Perfect Secret Love: The Bad New Wife is a Little Sweet

“The real reason was… your heart ached, right? You nearly lost all rationality,” Haitang finished exasperatedly.

“Lord Asura, is it? He should be someone worthy of being entrusted with her for the rest of her life,” Ji Xiuran murmured softly some time later.

“Was it worth it?” Haitang asked a long while later.

“What do you think?” Ji Xiuran narrowed his eyes.

“Regardless of how entrustable someone else is, he’s still not you.” Haitang stared at Ji Xiuran—this man who she couldn’t understand at all.

“Pah!”

Suddenly, Ji Xiuran spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

“Are you okay?”

Haitang shot forward to support Ji Xiuran.

Ji Xiuran was silent for a moment before slowly standing up. He shook his head and said, “I… don’t have time.”

“As Master Li said, right now… you suffer every day, right… Your strong willpower comes from Worriless… Now that Worriless has returned, your wish is fulfilled, right? You persisted for so long just so you could see Worriless again…” An indescribable emotion broiled in Haitang’s eyes.

Ji Xiuran continued to stay silent.

“With your body’s current condition, you can’t attack at all. However, you exchanged blows with Lord Asura last time… You’re killing yourself. If it weren’t for that time, your body wouldn’t have deteriorated this much,” Haitang said.

“It’s all the same.” Ji Xiuran shook his head. “I said I don’t have much time left.”

“When they captured me, my illness happened to act up… Coming here, I consider it my last act… for Worriless.”

The man trudged his way outside the cell, his face ashen.

Staring after Ji Xiuran’s departing figure, Haitang didn’t say a word.

Just what did this man want to do? With his crippled body, what could he do currently?

Haitang finally stood up as well and followed Ji Xiuran.

Elsewhere on the island, in an extremely dilapidated room:

Ji Xiuran slowly entered the room.

“Emperor Ji!”

The dozen or so men and women all stood up upon spotting Ji Xiuran.

“Xiuran, how did you get captured here?”

The leader—an apathetic man—stared at Ji Xiuran and asked with a frown.

The speaker was one of the Eight Gods under Emperor Ji, the first god.

No one had ever seen the First God and no one knew that this First God had landed on this island many, many years ago.

“Don’t ask unnecessary questions. How’s the investigation?” Ji Xiuran asked instead.

“The Martial Arts Union. They must want to dominate the Independent State…” a woman answered after a while.

“Continue,” Ji Xiuran said.

The First God replied, “On this island, we discovered the Direct Line and the Martial Arts Union have joined forces…”

“Emperor Ji, you should also know that the Direct Line has started retaliating these last few years. They secretly persuaded every patrician family to defect and everyone who was unwilling to submit and pledge allegiance ended up assassinated later,” the woman said with a frown.

“The Martial Arts Union is behind all of this. Their ambitions will probably send the Independent State into unrest.”

Ji Xiuran closed his eyes and considered it for a moment before shaking his head. “Not necessarily.”

It was true that the Martial Arts Union was connected to the Direct Line, but they might not really be obeying the Direct Line.

“Emperor Ji, you mean…”

“The Martial Arts Union, huh… Interesting.”

Ji Xiuran smiled faintly. “Perhaps the Martial Arts Union is protecting everyone.”

The people looked at each other, bewildered.

The Martial Arts Union?

Protect everyone?

“Most of the factions on this island oppose the Direct Line. If the Martial Arts Union was obeying the Direct Line, what they would’ve done is kill us, not imprison us,” Ji Xiuran quietly explained.