"Lord Zhimu, you haven't... done anything that would attract the attention of the Ten Lords Tribunal judges, have you?"
Teng Xiao cut himself off mid-sentence and changed his phrasing to be much more tactful.
He had originally wanted to say "unpardonable sins."
"If I admit to it, would you turn me over to the Ten Lords Tribunal?" Qi Zhimu asked, his eyes dark and full of profound meaning.
"...Don't joke like that. Let's talk about the real reason."
Teng Xiao felt a slight chill down his spine; he couldn't see a single trace of a lie on Qi Zhimu's face.
In other words, it was likely all true.
But this absolutely could not be true; he had to give Qi Zhimu a way out.
Seeing Teng Xiao's intention, Qi Zhimu stopped wandering on the edge of danger.
"The real reason for my discharge is simpler: I just want to never break my promise of saying'see you tomorrow' to my mother. That's all."
"She has lost everything and only has me, and I... only have my mother."
Hearing this, Teng Xiao fell silent.
On the Xianzhou, the longer people live, the harder it often is for them to gain strong emotional comfort from family bonds.
Over time, many people stop taking family ties to heart.
But he could understand Qi Zhimu's current feelings.
Firstly, he was young, and secondly... his own mother had died when he was very small.
Therefore, from a personal perspective, Teng Xiao understood and approved of Qi Zhimu's choice.
The only surprise was that the bond between the Qi Family mother and son had remained as strong as ever for over six hundred years.
"Teng Xiao, outsiders think being born into the Qi Family is a stroke of luck that leads to a meteoric rise, but they don't know that most Qi Family ancestors were trapped in the shackles of the past."
"Why do you say that?" Teng Xiao was completely perplexed.
"Because we have served in the military for generations. Whether it's the wives who married in or the daughters who married out, there are no exceptions."
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Have you ever considered that the military might not be the path everyone unanimously wanted to choose?" Qi Zhimu asked softly.
Teng Xiao was stunned.
It was true... everyone subconsciously assumed that with the Qi Family's illustrious history, their descendants would naturally be fierce Cloud Knights for generations.
But no one had ever asked the real reason why the Qi Family had held swords for generations.
If he had to guess, it was mostly due to being inspired by the deeds of their ancestors.
"Could it be..."
"No need for 'could it be.' It's exactly as you guessed."
Qi Zhimu's tone carried a hint of complex emotion.
"As descendants of the first Lord of the Hunt Envoy, the Qi Family has only one ancestral teaching: never disgrace the glory of our ancestors."
"But in fact... the ancestral teaching wasn't passed down by the ancestors Qi Chengyou and his wife, but by their descendants."
"From the era of our ancestors until now, on the thousand-year timescale of the Long-lived Species, the Qi Family has gone through twenty-three generations in just two thousand years, no different from the Short-Lived Species."
"My mother and I are the longest-living generations since our ancestors. Before that, the longest-lived person barely reached over 400 years old."
"My grandfather only lived to be 62. My grandmother raised my father after giving birth to him; when he turned 23 and passed his adulthood exam, he returned to the military and died in a foreign land within two years."
"During that period, the Qi Family bloodline was on the verge of extinction."
"You've heard of the 'child's choice' custom used to divine the future that has been passed down since the alliance with the Foxians, right?" Qi Zhimu changed the subject.
"Naturally. I grabbed a toy array-sword when I was little, but my parents didn't decide for me. Later, applying for the Cloud Knights was entirely my own choice."
"The Qi Family's situation is the opposite of yours," Qi Zhimu said.
"Ah...?"
"In the last dozen generations, except for me, no one grabbed a weapon during the child's choice ceremony, yet they all chose to join the military without exception."
"...Most of them were actually forced by circumstances?" Teng Xiao took a light breath.
Qi Zhimu shook his head slightly and gave an ambiguous answer.
"No one ever spoke up, but most people had fields they were better at. For example, my father—"
"Compared to fighting on the front lines, he, who had studied on the Zhuming Xianzhou, was actually better at forging weapons."
"But in the end, my father abandoned that path. There were quite a few ancestors in similar situations."
"Qi Family descendants must never disgrace the glory of their ancestors. This is our ancestral teaching, and it's also the fixed perception or... stereotype the outside world has held for two thousand years."
The meaning of these words wasn't hard to understand, and Teng Xiao felt a bit uneasy listening to them.
War was too cruel. Even as a Lord of the Hunt Envoy, there were many things one was powerless to change, and one couldn't escape the mara affliction.
Among the generations of Xianzhou Generals, those who served for more than five hundred years were few and far between.
If it was like this for the Generals, let alone the ordinary Cloud Knights fighting the Followers of Abundance.
Being born into a family like the Qi Family seemed to destine one to die on the battlefield.
Yet outsiders saw it as the luck of a meteoric rise. Wasn't that also a form of bias?
Thinking of this, Teng Xiao was deeply moved and understood why Qi Zhimu insisted on leaving the military camp.
For two thousand years, no Qi Family descendant had dared to break the shackles that history had placed upon them.
Now, Qi Zhimu had taken the initiative to become that person.
No wonder in the Qi Family, which historically married and had children very early, there was a case like his—nearly six hundred years old but still unmarried with no heirs.
"Teng Xiao, I have no actual resistance to returning to the military, but at least give me some time... until I see my mother off. Her condition... might only last these few years."
"From childhood to adulthood, my mother has always cherished me. To let me escape the shackles of the ancestral teachings and have the freedom to choose my own fate, she didn't hesitate to come to blows with my father, whom she always loved dearly."
"Becoming Mara-Struck is the fate of the Xianzhou Long-lived Species. The law leaves me no room to change my mother's fate."
"So, as an exchange for following fate—I hope that when my mother is taken into extinction, she can say goodbye with a smile, without any regrets."
"I understand."
Teng Xiao nodded silently in understanding, then glanced around the tea pavilion and lowered his voice near Qi Zhimu's ear.
"I didn't hear a word of what was said tonight. Control your own limits; I don't want to have to fish someone out of the Ten Lords Tribunal."
"I don't understand what you're saying, General."
Qi Zhimu changed his expression, squinting his eyes with a beaming smile.
"This humble one is merely staying by his mother's side, using family bonds to slow the progression of her mara affliction. As for 'controlling limits,' I really don't understand."
"It's good that you don't understand."
Teng Xiao breathed a sigh of relief and put his arm around Qi Zhimu's neck, a similar expression appearing on his face.
"I understand the matter of not returning to the military for now, but... about having Sleeping Snow and Clear Cold train under you..."
Qi Zhimu slowly opened his eyes, his expression returning to calm. "I'm just afraid they won't be able to handle the Qi Family's brutal training standards."
"If those two lack the perseverance and talent, then I'll just admit I misjudged them. Don't worry, I won't let you take the blame."
Teng Xiao let go and drained his teacup in one gulp.
"It's getting a bit cold. Another day, I'll steal my old man's treasured tea leaves to treat you. For now, I'll take my leave."
With those words, the burly man blended into the night.
Oh... what a picture of filial piety... Qi Zhimu chuckled and picked up his teacup, looking at the face reflected in the water.