A Talk with Su Xuan

Meng Wanshu was deeply moved as well; after all, this was the greatest form of acceptance she could receive. She knew very little about Li Guanqi's mother, as he had never spoken of her on his own accord. Along the way, Li Guanqi's voice drifted gently into her ears. "My mother... was named Song Wanrong. She was a very, very gentle mother. "Before she fell ill, she was remarkably capable. Most men couldn't outwork her. "Back then... I felt like my mother could do anything. She knew everything, and she could do anything. "She was so clever with her hands. Even wild greens tasted wonderful when she cooked them. "It's just... "She could never bear to eat them herself. She saved it all for my sister and me." Meng Wanshu listened quietly by his side, not interrupting him. Li Guanqi closed his eyes, his hands unconsciously reaching out to caress the empty air. "My mother was very beautiful. If not for starving so much that she grew gaunt, she wouldn't have paled beside any saintess from the great sects. "Eyes like autumn waters, willow-leaf brows, a tall bridge to her nose... But she weathered so much hardship... She never wore rouge or powder to adorn herself. "And she never once wore a garment without patches..." As he spoke, Li Guanqi's voice choked with emotion, his eyes reddening. The more he said, the more he felt the sheer bitterness his mother had suffered in those years. Sniffling, he turned to Meng Wanshu and said with a smile, "My mother would definitely have liked you." Her eyes rimmed with red, Meng Wanshu nodded vigorously. With just those few words, she had gained a profound impression of the woman she had never met. Gathering his emotions, he felt Meng Wanshu tightly clasping his hand, and he gave hers a squeeze in return to show that she didn't need to worry about him. After seeing Meng Wanshu back to the White Jade Tower, Li Guanqi did not go inside. The others were all inside the Nirvana Pagoda at the moment; after all, Tang Ru had just broken through and still needed to stabilize his cultivation realm. Turning to face Li Guanqi, Meng Wanshu looked at him with steady eyes and said with quiet conviction, "Now you have me, and so many people who care for you and love you. "Your mother's spirit in heaven will surely be overjoyed to know that. "All you need to do is take good care of yourself!" Li Guanqi nodded firmly and said with a smile, "Go on. Don't worry about me—I've sorted out my mind. "I'm going to see Grandfather." Meng Wanshu looked at Li Guanqi with lingering concern, then took a deep breath and spoke softly with a smile, "Remember not to upset him." Li Guanqi smiled and nodded. With a surge of vital energy, he took flight and vanished in a teleportation, heading straight for the Seventh Domain. Yet the moment Li Guanqi left, several heads poked out of a window of the White Jade Tower. Gu Li remarked quizzically, "Doesn't it feel like the Boss is a bit different after coming back this time?" Ye Feng nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It's like he set down some heavy burden. His whole demeanor has softened. "He doesn't look as weighed down by worries as before." Tang Ru muttered, "Maybe it has something to do with going out this time?" Cao Yan shot Tang Ru an exasperated glare. "Hurry up and stabilize your realm! What are you doing out here joining the commotion?" Tang Ru grinned foolishly and scratched his head. "I just came out for a look, hehe... Sister-in-law." "Sister-in-law." "Sister-in-law." Seeing them huddled by the window, Meng Wanshu couldn't help but chuckle. "Go on and do what you need to do. There's no need to worry about him." As Li Guanqi crossed the Second Domain, cultivators he encountered greeted him warmly. Upon reaching the Third Domain, Li Guanqi noticed that most of the volcanoes here had fallen dormant. It seemed this was related to his subjugation of the Devouring Void Sacred Flame. Streaking through the air, Li Guanqi soon arrived in the ethereal, misty Seventh Domain. Arriving at the courtyard villa, the gates stood wide open, and Su Xuan lay on a chair, half-asleep. Li Guanqi hesitated at the entrance for a moment when the old man's voice reached his ears. "Why stand at the door? Come in." Su Xuan opened his eyes, sat up, and made his way over to sit on the entrance steps, taking out his pipe. Keeping his head down as though sulking, the old man packed tobacco into the pipe and murmured, "Went back and had a look?" Li Guanqi scratched his head in mild embarrassment and walked into the courtyard with an ingratiating grin. He plunked down beside the old man and said warmly with a laugh, "I went back." Yet after those brief words, the elder and youth lapsed into silence. Puff, puff. The old man puffed on his pipe, staring toward the outside gate at who-knew-what. Li Guanqi shrugged and said directly, "Grandfather, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have been so impulsive back then." Su Xuan glanced at Li Guanqi with slight surprise, curled his lips, and let the corners of his mouth lift slightly. "At least you've got a conscience, brat." The minor friction between grandfather and grandson vanished into thin air at that moment. Exhaling a cloud of smoke, the old man murmured, "Back then... was something wrong with you?" Li Guanqi nodded and recounted everything that had happened outside. As he listened, Su Xuan forgot even to draw on his pipe. By the time Li Guanqi finished speaking, the tobacco in the bowl had burned down completely. Seeing this, Li Guanqi retrieved the tobacco pouch from the old house from his robes and offered it over. At the sight of it, Su Xuan grinned. "You brat, thoughtful of you, wasn't it—bringing it specially? "Then why did you stand at the gate earlier without coming in?" Li Guanqi chuckled. "Wasn't it because I hadn't figured out how to apologize yet..." Su Xuan's expression turned grave. Squinting his eyes, he said in a heavy voice, "Xun Tian can be considered completely obliterated; his methods were rather sophisticated. "Gu Xici won't have too many avatars. Any more... and his divine soul wouldn't be able to bear it. "At most, he has one or two left. That's already remarkable for him. "Still, this fellow... is rather troublesome to deal with!" Li Guanqi nodded silently. If Xun Tian was someone who toyed with human hearts, then Gu Xici was cautious as a rat. Duan Xian had cultivated bitterly for thousands of years to seek vengeance, showing immense endurance, but Gu Xici was like a cunning rabbit with three burrows—even with a plan he believed to be flawless, he would still leave himself numerous escape routes and backup contingencies. As the pair chatted, Li Guanqi brought up what he had discussed earlier with Meng Jiangchu. "Grandfather, who exactly was that taciturn Old Man Lu from back then?" Hearing this, Su Xuan's brows furrowed, and his expression turned somewhat solemn. Looking at Li Guanqi, he spoke with great gravity: "I couldn't see through him! "Back then, whether it was Meng Jiangchu or Zhang Qixuan, I could see right through them at a glance. "Yet that fellow named Lu Tiancheng gave me an ethereal, intangible feeling. "Though my power wasn't fully unleashed back then, even after killing him, I still felt a lingering unease." Li Guanqi's expression shifted slightly at those words. For Su Xuan to say such a thing proved that the old man was unquestionably an extraordinarily formidable figure. Perhaps even... Deeply mysterious! Yet from beginning to end, that person had never appeared again; Li Guanqi had never seen him once since Fulong Village!! After a long silence, Li Guanqi's face changed slightly. He circulated his vital energy and released heavenly fire to form a barrier. With a grim face, Li Guanqi looked at the old man and said in a chilling voice, "My sister... her ashes were dug up and taken!" Boom! Su Xuan's expression hardened, and the aura within his body involuntarily leaked out a fraction. Li Guanqi was standing too close; even at the peak of the mid-stage Tribulation Transcendence realm, the shockwave of that force turned his face pale.