Using a vulture to deliver a letter—that was a first for everyone. Who could have sent it? Deep down, everyone already had a good idea.
Jun Beiyue picked it up and saw three large characters written on the envelope in fresh blood: “Jun Buli.” His face went instantly pale—the blood was still warm… could it be Yaotiao’s?
Seeing this, Jun Buli’s expression changed completely as well. He hurriedly took the letter and opened it—sure enough, it was from Li Qinqin. The woman demanded they come to the Xijing bloodline clan, and the letter included a detailed address. She warned that if they didn’t arrive by the full moon on the fifteenth of next month, she would drain every last drop of blood from Jun Yaotiao’s body.
She had even, deliberately, added one final line at the end: “The blood on this envelope is your little sister’s. A child’s blood is so delicious.”
“Li Qinqin!” Jun Buli exploded with rage, tearing the letter to shreds with a wave of his hand, a surge of murderous intent shooting skyward as he instantly struck down the vulture just as it tried to fly off.
Ziqing and Jun Beiyue’s faces both went deathly pale.
Yaotiao—how utterly innocent she was!
Even if she had provoked Li Qinqin, it was only because she didn’t want her brother living alone in the capital, didn’t want their family scattered across two places. What fault did a child bear for that?
The thought of Yaotiao being afraid made Ziqing’s heart feel as though it might shatter. That child, mischievous as she was, had never once left her and Jun Beiyue’s side since she was born—she had never faced anything like this before!
“Yaotiao must be terrified!” Ziqing choked out, barely able to speak through her tears.
“To the bloodline clan! We leave now!” Jun Buli couldn’t wait another moment. He wished he could tear Li Qinqin limb from limb—no, more precisely, he wished he could tear himself apart. If he hadn’t concealed all of this, none of today’s events would have happened.
“Li Qinqin has clearly lured us there on purpose. Wouldn’t rushing in blindly be walking straight into a trap?” Situ Haonan said cautiously.
“Even if it’s a trap, we still have to go!” Jun Beiyue said coldly.
Ziqing turned directly to take her leave of the group. “Xiaosheng, I’m so sorry—we’re ruining your wedding, but we have to leave right now.”
“Aunt Qing, we’ve already completed the ceremony. I’m coming with you! If you won’t let me, I’ll go on my own! Yaotiao is like a sister to me too!” Baili Xiaosheng said earnestly.
Guxi stepped forward as well. “Young Master, I will always be glad to serve you.”
“I’m going too—I know more about this than any of you!” Meng Duo’er said urgently.
“I have to go—Xijing is my territory!” Situ Jing’er said, pulling Situ Haonan along with her. Situ Haonan nodded with great seriousness. “If we’re going, no one gets left behind! I’ll send word by hawk right away and have Qianqian clear the way for us!”
Ziqing and Jun Beiyue looked at everyone gathered there with deep gratitude, unable to find the words. The bloodline clan was a race apart, dangerous beyond measure—and yet everyone had, without a moment’s hesitation, offered to risk their lives alongside them. To have gathered such a group of loyal, devoted friends was the greatest fortune they had.
Ziqing nodded seriously. “Right—have her ask around about the scholar too. Perhaps he’ll reach out to her.”
“That’s right! My master must have gone after them!” Baili Xiaosheng said, excited—so her master had been out there all along!
With matters urgent, Guxi quickly handed off Duku’s affairs, and the group set off at once!
Jun Buli summoned the Four Great Poison Beasts and flying creatures, carrying everyone forward at full speed. There were only ten days left until the next full moon—time was running short.
They pressed north at full speed!
But not long after they departed, two figures—one tall, one short—emerged panting from the underbrush.
“Boss, why’s there no one here now?”
“Down at the foot of the mountain it was still lively!”
“Boss, the Guardian told us to capture whoever knows Nanzhao best. Are you sure that girl is really the one who knows it best?”
Smack—the taller one slapped the shorter one hard on his shiny bald head. “Obviously. The master of Duku would naturally be the one who knows Nanzhao best.”
All these years, they had searched every corner of Nanzhao and still hadn’t found the undying blood. Eventually, the Guardian had sent a large group of skilled fighters to assist them.
They’d discovered a cave on Yuqiong Mountain that carried the unmistakable scent of undying blood.
They had actually been to that cave before, and had noticed some bloodstains soaked permanently into the stone—but hadn’t thought much of it at the time, because they’d sniffed it several times and it hadn’t smelled like undying blood at all!
Frustratingly, the fighters sent by the Guardian had immediately caught the scent of undying blood on it. Although the blood left on the stone wasn’t the undying blood itself, it was now certain that undying blood had once existed there!
So the tall one and the short one had been given a brutal beating and thrown back into Nanzhao to keep searching, to find out what had happened in that cave.
“But there’s no one here,” the short one said, aggrieved.
“No one here—why not go look up ahead?” the tall one snapped, thoroughly annoyed. After years of pent-up frustration, he was dying to take it out on someone!
But just as they were about to head toward the front courtyard, a figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind them.
The tall one and short one froze in their tracks, sensing the presence behind them.
“One of our own!” the short one whispered.
“Could the Guardian have sent someone else?” the tall one asked nervously.
The two of them turned around together, only to see a woman—slender, graceful, with a cold, breathtakingly beautiful face, and full, seductively crimson lips.
“Who are you!” the tall one demanded at once. He didn’t recognize Li Qinqin.
Li Qinqin gave a cold snort. “I was about to leave, but I caught a foul scent and came to check. So it’s just you two.”
“You… you weren’t sent by the Guardian—who exactly are you, and who gave you permission to leave the bloodline clan on your own!” the tall one barked sternly, lecturing her with an air of authority.
Li Qinqin snorted coldly. “I woke before your precious Guardian did. What else would I be doing out here?”
The tall one and short one exchanged glances. Within the bloodline clan, beneath the Left and Right Envoys stood the Four Great Guardians, and beneath each Guardian were several lesser Guardians, whose abilities were only a step below the Guardians themselves.
Currently, among the Four Great Guardians, only their own master, the Wind Guardian, had awoken; the other three remained asleep, occasionally communicating with their subordinates only through spiritual sense.
This woman before them couldn’t possibly be the sleeping Left Envoy, and certainly not one of the Four Great Guardians—they didn’t recognize her at all. Which meant she had to be a lesser Guardian, one serving under the Wood, Water, or Fire Guardian!
Once they’d worked that out, the short one immediately spoke up sharply. “You snuck out—does your Guardian even know? Don’t you dare get your Guardian punished by the Left Envoy because of this!”
“Heh, my Guardian—that useless thing sleeps even later than I do. How would he possibly know?” Li Qinqin sneered. She served under the Fire Guardian, and among the Four Great Guardians, the Fire Guardian was the weakest of them all!
Bloodline clan members below the rank of lesser Guardian never entered the dormancy period and could wake at any time; those at or above the rank of lesser Guardian, however, had to enter dormancy, with the length of their sleep directly proportional to their power—though those with sufficient strength could break through the constraints of dormancy and wake early.
“You! You! You! Are you planning a rebellion?!” the tall one stammered.
“And if I were?” Li Qinqin shot back, amused. “Are you two planning to go tell the Wind Guardian?”
To her surprise, the moment she said this, the tall one and short one both threw themselves flat on the ground, prostrating themselves. “We wouldn’t dare, we wouldn’t dare! Please, Lesser Guardian, take us in!”
A lesser Guardian’s power was enough to crush them with a single finger—and this woman had woken even earlier than the Four Great Guardians themselves. Her true strength was beyond imagining!