Chapter 425 - Preparations for War (1/2)
A flurry of confusing thoughts swooped into his mind like the wild winds of a storm. He tried to calm himself and organize his thoughts but to no avail. The more he tried, the deeper he sank into the quagmire of confusion and perplexity.
“What’s wrong, Lil Chen?” Yu Yifeng asked, seeing him looking troubled and tensed.
Xiao Chen awoke from his catatonic stupor, his back slick with a coat of cold sweat and the fresh shirt that he just put on clung to his back. A wind blew amongst the eaves of the trees, and he felt his back tingling. He managed a shake of his head and croaked, “Where’s Senior Qingfeng? I need to ask him something.”
He needed to speak to Qingfeng about the two babies from so many years ago and ascertain his hypothesis.
Yu Yifeng nodded hastily and pointed the finger at a cluster of trees not far away, “He’s with a couple of others discussing some matter of importance. Do you want me to come with you?”
“It’s fine. I can go on my own.” He scurried over quickly and saw the flicker of a flaming hearth amongst the woods. More than thirty men, including the Elders Zi Mo and Qingfeng, Perfected Immortals Fengxi and Feng Lan, and Master Guyang, were standing around the fire, talking, and a few other acolytes watching outside the grove.
As he drew near, he heard voices saying, “These Corpse Puppets are sustained by hatred. That makes them Yin-element creatures of the foulest. No ordinary flames would be able to harm them, least of all the 12 which were former High Chieftains of the Sect. I’d daresay that this Red Sleeve would be far stronger.”
“Come to think of it, and you just reminded me of a valley in the Southern Continent — a place called the Valley of the Southern Vermilion. There’s a magical field there; the Flames of the Southern Vermilion Bird. For centuries or even millennia, no one has succeeded in taming the spirit that guards this magical field… If only we could…”
Xiao Chen came over suddenly, and everyone’s head turned. “How can I help you, young friend?” Qingfeng asked him.
“My apologies, everyone, for bothering you all.” Xiao Chen looked hard at Qingfeng and asked, “There’s something that I wish to ask you about, Senior.”
Qingchen fell silent at once and looked at his peers, muttering, “Please excuse us.” He turned to Xiao Chen, “Let’s go.”
They left the grove, walking to a small expanse where no one would be listening, and Qingfeng stopped. “Is it about what happened many years ago?”
Xiao Chen looked at him, inhaling tersely. Even his calm demeanor could not entirely hide his choppy emotions. “Indeed. Please tell me more about what happened then.”
“Ahhh…” Qingfeng grimaced wearily, his head looking up at the stars as if raking his mind to remember. “It’s almost twenty years since that very day. I was a hermit in the mountains. I was working on my magic and sorcery when there was a dull thud outside my monastery. I looked out and saw under the glimmer of stars a large sarcophagus just in front of my doors.”
“And then?” Xiao Chen asked almost instantly, his face enliven with anticipation. Qingfeng sighed. “What else would you have thought? A sarcophagus, for the love of the gods! I thought some enemy of mine had come seeking vengeance! But when I opened the lid, there was a little infant just fresh out of his mother’s womb. He looked nothing different from ordinary toddlers, but I quickly noticed that his soul was damaged. Knowing that I had to be quick lest the baby dies, I thought of using some Taoist sorcery to lengthen his life. But when I removed him from the sarcophagus, he looked even more deader than before! Something within the sarcophagus is sustaining him.”
I see. Xiao Chen breathed hard. It’s the bewitched sarcophagus lying just in front of the stronghold of the Skygale Sect. It could gather Yin energies. It was used to preserve the physical body of Patriarch Guanshan, keeping it from rot and decay.
Qingfeng took a long gasp of air before he went on, “So I put him back in. But there was little to what I could do. His soul was mangled and no magic on the face of this earth can do anything to repair that. What a pitiful and short-lived existence, I thought, And there was only naught but destitution across these wildernesses. I could not bear to leave him outside, so I took him and the sarcophagus in. But the next day, sometime late in the night, I heard someone screaming for help…”
Xiao Chen frowned as Qingfeng paused briefly and continued, “I thought that someone’s life was in danger. But when I opened my doors, a man was carrying another infant in his arms. The infant’s soul was almost similarly damaged, and he was dying. That man is your father, Xiao Yifan.” He stopped and turned to look at Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen batted an eyelid and pressed, “What happened next?”
“I bade your father wait outside while I took the baby into my arms. Imagine my shock when I saw that he looked completely identical to the baby in the stone sarcophagus. Completely the same that I would have thought they were twins. Their souls were both mangled, and only one of them will live. At first, I tried to tear the soul of the baby in the stone casket and fuse it with the infant your father brought. But I failed. With no other choice, I had to rip the soul of the baby your father carried and fused it with the baby in the stone casket.”
Xiao Chen breathed hard, trying to sound calm as he uttered the words, “And I was the infant in the stone sarcophagus.”
Qingfeng looked hard at Xiao Chen for seconds before he finally nodded. “Sometime later, the sarcophagus went missing. Feeling something was amiss, I began looking for clues and finally, I found… Anyway, I went to the residence of the Xiao family three years later. I spoke to your father and told me what I discovered. It was also me who had magically sealed your Spiritual Meridians, although your father knows nothing about this.”
So this is what transpired before, Xiao Chen brooded quietly. The reason why he has memories only after he was three. And the only reason was that somebody did bring him back to life using high magic to circumvent the Six Paths of Samsara.
Qingfeng looked up at the starry ceiling overhead. “Everything about us is a bestowment from our parents. You might not have been born by your parents, but they have showered and nurtured you with love and care. They are your parents still. I hope you understand that.”
“Of course, Senior,” Xiao Chen replied, nodding, “I will never be an unfilial son no matter how.”
Qingfeng stroked his beard. “You are keeping well. It’s the single most important sign of appreciation for all that they’ve done for you. Remember that. Well, it’s getting late. Let us go back.”
They withdrew back into the forest and found Yu Yifeng, and the others still awake. Luo Shangyan asked when he came back, “You found Senior Qingfeng and spoke to him?”