Chapter 258: Departure

Early the next morning, before the sky was fully bright, Jing Yueqin left Wentian.

Jing Yueqin had woken up once in the middle of the night; she first pondered to herself for a while, and then, unable to swallow her anger, she gave the fox spirit a fierce bite.

Then the two of them spent several hours deep in the night exploring the profound mysteries of horse-riding, only finally falling back into a satisfied slumber.

When she woke up in the morning, a refreshed Jing Yueqin seemed to have forgotten everything; without needing any urging, she happily set off toward the Divine Path Sect.

After she patted her bottom and left, Ren Yidao, who was still in bed, fell into deep thought.

"Is it my imagination? Why do I have a feeling that I was treated like a convenient tool for stress relief?"

Bang bang bang bang da?

"……Forget it."

After thinking for a while, he decisively cast this philosophical question to the back of his mind.

This question had no meaning whatsoever.

"Well! Anyway, no matter what the answer is, I'm not the one losing out."

He hammered his waist, which was a bit sore from his sleeping posture, got out of bed, and stretched vigorously.

"I finally managed to persuade her to go home, so I should be leaving too."

Having stayed in Wentian for a period of time, this place was indeed a land of auspicious geomancy, and in every respect, it was quite impressive.

Both the people and the things here were quite unexpected.

However, although this place was interesting, when it came down to it, it was not his final destination.

"Now that I mention it, I've been out for so long, I really do miss home a bit."

"I wonder if Junior Martial Nephew Duan has taken good care of my employees; if too many die, it won't be easy to handle the plans that follow."

"When I go back, I still have to find a way to tell Senior Brother Jian that his wife has lifted her coffin lid; I'll have to make him, as the family member, pay compensation."

"Come to think of it, is Junior Martial Nephew Zuo still getting lost in Chongzhou City?"

"……"

He didn't realize it until he thought about it, but a simple reflection revealed that he had indeed started to miss home.

"I definitely have to go home, but before I leave, I still have to wrap up the things I haven't finished."

……

……

Mei Family Ruins.

A woman wearing a thin veil stood before the Mei Family Ancestral Hall, staring blankly at the burnt-out incense ash in the burner.

After a long while, she let out a soft breath and chuckled to herself:

"I was chased here yesterday and thought she would destroy this place, but I didn't expect..."

After escaping from the prison on Luoyue Peak, Mei did not return directly to this place.

With the help of her Sword Spirit Body talent, she wandered through the gaps in space across Beigan for a time, visiting many locations from her memories.

Looking at scenes that were either exactly as they were in the past or had undergone the great changes of time, she pondered a great deal.

Perhaps because of Jian Xinxin's firm attitude, her cold heart, which had begun to beat once more, gradually felt warmth.

Although she could not yet fully grasp the emotions from her memories, she would no longer persist in her initial thoughts.

Perhaps, I am "her".

Tracing the footprints of the past, she finally returned to the place where she was born, this remote little village.

She saw the deep pit where everyone was buried and the tombstones that had been erected, and she also felt the joy they had experienced when they departed.

Someone had done what she should have done.

Could it have been that young man?

When she had just woken up, although her consciousness was not yet fully clear, she had recorded the situation at that time.

In order to avoid threats from the outside world, she had followed her instincts and chosen to leave that place, and there had been another young man present at the time.

"I'll thank him if I see him again next time."

She hadn't asked for his name at the time, and it wasn't convenient for her to go deep into Human Race society to look for him now, so she would just wait until they met by chance.

And after staying for a few days in this place that had granted her life twice, and building an ancestral hall for them, an accident occurred.

She had been targeted.

By that woman on Luoyue Peak who was like a fierce beast.

In Mei's eyes, although the other party was always smiling, a layer of black-red light drifted all over her body.

Evil.

A person harboring great Evil.

She was the one who had thrown me into prison without a word back then.

This terrifying person clearly left first, so how did she find me now?

Jian Xinxin shouldn't have taken the initiative to report her whereabouts; could it really be a coincidence?

Mei did not know if she was lucky or unlucky, but she was unwilling to sit and wait for death, so she could only start circling around with the other party.

It was not that she didn't want to just leave, but her ability to shift through space could not be utilized at all in front of the other party.

As long as she was in front of the other party, her teleportation ability was suppressed tightly, making it impossible to escape.

And after being chased for several days, just as she was about to despair, the other party suddenly gave up.

It was like a house cat that had lost interest after playing with its prey enough; she had listlessly left the half-crippled prey behind and wandered off slowly.

She came with high spirits, but returned in low spirits.

Mei had thought it was like that, but this thought vanished when she saw the incense ash in front of the ancestral hall.

It was not that she could not, but that she would not.

"Did she realize something after seeing these?"

Mei could not understand, nor could she be certain.

But there was one thing she had already made up her mind about.

"I am leaving."

Mei said her final farewells to the spirit tablets in the ancestral hall.

"The Mei Yongdi you knew is gone; the one who stands here now is Mei."

A demon, not a human.

"I will not return until I have figured everything out."

Raising her hand, she gently tore open a rift in space; Mei had intended to leave this way from the start.

But just before she was about to step into the rift, her lips trembled, and she turned back with firm resolve.

Thump, thump, thump.

Wiping the dust from her forehead, Mei stepped into the spatial rift and never looked back once.

Mei left the village that had given birth to her and raised her.

Everyone on this land had already departed, and along with their love and hate, their longings and obsessions, they were all buried six feet under.

Everything here had already been buried.

Except for one lost child who had left home and was still wandering, trying to find themselves.

And they would wait here forever.

Waiting for her to come home.

The Great Fire had passed, and new branches had already grown from beneath the scorched earth.

Perhaps when the plum blossoms bloom again, they will wait for her.

If not next time, then the time after that.

As long as the flowers have a day to bloom again, they will keep waiting.

Because this place is her home.

……

……

"Your Highness Ren, I was just wondering when you would come to find this old man, and in the blink of an eye, you have arrived."

"Oh my, Prime Minister Wang, you are too polite. Why come to fetch me yourself? A servant would have sufficed."

"Hehe, no, it is better that I come myself. Please."

"Please."

Prime Minister Wang looked at the youth before him; his attitude was much more respectful than last time, and he held him in even higher regard.

The abilities the other party had displayed previously were enough to make him take notice, but he had not expected that to be everything.

Although no one knew exactly what had happened in the illusion of the Two Domains Conflict, nor did they know what role Ren Yidao had played in it.

But two things were certain.

The role Ren Yidao played in it was absolutely far greater than he had anticipated in his plans!

The seemingly reckless move with the Qian Mirror at the end alone was enough to surprise Wang Xuesong.

As an old fox who had spent his whole life navigating conspiracies, he keenly sensed the unusual details within it.

It was all a bit too deliberate, and a bit too logical.

Could it really be such a coincidence that someone took a treasure belonging to Beigan? And then it was discovered?

The two walked side by side, and Wang Xuesong asked seemingly casually:

"Oh my, I heard that a component of the Qian Mirror was taken away by someone from the Eastern Wasteland?"

And Ren Yidao, while marveling at the path leading to the Treasury, responded offhandedly:

"Yes, yes, it is truly a pity we couldn't stop them. I hope they return it voluntarily."

The Li Family had decent taste; the surrounding carved beams and painted pillars were quite impressive.

"Hehe."

Could such a thing really be a coincidence?

Wang Xuesong absolutely did not believe it.

As a master of playing with conspiracies, in his philosophy, there were no coincidences in this world.

The truth behind so-called coincidences must be a fixed result derived from calculated deliberation.

Behind this, there must be a Ghost!

He did not know if anyone present at the time had noticed, but he believed the Second Prince must have noticed the incongruity, which was why he had performed a double act with Ren Yidao.

However, even if the clever people of the Eastern Wasteland noticed this, it was already too late.

Because the truth or falsehood of that treasure was no longer important.

Since the other party did not discover and point out the problem on the spot, it was already too late.

As things stood, no one would care whether there was such a "treasure" or not; the seeds of suspicion had already taken root and sprouted in their hearts.

But Wang Xuesong's imagination was still not wild enough.

Ren Yidao had done something even more thorough than he had guessed.

He had not just been dealing with one person; he had stuffed something into everyone's mind.

This would cause the time it took for this secret to be discovered to be greatly extended, and the seeds would grow even more robustly.

Incidentally, he had also planted a top-tier spy in the Chu Family of the Eastern Wasteland whom no one would suspect.

If he knew all this, Wang Xuesong would surely find this fellow even more astonishing.

"Come to think of it, this old man really chose the right person by inviting Your Highness to participate; otherwise, it is hard to say what the outcome would be now."

This statement was not entirely flattery; Wang Xuesong truly felt a sense of emotion behind it.

"Really? I actually didn't do much; it was the efforts of all the Highnesses. I was merely a team leader."

Ren Yidao waved his hands, indicating that he had only done a small amount of work and that the victory still depended on the hard work and struggle of Li Qiushui and the others.

"No, no, no. Your Highness Ren need not be modest in this matter; even His Majesty is very satisfied with this performance."

Wang Xuesong was very firm about this; he believed that choosing him as the team leader was an absolutely correct decision!

Because last night, His Majesty summoned him to the palace, and in summary, he only spoke of two things.

One was to praise him for choosing the right person this time, saying it made him very satisfied!

He even intended to bestow a marriage upon this old man who already had half his body buried in the dirt, saying he wanted to introduce him to a certain former Princess who had been widowed for many years...

If he hadn't fought desperately on the grounds of his health, he would have almost become a bridegroom once again.

Although he knew this was just a joke by Li Long, such an arrangement still almost made the old Prime Minister Wang choke with anger.

The second thing was to assign him a task that left him speechless.

"Help Me think, what should I bestow upon this little brother of Mine?"

If it were just about bestowing items, that would be a small matter.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, this subject has already spoken with Your Highness Ren in advance, allowing him to take three treasures from the Royal Treasure Vault after the matter is accomplished."

What made Wang Xuesong secretly pout was that Li Long did not feel any heartache upon hearing this, only saying casually:

"Oh, I approve."

Then, he continued excitedly:

"The matter of the treasures is easy to handle; you go in with him and pick out some better ones."

At that moment, there was only one thought in Wang Xuesong's mind.

This Ren Yidao... is he not your brother, but your illegitimate son?

Otherwise, how could you be so generous!

Li Long did not notice Wang Xuesong's strange gaze; he waved his hand and laughed:

"What I want to arrange for you is another matter."

"I want to confer a title upon him!"

Li Long affectionately patted the Prime Minister's shoulder and laughed:

"Beloved subject, you have read many books; help Me deliberate carefully and pick a good-sounding one for him."