Chapter 1741 — On the Misty River, Clouds Unfurl and Fold

"There you go being so stern again. Let these descendants of yours pay their respects to you and offer you tea. " The Cloud Heavenly Venerable sat in the main hall, and Lady Yunxiao stood to one side, until he bade her be seated as well, smiling.

"Husband and wife are one body.

I am an ancestor of the Yun family, and so are you.

Sit.

" Lady Yunxiao sat down. The Yun family had for generations passed down a single line, leaving a household full of widows.

They came one after another, bearing tea, and knelt in respect; the Cloud Heavenly Venerable and Lady Yunxiao took the teacups from their daughters-in-law, drank, and set them down. The Cloud Heavenly Venerable looked around the room, smiling. "The men of the Yun family mostly died young, leaving you to keep your widowhood.

They died too early to give any instructions, so I, as the head of the Yun family, will give them: you may all remarry. If you meet a good man you fancy, then marry out.

" In the hall, the many widows of the Yun family were astonished, and looked at one another. The Cloud Heavenly Venerable turned his head to look at Lady Yunxiao. "I owe you, owe you all, a great deal. Xiangying, from now on you too may marry out; there is no need to take thought for me.

" Lady Yunxiao's heart trembled, and at once she understood something.

"We are husband and wife. Long ago, when you fell in battle, I had to care for the child in my belly and could not go with you; later the child died young and left a grandson, and I had to stay alive to preserve the Yun family's bloodline, and so I have lived on until now.

" Lady Yunxiao held his hand, raised her head to look at his face, and smiled. "Now you have returned, and the Yun family has heirs.

Wherever you go, I will go with you.

Is that not what husband and wife are? " A pain struck the Cloud Heavenly Venerable's heart, and he drew back his hand.

"I have wronged you for six hundred thousand years; I have done you a great wrong. How could I bear to. .

.

The place I must go is very far, and you cannot go there. Stay.

" Lady Yunxiao seized his hand once more.

"Wherever you go, I go! " The Cloud Heavenly Venerable looked at her, and nodded in silence. Yun Jianli stared blankly after them as the Cloud Heavenly Venerable and Lady Yunxiao, hand in hand, walked out of the main hall, out of the Yun Estate, and away from the divine city.

Yun Jianli hurried after them, but saw the husband and wife going farther and farther, and he could not catch up at all. After a long while, the Cloud Heavenly Venerable halted and descended to the ground. This was the bank of the Yong River, its waters surging and rushing away to the east.

By the river stood an abandoned village, no longer inhabited. The husband and wife walked into the village and sat facing each other in a thatched hut.

"This is the place, then.

" The Cloud Heavenly Venerable grasped Lady Yunxiao's hand and lowered his head, his breath growing fainter and fainter.

He said in a low voice, "Xiangying, do not let anyone know that I died here. .

.

" The Second Young Master of Miluo Palace had long since destroyed his soul and spirit; what occupied his flesh was only the last obsession. And now that obsession was spent.

Lady Yunxiao's vital essence erupted, shrouding the abandoned village. "Yun, my lord, do not go far.

" Her breath grew fainter and fainter, and at last scattered away.

The waters of the Yong River surged, swelling without cease; above the river, the sky of clouds, clouds unfurling and folding.