Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 450: A Grand Deception

Yun Ruoyan handed Li Moyan to the Lin sisters, who teased him and hugged him as they chatted. Suddenly, he let out a burbling laughter, startling them all.

“Ah, he’s already able to laugh?!” Lin Qingchen exclaimed. “He’s only a few days old!”

Yun Ruoyan smiled. “It’s his first time laughing. He must like you, Qingchen.”

“Call me Aunt, Li Yan, Aunt!”

Lin Qingxue chuckled. “Sister, how can a baby talk? It’s impressive enough that he’s able to laugh! Look, doesn’t he look like Sister Ruoyan when he smiles? Why doesn’t he look like the Slaughtering King?”

“Ah, don’t talk nonsense!” Lin Qingchen hurriedly broke Lin Qingxue off. Realizing that she had said something inappropriate, Lin Qingxue clamped her mouth shut and turned toward the door. When no one entered, she clutched her heart and let out a deep breath.

The Lin sisters hadn’t seen Li Mo’s true appearance, so they naturally didn’t think that Li Yan looked like Li Mo. Actually, his face resembled his father’s more than Yun Ruoyan’s; only his mop of black hair and wide, lustrous eyes were from his mother.

Yun Ruoyan chatted with the Lin sisters for the entire day. When they finally took their leave, it was already evening. That night, Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo snuck into the Yun manor.

Yun Ruoyu had been sent off to the Mo kingdom almost a week ago, and the Yun manor was in disarray with no one to deal with household affairs. The flowers and shrubs, usually so carefully tended to, had been allowed to grow wild, and even the guards patrolling the manor had vanished.

When Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo walked into the Yun manor, they felt as though they had stepped into a forsaken home. “How did this happen in just a few days?” Yun Ruoyan asked, confused.

“While Yun Ruoyu was responsible for the household, she sent away all the old servants she didn’t like, then employed a bevy of new servants in their place. She was the only one responsible for household finances and expenses, so once she left, the manor was in upheaval. None of the new servants felt any sort of loyalty to the Yun household, so they all left as well,” Li Mo replied.

“Ah.” Brother’s going to have a lot on his plate when he returns, isn’t he... “Were you the one who arranged for Yun Ruoyu to be sent off?”

“Yes. I wanted to kill her, but that would be too kind. Instead, I crippled her cultivation and asked a favor of a Mo noble I’m familiar with.”

“Marrying into a noble family won’t be too bad, surely? No wonder Yun Ruoyu didn’t make a fuss.”

Li Mo laughed. “That noble was looking for a wife for his horsekeeper, not for himself.”

Yun Ruoyan turned to Li Mo, shocked. “What? And Yun Ruoyu accepted?”

“Of course not! That’s why I borrowed some of your intoxicating fog. By the time she snaps out of it, it’ll be a done deal. She’ll be trapped in the Mo kingdom, weak and without any cultivation of her own. Unless she commits suicide, she’ll be resigned to her life,” Li Mo replied.

Having died once, Yun Ruoyan didn’t much fear death. What was frightening wasn’t dying, but living a life worse than death. As a result, she was very pleased with how Li Mo had dealt with Yun Ruoyu.

Because Yun Ruoyan wasn’t familiar with the cottage that Su Xi had reported before his death, she could only walk around the manor with Li Mo. On a small path not too far from Yun Lan’s rooms, Li Mo suddenly stopped.

Yun Ruoyan turned back. “What’s the matter? Did you discover something?”

“There’s a pretty strong formation over here,” Li Mo replied.

Yun Ruoyan followed Li Mo into the bushes by the side of the path. After about two hundred paces, they entered a clearing filled with rock formations.

“This is a labyrinthine array,” Li Mo declared. Yun Ruoyan had a little familiarity with such arrays; in the past, she had once ventured into the Yuelu Villa with Li Mo to save some kidnapped beastkin, and they had encountered one such.

Li Mo began walking through the rock formations in a precise pattern, and Yun Ruoyan hurriedly followed suit. Not fifteen minutes later, Li Mo had found the precise path through the array. He tugged on Yun Ruoyan’s hand and walked into the clearing, only to have his surroundings suddenly change. Beneath the moonlight was a two-story house constructed atop a lake. A bridge of white marble, inlaid with moonstones, stood in front of them, leading directly to the house. The reflected light from the moonstones draped everything in an ethereal light, making Yun Ruoyan feel as though she was in a dream.

“This must be the place,” Li Mo breathed.

Yun Ruoyan subconsciously headed to the bridge. Li Mo stopped her in time, then flew her across the water to the house—Su Dong and Su Xi were masters of stealth, but they had still been discovered by Yun Lan. If he and Yun Ruoyan weren’t careful enough and were discovered too quickly, they might not be able to uncover the truth.

They lay hidden on top of the eaves of the house, right by the windows. They were shut tightly, and not a sound or movement came from within. However, Yun Lan seemed to be cultivating, and the flows of spiritual energy through the cottage were obvious to their spiritual senses.

Yun Ruoyan drew her dagger and stuck it into the slit of the window, slowly prying it open. Cold, frosty air seeped out of the windowsill, encasing her hand.

Suddenly, Yun Lan spoke from within, “You’ve finally come.”

Yun Ruoyan stilled. In her stead, Li Mo pried the window open, then jumped into the room, shielding Yun Ruoyan behind him.

“Ah, you’re here too, Your Highness,” Yun Lan called out again.

Yun Ruoyan followed Li Mo into the house, whose walls were studded with pearls-of-night. Through the cold, misty air, Yun Ruoyan was finally able to make out what lay within the room: a bed of frozen jade, which was emitting the half-frozen air she had just felt.

Atop the bed were two people, a woman in a red dress and a man sitting cross-legged behind her, infusing spiritual energy into her body. Her face was clouded by a misty haze, and Yun Ruoyan couldn’t make out her appearance.

The man’s beard and hair were white, and Yun Ruoyan realized with some shock that he was Yun Lan! Could the woman in red be her mother, Lin Yuemei?

“Father, you... what’s... going on?”

“As you’ve guessed, this is your mother, Lin Yuemei,” Yun Lan began, still infusing spiritual energy into her body.

“What’s going on?” Yun Ruoyan asked again, her fists tightly clenched. Why hadn’t she known that her mother had spent decades in the same manor as her? Why had she been orphaned for so long when her mother was mere feet away?

And why had she died in her past life without ever seeing her again, never knowing that she had been so close, yet so far...

She stepped forward again, rage and shock and confusion turning her voice shrill. “Tell me, Father, what’s going on?”

“Yan’er, he’s infusing spiritual energy into your mother’s body. If you break him off now, it might endanger both their lives.” Li Mo held Yun Ruoyan back and prevented her from stepping further forward. “And if he dies, you won’t be able to obtain the answer you were looking for.”

Yun Ruoyan forcibly restrained herself from moving until she was trembling from the effort. Li Mo hugged her and patted her gently.

“Ruoyan, wait a moment. I’ll explain myself,” Yun Lan said.

Two hours later, after midnight, Yun Lan finally finished his infusion. He removed his palms from Lin Yuemei’s back, and the frozen aura surrounding her almost instantly dissipated. Although there was still a little mist from the bed, Yun Ruoyan found that she could now clearly see her mother’s face.

It looked very much like her own face, and it had appeared countless times to her in a dream. She would always see her mother dancing under the peach blossoms, embracing her and pulling her along... but those were just dreams, dreams that vanished as soon as she awoke.

But now, Lin Yuemei was right in front of her.

“Li Mo, tell me this isn’t a dream. Tell me I’m not dreaming!” Yun Ruoyan tightly clutched Li Mo’s palms.

“Yan’er, this isn’t a dream. What you’re seeing is real,” Li Mo replied.

“Mother... Mother...!” Yun Ruoyan called out in a hoarse whisper. Her voice was soft and gentle, as though she were afraid of startling her awake.

Yun Lan slowly lay Lin Yuemei back on the bed and motioned for Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo to follow him. Li Mo’s cultivation was now far above Yun Lan’s, and he wasn’t afraid of any tricks that he might pull. He followed Yun Lan, pulling Yun Ruoyan along behind her, but her gaze was fixed to the woman in red lying peacefully on the bed of frozen jade.

The antechamber was warmer than the main chamber, but it was still freezing. Yun Lan’s face alternated between blue and white, either because he had expended too much spiritual energy or because he had stayed too long under such conditions.

“Please have a seat, Your Highness.” Yun Lan motioned at a chair, bowing. “I apologize for not providing tea and snacks.”

“Official Yun, I’m not here as a guest,” Li Mo replied. “I’m here to help Yan’er find her mother. Don’t you think you owe her an explanation?”

Yun Ruoyan stared stonily at Yun Lan, her complicated emotions shining through her face.

“After I discovered those two guards, I guessed that they had to be from the Slaughtering King’s manor. No other guards would have so advanced a cultivation and so stubborn a will, and I knew that you would soon come in search of this place,” Yun Lan began, avoiding Yun Ruoyan’s gaze.

“If you knew, why didn’t you hide it? Were you waiting for us?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“Exactly.” Yun Lan suddenly laughed. “I thought this would be a secret that I would hide forever, but given how things are developing, it looks like I have no choice but to reveal it now.”

It turned out that Yun Lan had known about Qin Jianmei’s envy for Lin Yuemei. He had tried to prevent the two of them from interacting, but when Lin Yuemei treated him coldly, he turned to Qin Jianmei in order to probe Lin Yuemei’s feelings for him. What Yun Lan hadn’t expected was how malicious the innocent-looking Qin Jianmei turned out to be, nor how to deal with the rare, lethal poison running through Lin Yuemei’s veins.

However, just as Lin Yuemei seemed unable to hold out any longer, Yun Lan somehow managed to obtain a bed of frozen jade from the arctic north, able to seal a person’s body in ice, frozen in time. As such, Yun Lan fed Lin Yuemei a pill of false death, staged a fake funeral for her, and then unearthed her body from the grave without anyone else’s knowledge.