Scattered by the thin film of ice crystals, the sunset glow filling the sky shimmered in her pitch-black pupils, dazzlingly beautiful.
Xu Yuan fell silent for two seconds before asking softly once more, "Is there any other reason?"
"Any other reason?" Ran Qingmo asked.
"Other reasons for wanting to protect your sect. For example, your feelings toward the sect itself, or toward your fellow disciples?"
Ran Qingmo's beautiful eyes flickered with a hint of confusion. "Fellow disciples?"
Recalling briefly, she shook her head gently. "I have always stayed on Mount Tianfeng. I rarely see them."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan seemed to realize something. His gaze turned increasingly peculiar as he looked at her. "Ran Qingmo, how did you spend your life growing up?"
Ran Qingmo answered simply, "Cultivating."
"What about besides cultivating?"
"Practicing the sword."
"And besides practicing the sword?"
"Um... in the past, I also slept and ate meals."
"Anything else?"
"Does learning to write count?"
"..." Xu Yuan was speechless.
Well, no wonder this block of ice had a personality like this.
Clearing his throat, Xu Yuan took a breath and asked again, "You're doing this solely because you will be the future Sect Master?"
Ran Qingmo looked puzzled. "...What else would it be?"
"..."
Xu Yuan lowered his eyes in silence.
A reason so pure it was free of any impurities.
It was not out of a sense of belonging, nor out of affection for her fellow disciples and master; it was simply because it had always been this way since childhood.
Ran Qingmo was born for the Tianyuan Sword Sect.
Ran Qingmo looked at Xu Yuan, a certain light flickering in her eyes as she tested carefully, "Xu Yuan, when you said you could help me, was it true?"
This time, Xu Yuan did not answer right away.
The destruction of the Tianyuan Sword Sect was a major event in Cangyuan, but the plot of Cangyuan had long since derailed from its established course, galloping like a wild horse that had thrown off its reins toward a direction unknown to Xu Yuan.
As things stood, the only advantages Xu Yuan could still seize were likely unrevealed opportunities and fortuitous encounters, along with certain characters' personalities and pasts.
As for saving the Sword Sect, he no longer possessed the confidence he had once had.
Seeing him lower his gaze and stay silent for so long, the light in Ran Qingmo's beautiful eyes gradually dimmed. "Is it impossible...?"
"It's not entirely impossible."
"..." Her beautiful eyes widened slightly.
Xu Yuan lifted his eyes to look at her and smiled. "My current desire to travel abroad includes the reason of wanting to help you."
Ran Qingmo took an instinctive step forward and grabbed the corner of his blood-red robe embroidered with gold patterns. "...Really?"
Xu Yuan glanced at the hem of his robe caught in her grip, then met her eyes and countered in a serious tone, "But do you trust me?"
Could she trust him?
He was now the Third Young Master of the Chancellor's Manor, a core figure of the faction that was about to destroy the Tianyuan Sword Sect.
If he chose to deceive her, misleading information would only cause the Tianyuan Sword Sect to fall even faster.
Ran Qingmo froze, staring at Xu Yuan for several breaths. "But you are Xu Yuan."
"I am also Xu Changtian," Xu Yuan said.
"..."
Ran Qingmo lightly bit her lower lip with pearly teeth, casting her eyes downward in a long silence, yet the hand gripping his hem did not let go. "I... I have no other choice..."
"..."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan sighed softly. Reaching up, he brushed back the stray strands of hair falling beside her temple, tucking them behind her ear, and offered her a slight smile.
"Ran Qingmo, I can strive to give you a chance, but I can't guarantee whether I can secure it. Even if I do, it will ultimately depend on your master's decision.
"Of course, his decision might not be the final word either."
The very name of the Chancellor's Manor dictated that all its power was concentrated in his father alone, but a sect was not run by the word of its Sect Master alone.
Over a thousand years of evolution, sects had long turned into complex conglomerates of competing interests.
The council of elders, the major subordinate clans, and even rising grassroots factions could sway a sect's final decisions when their influence peaked.
The most Xu Yuan could do was try to extract an opportunity from his father on Ran Qingmo's behalf.
Whether it would ultimately succeed remained an unknown.
Despite his noncommittal response, Ran Qingmo nodded without hesitation. "Mm, alright!"
Xu Yuan pulled back his hand and chuckled, shaking his head.
It seemed this big block of ice truly had reached the end of her rope; she had probably tried every method she could think of before coming to him.
Now that a promise had been made, he needed to obtain the corresponding intelligence.
Xu Yuan asked, "Ran Qingmo, let me ask you something."
"What is it?" Ran Qingmo's mood had visibly improved.
Xu Yuan asked unhurriedly, "From the time we parted until now, what have you been doing?"
"I went to Mount Qingfeng and Biluo Valley. Mm... I also went back to Mount Tianyuan," Ran Qingmo honestly recounted her itinerary.
Recalling briefly, Xu Yuan remembered that Mount Qingfeng and Biluo Valley were the locations of the mountain gates of two major sects within the realm.
"You went there to lobby them?"
"Mm, but none of them believed what I said."
"..." Xu Yuan was speechless.
It would have been a miracle if they had believed her.
Over these past days, Xu Yuan had learned many things through his family's internal intelligence reports.
The relations among the Chancellor's Manor, the imperial court, and the sects had discrepancies compared to what he had known in his past life.
The Imperial Preceptor disbelieved that the Chancellor's Manor planned to eradicate the Sword Sect not for a reason as shallow as the old man being friends with his father, but because such an incident had happened before.
It was that matter of establishing the Tian'an Martial Hall that Zhou Chen had mentioned.
That had been a preliminary attempt made by the Chancellor's Manor together with the reigning Emperor, but the sects were no fools, and their reaction had been extremely fierce.
At the height of tensions, the defensive array guarding the Imperial Capital was activated, and Marquis Wucheng received orders to march his troops back to the capital at any moment.
In the end, however, war did not break out.
Because the Emperor fell ill;
because the president of the Tian'an Chamber of Commerce passed away.
Ever since then, over all these years, the Chancellor's Manor had indeed consistently submitted memorials urging the suppression and reform of the sects, but it was all thunder without rain, ending in anticlimactic fizzles.
The sects would never compromise; if reform was desired, the only way was through armed force.
But who dared?
Today, sect forces were deeply entrenched, having penetrated almost every blood vessel of the Great Yan Dynasty.
At such a time, whoever dared resort to military force would be defying the entire realm.
Under such circumstances, if Ran Qingmo showed up at their doors and abruptly announced that the Chancellor's Manor was going to target the Tianyuan Sword Sect and all sects across the world, Xu Yuan would have treated it as a joke too if he were in their shoes—or even suspected that Ran Qingmo was scaremongering to sow discord.
After all, relations among the sects were far from harmonious.
Therefore, Xu Yuan was very curious as to why Ran Qingmo was so utterly convinced of this matter, and where her source of information had come from.
This question had been weighing on his mind for a long time.
Thinking up to this point, Xu Yuan hesitated no longer and asked directly, "How did you learn the news that my Chancellor's Manor intends to destroy the Tianyuan Sword Sect?"
The expression on Ran Qingmo's face shifted slightly. After two seconds of silence, she asked in a small, probing voice, "Can I not talk about this?"
"No," Xu Yuan answered unequivocally.
Ran Qingmo asked in a low voice, "Is this matter very important?"
Xu Yuan gave an ambiguous answer: "It might be important, but then again, it might not."
Ran Qingmo gazed at Xu Yuan for several breaths, and finally whispered, "Alright, I'll tell you.
"Um... a little girl named Tianyan told me."
Chapter 86