The world of film and television starts from the flow of money

The twenty-seventh year of Taiping, winter.

The Forbidden City, Kunning Palace.

The inner chamber of the hall was burning very warmly, and even the most precious agarwood could not completely mask the lingering, decaying scent of life passing away.

Ren Yingying lay amidst layers of brocade quilts. Her once radiant and clever face had been withered by the passage of time and illness. Only her deep-set eyes still retained their former sharpness and affection.

She held Yi Huawei's hand, which was still as warm and smooth as jade, as if the chisel of time had never left a mark on him. But her hand was like a dried-up twig.

"...Yuzawa...is very good...the children...are very good too..."

Her voice was weak as a whisper, each word requiring immense effort. She looked at Yi Huawei, the man who had been with her for over a hundred years, whose appearance remained unchanged since their first meeting, her eyes filled with complex emotions. There was love, reluctance, pity for his long and lonely future, and perhaps, a hint of relief at finally being free.

"...I'm tired...Huawei...I...I'm leaving now...to go find Lingshan..."

Yi Huawei remained silent, only gripping her hand even tighter. The immense vitality brought by the perfected Hunyuan Qi Gong could not now flow into this exhausted body. He had long since seen through the cycle of life and death, but at this moment, the ice deep within his heart, frozen for a hundred years, still cracked open, releasing a chilling current called "loneliness."

Ren Yingying, the woman who went from being the Holy Maiden of the Demonic Sect to the Empress of the Empire, and who walked hand in hand with him through the most turbulent and longest years, is finally leaving him.

Her breathing grew weaker and weaker, her gaze gradually unfocused, finally settling on his face. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but ultimately no sound came out. That faint light went out.

Yi Huawei sat quietly, like an unchanging rock. Outside the hall, the suppressed sobs of Zhu Youze (who had been on the throne for fifteen years) and his empress, concubines, princes, and grandsons could be heard. The mournful bells of the empire tolled heavily over the snow-covered Forbidden City.

He leaned down and placed a final kiss on Ren Yingying's cold forehead. A warm drop of liquid silently fell onto her bloodless cheek, instantly turning cold again.

"It's all over..."

The glory and loneliness of a century-old emperor, the joy of the martial world and the solemnity of the imperial court, the warmth of a lover and the coldness of death... Countless images, sounds, and emotions surged and collided in his extraordinary mind like a flood that had burst its banks.

His dark dragon robe remained motionless in the biting wind, his face expressionless. For 140 years, the Purple Cloud Primordial Qi Cultivation had reached the perfect state of "Three Flowers Gathering at the Top, Five Qi Converging at the Origin," forever freezing his appearance at around 30 years old. He was handsome and dashing, yet the loneliness and aloofness that belonged to an emperor had settled like ten thousand years of black ice.

"A century of imperial rule, several lifetimes... in the end, is it all for naught?"

Yi Huawei whispered, his voice cold and utterly devoid of emotion. At his fingertips, a wisp of purplish-gold energy, refined to its utmost, quietly gathered, not aimed at an enemy, but at the void before him! It was not an attack, but the ultimate application of his understanding of spatial rules over the past century, an attempt at near self-destruction.

Space rippled and distorted violently, like water tossed with a pebble, splitting open a dark, menacing rift with edges crackling with destructive lightning! The raging void currents instantly tore at his imperial robes, devouring the surrounding light.

Just as his body was about to be completely torn apart and annihilated by the crack, from the depths of his sea of ​​consciousness, a cold, mechanical voice, silent for over a hundred years and almost forgotten, rang out intermittently, accompanied by jarring noise and extreme weakness: "...Detect...high-dimensional...energy...fluctuation...force...protect...activate...coordinate...anchor...'The...Twin...Dragons...of...the...Tang...Dynasty...'..."

boom--!
Consciousness was overwhelmed by boundless darkness and excruciating pain.

...............

West of Luoyang City, a mass grave.

The first pungent stench to assault the senses was the smell of a corpse in deep decay, a mixture of blood, earth, and some indescribable odor of disease, so intense it was almost tangible, sticky and clinging to the nose and mouth. Next came the sense of touch—the cold, damp, uneven, hard ground, and a soft, gritty sensation beneath.

Yi Huawei suddenly opened his eyes.

What came into view was a leaden, low-hanging, oppressive cloud. Sparse, withered, crooked old trees stretched their branches towards the sky like ghostly claws. As far as the eye could see, there were layers upon layers of carelessly discarded corpses. Some were still somewhat fresh, with crows greedily pecking at the rotting flesh, cawing gratingly; many more were bare bones, half-buried in the frozen, black mud, their tattered clothes fluttering in the cold wind like funeral banners. A few wild dogs lurked not far away, their green eyes warily watching this suddenly appearing "new corpse."

"Mass grave..."

Yi Huawei's voice was hoarse and dry, carrying the weakness of having traversed the void, yet it still maintained a calm etched into his very bones. He slowly sat up, his movements without the slightest sluggishness of someone recovering from new injuries. His Hunyuan Gong circulated on its own, resisting the omnipresent, subtly repelling invisible pressure of this world.

He looked down at himself: the black robes that symbolized supreme power had long since been reduced to dust in the spatial storm, leaving only a few tattered pieces of cloth barely covering his body, stained with mud and dark brown scabs. Yet, his body, tempered by a century of imperial fortune and unparalleled divine skills, remained like the most perfect jade carving, its smooth muscle lines containing explosive power, its skin smooth and flawless, even gleaming with a faint jade-like luster in the dim light, completely out of place in this filthy and desperate environment.

Yi Huawei tried to mobilize the vast, ocean-like true energy within his dantian, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly. It was as if he were sinking into a viscous swamp! The flow of his internal energy became extremely difficult and sluggish, and his recovery speed was reduced to less than one-tenth of its peak! It was as if this world was greedily absorbing his power, or perhaps rejecting him, this "visitor from another world."

"World rules suppressing... the Heavenly Dao?"

A cold, knowing glint flashed in Yi Huawei's eyes. Last time, in the world of *Mythology*, he forcibly tried to erase Yi Xiaochuan, but was almost crushed by the will of that world, and his system fell into silence along with him. This time, the sense of rejection wasn't as devastating as before, but it was still ever-present. He silently sensed his sea of ​​consciousness; the silent system was like a dead object, with only a faint, almost imperceptible, cool touch, proving that it hadn't completely dissipated.

Just then, a rapid and noisy sound came from afar, breaking the deathly silence of the mass grave.

"Witch! Hand over the secret to immortality! I'll spare your life!"

A dignified and cold voice pierced through the cold wind.

"You treacherous Yuwen! Don't even think about it!"

Immediately following was a woman's clear, defiant shout, tinged with pain.

The sounds of clashing swords, the whistling of energy cutting through the air, and the shouts and screams of soldiers erupted instantly a hundred feet away!
Yi Huawei glanced indifferently toward the source of the sound. There stood a tall, graceful woman in white, her clothes stained with blood, fighting and retreating. Her long sword gleamed coldly, her swordsmanship exquisite and swift.

The leader of the pursuers was dressed in a magnificent brocade robe, with a cold and stern face. He exuded an icy aura, and the air seemed to freeze into frost wherever his palm struck. Behind him were dozens of elite soldiers, working in perfect coordination, their blades forming a menacing net.

"An internal skill with the attribute of ice and cold? Interesting."

Yi Huawei's assessment was like examining an object, devoid of any emotion. In his eyes, the strength that person displayed was roughly equivalent to a master of the Five Greats level in the world of "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," perhaps slightly stronger, but... nothing more.

A valiant soldier spotted Yi Huawei, this "eyesore" "vagrant," sitting at the edge of the mass grave. He grinned maliciously and swung his knife at him, shouting, "Get out of the way! Those who block the way die!" The blade whistled through the air, about to sever Yi Huawei's head, which was so perfect it seemed otherworldly!
Yi Huawei didn't even look up at him. He simply raised his right hand casually, his index and middle fingers together, and a faint, almost invisible purplish-gold aura flashed and disappeared from the tip of his finger!
There was no earth-shattering momentum.

"laugh--!"

With a soft sound, like a hot knife slicing through solidified butter, the steel waist knife, along with the soldier's arm holding it and his entire upper body, was instantly and smoothly sliced ​​in two by an invisible, extremely sharp sword aura! Blood and entrails mixed with the heat splashed onto the frozen ground, creating a bloody and eerie scene.

This seemingly casual yet terrifying scene caused both sides in the midst of fierce combat to freeze instantly! All eyes were horrified as they focused on the ragged young man sitting calmly amidst the pile of corpses, his expression indifferent.

The young man in the brocade robe's pupils suddenly contracted! He clearly felt the terror contained in that fleeting sword energy—it was extreme sharpness, a will that could pierce through everything, and a realm he had never felt before, almost like the "Tao"!

What alarmed him even more was that there was no trace of violent fluctuations of internal energy on the other party's body, as if what had just cut through steel and torn apart human bodies was just a breath he casually exhaled!

The beautiful woman took the opportunity to cover her wound, stepped back a few paces, and looked at Yi Huawei with disbelief in her eyes.

The young man in the brocade robe's expression shifted. He pushed his Ice Profound Force to its limit, and the chill around him intensified. However, he did not order the attack to continue. Instead, he stared intently at Yi Huawei and said in a deep voice, "Who are you? Why are you interfering in the affairs of my Yuwen Clan?"

"The Yuwen Clan?...What is that?"

Yi Huawei slowly stood up. His movements were slow, yet carried an air of complete composure. He ignored Yuwen Huaji's questioning, his gaze sweeping over the stunned soldiers as if they were ants. Then, he raised his hand and flicked his finger.

"Puff puff!"

Several invisible sword energies pierced precisely between the eyebrows of the soldiers closest to him. The corpses fell silently.

"withdraw!"

The young man in the brocade robe acted decisively, without the slightest hesitation! The person before him was far too strange, his strength unfathomable. He suddenly unleashed a powerful icy strike, the surging cold air temporarily forcing the exotic beauty away, while simultaneously issuing a stern command. He himself, like a cold shadow, turned without hesitation and sped towards Luoyang City at an astonishing speed, leaving behind only a scene of devastation and several corpses.

The beautiful woman breathed a sigh of relief, but her gaze towards Yi Huawei became even more wary, even tinged with fear. She forced a bow, saying, "Thank you for your help, senior..."

However, before she could finish speaking, Yi Huawei's gaze swept past her and landed on several furtive figures on the distant official road, greedily rummaging through the weapons, corpses, and valuables left behind on the battlefield—they were several emaciated, fierce-looking vagrants and bandits.

Sensing the greed in the men's eyes, Yi Huawei vanished like a ghost. The next moment, he appeared before the group of vagrants and bandits.

No nonsense, no pity. Like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

"Snap!" "Pfft!"

The sounds of bones shattering and blades piercing flesh rang out in quick succession. In the blink of an eye, the vagrants and bandits hadn't even had time to scream before they became new corpses in the mass grave.

Yi Huawei, expressionless, slowly and deliberately stripped a relatively clean, thick gray linen coat and a pair of worn-out leather boots from a fairly intact corpse and put them on. He then pulled a few bloodstained, cheap copper coins and a small, hard, dry grain cake from the pocket of another corpse. He didn't even glance at Fu Junzhuo, who was standing beside him, filled with fear and dread, as if she didn't exist at all.

The beautiful woman, enduring the excruciating pain from her wounds and the turmoil in her heart, watched as the mysterious and terrifying man slowly and methodically put on the coarse linen clothes he had stripped from the corpse, and fastened his worn-out leather boots, as if he were tidying up a priceless dragon robe. His movements were composed, devoid of any worldly air, yet they exuded a suffocating, all-encompassing indifference.

His long, slender fingers flicked lightly across the blade. A clear, resonant hum pierced the deathly silence of the mass grave. It was even apparent that when his fingertips touched the steel, not a single white mark was left on his skin. This inhuman physique intensified the chill in her heart.

"His internal energy recovery is less than eleven percent... but his physical strength has not been diminished."

Yi Huawei muttered to himself, having just withstood several stray arrows probing him, leaving only a few white marks on his skin. This body, tempered by a century of divine skill, was one of his greatest assets in this realm.

Looking up, I saw the majestic city in the distance, its massive outline and towering walls visible against the dark clouds.

This is where?

A glint of shrewdness flashed in Yi Huawei's eyes. He needed a map, he needed to understand the world's格局 (geju, a concept encompassing overall structure and overall situation), and he needed to know where he could obtain the resources he desperately needed—whether it was material goods, or more importantly… power!
He withdrew his gaze, his icy stare finally landing on the beautiful woman a few steps away, clutching a wound on her ribs and breathing heavily. Her white robes were mostly soaked with blood, her face pale, but her eyes remained as stubborn as cold stars, warily watching him.

"senior……"

The beauty spoke again, her voice slightly hoarse from her injuries and nervousness: "I am Fu Junzhuo. Thank you for your help, senior, in scaring away the scoundrels from the Yuwen Clan."

Fu Junzhuo bowed slightly, maintaining the etiquette of a martial arts practitioner, but her entire body was tense, ready to deal with any possible changes at any moment. The power and indifference of the person before her far exceeded her understanding.

"The Yuwen Clan?"

Yi Huawei's voice remained calm and even, as if he were merely confirming an insignificant name: "That person from just now?"

"Exactly."

Fu Junzhuo nodded, a deep-seated hatred flashing in her eyes: "That person is Yuwen Huaji, the number one expert of the younger generation of the Yuwen clan! He was ordered by the tyrannical Emperor Yang Guang to hunt me down."

"Yang Guang?"

Yi Huawei's brow twitched almost imperceptibly. This name stirred up a vague fragment of information in a corner of his mind: "Where is this place? What is the state of the world?"

A flicker of doubt crossed Fu Junzhuo's eyes. This man's martial arts were profound, and his appearance and demeanor were extraordinary, yet he seemed completely ignorant of the current state of affairs? Could he be a reclusive master who had lived in seclusion for many years? But this thought was fleeting; the current situation didn't allow her to dwell on it. Taking a deep breath to suppress her surging blood, she answered clearly and deliberately:

"This place is the western suburbs of Luoyang. As for the rest of the world..."

(End of this chapter)