Chapter 183 - Ideals (1)

Xu Yuan snapped a branch as thick as his thumb from a dead tree nearby, then walked straight down the dark tunnel leading into the mountain cave. His light footsteps echoed through the blackness.

After some unknown stretch of time, his eyes, flickering with a blood red glow, caught a faint trace of blue white light at the end of the passage.

As he drew closer, that mingled blue and white radiance grew bright as daylight. It came with waves of source qi pulsing in steady rhythm.

At the sight of it, Xu Yuan stopped without thinking. It seemed altering the formation patterns at the control node was not as easy as he had imagined. Xu Xinyao’s work inside still was not finished.

After a brief hesitation, Xu Yuan continued forward, though this time he muffled his footsteps. At the end of the tunnel was a cone shaped entrance into the cavern. From there, he saw everything within.

The light came from the formation patterns on the ground. The girl in blue sat crosslegged with her eyes closed at the very center of the formation. Around her floated a number of strange tools and materials, carving mysterious blue formation patterns into the ground at high speed.

These newly engraved blue patterns echoed with the original white patterns on the floor, forming a dazzling sea of light where blue and white wove together.

Xu Yuan stood at the cavern entrance and watched for a long while. Gradually, he realized that the blue patterns seemed to be corroding and replacing the original white ones.

Is she breaking the formation? He watched a little longer. Once he was sure she would not be done anytime soon, he turned and walked back a short distance, then leaned against the inner wall of the tunnel and sat down. Even if he kept watching, he would not understand a thing. He might as well grab a little rest while he could.

Xu Yuan had cultivation to support him, but two days and two nights without sleep had already given him that faintly alarming, heart fluttering feeling he remembered from his previous life after pulling an all nighter until dawn.

Amid bursts of piercing light, exhaustion rolled over him like an endless tide.

Some time later, he caught the familiar scent of lavender. It seemed distant as the horizon and close enough to touch all at once.

Suddenly, Xu Yuan opened his eyes. Everything around him was silent. The blue white light from before he fell asleep had also sunk back into darkness. Still dazed from sleep, he shifted a little and realized something seemed to be draped over him.

A flash of crimson passed through his eyes, and everything in the darkness became clear. It was a sable fur coat. The style looked somewhat familiar. The lavender fragrance he had smelled just now must have come from it.

Xu Yuan gave a soft snort and turned his gaze to the side. Sure enough, he saw a quiet girl in blue sitting beside him. It was Xu Xinyao. This little sister of his had a slightly higher cultivation than him, but even she could not endure a day and two nights without sleep.

Even so, she still had not fallen asleep. Her dark brows were faintly knitted, and her eyes were lowered as though she were lost in thought. The moment she heard the faint movement beside her, she turned to look at Xu Yuan.

Their gazes met in the dim tunnel.

After two breaths of silence, Xu Yuan tossed the sable fur coat back to her and asked casually, “Did it work?”

Xu Xinyao silently took the coat from him and gave a small nod. Her voice was very, very soft. “Mhm.”

“How does it feel?”

Xu Xinyao’s lowered her eyes and didn’t answer.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan gave a quiet snort and let out a long breath, then changed the question. “How long has it been?”

“About 14 hours.”

“Looks like I slept for quite a while.” Xu Yuan murmured under his breath, then looked at her lowered eyes and asked, “Xu Xinyao, in three days, out of the four hundred thousand commoners in Sageridge, how many are left?” 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Xu Xinyao fell silent again.

Xu Yuan chuckled low in his throat. “What, are you planning to play mute whenever Sageridge comes up?”

“Half...” Her voice was a little hoarse. “Half are left.”

The tunnel fell silent for a moment.

Judging from Xu Xinyao’s behavior, Xu Yuan had already made a few guesses, but Sageridge falling this quickly still caught him off guard.

It was too fast. He had thought that with the town protection array, General Wang would at least be able to hold on for ten days.

Drawing in a deep breath, he raised a hand and rubbed at his brow, which felt swollen from sleeping too long. If he had not heard news of this fourth sister of his being at Yellow Dragon Market, and had relied only on that father of his issuing an order from the imperial capital, then by the time ten days passed, they would probably have arrived just in time to collect the corpses.

Looking at her dejected expression, Xu Yuan said softly, “Two hundred thousand died. Looked at the other way, you saved two hundred thousand too. That’s not bad.”

“Third Brother...”

“General Wang really is quite grateful to you. If he knew this was solved by you again, and you went over now, with him spreading the word, the people of Sageridge would probably build another living shrine for you.”

“Third Brother...”

“Good thing you still have a bit of a brain and knew to come back to Sageridge to check on things after the formation wasn’t finished. But if I hadn’t found you, then at the leisurely pace you lot were traveling, sightseeing all the way, this whole pot of shit would probably have landed on your head. No, wait, on our Chancellor's Manor...”

“Third Brother!” Xu Xinyao clenched her fists. Her gentle voice carried a trace of tears.

Xu Yuan looked calmly at Xu Xinyao beside him. He had no intention of comforting her. Instead, he said, word by word, “Now do you understand why I hit you?”

Xu Xinyao said in a low voice, “I understand...”

“Why?” Xu Yuan pressed.

Xu Xinyao answered quietly, “If I had been a little more careful, if I had finished the formation before leaving...”

“Don’t. You were in such a hurry to go to Stillwater because you wanted to see me. Don’t dump that pot of shit on your brother’s head.”

Xu Xinyao’s small face went pale. “That isn’t what I meant...”

“I know that isn’t what you meant.” Xu Yuan leaned his head back against the cold stone wall and said, “Actually, I think you should be glad you left early. If you had finished the formation before leaving, you wouldn’t have come back to Sageridge. And the Myriad Manifestations Sect would probably have spent a very long time studying and modifying this illusory mist array of yours. Maybe several months. Maybe a year. By then, I definitely wouldn’t still be in Sageridge. If things had turned out that way, then Sageridge would truly have been beyond saving.”

After a pause, Xu Yuan casually glanced in the direction of Sageridge. “Did you learn this array from that old man Jiang He?”

“I researched it myself.”

Hearing that, Xu Yuan raised a hand and patted Xu Xinyao’s slender shoulder.

“Not bad. Very impressive. If the Myriad Manifestations Sect had really created that ghost fog, then every year during the spring tide, the demonic beasts would come charging over all by themselves, delivering themselves right to the door. That would save the Myriad Manifestations Sect all the trouble of catching feed for the ghost fog. Truly impressive.”

His words stabbed into her wound like sharp blades. Xu Xinyao hugged her shoulders with both hands, her delicate body trembling slightly. “I... I only wanted to help them.”

Xu Yuan reached out a finger and tapped her on the forehead. “Your original intention to save them was good. This time, you were only used by someone else. That isn’t why I hit you. Father has spent his entire life trying to change this world, yet you’ve been running around with a bunch of sect rejects, playing house. That is why I hit you earlier.”

“That’s not...”

“What?”

Xu Xinyao lifted her eyes and looked at Xu Yuan. Her gentle, watery gaze carried a stubborn resolve. “It isn’t playing house. Father’s methods will kill many, many people.”