ve brought her."

After speaking, Yan Xizhong stepped aside and sat down. This was a matter of severing ties between Yan Aohan, Zhu Yanyi, and Yan Xibei; she felt it inappropriate to speak much.

Yan Xibei knew he had died. Being old, death was a normal thing. However, he was also proud because he had pushed a nation to its strongest position. That was enough.

They say all things vanish after death. He didn’t know what would happen to him after dying, but he found himself in a strange place.

Seeing the Black and White Impermanence welcoming him, he was surprised. He realized that due to his contributions in life, he didn’t need to go through the general channel to enter the Underworld. He could enter through a special passage. At this moment, he realized the Underworld in his imagination was so different from the Underworld he saw before him.

Entering the Underworld now felt like foreigners traveling to China. With a passport, verified, he listened to the Black and White Impermanence explain. He learned they needed a travel permit to enter the Underworld, then go to the Ten Courts of Yanluo for judgment to determine their future path. Because of his karmic merit in life, he didn’t need such troublesome queuing; he could go directly for verification.

The Black and White Impermanence brought him to a person. He just felt this young man looked familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere, but he was sure he hadn’t.

Hearing the Black and White Impermanence address him, he knew this person was the Young Master of the Underworld. Currently, most matters in the Underworld were handled by him, while the true masters of the Underworld, the Yan Emperor couple, rarely appeared in public.

She thought she would be verified by the Young Master of the Underworld, but unexpectedly, this Young Master brought her to this place.

Looking up at the familiar figures, he was slightly stunned. "Mom, Dad."

Yan Aohan shook his head faintly. "I once said our familial bond with you is broken. It is no longer appropriate for you to call us Mom and Dad now."

Yan Aohan looked at Yan Xibei. "If Xizhong hadn’t found that your time had come and told us, we wouldn’t have met you for this final time."

"Dad, Mom." Yan Xibei knelt down. "I know I was wrong." No matter what, Yan Xibei knew that Yan Aohan and Zhu Yanyi being here meant they were not ordinary people.

Yan Aohan looked at Yan Xibei and did not soften his heart because of Yan Xibei’s kneeling. "Xibei, I remember saying you are not my son. I think you haven’t forgotten this."

"I haven’t forgotten." Yan Xibei smiled bitterly. Even if he had such great achievements in life, as Yan Aohan said, he was not his son. This was innate and could not be changed.

Yan Aohan said, "Actually, you originally belonged to the Cultivation Plane Strategist Alliance. However, you lacked talent for cultivation, and your relatives were算计 (calculated against) by some people in the Strategist Alliance, resulting in losses.

To save your life, some of your relatives asked someone to send you to the mortal world."

Yan Aohan looked at Yan Xibei, his tone very calm. "Originally, my wife and I didn’t plan to adopt you as a son at that time. However, your ancestors had some connection with my wife’s ancestors, so after thinking about it, we accepted you.

My wife, your adoptive mother, originally planned that after your death, she would change your constitution and let you reincarnate as someone with talent. This way, she could send you to the Strategist Alliance. But the prerequisite was that this person could not be a monarch."

Yan Xibei was stunned, looking at Yan Aohan.

Yan Aohan said, "Once you become a monarch, the Heavenly Dao will bestow the Monarch Body. That means in your next life, you will still be born into a royal family. Even if you cannot be an emperor, you can be a king. To avoid being an emperor, you must constantly consume your royal aura. To consume royal aura, you can only be a ruler of a fallen nation. Once you become a ruler of a fallen nation, you will be entangled by grievances and sins, making it even more impossible to become a cultivator. So, when you decided to become the Emperor of Huaxia, you were destined to cut off the path of cultivation."

Yan Xibei swallowed hard. He didn’t expect such a thing. "So, becoming a monarch actually cut off my familial bond with you myself."

Yan Aohan looked at Yan Xibei, seeing he understood, and continued, "Yes, you cut off this familial bond yourself. I said we cut off the bond because we cannot take care of you for life after life. Since you chose your own path, the path of cultivation has nothing to do with you anymore."

"But even so, I still feel you are my parents," Yan Xibei said, with his own persistence in his eyes.

Yan Aohan shook his head slightly. "When you schemed against Zhu Zhibin, you actually no longer recognized us."

Yan Xibei was shocked in his heart. His scheming against Zhu Zhibin back then was unavoidable. Although there were several candidates for that position, the only one who could truly compete with him was Zhu Zhibin, so he acted decisively.

"You might not know," Yan Aohan continued. "Originally, the Zhu family did not have Zhu Zhibin. According to normal development, Mrs. Zhu, Xie Xinlian, would have had a miscarriage in the year 1980.

But because their daughter was destined to enter the path of cultivation from birth, it was as if the Heavenly Dao owed the Zhu family a child. Plus, their daughter was a cultivator, so the Heavenly Dao naturally had to give the Zhu family a backup plan. Thus, a True Dragon was born.

That is to say, originally Zhu Zhibin was to be the ruler of Huaxia. But because of you, Zhu Zhibin was almost destroyed. Zhu Zhibin could not be a human emperor, but because of his research, he accumulated karmic merit. So the Heavenly Dao allowed his life and yours to swap."

Speaking to this point, Yan Aohan examined Yan Xibei.