In the vermilion Forbidden City, Feng Jianxue was swiftly weaving through buildings, occasionally dodging patrolling squads and leaving behind markers for Hexia to follow.
He knew the general location of the Divine Sword, but the guards along the way were a trouble indeed.
This is bad, the sounds over there have stopped, has the battle ended so quickly? Feng Jianxue felt the pressure mounting slowly.
At that mont, another team of guards passed by, accompanied by several floating Autonomous Units scanning back and forth.
Seeing such an arrangent, Feng Jianxue couldn't help but shrink back, temporarily standing in a corner, not daring to make any hasty moves, while trying to suppress his body heat to lower his apparent temperature and avoid detection.
Fortunately, many things in Jielou City were rather outdated. If there were new scanning detectors from the Federation, even walls would not prevent detection. anwhile, as Feng Jianxue ran into trouble and was stuck there for the ti being, Hexia, on the other side, also encountered so problems.
"You are the Second Miss, aren't you, aren't you, aren't you..."
In front of her, a short old man was excited, arms raised high as if about to shout sothing in joy.
She was following the marks left by Feng Jianxue, but as she passed by a secluded pavilion, a shadow suddenly jumped out, blocking her path.
"I don't know who the Second Miss you speak of is, but it's possible she could be my mother." With no one else rushing over, Hexia breathed a sigh of relief and thought about how to calm the person in front of her.
"Mother? Could it be that the Second Miss had a child outside, how could this be, such a beautiful Second Miss, to bear a man's child? No! This is simply, simply, simply unacceptable, why? Why is it so, why won't she co even if she's alive?" He covered his head, suffering in agony.
"She must have been forced, right, surely soone deceived her, her personality is too good, too easily deceived, I should have known, I should have known, I should have stopped her back then..."
"I'm sorry to say this, but this is not a good place to talk. Is there a quiet and secluded place we can go?" Hexia thought quickly on her feet.
"Oh, right, indeed, it's not very safe here, follow ." After saying that, the old man led Hexia into an adjacent pavilion and carefully closed the door.
The pavilion was very quiet; it seed he was the only one living there. On the wall facing the main door hung a painting depicting the sight of a phoenix soaring.
"This is much better." He had Hexia sit in the hall and brought over a pot of cool tea.
"I don't have anything warm here, only cool tea for you to drink."
"Hmm, that's okay, I don't like things too hot anyway." The girl shook her head and then looked around, noticing the absence of any electrical appliances; it was all very quaint.
After sitting for a while, the old man closely inspected Hexia who was sitting in front of him, nodding occasionally, then shaking his head.
"Have you noticed anything?" the girl asked softly.
"Are you the daughter of the Second Miss?" the other side asked.
"I should be, but my mother never ntioned Jielou City. I only learned about this place recently and then ca here."
"Did she ever tell you her na?"
"At ho, she went by the na Gu Yongtian."
"That's her, she once said she didn't like the term Yongrong, it's too grand and distant."
"My na is Ge Lianfeng, I am sothing like a distant uncle to your mother, and nearly everyone old in this city is sohow related, nothing much to tell." His mood gradually settled down.
"Did you co here to retrieve the sword for your mother?" he continued asking.
"No, actually, my mother has passed away. She never ntioned it to before." Hexia shook her head, disconsolate.
"What, she, she actually died?" the other side incredulous.
"How did she die?" the other side asked through clenched teeth.
"It was an illness, my father consulted many doctors and tried many thods, but it was no use." Hexia sighed.
The old man across from her fell silent, his teeth grinding audibly.
"If it hadn't been for Qian Lou's argunt with your mother..." he started, then stopped and shook his head.
"Sigh, those matters... no one can truly say what was right or wrong... let's not talk about it, so how are you doing now?"
"I live alone now, but I'm doing quite well." She was afraid to admit if she wasn't doing well, the old man across might insist on her staying.
"Heh, are you afraid I might keep you here? There's no need for that, your uncle and I have our differences, and I was one of your mother's supporters back in the day, I wouldn't do sothing so dull."
"You just keep living well on your own out there, not coming back could even be considered a good thing," he sighed.
"Could you tell what actually happened back then? I've only ever heard bits and pieces, not the whole story."
"The events of those years? It would probably take days to tell in full, so I'll just give you a general idea."
"It was the lineage of 'Sword Guardians' your mother represented, deciding to abandon Jielou City and disperse into the other cities of Jade Skirt to live, so they didn't have to struggle futilely in this barren and chill land."
"But your uncle didn't see it that way, or rather the elder generation at that ti was opposed, seeing it as a betrayal, a betrayal of the oaths made over a thousand years. In those days, the 'Godly Generals' protected the Upper Gate's direct lineage, moving through interstellar space with many hardships and casualties, until they finally settled down slowly in Jade Skirt—now to just disperse? What was their sacrifice for then?"
"The people gathered here were descendants of those who fled disasters, once scattered, they would never be able to gather again. Here we can still call the shots, but in other cities, we'd be at the bottom without power, at the rcy of others, dood to be swallowed up, then fade away quietly."
"The line of 'Sword Guardians' also felt a deep sense of sha about this, but the helpless truth was that the ancient records and secret techniques were gradually getting lost. To keep insisting on this path had no aning anymore; even the 'Sword Guardians' no longer wanted their descendants to inherit this duty," he shook his head, adding that he too was once a 'Sword Guardian'.
"What happened to my mother afterward? How did she leave?" Hexia continued to ask.
"That's a more complicated story. At that ti, the T2-level AI 'Shen Lou' in Jielou City was nearing its ltdown ti, so the elders in power took out treasures from within Jielou City and traded with an external power, bringing in a T2-level AI from the black market. In the midst of this trade, so of the elders regretted and opposed it, sparking internal conflict, and your mother got involved as well."
"During this, your mother was wounded by Qian Lou and imprisoned. Then there was that agent transporting the AI's core who, seeing the situation turning sour, tried to take the things and leave, only to be stopped by us; he then took your mother hostage to threaten us."
"Because your mother was the next direct successor of the 'Sword Guardians' in Jielou City and was the most talented successor in a hundred years, many of the elderly had high hopes for her, so there was hesitation about whether to give up the AI core."
"But that matter, for various reasons, didn't co to pass, and both sides descended into fighting again. Afterward, we saw your mother shot in the chest, falling into a pool of blood, and her body was burned to ashes," he shook his head.
"So it seems that your mother didn't die at that ti; it was just a ruse. I just knew how could anyone bear to shoot such a beautiful woman."
Although she didn't die, she likely sustained hidden injuries during the conflict. Later, when she was pregnant, she didn't dare to birth both children at once. So she cryogenically froze one. As Hexia pieced together the past, she couldn't help but sigh deeply.
The estrangent between her and her sister stemd from this very divergence; had they grown up together, many tragedies could have been avoided.
Ti flowed gently by, and Hexia sat quietly in the near-dark hall for a long while until suddenly, Feng Jianxue's voice ca through the earpiece again.
"Where are you? I'm about to reach the Ancestral Shrine where the Divine Sword is kept."
In the darkness, this faint voice was particularly striking.
The expression of the old man across changed but then, as if rembering sothing, he gave a bitter smile and settled back in his seat.
"That Divine Sword, let's not speak of it. In fact, it's not worth fighting over, the power we traded with back then didn't even care for it."
"If you want to take it, go ahead, but at most, I will turn a blind eye; assisting you is out of the question."
"Honestly, I don't really care about the Divine Sword or anything like that," Hexia shook her head as she stood up, looking around.
"What about you? Do you really not want to leave this place?"
Her grey hair gradually turned black, and a pale blue light shimred in her eyes, blossoming like Tilan flowers in a pitch-black world.
With a face nearly identical to Gu Yongrong from years past, equally stunning, even surpassing her predecessor, the aura slowly emanating from this young woman, the blue Magic Power Light Sand floating beside her, and the Green Fire Ancient Sword that was condensing before her, all gave this old man an unprecedented shock and impact.
", I... Could it be that within my lifeti, I am witnessing the Qing Luan's Secret Technique lost for a thousand years?"
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