Chapter 17

Chapter 17

“…Your Qingque?”

For a moment, my mind went blank.

Then it began spinning wildly.

No, that was clearly my Little Senior Brother’s Qingque.

Could this person be Little Senior Brother?

That seemed unlikely… Mojian’s sword spirit had vanished in the Northern Plains. How could Little Senior Brother suddenly appear in Dongze?

Or had Senior Brother been wrong? Was Little Senior Brother actually not dead, and, like me, had rushed here to save him and Master?

At the thought, my heart began pounding despite myself.

I showed none of it on my face. Instead, I narrowed my eyes and sized him up just as openly.

“I’m using the Qingque my Little Senior Brother left behind. How did it become yours?

“Words alone prove nothing. How can you prove it?”

Everything I knew about Little Senior Brother came from Senior Brother’s words. I had never seen him with my own eyes, so I had to be careful. I couldn’t let just any random nobody claim his identity.

I waited uneasily for the young man’s answer.

To my surprise, he seemed too lazy to speak again. He closed his eyes, curled and extended a finger, and Qingque flew from his palm to his shoulder.

Those little bead-like eyes were still black and lively, yet something seemed to be missing from them.

Blessed Power.

Qingque’s memories had been retrieved!

Almost the same instant I realized it, the young man opened his eyes as well.

“I don’t recall ever gaining a junior sister…”

He spoke slowly, then cast me a meaningful look.

“So what exactly is your relationship with my Eldest Senior Brother, Nan Wenji?”

Above us, a dead branch snapped in the wind with a crack.

The heart lodged in my throat dropped heavily with it.

This person really was my Little Senior Brother.

Little Senior Brother wasn’t dead…!

All at once, I felt the weakness of someone who had survived a disaster.

Joy, grievance, regret, sorrow… Countless emotions tangled together in that moment, twisting in my mind into a force that charged wildly in every direction. It left me unable to think. I could only act on instinct.

“Little Senior Brother!”

I lunged forward, wanting to grab his hand.

Without hesitation, he slipped aside and avoided me, not even lifting an eyebrow.

“Call me by my name.

“I don’t have a second junior sister.”

Mm. He really was exactly as Senior Brother had described.

Introverted, poor with words, and very good at offending people when he spoke.

I felt an immense sense of familiarity. To put him at ease, I told him everything about how I had met Senior Brother, leaving nothing out.

Qingque could only store a limited number of memories. Little Senior Brother-no, Rui Xun’en-could only retrieve memories as far back as the day before Senior Brother left.

After learning the whole story, his reaction was very calm. He said only one thing:

“Your memories have recovered.”

His tone was certain. Under that intensely oppressive gaze, I nodded.

“Then who are you?”

I fell silent. Thinking back on every scene from my escape from Yong Palace, I found it even harder to speak.

Seeing that I remained quiet, Rui Xun’en changed the subject.

“You came to Dongze to save my Eldest Senior Brother and Master?”

“Yes.”

“So did I.”

He forced out an extremely stiff smile and took the initiative to speak of the accident that had happened at Xiangwu Mountain back then.

At the time, he and his junior sister Mei Tao had been guarding the outer sect. Amid the chaos, Mei Tao was injured by their rioting fellow disciples.

While shielding Mei Tao, he reinforced the barrier, but the number of people imprisoned was simply too great. In the end, several still escaped amid the disorder.

To pursue their fellow disciples, Rui Xun’en and his junior sister Mei Tao split up.

It was while searching for them in the Northern Plains that he was surrounded by a group of mysterious people, gravely wounded, and left unconscious for several days.

Hearing this, I remembered Mojian tucked against my chest and carefully returned it to him.

Perhaps being near the sword stirred too much fear and guilt. Rui Xun’en’s expression changed instantly. His gaze rested on the blade for only a moment before he looked away as if burned.

“Mojian died protecting me. I failed it.”

He swiftly took Mojian from my hands, the gloom on his face deepening.

“Those people concealed their auras, and their techniques were strange. There was no way to judge which domain they came from. They were ruthless, too. If Mojian hadn’t bought me time at the end, I likely would have died there as well.

“After I woke, my Blessed Power had suffered a severe loss, and I was nearly blind. Xiangwu Mountain’s Void Realm had also been too badly damaged to open. So I came from the Northern Plains to Dongze and have been hiding here ever since, so I could learn news of Master as soon as possible.”

Only then did I notice that his eyes had been lowered the entire time, blocking the light from entering them.

Not only that, both his arms and legs were also kept slightly bent.

It seemed the real situation was far more dangerous than he had described.

“While I was recovering in Dongze, I also heard about the matter of Senior Brother wiping out that household.”

Rui Xun’en paused. A barely perceptible crease appeared between his brows before he continued.

“Senior Brother is not someone who acts on impulse. If he did that, he must have had his reasons, which is why Master didn’t blame him.

“I had originally planned to look for him after Blessed Power recovered, so we could search for our junior sister together. But just as I was about to set out, I heard that Master had already been convicted, and Senior Brother had been taken into Yong Palace-”

“What did you say?!” I suddenly grabbed Rui Xun’en’s sleeve, unable to believe it. “Senior Brother has already been captured?”

“You didn’t know?”

Rui Xun’en asked in return. Lifting a hand, he coaxed the startled Qingque back and held it in his arms, stroking it gently.

“The Four Domains issued wanted notices for the three of us. Given Senior Brother’s temperament, rather than hiding everywhere and being hunted down, he would naturally find it more straightforward to go in and settle things himself.

“I expected he would come to Dongze, but I never thought he’d be taken into Yong Palace the moment he entered the territory. We didn’t even get to meet him.”

My face went white. Listening to this chain of unexpected developments, my mind buzzed.

At that moment, Rui Xun’en spoke coolly and pulled my thoughts back.

“I thought you already knew.”

He stared at me without blinking, but there was a trace of sharpness in his eyes.

“I can sense Qingque’s presence within a certain range. I knew you rushed straight here as soon as you entered Dongze, but I didn’t know Senior Brother was in Yong Palace… So what are you going to Yong Palace for?

“This route does indeed lead into the inner grounds of Yong Palace, but it took me dozens of days of investigation to uncover that. How did you know?

“Clearly, you are from Dongze.

“Or to be more specific, you’re from Yong Palace.”

Without changing expression, he reversed his grip and caught the hand that was clutching his sleeve, his strength gradually increasing.

“Tell me. Who exactly are you?”

His gaze burned like the scorching sun, leaving me nowhere to hide as I was forced to meet it head-on.

The pain in my wrist spread upward with every question, as if my neck were being gripped tighter and tighter, making even breathing difficult.

Only now did I understand clearly that Rui Xun’en had never truly dismissed his suspicion of me.

He had taken such a long detour only to probe my limits and draw my true identity out of me.

Time seemed to freeze. The surroundings were frighteningly silent.

Perhaps seeing that I was trembling faintly, Rui Xun’en eased his grip and his attitude also softened somewhat.

“Not a word I said just now was false. If you truly came to save Senior Brother and Master, why would you need to hide anything?

“You also know they’ve been framed, and that they may be trapped in Yong Palace and suffering punishment right now. They can’t afford to wait even a moment!”

Of course I understood all that.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Rui Xun’en.

I just hadn’t figured out how to tell him that my father was one of the main culprits who had framed his master and Senior Brother.

My temple throbbed. I steadied my nerves and sorted through my thoughts.

After a long while, I finally made up my mind and spoke.

“Senior Brother Rui, calm down first…

“I am indeed from Yong Palace. I’m the daughter of Fu Zhenqian, the Dongze Sect Leader.”

Before I could finish, a light, contemptuous snort cut me off.

My breath caught, but Rui Xun’en said, “Looks like I was right.”

I was stunned. “What?”

Rui Xun’en let go of my hand and continued, “Three months ago, Yong Palace suddenly sent people to conduct searches throughout the Four Domains. Many guessed it had something to do with fugitives from the Xiangwu Mountain incident.

“But those people didn’t post notices or offer rewards. Instead, they deliberately circled around Dongze, and even went so far as to burn down the forest on their own rear mountain. That was when I understood: Yong Palace had lost someone itself.”

“Burned down the forest?”

Only after he said it did I take a good look around, catching the lifeless, rotten air in this forest that didn’t match the climate at all.

“But how did you determine my identity from that?”

“Simple. With a little asking around in Dongze, anyone could learn of the marriage alliance between the Fu clan and the Yu Family of West Ridge. Aside from the Fu daughter engaged to the Young Lord of Xilong, I can’t think of a second person who would give him a reason to openly damage someone else’s territory like this.”

At the end, Rui Xun’en suddenly let out a cold laugh, his tone carrying something hard to read.

“Miss Fu Nineteen, the one leading the search and burning the rear mountain was your mad fiancé.”