Chapter 385

Chapter 385: Enlightenment: Seeing Xiao Qing Xuan’s Fate Path

Her master had taught her: ordinary cultivators have single, double, triple, quadruple, or quintuple spiritual roots. The greatest prodigies in history have supreme spiritual roots. The very top is the Supreme Chaos Spiritual Root.

Yu Zhi Yi didn’t know what that top root looked like. She only knew that in a world filled with experts, her triple root was, at best, ordinary. Many with triple roots won’t be nobodies, but they rarely have the gift to become top masters.

After two lives, she had learned to rein in her greed. She no longer wished to soar in one step. But the sudden enlightenment she’d just had stirred a bit of wild hope. In the end, it was only hope.

Xiao Qing Xuan watched her daughter’s far-off stare and grew anxious, asking: “Jin’er, what’s wrong?”

Since coming home, her daughter had always been as calm as a mountain. Sometimes Xiao Qing Xuan even felt the girl was steadier than her late father-in-law. But today, her daughter either drifted off or looked dim-eyed. How could a mother not worry?

Yu Zhi Yi gathered herself, saying: “I’m fine. I just figured out a few things.” What isn’t mine will never be mine; it can’t be forced. Talent is fixed at birth. If it were easy to change from plain to genius, the world would be flooded with geniuses.

She looked at Xiao Qing Xuan-and stopped, startled.

Xiao Qing Xuan also paused, saying: “Jin’er, you…”

Yu Zhi Yi started to speak. Seeing her mother’s amazement, she asked: “What is it?”

“Your eyes…” Xiao Qing Xuan stared at them. She had clearly seen a flash of gold in her daughter’s pupils. Where had it gone? She rubbed her own eyes and looked again. Those clear eyes were only black and white now. She shook her head, saying: “Maybe it was the sun’s glare.”

Yu Zhi Yi didn’t dwell on it. She had something else on her mind: she could see her mother’s fate path now.

Heaven does not allow mystics to read their own destiny charts-or those of their blood relatives. She counted the time of her own birth hour in her sleeve, but still could not see her own fate line. Yet she could clearly see Xiao Qing Xuan’s.

Could this be the benefit of enlightenment?

She looked around. Everything felt both familiar and strange, as if, if she tried, she could glimpse its future course. She also sensed something subtler: though she still could not read her own full fate, if anything related to her were to happen, she would faintly feel the direction it would take.

“Mother, let’s go back,” she said.

Seeing her daughter relax at last, Xiao Qing Xuan stayed curious, but since the girl didn’t speak, she didn’t pry.

By the time they reached the mountain top, Jiang Yu Chuan and Tang Ming Xuan and the others were beside themselves. Last night, they had caught several people trying to harm Yu Zhi Yi, and one had torn a teleport talisman and escaped. This morning Yu Zhi Yi was suddenly missing. It was hard not to fear the worst.

Yu Zhi Yi explained, saying: “I couldn’t sleep at midnight, so I went to set a defensive array.”

She handed Jiang Yu Chuan the array’s control token and carefully taught him how to use it. He learned quickly. Soon he could control the array with ease. He wasn’t a mystic, so he couldn’t use the array to lock onto intruders, but he could faintly sense auras on it. He could also release the power hidden in the formation to strike anyone who forced their way in.

She had built it this way to prepare for the Gao clan from the Hidden Realm.

After thinking a moment, Yu Zhi Yi took out her last invisibility talisman. She couldn’t draw such talismans herself-her master had left this one to her for defense. Before coming to the Martial Alliance, she hadn’t put much hope in these relatives here, so she left the other three invisibility talismans and one attack talisman with Hong Nu.

At the moment of parting, she finally understood how parents feel when they watch their children travel far: the worry, the longing, the ache. [Did I leave enough for them? If the Gao clan spots something early, will the array and the talismans hold?] The more she thought, the less enough it felt. She grew even more dissatisfied with her own strength. Why couldn’t she make higher-grade defensive arrays? Why not lay killing arrays? Why couldn’t she draw attack talismans? Why didn’t she have a weapon that could carry her full-power strike?

Wait-weapon?

She did have a hidden weapon that could unleash the full-power strike of a peak Foundation Establishment expert.

She took it out and pressed it into Jiang Yu Chuan’s hand. He didn’t know how strong it was, nor that it was a precious magic tool. He only thought it was an ordinary self-defense gift from his daughter and accepted it with a smile.

Tang Ming Xuan hated to be the bad guy, but he had to speak up, saying: “My lord, it’s getting late. If we don’t set off soon, we won’t make it back to the Capital City within three days.”

Jiang Yu Chuan wanted to hug his daughter, but she was an adult now. He couldn’t smother her like a small child. He only patted Yu Zhi Yi’s head and, holding back his reluctance, said: “Take good care of yourself. Take care of your mother. When I finish things here, I’ll come find you.”

He had decided to lay down his burden at the office. His elder son was capable enough to stay and keep things running. As for him-he was near the age of “knowing destiny.” Why not go enjoy his later years?

Not long after, when Jiang Yu Wei received his younger brother’s resignation letter and heard the reason, his face wrinkled like a chrysanthemum. He had guarded against that fellow for decades, afraid the old fox would fight him for the Alliance Leader’s seat. And now that “threat” gave up the Martial Alliance just to enjoy a warm home with wife and child? Absurd!

But that would be later.

Before leaving, Yu Zhi Yi handed over three defensive jade pendants and a defensive bracelet, asking Jiang Yu Chuan to pass them to Prefect Song’s family. They had given her a favor beyond “saving her life,” and this was her repayment. After they accepted, the karma between them would be settled. Because these items were meant to settle karma, they were not as strong as those she made for her own family: whether the pendants or the bracelet, each could block only three lethal attacks.

Already in the saddle, Yu Zhi Yi suddenly slapped her forehead, saying: “Right-I’ve kept forgetting to ask. Father, do you know a man named Jiang Yu Feng?”

Jiang Yu Feng was Hong Luan’s father, a royal merchant from Suzhou.

Jiang Yu Chuan shook his head, saying: “I don’t know him, but that name does sound tied to mine.”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded. Since her insight, she could read her relatives’ faces and see the lines of cause and effect. She could tell there was no karmic thread between Jiang Yu Chuan and Hong Luan, which meant there was no blood relation. Still, to be safe, she had asked in case there was some other link.

“Time’s short. We should go,” she said.

She flicked her whip and rode off, leaving her father’s reluctant face behind.

Not long after Yu Zhi Yi’s convoy left, two figures stepped out from behind a big tree near the foot of Mount Ming. At the same time, on the mountain, Du Zi Heng, who had been placed in a guest room, opened his eyes.