Novel Full Chapter 416: Until She Turned Around and Continued Walking Forward
The day after the three imperial edicts were issued.
Whether it was the imperial court or the common people, when they learned that the monarch was abdicating the throne to the crown prince, their feelings were extremely complicated. However, aside from the common people submitting petitions begging Qin Siyao to stay, not a single person in the court offered remonstrance or urged her to remain.
This was because these ministers knew that Her Majesty had transformed the Qin Kingdom’s national fortune into three imperial edicts. These three edicts were connected to the great Dao, and there was no way to retract them.
Seven days later, the Qin Kingdom’s imperial palace held a grand ceremony. Qin Siyao followed the proper ritual procedures and transferred the imperial throne to Qin Lan’er.
The morning after the ceremony, Qin Siyao changed into ordinary robes and quietly left the Qin Kingdom’s imperial palace.
Qin Siyao walked out of the imperial capital and turned to glance back at the city gates behind her.
She didn’t know when she would return.
Perhaps she might never come back again.
Standing to the side, Huasheng asked, “Miss, are you really not planning to say goodbye to Lan’er?”
Qin Siyao shook her head, “There’s no need. Lan’er knows I’m leaving and would definitely insist on seeing me off. Then she’d cry her eyes out again. She’s now the ruler of Great Qin. If she still sheds tears, what would that look like?”
Withdrawing her gaze, Qin Siyao looked at Sister Huasheng, “Speaking of which, Sister Huasheng, you’re returning to your clan, aren’t you?”
“Mm.”
Huasheng nodded.
“Previously, this servant agreed to become a guardian for the Qin Kingdom at the request of one of your kingdom’s ancestors.
First, because your Qin Kingdom’s landscape and fortune aided this servant’s cultivation.
Second, this servant was close friends with that ancestor’s empress.
So this servant agreed to her request and remained in the imperial palace.
Originally, after your father emperor ascended the throne, this servant could have left. However, when you were born, Miss, heaven and earth manifested strange phenomena.
This servant was curious, so stayed behind, intending to remain by your side to observe.
The more this servant spent time with you, Miss, the more this servant found you to be pure and adorable.”
As she spoke, Huasheng let out a soft sigh, her eyes revealing a trace of helplessness and displeasure, “Now that Miss is going to travel the world to search for the young master, this servant actually wanted to accompany you, but something has happened in the clan. The clan leader says the clan has forgiven me, and also says Mother’s injuries and illness are growing worse. This servant has no choice but to return to the demon realm.”
“I see.” Qin Siyao nodded, “Then Sister Huasheng should return quickly. Please also send my regards to Auntie on my behalf, and may Auntie recover soon.”
“Miss, will you truly be all right alone?” Huasheng raised her head, her expression still showing some concern.
Qin Siyao smiled slightly and shook her head, “Since childhood, I’ve lived in the imperial palace and haven’t been to many places. But my husband has campaigned from south to north since he was young.
I’m going to find my husband, and I also want to see this world.
To see the prosperous age my husband fought to establish.
To see the places my husband has walked.”
Huasheng sighed softly, “After returning to the clan, this servant will have the clan members help search for Miss as well. Furthermore, if the clan encounters anyone surnamed Xiao in the future, as long as that person is upright in heart and character, if we can help, we of the Vermillion Bird Clan will offer some assistance.”
“Thank you, Sister Huasheng.” Qin Siyao bowed in salute.
“Miss need not be so formal.” Huasheng looked reluctantly at the woman before her, “This servant is leaving now.”
“Mm, until we meet again.”
“Until we meet again.”
Huasheng transformed. A crimson Vermillion Bird rose from outside the palace city, trailing an extremely long flame that dyed all the clouds in the sky red as it flew into the distance.
Only after Huasheng disappeared into the horizon did Qin Siyao finally withdraw her gaze.
The woman took out a clay figurine from her bosom, looked at it, and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
After putting the clay figurine back in her bosom, the woman raised her head. Her small feet beneath her skirts stepped forward, walking onward.
She wanted to see with her own eyes.
To see this mortal world.
She walked through town after town, vanquishing demons and evil spirits for ordinary households.
People called her the Fairy.
She walked through village after village, helping deliver children for women in difficult labor.
When mother and child were safe, those families called her Bodhisattva.
She opened academies for children in the streets and alleys.
Both boys and girls could study.
The tuition was only one coin, but the learning the woman taught was worth more than gold compared to ordinary scholars.
She also opened one or two medical clinics.
Consultations at the clinics were very cheap, charging very little.
Within a month of opening each clinic, they would be packed with patients.
The townspeople all knew that a kind-hearted young lady had come to town, and her medical skills were exceptional yet compared to her exceptional medical skills, she was even more beautiful.
She walked through mountain after mountain.
Everywhere she went, mountain and river gods would bow from afar, not daring to approach.
She encountered demons, but also witnessed human hearts more terrifying than demons.
She enjoyed sitting alone by the river, gazing into the distance.
Scholars traveling to take the imperial examinations would see her and think an immortal had descended to the mortal world.
They said they had seen a riverside immortal.
She went to the Great Wall and slayed great demons.
Everyone was amazed yet no one knew her name. They only knew that this extremely gentle woman wore a mask, and her movements slaying enemies beneath the Great Wall were like graceful dancing.
She poled a small boat downstream, drifting into the distance. Dragons yielded the way, and river gods escorted her journey.
The boatman silently marveled, how was it that today’s waterway was so much easier to navigate than usual?
She walked alone through mountain forests at night, watching fireflies fill the sky like stars fallen to the mortal realm.
Ten years.
A hundred years.
A thousand years.
Ten thousand years.
As the sects on the mountains constantly changed.
As the stars constantly shifted.
As seas transformed into mulberry fields.
She still walked in the mortal world.
She visited all the places he had been, walked all the roads he had walked, every single one.
Thirty thousand years passed. Because of those three imperial edicts, the woman suffered backlash from the laws of the Heavenly Dao. She never stepped into the Ascension realm, and her time was nearly at its end yet she still appeared no older than twenty.
Only her black hair had been dyed white by the passage of time.
This was a day of heavy snow.
She wore plain robes, walking alone through the mountain forest.
Her cloud-patterned embroidered shoes left one small, neat footprint after another in the mountains.
Xiao Mo followed behind her.
Thirty thousand years had passed.
She was searching for him.
He was accompanying her.
[Book of a Hundred Lives Fifth Life reward statistics complete. Host is about to leave the River of Time. Please prepare yourself.]
[Ten. Nine. Eight.]
As the voice of the Book of a Hundred Lives resonated in Xiao Mo’s mind, Xiao Mo stopped in his tracks.
In the snowy ground, he stood watching, watching that slender figure walk farther and farther away.
[Three]
[Two]
“Siyao.”
“I’m…”
“Leaving.”
As the Book of a Hundred Lives’ final count fell.
A cold wind carrying white snow blew through the mountain forest.
The woman stopped, suddenly turning around to look behind her yet on that path she had come from, there was nothing.
The woman gazed for a very, very long time.
Until fine snow piled on the woman’s hair and shoulders.
Until she exhaled deeply, her warm breath visible.
Until she drew from her bosom a blood-stained Asura mask.
Until she lowered her head and put on the mask.
Until she turned around and continued walking forward.