Chapter 629: Stars in the Night Sky

"I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have kept it from Ziliang, I shouldn't have kept it from Ziliang, I shouldn't have kept it from Ziliang..." Guo You held his head with both hands and muttered incessantly, his body curled into a ball, leaning against the pillar and trembling.

Qu Xin took over the scene again and spent some time making him calm down.

"The thing you want to ask is his true trauma." The young girl said, "The questioning ends here. It cannot go any deeper."

Pei Ye nodded, looking at the old man who was still trembling slightly. Actually, from this already exposed performance, the cause and effect of the matter could probably be inferred.

Guo You was the designer of the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】. He actually knew everything about this dragon gold bone better than anyone else. Every detail in it came from his own casting.

After the defeat under the Bright Moon Palace that day appeared, he and Ziliang were equally shocked. But perhaps after only a few breaths, when Ziliang was still in a daze, Guo You already realized what had happened.

No one knew better than him what would crush the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】.

The Qilin fire did not crush this purple-gold bone with its own powerful characteristics. If the Qilin fire was enough to burn everything, the two would not be so shocked by the failure, and Guo You would not attribute the fault to himself.

The Qilin fire was just a key, and the lock was cast into the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】 by Guo You himself.

It was just that he didn't expect to hear the "click" of the lock opening at that moment.

Why did he bury this lock in the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】, and why didn't he tell Ziliang? There were naturally reasons that were not told to outsiders. At this time, it was buried in the mind of this crazy old man, and Pei Ye was afraid he couldn't know.

But there was no need to get to the bottom of that itself. Pei Ye's purpose was not to dig into the painful past of the high-ranking old man, but to obtain a way to defeat Yu Sicheng.

He had examined every detail of this bone body, knew how it operated and exerted force, and also verified the two "life gate passes" from Guo You's mouth. Now, actually, he just needed to wait for the private banquet mentioned by Li Xizhou and borrow the Qilin fire from Li Zhi.

"Okay, let's play a game now." Qu Xin sat back at the desk. Guo You had calmed down again, only the wrinkled corners of his eyes were still streaming with tears. Following the young girl's fingers, he cast his gaze on the blueprint on the desk.

Qu Xin placed the fragment Pei Ye brought back on the table and said: "This 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】 was cast by you. Now a small piece has fallen off. Can you find the place of the trauma?"

Such words like coaxing a young child actually really worked. This design drawing was both the old man's cage and his shelter. When his body and mind were re-invested in the thinking about the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】, Guo You gradually recovered his communicable knowledge visibly.

It took only a little more than a quarter of an hour for him to point out the position where this fragment should have been.

The old man's withered and wrinkled fingers landed on the blueprint. That was somewhat beyond Pei Ye's expectation. It was at the heart of the middle chest, squarely in front of the body.

That was where two layers of dragon gold overlapped, firmly shielding the heart and lungs behind. Clearly, even if holding a "key" like the Qilin fire, the opponent only cut such a narrow and short piece from the first layer.

It could be considered an almost ineffective attack.

This made Pei Ye raise his eyebrows because this choice of attack was almost exactly the same as his own—when he first faced the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】, he tried his best to try the throat and heart once.

Only now did he know it was the spine and dantian.

However, Yu Sicheng was able to wait on the mountain road with the Qilin fire that day, but did he actually know nothing about this dragon bone?

The thought flashed through his mind. Pei Ye still recorded this position earnestly, but a drop of liquid suddenly "plop" fell on the blueprint in his field of vision. He was slightly stunned and looked up, seeing that Guo You's pair of old eye sockets were actually filled with tears.

He stretched out his hand tremblingly, grabbed Pei Ye's arm, and muttered: "Sinful scales stained with blood, the floating raft will be solved... Driver, go and visit Luo Shen, don't take me anymore, she likes you... That's good, that's good..."

Pei Ye was dazed, but it seemed the old man didn't know what he was saying either. He was silent for a while, raised his hand to wipe away the hot tears, and sat back in his original place dazed.

Li Xizhou stood up: "I'll talk to him. You've been staring at the picture for a day, go out and get some air."

"... Fine."

Tonight, the moon still couldn't be seen, but there were a few sparse stars. The night in the North was high and cold, empty and vast, which made one's heart and mind open.

Pei Ye leaned under the tree outside the door of Zhu Jingdian, still thinking about many details on the blueprint in his heart, and then placed them on Yu Sicheng, looking at the night sky motionless like this.

After about half an hour, Li Xizhou walked out holding a small candlestick and sat down beside him.

Pei Ye straightened his body: "Princess."

"Hmm." Li Xizhou lowered her head and gathered her skirt, her demeanor very elegant. "Wuyan has come several times these two days, saying you made an appointment to go fishing with her."

"... Wait until things come to an end." Pei Ye had to smile.

"Wuyan is also six years old." Li Xizhou murmured something unclear, looked up at the night sky, and changed the topic when she turned her head. "I just chatted with Guo You for a long time. It's difficult for him to sort out things in the palace, but things earlier were still a piece of pure land."

"Hmm?"

"That is, while sharpening the sword, one must also pay attention to the opponent's movements." Li Xizhou said, "You said, what is Yu Sicheng's purpose?"

"Enter the Luo Shen Palace."

"Why enter the Luo Shen Palace?"

"... Not clear. I suspect the late Empress left something inside."

"Yes, that's what we thought before." Li Xizhou said, "Then you said, is the Luo Shen Palace left by mother?"

"... Don't know."

"Yes, don't know. Where did mother come from, why did she construct this underwater palace, and what did she leave inside?" Li Xizhou said softly. When she said this, her tone was as dazed as a real little girl.

But she quickly turned her eyes, and her expression gathered again: "Regarding this matter, the Guo family has their story."

Pei Ye turned his head to listen.

"The Guo family has been chasing the shadow of the legendary 'Luo Shen' for generations because in their inheritance and memory, 'Luo Shen' is the master of the fairyland."

Pei Ye looked up slightly. He suddenly remembered the words the old man muttered after receiving the 【Small Correction Edict】 on the night he first met Guo You.

'... Because we have been chasing the hem of Luo Shen's skirt for generations... She is the master of the fairyland, the spirit lord of the water world. White water flows in her hands, and she can bring everyone the dreams they want...'

"They believe that Luo Shen masters a vast and magnificent fairyland. Becoming her follower can allow one to stay away from the mortal world and move into that legendary fairyland."

"Is this fairyland the Spirit Realm?" Pei Ye frowned slightly. He had entered it several times. Although it was magnificent and indescribable, not like the human realm, but if it was called a fairyland, it really couldn't be talked about—people couldn't even breathe underwater.

"Have you ever thought about where the Spirit Realm comes from?" Li Xizhou looked at him.

"..."

"You have been to the Illusion Building and down to the South Pool, but the Illusion Building has only risen in these years, and even the South Pool hasn't been there for many years. Before that, where did the legend of the Spirit Realm come from?"

Pei Ye frowned slightly.

"If that world... is far more vast than you imagine."

Pei Ye was silent. He understood the woman's meaning.

"Mother naturally knows. Perhaps no one in the world knows better than her. It's a pity we can no longer talk to her." Li Xizhou said softly, "Yongbei, Yu Sicheng, and many people with or without names... They have worked so hard to break through the Luo Shen Palace, perhaps for the sake of controlling that world."

"... Is this what you just asked from Guo You?"

"Even if no one asked, I think about it every day." Li Xizhou said, "Even without Guo You, I am actually almost certain. However, Guo You did give me a surprise."

"What?"

"He said, he can recite the "Luo River Seeking the Crossing" by heart." ===== CHAPTER 630 =====

"What?"

"He said he can recite the *Luochuan Xun Du* (Seeking the Crossing at Luochuan) from memory."