He Chunhua beamed. "You're my lucky star; your old dad still has to count on you."
"I wasn't around for the past year and a half, yet you still rose through the ranks step by step," He Lingchuan smiled back. "You're a blessed man in your own right."
He Chunhua's smile faded slightly. "Why so wary? Don't you want to go back, Chuan'er?"
Go back? *Go back where?*
Did He Chunhua mean the Panlong Ruins? He Lingchuan turned the words over in his mind. Why would He Chunhua say he didn't want to "go back"?
"Make the trip. Your father needs you," He Chunhua said softly, though he cast a meaningful glance at Zhao Qinghe.
Zhao Qinghe waved a hand, and over forty men stepped forward, moving to encircle He Lingchuan.
Qiu Hu had been watching their movements closely all along. Seeing this, he led his fellow disciples to charge through the crowd and shield He Lingchuan in their midst.
Tension flared instantly between the two sides.
Qiu Hu said coldly, "What do you think you're doing to the Special Envoy?"
The words "Special Envoy" were meant to remind He Chunhua that the youth before him was not only his eldest son, but also the inspecting envoy sent by Mount Rong!
Persecuting He Lingchuan would jeopardize relations between Mount Rong and the Yuan Kingdom!
The Yuan Kingdom was still borrowing money to fight its war; if Mount Rong pulled the rug from under them, what chance of victory would they have left?
"Chuan'er, Great Yuan has been at war for years, and refugees are displaced everywhere," He Chunhua said earnestly. "Now there is a chance to end this war. How about lending your father a hand?"
*If I don't go, would that mean I'm failing Great Yuan?* He Lingchuan drawled slowly, "All right, but I have one condition."
As long as he went, that was enough. He Chunhua felt a slight sense of relief. "Name it."
"I want to know everything about Lu Xiaoyun."
At the name "Lu Xiaoyun," the muscles in He Chunhua's cheek twitched twice.
He blurted out in shock, "How... how do you know..."
His eldest son's words caught him completely off guard, instantly tearing open the most closely guarded corner of his heart.
"How do I know she's my birth mother and Madam Ying isn't?" He Lingchuan cut him off. "Dad, there's no wall in this world that doesn't leak wind!"
He Chunhua looked dazed for a moment.
His eldest son's drastic change in temperament after his return—could it be related to this?
He cast a glance toward the distant Chipa Plateau, and the warm breeze blowing in his face helped him regain his composure.
They had already come this far. The arrow was on the string; how could they stop now?
"Fine," he said promptly. "It's all ancient history anyway. If you want to hear it, I'll tell you."
With that, he turned and was the first to walk over to a large boulder by the water and sit down.
Only He Lingchuan followed him. The others tactfully stepped back several paces to give the father and son space to talk.
He Chunhua rested both hands on his knees and looked at his eldest son. "What do you want to know?"
"How did you meet her?"
He Chunhua took a long, deep breath.
"Back then, Blackwater City was still under Andongese rule. After killing the comprador they had installed in the city, I fled into the Panlong Desert to evade their pursuers. As it turned out, the wild sand season arrived early that year. While it blocked my pursuers, it nearly cost me my life as well." He slowly recalled the past. "When I woke up, I was lying inside the Lu family home—it was Lu Xiaoyun who had dragged me from the desert's edge before the storm struck.
"For several days, howling sand was all you could hear outside, and no one could leave. She tended to my wounds." He Chunhua pressed a hand to his forehead. "She was wonderful. I had already met Hongchan back then, but even so, I still... still..."
He Lingchuan knew what he meant without him having to finish.
Back then, He Chunhua had been only fifteen—just a boy experiencing his first stirrings of love, not yet the shrewd, calculating statesman he was today.
In the innocence of youth, one is always impulsive and blind to consequences.
"We only spent a few days together before I slipped back into Blackwater City, gathered men, and drove out the Andongese," He Chunhua continued. "After reclaiming Blackwater City, the Jinzhou Regional Inspector didn't reward me at all; instead, he threw me into prison, locking me up for nine months. When I was released, it coincided right with her going into labor."
He sighed deeply. "Tragically, she didn't survive it, leaving only you to me."
Father and son looked at each other in silence.
He Lingchuan felt a flicker of impulse in his heart to ask why he had used his own son as a deity blood sacrifice.
Yet this was a question he absolutely could not ask aloud. Besides, he knew that this was not his own desire, but an impulse belonging to his original self.
"Where did she come from?"
"She was of the Bailie people." Since his eldest son already knew, He Chunhua stopped hiding anything. "She came from an ancient cultivation family in the east. Chuan'er, among the immortal sects of antiquity, some existed as schools and sects, while others were hereditary clans held together by blood ties."
He Lingchuan nodded; he already knew this.
He had read accounts of this in the Panlong World. During the age of abundant spiritual energy, not a few sought the Dao and achieved immortality as family clans. Their internal structures were actually more complex than ordinary immortal sects: status and seniority were first determined by cultivation level, and only then by lineage and generation.
Because everyone was related, there was far more nuance when navigating internal relationships and the allocation of resources.
That was digressing. He Lingchuan brought his focus back to the present. "So my mother came from a prominent clan?"
"Indeed. The Lu family's domain was named 'Bailie.' In the age of immortals, it was vast, but after the cataclysm, it gradually shrank in tandem with the Lu clan's decline and decay."
He Lingchuan found nothing strange in that. Spiritual energy had begun depleting as early as the start of the Middle Ancient Era, and life had grown harder and harder for the old immortal sects.
The inevitable fate of the Lu clan was merely a microcosm of the tides of history.
"Until a little over six hundred years ago, when the Bailie region was seized by Beijia as well. The Lu family was forced to relocate to a small parcel of land further east, where they have lived ever since."
He Lingchuan was genuinely astonished. "Huh? Seized by Beijia?"
How had the northern demon kingdom become involved in this too?
"Yes. One of the thirteen vassal demon kingdoms today—the Shanyu Kingdom—is essentially the former territory of Bailie." He Chunhua shook his head. "Beijia Kingdom's vast territory was all wrested away from other nations and Daoist orders back in earlier times."
*Shanyu Kingdom?* He Lingchuan reflected for a moment. That was practically on Beijia's easternmost border. "Where did the Bailie people move to?"
"Most of the Bailie people stayed behind and accepted Beijia's rule. Another portion followed the Lu clan on a long migration eastward, eventually settling in the Donghua Plains, an area right next to eastern Mou Kingdom. Your mother told me that long ago, the Donghua Plains were purchased by the Lu family from some kingdom. Little did they expect it would become the Bailie people's last foothold."
He Lingchuan visualized the map in his mind. "In the deep rear of Mou Kingdom?"
"You could say that," He Chunhua corrected him slightly. "Between the Donghua Plains and Beijia, aside from two small warring kingdoms, lies the massive Mou Kingdom. The Bailie people were likely terrified after being beaten so badly by Beijia and refused to have any more contact with it."
If you can't beat them, you can at least hide from them. And hide the Bailie people did—all the way behind Mou Kingdom.
He Lingchuan also recalled what was unique about Mou Kingdom:
It had the highest number of Daoist orders, so perhaps it was more tolerant toward descendants of immortals like the Bailie people.
"Why did Lu... why did my mother travel thousands of li all the way to Blackwater City?" Between the Donghua Plains and Blackwater City lay Mou Kingdom, two small kingdoms, Beijia, and more than half of the Yuan Kingdom—far more than just a journey across mountains and rivers.
He Chunhua sighed. "She fled.
"The direct lineage of the Lu clan had grown frail and sparse, and their territory was shrinking rapidly. After several generations with only a single heir per generation, your grandfather's generation was left with just one daughter—Lu Xiaoyun. But both her parents died when she was twelve. A cousin-nephew from a collateral branch coveted the Lu family estate. With no one to rely on, Lu Xiaoyun had no choice but to flee Bailie."
He Lingchuan frowned. "A cousin-nephew?"
"Yes. Your mother belonged to the main family line, so she held high generational seniority. When she was twelve, her cousin-nephew, Lu Zhensheng, was already twenty-seven—in his prime and brimming with ambition," He Chunhua said. "She even suspected your maternal grandfather had been murdered by Lu Zhensheng. She seized an opportunity to escape back then; otherwise, she wouldn't have survived."
He Lingchuan sneered. "Hah. Devouring an heirless branch."
Lu Xiaoyun was a girl, young and powerless to protect herself, with no one in the clan to uphold justice, yet she held property in her name. Was this not the very definition of a treasure bringing disaster upon its bearer?
Before great wealth, some kin turn into ravenous wolves.
He Lingchuan then took out the deed Sun Hongye had left him and unfolded it before He Chunhua. "Is this contract genuine and valid?"
He Chunhua glanced at it and looked visibly moved. "So Sun Hongye found this. This was one of Lu Xiaoyun's belongings. Several decades ago, the Qing Kingdom leased Blade Harbor from the Bailie people for forty years. By now, the lease has already expired."
He Lingchuan asked casually, "Which side does the harbor belong to now?"
"That I wouldn't know," He Chunhua said, indifferent to the matter. "Things in distant lands are far too remote from us. But seeing as the Bailie people have declined, reclaiming the harbor won't be easy. Blade Harbor is a fine natural port, after all."
Having said this, He Chunhua pointed into the distance. "Looking back now, your mother might have had a second reason for making that long journey across mountains and waters—it was that. Whoever masters the Dafang Pot wields the power of vengeance."
Blackwater City was a remote borderland of a weak nation. If it held any appeal for an immortal's descendant, it was probably its proximity to the Panlong Desert.
"Therefore—" He Chunhua pressed his eldest son once more, "you truly ought to make another trip to the Panlong Ruins, Chuan'er."
Hearing him appeal to "emotion" like this made a flare of anger churn even in He Lingchuan's chest.
To achieve his goal, this father of his would truly stop at nothing!
He nodded slowly. "Dad has a point. Whether by sentiment or reason, it seems I really should go."
Delight sparked in He Chunhua's heart, and just as he was about to speak, He Lingchuan continued, "Give me something of my mother's as a keepsake, won't you?"
This request was entirely reasonable. He Chunhua thought for a moment, then unfastened a jade pendant from his waist. "This is an heirloom pendant of the Lu family's direct line, given to Xiaoyun by your grandfather. When you were born, she left it to you."
It was made of the finest mutton-fat white jade, engraved with the character for "Lu," and in its center lay a trace of red like a drop of blood.
The jade pendant felt warm and smooth in his hand. He Lingchuan sneered inwardly. Something his birth mother had left for his original self—why had He Chunhua withheld it all this time?
Was it not just his own selfish motives at play?
He rubbed the jade pendant gently and asked again, "Are the Lu family still in the Donghua Plains?"
"Presumably so. Your mother said it was a fair land with graceful mountains and clear waters," He Chunhua replied, puzzled. "Why do you ask?"
"Nothing." He Lingchuan tucked the jade pendant away. "By the way, my original name was He Xiao. Who gave me that name?"
Chapter 821