HSSB1068: A meeting long overdue
Across from the Brocade Emperor sat a girl.
Others might find her extremely unfamiliar.
Yan Zhaoge, however, found her extremely familiar, despite the fact that he had already not seen her for more than ten years.
She was still fresh and beautiful with her features virtually perfect and without flaw. She had a pair of small, doe-like eyes that were intelligent yet tender, instinctively making one want to protect her.
As compared to in her youth, her spiritual air had not faded over the years as she had instead seemingly become more transcendent as though she was some beautiful spirit of nature.
She did not have Fu Ting’s beautiful, exposed sharpness which dazzled one’s eyes, yet possessed a flair of her own that was not inferior in the least.
This was none other than Meng Wan.
She had been the Sacred Sun Clan’s Maiden of Extreme Yin in the Eight Extremities World, having presided domineeringly over the rest multiple times and won the right to control the Extreme Yin Crown.
Afterwards, she had been brought to the World beyond Worlds by the Radiant Light Sect. When the Grand Xuan Dynasty had destroyed the Radiant Light Sect, she had been defeated by Feng Yunsheng with the Extreme Yin Crown hence finally falling into the hands of Feng Yunsheng and Broad Creed Mountain.
Back then, Meng Wan had been abducted by the late son of the Southern Exalt, Zhuang Chaohui, who had been passing by.
Her whereabouts had remained unknown afterwards.
When Yan Zhaoge had rampaged through the south that year, besides the battle where he had killed many famed experts of Phoenix Ritual Mountain’s Wutong Slope like Peng He, Zhang Shuren and Yuan Xiancheng with the help of the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation, he had also asked about Meng Wan’s whereabouts from some martial practitioners of Phoenix Ritual Mountain’s Wutong Slope whom he had casually captured. Still, he had not been successful in gaining any information.
It seemed like only the coremost martial practitioners of Phoenix Ritual Mountain like Zhuang Shen, Mao Yuansheng and Zhuang Chaohui had been in the know about this.
On seeing Meng Wan again now, Yan Zhaoge saw that she looked to be in an okay condition. While it probably could not be said that she had lived well over the past few years, she had probably not been ill-treated too.
Looking at her, Yan Zhaoge sighed, unable to stop himself from shaking his head and smiling bitterly as he recalled Feng Yunsheng whom he had not seen for many years since her departure previously.
Meng Wan sat quietly there with a calm, tranquil expression on her face.
Still, all her attention was clearly on the Brocade Emperor before her at this moment as she could not be focused elsewhere at all.
While this handsome middle-aged man was gazing entrancedly at the grave beside her most of the time, his gaze that would land on her from time to time just left her feeling vaguely uneasy within.
That was a very strange gaze.
If it was simple killing intent, hostility, evil or malicious intent, Meng Wan would not be feeling as uneasy as she was now.
Instead, the Brocade Emperor’s gaze seemed to be flickering unceasingly.
With this frequency being too high, one might mistakenly believe it to be unchanging.
Actually, however, interchangeably appearing in the Brocade Emperor’s pupils were a warm gaze and an indifferent gaze.
It changed countless times in an instant!
Not only was his gaze like this when he was looking at Meng Wan, it was flickering all the time at any single moment.
It was just that no changes visibly appeared on the Brocade Emperor’s face as his aura was eternally stable too, looking just like it always did.
Li Junxin did not notice any abnormalities for the time being. Still, Yan Zhaoge who had long since had his suspicions and He Xixing who was familiar with his Master were vaguely able to tell that something was up.
“This disciple greets Master,” While He Xixing felt quizzical, he still went forward and greeted the Brocade Emperor at once.
Li Junxin did the same, greeting the Brocade Emperor.
Yan Zhaoge did the same too, but observed the surroundings even as he paid attention to the Brocade Emperor.
The feeling of crisis that had existed in his heart earlier was even more intense than before.
Suddenly, his gaze shot towards the distance at lightning speed.
Yan Zhaoge’s gaze traversed space, falling on a mountain peak by the Star Reflecting Lake.
At the same time, he felt a gaze falling on him from that location. Their two gazes clashed.
The space between the mountain peak by the lake and this isle that was on it distorted at this moment with electricity being born from nowhere.
The originally calm surface of the Star Reflecting Lake suddenly surged.
“Oh?” A rather surprised voice seemingly resounded by Yan Zhaoge’s ear.
He too clearly saw the other party’s appearance now.
At the top of the mountainous rocks and by a dense forest, there was a rather obtrusive old wooden armchair with a dense scholarly air about it.
Atop the wooden armchair sat a purple-clothed youth with rather pale skin. He looked very lazy, as if there was nothing which could get his spirits up at all.
At this moment, however, this youth no longer appeared so listless as he looked at Yan Zhaoge through the corner of his eye.
With one look at him, Yan Zhaoge recognised him as the head of the Ten Exalts and the current strongest Martial Saint of the World beyond Worlds, the Upper Exalt Chen Qianhua!
Chen Qianhua too was appraising Yan Zhaoge at this moment.
He had been the first one to arrive, having even beat He Xixing, Fang Zhun and the rest to it.
Chen Qianhua who always acted as he liked just focused on watching the commotion, having no intention of interacting with anyone else.
While he did not reveal his location, he did not intentionally conceal himself as well.
Even so, however, there was no one else who had discovered his presence besides the Brocade Emperor.
Chen Qianhua had not minded this whatsoever as he lazily awaited that beginning of what he was sure would be a good show.
Only when the hemisphere of black and white had disappeared and Star Reflecting Lake had seen the light of day once more, with the Brocade Emperor appearing and Chen Qianhua paying more attention to the small isle in the middle of the lake, had he suddenly discovered that the Brocade Emperor aside, there was also someone else who had detected his presence, even having located him with a single glance.
He immediately gazed back in that direction.
After appraising him and recognising him to be Yan Zhaoge, a hint of a smile involuntarily appeared by the corners of Chen Qianhua’s mouth.
Seeing this, Yan Zhaoge raised his brows slightly.
A deep yet pleasant voice resounded by his ear now, “In having been able to deduce Chen Qianhua’s location, you are indeed not simple.”
Retracting his gaze and looking over, Yan Zhaoge saw that the Brocade Emperor was currently gazing towards him too.
Facing the Brocade Emperor’s gaze, Yan Zhaoge’s heart jolted slightly as he could be even more sure that while this Emperor might appear normal, he was currently in an extremely unstable state just as he had predicted.
“At this moment, he is probably locked in an inner battle with himself at every single point in time.”
Yan Zhaoge thought, “His unfeeling and feeling sides have really split apart and become opposed, merely being in a subtle equilibrium for now as neither has been able to clearly grasp the upper hand.”
The Brocade Emperor’s current state was one that Yan Zhaoge least wanted to see.
Whether it was feeling or unfeeling, both had a general way in which they operated which one could be certain of. There would be methods and ways with which to interact with them.
Now, however, there were too many variations that were really difficult to predict.
Far away on the mountaintop, Chen Qianhua showed no intention of approaching as he was instead smiling happily.
“This trip was not a wasted one,” He now rejoiced, “Right, just like this, it’s only interesting like this!”
Despite knowing that Chen Qianhua was there, the Brocade Emperor had a calm expression on his face at this moment as he just looked mildly at Yan Zhaoge, “While I wanted to meet you since way back, it happened that it was continually delayed as I have only gotten to meet you in person today.”
Yan Zhaoge said, “You overpraise me, Brocade Emperor.”
“My little daughter…” The Brocade Emperor smiled, glancing at Meng Wan, “Not this little daughter, but my eldest daughter, Little Red Lotus.”
Little Red Lotus was Fu Ting’s nickname which only her parents could call her, and not any of her other elders.
The Brocade Emperor said, “I must really thank you for helping out when Little Red Lotus was in danger back then.”
Yan Zhaoge cupped his hands, “Sadly, some regrets were still left behind. This Yan too finds it a great pity.”