Chapter 86: My Third Uncle, Your Old Flame

But Si Chen's retort — "Did he owe you Spirit Stones?" — instantly shattered her wistful reverie, leaving her somewhere between laughter and tears.

"What he owes me," she said with an exasperated huff, "is a lot harder to repay than Spirit Stones!"

Now that the connection was confirmed, when she looked at Si Chen again, her gaze carried the instinctive warmth of an elder, and her tone grew noticeably more natural and familiar.

"You know, you really do remind me of your Third Uncle back in the day."

She led Si Chen to a long bench in a corner of the Scripture Repository, personally laid down a soundproofing barrier, and then let out a long, quiet sigh. Her eyes drifted toward the window, as if passing through time itself, returning to that vibrant era of her youth.

"Back then, he was just like you — mysterious origins, claiming to everyone that he was a Rogue Cultivator. But his talent… it was truly extraordinary."

"Among his peers, no one could hold a candle to him."

She glanced at Si Chen, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips. "I won't hide it from you — ever since you climbed to third on the Qingxuan Rankings, I've had my eye on you. Because your Third Uncle, in his day, was the one who sat at the very top, the 'nightmare' who left every contemporary gasping for breath."

Si Chen raised an eyebrow. His mind conjured up the image of his Third Uncle Si Shuo — that loud, dramatic man who was always bursting in with "Elder Brother, Second Brother, something terrible has happened!"…

Were these really the same person?

As she reminisced, the Sect Master's tone grew noticeably more lively.

"He was carefree and unrestrained, witty and… sometimes absolutely infuriating."

Su Miaoyin laughed and shook her head, yet her eyes sparkled. "Sometimes he'd make you so angry you wanted to throttle him, and then he'd turn around and make you laugh until you couldn't stop."

She recounted how the two of them had gone from rivals to kindred spirits — training together, debating the Dao together, sharing a stretch of time that was joyful and utterly free.

"During that period, everyone in the Sect assumed we would eventually become cultivation partners."

But every story has its turning point.

She was the most brilliant jewel of the Sect at the time — the chosen successor to the next Sect Master — with the weight of the entire Sect on her shoulders. She could not simply walk away with him.

And Si Shuo… he was a comet that no one could tether.

"He said his path lay among the stars and the vast sea, and he could not be bound by any single Sect." Su Miaoyin's voice carried a trace of melancholy.

Two exceptional people, making a rational yet helpless choice between their ideals and reality.

The parting was dignified. But the old feelings, clearly, had never fully faded with time.

Si Chen listened quietly until she finished.

It really did sound like something his unreliable Third Uncle would do.

When he spoke again, his tone carried a thread of respect for an elder:

"I see. Sect Master Su — no, Aunt Su — I understand now."

That word "Aunt" made Su Miaoyin freeze for a moment, her cheeks growing slightly warm. She instinctively protested.

"Who — who's your aunt!"

Yet the smile she couldn't quite suppress betrayed just how much she secretly enjoyed it.

She composed herself, then asked softly, with a hint of careful probing: "Is he… doing well these days? Has he… settled down even a little?"

Si Chen felt genuinely sorry for Aunt Su — she hadn't seen his Third Uncle in so long. And as his own nephew, he felt it was his duty to share some news about his Third Uncle's current situation.

So he answered earnestly: "Third Uncle is doing very well. As far as I know, there are probably quite a few 'aunts' like yourself who care about him."

The warm smile on Su Miaoyin's face froze instantly.

The tender atmosphere that had just been lingering between them was swept away in an instant.

She squeezed out a single word through her teeth: "Oh?"

The temperature inside the Scripture Repository seemed to drop several degrees all at once.

Si Chen, taking her reaction as an outpouring of longing for his Third Uncle, and in the spirit of thorough and accurate reporting, proceeded to conscientiously list out every Beauty he knew of in his Third Uncle's life, one by one.

With each name he added, the air around them seemed to grow a little colder.

Crack…

Across the Scripture Repository's smooth, jade-like floor, its ancient, solid walls, and even the nearby bookshelves, a series of distinct fractures suddenly spread through the air from nowhere!

Whoosh!

An aged figure appeared instantly at Su Miaoyin's side — it was the Elder in charge of transmitting the Repository's knowledge. His face was full of alarm:

"Sect Master? What has happened?"

Su Miaoyin drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the spiritual pressure that was threatening to spiral out of control, and waved a hand. "Nothing. Please go about your business, Elder."

The Elder cast a puzzled look at the cracks in the floor, then glanced at Si Chen, whose expression remained perfectly calm, before hesitantly withdrawing.

Su Miaoyin restored the smile on her face — though no matter how one looked at it, it seemed a little strained.

She couldn't help but recall the scene of their parting all those years ago.

* * *

It was a night of drifting drizzle. Si Shuo stood on the stone steps at the gate of the Harmonious Union Sect, rain soaking his shoulders, yet his eyes as he gazed up at the stars were deep and resolute.

Su Miaoyin had rushed out after him with an umbrella, tilting it toward his side, leaving half of herself exposed to the rain.

"Do you really have to go?" Her voice was barely a whisper, every sob swallowed by the sound of the rain.

"Miaoyin…"

Si Shuo's voice was slightly hoarse, tinged with reluctance. "I'm sorry. My love… belongs to the stars and the vast sea."

The young Su Miaoyin of that time had been deeply moved by that parting — so achingly romantic, so suffused with sorrow.

She watched Si Shuo's retreating figure, feeling as though her heart might shatter. Through tear-blurred eyes: "I understand… I understand it all…"

He was like a ship destined to sail far away, and she was the harbor that could never move.

Si Shuo turned and took her hand, his voice full of tenderness. "Miaoyin, will you wait for me? Once I have traveled the stars and the sea, perhaps…"

"Don't say it."

She pressed her hand over his lips, eyes glistening with tears. "Just remember this sky full of stars."

* * *

At the time, Su Miaoyin had thought to herself: this was exactly the kind of man she admired — one whose heart held the whole world, unshackled by the ties of romance.

Now, looking back…

"That… bastard!"

So when he said "the stars and the vast sea," he meant a vast sea's worth of Beauties?!

So all those heartfelt confessions back then were just a script he ran on everyone?!

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and her spiritual pressure began to fluctuate again.

But looking at Si Chen sitting across from her with that "I was only giving an honest report" expression, she couldn't really direct her anger at him.

Right now, she just wanted to storm over to the Si Clan, drag that bastard out, and demand to know exactly how many "aunts" he could fit into his stars and vast sea!

"Xiaochen…"

Su Miaoyin drew a deep breath, doing her best to keep her voice calm. "Is there any way… you could get in touch with him?"

"Yes."

Si Chen nodded without hesitation, retrieving a message talisman from his Storage Ring. "Since Aunt Su misses Third Uncle so much, I'll give this to you. I have more anyway."

He figured that this aunt, who clearly had such deep feelings for his Third Uncle — deep enough to crack the Scripture Repository's floor — must really want to have a word with him.

"Good. Very good."

Su Miaoyin accepted the message talisman, smiling with exceptional gentleness. "Auntie will… have a nice long chat with him."

* * *

Meanwhile, far away at the Si Clan, Si Shuo was lounging with his legs crossed, humming a cheerful little tune to himself:

"I am a wandering star~ drifting through the hearts of ten thousand maidens~ Aiyah!"

He suddenly Shocked himself right off the chair, shuddering for no apparent reason.

"Strange…" He rubbed his arms. "Why do I suddenly feel a chill down my back?"

Outside the window, the sun was shining brightly. Everything was perfectly normal.

He scratched his head and lay back down, resuming his tuneless humming: "I am a star full of love~ lighting up countless lonely hearts~ Holy shit!"

Halfway through the line, he bolted upright again, gripped by a sudden inexplicable palpitation.

This time the feeling was especially intense — it left even his tailbone tingling.

He looked around suspiciously, then slapped his thigh with conviction: