The night was gentle. Light moonbeams and sparkling stars rested in silence, like a mother newly blessed with a child, softly patting the back of her child, the earth.
Several summer frogs croaked atop the lotus flowers in the pond. Swarms of fireflies danced over the water from time to time, seemingly lighting romantic lamps for the courting frogs. An occasional breeze carried a faint lotus fragrance generously into every corner of the pond.
Amid such a scene, a child in a watery blue robe sat in the pavilion by the pond, his brow furrowed in a distinctly discordant manner.
"Aunt Qin, are there still things you refuse to tell me, even now?"
The child in blue spoke hollowly, as though he were speaking to the courting summer frogs.
As the words of the six-year-old child fell, the darkness in a patch of space beside him trembled. From a dim corner, a woman dressed in tight black nightwear approached the pavilion gracefully, her steps as delicate as lotus blossoms.
The woman was tall, with waterfall-like hair casually tied back by a ribbon. Willow brows, a slender waist, dark eyes, and long beautiful legs. Although black gauze covered her face and obscured her features, the faintly visible, sharply sculpted outline beneath it suggested that her appearance could not possibly be poor.
The woman stopped only when she reached the pavilion steps. Facing the child leaning over the pavilion railing, she said with utmost respect, "Young Master, some matters have not yet reached the time when you need to be told."
"Yes, yes, yes. I'm still too weak right now. If I learn certain things but lack the ability to accomplish them, it will create immense pressure. That would be extremely detrimental to my state of mind and my future cultivation. Is that it?" Before the woman could finish, the six-year-old answered first, shooting a sidelong glance at the black-clad woman, who did not dare meet his eyes.
"Yes, Young Master."
"It's just that you've said that N times already."
Hun Han straightened up from his seat inside the pavilion and looked at the black-clad woman standing outside. In a pitiful, tearful voice, he called out emotionally, "Aunt! Qin! Tomorrow, I must follow the clan's rules and head to a region to govern it. Once I leave the Imperial Capital, those demonic claws hidden in the darkness will surely have no more reservations. Do you really want me to die without even knowing my own origins?"
Qin Lan's expression turned solemn. "Young Master, this servant will protect your safety to the death!"
Hearing that, Hun Han continued emotionally, "Aunt Qin, I'm not that young anymore. If I die without knowing my origins, I won't be able to rest in peace even in death. Can you bear that?"
Qin Lan did not look at Hun Han. She lowered her voice and said, "Young Master, this servant is not Hun Tiandi. For your own good, there are matters that you do not yet need to know!"
"Uh!"
Hun Han curled his lips. So Qin Lan had witnessed everything that happened in the Imperial Study Hall today. She knew he had been acting at the time.
Faced with this wooden, unyielding attendant who responded to neither soft nor hard tactics, Hun Han felt at a loss despite having watched countless palace dramas.
What happened today had also given Hun Han quite a fright.
Originally, Hun Han had thought that he was merely Hun Tiandi's thirteenth son, nothing more. Yet not only had the Hun Clan's Divine Grade Bloodline awakened within him, but the Xiao Clan's Divine Grade Bloodline had awakened as well.
As a transmigrator, Hun Han did not dare claim to know everything about this place, but he did know about the major factions of the Dou Qi Continent.
The Hun Clan and the Xiao Clan were mortal enemies. In the history of the Dou Qi Continent, Hun Tiandi had suddenly turned hostile, killing Xiao Xuan, the Xiao Clan's Clan Leader at the time, and nearly exterminating the Xiao Clan.
By all reason, two forces as incompatible as fire and water should never have had any connection. Yet Hun Han possessed the Xiao Clan's Divine Grade Bloodline.
Later, eighteen Hun Clan elders had gathered before the Sacred Hall over such a trivial matter concerning Hun Han. Calling it trivial was fair enough—it was merely a "wish" Hun Han had made before leaving the Imperial Capital. Still, it was an utterly insignificant matter.
Just to request an audience with Hun Tiandi, eighteen Hun Clan elders had knelt before the Sacred Hall to plead on behalf of Hun Han.
The more Hun Han thought about it, the more he felt as though he were surrounded by mist. He wanted to part the clouds and see through the fog, yet he had no idea where to begin. Everything seemed to point to his mother.
Thinking of the enmity between the Hun Clan and the Xiao Clan, as well as that period of history on the Dou Qi Continent, Hun Han narrowed his eyes at Qin Lan and probed, "Could it be that, just as they say, my mother was merely a whore of lowly birth?"
"Master was of noble birth, not lowly!" Qin Lan corrected without hesitation.
"Then Hun Tiandi must have acted on a momentary impulse and had a bed affair with my mother?" Hun Han probed again.
"Hun Tiandi and Master loved each other deeply," Qin Lan said once more. The moment the words left her mouth, she froze slightly. Raising her head, she glanced at Hun Han before realizing that he had been trying to trick information out of her.
"If they loved each other, then why was Hun Tiandi so cold toward me?" Hun Han was puzzled.
For six years, he had never once come to see the child. The child had no place at clan gatherings. Even before leaving, when the child merely wanted to see him once, he made the child kneel for an entire day. In the end, he only relented under pressure after others pleaded for him, granting the child a brief audience.
Was that something a father could do?
Even costume dramas probably would not dare portray something so outrageous!
Even novels would not dare write something like that!
"Young Master, you may hate anyone in the world, including this servant, but you must never hate Hun Tiandi!" Qin Lan's voice was incomparably solemn. She even boldly met Hun Han's gaze.
"Why?"
Hun Han was confused. Hun Tiandi had treated him this way, and he had also been so ruthless that he had nearly wiped out the Xiao Clan—the clan of Hun Han's mother. Yet Qin Lan said Hun Han could hate anyone in the world, except Hun Tiandi!
Hun Han had already broken through the bloodline shackles between the Hun Clan and the Xiao Clan, awakening the Hun Clan's Divine Grade Bloodline. Although his cultivation was currently only Fighting Qi, First Stage, his heaven-defying talent meant that advancement in realm was merely a matter of time.
At six years old, a possessor of a Divine Grade Bloodline had not even reached Fighting Qi, Seventh Stage. Although such a case had never appeared in the Hun Clan's history, Hun Tiandi, as the Hun Clan Leader, could have made an exception and kept Hun Han in the Imperial Capital.
Yet Hun Tiandi had not. Even his visit to the Hun Clan's Library Pavilion had been something Hun Han obtained by acting and pleading. Such a father, yet Qin Lan said he could not be hated!
Qin Lan lowered her head, her eyes utterly resolute. "Young Master, please stop asking. When the time comes that you have the ability to know certain matters, this servant will naturally tell you!"
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