Invincible Dad-Chapter 723 Bai Xue_1

Before opening the coffin, Xu Lai had imagined countless possibilities, but never that he would see Ruan Tang inside.

He instinctively reached out to caress that incredibly familiar face, but just as he was about to make contact, he drew his hand back. He simply couldn't believe that his wife, who was far away on Earth, would die here, submerged tens of thousands of fathoms deep in the Boundless Sea.

Therefore, this couldn't possibly be real.

Xu Lai's gaze flickered as he reached out again, his hand landing on Ruan Tang's face. Her skin was icy cold.

Looking at the person in the coffin, he gave a self-deprecating smile.

"After getting together with you, I thought a day like this might come, but I never pictured such a specific scene of you lying in a coffin.

"So, this is what it's like.

"A lifespan of a million years... It's so long, and yet so brief."

Xu Lai sat by the coffin, rambling on. "There are some things I've always wanted to tell you, but I never knew how to start.

"Ruan Tang, it saddens me whenever you frown, because you look your best when you smile.

"Did you know? I've picked many Haitang flowers for you, including twin Haitang and others...

"I want to plant them all over the Heavenly Court. What do you think?"

There was no sorrow on Xu Lai's face. Like two old friends catching up, he spoke for a very long time, talking about his hopes for the future and the amusing anecdotes about their sweet little daughter, Xu Yiyi, who would occasionally let secrets slip.

As he spoke, Xu Lai reached out and slowly wrapped his hand around Ruan Tang's snow-white neck.

"I have to say, this illusion seems real, but it's full of flaws," Xu Lai sighed softly.

The first glimpse inside the coffin had shocked him, but in the next second, he realized it was a crude and obvious illusion.

But that was fine.

It had given him the chance to say some of the things he could never say to the real Ruan Tang.

And now that he was done, it was time to clean up.

Xu Lai's grip on 'Ruan Tang's' pale neck gradually tightened. Her face, already impossibly white, grew even paler.

WHOOSH.

Suddenly, she opened her eyes, which were filled with sorrow. "Why are you trying to kill me? I'm your wife, Ruan Tang."

"I know you aren't her, and you know you aren't either," Xu Lai said seriously. "Your only mistake was knowing too much."

A giant question mark appeared in her mind.

BANG!

With a loud crack, her neck snapped, and the illusion shattered.

Ruan Tang's heart-wrenching, pitiful face was nowhere to be seen in the coffin. All that remained was a Bronze Mirror, shattered into pieces. It was this Bronze Mirror—or rather, the Artifact Spirit within it—that had created the illusion and caused Xu Lai to waver for a moment.

The being to whom the thirty-six Quasi-Emperor corpses knelt must have been an Emperor Realm expert. Yet, the coffin should have contained a person or a corpse. Instead, there was nothing but a Quasi-Emperor Artifact.

"A Great Emperor's Tomb?" he mused. "But this tomb is too simple. There are no formations or restrictions, only Quasi-Emperor corpses standing guard. And yet... it doesn't feel like a fake tomb."

Xu Lai frowned but didn't dwell on it. The Bronze Coffin was buried in the deepest reaches of the Boundless Sea. No matter how he looked at it, its origins were clearly extraordinary. However, Xu Lai had more important matters to attend to.

He had to find Yousu Qinghuan.

And that door.

One day passed, then two. Five days went by, and then ten. Time flew by quickly.

Weariness began to show on Xu Lai's face. The Boundless Sea possessed peculiar natural laws, and resisting them consumed a massive amount of Spiritual Energy. The higher one's Boundary, the greater the consumption. This was why high-level Cultivators couldn't last as long in the Boundless Sea as lower-level ones.

For someone of his Emperor Realm Boundary, ten days at the bottom of the sea was pushing his limits. Xu Lai didn't hesitate to consume a Spiritual Fruit. Snowflower from the Third Domain and the Seventy-Seventh Domain had each given him two Spiritual Fruits, for a total of four. These were priceless treasures, though not as precious as the six drops of Snowflower's Essence Blood in his Storage Space. His only regret was that the Snowflower from the Ninth Domain hadn't shown up; otherwise, he would have had two more fruits.

I wonder if the Spirit Plants that Mojian Wuzheng split into three can ever be reunited.

As the thought crossed his mind, the Spiritual Energy in his body was instantly restored. This was the power of the Spiritual Fruit. With his energy replenished, Xu Lai could continue his search on the seabed.

***

「Earth. Haitang Court.」 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Time slowly ticked by. It was now the forty-fifth day since Xu Lai had left Earth.

During that time, Ruan Tang had composed herself and returned to work, while her sister, Ruan Lan, was unceremoniously sent back to school by her ruthless older sister.

"That accursed brother-in-law still isn't back!"

On an afternoon with no classes, Ruan Lan sat on the floor in front of the sofa, playing a video game. After dying yet again, she looked up, her eyes fixed on the backyard. She was wearing a spaghetti strap nightgown.

A woman was sunbathing there. It wasn't Ruan Tang, nor was it her niece who had disappeared along with her brother-in-law. It was a woman named Bai Xue.

This whole affair had started about ten days ago.

On a bright and sunny afternoon, Ruan Lan was lying on the sofa studying chessboard formations. Ruan Tang was resting her chin in her hands, staring blankly at the flower arrangement on the table.

That's when two strange women arrived.

One, a woman named Yan Chunfeng, said she had a message from that "accursed brother-in-law" of hers, Xu Lai. The gist of it was: 'I'm alive, and I will be back.'

The other woman was Bai Xue. According to Yan Chunfeng, Bai Xue had been in grave danger. Xu Lai happened to have saved her, so she planned to wait here for her benefactor to return so she could repay his kindness. It was also a safe haven for her.

To prove her identity, Yan Chunfeng had even brought Divine General Taotie with her.

"How dare that brother-in-law of mine bring home a woman he got tangled up with?!" Ruan Lan had been furious at the time.

Divine General Taotie was also dumbfounded. In all his years of following the Supreme Emperor, he had never heard of a confidante named Bai Xue.

Ruan Tang, however, remained very calm. She prepared a room for Bai Xue and bought her clothes and other daily necessities.

But from that day forward, Ruan Tang stopped spacing out all day. She returned to her normal life, going to and from work. Since she no longer had to pick up Xu Yiyi, she spent her days with Xu Yaoyao and Luo Chu. They went shopping and soaked in hot springs, living a life of leisure.

***

「Back to the present.」

Bai Xue sat ramrod straight in the backyard. She sat with her eyes closed, thoroughly enjoying the sunlight. Her fair skin shimmered with an enchanting luster under its rays.

She's been sunbathing for ten days and hasn't tanned at all. What brand of sunscreen does she use to get that effect?

Then again, having fair skin is nothing special. This fairy isn't exactly dark-skinned herself.

I'd like to see just how this fox coquette managed to seduce my brother-in-law!

After all, Ruan Lan herself had tried using a honey trap on Xu Lai several times, but she had never succeeded. Even though she was only playing around, it still rankled her!

Her gaze slid down from Bai Xue's neck, settling on the bountiful peaks hidden beneath her nightgown, their size comparable to Ruan Tang's.

Ruan Lan instantly understood.

Xu Lai was still an utterly superficial man.