Chapter 2107: Bitterness of Yearning
“Where are you going?” Yan Xuehen asked, quickly opening the door. Even though they had already been apart for some time, she still felt her cheeks heat up.
What in the world am I thinking?!
When he saw Yan Xuehen’s embarrassed behavior, Zu An felt a bit of appreciation. The feeling of making a frozen goddess fall down into the world of mortals really was enchanting. He said, “I’m making a trip to the Ocean races' territory to see if there's any information on the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine there...” He then explained what the immortal medicine was.
Yan Xuehen clicked her tongue in wonder, asking, “There's actually a medicine that miraculous in this world? Then wouldn’t that mean there's a chance to save Chuyan?”
Zu An’s face darkened as he said, “Chuyan’s situation is a bit special. I might need to find something called a Nature Jade Plate in order to help her.”
“Nature Jade Plate?” Yan Xuehen repeated, stunned. She'd thought that she was someone with a lot of knowledge and experience, but whether it was the immortal medicine or the Nature Jade Plate, they were both things she had never heard of before.
Zu An was worried that he would end up attracting the attention of some mysterious beings, so he didn’t dare to talk about it in too much detail. He roughly explained that the Nature Jade Plate was an incredible treasure that would allow one to travel through spacetime.
Yan Xuehen’s expression became serious. She said, “I won’t tell anyone else about this, and you need to be more careful as well. If news about this kind of treasure leaked out, it would easily cause a murderous calamity throughout the world. It could even be a threat to you.”
Zu An held her hands, saying, “You’re different from other people. What do I need to hide from you?”
At first, Yan Xuehen reflexively wanted to pull her hands back, but when she heard his gentle words, she immediately felt warm inside. She was full of gratitude and couldn't bear to pull back. Instead, she said, “Then you need to be careful. The Ocean races' territory has always been a mysterious place, and there are legends of many powerful creatures coming from that place. My injuries still need some time to heal, but once I fully recover, I'll wander the world to help you in the search for the Nature Jade Plate.”
When she found out that Zu An was going to save Qiu Honglei first, she didn’t have a strong negative reaction. After all, Chuyan’s condition was too unique, and the Nature Jade Plate seemed nearly impossible to find. It was something that would completely depend onluck. Zu An could very well just happen to find out more information about the Nature Jade Plate from the Ocean races.
Zu An nodded and said, “I’m leaving.”
When she saw the reluctance in his expression, Yan Xuehen felt really bad. The two had just reunited after so long and hadn’t even spent a whole day together before they had to separate again. Filled with all kinds of emotions, she took the initiative to jump into his arms and hug him tightly.
Zu An was a bit surprised. Yan Xuehen had always had a cold personality. Aside from when they were in bed, where she would passionately hold onto his waist, she rarely initiated anything.
The two hugged each other tightly. All words seemed lackluster in comparison to the emotions they were feeling. The two of them enjoyed this final bit of shared time before the unavoidable, overwhelming sadness of parting.
In the end, Zu An still left. As she watched his figure disappear into the night sky, Yan Xuehen’s eyes unwittingly became a bit wet. She touched the tears on her cheeks and was a bit absent-minded. She was now feeling such strong emotions, but why didn’t she experience cultivation deviation again?
...
Zu An flew into the night sky. His natural flight speed was now a bit faster than when he used the Wind Fire Wheels. But as he flew east toward the great sea, he still rode on the Wind Fire Wheels for the sake of preserving his stamina. This world was far larger than his previous one, and the ocean was also larger. There were many areas that the human race still hadn’t explored. Meanwhile, the eastern ocean was where the Ocean races were located.
Along the way, he took out the Recording Mirror and tried to call Shang Liuyu. She was the mermaid princess, someone with great status in the Ocean races. With her serving as an intermediary, many things would become much easier to deal with. Unfortunately, the screen’s ripples scattered and didn’t show her face. It only continued to swirl in circles.
Zu An was now good at artifact refinement and immediately realized that it wasn’t because he couldn't contact her, but rather because the signal between the recording mirrors had a problem.
It seemed that, due to the continuous invasion of the alien monsters, as well as the attempts to destroy this world’s natural barrier, and then the summoning of that powerful being from Dance Offering to the Universe, it had ended up affecting some of this world’s natural laws. That was why some issues occurred between the recording mirror transmissions. It was like his previous world’s solar windstorms, earthquakes, and tsunamis that affected the earth’s magnetic fields, which could also affect communication across the world. Similar things probably happened in this world. The question was how long it would take before things completely recovered. It could take a week to a month at minimum, or even dozens of years in the worst case.
Zu An helplessly put the recording mirror away, then took out the communication jade strip he made himself. Sure enough, it didn’t work either. However, after thinking for a bit, he still selected Yun Jianyue’s portrait. Once he did so, he saw a large mass of information arrive.
It turned out that because so many things had happened, he hdan’t even gotten a chance to check his messages. Of course, that was also related to the jade strip being a bit unreliable. Many messages didn’t arrive promptly, so their arrival time was always unpredictable.
“Ah Zu, I’ve already used every method the Holy Sect has to gather intelligence, but I still didn’t find any trace of Qiu Honglei.”
“Do you think that she might have been unable to get over what happened and already... It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have done that with you behind her back!”
Zu An could sense her sorrow and grief even through the jade strip. The following message was clearly sent a few days later.
“No, Honglei was someone I personally raised; I know what kind of personality she has. There's no way she would do something so weak-willed.”
“Haha, I just received an update from the northwest! It seems someone saw an individual resembling Honglei pass by their territory. I was just about to say! There's no way Honglei would be so weak.”
“Hmph, I was wrong in my word choice last time. It wasn’t just my fault last time; you have even more responsibility! It’s all your fault for seducing me!”
“Tell me honestly, are you actually a male fox spirit from the Fiend races?” “I’m not at the Lake of Hatred anymore. I went to... Forget it, I won’t tell you. We might just end up meeting each other.”
“Playboy, I sent you so many messages but you never responded to me! Are you fooling around with some other woman right now?!”
Zu An couldn't help but smile when he read these messages. Yun Jianyue was definitely really happy after receiving news about Honglei. Even her tone had become much more relaxed. But shortly after, his expression darkened. He wondered just how broken-hearted Yun Jianyue would become once she found out what kind of condition Qiu Honglei was currently in.
After some hesitation, he recorded some messages into the jade strip, telling her that he had already met Honglei, so she didn’t need to look for her anymore. As for the exact details, he would tell her in person. He was worried that Yun Jianyue would do something stupid if she found out the truth, so he decided to wait to tell her in person. Still, he wondered if these messages would even reach her.
Once he exited Yun Jianyue’s chatbox, he suddenly discovered that his other sweethearts had also left a large number of notifications. There were many more unread messages.
Bi Linglong had sent him a lot of messages. At first, she had only shared some official matters and various news from the capital. Zu An could imagine how serious and careful she was when she wrote all of that. It seemed she had been worried that someone else would see what she wrote and find out their relationship, so everything was written in an overly cautious way. But by the time he read up to the middle of the messages, he could tell that she was starting to loosen up.
“Did you see my messages or not? Why haven’t you replied to me all this time?”
Looking at the date the messages were received, she hadn’t sent any more messages for many days. She was clearly angry. The next message came only five days later.
“Sorry, I was wrong for blaming you. I visited Mount Yuquan and heard Shen Xuzi say that the messages from the jade strips aren’t reliable. You might not have seen the messages yet.”
Zu An couldn't help but smile.
She really is a little witch. She was worried that I tricked her, and she even went all the way to the academy’s rear mountain to seek confirmation.
But after that brief episode of hers, her tone was no longer as estranged as before. Instead, she began to show more of her true emotions.
“The peach blossoms in the palace have all blossomed; when are you coming back? We should go and admire them together.”
“This stupid jade strip! Why have I still not received your messages?”
“It’s so boring being in the palace all alone... Not only do I have to fight all day against that old granny empress dowager, the people back home aren’t helping either. They seem to have secretly... Forget it. I’ll tell you about it when you’re back.”
“You probably reunited with Madam Yu in the Fiend races' territory, right? Did you forget about home while enjoying her tender hospitality? Hmph, but I guess big sister Yu is pretty. If I were a man, perhaps i would just fall in love with her too.”
“I heard that the Second Empress was really beautiful. How pretty is she compared to me?”
“Hmph, the Second Empress is known for being flirtatious. You'd better not fall for her beauty traps.”
“I’m feeling really uneasy after not receiving any messages from you, you know? A few days ago, I even spent a lot of ki stones to activate the recording mirror, but I still couldn't contact you. I don’t even know if you're in danger. You have to take care of yourself. Forget 'everything under the heavens' or 'the changes of time', none of it is as important to me as you.”
“Your cultivation is so high and you’re such a naughty person, I’m sure you’ll be able to return safely.”
“Do you and Madam Wu know each other? She tried to secretly get information about you several times, and seems to care about you a lot. She thought that she was being sneaky about it, but how could she escape the detection of this empress’ discerning eye?!”
Zu An felt his scalp go numb. The sixth sense of women really was too strong. She was even able to sense something like that?
However, that couldn't be blamed on Yun Yuqing. No matter how careful she was, there was no way she could have known that he and Bi Linglong had a special relationship. That was why it was hard for her not to give away her real intentions.
“I've recently sensed that some undercurrents are brewing in the capital. I wonder if it's coming from the empress dowager’s side or... I hope I'm overthinking things.”
...
Zu An frowned as he read the later parts. At first, she was talking more about how she missed him, but later, something different had clearly happened. The conversation even became serious. Could it be that something had ended up happening in the capital? Now that communications were cut off, though, there was no way for him to contact her immediately.
He quickly replied on the jade strip and shared the recent events with her, telling her not to worry. Of course, he also typed a lot of words of affection. Otherwise, if he only replied with a few words when she had typed so much, that really would be a bit too trashy. He hoped that his message would be delivered immediately, or else if something else happened in the Ocean races' territory, he wouldn't be able to re-check and send the messages again.
Huanzhao and Youzhao also sent him a lot of messages.
“Brother-in-law, I really want to go to the battlefield too... Even Qinghe can go, and yet I can’t. I feel so ashamed.”
“Second sis really is annoying. She just keeps mocking me about this. But later on, I gave her a good beating and she didn’t dare to shoot her mouth of anymore.”
Zu An’s expression became really strange when he saw this message, because he had just seen Huanzhao tell him a different story. He changed to Huanzhao’s chat box and sure enough, she'd talked about the same thing too.
“That kid Youzhao keeps taking advantage of my weaknesses. Eventually, though, I finally taught her a good lesson and let her know a big sister’s terror! Now that we’re talking about it, brother-in-law, I need your help. Unless you help me change my aptitude, winning against her might not be so easy.”
Zu An was speechless. He really wondered who was beating up whom here. The two sisters were pretty similar. Apart from expressing that they missed him, it was about their fights. As he read their messages, he had a knowing smile, and his mood also unknowingly improved.
However, he suddenly noticed another message from Huanzhao.
“Brother-in-law, my mom used to be really mean to you in the past. Will you end up hating her for it?”
Zu An was stunned and didn’t know why she would ask about that. After all, Huanzhao was always the carefree sort and wouldn’t be so considerate as to try to mediate his relationship with her mother. However, he quickly remembered that Huanzhao seemed to have mentioned that Qin Wanru really wanted a communication jade strip. She had asked for it several times and was always refused.
Could this be... When he thought about how Qin Wanru had used the jade strip to write ‘brother-in-law’, Zu An shivered and didn’t dare to think any more about it.
She definitely thought I wouldn’t know, or else she wouldn’t have done this.
Unfortunately, he had messed around with all types of chatting apps in his previous world, where there were many grown men pretending to be cute girls, girls making new accounts to pretend to be fans of themselves... He was just naturally more sensitive about these types of things.
He decisively chose to pretend not to know when he thought about such things. He continued to chat with her as if she was his sister-in-law. Of course, the way he typed was a bit more careful.
Sigh, isn’t this just a shoddy version of QQ messenger? I wonder why they’re having so much fun with it.
Then, there were messages from Sang Qien and Zheng Dan.
“Sisi seems to have called me mama today. Even though Dandan said that she only said it accidentally, I’m still really happy.”
“Big brother Zu, I went to the temple to ask for a peace charm for you. Dandan said that she was just keeping me company, but she secretly asked for one for you too, and yet she was too embarrassed to admit it.”
“Big brother Zu, I miss you so much.”
“The capital looks calm and peaceful recently, but something seems off. King Wu entered the capital, and Madam Wu was trying to get closer to all kinds of influential clans. When I discussed this with my father, we just felt that King Wu is scheming something big. I really wonder where he gets his courage from after King Dai and King Jin’s examples.”
“I found out that his entrance into the capital seems to have been the work of the Bi clan. What is the empress thinking? Could it be that she's trying to defeat the empress dowager?”
...
When he saw these messages, Zu An’s brows furrowed.
Bi Linglong is bringing King Wu into the capital?
I don’t think she would do something like that. It seems completely pointless. Could it be to go against the empress dowager?
But I’m clearly close to her. There’s no reason for her to do all of this. Don’t tell me that she's already guessed my relationship with the Empress Dowager?
She is a really smart woman, after all. She might have really managed to guess the truth from the clues.
When he thought about that, Zu An started to get a headache. He didn’t know how to face these two women later.
“Ah Zu, Qienqien keeps trying to teach Sisi to say 'daddy', but Sisi couldn't say it. In the end, Qienqien ended up saying 'daddy' all day for nothing. I’m about to die from laughter!”
“Before we knew it, you were already gone for so long. I even dreamed about you, and yet when I woke up in the middle of the night to change clothes, Qienqien asked me what was happening. I was too embarrassed to tell her what happened. It really is embarrassing...”
“Are things going well for you in the Fiend races' territory? I asked around and it seems the sealed land is really dangerous. But with your skill, you should be fine, right?”
“Why haven’t you responded to my messages all this time? Don’t tell me that something really did happen to you in the sealed land, right? If something happens to you, I’m going to find a man tomorrow and remarry immediately!”
“Hey... I was joking, so please don’t get mad. Qienqien was really worried about you, but I always believed that you would be safe. After all, I watched how you defeated those big shots while you were still so weak, and even I lost to you. Hmph, how could a bad guy like you ever really get done in?”
“Sigh, I really miss those days back in Brightmoon City. Even though you weren’t as strong as you are now, you were always with me... That was the happiest period of my life.”
...
As he read Zheng Dan’s messages, Zu An remembered that stunning young woman who'd spoken those embarrassing yet brazen words from back then, ‘the place where not even the sun can shine into, big brother, you can enter’. He felt endless emotions fill him. He began to reply to those messages one by one, while simultaneously expressing his own love.
Compared to Zheng Dan’s fiery and daring personality, Xie Daoyun’s messages were much more reserved and proper. She mainly asked if he was safe, or asked him about some things regarding formations and runes. He could sense her sweet-tempered personality between the lines. When he thought about how they hadn't been able to talk that much the last time they met, Zu An sighed. He replied to those questions seriously, and he also gave them a lot of concrete advice on their paths of cultivation.
It hadn't been so long since the time he wished for all of the beauties of the world to be his, and yet he now discovered that a single sentiment weighed more than a thousand catties. It wasn’t something so easily done.
Just like that, he hurried along while replying to his sweethearts one by one. He traveled day and night for several days in a row, and then he finally arrived at the shore of the eastern sea.