When scions of Great Yan's prominent clans reached a certain age or cultivation level, their elders arranged for them to travel the realm.
Knowledge gained from paper always proved shallow; reading ten thousand books would never match traveling ten thousand li. A caged bird that never stepped outside could never take the reins of a clan. The experience and insight gleaned from journeying across the world would become an invaluable asset once the younger generation came to power.
Furthermore, sending scions to travel was a customary way for aristocratic families to expand their connections. Friends made along the road through shared trials would, ten or even dozens of years down the line, pay dividends to the clan in the form of networks and alliances.
Over countless years, this practice had evolved into an established tradition. However, this customary journey did not include descendants incapable of cultivation—especially women.
The world was fraught with too many mishaps. Lacking cultivation meant these descendants had no means of self-preservation when disaster struck.
The second reason lay in bloodline.
Appetite and romance were fundamental parts of human nature.
When setting out to roam, most clan scions were at an age when romantic feelings first blossomed. The clan elders had all lived through those years themselves, so they were not opposed to such things occurring.
The issue, however, was that whoever they courted had to be a cultivator at the very least.
The divide between immortals and mortals was far more than an idle phrase.
It represented a fundamental shift in perception, something anyone who had never lived it could never truly comprehend.
Descendants with cultivation chose fellow cultivators for the vast majority of their companions. Mortal offspring were entirely different. Throughout past chronicles, far too many mortal scions had, for one reason or another, fallen for all manner of strange, inappropriate partners.
Widows, married women, courtesans, wandering vagabonds, rough brutes, traveling peddlers, and so forth.
And compared to men, women were at an even greater disadvantage.
For even if a male scion fell for a mortal, he would at least not return to the clan estate with a swollen belly.
To prominent families, illegitimate children were forever scandals that disgraced the clan. When these people came knocking at the gates with a child in tow, was the clan to take them in or not?
Even more critical:
If the proportion of children fathered or birthed with mortals grew too high, what would happen if it diluted the clan's cultivation bloodline?
A vast share of an aristocratic clan's power was rooted in generation after generation of mighty experts with profound cultivation. If a long period passed without exceptionally gifted descendants being born, the clan would inevitably decline step by step.
This was a lesson forged through the painful experiences of great clans across generations, and an iron rule for any family seeking to endure through the ages.
Long Xinling was precisely such a clan descendant.
She carried the bloodline of a Saint, yet was born with a naturally crippled constitution.
Like Xu Yuan, she had hit the cosmic lottery, and like Xu Yuan, she was incapable of sitting still.
She yearned for freedom and the wondrous world beyond the manor walls.
Yet compared to the exceptionally lenient environment of the Chancellor's Manor, Long Xinling was like a caged bird able only to gaze at the open sky through thin iron bars. The strict discipline of the imperial capital's Long family confined her firmly within the walls of their estate.
Fortunately, just like Xu Yuan, Long Xinling had an older brother who cherished and protected her.
On her sixteenth birthday, aided by that elder brother, the naturally vivacious Long Xinling slipped past her elders and escaped the cage that had confined her for sixteen years for the very first time.
It was also on that occasion, in the radiant bloom of her sixteen years, that Long Xinling crossed paths with the twelve-year-old Lou Ji.
Dried blood was a frequent sight upon the brownish soil of Black Alley. Most of the blocks reeked of blood and excrement, filthy and foul.
Yet Long Xinling paid it no mind. Filled with curiosity toward every novel sight around her, she bounced and skipped through the throngs of people, her bright eyes blinking with wonder.
When street vendors brawled over a few copper wen, she stood aside, clapping and cheering.
When she spotted a drunkard sprawled by the roadside, she pinched her nose, leaned close, and poked him with a finger to see if he was dead.
Whenever she saw a street snack she had never tasted before, she directly pulled out large banknotes to pay for food worth only a few wen.
Her sumptuous garments and her bright, cluelessly naive gaze naturally drew the attention of countless onlookers.
Among them was Lou Ji, who was just passing by.
As Long Xinling flaunted her way through the busiest stretch of Black Alley, Lou Ji strolled past in form-fitting black attire.
Yet Lou Ji's gaze lingered on Long Xinling for only a fleeting moment.
Abandon the savior complex and respect others' fates.
She had seen the darkness of Black Alley swallow plenty of wealthy youths who had wandered in out of fascination. Three years earlier, she might have set her sights on this obviously sheltered young miss as well. But now, with the old man's backing, she had no need for such petty gains.
Unfortunately, though Lou Ji let Long Xinling go, Long Xinling had no intention of letting her go.
The moment this bundle of curiosity saw Lou Ji pass, a glint of intrigue sparked in her eyes. She called out to stop her, and when Lou Ji ignored the shout, she dashed forward a few steps and grabbed the cold-faced girl by the hand.
There was no other reason.
It was simply a world that judged by appearance, and Lou Ji was exceptionally good-looking.
The kind of beauty that, with a single glimpse in a crowd, compelled you to turn back for a second look.
Her demeanor and features were entirely at odds with the squalor of Black Alley, and so Long Xinling grew curious.
Evidently, a first encounter forged this way could hardly be called amicable.
Long Xinling was like a hopping fledgling bird, while young Lou Ji resembled an aloof black cat. Her slender wrist had been caught, yet the gaze she cast over her shoulder remained flat, devoid of emotion.
Under young Lou Ji's impassive stare, Long Xinling grew slightly flustered. She stumbled through several idiotic questions, like asking where the girl lived, leading young Lou Ji to suspect this young lady was missing a few screws.
Out of pity, after listening silently to Long Xinling's babbling, young Lou Ji gave her a well-intentioned warning.
She told her not to flaunt her wealth in Black Alley and to hurry home; Black Alley was no place for a sheltered miss like her.
As she spoke, her gaze swept casually over the desperados lurking nearby, who were already itching to strike.
Wherever her eyes fell, heads bowed and figures backed away.
Three years of serving under that old man had earned this twelve-year-old girl quite a ferocious reputation throughout Black Alley.
What young Lou Ji had not anticipated was that her kind warning seemed to serve no deterrent purpose at all. Instead, it caused the young lady to drop her guard completely, flipping some sort of hidden switch.
As Lou Ji walked, Long Xinling tagged along, chattering incessantly in her ear.
To Long Xinling, this frigid little girl was deeply mysterious.
And mystery meant curiosity.
Enduring the noisy chatter trailing behind her, young Lou Ji walked silently to the entrance of Black Alley. There, she uttered the second sentence she had spoken since they met—and the final words of their first encounter:
"Leave Black Alley. Go home."
And then, while Long Xinling stood dazed, young Lou Ji quietly vanished into the crowds of Black Alley.
At the time, Lou Ji truly had not imagined that this vexing young lady would reappear the very next day at the exact spot where they had crossed paths.
Long Xinling had outright bought a street stall there.
Sitting behind the stall, completely indifferent to the stares cast upon her by those around her, she rested her chin on her hand, scanning the passing crowd with bored, eager eyes.
And in that brief moment of distraction, their eyes met across the sea of people.
Excitement flared in Long Xinling's eyes.
Lou Ji kept her face cold, spun around, and walked away, paying no heed to the excited shouts echoing behind her.
And so ended their second encounter.
For a time after that, Lou Ji deliberately altered her route home to avoid her.
Yet because of that very change, Lou Ji and Long Xinling's third encounter took place within the spacious manor grounds nestled in the deepest reaches of Black Alley.
Chapter 517