Chapter 369: Yun Qingzi's Intelligence

After much pleading and coaxing, Long Hair finally finished her ghost-frightening essay, and in the blink of an eye she ran out the door—Yu Sheng watched as she directly turned her hair into a glider and jumped off the Cloud-Watching Platform; optimistically speaking, she should already be halfway down the mountain, meeting up with Cinderella and the others.

If not optimistic, she's probably hanging in a tree right now.

Little Red Riding Hood put down her phone, approached with a helpless expression to help Princess Long Hair gather the stack of test papers and workbooks she had written and then immediately tossed onto the coffee table, sorting them by category and packing them into her schoolbag.

Yu Sheng watched from the side, his gaze accidentally landing on her essay topic again, causing his eyelid to twitch once more.

"She's been like this since childhood, prone to getting carried away when people are around," Little Red Riding Hood said casually, "but even so, she's become a 'parent' in 'Fairy Tales'; at least she's reliable enough when going out to accept missions."

"Alright, mainly it's just that her essay surprised me quite a bit..." Yu Sheng tugged at the corner of his mouth, then immediately wore a thoughtful expression, "but then again, as I recall, she seems to be the first one in 'Fairy Tales' to call me 'brother'? I feel like many others just call me that out of politeness, but she does it every day; I'm almost used to it."

Little Red Riding Hood put away her pencil case, then pondered for a moment: "It's probably because she really did have a brother back then."

"... Huh?" Yu Sheng was truly surprised now, "She really had a brother?!"

"Yes, a long time ago."

"A long time ago?" Yu Sheng frowned, "So what happened later?"

"Her brother abandoned her," Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyelids, as if stating something very natural, "many of us were abandoned by our own parents; she was abandoned by her brother."

Yu Sheng: "..."

"But that was when she was very, very young; I even suspect she doesn't remember it at all now," Little Red Riding Hood shook her head and added, "I don't know the specifics either; back then I was still in kindergarten, and I heard it later from other 'parents'. She might only retain some impression of a 'brother', or subconsciously feel that she should have one."

Speaking of this, she paused, glanced at Yu Sheng, and said, "So I've always thought it was a good thing that she calls you 'brother'—that title has now become something worth being happy about for her."

Yu Sheng said nothing, simply watching Little Red Riding Hood's nimble movements; after quite a while, he suddenly sighed, "You take very good care of your younger brothers and sisters."

Little Red Riding Hood looked up: "Why suddenly feel like sighing about this? Although I do think I've done quite well..."

"That's right; just looking at Long Hair's current mental state shows you've done well," Yu Sheng spread his hands, "sometimes I even suspect there are no bad people in her eyes; that personality of hers, high everywhere she goes..."

"Uh, I'll take that as a compliment," Little Red Riding Hood muttered with a subtle expression, then immediately changed the subject, seemingly casually mentioning, "By the way, about that Otherworld you recently went to, I heard from Little Fish that it's another suspected 'Anomaly Type'?"

"It now seems highly probable to be an 'Anomaly Type', because scenes of 'Wilderness', 'Fortress', and 'Kingdom' types have almost all appeared inside it, but all scenes change randomly and possess high characteristics of 'Illusion' or 'Echo'," speaking of serious matters, Yu Sheng's expression grew a bit more serious, "this structure composed of 'scenes' bears some similarity to 'Fairy Tales', but we haven't yet discovered it has 'Action Rules' similar to Fairy Tales."

"Hmm... anyway, stay safe; if you need manpower, just call me, or anyone in 'Fairy Tales'; we are always willing to help," Little Red Riding Hood said, suddenly revealing a smile on her face, "I'm not considered child labor anymore."

Yu Sheng also smiled, raised his hand, and lightly high-fived the young girl.

Afterwards, he casually picked up an Erin from home, slung her over his shoulder, turned around, left No. 66 Wutong Road, and went directly to Queyun Palace by opening the door.

Not long after arriving at the main hall, he saw Yuan Ling Zhenren rushing over hurriedly, along with Xuan Che appearing together with him.

"I was just refining pills and received your message a bit late," upon meeting, Yuan Ling Zhenren said hurriedly, "you said there was urgent business to discuss? What happened?"

Yu Sheng got straight to the point: "Have you heard of the title 'Yun Qingzi'?"

"Yun Qingzi?" Yuan Ling Zhenren's expression immediately froze, then he quickly searched his memory, speaking while thinking, "It feels like I've heard it... where did you hear this title? Why bring it up suddenly?"

"In a dream, but it might not be just a dream," Yu Sheng did not hide anything and directly recounted all the 'illusions' he had experienced previously, "... it was just such a scene, suspected to be related to certain 'information' carried by the Otherworld I recently contacted, all pointing to 'The Emperor's Legacy'. That Yun Qingzi suddenly appeared at the very end; he seemed to be a 'Bystander' like me, and was both shocked and angry at my appearance; he came at me to kill as soon as we met..."

He described the figure who claimed to be 'Yun Qingzi' in detail, then thought for a moment and added, "I always feel the other party's mental state is not quite normal; very neurotic."

As soon as his words fell, before Yuan Ling Zhenren on the opposite side could speak, Erin sitting on his shoulder widened her eyes first: "Huh? You encountered such a big thing in a dream and didn't call me?"

"Call you for what?"

"To help you fight!" Erin said matter-of-factly, "You forgot I'm very capable in dreams? And things you can't see through, maybe I can see through them!"

"... I didn't think of it," Yu Sheng felt a bit embarrassed, then made an excuse, "and at that time, how could there be time to call you? The other party didn't even say hello before charging straight at me; I hadn't even reacted before he finished the whole process of throwing out harsh threats."

"I don't care! Next time you must call me immediately, especially when encountering such strange dreamscapes!" Erin was inexplicably a bit puffed up with anger, "How dangerous! And your reaction in the dream is so slow; you won't even know you're at a disadvantage."

"Alright, alright, I know..."

Yuan Ling Zhenren's expression had already become serious halfway through Yu Sheng's story; by the time he finished Yu Sheng's description of 'Yun Qingzi', his demeanor was already extremely grave, obviously vaguely thinking of something. After a moment of silent pondering, his gaze suddenly sharpened, then he looked up and exchanged a glance with Xuan Che.

"Could it be... 'The Banished Immortal of the Borderlands' Yun Qingzi?!"

"'The Banished Immortal of the Borderlands'?" Yu Sheng quickly stopped bickering with Erin, "What does that mean? Is this really a famous person?"

"Not a famous person, but an ancient person," Yuan Ling Zhenren immediately said with a grave tone, "That was a figure from the previous 'Era'!"

Yu Sheng's expression instantly became somewhat dazed: "Huh?"

"Do you remember I told you that in the early stages of the Tai Xu Ling Shu's history reshaping, before the current 'Five Sects Co-Governance' pattern stabilized, there were many powerful ancestors on Tai Xu Star? Later, as the chaotic aftereffects of the Second Singularity eruption gradually subsided, new forces on all sides of Tai Xu Ling Shu rose and reached a consensus; many ancestors gradually faded from the mortal world. Except for those who perished early, the rest either fled far away, lived in seclusion cultivating in purity, or hid their names and played in the red dust..."

"Remember, remember," Yu Sheng naturally recalled this upon hearing it, nodding repeatedly, "you mean... this 'Yun Qingzi' is such a reclusive 'ancestor'?!"

"I can only think of one such person," Yuan Ling Zhenren nodded, but his brows were tightly furrowed, "but he was not merely 'in seclusion'—according to records, we all thought he had already died a thousand years ago!"

"... Dead?"

"Yun Qingzi's last appearance before the world was on a desolate alien star near the Fei Yu-13b border," Yuan Ling Zhenren spoke in a deep voice, "after the 'Five Sects Co-Governance' pattern stabilized and many powerful ancestors lived in seclusion, he also disappeared from the world's sight, but still appeared once every three or five hundred years, mostly near the border, until a thousand years ago when a border outpost observed a terrifying impact; a desolate star was struck directly by an unknown force..."

"In the subsequent investigation, we found some damaged monitoring equipment; the records showed Yun Qingzi was on that desolate star at the time. He seemed to be fighting something, but could not prevail despite a fierce battle; at the last moment, he burned his essence and soul to summon Void Devouring Destruction, forming that terrifying impact."

"Afterwards, we only found fragments of a body with exhausted spiritual energy at the scene, along with vast scorched earth formed by burned-out vital blood, and for the thousand years since, Yun Qingzi has never appeared before the world again."

Yu Sheng listened steadily to this story, not speaking for a long while; Erin on his shoulder blinked her eyes, and after a long time, a sentence emerged: "Then that does sound like he died... the body even exploded into a patch of scorched earth?"

"This has indeed been the conclusion all along, but now it seems this senior elder is probably still alive," Yuan Ling Zhenren stroked his beard, looking very serious, "such a person has countless unimaginable life-saving methods; even some hiding techniques nearly akin to reincarnation and rebirth. Back then, we only discovered some remains after the battle on that desolate star; we really cannot be one hundred percent certain he perished."

"No way to determine what he was fighting back then?" Yu Sheng suddenly became curious, "Also, what was his personality like before that? Was he also neurotic like when I met him?"

"No way," Yuan Ling Zhenren shook his head, "a thousand years ago, the Tai Xu Ling Shu back then was not as strong and advanced as it is now; most areas of Fei Yu-13b were still uninhabited desolate stars, especially border regions; many places hadn't even been explored back then. The best was having an outpost and a few automatically operating mechanical puppets; except for powerful cultivators who could form their own celestial cycles and open grotto-heavens on desolate alien stars, no one would casually approach such places. The intelligence that could be collected was far too little."

"As for that senior elder's temperament... although I don't understand it, at least from what I've heard, he was not that mad and crazy; on the contrary, he was known for being elegant and easygoing."

(End of Chapter)