by Mars Gravity
“…” Feng Xue’er’s lips moved a little. Her starry eyes became slightly misty as she suddenly said, “Big Brother Yun, I indeed haven’t gone back in a really long time. Royal Father and the others must miss me. Phoenix City should be under reconstruction now and they would most need my help during this time, so I want to go back to Phoenix City for a while.”
Yun Che nodded agreeably, “During this time, I will be in Floating Cloud City. With the connection of the profound formations, we can see each other anytime. Xue’er can stay in Phoenix City during the day and come back into my arms obediently during the night.”
“Big Brother Yun… You… you are getting naughtier and naughtier,” Xue’er pouted playfully as enchanting red clouds emerged on her angelic face.
The two of them parted before the teleportation formations. One returned to Phoenix City and the other returned to Floating Cloud City.
The teleportation formation in Floating Cloud City was set up right in Xiao Family’s courtyard. However, when Yun Che walked out of the teleportation formation, he didn’t go straight to Xiao Lingxi and the others. Instead, he flew up into the air and his spiritual sense instantly shrouded all of Floating Cloud City.
The strength of Yun Che’s spiritual sense now was a lot stronger than before. Every hint of aura in Floating Cloud City clearly appeared under his spiritual senses. Very quickly, he targeted his destination, flew towards east of the city like a strike of lightning, and landed next to a middle-aged man in silver clothing.
When a silhouette suddenly appeared before him, the man in silver clothing immediately became alert, but when he realized that it was Yun Che, he hurriedly bowed down, “This humble one is the palace master of Asura Palace, Absolute Monarch Sanctuary. I have waited here many days for Asgard Master Yun under the command of Saint Emperor.”
“Many days? You came here this early?” Yun Che mumbled.
“Yes, Asgard Master Yun’s order must not be neglected,” the middle-aged man in silver clothing who called himself Luo Chi said in an extremely respectful tone.
“Where is he?” said Yun Che.
“In the small house right behind me,” Luo Chi answered.
“Give Xuanyuan Wendao to me, as for the other one… you will wait here for another day.”
“Yes.”
A short moment later, Luo Chi carried a man in black out and placed him next to Yun Che.
Xuanyuan Wendao’s face was sallow. He lost the imposing manner and arrogance that he once had. The way he laid there made him look like a dog with all its bones broken.
“Ugh…” A difficult moan came from Xuanyuan’s throat. He slowly lifted his head and finally saw Yun Che’s face. At that instant, it was like he was shocked by lightning, his pupils immediately dilated a few dozen times, “Yun… Yun Che!”
“Hmph,” Yun Che sneered, “Xuanyuan Wendao, do you still recognize this place?”
“Ah… ah…” Xuanyuan Wendao’s mouth opened wide. The moment he saw Yun Che, he fell into an abyss of desperation. In his extreme fear, forget about responding, he couldn’t even say a single word.
Yun Che picked him up and flew up into the air. He quickly returned to the Xiao Clan, followed an aura, then directly landed in Xiao Lie’s courtyard.
“Che’er, you’re back.”
Seeing Yun Che, Xie Lie put down Xiao Yongan who was just put to sleep down from his arms lightly. His face was filled with a gentle smile, “Since you’re back, you should stay here for a few more days. These past two days, Xi’er has already tidied up and cleaned up your room.”
“Mn, of course I’ll stay for a few more days after leaving home for this long,” Yun Che responded, “Grandfather, I have a present for you.”
“Present?”
Yun Che reached his arms out, sucked over Xuanyuan Wendao who was outside of the door and threw him in front of Xiao Lie.
Xiao Lie jumped and asked in surprise, “Who is this?”
“His name is Xuanyuan Wendao.” Yun Che took a small breath and said each word sharply, “He was the one who murdered Uncle Xiao twenty four years ago!”
“…” Xiao Lie’s body shook violently as if he had heard a thunderclap. The gentle smile on his face became pale all of a sudden.
Yun Che immediately held onto Xiao Lie and he said with his brows lowered, “The mastermind of this whole thing back then is already dead and everyone who participated in it received what they deserved. I only left this man alive… because he should be executed by grandfather yourself.”
In the years Xiao Lie raised him and Xiao Lingxi, the two things that he desired the most for the longest time was to heal his profound veins and to find the murderer who killed Xiao Ying. In the end, Yun Che not only recovered his profound veins, his name had also famous throughout the world. As for the latter, that had become Xiao Lie’s biggest knot in his heart.
But now, the murderer whom he had been searching for, whom he dreamt of killing had finally been found and was right before his eyes. More than twenty years of pain and hatred which had accumulated now surged violently in his soul.
“You… it’s you… you… killed my son… it’s you!”
At this moment, his expression twisted beyond recognition. He, who had always been as calm as water released a strong sadness and an equally strong hostility. Yun Che didn’t comfort or try to stop him because he knew that this was the biggest hatred and sore point in Xiao Lie’s life. He had to work off his anger to his heart’s content and end it himself. If not, his heart and soul would forever be trapped under a heavy shadow and never be truly free.
Xiao Lie suddenly reached out and grabbed Xuanyuan Wendao by the collar and turned his sallow desperate face over. Looking at his sworn enemy who he felt irreconcilable hatred for that murdered his son and destroyed his family, Xiao Lie’s eyes almost burst. His whole body shook uncontrollably, “I… I… I will kill you!!”
In Yun Che’s whole life, he had never seen Xiao Lie showing such a horrifying expression and making such terrifying sounds. He grabbed upwards onto Xuanyuan Wendao’s throat as all of his pain and hatred condensed within his trembling hands…
“WAAAHHH…”
Right at this moment, the clear sound of an infant’s wail came over. This familiar crying sound caused Xiao Lie’s body to tremble all over. As if by reflex, he tossed Xuanyuan Wendao aside and rushed back into the house. He hurriedly and carefully picked up Xiao Yongan who had suddenly woken up… In the instant that he picked up Xiao Yongan, the hostility on him almost vanished all at once.
“Yongan be good. Don’t cry, don’t cry. It’s great grandfather’s fault, great grandfather must have frightened Yongan…”
Xiao Lie hugged the baby tightly and comforted it with a gentle voice. His slightly lowered eyes were filled with infinite pampering and gentleness. There was not a trace of any hatred or ferociousness just now, as if he had completely forgotten Xuanyuan Wendao’s existence. Very quickly, Xiao Yuanan stopped crying and had fallen back asleep steadily in his arms.
Yun Che, “…”
“Che’er,” Xiao Lie didn’t put Xiao Yongan down. When he faced Xuanyuan Wendao once again, his eyes were already very calm and peaceful, “This man killed my son. I wanted to find him and cut him into pieces even in my dreams. But… these hands of mine are for holding Yongan. They cannot be contaminated by the blood of filth and sin. So, help grandfather sacrifice him before the grave of Yongan’s grandfather and let his soul in heaven be at rest…”
“Alright!” Yun Che promised loudly and he felt an ease in his heart that could not be described with words… This was easier than having Xiao Lie kill Xuanyuan Wendao himself in revenge.
“Mn.” Xiao Lie tightly held onto the child who was fast asleep in his arms. He lifted his head, looked towards the sky, and a slight smile appeared on his face. Even though there was some sadness in his smile, it was much more relaxed and peaceful than any of the smiles that Yun Che had seen on him.
At that moment, Yun Che grab
bed Xuanyuan Wendao, went to Xiao Clan’s rear mountains and threw him before Xiao Ying’s tombstone.
“Xuanyuan Wendao, it’s time to send you to reunite with your father.” Yun Che stepped right on top of him and made his head bow deeply in front of Xiao Ying’s tombstone, “Oh no no, when your father died, both his body and soul were burnt to nothing. Even if you walked through all eighteen layers of hell you wouldn’t be able to find him.”
“My Uncle Xiao’s family were a kind-hearted bunch but because of trash like you, this tragedy happened to them… Even if you died ten thousand times, you wouldn’t be able to pay your debts!” Yun Che’s face darkened as he said in hatred, “Go to hell to atone for your sins!”
Phoenix flames instantly burned and Xuanyuan Wendao only had time to make a desperate scream before turning into scattered ashes that sprinkled before Xiao Ying’s grave.
Yun Che took two steps back, bowed deeply towards Xiao Ying’s tombstone, and said in a low voice, “Uncle Xiao,you saved my family back then but encountered disaster because of it. Your kindness was something my Yun Family could hardly return. But today, we finally avenged you. Now that we have avenged you and there are descendants for the Xiao Family, I hope your soul in heaven can smile and be at ease.”
After taking another deep bow, Yun Che flew into the air. Just as he was about to fly back to the Xiao Clan, he suddenly hesitated and then changed directions and flew towards the east side of Floating Cloud City.
A great confusion had always been entrenched in his heart.
It was the fifty kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal that was hidden in Floating Cloud City.
What kind of concept was fifty kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal?
The entire Profound Sky Continent couldn’t produce fifty kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal in an average of a hundred years. And a full fifty kilograms suddenly appeared in a Floating Cloud City which was known to be incredibly poor.
The strangest thing was that the process of a large amount of Purple Veined Divine Crystals developing should take a few thousand years, or even ten thousand years. It would definitely release a strong aura during this period of time as well. But those large sects, especially the Four Great Sacred Grounds, with such high quality resources and extremely sharp senses of smell and detection, none of them noticed such a huge divine crystal mine all these years?
It had instead been detected by Divine Phoenix Sect a few years back.
It was as if… these fifty kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal had just suddenly appeared in the recent years.
Chapter 925: The Unexpected Truth
The area east of Floating Cloud City had originally been a land of hills and mountains but because of the Divine Phoenix Army, it had been flattened into a wide expanse of flat plains.
Even though Yun Che had grown up in Floating Cloud City, he had never been to this place before he reached sixteen years of age. There were many low level profound beasts which existed around the hills and mountains. If Xiao Lingxi or Xia Yuanba accompanied him, Xiao Lie would not restrict him from venturing into those places. But the one place that Xiao Lie absolutely would not let him and Xiao Lingxi explore was the mountainous region east of Floating Cloud City. Perhaps it was because it was too far from Floating Cloud City, so Xiao Lie would not have been able to stop worrying about their safety if they went.
Yun Che arrived in the skies above this place as he quickly expanded the range of his spiritual perception thereby covering the entire area which the Divine Phoenix Army had trampled.
Even though it was very faint, Yun Che could still faintly sense that a sealing profound formation had been set up on these lands. It was very clear that after the Divine Phoenix Sect had discovered the purple crystal deposit in this place, the first thing they did was to lay down an invisible isolation barrier in order to prevent other parties from detecting the aura given off by the purple crystals.
But what was strange was that even though his spiritual perception expanded to cover a full ten kilometer radius, he could not sense the aura of any purple crystals.
The Divine Phoenix Sect had been without a doubt extremely careful and cautious when it came to this matter. So they had swept this place clean and had not left behind any traces of their activities. After all, to the Divine Phoenix Sect of that time, the consequences would have been nothing short of disastrous if their activities had been discovered by the Four Sacred Grounds.
After he descended from the skies above and stepped onto the flattened ground, Yun Che stood there with sunken brows as he pondered the situation. But he was still unable to figure out how there could be fifty kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal lying beneath this ground.
Previously, this doubt had briefly flashed through his mind but far too many things had happened after that, so the suspicions he had over these Purple Veined Divine Crystals had been shoved to the back of his mind. But while he was dealing with Xuanyuan Wentian, he suddenly discovered something that was definitely highly irregular—even if these fifty kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal were buried deep below the ground, they would still definitely give off an extraordinary profound crystal aura. It was already extremely unusual that the Four Sacred Grounds had not discovered such a deposit. But in addition to that, the members of Sun Moon Divine Hall and Mighty Heavenly Sword Region had paid a visit to Floating Cloud City twenty four years ago while they were in hot pursuit of his parents, Yun Qinghong and Mu Yurou… It was also at that time that harm befell Xiao Ying.
If they had merely briefly visited the city, one could still barely swallow the idea that they had not discovered the crystal deposit. But after they arrived at Floating Cloud City, they had clearly swept across the surrounding area for many days, they had practically dug up the entire landscape. Given the strength of the spiritual perceptions of people on the level of the Sacred Grounds, why had they not detected such a large and high-grade purple crystal deposit at all?
Furthermore, the people sent to chase and capture Yun Qinghong and Mu Yurou were definitely all individuals who had reached the level of Monarch… and the contingent from Mighty Heavenly Sword Region had even been personally led by their young master, Xuanyuan Wendao.
Could it be that this purple crystal deposit had not existed at that time?
No… that definitely was not possible. It required an extremely long time to form such a gigantic purple crystal deposit, so how could this have been formed in the short span of a little over twenty years?
Other than that, according to his spiritual perception and depth of the ground that had been covertly dug up, this purple crystal deposit had not been buried too deeply. On the contrary, Yun Che would even say that it had been buried rather near the surface. The spot that was nearest to the surface was a little more than sixty meters in depth—At that time, the Divine Phoenix Army had dispatched an army two hundred thousand strong to garrison this place, disguising the sounds of the shallow parts of the purple crystal deposit being mined by performing their “act” every day and causing a huge ruckus.
Yun Che stood in that spot for a very long time but he just could not puzzle this conundrum out. If one were to see that the Four Sacred Grounds had never discovered this purple crystal deposit because they had never visited this place even once in the past few millennia, then one could still barely swallow that explanation. But if one were to say that the brains and senses of all of the members of the Sacred Grounds who had visited Floating Cloud City had completely short-circuited… that was an explanation that was simply unacceptable.
Just as Yun Che was considering whether he wanted to delve into the depths of the mountainous regions, a figure suddenly appeared in the west. That person leisurely and slowly strolled towards where Yun Che was standing.
Yun Che’s gaze swivelled and he caught sight of an old man of medium build and with a kindly looking face. His eyes jumped as he took to the air and landed in front of that old man, “Grandpa Hong, why would you suddenl
y be interested in coming to this place?”
The old man’s footsteps ground to a halt before a small smile appeared on his face, “Ah, so it was the Youngest Master. Ah, it is about time to offer sacrifices at Madam’s grave again. So the Master wanted me to pick some of the orchids that Madam loved so much. Youngest Master, why have you come to this place?”
Within the Xiao Family, Yun Che respected Xiao Lie the most but the person who came right after Xiao Lie was the person standing in front of him, Xiao Hong. Xiao Hong was originally not someone who belonged to the Xiao Family. He was someone who had been rescued by Xiao Lie’s father while he was adventuring. Xiao Lie’s father had brought him back to the Xiao Family after that. He changed his family name to Xiao. He had protected and taken care of Xiao Lie ever since Xiao Lie was young and he was also fiercely loyal to Xiao Lie. During Yun Che and Xia Qingyue’s wedding, it had also been Xiao Hong who had accompanied and escorted Yun Che to receive his bride.
When the day came to offer sacrifices to his deceased wife came every year, Xiao Lie would always bring along a big bouquet of orchids. Because these were the flowers that his deceased wife had loved the most. This was something that Yun Che and Xiao Lingxi had known since their childhood.
“I was just seized by a momentary fancy, so I came to take a look,” Yun Che said as he surveyed the surrounding area. “It looks like there aren’t any orchids around here. How about Grandpa Hong and I go to another area to find them?”
“That’s okay.” Xiao Hong smiled as he shook his head, “Presently, the youngest master already has a body that is practically priceless, so how can I ask you to accompany me to perform such a rough and lowly task. In the past, orchids could be found everywhere in this vicinity. But ever since the Divine Phoenix Army arrived in this place, it has been completely flattened and it seems like the orchids have also become rather hard to find. Sigh.”
“Ah, so those orchids from years past were always harvested from this place,” Yun Che said in a rather touched manner. “Speaking of which, Grandfather never let me or Little Aunt come here and play throughout our early years, so I do not even know what this place looked like before.”
