The Truth Was Only Another Curtain

As evening fell, Red Haze City gradually dimmed, merging into the true night.

The Sun Stone in the room was nearly extinguished. Qin Ming sat there motionless, his face obscured, only his eyes still glowing.

He looked at himself at fourteen again, when he was sentimental, cared about the people around him, and couldn't bear to part with them or let them go when faced with life and death.

At that moment, fourteen-year-old Qin Ming trembled slightly. He wanted to see his parents and younger brother one last time, because he knew that he would probably die on this journey.

When he turned around, he only saw his parents' retreating figures.

Fourteen-year-old Qin Ming's eyes reddened as he struggled to control himself, quickly turned around, and set off with the elderly members of his family.

As expected, they were ambushed. Although they were on the run, they were eventually found.

The Cui Household, a group of elderly people who were not expected to live for more than a few years, displayed terrifying combat power. Coupled with their fearlessness, they frightened even the Li Household.

"Some of these old men are formidable figures in the Cui Family Main Lineage. They're getting stronger with age. Hmm, I see Cui Chonghe. He's very likely the next leader."

In the darkness, several pairs of eyes within the Li Household's camp were fixed on the group of fleeing members of the Cui Household.

"Although Cui Chonghe has not yet embarked on the New Life Path, he should truly possess special talents, and may even Near-Immortal immortality in the future. Recent reliable sources confirm this, indicating that he was determined at a very young age to be exceptionally suited to the path of Beyond the Mundane People."

The Li Household's experts suspected that the powerful figures in the Cui Household had gone mad in order to lead Cui Chonghe to break through the encirclement and head to Beyond the Mundane to meet the legendary "Old Senior," who was also Cui Chonghe's future master.

Qin Ming saw a lot of blood and bones, including those of the elders of the Cui Household and the experts of the Li Household. In the end, they broke through the encirclement and went far away, disguised in tattered clothes, and entered a village that the Cui Household had been planning for many years, where they temporarily hid.

In fact, after several bloody battles, the Li Household seemed to realize something, and their pursuit of them was no longer as urgent.

"The Li Household may have already discovered that our Cui Household has taken a different, more distant route."

"There's another possibility: our Old Ancestor, who disappeared over two hundred years ago, has reappeared."

In the village, several elders of the Cui Household were whispering. By now, they were all seriously injured and on the verge of death, having lost the strength to fight again.

A group of elderly men with little time left to live had fought until now, and only a few remained; they had all collapsed on the road.

It was precisely because of their madness and fearlessness that the Li Household family eventually became somewhat intimidated and dared not fight any longer. They failed to realize that with a little more effort, they could have wiped out their opponents.

Fourteen-year-old Qin Ming remained silent, because even these elderly people themselves had said that they had done their part in contributing their remaining energy.

An old man with white hair and wrinkles etched on his blood-stained face looked somewhat eerie when he laughed in the darkness. He looked at Qin Ming and sighed, "Your talent is extraordinary, and you are very suitable for the path of the New Life. It's a pity that you're practicing the methods in the Silk Scripture; it's no longer a viable path."

Another old man looked at Qin Ming with a complicated expression and said, "Let's wait a little longer. Xiao Qi should come to rescue you after he hears the news."

Inside the inn, Qin Ming watched that scene intently.

Clearly, everyone in the Cui Household knew that Cui Hao, his seventh uncle, treated him the best; even these elders said so.

"Are you Uncle Qi's... biological grandfather?" Fourteen-year-old Qin Ming asked. What he had seen and heard along the way made him realize something, and when he thought back on the past, he felt very lost.

"Yes, Xiao Qi is my favorite grandson. He has a fatal flaw: he's too sentimental. Come, sit next to me. No one can touch you before I die." The old man patted the seat beside him.

Is being sentimental a fatal weakness? Fourteen-year-old Qin Ming thought to himself as he sat down, "I am that kind of person."

"You old folks, stay away from me!" Uncle Qi's grandfather looked up at the other blood-covered old men, his attitude not very friendly.

An old man said, "We will all die here, and we have no regrets. After all, we have already killed so many members of the Li Household. The Li Household wants to rise to power, to demonstrate their strength and gain prestige by clashing with our Cui Household, and thus to become Millennium Aristocratic Family. But they will have to pay a heavy price. This time, they are destined to shed a lot of blood. No matter whether the Li Household is being pushed forward or not, they will not be the final winners."

"This child is still young, he still has regrets. He shouldn't have died here. You all go sit over there," said Uncle Qi's grandfather.

Several elderly people stood up and distanced themselves from them.

Inside the inn, Qin Ming pondered, his gaze drifting to the other elderly people.

Uncle Qi's grandfather led Qin Ming into a dilapidated house in the village and said, "Given Xiao Qi's personality, he'll come to rescue you after he finds out, but he'll most likely be stopped. The clan won't allow anything to happen to him, after all, his talent is most like mine, and he's one of the Cui Household's future strongest fighters. I don't think Xiao Qi will give up easily, so someone will send a corresponding expert to rescue you. I just hope they arrive soon and don't miss the opportunity. Hmm, don't worry, the Li Household isn't stupid. By now they know what's going on, the experts are no longer paying attention here, and besides..."

At this point, he started coughing, and blood kept gushing from his mouth. Qin Ming rushed forward, but didn't know how to help him.

The old man waved his hand and said, "My body is failing. Continue. I believe the Old Ancestor has appeared, and both sides have probably begun to retreat. There's no major fighting anymore, so you might survive."

The old man glanced outside, then spoke using Secret Method, the words ringing only in Qin Ming's ear. "I'm about to die. Don't leave this room. Tell them I'm healing and don't let them disturb me."

Fourteen-year-old Qin Ming nodded with tears in his eyes, watching the old man close his eyes and remain motionless.

Inside the inn, the Sun Stone went out completely. Qin Ming sat there and said softly, "Before I lost my memory, I actually knew a lot."

In the dilapidated room, fourteen-year-old Qin Ming wrote only the word "abandon" and then remained silent, not wanting to speak further.

Because he regained his memories, Qin Ming experienced that feeling again. It was an unbearable experience, more painful than having his skull smashed later, and more unbearable than having his heart and lungs slowly cut open with a knife. At that time, he sat there, feeling so uncomfortable that he felt like he was suffocating.

In the inn, Qin Ming shook his head violently, finally shaking off that emotion. He re-examined the past, as if talking to his younger self from over two years ago, telling him, "Because of what you've seen and heard along the way, looking back, you think you've discovered the so-called truth? Actually, it's still just a veil."

The slightly yellowed Memory Book turned its pages once more, the dust settled, and Qin Ming looked back to the past, seeing once again the Feather Robe Youth Li Qingxu, who walked over with an ethereal and otherworldly air and attacked him directly.

Cui Hao's grandfather was right. The Li Household did not send out a large number of experts to continue hunting them down, but a small group of experts leading a team and gathering followers from nearby cities was enough to wipe out the village.

In the inn, Qin Ming did not skip this memory. He went through the ordeal of his broken arm and shattered skull again, quietly reviewing all the details of the past, because he wanted to completely unveil the curtain woven with the so-called truth.

Uncle Cui Qi failed to appear, and as the old man had predicted, Cui Hong, a man with long arms, and a woman with a red mole in her right eyebrow arrived and quickly disappeared into the night with him. They passed through Moonfall City but did not enter, choosing instead to travel far away.

"Where we go doesn't matter, as long as it's a remote place." In the inn, Qin Ming muttered to himself. He looked at Cui Hong and the woman in her early thirties, knowing why they had taken him to Black White Mountain.

More than two years ago, a Heavenly Light Piercing the Night and flew to various places. One of the beams fell on Black White Mountain. The two people were originally going to go there to investigate, and since the place also met the requirement of being a "remote place", Qin Ming ended up stranded in that area.

"More than two years ago, I was actually quite perceptive and had some awareness of it all. It was all because I was too sentimental. Was that really a weakness? Probably!" Qin Ming's voice was very soft.

He muttered to himself, "Back then, I was still too young, and I didn't know as much of the truth as I do now."

The most important point is that Qin Ming succeeded in practicing the Silk Scripture on his own, and based on this, his body underwent a complete New Life, allowing him to initially pave the way for this path and see a corner of the truth of the past.

The Silk Scripture is magical. Since his New Life, it has made his Subconscious incredibly active, allowing him to see his ignorant self in a half-dream, half-awake state. He should have been only about three years old at that time, and these were not the memories he lost because his skull was shattered by the Feather Robe Youth!

Those are childhood memories that Pass By naturally with time; it's difficult for most people to remember things from before the age of three as they grow up.

"The Silk Scripture, it's worth it for me to practice since I was a child. At the critical moment, you showed me my original self. Perhaps it was my more than ten years of persistent practice that ultimately saved my life."

Qin Ming suspected that his practice of the Silk Scripture wasn't ineffective; perhaps he had been accumulating something. After all, when Li Qingxu, the Feather Robe Youth, shattered three of his skulls, he should have been considered dead; under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have survived.

"My childhood was not easy. I wore patched clothes and had holes in my shoes. I was probably worse off than children from ordinary families. The old man who taught me to read and showed me Silk Scripture was just an ordinary person with rough, large hands and dressed just as poorly as I was."

Meanwhile, at the Cui Household, the Fifth Master and the Seventh Master said that the grandfather in Qin Ming's memory had "cut off all ties" and was going to forge his own path, and had already traveled far away to the capital of the Great Yu Country.

The old man who lived with Qin Ming was clearly just an ordinary person, but they lied to him, saying he was a great master. If he was so extraordinary, why did the grandfather and grandson live in such poverty?

Qin Ming felt a pang of sympathy for his past self. Through the yellowed Memory Book, his gaze fell upon those days, and he once again felt the emotions he had experienced then.

During his time with the Cui Household, Qin Ming's childhood memories gradually faded as he grew up, but he still had a vague impression that he should have a very close grandfather.

"I miss him, I miss that grandfather." Those were his exact words from his old memories. At that time, his eyes were red, and he wanted to take back the scroll of Silk Scripture that belonged to him.

However, the elders of the Cui Household refused, saying that the Silk Scripture was an ancient artifact and easily damaged. They told him to master the New Life Method at the beginning of the Silk Scripture before looking at the subsequent techniques.

From then on, the very young Qin Ming practiced diligently for many years, rain or shine, without ever stopping.

All of this stemmed from his desire to retrieve the Silk Scripture; he longed for the grandfather he remembered, the one who evoked the deepest emotions within him.

Although his memories of that grandfather Pass By completely with time, and he eventually forgot them altogether, practicing Silk Scripture had become an instinct for him. An inexplicable obsession sustained him, making him want to persevere.

Clearly, in the earliest days of the Cui Household, he was intentionally guided to learn that if he wanted to see the grandfather he remembered, he had to practice this Silk Scripture!

Looking back now, Qin Ming can see that many things have a traceable origin.

Was Second Master really drunk when he leaked the secret? Was Fifth Master's timely guidance a bit too much? There are so many other details.

"How can a child possibly stand up to you doing this? It's bullying."

Qin Ming muttered to himself in the dimly lit room. He carefully reviewed the situation and found many parts that didn't make sense or seem illogical.

"All the events, the whole process, if there were one more person, then everything would match up, and it would be understandable." He pushed open the window and looked out into the dark night. If that were the case, then he truly was somewhat pathetic and lamentable.