…Xu Qi’an’s expression stiffened, no longer smug, as he stared blankly at the white-robed cultivator.
In his mind, the red and white dresses instantly faded away.
“Your mother was from that lineage of five hundred years ago, the sister of the chosen one I’m currently supporting. Back then, I allied with him to help him ascend to power, and he gave his sister to me in marriage. The most reliable alliance relationships in the world are, first, based on interest, and second, on marriage ties.
“After marrying that noble lady, I focused on planning the Shanhai Pass battle to steal the Great Feng’s national fate. You were born during the final stages of the Shanhai Pass battle.”
Whew!
Xu Qi’an let out a sigh of relief, and the red and white dresses floated back.
Although he was also considered a descendant of the Great Feng royal family, it was from a lineage five hundred years ago and didn’t have much to do with Huai Qing and Lin’an.
In his previous life, people with the same surname often said: We were one family five hundred years ago.
However, if he had to say it, Huai Qing and Lin’an were his clan sisters.
Then, he had the mind to ponder whether his father’s words were true or false.
The timeline matched up. The year I was born, in my Second Uncle’s memory, he and Xu Dalang were fighting at Shanhai Pass, so my aunt and birth mother took care of me for a long time…
Xu Qi’an was stunned, realizing something was amiss, and asked in a deep voice: “Why… why did she give birth to me in the capital?”
As he spoke, his face paled, feeling something inside him churning, desperately resisting something.
At the same time, a warrior’s instinct was frantically warning him. Though there were no specific images, the fear from the depths of his heart made him feel like a child walking on a tightrope, about to fall and shatter at any moment.
This made Xu Qi’an realize that the white-robed cultivator’s refinement of fate had reached a critical moment. If successful, this fate would belong to someone else, having nothing to do with him anymore.
And he would depart along with this fate intertwined with his life, dying and disappearing.
Regarding the fate his son was about to face, the white-robed cultivator showed neither joy nor sorrow, his tone as calm as ever:
“Your birth mother went to the capital secretly while I wasn’t by her side, and gave birth to you there. I only found out about this after I had stolen the fate.”
“Why?”
Xu Qi’an, blood oozing from his nose and mouth, looked at him deeply.
The white-robed cultivator’s tone remained unchanged:
“Your birth was originally meant to contain fate, to be used as a vessel. This was both a game between me and that lineage and because the time wasn’t right. Before the uprising, it wasn’t appropriate to implant the fate into the body of that royal lineage.
“Your birth mother was a very cunning woman. She appeared submissive, seeming willing to sacrifice everything for the family’s rise, but it was all a facade. You were her first child, and she couldn’t bear to let you die, so she fled to the capital to give birth to you.
“The Divine Ordained was in the capital; he would be your greatest protector.”
So that’s how it was… Xu Qi’an sighed, no longer having any doubts.
For some reason, at this moment, what he thought of was that old codger, the Divine Ordained.
The most pitiful lonely old man in the Great Feng.
“So, does this mean Ji Qian is my cousin?”
Xu Qi’an asked, the blood from his nose reaching his mouth. He wanted to wipe it away but couldn’t move.
“Correct!”
The white-robed cultivator nodded.
Good riddance, cousins deserve to die. Well, I didn’t say that, it was a famous writer from my previous life who said it… He inwardly grumbled, trying to alleviate his anxiety.
“Is this your backup plan?”
At this moment, the white-robed cultivator suddenly said.
Outside the valley, Chancellor Zhao Shou arrived with Xu Pingzhi, treading on air.
“You’re here, you’re here…”
Second Uncle Xu’s voice was shrill, his expression both sorrowful and fierce, his eyes bloodshot.
The white-robed cultivator didn’t look at him, speaking softly:
“When we were young, I often brought him here to show him my arrays. This was our secret base as brothers. Later, the arrays here became more and more perfect, more and more powerful, crystallizing half of my life’s efforts.
“But it also became unwieldy, making it impossible for me to abandon this place. It’s not safe here because, apart from me, Second Young Master knows about it. You guessed right when I appeared in public view, the art of concealing fate would automatically break. Second Young Master would remember me again.
“That’s why I deliberately concealed your existence, so his memory would become confused again.”
But you didn’t expect that I had already grasped the essence of the art of concealing fate… Xu Qi’an’s face remained expressionless.
Second Uncle Xu crashed into the energy barrier, his head bleeding, and roared:
“Xu Pingfeng, you inhuman beast! He’s your son, my nephew. Even tigers don’t eat their cubs, how can you do this?”
His facial muscles twisted, veins bulging on his temples, looking quite ferocious.
It was the first time Xu Qi’an had seen his Second Uncle so enraged.
The white-robed cultivator said coldly: “This is between my son and me. I gave him this life.”
Bang!
Xu Pingzhi punched the energy barrier, like an enraged old beast, both ferocious and vicious:
“Father and son? Are you worthy? Are you worthy of being his father? He’s a son of the Xu family, I raised him. You want to kill him? Did you ask me? Did I agree? Open this damned array, I’ll kill you, kill you!!”
He punched the energy barrier repeatedly, his fists bleeding profusely.
Second Uncle… Xu Qi’an silently watched a middle-aged man go berserk.
Xu Pingzhi was meek at home and slick outside; the killing intent cultivated on battlefields years ago had long been worn away in officialdom.
But even the meekest man would strike out without hesitation if his child was in danger.
Even if facing an elephant.
The white-robed cultivator looked away, glanced at Xu Qi’an, and smirked:
“But it’s too late!”
He pulled hard, extracting the fate invisible to ordinary people bit by bit from the top of Xu Qi’an’s head.
During this process, Xu Qi’an’s body kept cracking, blood flowing like a stream, constantly bleeding from his mouth and nose. He howled in agony.
The nephew’s roar was like a heavy hammer striking Xu Pingzhi’s heart, making his whole body tremble.
This old man suddenly dared not be arrogant anymore. He knelt against the energy barrier, pleading desperately:
“Don’t kill him, Big Brother, please, don’t kill him. He’s the child I raised, he’s my son, please don’t kill him…
“I’ve raised him for twenty-one years, you can’t do this, you really can’t do this… Big Brother, for the sake of our past relationship, please give him back to me.”
The white-robed cultivator was stone-hearted, ignoring him and continuing to extract the fate.
“Step back!”
Zhao Shou waved his sleeve, pushing Xu Pingzhi aside. Then, he put on his Confucian hat and gripped an engraving knife in his right hand hidden in his sleeve.
The Confucian hat and the engraving knife emitted soaring clear energy, resonating with each other.
Zhao Shou held the engraving knife and stabbed forward. Under the enhancement of the Sage’s Confucian hat and the Third-Rank Great Confucian Scholar, the engraving knife burst forth with towering clear light, instantly breaking through the grand array that the white-robed cultivator had spent over thirty years setting up.
The outermost energy barrier dissipated, no longer able to block outsiders from entering.
“In this place, fate shall not be extracted.”
Zhao Shou declared.
But this time, the Confucian school’s “words become reality” failed to take effect.
The white-robed cultivator’s extraction motion was hindered, but he quickly shook off the effect of “words become reality.”
“The laws of heaven and earth here are different from the outside world. If you Confucians want to dominate in my ‘world,’ you’ll have to ask if I agree.”
The white-robed cultivator sneered, full of confidence.
Zhao Shou stepped forward and once again stabbed with the Sage’s engraving knife. The Sage’s Confucian hat shed water-like clear light, enhancing the engraving knife.
Zhao Shou said: “Break the array!”
The power of “words become reality” was added to the engraving knife.
Since you changed the rules, I can also break the array.
The engraving knife seemed to turn into a blazing sun, its clear light so dense it was almost white-hot. It advanced quickly, accompanied by layer upon layer of array patterns dissipating.
This unparalleled grand array composed of one hundred and eight smaller arrays couldn’t withstand a Third-Rank Great Confucian Scholar wearing a Confucian hat and wielding an engraving knife.
Even if the array master was a Second-Rank cultivator.
But for the white-robed cultivator, being unable to withstand a Third-Rank Great Confucian Scholar at full power was within expectations. He still only wanted to delay time, because most of the fate in Xu Qi’an’s body had already been extracted.
Just then, a blade light filled with killing intent appeared from the void, shattering an array of symbols one after another.
Unparalleled blade intent.
The white-robed cultivator pressed down with his free hand, and certain array patterns lit up, forming an energy wall in front of the blade light.
The blade light struck the energy wall and disappeared like a clay ox entering the sea.
Teleportation!
He had teleported the blade light away.
“Teleportation is forbidden here.”
Zhao Shou calmly gave a countermeasure. As the array dissipated, the power of the Confucian school’s “words become reality” further invaded this place.
The void suddenly began to boil, and one unparalleled blade intent after another appeared, unstoppable, annihilating array patterns.
This allowed Zhao Shou to advance more easily. Just as he was about to reach close range, suddenly, the corpse of the Tianchong Elder, those eyes without eyeballs, only whites, dimly lit up.
Zhao Shou instantly lost his target. He stood in confusion, the space before him empty, with no trace of Xu Qi’an or the white-robed cultivator.
This was the technique of “not being known.” It had hidden Xu Qi’an and the white-robed cultivator, thus delaying time.
Zhao Shou frowned slightly, raised his hand, and flicked the Confucian hat.
The Confucian hat trembled, rippling with clear light like water waves. In the unseen realm, a force enveloping Zhao Shou was completely washed away, and the figures of Xu Qi’an and the white-robed cultivator appeared again.
“Enough!”
The white-robed cultivator smiled. He had completely refined the fate within Xu Qi’an’s body.
“I didn’t know Second Uncle knew about this place.”
At this moment, he heard Xu Qi’an say softly.
The white-robed cultivator frowned slightly. This descendant of his showed no despair or panic in the face of imminent danger, but rather complete calmness.
Xu Qi’an continued: “So, my real lifesaving measure wasn’t Zhao Shou and the Martial Arts Alliance’s ancestor, at least I didn’t put all my hope in them.”
After a pause, a pleased smile appeared on his face: “Did you think the Divine Ordained would do nothing?”
“Damned woman, what are you waiting for!”
He shouted.
As his voice fell, several illusory, fluffy fox tails grew from behind Xu Qi’an, spreading like a peacock’s tail, beautiful yet terrifying.