Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 211: Within the Minghuang Cave

The day the first elder received news of the Beast King’s assault and rushed to the Yueli Mountain, the Beast King had already passed away. He had managed to wound one of his attackers grievously, and that attacker had been sealed in the Minghuang Mountain ever since.

The Minghuang Mountain was a source of much of the spiritual energy in the Li kingdom, and had always been strictly guarded by the imperial family. The spiritual energy density was so dense that most cultivators wouldn’t be able to get close. Deep in the mountains was a spiritual treasure that had condensed naturally: chains of spiritsteel, fortified by the ambient spiritual energy and nigh unbreakable. After the first elder captured the wounded assailant, he had secretly trapped him in the Minghuang Mountain with this set of chains.

After coming of age, Li Mo would visit the cave from time to time, trying to force the assailant to reveal the whereabouts of his mother. However, despite being grievously wounded and having his cultivation decimated, he was still able to inflict a severe injury on Li Mo.

“Last time, I managed to fight on equal footing with that old geezer. This time, I’m sure I’ll beat him!” Li Mo’s words were resolute. After all these years of failing once and again, he finally saw hope for success.

“Xun Mo, even if you do defeat him, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to exact your revenge with your current cultivation,” the first elder reminded. “Even if he reveals your mother’s whereabouts, do not blindly forge forward in pursuit of revenge. Do you understand?”

“Don’t worry, Master. I know my limits.” Li Mo’s gaze turned to the east, where the sun was peeking out of the horizon.

Right at the crack of dawn, Yun Ruoyan awoke. She was heading to the bamboo forest to bid farewell to Lin Qingchen when Li Mo arrived on his sword. Instead of entering the room, as was his wont, he simply extended a hand to Yun Ruoyan through her bedroom window.

“I promised to descend the mountain with Qingchen yesterday, and I haven’t talked to her about the change in plans yet,” Yun Ruoyan stated.

“I’ve already had Shui Yun notify them.” Li Mo reached in, caught Yun Ruoyan’s hand, and pulled her out.

“Ah, you—” By the time Yun Ruoyan reacted, she was already ensconced in his embrace.

The trip to Kongming Academy took a few days by horse, but only a few hours by swordflight.

“Send me back home first. I want to see my brother!” Yun Ruoyan was very excited to share the good news of her admissions with Yun Moxiao.

Li Mo flew over the Yun manor and noted that everyone was draped in white. “Your sister’s corpse has likely been sent back to the mansion, and everyone’s currently in mourning,” he guessed.

Yun Ruoyan had almost forgotten that Yun Ruoyao had died within the trial.

“Although she’s my half-sister, she’s bullied me since childhood. I don’t like her, and she doesn’t like me. I doubt she’ll appreciate my presence at her funeral,” Yun Ruoyan commented. “I won’t return home today.”

“Coincidentally, I’m thinking of heading somewhere. If you’re not going to go home, would you like to accompany me?”

“Where to?”

“You’ll know once we get there.” Li Mo steered them in the direction of the Minghuang Mountain. His previous trips with her had always been for pleasure and enjoyment, and Yun Ruoyan initially thought that this trip would be likewise.

“The phoenix orchids have more or less wilted by now, so what are we doing here?”

“To meet someone, one of my enemies!”

Li Mo revealed the existence of the man in the Minghuang Mountain to Yun Ruoyan, and she deduced that it was that man who had inflicted so many injuries on Li Mo in the past.

The mysterious cave that Li Luo had mentioned when she told Yun Ruoyan about her failed assassination attempt was likely the cave in which this mysterious man was situated.

The two of them landed near the mountaintop by a plot of land marked off, secured, and heavily guarded by the imperial family. It was nearing the start of winter; without the phoenix orchids and dense foliage to shield them from sight, Li Mo had to be a little more careful with his flying.

Yun Ruoyan didn’t understand why Li Mo couldn’t simply have entered directly given his status as a member of the royal family, but Li Mo informed her that the cave was a dear secret that couldn’t easily be revealed to others. As a result, he had refrained from proceeding to the cave directly by swordflight.

The two of them agilely darted through the forest, avoiding quite a few troops on patrol. Given the season, there weren’t any noble scions who would ascend the mountain to sightsee, but the number of troops assigned to the region hadn’t decreased.

It was widely claimed that the emperor of the Li kingdom came to the Minghuang Mountain annually to hunt; in truth, he did so to pray at the font of the spiritual energy that suffused the kingdom in hopes that no disaster would befall his rule.

The first elder had been impressively audacious in hiding one of the Beast King’s assailants here.

Not too long later, the two of them passed through the hunting grounds. From a distance, Yun Ruoyan could see a large altar.

“Is the cave over there?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“No, it’s still a distance away. The spiritual veins are particularly potent near their source, and cultivators without a sufficiently advanced cultivation will be unable to withstand the spiritual energy density. As a result, the altar had to be built some distance away from the source itself,” Li Mo explained. “It was only when I came of age, after I became a peak sixth-rank blademaster, that I was able to enter the region.”

They bypassed the altar and walked for another ten minutes or so before a cave in the mountainside came into view. From the entrance of the dark, deep cave came a chilling wind, a magnitude colder than even the crisp autumn air. It felt as though she could hear a dragon’s indistinct keening from the distance, causing her head to throb and her vision to blur.

“Is it manageable?” Li Mo patted Yun Ruoyan on the back, waking her from her momentary stupor. The dragon’s keening had disappeared, and she found herself already within the cave with Li Mo.

“I’m fine,” she replied. “I think I was caught in an illusion just now.”

“That’s caused by the density of the spiritual energy. With your cultivation, you should be able to bear its effects without much of a problem.” Li Mo pulled Yun Ruoyan further into the cave.

The cave was perfectly natural, without any trace of manmade artifice. Stalactites hung from the roof of the cave, calcified over millennia.

Yun Ruoyan had anticipated that the cave would be full of pure, refined spiritual energy, but it was instead surprisingly dark and gloomy. She couldn’t help but think back to the underwater grotto within the secret realm, which gave off a similar impression.

“Mistress,” Qiuqiu began. “The aura around here is almost identical to that in the underwater grotto.”

Yun Ruoyan couldn’t sense this supposed aura, but her intuition told her that the two locations were intimately connected. Could there be an unknown relationship between them?

Just then, Li Mo suddenly stopped walking.

“What’s the matter?”

“Shh. There’s an unfamiliar scent up ahead.”

When Yun Ruoyan noticed how severe Li Mo’s face was, she whispered back softly, “Did someone else find out about this place?”

Li Mo’s eyes were downcast. Both of them retracted their auras as they hastily walked deeper into the cave. Before long, they could hear snatches of conversation from within. They hugged the walls as they stopped to listen.

“Master, how can I save you?” Past a corner came the voice of an old man.

“You can’t. These chains are nigh unbreakable, unless you can gather my three senior and junior brothers together,” an even hoarser and more elderly voice replied.

“Master, I’m afraid their noble selves wouldn’t listen to a petition from the likes of me!” the old man replied.

“Try to find a way to get to the top of the tower of Kongming Academy. On its roof is an all-seeing mirror, and I’ll teach you an incantation to connect it to the dragon race and speak directly to Elder Longzhu,” the older voice rasped. “Leave immediately. I’ve been trapped here for decades, and I don’t want to stay a moment longer!”

“Yes, Master!” the old man immediately retreated.

Li Mo grabbed Yun Ruoyan and jumped up to the ceiling as the old man turned the corner. From her vantage point, Yun Ruoyan could only see that the man was dressed in an amethyst-gold silk robe. His hair was spotty, and his back seemed surprisingly imposing. Because his aura was likewise retracted, Yun Ruoyan couldn’t discern his cultivation.

After the old man left, Li Mo brought Yun Ruoyan out of the cave. The old man was already nowhere to be seen.

“Even after decades of concealment, someone ended up finding him,” Li Mo remarked coldly. “But it’s also given me new leads to investigate. I wonder what the draconic realm is like?”

“Do dragons really exist in this world?” Yun Ruoyan asked. “Li Mo, you’re not from the dragon race, are you?”

“This isn’t the place to talk.” Li Mo didn’t answer Yun Ruoyan’s question but instead peered back at the entrance to the cave. “We’ll leave for today and return to meet this old geezer tomorrow.”

The two of them walked out of the imperial territory and returned directly to the Slaughtering King’s manor. Back in his study, Yun Ruoyan asked, “Li Mo, do you remember when I was seized by a centipede spirit during my grandmother’s birthday celebration and you came to save me?”

Li Mo poured her a cup of tea. “That happened just a few months ago. Of course I remember.”

“In the middle of your fight with the centipede spirit, your hand suddenly morphed into a dragon claw. I was awake, but I pretended to be asleep because I was frightened.” Yun Ruoyan took a few sips of her tea. “I began suspecting your identity then.”

Li Mo didn’t seem perturbed by Yun Ruoyan’s confession at all. Instead, his lips even curled up a little, something which Yun Ruoyan noticed almost immediately.

“Did you know that I was pretending to have fainted?” Yun Ruoyan glared at him accusingly.

Li Mo nodded.

“Then… didn’t you say that everyone who knew of your identity would be killed? You weren’t interested in me at that time, were you? And when did you realize that I was just pretending to be ugly? Did you become interested in me before, or after?”

Yun Ruoyan peppered Li Mo with questions and waited for his response with bright, eager eyes.

When had Li Mo begun to like Yun Ruoyan? He didn’t know himself. Perhaps it was at first sight, when she dragged his injured self into her room without asking any unnecessary questions. It was then that Li Mo had kissed her, unable to bear the unusual fragrance emanating from her body.

Or perhaps it was when her true appearance was revealed that night at the empress’ flower-viewing party, a moment of such clarity that Li Mo could never erase it from his memories.

Or was it within the icy-cold lake, when Yun Ruoyan had first pushed him aside but then dived right back in, in order to save his life? From then on, Li Mo was assured of the vital role that she would play in his life.