The atmosphere in the forbidden grounds grew increasingly oppressive.
Ye Qingxian hadn't answered right away because she'd suddenly thought of Ye Xiaoyao.
When a girl was questioned like this, was this how she felt today?
The predatory gazes around her only intensified. Ye Qingxian gave a slight shake of her head.
But there was one difference.
Junior Sister had one, and she didn't...
Who knew what was going on inside these people's heads?
Ye Qingxian froze again.
Lately, she seemed to have been thinking about Junior Sister a little more often.
As Ye Qingxian pondered, a sharp question interrupted her thoughts.
Seeing the girl face the gazes of countless Ye Family elders and still space out on her own, the Ye Family patriarch finally lost his composure. His expression darkened. "Ye Qingxian, this is too much. You're still off in your own world, even now. You're so insolent in front of all these elders, without even the most basic respect. You're unworthy of being the sole young mistress appointed by the Ye Family."
"You're the ones... reading too much into it. When have I, Ye Qingxian, ever lied?" Ye Qingxian hesitated for a second, then lifted the corner of her sleeve to reveal a red mark. "I was just wondering whether there could be something wrong with this fifty-sixth-tier cross-boundary Deduction Array you set up."
The patriarch and the countless elders stared at it, all drawing sharp breaths.
It was Guardian Sand.
That was right.
The mark was made from ground-up thousand-year-old guardian sand. It meant her Yuan Yin was not lost.
But this array—
Everyone turned to look up in unison.
The array was still running steadily. That drop of Essence Blood hadn't been fully consumed, and they could see a blurry speck of light suspended in the air.
Like a star from the night sky, long since lost to legend—hazy and beautiful.
"This—"
An elder yanked hard at his beard, no longer able to keep calm. "Something's not right."
"I've lived over ten thousand years, scraping by all this time, and I've never heard of anything like this."
"According to the results, there's clearly one more close relative who hasn't been born yet. But there's no fetus in the young mistress's womb, is there?"
"Bizarre, truly bizarre."
"A strange occurrence unseen in a million years."
The patriarch pondered for a long time as well. "As the saying goes, only when yin and yang unite can the human race continue its line. This is a fundamental principle in the operation of the Heavenly Dao rules. In theory, it shouldn't go wrong."
After an intense discussion, everyone agreed that there must have been a fault in the array, which had caused the blurry speck of light to appear.
Therefore,
they couldn't conclude outright that both Ye Qingxian's parents were dead. They would need to perform the Deduction technique again, more meticulously this time.
"The result isn't necessarily wrong." Everyone turned toward the voice. A white-haired, white-bearded elder with an immortal air was stepping through the sky, dressed in white.
"Grand Elder."
"Greetings, Grand Elder."
The many Ye Family elders bowed together.
The Grand Elder, who had long remained out of the world, had been stirred into action. That showed how serious this matter had become.
He was among the oldest generations of the Ye Family, a super-elder who had lived for over a hundred thousand years. In today's Cultivation World, his status was surpassed only by the Nine Supreme Venerables of Wuya Sect.
Great powers were already rare, but Venerables were rarer still.
Any one of them could stir the world's winds and clouds, looking down upon countless ages of change. Each had once presided over the rise and fall of an era, and the records they'd left behind filled thick volumes.
Venerables were supreme powerhouses of the Supreme Realm.
There were sixty-six realms in total.
The Supreme Realm was the sixty-first.
Of all the countless beings in this world, the Great Dao they pursued, generation after generation, had no higher peak than the Supreme Realm.
As for whether anyone stronger existed, some speculated that the sect master of Wuya Sect was one. Others said the other two Supreme Sects must have one, too. But no one had ever found proof, much less seen the sect master of Wuya Sect.
What realm were the elders of Wuya Sect?
The mighty figures honored by the world had only reached the Fifty-ninth Realm.
The gap between the Fifty-ninth Realm and the sixty-first was immense.
It had almost come down to black or white.
Nearly all powerful cultivators stopped at the Great Power realm, unable to advance any further in their entire lives.
And this Grand Elder of the Ye Family was a Quasi-Supreme of the sixtieth realm. A casual stomp from him could destroy galaxies and collapse small worlds—a peerless powerhouse whose very presence could make the entire Cultivation World tremble.
Ye Qingxian bowed as well. "This junior pays her respects to the Grand Elder."
The white-robed elder was refined and affable. He immediately helped the girl back up before she could finish bowing.
"Your ancestors told me the forbidden grounds were crowded with people. So many shameless old geezers surrounding my granddaughter—what are you trying to do?"
"She's angry with me over her parents, and has held it against me all this time. So for now, she refuses to acknowledge this old man as her grandfather. But that doesn't mean I don't recognize her as my granddaughter. If I find out anyone dares bully someone younger, don't blame me for bullying someone younger in return."
"We wouldn't dare."
"This junior wouldn't dare." The crowd trembled.
The white-robed elder—Ye Kong—satisfied with their response, withdrew his gaze and continued in a grave voice. "There's another possibility for that blurry speck of light. One of this child's parents may still be alive, but trapped in a Secret Realm in a different space. That would explain why the array can't determine their exact location, and why their speck of light is so dim."
Ye Qingxian stood with her hands at her sides. Ever since Ye Kong arrived, she had seemed quiet.
She looked at the speck of light about to fade in the sky, and her eyes suddenly flickered.
Was the answer really as the Grand Elder had said?
A close relative meant a blood relative of the second generation.
Her grandfather belonged to the third generation, so he wouldn't be included in the results.
She'd always had a feeling that her parents might have passed away long ago. She'd returned this time for the Deduction, hoping to put an end to the obsession she'd carried for years. She never expected to encounter such a bizarre sight.
Once Ye Kong finished explaining his theory, the other elders and the patriarch accepted it.
It was the only explanation that made sense.
Only Ye Qingxian's gaze remained unfocused. She wasn't entirely convinced.
Could it be...
Could she really have a child who hadn't been born yet?
But—how could that be?
Ye Qingxian gave a self-deprecating shake of her head, suppressing the absurd fantasy.
She was a girl.
Could some immortal maiden really be carrying her baby?
That was ridiculous.
Still,
a seed of doubt and suspicion had taken root in her heart.
Like a tiny seed, it would quietly break through the earth at the right moment and grow into a towering tree.
In the deep silence of night,
Ye Qingxian tossed and turned for the first time, her mind uncontrollably replaying what had happened the day before.
Whether it was her close relative in a Secret Realm or some other explanation, the whole affair had left an indelible mark on Ye Qingxian, a girl who hadn't been cultivating for long.
The next day,
after the array had been maintained throughout the night, Ye Qingxian squeezed out another drop of Essence Blood.
The result was the same. The blurry speck of light was even brighter.
Someone stammered, trying to smooth things over. "Perhaps one of the young mistress's parents is gradually leaving the Secret Realm."
Ye Kong stroked his white beard, still perfectly composed. "Indeed."
How could his precious granddaughter have a baby who hadn't been born and was drifting somewhere outside?
It was false. It was all false.
Therefore, only one possibility remained.
Ye Qingxian fell somewhat silent.
She pressed her lips together and stared blankly at the sky.
The eternal truth of the Cultivation World had never changed in ten thousand years. No matter how a person's wisdom surpassed everyone's across the ages, how could anyone ever imagine that someone could become pregnant out of thin air with a baby belonging to Ye Qingxian, a female cultivator?
That lingering unease in Ye Qingxian's heart—
Perhaps it was because she had never believed conclusions that were only half-supported.
She believed instead that anything was possible, and that only evidence could explain cause and effect.
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