Jing Yi watched the two of them and couldn’t help but feel a bit lonely at that moment. Just as Shen An De had said before, usually, Qiu Ling would be at his side. But right now, he was out with his family. A family that he himself didn’t feel like a part of. It gave him a strange feeling now that he thought about it. He understood why it was happening but the feeling still wasn’t a good one.

He tried not to think about it and instead stepped closer to the cliff as well, looking down there. He could see the beguiling night tree. This was where the fruits came from that Qiu Ling had stolen back then and that Shen An De had given him, causing him to have a vision.

That was how all of this had started. If not for that, would he currently be where he was? But if not for that, then maybe one day, he would’ve ascended and only then found out about everything that had happened with Jing He. Maybe that would’ve been even more difficult to deal with.

He sighed to himself, feeling that no matter what had happened, at the end of the day, there wouldn’t have been much of a difference. Finding out sooner or later, it didn’t really seem to matter. After all, it couldn’t change the facts.

He tried not to dwell on it, instead just focusing on what was ahead. He had returned to the mortal realm for just a while and had the opportunity to make his peace with everything. Then later on, whenever he woke up again, he would find a new world, one that would really be his own and never Jing He’s. He just needed to look forward to that.

The group stood up there for a while. Then, Shen An De gave them a look and motioned down into the chasm and over to a small path that was leading down there.

Jing Yi raised his brows, never having seen that before. When he had come here, he had usually been carried by Qiu Ling so he had never even thought about how other people made their way up here.

He probably should have expected that there would be a path somewhere. After all, even in the Hei Dian Sect, not everyone had learned how to fly just yet. If one of these disciples was told to go to the Grandmaster’s palace, what were they supposed to do? Or maybe it wasn’t a problem at all because the Grandmaster wasn’t the type of person you could just go to visit? He shook his head, not thinking about this any further. Anyway, what did it matter?

“Do you want to fly down or take the slow path?”

Jing Yi didn’t have any opinion but Hua Lin Yu looked a bit curious about that path so Shen An De finally nodded and led the way down there.

While he did, he started talking about the sect. “Since you asked about the founders of the sect before, you don’t know much about the Hei Dian Sect, do you?” He glanced in the direction of Fei Bai Mu and her disciples but, actually, he was mostly looking at Hua Lin Yu.

He didn’t know why but this youth gave him a somewhat strange feeling. Or maybe it wasn’t that he himself made him feel like this but the way his Master had been asking before. Because surely, that hadn’t been normal. No, there was something up with this boy. Something that Fei Bai Mu wasn’t willing to say too much about. It really made him quite curious.

Walking behind everyone, Jing Yi couldn’t help but notice Shen An De’s gaze. Somehow, he felt reminded of the past. Back then, the Grandmaster of the Hei Dian Sect had looked at him pretty much the same way before he handed him that spiritual fruit. Just thinking of it, his lips twitched. It couldn’t be that Shen An De wanted to play the same prank on somebody else again, could it?

Shen An De noticed how Jing Yi was looking at him and then raised his brows, not quite sure what was going on in his mind. He did feel like Jing Yi’s gaze was a bit odd though.

Hua Lin Yu had already shaken his head while the two of them exchanged glances. Not getting a response to that, he felt the need to explain further. “No, I really don’t know much about it. Actually, I know quite a lot about the past of some of the other sects but the Hei Dian Sect was never part of it. In fact, I guess there aren’t many demonic sects that I’ve looked into. I always felt that I wouldn’t really have to deal with them so I didn’t bother.” Actually, he regretted it a bit now. Hadn’t Xiao Li been from the Hei Dian Sect originally? He should have brushed up on his knowledge to connect with him better.

Fei Bai Mu glanced at her disciple and a thought crossed her mind. Her brows furrowed for a moment but then she spoke up. “When Xiao Yu was younger and still living with the Hua cultivation family, they noticed that someone had broken into their estate. They were afraid that this person was going after Xiao Yu for … well, some kind of nefarious reason, really. They never managed to catch the person but even the patriarch of the Hua family didn’t think he would be able to defeat them. Do you think this could have had to do with An Rong already?”

Shen An De stopped in his tracks even though they were already on the narrow path down the cliff, his brows climbing higher. “An Rong going after a child? That seems a bit odd but I can see why you would think so if your disciple was able to spot something that nobody else was in that realm. Maybe that was because he got in contact with An Rong before?” He gave a hum and turned back around, continuing to walk down the path while he pondered.

This whole matter with An Rong, he was worried about it as well. When that person finally left the Hei Dian Sect, he hadn’t known if he should be happy or even more worried. After all, An Rong was a threat but, if he was being honest, he was also a threat that he could keep a wary eye on for as long as he was in the Hei Dian Sect itself. But now that he had vanished together with Duan Gui Ying’s body, there was really no saying what he was doing.

Yes, if not for the fact that Fei Bai Mu had suddenly asked about this, he wouldn’t even have been sure where An Rong currently was. Just that alone should probably make him wary. Who knows how much else there was that he had no idea about? Getting in contact with some child, leaving some kind of trace … it really wasn’t impossible to imagine.

Ah, now, he really wished he could get in contact with Huan Yin. Unfortunately, she hadn’t appeared at the sect for a long time already, and there was no saying when she’d be back.

« ToC »