Chapter 839: Past Events of Bailie

"I wasn't here for the past year and a half, and you've also been rising step by step." He Lingchuan returned a smile, "You yourself are a blessed person."

He Chunhua's smile faded slightly: "Why the wariness? Chuan'er, don't you want to go back?"

Go back? "Go back where?"

Was He Chunhua referring to the Panlong ruins? He Lingchuan pondered these two words; why would He Chunhua say he didn't want to "go back"? "Take a trip; father needs you." He Chunhua's voice was soft, but he gave Zhao Qinghe a look.

Zhao Qinghe waved his hand, and over forty people stepped forward, intending to surround He Lingchuan.

But Qiu Hu had been paying attention to the movement here, and seeing this, he led his fellow disciples to rush into the crowd, protecting He Lingchuan in the middle.

The situation on both sides suddenly became tense.

Qiu Hu said coldly: "What do you want to do to the Special Envoy?"

The two words "Special Envoy" were intended to remind He Chunhua that the youth before him was not only his eldest son but also the Inspector sent by Rongshan! Persecuting He Lingchuan was harming the relationship between Rongshan and the Yuan Nation!

The Yuan Nation was still borrowing money to fight the war; if Rongshan were to pull the rug out from under them, how much chance of winning would the former have?

"Chuan'er, Great Yuan has been fighting for several years, and refugees have lost their homes." He Chunhua's face was sincere, "Now there is an opportunity to end the war; you help father with a hand, how about it?"

If he didn't go, would he be failing Great Yuan? He Lingchuan said slowly: "Fine, but I have one condition."

As long as he could go, He Chunhua felt a bit relieved: "You say."

"I want to know everything about Lu Xiaoyun."

As soon as the three words "Lu Xiaoyun" were spoken, He Chunhua's cheek muscles jumped twice.

He blurted out: "You, how do you know..."

His eldest son's words caught him off guard, and the most secret corner of his heart was torn open.

"How do I know she is my birth mother and not Lady Ying?" He Lingchuan interrupted, "Old man, there are no walls in the world that don't leak wind!"

He Chunhua was dazed for a moment.

His eldest son's temperament changed greatly after returning; could it be related to this matter? He glanced toward the Chipa Plateau in the distance, and the warm wind blowing toward him helped him steady his mind.

They had already walked to this point, the arrow was on the string, how could they stop? "Fine." He soon said, "It's all old history; if you want to hear it, I will tell you."

After saying that, he turned around and was the first to walk to the big rock by the water and sit down.

Only He Lingchuan followed, while the others sensibly retreated a few more steps, giving the father and son space to talk.

He Chunhua pressed his hands on his knees and looked at his eldest son: "What do you want to know?"

"How did you know her?"

He Chunhua took a long breath.

"At that time, Heishuicheng was still under the rule of the Andong people; I killed the comprador they supported in the city and fled into the Panlong Desert to avoid pursuers. As a result, the wild sand season came early that year, and while it blocked the pursuers, it also almost took my life." He recalled the past slowly, "When I woke up again, I was lying in the Lu family's house—it was Lu Xiaoyun who dragged me out of the edge of the desert before the wind and sand arrived."

"For those few days, the sound of wind and sand was everywhere outside the house, and people couldn't go out, so she treated my wounds." He Chunhua pressed his forehead and said, "She was very good. At that time, I already knew Hongchan, but still, still..."

He didn't finish his words, but He Lingchuan knew what he meant.

At that time, He Chunhua was only fifteen years old, just a teenager whose heart was just beginning to stir, not as mature and calculating for the country as he was now.

In the ignorant era of youth, one is always impulsive and reckless.

"We only spent a few days together, and I sneaked back to Heishuicheng to gather people to expel the Andong people." He Chunhua continued, "After recovering Heishuicheng, the Jinzhou Inspector not only didn't give me a reward but threw me into prison, where I was locked up for nine months. When I was released, it happened to be when she was about to give birth."

He sighed deeply: "It's a pity, she didn't make it through that hurdle, leaving only you to me."

The father and son looked at each other in silence.

He Lingchuan had a bit of an impulse in his heart to ask him why he used his son as a sacrifice to the gods.

But this could never be asked, and he also knew clearly that this was not his own will, but the original body's impulse.

"What was her background?"

"Bailie people." Since his eldest son already knew, He Chunhua simply stopped hiding it, "She came from a very ancient cultivation family in the east. Chuan'er, in the ancient era, some immortal sects existed in the form of sects, while others were family inheritances, maintained by blood ties."

He Lingchuan nodded; he knew this.

He had read relevant records in the Panlong world. In the era of abundant spiritual energy, there were many who sought the Dao and became immortals in the form of families; their internal family structure was actually more complex than ordinary immortal sects, first deciding status by cultivation level, and then discussing seniority by blood relationship.

Everyone was a relative, so there were more considerations in internal relationships and resource allocation.

Getting off-topic, He Lingchuan put his attention back to the present: "So my mother came from a famous family?"

"Yes. The Lu family's territory was named 'Bailie,' and it was very vast in the era of immortals; it gradually shrank after the natural disaster, which was synchronized with the decline of the Lu family."

He Lingchuan didn't find it strange. Spiritual energy had begun to decline since the early medieval period, and the original immortal sects had increasingly difficult days.

The inevitable encounter of the Lu family was just a microcosm of the wave of the era.

"Until over six hundred years ago, the Bailie region was also occupied by Beijia. The Lu family had to move to a small piece of territory in the east, continuing to live to this day."

He Lingchuan was greatly surprised: "Ha? Occupied by Beijia?"

How did it involve the northern demon kingdom again?

"Yes, one of the thirteen vassal demon kingdoms today—the Shanyu Kingdom—is basically the former Bailie territory." He Chunhua shook his head, "The vast territory of the Beijia Kingdom was all snatched from other countries and sects early on."

Shanyu Kingdom? He Lingchuan thought about it; that was basically on the far east side of Beijia. "Where did the Bailie people move to?"

"Most Bailie people stayed behind, accepting Beijia's rule; another part followed the Lu family and migrated far to the east, finally settling in Donghuayuan, a place adjacent to the eastern part of the Mou Kingdom. Your mother told me that a long time ago, Donghuayuan was land the Lu family bought from a certain country, and she didn't expect it to become the last stronghold of the Bailie people."

He Lingchuan outlined the map position in his heart: "In the far rear of the Mou Kingdom?"

"You could say that." He Chunhua corrected, "Between Donghuayuan and Beijia, besides the two small countries currently at war, there is also a huge Mou Kingdom separating them. The Bailie people must have been scared by Beijia and were unwilling to have contact with it again."

If you can't beat them, can't you hide? The Bailie people hid, and they hid behind the Mou Kingdom.

He Lingchuan associated it with the special nature of the Mou Kingdom:

It was the country with the most Daoist sects, perhaps more tolerant of descendants of immortals like the Bailie people.

"Lu... why did my mother run thousands of miles to Heishuicheng?" Between Donghuayuan and Heishuicheng, there were the Mou Kingdom, two small countries, Beijia, and more than half of the Yuan Nation; it couldn't just be described as thousands of mountains and rivers.

He Chunhua sighed: "She was fleeing."

"The Lu family's direct line was weak, and their territory was shrinking rapidly. After several generations of single heirs, by your grandfather's generation, only one daughter remained, which was Lu Xiaoyun. But her parents died when she was twelve, and a cousin from a branch coveted the old Lu family's property; Lu Xiaoyun had no one to rely on, so she had to flee Bailie."

He Lingchuan frowned: "Cousin?"

"Yes, your mother was the main family, with a high seniority. When she was twelve, the cousin Lu Zhensheng was already twenty-seven, in his prime and ambitious." He Chunhua said, "She even suspected that your grandfather was harmed by Lu Zhensheng. She saw the situation and fled at the time, otherwise she wouldn't have survived."

He Lingchuan sneered: "Heh, eating the extinct family."

Lu Xiaoyun was a girl, young and weak with no ability to protect herself, and there was no one in the clan to preside over justice, yet she had property in her name. Wasn't this the best interpretation of "possessing a treasure is a crime"? In the face of wealth, some relatives would turn into evil wolves.

He Lingchuan took out a contract left by Sun Hongye and unfolded it in front of He Chunhua: "Is this contract authentic and valid?"

He Chunhua glanced at it twice and was moved: "So Sun Hongye found this thing. This is one of Lu Xiaoyun's relics. Decades ago, the Qing Kingdom rented Blade Harbor from the Bailie people for a term of forty years. By calculation, it has now expired."

He Lingchuan asked casually: "Which side does this harbor belong to now?"

"That's unclear." He Chunhua didn't care about this, "Foreign affairs are too far from us. However, since the Bailie people are declining, this harbor probably isn't that easy to take back. Blade Harbor is a natural good harbor."

Speaking of this, He Chunhua pointed to the distance, "Now it seems, your mother traveled across the ocean perhaps for a second reason, which is it. Whoever masters the Great Fang Hu possesses the power of revenge."

Heishuicheng was a weak border area; if there was any attraction for descendants of immortals, it was probably that it was adjacent to the Panlong Desert?

"So—" He Chunhua mobilized his eldest son again, "Chuan'er, you really should take another trip to the Panlong ruins."

He used "emotion" to pressure him like this, and He Lingchuan himself felt a bit of anger churning in his chest.

This old man would truly stop at nothing to achieve his goal!

He nodded slowly: "Old man is right; by emotion and reason, it seems I should take a trip."

He Chunhua was overjoyed and was about to answer, but He Lingchuan continued: "Give me something of my mother's, let me keep it as a souvenir?"

This request was also reasonable; He Chunhua thought about it and untied a jade pendant from his waist: "This is the direct-line jade pendant of the Lu family, given to Xiaoyun by your grandfather; when you were born, she left it to you."

This was a piece of top-quality mutton-fat white jade, engraved with the character "Lu," and there was a red mark like blood in the middle.

The jade pendant was warm and moist to the touch, and He Lingchuan sneered secretly. Why did He Chunhua never take out the things left by his birth mother to the original body? Wasn't it just that bit of selfishness?

He gently rubbed the jade pendant and asked again: "Are the Lu family still in Donghuayuan?"

"Should be? Your mother said it was a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters." He Chunhua was puzzled, "Why?"

"Nothing." He Lingchuan put away the jade pendant, "By the way, my original name was He Xiao; who gave me this name?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 840 =====