Page 284

Chen Ying frowned, directly blocking the way. She had searched for the Spirit Seer for an entire year and definitely didn’t want the young girl to be bitten to death—once she was taken to the underworld, even the ruler above wouldn’t be able to revive her.

"Wu..." Yun Yuye crawled forward like a wild beast, her gaze fixed on Yunke’er, her appearance so unsettling that even Chen Ying felt goosebumps rise all over her body. It was hard to imagine what it would feel like for a child to see her own mother transformed into such a state.

She must have felt so helpless, right?

Chen Ying didn’t know how to offer comfort, really clueless as to what the adults were thinking, letting a child witness such a scene!

"Yun Niang..." Lumings frowned and called out.

But the other party didn’t even turn her head, seemingly only having eyes for her daughter, which made Lumings’s heart grow restless.

As Yun Yuye approached step by step, Chen Ying was about to control the other with a single-handed seal, but suddenly Yunke’er rushed out from behind her, taking even Chen Ying, who was in the middle of forming the seal, by surprise.

Just as she thought to stop her, she was held back by Chen Qing with one arm.

"Mother!!!"

The little girl threw herself into Yun Yuye’s arms without hesitation, crying her heart out!

Yun Yuye, who was like an evil ghost, stiffened up, and once the sobbing life in her arms struggled for breath, a softness finally appeared on that ghastly face.

A blackened hand gently stroked Yunke’er’s hair.

"Don’t cry.....don’t cry....." The voice was hoarse and grating, like the sound of grinding teeth, but it softened Chen Ying’s solemn face, and she watched the scene with some surprise.

"Lord, did you... anticipate this?" Chen Ying turned to Chen Qing and asked.

She hadn’t expected Yun Yuye to regain her senses; she had seen the crazed state of the other before, like a living dead. Despite her medical skills having improved immensely in the past two years, surpassing her master’s, she had had no hope for Yun Yuye’s recovery.

"I just wanted to try." Chen Qing said indifferently, "Even if that woman looks terrifying, she’s just an ordinary person. If she really tried to lay hands on anyone, how could I not stop her?"

Chen Ying was stunned; that seemed right, too.

"Although it was a bit of trouble, it was worth a try.

" Chen Qing stretched lazily and continued, "The little girl will be of great use in the future. If she doesn’t reconcile, it won’t do.

After all, these troubles arose because they were summoned by me on short notice.

If I let it be, the girl might even harbor resentment. "

Hearing this, Chen Ying smiled, "Lord... you really are a gentle person..."

"Eh..." Chen Qing was taken aback, an unnatural expression briefly crossing his face.

Was he... a gentle person?

In his previous life, when he led team 007, those who resigned under him left a uniform trail of negative comments online.

Harsh, tricky, the boss’s lackey.

The word "gentle"... it was the first time he had heard it in reference to himself.

Well... the ancients really were better, being worked to the bone and still praising you as a good person...

Ah, how embarrassing for him...

"Yun Niang..." Watching the mother and daughter embrace, Lumings was also stunned. He had never seen anyone who had been tormented by his wicked woman recover their sanity.

Just as his hand was about to touch her shoulder, Yun Yuye suddenly turned her head. This time... her face wasn’t twisted with bitterness and hate and was much calmer than before, but it was full of cold indifference.

"Get lost..."

"Yuye, back then..."

"Get lost!"

"Um... brother." The little girl looked up tearfully, her eyes red as she pointed at Lumings, "Can you ask him... to leave?"

Seeing how Yun Niang disliked the man so, he must have done something to hurt her mother.

Chen Qing nodded, turned to Lumings, and said, "You’ve seen her now, so let’s not interrupt their reunion, shall we, Duke?"

Lumings frowned deeply, but in the end, he didn’t try to call out to Yuye again. He knew she needed time to heal her wounds.

"With Yuye’s injuries, can you save her?"

"Of course I can..." Chen Qing smiled, "But you don’t need to worry, Duke. With that girl there, even without you asking, I will do my best to heal her. Shall we go talk about what I want to know now?"

"Alright..."

After the two men left, Chen Ying sat silently to one side watching the mother and daughter weeping in each other’s arms.

Despite their suffering, at least it hadn’t reached the worst. The Lord’s gamble had allowed Ke’er to save her mother after all.

Even though life in the underworld was actually quite good in Jiangnan, if possible, of course, she hoped the girl’s mother could stay in the world of the living to accompany her daughter as she grew up.

May the master also be so lucky.

----------------------------------

"Where is the Great Serpent Country?" Chen Qing asked as soon as he stepped out.

"Southwest Wasteland," Lumings said with a frown. "One of the three great demon nations, the Earth Dragon Cave, where my wife is, is a sacred place of demon cultivation in the Great Serpent Country."

"Earth Dragon Cave....." Chen Qing nodded, "This name..."

He remembered someone among his subordinates mentioning it, a hardcore fan of the second dimension, who lifted the name of a sacred site right out of Naruto and suggested it casually. He had even scolded the person at the time, having no intention of using it.

In this world... could there be things he had dismissed actually coming true?

What was going on?

"What’s the matter?" Lumings said with a chuckle, "Lord Chen knows the secrets of such an ancient demon as the Thousand-Faced Fox and has so much information about the Dragon Palace, yet you don’t know about Great Serpent Country in the Southwest?"

How could Chen Qing, who held a position within the lower echelons of Great Jin’s scholar tier, not know about this place?

What was this guy’s... true situation?

And what exactly was his relationship... with the King of Qin? So many people and demons had been involved in the incident that year; could he be one of them?

Lumings didn’t know, but he also didn’t ask. He had a bad feeling that if either he or Chen Qing brought up the incident from back then, things would go very badly...

But if Chen Qing didn’t ask anything, then... what would he do to him?

--------------------------------

"Lumings is dead?"

While the Imperial Court’s convoy was still at the inn in Wu’an Town, the next morning, several elders from noble families rushed over.

Facing the sudden news, these elders were at a loss for quite some time!

Minister Pang had been replaced?

Was it Lumings’ doing?

A desperate gambit, trying to use Weichi Peng’s fifty thousand troops to turn the tables and gain control over Chen Qing?

But after the Princess Royale... to be taken down by a young lad, and a couple who once caused countless noble families headaches to just die like that?

Even though the information came from the mouths of their direct descendants, they couldn’t quite believe it!

"Did you see the whole process?"

"No..." the young magicians shook their heads: "But Duke of Wei and the Princess Royale among others were watching the battle, there’s no mistake. Also, we saw... the Duke of Qin’s corpse!"

"No wonder..." A few old men shifted their gaze, "No wonder something seemed off at Duke of Qin’s residence yesterday, they said even the ancestral home was collapsed. We never imagined that it was because Lumings was gone..."

First, his direct grandson was trapped in the West Sea, then most of the Lu Family’s younger generation were turned into living corpses by the Princess Royale, and now... even the Family Head Lumings was gone. Had the Lu Family... truly reached its end?

That’s not right...

The old men’s faces changed in an instant—they knew that the old members of the Lu Family would go mad!

But the urgent matter was to understand the situation.

"You’re saying... Chen Qing... set up a barrier in Nanming Prefecture that covers the entire Imperial City?"

"Yes..." The young men all nodded vigorously: "We saw it with our own eyes, that barrier is not only immense but its Array structure is also incredibly intricate. A few of us studied it together for three full days and only barely managed to understand the linkage between two or three small Arrays, and the major Array must consist of at least ten thousands of such small Arrays combined—it’s truly spectacular! "

"Is that so?" Several old men widened their eyes, if they weren’t sure that these youngsters wouldn’t lie, they would think they were listening to a fable.

Ten thousands of Arrays connected, making up a barrier that envelops the Imperial City?

Such a feat of Array engineering, unheard of!!

"Such a massive barrier couldn’t possibly be controlled by a Magician," one of the elders shook his head. "One slight mistake and the whole thing could collapse, and Nanming Prefecture might get blasted to oblivion!"

Let alone how Chen Qing managed to gather such a vast amount of Art Energy for this, but as for control... is it really that stable? Allowing so many people to enter and leave? No problems for a whole three days?"

"No..." The young ones shook their heads: "We also speculated before that such a vast Array couldn’t last, but for three whole days, the entire Array remained incredibly stable, without any sign of Art Energy disorder—it’s truly inconceivable!"

"I still don’t believe it!" The highest-ranking elder abruptly stood up: "I must see it with my own eyes!"

"That’s impossible!" Several people hastily stopped him: "That fog is eerie, and if it turned out to be a trap laid by Chen Qing to lure us in, and we couldn’t get out, Chen Qing could simply claim it was done by another power and we wouldn’t have a valid reason to press the Imperial Court!"

Upon hearing this, the elder paused, realizing it might indeed be the case; Chen Qing had extended the invitation, so any incidents occurring to the Imperial Court’s convoy would be his main responsibility. However, if he went rashly on his own, Chen Qing could very well have an excuse.

As for whether they could retain him... did that even need to be said?

Even the Lu Family’s lady was taken down, could his old bones compete with the direct descendant of the Earth Dragon Cave?

"But... but... we can’t just go back like this, right?" the elder furrowed his brow: "Can we really not take anything back with us?"

"There... there is something!" Suddenly... one of the young men hastily said.

"What?" the elder quickly approached, "Did you bring something with you?"

"Not something, but someone!"

"Someone?"

"Yes... among the troops escorting us, there was a Magician responsible for the great Array. I recognize him; he’s the second son of the Shen Family, the Second Place Scholar from the imperial examinations two years ago: Shen Yuan!!"