Silence descended upon the coffee shop. A few seconds later, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter set down the kettle. Her bright eyes narrowed beneath her mask.
"Tsk, tsk. What do you mean by that? That I knew you long ago?"
Covering her mouth, she giggled coquettishly, appearing slightly unhinged. "Are you trying to be the man of my dreams? Sigh, that little face of yours isn't bad, but it still falls short. If it were Fu Qingyang, now he could be the man of my dreams."
*For a moment, I honestly don't know whether to be angry that the boss stole my spot as head paramour, or angry that you want to steal my boss,* Zhang Yuanqing grumbled inwardly.
Looking solemn, he said with absolute certainty, "You know my father, Zhang Zizhen, don't you?"
The Palace Master's smile vanished in an instant. The upturned corners of her lips leveled out bit by bit, and beneath the mask, those delicate, lively eyes turned profound and fathomless.
"There's no need to deny it; I know everything now! The one who saved you back then and brought you to Songhai wasn't someone from the Chu clan—it was my father, Zhang Zizhen. That's why you've never had any so-called clansmen around you. I already asked Mad Love Great Sage; he's followed you for all these years, and he has never once heard you mention your clan. I also asked Xie Lingxi, and she said you're half-mad and mercurial, that far from keeping male paramours, you wouldn't spare even the handsomest man a second glance. Yet you treat only me differently—paramour this, paramour that, never refusing any request I make. She just assumed I was capable and good at socializing, but I know full well that's not it at all. Now I understand: you and I were never strangers. It's just that I didn't know, and you never brought it up."
Zhang Yuanqing laid it all out in a single breath, getting straight to the point without any probing.
There was no need for probing; the evidence he possessed was more than enough to nail down the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter.
The Palace Master stared deeply at him for a moment before giggling again. Her voice was gentle and melodious, yet her words dripped with pure yandere malice:
"Should I strip the two of them naked and hang them from the Songjiang Bridge, or chop them to bits and feed them to the lions in the Zoo?"
Snapping her smile away in a flash, she picked up the two cups of coffee. Her gaze turned gentle and affectionate as she whispered softly, "I bought and ground the beans myself. It should taste good—brewed specially for you. Let's go sit over there."
She had transformed from an unhinged lunatic into a tender girlfriend so fast that Zhang Yuanqing could hardly keep pace.
He followed the Palace Master away from the counter and sat down by the window.
The floor-to-ceiling window reflected the indoor lights, casting the silhouettes of two figures: one clad in an exquisite, flowing traditional dress, her black hair cascading like a waterfall, resembling an aristocratic young lady; the other with short hair and a T-shirt, straight-backed, a modern youth brimming with vitality.
Zhang Yuanqing took a sip of the coffee. Amidst the bitter, slightly sour taste was a rich aroma.
To someone fond of coffee, it was undoubtedly an exceptional brew; to Zhang Yuanqing, adding two spoonfuls of syrup would probably have been an improvement.
"Delicious!" he praised against his conscience.
The Palace Master scoffed softly, as if amused by his pretense, but quickly smoothed it away with a smile. "As long as you like it."
She took a sip of her coffee and began her tale:
"You're right. Back then, the one who rescued me and brought me to Songhai wasn't someone from the Chu family. It was your father, Zhang Zizhen. His Spirit Realm ID was Zhang Tianshi. When your father was young, his health was frail, so your grandmother shouldered a sack of rice and took him to the Daoist temple on the mountain behind their village, having him cultivate alongside the temple's master to strengthen his constitution. He also picked up a lot of parlor tricks—drawing talismans, chanting incantations, telling fortunes, and treating illnesses. During middle school, he conned plenty of classmates out of their pocket money.
"When the classmates' parents stormed the school to demand accountability, he ended up swindling them as well. He claimed he was the reincarnation of the Great Emperor Ziwei, and the parents started calling him 'Little Immortal' at every turn..."
*Reincarnation of the Great Emperor Ziwei? How petty. If it were me, I'd say I was the reincarnation of Yuanshi Tianzun...* Hearing of his father's youthful absurdities out of nowhere, Zhang Yuanqing didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"How do you know all this?" Zhang Yuanqing asked. He had never heard any of it.
"Your mother told me, of course. I lived with them for a period of time. When the Chu family was exterminated, I was only six years old and had no ability to survive on my own. At that time, your mother wasn't even pregnant with you yet." The Palace Master rested her chin in her hands, smiling brightly.
*Six years old? The Chu family was wiped out twenty-one years ago, so she's twenty-seven now? The same age as Sister Guan Ya...* Zhang Yuanqing nodded.
"What happened after that?"
"Later, he placed me in foster care with a family. He told me he had something very important to do, and that if he couldn't return, I should live well with that family and wait for the Chu family to come find me. You had just been born then, and your mother took you back to her maiden home for her postpartum recovery." The Palace Master looked out the window at the quiet street.
"I waited and waited, year after year, but no one from the Chu family ever came for me."
As she said this, a tinge of desolation and sorrow surfaced in her eyes.
"Your father did return, however, and he'd visit me at that family's home once in a while. Until the year you turned six, when I heard he died in a car accident." The Palace Master let out a sigh.
"Why didn't my father bring you back home?" Zhang Yuanqing asked. Inwardly, he thought: *If he had, I would've had an unhinged older sister. Then whenever I went out shopping, I'd have my aunt on my left arm and my sister on my right—how impressive that would've been.*
The Palace Master fell silent for a few seconds before murmuring softly, "He was afraid! He said that if his enemies ever tracked him down one day, at least I would still survive. But if he kept me by his side, neither of us would live."
"Enemies?" Zhang Yuanqing frowned. "Dark Night Rose?"
The Palace Master gave a slight shake of her head. "I don't know. I was too young back then, and there were many things he didn't tell me."
"Fine. Then tell me what you do know." Zhang Yuanqing stared at her with an aggressive intensity in his eyes. "You were the one who stitched my soul together, right?
"What happened to me? Why did I see your memories? Did my illness really manifest in high school? I have no memory of any of this."
The Palace Master's bright, pitch-black eyes met his gaze, scrutinizing him deeply. "As I thought, the stitching has loosened, which is why you saw fragments of my memory. How are you feeling now? Do you feel an extreme sense of dissonance?"
"A bit, but it's improving. I'm a Night Walker; my astral body isn't fragile," Zhang Yuanqing replied.
Only then did she nod in relief, speaking softly:
"I did stitch your astral body. To stitch an astral body, one must use identical 'material.' I tore away a piece of my own soul and used it as thread to piece together your shattered astral body. Because of that, my vitality was gravely damaged, and I fell from the Dominator realm to a Saint.
"As for when it happened, it was indeed during your high school years. I'm only a few years older than you; if it hadn't been during your high school, did you think I had ascended to Dominator as a child?"
*Makes sense.* With a complex expression, Zhang Yuanqing said, "Thank you!"
The Palace Master gave a soft laugh. "Your father saved my life, and I saved yours. We're even. Besides, that was my promise to your father."
"Promise?" Zhang Yuanqing asked, puzzled.
"A year before your father passed away, he came to see me. He said that if you ever faced a life-threatening danger in the future, he hoped I would save your life. After your father died, I stayed in touch with your mother and met with her a few times a year. When something happened to you, it was your mother who came to me."
"Why did my soul tear apart?"
"I don't know. When I saw you, your astral body was already torn to pieces, yet miraculously it hadn't dissipated, as if waiting for someone to rescue you. I asked your mother what happened, but she didn't really know either. She told me..." The Palace Master recalled for a moment, then said, "When you were born, Zhang Zizhen told her that he was leaving something behind for you. He also told her that this item was extremely important, and if anything happened to you in the future, she should contact me immediately.
"I was only seven years old back then, yet your father seemed certain that I would become a Spirit Realm Walker. As for what that item specifically was, he refused to tell your mother."
*Left something behind for me...* Zhang Yuanqing slowly chewed over those words. Suddenly, he remembered Sect Master Chunyang's outcry two nights ago:
*—There's something wrong with his soul!*
And before Sect Master Chunyang said that, he had already noticed that his soul had been stitched together, so he certainly hadn't been referring to the stitches.
Zhang Yuanqing sucked in a sharp breath. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "What was the big thing he said he was going to do back then?"
"He didn't tell me."
*What good are you, then? Forget it, you were just a little girl back then.* Zhang Yuanqing had one more question: "Do you know about the Xiaoyao organization?"
"I do. It was an organization your father and my father were part of in their early years," the Palace Master said. "In my memory, my father's health was always poor. He frequently needed life fluid to maintain his condition. Once, my mother complained to him and mentioned an organization called Xiaoyao."
She tilted her head, recalling, "She said it was all because my father had fooled around with that Xiaoyao crowd that he developed an incurable ailment."
At this point, she smiled mischievously. "Interestingly enough, Zhang Zizhen was just like my father—both suffered from chronic ailments."
*So what did that group from Xiaoyao actually do back then?* Zhang Yuanqing asked, "Is there anything else?"
The Palace Master pondered and said, "Ever since I became a Spirit Realm Walker, I've barely heard anything about the Xiaoyao organization. To be precise, after your father and my father died, the organization vanished without a trace.
"Information about it is probably only known to the officials and the older generation of Spirit Realm Walkers. I haven't actively looked into it."
"You haven't actively looked into it?" Zhang Yuanqing glanced at her and said flatly, "Who are you trying to fool?
"You've investigated the truth of the Chu family massacre for so many years—how could you possibly overlook this lead?"
"I'm not lying to you. I really don't know," the Palace Master giggled, resting her cheek in her hand as she watched him.
Zhang Yuanqing was helpless against her for the moment, so he could only wrack his own brain.
The tearing of his soul was very likely tied to his father, Zhang Zizhen. When he was born, his father had given him something, and it was that very thing that caused the anomaly in his soul during high school.
To verify this hypothesis, he first needed to learn more about his father.
He asked, "How much does my mother know?"
The Palace Master said, "She's just an ordinary person. What do you think Zhang Zizhen would tell her? Knowing little doesn't guarantee safety, but knowing too much definitely guarantees danger."
"Seems I can only investigate it myself." Zhang Yuanqing fell into thought once more.
The current breakthrough point was the Xiaoyao organization.
Perhaps uncovering the truth behind why this organization vanished would reveal what his father and Chu Shang had done back then, and why they had contracted the same illness.
From there, he could trace the clues to figure out what major undertaking his father had engaged in.
In addition, the enemies his father mentioned weighed heavily on Zhang Yuanqing's mind.
Did those enemies refer to Dark Night Rose, or someone else?
Zhang Yuanqing suspected the latter. The reason was simple: what Dark Night Rose wanted to seize was the Mother Goddess's Womb to resurrect their leader.
Back then, the Palace Master was merely a little toddler who had barely learned to wipe her own bottom, not even a Spirit Realm Walker. Dark Night Rose wouldn't have pursued her relentlessly.
Dark Night Rose and the Soldier Master Sect still maintained some standards.
Thinking up to this point, his train of thought became clear. Two pressing matters lay before him:
First, whether his astral body would tear again.
Second, what that item his father left behind actually was, and whether those so-called enemies would target him.
These were matters concerning his personal safety; he had to get to the bottom of them.
He couldn't wait until danger arrived at his doorstep to react.
"Will my astral body tear apart again?" he asked.
"Your mother found medicine for you. Originally, as long as you kept taking it, you would have been fine. Who could have foreseen that you'd become a Spirit Realm Walker later on? That makes it even less of a concern. As your level rises, your astral body will gradually heal." With one hand supporting her cheek, the Palace Master stirred her coffee with a little spoon.
"Is the thing my father left behind still inside my astral body, or did it leave when my soul was torn?" That was what Zhang Yuanqing cared about most.
The Palace Master shook her head.
*If you don't know whether it's still there or not, how can you be so certain my astral body won't have any more problems? This woman is definitely hiding something...* Zhang Yuanqing was shrewd. His question just now had been both genuine curiosity and a test.
"Was my father killed by those enemies he mentioned?" He took a sip of the lukewarm coffee.
"The car accident was what your mother told me, and the body was prepared for burial by your granduncle. I was only eleven or twelve back then, and I didn't even attend your father's funeral. How would I know how he actually died? You can go ask your mother." She curled her lip.
Zhang Yuanqing uttered an "Oh" and quickly formulated an action plan:
One: Search the official database for records on the Xiaoyao organization.
Two: Call his mother for a frank, direct conversation.
Three: Visit the Zoo in the dead of night under the pretext of visiting Demonic Eye, and secretly communicate with the Zoo's artifact spirit.
The third option was too risky and was shelved as a backup for now. After all, he wasn't the real Zhang Zizhen. If the artifact spirit realized it had mistaken his identity, turned furious in disappointment, or if Elder Dog caught wind of it, things would become extremely precarious.
There was likely more than met the eye regarding how Elder Dog had acquired the Zoo; he couldn't be careless.
"I've asked everything I wanted to ask." Zhang Yuanqing drained the coffee in his cup and stood up. "Thank you for your candor. Um, can I call you Sister?"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"No means no." The Palace Master refused cold-heartedly, but then her tone softened: "If you need help during your investigation, you can contact me."
"All right, then." Zhang Yuanqing was about to cast the Star Escape Technique when something suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, something's not right..."
The expression beneath the Palace Master's mask suddenly turned tense, and she pursed her lips. "What's not right?"
Zhang Yuanqing sorted through the logic first, then said, "You knew me years ago, but I didn't know you."
"What's wrong with that?" she asked with a smile.
"From the moment I met you, you've called me your paramour at every turn, acting as if you couldn't wait to marry me. But the person you knew was Zhang Yuanqing—what does that have to do with Yuanshi Tianzun?" Zhang Yuanqing narrowed his eyes. "When I met you, I was in disguise. How did you know Yuanshi Tianzun was Zhang Yuanqing?"
The Palace Master froze for a second or two before scoffing, "Since I planned to meet you, wouldn't I look into you? You were in disguise when you met me, but were you in disguise when you met Wang Qian? He described your appearance, so of course I knew Yuanshi Tianzun was Zhang Yuanqing."
"...Makes sense." Left without a comeback, Zhang Yuanqing dissolved into starlight and escaped.
The Palace Master sat alone in the coffee shop. After a good while, she pulled a phone from her bodice and composed a message:
*Your son knows that I stitched his soul.*
The text was sent. A dozen seconds later, a reply came:
*You told him?!!*
The Palace Master typed expressionlessly:
*He ran into an accident two nights ago and something went wrong with his soul, which caused him to read fragments of my memories. He gave me a real fright just now; I thought he truly knew everything. Fortunately, I brushed it off. Next, he will look into Zhang Zizhen's past.*
*Stop him! He mustn't investigate—it's too dangerous.*
*I can't stop him. Besides, I support him looking into it. Back then, you stopped me from investigating the Chu family massacre, and now you want to stop him too?* the Palace Master replied.
The other side remained silent for a long time before replying: *For the next few months, my phone will be turned off.*
***
Fujia Bay Villa.
Zhang Yuanqing returned to his bedroom, opened his laptop, and logged into his "Yuanshi Tianzun" account.
He searched the official database for the word "Xiaoyao."
A flood of results popped up: item names, Spirit Realm IDs, even research initiatives.
None of them were what he was looking for.
So he logged into Guan Ya's account and searched for "Xiaoyao" again, only to find the search results were identical.
*It's one thing if I can't find it, but Guan Ya is a Saint and a patrol captain—her clearance is even higher than an ordinary garrison Deacon's—and she can't find it either?*
Zhang Yuanqing didn't believe that an organization that had shaken the world twenty-odd years ago wouldn't be recorded by the officials.
*Uh, the Five Elements Alliance probably wasn't established back then? No, even if the Five Elements Alliance hadn't been founded yet, the five major factions would have had their own databases. Did they discard the old files after the merger?*
He figured it was very likely that their clearance levels were insufficient.
If not even a Deacon had the authority to view the information, then he could only go to Fu Qingyang.
Zhang Yuanqing wasn't in a hurry. He shut the laptop, quickly washed up, and went to bed.
The night was late. Unless it was a dire emergency, there was no need to disturb Fu Qingyang. This matter wasn't pressing.
The next morning, after waking up, he pulled out his phone and sent Fu Qingyang a message:
"Boss, I met with the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter yesterday and learned about an interesting organization from her called 'Xiaoyao.' She said this organization had deep ties to the Chu family and hoped I could help look into it."
He shifted the blame onto the Palace Master and had Fu Qingyang do the digging. That way, even if the Xiaoyao organization was indeed sensitive, he could keep himself out of trouble.
Fu Qingyang didn't respond.
Zhang Yuanqing shoved his phone into his pocket, left the room, and joined his teammates for a "harmonious and heartwarming" breakfast.
"Yesterday's battle was so exciting," Little Green Tea opened combat slyly, her smile pure and sweet. "It's the first time I've ever seen an opponent Sister Guan Ya couldn't beat down. The Princess is truly amazing."
Hearing this, Commandery Princess Yinyao silently brought out her little loudspeaker:
"Martial arts and spells are one's reliance when wandering the jianghu; I am reasonably proficient. However, she is also very strong. Ever since becoming a yin corpse, I have been invulnerable to blades and spears and possessed immense physical strength, gaining an unfair advantage from this physical body.
"In martial arts alone, I am no match for her. I am very sorry that I could not pretend to slip up and eliminate a rival competing for affection on your behalf."
The air fell abruptly silent.
Queen and Xie Lingxi froze, their expressions stiffening.
Guan Ya glared coldly at the two of them.
Amidst the dead silence, Zhang Yuanqing and Li Chunfeng picked up their trays and quietly slipped out of the dining room to eat in the courtyard.
"I can't take this atmosphere. I want to resign," Li Chunfeng said.
"Don't do that! If you resign, who's going to help me bypass the firewall to download foreign 'study films'? Besides, Jingwei sends over homework every weekend—two thousand yuan per assignment. Where else could you find such great benefits?"
*If you resign, I'll have to shoulder all of this alone. Not a chance.*
"The benefits are nice, but if her family finds out, will they take a cab over to beat me up?"
"No."
"That's a relief."
"They'll fly over to beat you up."
"..."
Zhang Yuanqing placed his tray on the stone table. He had just sat down and taken a few bites of sausage when his phone chimed.
Fu Qingyang had replied with a message:
"The Xiaoyao organization was active from 1994 to 2000. There are four known members of this organization, consisting of the Twin Blazing Suns and the Twin Dark Shadows.
"The Twin Blazing Suns were 'Chu Shang' and 'Zhang Tianshi'; the Twin Dark Shadows remain unknown. The organization's slogan was: 'To prevent the world from devastation, to protect the world's peace, we will stop at nothing.'
"The Blazing Sun and Dark Shadow pairings made outstanding contributions to hunting evil classes; more than ten Dominators died at their hands.
"In 1998, the Compass of Light surfaced. The Twin Blazing Suns and Twin Dark Shadows joined the contest for it. Two years later, the organization vanished without a trace, and the four members never appeared again."
Chapter 398