Chapter 815

Luohuang Zhou.

Yun Qing stepped onto the mountain cliff edge with the morning dew, her blue-green robe fluttering loudly in the bitter mountain wind. The yin-yang lock-heart pendant on her chest was heating up, that scorching feeling becoming unbearable from three days ago—as if something wanted to burst out from within.

Indeed, here...

She gazed at the black-robed figure a hundred zhang away, her fingers unconsciously resting on the sword hilt. The face that had appeared countless times in her nightmares over twenty years now stood real in the thin mist. There was no imagined towering hatred, only countless tangled questions surging in her chest.

Yan Buji had his back to her, playing with a piece of blood-red jade slip in his hand—precisely the record of the forbidden art Blood Soul Tracing. The mountain wind lifted a few strands of white hair from his forehead, revealing his withered, aged face.

Yun Qing's arrival was within his expectations; fortunately he had taken care of many things beforehand.

Whether it was notifying the demon race, leaking the news to Qiu Xing, or preparing an escape route, now that he was about to meet Yun Qing, Yan Buji naturally knew countless powerful cultivators were watching them, yet he instead felt calm.

Victory or defeat hangs on this single move!

You finally came." His voice hoarse like sandpaper rubbing, "It seems someone else came with you—who is he?"

Yun Qing's pupils contracted slightly. This enemy she had never met actually knew even the well-hidden Xuan Ling senior brother so clearly.

I didn't come to kill you." She loosened her grip on the sword hilt, took out a faded embroidered handkerchief from her bosom. The corner was clumsily embroidered with the four words "Lan'er's first birthday", yet soaked in large brown bloodstains. "I want to know why the father in my memories turned into you?!"

According to her father, that was left to her by her mother before she died. But now his memory is becoming increasingly fuzzy, as if he had once lived together with Yan Buji many years ago.

Yan Buji finally turned around. His face was extremely aged, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes like bark, yet his body was extremely sturdy, giving off a hint of ferocity. Most unsettling were his eyes—pitch black like ink but flashing with an eerie bloodlight, like two bottomless pools of dead water.

"You should know why." He flicked his finger lightly; a drop of fresh blood flowed from his fingertip and flew toward Yun Qing: "Besides, you're not called Yun Qing—I gave you the name Lan'er."

The mountain wind suddenly turned violent, that drop of blood seeming to roll with the wind and waves into a towering blood sea that surged toward Yun Qing's face. She instinctively stepped back half a pace, yet discovered those ashes in the air forming an eerie pattern: an infant being tugged at by two men.

"Memories can be altered, girl." Yan Buji took a step forward; Yun Qing's chest pendant instantly blazed with a piercing green light, "Just as you can never clearly recall what Yun Hua said before her death..."

Yan Buji spoke nonsense off the cuff, but because they share the same bloodline, under the illumination of that drop of fresh blood, even Yun Qing could not deny this fact!

A sudden pain pierced her temples. Yun Qing staggered, pressing her forehead, fragmented images flashing back in her mind: a rainy night, a blood‑stained blade, her foster father's twisted visage... but the words spoken from those opening and closing lips remained forever blurred.

"What have you done to me?" She jerked her head up, discovering Yan Buji already within arm's reach. A faint scent of blood clung to the man, his right index finger pressing against her brow.

"Just helping you recall the truth." Yan Buji's voice suddenly turned gentle, his fingertip icy as iron, "See whose child you really are......"

A surge of force intruded into her sea of consciousness. Yun Qing wanted to struggle, but found her body completely immobile. The scene before her eyes shifted abruptly; she saw herself twenty years ago, crying in swaddling clothes, while the one holding her was none other than a young Yan Buji!

"This is... Illusion Art..." she managed to squeeze out a few words.

"No, this is a sealed memory." Yan Buji's pupils glowed with blood, his voice carrying an eerie resonance, "Yun Hua stole you while I was in seclusion, then used forbidden arts to tamper with your memories. When I found you, that fool would rather die than reveal how to lift the memory seal; he even envied me for marrying your mother, and went so far as to rape her, even killing her..."

Yan Buji narrowed his eyes, watching Yun Qing's painful reaction.

The Blood Soul Tracing Art's power to alter memories is so great it can succeed even across ten thousand li; thus it is listed among the forbidden arts of the Great Sinful Sect, for if practiced improperly it not only backlashes on the practitioner but may also drive one's mind to madness.

However, Yan Buji possesses the Golden Foil Pattern, so he encounters no bottleneck and easily masters this forbidden art.

The scene shifted to the foster father lying in a pool of blood. This time Yun Qing finally saw clearly: the dying Yun Hua's lips moved, uttering clearly: "Run... Lan'er... he is not your..."

The memory abruptly ended. Yun Qing gasped violently, retreating several steps, discovering her back soaked in cold sweat. What Yan Buji said might be true; those memory fragments were too coherent and real to be fabricated.

"Why tell me this now?" She clenched her trembling hands, "Why not back then......"

"Because of the Primordial Child." Yan Buji suddenly seized her wrist, his grip so strong it nearly crushed her bones, "You think I didn't want to find you? Child, I constantly think of you, of your mother, of avenging her! Yet you took an enemy as your father, breaking my heart! Yun Hua, for the sake of cultivation, had you take the Primordial Child, intending you as a sacrifice to open the gate to the Dao Realm!"

Yan Buji clutched his chest, his eyes reddening as tears streamed down.

Yun Qing stared at Yan Buji in that state, for a moment frozen in place; feeling somewhat at fault and apologetic, she lowered her head instead.

A tearing pain surged in Yun Qing's chest. The yin-yang lock-heart pendant burst forth with piercing blue‑red light, two streams of qi rushing along her meridians straight to her dantian.

"Lan'er, I hear many now have their eyes on you; pretend to want to kill me, then flee quickly—the farther you run, the better!" Yan Buji suddenly sent a mental transmission to Yun Qing.

"Then I......"

"Release her!"

A golden light shot through the void, forcing Yan Buji to loosen his grip and step back. Xuan Ling Zi's figure appeared at the opposite end of the cliff, followed by two terrifyingly aura‑laden elders—Li Xuan Tian, chairman of the Great Merchant Guild, and Tian Ji Zi!

"You came just in time." Yan Buji sneered, a fissure scepter sliding from his sleeve, "Who are you?"

"Who I am is not for a low‑level Nascent Soul cultivator like you to know, girl. Kill your enemy, we'll return to the Great Merchant Guild at once!" Tian Ji Zi's face turned cold.

Meanwhile Yun Qing turned her head, looking at the originally heavily wounded Tian Ji Zi now standing together with her other master Li Xuan Tian—why had they previously released her?

All for that Primordial Child?

Pain and despair flashed across Yun Qing's face, while her inner power surged wildly!

Yan Buji stood aside, his pupils constricted tightly!

In the blink of an eye, Yun Qing leapt past the Golden Core peak straight to the early Nascent Soul stage!