The matter regarded the Inevitable Convergence was sothing Ye Jun always considered, but he was too weak to do anything in the grand sches of the world. Even now, he was very weak but he still wanted to check out the place where his serpent tattoo pointed at.
Just as he was Mulling about it, he paused and turned towards ihui, "You noticed it?"
"Noticed what?" Song Liangxue asked.
"She’s from Monarch Clans," Ye Jun said, taking a deep breath. "Rember what the dream told ? About the Seven Monarchs?"
She paused, her whole body freezing in surprise. For a mont, she didn’t act at all, then she turned towards ihui who just looked at them with mild surprise of her own.
"You broke free," she muttered. "How?"
"I don’t know how, but what happened?" Ye Jun narrowed his eyes. "Didn’t you once say that you were under an oath so you can’t tell us?"
"I still am," ihui’s shoulder sagged as she said. "But I wasn’t just healing in my seclusion. I was also finding ways to get around this Oath. I did find a few ways to loosen it a bit. It worked and that’s how I was able to tell you everything."
She raised her head and said, "Unfortunately, the Oath is so powerful because who it involves that your Soul automatically began to avoid things related to the Monarch Realm Cultivators. You only rembered basic information about them, but you never connected the dots because of their influence."
"Just their presence has this much influence?" Ye Jun was baffled. "Just how strong are they?"
"Very powerful," ihui smiled wryly and answered. "They can do whatever they want because of their strength and even the world has to bend to follow their wishes."
"And their current wish to remain unknown," Ye Jun said, leaning back a bit.
"Pretty much," ihui nodded, her shoulders dropping slightly. "And that wish is baked into the very laws of the world because of who they are. It’s not just an oath about what I can say. It’s about what people are allowed to process. For ordinary people, it’s absolute. If a mortal heard say the word Monarch right now, they’d forget this whole conversation by tomorrow morning. Their brains just wouldn’t hold it."
Ye Jun leaned back against the carriage wall, frowning. "And us?"
"You and Liangxue are strong enough to rember the words," ihui explained, "but the information just... took a backseat. Your minds didn’t connect it to anything else you knew. You weren’t supposed to. The oath plays dirty, you know as it uses your own brain against you. It doesn’t wipe the mory as one might expect, it just shoves the truth into a dark corner where you stop looking for it."
Song Liangxue rubbed the back of her neck, "That’s terrifying, actually."
"It is," ihui agreed. "Which is why I’m still staring at him trying to figure out how he broke it. The stronger you get, the more you can push back, sure but the gap between his current cultivation and what you’d actually need to crack a Monarch-tier oath is a canyon. He shouldn’t have been able to do it and yet, here we are."
Ye Jun went quiet, turning the puzzle over in his head. He had a few theories actually like his Ascension hadn’t just been a breakthrough, it had completely rebuilt him from the ground up, Soul, Will, Comprehension, Physique. His Soul was now absurdly dense compared to his peers, and his Will had been forged in the fires of nine Tribulations and two mory Trials without snapping. This the least likely though.
Then, of course, there was the system, that silent, impossible engine running in the background since the day he woke up in this body. And finally, the dream itself. It had nad the Seven Monarchs explicitly. Maybe it had left a tiny wedge in his mind, refusing to let him gloss over the words like everyone else.
He couldn’t be sure which it was, so he shelved it.
"Maybe it was all of it combined," he said, cutting through his own thoughts. "We can discuss it later, what I want to know is what you can tell us, now that the leash is loose."
ihui took a slow, steadying breath.
"The Five Ancient Clans, the Monarch Clans, are the direct descendants of the Monarchs," she said. "Except there weren’t always five. Originally, there were Seven."
Song Liangxue’s gaze snapped up. "Seven."
"The dream nad seven," Ye Jun murmured.
"Right, there were seven clans in the beginning, each founded by one of the original Monarchs. Sowhere back in the history books, two of those lines just vanished. Now we’re left with five." She paused, a trace of bitterness touching her lips. "I don’t know what happened to the two that dropped off the map. My clan knows of course, but that kind of history is locked in a vault. They don’t pass it down to the lower main branches, and they definitely don’t share it with the average third child of the Clan Head."
She gave a small, tired smile at that last part. Even out here, miles away from them, the weight of how her family saw her still lingered.
Song Liangxue thought it over for a beat before asking, "How sure are we about this dream? Not that Ye Jun is lying, but can we actually trust the source?"
"Completely," ihui said without hesitation. "Only the inner circle of the Monarch Clans knows the Seven ever existed. Not even the Imperial Family, and honestly, not even most of my own relatives know about it. The fact that Ye Jun’s dream spit out those exact nas ans whatever put it in his head has access to truths that even the apex powers of this world can’t touch. If the dream got the past right, it’s probably right about what’s coming."
Ye Jun gave a slow nod. He had two distinct puzzle pieces now: the dream naming the Seven, and the serpent tattoo on his shoulder, pulling him like a compass toward the north.
He hadn’t doubted the pull before and he doubted it even less now.
"You should know," ihui said softly, her eyes dropping to her lap. "I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you any of this sooner. I wanted to the second we beca... what we are to each other, I wanted to. But the oath would have killed on the spot if I hadn’t found a loophole first. If I’d tried to force it, I’d be dead, and you’d have been left with no answers."
"Hey," Ye Jun said gently, reaching across the gap to catch her hand. "It’s fine, you did what you had to do to stay alive. I’m not angry or anything, ihui. I’m really grateful."
She closed her eyes for a brief second, letting herself lean into his touch.
"Alright," Ye Jun said, turning his attention to Liangxue. "There’s a favor I need to ask while we’re on the road."
"Na it."
"Keep a close eye on the Ye Clan."
Song Liangxue tilted her head, her sharp eyes studying him, "I was going to anyway, but what’s driving the request?"
"They know I’m coming for them. They have to. The mont the news hits them that I hit Soul Tempering, they’ll realize the clock is ticking. Ye Zhong isn’t an idiot, and neither are the Elders. They’re going to look for a shield." Ye Jun’s voice was entirely flat, stripped of emotion. "Their smartest play is to run to your clan’s rivals. They’ll offer themselves up as useful chess pieces in exchange for protection and a place to hide from ."
Song Liangxue let out a low hum,"It’s exactly what I would do if the tables were turned. I’ll get a ssage out to my Aunt before we set up camp tonight. The sects already has eyes in Bright Star City, and my clan can easily redirect a few more scouts. If the Ye Clan tries to jump into bed with anyone we’re already fighting, we’ll know within a few days."
"Appreciate it."
"Don’t thank . It’s not just a favor for you anymore," she said, a hard edge to her voice. "You are with us now. We’re a family."
Ye Jun t her gaze, then nodded. It was still a strange, unfamiliar feeling, having allies who didn’t hesitate to shoulder his burdens as their own.
With the heavy stuff out of the way, the tension in the carriage thinned out. They settled back into the rhythm of the journey as the carriage climbed higher into the northern mountains.
Outside, the scenery was changing fast, the air thinning out, the lush forests giving way to jagged rocks and stubborn, wind-bitten brush. The road grew rougher, the signs of other travelers disappearing entirely.
Ye Jun closed his eyes, focusing inward on the coiled serpent tattoo on his left wrist. Ever since the dream, the mark had felt more alive, buzzing with a heavy, patient gravity. It felt like holding one end of an invisible thread, getting a gentle tug every now and then to remind him that sothing was waiting on the other side.
And right now, the tension on that thread was spiking.
Another hour passed, the wheels rattling against the increasingly rugged path, when the sensation suddenly deepened, hitting him like a physical weight.
He snapped his eyes open,"We’re close."
ihui sat up straight. "How close?"
"I can’t pinpoint it exactly, but the thread is pulling hard now. We’re very close."
The carriage rolled on for a few more uneasy minutes before the horses slowed to a crawl, then ground to a complete halt.
A second later, Song Ying’s voice cut through the silence from outside, sharp and urgent.
"You three need to get out here. Sothing’s wrong."
Ye Jun traded a quick look with ihui and Liangxue. No words were needed. He shoved the carriage door open and stepped out onto the rocky mountain road, the two girls right on his heels.
The mont his boots hit the dirt, the atmosphere slamd into him.
The air was thick, vibrating with violent Qi fluctuations coming from just over the ridge ahead. It was chaotic, fast, and entirely unnatural.
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