Chapter 527 A Traitor?

Qin Li chuckled. A crimson blush spread across Ji Yuyan’s cheeks, and she secretly shot him a look that was nonetheless full of charm. He was utterly captivated.

After dinner, Qin Li and Ji Yuyan returned to the Ji Family Valley. Inside the valley, all of Ji Yuyan’s aunt’s confidants had been dealt with. Although Ji Chang hadn’t made a move against them over the years, he knew them like the back of his hand.

The Ji Family Valley had been turned upside down in a single day. The young mistress of old had returned, and the old servants who had been loyal to her parents were overjoyed.

They all treated Qin Li as the young master-in-law, their attitudes respectful and deferential. Ji Yuyan didn’t deny it—perhaps she didn’t want to.

However, when she saw that the old servant Ji Changgeng had prepared a single room for the two of them, Ji Yuyan felt a wave of shyness and awkwardness. In all her life, she had never been so intimate with any man!

It was Qin Li who smiled and sent her a telepathic message: “It’s alright. We can talk for a bit, then you can sleep. I’ll go out for a walk.” Qin Li had never fully believed Ji Chang’s words. ‘The pain of losing a son isn’t something any father can bear, especially since Ji Chang was the Patriarch of the Ji Family back then. How could he have possibly tolerated it? Is the Saint Emperor really that powerful? Ji Chang casually brushed aside the topic of the traitor within the Ji Family. So, who was this traitor?’

Ji Yuyan lowered her head, opened the door, and let Qin Li in. After entering, however, she was somewhat surprised. The courtyard she was in was new, not the one her aunt and Man had lived in. Changgeng must have feared she would find it distasteful and switched her to an unoccupied courtyard.

But all the furnishings in this room were identical to the room she had lived in as a child!

Gazing at the items, which were clearly quite old, Ji Yuyan’s eyes grew moist. ‘Changgeng,’ she thought, ‘you’ve been so thoughtful!’

Qin Li and Ji Yuyan sat down. After her excitement subsided, Qin Li asked, “Who is the Saint Emperor?”

Ji Yuyan knew Qin Li would ask this question. She sighed softly and said, “In the Primordial Era, there was a saying: The Ji, Jiang, and Zhou form a tripartite alliance, but the Saint Emperor Lineage stands alone! It refers to the four great powers in this million-mile-wide Land of Extreme Cold Ice and Snow!”

Ji Yuyan seemed lost in thought. After a moment, she continued, “But over the long course of time, the Jiang Family and the Zhou Family gradually declined. Oh, right—my mother’s and my aunt’s clan was the Jiang Family! But it has completely fallen from grace now. Aside from its past glory, there’s nothing left. The Zhou Family is the same, not much stronger than the Jiang Family. Only the Ji Family, by relying on the Tree Lotus, can create a large batch of supreme experts every hundred thousand years, allowing it to remain undefeated!”

“In that case, hasn’t anyone ever targeted your Ji Family’s Tree Lotus?” Qin Li asked.

“Of course they have. If they hadn’t, how would my parents have died?” Ji Yuyan said sadly. “In fact, from Ancient Times to the present, this kind of thing has never stopped! This is also the main reason why the Ji Family is so spread out, with each direct descendant having their own territory. Only by doing this will they desperately protect the Tree Lotus on their land! Because once the Tree Lotus Fruits mature, they get to keep fifty percent! Twenty percent is handed over to the family, and the other thirty percent must be given to the Saint Emperor Lineage!”

Ji Yuyan said faintly, “It is precisely for this reason that the Saint Emperor Lineage has always sided with our Ji Family. The Ji Family has the Saint Emperor’s spies, so every hundred thousand years when the Tree Lotus Fruits ripen, the Saint Emperor knows exactly whether the number he receives is correct, right down to the last fruit!”

A cold, disdainful sneer appeared on Ji Yuyan’s lips. “The current Saint Emperor is a very petty and suspicious person, and his power is immense. Normally, a Saint Emperor of his generation wouldn’t be able to obtain any Tree Lotus Fruits, as the next batch won’t ripen for another seven thousand years. But my parents developed that special potion, causing the Tree Lotus Fruits to mature early, and he didn’t get any! Given his personality, it’s only logical that he would have someone take revenge on my parents!”

Qin Li looked at Ji Yuyan in surprise. “You knew all this already?”

Ji Yuyan sighed softly. “Changgeng just found a moment to secretly tell me. He has been with the Ji Family for many years. There are some things even my grandfather might not know, but Changgeng does.”

“Your grandfather said there was a traitor in the Ji Family who leaked this information. Who was it?” Qin Li asked.

Ji Yuyan shook her head slightly. “I don’t know. Changgeng said he doesn’t know either. It’s the kind of thing no one would ever tell a second person. My grandfather might know, but he didn’t say. Maybe… he already dealt with that person?”

Qin Li shook his head and said softly, “I don’t think so.”

“What do you mean?” Ji Yuyan instantly grew alert, her elegant brows furrowing as she looked at Qin Li.

“Don’t you find this whole thing a bit strange? Think about it. Since your parents were Plant Masters and developed this special potion, who would have been the first to know?”

“My grandfather, of course!” Ji Yuyan looked at Qin Li, confused, then suddenly asked, “Qin Li, you don’t suspect my grandfather is…”

“Of course not.” Qin Li waved his hand, cutting her off. “Then think again. If you were the Patriarch of the Ji Family and you learned of such a miraculous potion, what would be your first reaction?”

“Keep it a secret!” Ji Yuyan said without a second thought. As soon as the words left her mouth, a strange light flashed in her eyes, and she lowered her head in thought.

At that moment, Qin Li continued, “Exactly. If it were me, I would also keep it a secret first, and then use various measures to lock down the entire Ji Family Valley. I took a look at the valley’s terrain earlier. There isn’t another place like it for hundreds of miles around. It wouldn’t be too difficult to seal this place off, would it?”

Ji Yuyan nodded. “Very few people normally come to the Ji Family Valley, not even members of the Ji Family. If my grandfather had ordered this place to be designated a forbidden area, then no one would have come here again!”

“Right. Try to remember, back when you were little, during the time from before the Tree Lotus bloomed until after it bore fruit, did anyone enter or leave the Ji Family Valley?” Qin Li asked casually. He didn’t have high hopes for this line of questioning. It was something that happened over a hundred years ago; she might not remember clearly even if it had been just one year ago.

Unexpectedly, however, Ji Yuyan shook her head with certainty. “No, absolutely no one entered or left the Ji Family Valley during that time! When I was little and eating the Tree Lotus Fruits, I even curiously asked my parents if all the fruits had ripened. They just smiled and didn’t answer. News of this only got out later, after my aunt married into the family…”

As she said this, Ji Yuyan’s eyes suddenly widened. She frowned and said, “Grandfather said my aunt accidentally saw my mother’s manuscript. Could it be that she was the one who leaked it?”

Qin Li thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Unlikely. Think about it. Your aunt married your father while she was pregnant. What was her goal? Wasn’t it to get a share of the Tree Lotus Fruits for herself? But in the end, you ended up consuming the vast majority of them. This is probably the main reason your aunt hated you so much and eventually forced you away! If your aunt had truly wanted to leak this information back then, she wouldn’t have needed to leave her man, Li Si. She could have just told the Saint Emperor directly. If the Saint Emperor put pressure on the Ji Family, would they have dared to refuse?”

Ji Yuyan realized he had a point. Since her aunt had gone to such lengths to marry into the family, she must have wanted to reap the benefits for herself. Later, she conspired with Li Si to poison her parents, and she stayed for so many years. Her goal must have been to find the formula for the special potion her parents had concocted!

If that was the case, then the one who notified the Saint Emperor back then… was someone else entirely!

But who could it have been?

Both of them fell into deep thought.

After a long silence, Qin Li suddenly asked, “By the way, Yuyan, you said your grandfather has stepped down as Patriarch. So who is the current Patriarch of the Ji Family? Why didn’t he come today? And what was… his relationship with your father like?”

Ji Yuyan’s body trembled slightly. She froze, and the color gradually drained from her beautiful face.

…

Meanwhile, after the banquet, Ji Chang left the Ji Family Valley. A distance of several hundred miles was nothing to him. The people he had summoned today were not only the core of the Ji Family but also its top experts. Each was immensely powerful and belonged to the type who would never betray the family.

He had called them over mainly to tell them that a conflict between the Ji Family and the Saint Emperor Lineage was inevitable, sooner or later, so they should be mentally prepared.

Thinking of this, Ji Chang couldn’t help but sigh. ‘Earlier today,’ he thought, ‘I casually brushed past the topic of the traitor who sold out the Ji Family. I wonder if those two kids will grow suspicious. Ji Ren, oh, Ji Ren… back then, could you really not tolerate your third brother? So what if he developed a special potion? Since I had already chosen you as the heir to the next Patriarch, did you think I would change my mind so easily?’

‘By harming your third brother, you harmed the entire Ji Family! Did you really think I’d grown so senile that I wouldn’t notice something like this?’

As Ji Chang mulled this over, he sighed again and again. ‘It seems the Ji Family was fated to lose this chance for a meteoric rise! Ji Ren, after you learned that your third brother never wrote down the formula, did you regret what you had done?’

…

At the same time, within the Blessed Land where the Ji Family Patriarch resided, in a magnificent grand hall, a somewhat gaunt man sat upon the throne. His expression was a storm of conflicting emotions.