Chapter 287: Dust-Sealed Past Events
The next day, the news of Chen Xingcai capturing a Demonic Path spy spread throughout the entire sect.
Although the specifics of how she was caught were kept tight-lipped, it did not prevent the disciples within the sect from developing a new wave of admiration for their Saintess.
Immortal Spirit City, inside the City Lord's Mansion.
Ji Lingxiu gently placed the jade slip on the desk.
The jade slip contained a detailed record of the farce from a few days prior. As she read, she couldn't help but shake her head and smile wryly.
A servant girl from the mansion quietly served newly brewed spiritual tea, its steam curling upwards.
"This time, junior sister was too reckless..."
Although her tone was reproachful, her eyes were full of doting affection.
Her degree of indulgence toward Chen Xingcai was in no way inferior to her indulgence toward Xiao Chen and the others.
However, her smile quickly faded. The latter part of the jade slip mentioned that the Heavenly Demon Superior was hidden extremely deep. Even Li Hanzhou was still trying to find a way to force him to reveal himself.
"The Upper Realm, huh..."
In the morning light, the City Lord, dressed in a long, moon-white dress, rose and paced to the window.
Her thoughts drifted far away, recalling the legend her father the emperor had told her in childhood—the story of First Ancestor Ji Wuque's spirit journey to the Upper Realm and his return with three Heavenly Steles.
At that time, her heart and eyes were filled only with admiration for her First Ancestor; she felt there was nothing in this world that Ji Wuque could not do.
But as her cultivation deepened and her understanding of the Cultivation World grew, this legend gradually turned into a huge mystery in her heart.
The Heaven-Reaching Path between the upper and lower realms had long been broken; this was a universally acknowledged fact in the Cultivation World.
Those lucky few who managed to return from the Heaven-Reaching Path brought back no rare treasures from the Upper Realm, but instead the corpses of one astonishingly brilliant senior after another.
It was said that these corpses were all found in the Endless Void on either side of the Heaven-Reaching Path.
The Heaven-Reaching Path of today was no longer a passage connecting the two realms, but a land of death filled with violent astral winds.
Those astral winds specialized in attacking the human soul. Even the physical bodies of Celestial Human Realm cultivators could not withstand a few rounds before their souls would be scattered.
So, how exactly did Ji Wuque traverse that deathly void? And how did he carry three Heavenly Steles on his back and return safely?
This mystery remains one of the greatest unsolved puzzles of the lower realm to this day.
...
"My Lady, someone has delivered a letter."
The servant girl stood at the study door, holding a plain white letter. The morning light through the window cast speckled spots of light at her feet.
Ji Lingxiu reviewed official documents without lifting her head, a vermilion brush marking the jade slips: "Where is the person?"
"They left after dropping off the letter." The servant girl placed the letter on top of the mountain of documents. "The person was wearing a bamboo hat, their face could not be seen clearly."
Ji Lingxiu gave a noncommittal "Mm."
As the high-ranking and powerful Immortal Spirit City Lord, she had long been accustomed to such deliberately mysterious invitation tactics.
The vermilion brush continued to move across the jade slips. When she reached the third report regarding spiritual field taxes, the tip of the brush suddenly paused.
A nameless irritability surged in her heart.
She put down the vermilion brush, her fair fingers pulling that letter from the pile of documents.
The letter felt slightly cool to the touch. Sealed on its closure was a faded plum blossom mark—this was the secret mark of the Great Zhou Imperial Clan.
"For the personal opening of Her Highness, the Eldest Princess, Ji Lingxiu."
The graceful handwriting made her fingertips tremble slightly.
The number of people who would address her this way in the entire Great Zhou today does not exceed three.
The moment the letter was unfolded, Ji Lingxiu's pupils suddenly contracted.
The nearly faded character "Li" at the signature was like a knife cleaving open the curtain of memory.
The palace walls in the downpour, the cold light stabbing from behind, the blood-stained skirt... The personal handmaiden who had combed her hair and dressed her since childhood had ultimately plunged a dagger into her heart.
The teacup suddenly shattered, and scalding tea splashed onto her cuff.
The servant girls panicked and knelt on the ground, but they saw that the City Lord seemed oblivious, merely staring fixedly at the letter.
"If you wish to know the truth of that year, please come to Qingfeng Valley for a talk, Your Highness."
The ink of the address was still fresh; it was a small valley three hundred li away from Immortal Spirit City.
Ji Lingxiu closed her eyes and took a deep breath. With a fluctuation of spiritual power, the tea stains on her cuff completely faded.
Afterward, she instructed a servant girl that she was going out, and the next second, she turned into a streak of light, streaking across the sky and speeding toward the address on the letter.
Over Qingfeng Valley, dark clouds gathered, and the fine rain was like silk.
She stood in the air, suddenly feeling that this kind of weather was very familiar to her.
Therefore, she did not use her true essence to block the rain, but instead let the rainwater slide down her hair, though it could not soak her clothes.
Then, she detected a wave of spiritual power coming from the valley—a group of people was pursuing a familiar figure.
Ji Lingxiu's eyes narrowed, and she sneered in her heart: "So that's how it is. Even in such a plight, you still want to use me?"
She had to admit that the other party had indeed grasped her mentality.
Even though she wished she could tear Li'er into ten thousand pieces, at the very least, she hoped to end this grudge with her own hands, not through the hands of others.
"Boom—"
She descended from the sky. Upon landing, her spiritual power fluctuated, and the rain was instantly scattered into a mist of water.
Before the pursuers could even react, they saw a flash of cold light—
"Clang!"
The long sword left its sheath, the sword's light like lightning.
The cultivation of these pursuers was only around the Profound Connection Realm. Before the current Ji Lingxiu, they were like mere ants.
Wherever the sword's edge passed, fresh blood mixed with the rain and splashed down. In an instant, only a few cold corpses remained on the ground.
Ji Lingxiu sheathed her long sword and slowly walked toward the figure sitting slumped in the muddy water.
Rainwater dripped from her fingertips. She reached out, grabbed the other's throat, and lifted her up.
"Long time no see, Li'er."
Her voice was as cold as frost, yet a trace of a complex emotion flashed in her eyes.
Li'er's neck was as fragile as a reed in Ji Lingxiu's fingers. Rainwater slid down her pale cheeks, mixing with the trace of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.
Even though breathing was difficult, she still desperately tried to move the corners of her mouth, squeezing out a broken smile:
"Long... time... no... see... Princess... Your... Highness..."
Before her voice faded, those hands that had once dressed Ji Lingxiu for many years fell limp.
Ji Lingxiu felt the pulse in her palm gradually weaken.
In the curtain of rain, she saw the wounds exposed beneath Li'er's ragged clothing—scars left by a spirit-sealing chain piercing her shoulder blades, and unhealed iron-brand marks on her wrists.
Her five fingers unconsciously tightened and then loosened.
Ji Lingxiu sighed, suddenly tore off her own cloak, wrapped the unconscious woman in it, and once again turned into a streak of light, shooting into the sky.
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