Chapter 1083.3: Start to Finish (I) - Part 3

Although she was speaking, her attention had long since shifted away from Chen Chao. Instead, she was looking around at everything.

Chen Chao quietly reminded her, “Don't look around too much. You'll scare him away.”

Only then did Mao Jiacao come back to herself and try not to look around.

Later, the two passed a street corner. A young man there glanced at Mao Jiacao, and she caught sight of him from the corner of her eye as well. But before she could stop walking, the man had already turned and left.

He had only looked at her once.

Mao Jiacao watched the man's figure quickly disappear and felt somewhat disappointed.

Chen Chao also looked up in that direction but said nothing.

Mao Jiacao stopped and took a deep breath. “I should have known. He wouldn't say anything to me. He's afraid that I'll say something to him too. He's afraid that if I tell him to stay, he'll start wavering over whether he should go north.”

Chen Chao looked at the young woman and asked, “Then would you say it?”

Mao Jiacao shook her head. “No. He wants to go north, and I won't stop him. What I want to tell him is that I'll wait for him. I'll wait for him to come back. It's just that he seems unwilling to hear even that.”

“He's also afraid of dragging you down and becoming a burden to you. After all, once he goes north... it will be very difficult to come back.”

Chen Chao spoke without any particular emotion. There would be many people who died in the north.

Mao Jiacao was somewhat saddened and didn't know what to say.

But she soon composed herself and said, “No matter what, I'll wait for him.”

Chen Chao said no more.

The two of them arrived in front of a dilapidated little courtyard. It looked as though no one had lived here for a very long time. Even the lock on the wooden door had rusted away, making it impossible to lock.

For no particular reason, Chen Chao was reminded of his own little courtyard. If not for his current identity, that place would probably have ended up just as run-down as this one.

Just as Chen Chao was about to push the door open, a clear voice rang out, “Elder Sister Jia Cao, who is he?!”

Mao Jiacao turned her head. Not far away, a boy with a saber at his waist came running over. It was Xiao Du.

Xiao Du glanced around Mao Jiacao and asked curiously, “Sister Jia Cao, Elder Brother Xi didn't come to see you?”

Mao Jiacao forced an awkward smile. “I saw him. We just didn't talk, but it's nothing.”

Xiao Du still couldn't understand. He always felt that Elder Brother Xi and Sister Jia Cao spoke as though they deliberately made themselves impossible to understand.

But he soon turned his attention to Chen Chao and asked suspiciously, “Who is he? Why did he come here?”

In fact, Chen Chao had already looked at Xiao Du when the boy first spoke. Now that he had asked, Chen Chao merely smiled.

“This guest has come to visit an old acquaintance. It's just that we don't know whether this is the old man's place, because he has already...”

Mao Jiacao couldn't bear to continue and left the sentence unfinished.

Xiao Du blocked the doorway, looking unconvinced. “You're really that old man's friend?”

Chen Chao narrowed his eyes. Although he hadn't gone inside yet, he had already sensed a familiar aura. That former Great General of the Northern Frontier had been a cultivator who had truly reached the end of the Nepenthe Realm, and his martial cultivation had been far from low.

“I'm his friend, in a way. More accurately, I'm his junior.”

Chen Chao asked, “What about you? Are you his descendant, or something else?”

Xiao Du patted the wooden saber at his waist and said, “I'm his friend too. See this saber? He gave it to me!”

Chen Chao glanced at it and said with a sigh, “Then you should take good care of it.”

Xiao Du frowned and asked, “You say you're his friend. Then do you know what his name was?”

“You said you're his friend too. Do you know?”

Chen Chao looked at the boy before him with interest. After all, someone who had been given a saber by Great General Xiao Hezheng was unlikely to be an ordinary person.

"This..."

Xiao Du found himself unable to answer. He had only met that old man once to begin with. When he went looking for him again, he discovered that he had already...

“I don't know. No one here knows his name, and we don't know what he used to do either...”

Xiao Du was speaking when he suddenly stopped halfway through, because he noticed that the young man's expression had turned somewhat unpleasant, and he seemed rather sad.

"What's wrong?"

Xiao Du asked curiously.

Chen Chao said, “My name is Chen Chao. Do you know?”

Xiao Du frowned in confusion. “I've only just met you once. How would I know...? But the name Chen Chao sounds the same as the name of that Lord Warden Commander...”

Before he could finish speaking again, footsteps sounded in the distance. Several officials wearing official robes and commandants clad in armor came running over with a group of new recruits who had only just put on their iron armor.

Those with sharp eyes had already recognized the leading official. It seemed to be the county magistrate.

People from the surrounding area gathered around.

“This humble official, Fu Rong, magistrate of Twilight Mist County, pays his respects to Your Excellency, the Lord Warden Commander!”

“Li Sheng, Commandant of Yellow Dragon Prefecture, pays his respects to Your Excellency, the Lord Warden Commander!”

In an instant, the entire street was filled with people kneeling.

The county magistrate and commandant at the front were both extremely excited. When the news had arrived, they had never dared believe that the Lord Warden Commander had actually come to Blue Tile Town. But now that they had seen him, there was absolutely no mistaking it. The young man before them looked exactly like the Lord Warden Commander in the portrait.

Even Xiao Du wasn't foolish enough to miss it now. Staring at the young man before him, he widened his eyes, "You're the Lord Warden Commander?!"

Mao Jiacao had already knelt down as well, it was just that her face was filled with disbelief.

Chen Chao reached out and stopped Xiao Du from kneeling. He shook his head, “See? Once I tell you my name, you know who I am. But what about him?”

Chen Chao pointed toward the dilapidated little courtyard, “You shouldn't be paying your respects to me. You should be paying your respects to him.”

His words left everyone present somewhat bewildered.

Chen Chao calmly said, “The owner of this courtyard was named Xiao Hezheng. Many years ago, he left home and went north. He stayed there for many years. Later, when he grew old, he wanted to come back and take a look, so he returned. But he died soon afterward. You could say that he gave most of his life to the north.”

“After hearing all this, you all may still not know who Xiao Hezheng was.”

“The previous Great General of the Northern Frontier, Xiao Hezheng, was born in Blue Tile Town, Twilight Mist County, Cloudmere Commandery, Yellow Dragon Prefecture.”

“Your town produced a truly remarkable man.”

Chen Chao looked at everyone, then lowered himself onto one knee before the doorway, “You don't need to remember this official. You should remember him, because he did far more for you than this official has ever done for you.”