Missing Thoughts

Chapter 17

Gu Gan and his entourage walked with great fanfare, attracting much attention, seemingly heading towards the Dining Hall as well.

Zhongli Shan and the others looked at Gu Gan outside, then at Mei Chengyu, their eyes conveying their confusion.

Mei Chengyu flicked his eyelids, adopting an attitude of "What are you looking at me for?"

"He's inside," Zhongli Shan reminded them.

Mei Chengyu let out a light, cold laugh.

"Didn't you say the person was locked outside and couldn't get in?" Xing Chun asked while eating.

Mei Chengyu replied with an unchanged expression, "Clearly, she found a way in."

Cang Shu spoke slowly, "The door and window enchantments of the Saint Hall are at least Class A, right?"

Zhongli Shan also asked him, "Could it be that Old Man Chang opened the door?"

Mei Chengyu lowered his head to eat, "Master can't open the door."

Xing Chun chuckled, "Then she opened it. You called her a Normal Practitioner, and you can be wrong too."

Mei Chengyu said with a forced smile, "If this Normal Practitioner wasn't capable, would she be my Junior Martial Sister?"

"You really can't lose no matter how you put it," Xing Chun expressed his disdain for Mei Chengyu's shamelessness. He then leaned forward to look outside, "Who is your Junior Martial Sister down there?"

Mei Chengyu casually replied, "The one who looks the best."

Xing Chun scanned the area below, "Which one looks the best?"

Mei Chengyu: "Whoever you think looks the best is the one."

Xing Chun: "That one!"

Mei Chengyu: "Which one?"

Xing Chun: "That one!"

Mei Chengyu: "No."

Zhongli Shan and Cang Shu silently pulled their bowls closer, turned sideways to shield their faces while eating, unwilling to accept the embarrassing reality of knowing these two.

They couldn't help but think that if Gu Gan came up and slammed his fist on Mei Chengyu's table, he would probably still be playing the childish game of "find who is the Junior Martial Sister" with Xing Chun.

Fortunately, Gu Gan did not come to the second floor. He bought some things on the first floor of the Dining Hall and then returned to the Disciple Dormitory. According to Gu Gan, he had been locked up for several days and smelled terrible. No matter how important the matter, he had to go back, take a bath, and change into clean clothes first.

However, he did stop by the Dining Hall midway to buy some food for Yu Sui.

Yu Sui didn't mention that she saw Mei Chengyu upstairs. If Gu Gan had known, he would have definitely gone to the second floor to "exchange pleasantries" with him.

The Disciple Dormitory was the accommodation arranged by Taiyi Academy for its students.

Because Taiyi Academy advocated for ignoring class distinctions and treating everyone equally regardless of status or background, the Disciple Dormitory was not divided into Class A, B, C, or D. Disciples of four different levels could live together.

Black Beard was helping Yu Sui with her admission matters and asked if she wanted to live in the Disciple Dormitory or in the Outer City.

Yu Sui answered without hesitation, "Disciple Dormitory."

Living within the academy would definitely provide more information.

Black Beard then helped her collect the key to the Disciple Dormitory.

The Disciple Dormitory was surrounded by peach blossom forests, with vast expanses of pink and white. The circular buildings were nestled within the Hundred-Mile Peach Forest. At a glance, the hundreds of floors seemed to pierce the clouds, creating a breathtaking sight.

The four great mechanical clans, the only remaining ones on the Xuangu Continent, were all located within Taiyi Academy.

Taiyi Academy, comparable in size to a nation, had one-third of its buildings constructed by these four great mechanical clans. Each structure was a masterpiece of craftsmanship, exquisite and ingenious.

Considering its vast area and actual capabilities, Yu Sui felt it shouldn't be called an academy but rather "Taiyi Nation."

The black circular building before them served as Taiyi's Disciple Dormitory, accommodating all the disciples of the academy.

Although all students lived here, it wasn't so insane as to have men and women share the same living quarters.

Each unit housed four people, with four individual rooms, a common area, and facilities for dining, lodging, and bathing within the unit.

The units were numbered from Zero Zero One up to Three Six Zero Zero at the very top. Despite the large number of units, not all of them were occupied.

Movement within the dormitory relied on students learning the Wind Riding Technique. Those who couldn't learn it would use the Dragon Ladder.

The Dragon Ladder resembled a dragon carriage, a golden long dragon moving up and down within the dormitory. The black doors of the ladder were adorned with ink-colored runes for activation. To ride the Dragon Ladder, one also had to learn how to draw its activation runes.

Disciples who occasionally didn't want to use the Wind Riding Technique would also take the Dragon Ladder.

Gu Gan asked the others to go ahead, while he took Yu Sui up on the Dragon Ladder.

Inside the carriage, intricate wooden mechanisms were arranged on the left and right, top and bottom. The walls were embedded with luminous Moonlight Pearls, casting a warm glow that illuminated the not-so-spacious interior.

Yu Sui curiously observed her surroundings. After the carriage door closed, Gu Gan drew runes and wrote down the number Sixty-Six.

Gu Gan leaned against the wall, seeming to finally relax. His gaze towards Yu Sui was smiling, and the beastly aura he exuded receded, becoming gentle.

"The dormitory is so high, what if it suddenly falls?" Yu Sui asked, tapping the wall with her fingers, producing a dull echo, while holding the food box.

"There are many ways," Gu Gan replied. "The simplest way is to use the Wind Riding Technique to maintain buoyancy."

Yu Sui tilted her head and looked at him.

Gu Gan smiled, "I'm happy to see you."

Yu Sui also smiled, "Since Third Brother wouldn't save you, Father had no choice but to send me."

Gu Gan stroked his chin and teased, "Sui Sui, you always show up when I need a hand the most. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Yu Sui said sincerely, "You still have Father and Mother."

Neither of them would stand by and watch Gu Gan get into trouble without doing anything.

Gu Gan: "

"But, Brother Gu, I'm here this time because Father said I should help you find the Futuo Tower." Yu Sui looked at him, her eyes bright and full of curiosity. "Was your incident in Hanging Moon Cave and subsequent judgment related to the Futuo Tower?"

Gu Gan's expression paused slightly. "It can't be said to be completely unrelated, because fragments of the Futuo Tower were in Hanging Moon Cave."

Yu Sui's eyes widened slightly.

Gu Gan suddenly looked at her. "Do you know what the Futuo Tower is?"

Yu Sui: "..."

Nangong Ming, that old man, hadn't said anything either.

Gu Gan was amused by her bewildered expression. He wanted to reach out and ruffle her hair like when she was little, but consciously stopped himself.

He said, "Did the Prince send you without saying anything?"

Yu Sui nodded. "Yes."

Gu Gan criticized, "Then he's truly irresponsible, sending you on such a dangerous mission."

"How can it be considered dangerous? I haven't seen Brother Gu in a long time either," Yu Sui said, tilting her head up and smiling.

The ascending Dragon Ladder paused at this moment. Gu Gan walked towards the exit and said, "Let's talk inside."

Yu Sui followed behind him.

The corridor inside the dormitory was winding. At intervals, there were dormitory doors with numbers on both sides. However, the numbers were out of order, some were three, six, seven, and others were one thousand and nine.

Gu Gan lived in Number 807.

He opened the door and went in. The room was lit, neat, and clean. There was paper, brush, and ink on the table. A flower stand was placed by the window, with different flowers in full bloom.

Ji Meng and Huo Xiao were both there.

"Wen Yang hasn't returned yet," Ji Meng said. "You should go wash up first, you really stink."

Gu Gan looked back at Yu Sui. Yu Sui smiled without speaking, only elegantly covering her nose.

Gu Gan immediately stopped talking and took his clothes to wash up.

Yu Sui stood by the window and opened the food box to eat. She hadn't eaten much on the cloud car, and she was a bit hungry now.

Gu Gan had ordered all meat dishes for her, all her favorites.

Huo Xiao returned to his room and closed the door, doing who knows what. Ji Meng looked at Yu Sui by the window and didn't know what to say for a moment.

He wasn't very familiar with Yu Sui.

Before, they naturally had something to talk about because of Gu Gan's situation. Now that Gu Gan was rescued, what else could they say?

The window wasn't open, but through the lattice, one could vaguely see a large expanse of continuous pink outside. Yu Sui was eating a meatball, and she lowered her head to sniff the flowers by the window. The petals were abundant and large, with a faint, fresh fragrance.

Yu Sui asked, "What flower is this? It's beautiful, I've never seen it before."

Ji Meng, who was sitting at the table pretending to read, was startled. He looked up and saw the double-petaled blue flower Yu Sui was pointing at. He explained, "It's called Wuxiang Ling. It's a medicinal flower I cultivated."

"Are all of these here?" Yu Sui looked at the other flowers on the long row of flower stands. They were almost all the same as Wuxiang Ling, just different colors.

"All of them. I'm trying to level up this year and aim for Grade A Disciple. The Medical School's final exam requires cultivating at least five medicinal flowers with different effects." Ji Meng got up and walked over, supporting the long, slender leaves of the double-petaled blue flower. "This is the first one I cultivated."

"It's so beautiful," Yu Sui reached out and touched the petals. A Five Elements Light Core quietly fell into the double petals.

Ji Meng couldn't help but feel happy when praised. He proactively asked, "Are you planning to live in the Outer City or the dormitory?"

"The dormitory. I've already got the key," Yu Sui said.

Ji Meng asked, "Where is it?"

Yu Sui took out the key and looked at it. "Sixtieth floor, 607."

Ji Meng was stunned. "Isn't that Xun Zhiya's..."

Yu Sui looked up at him. Ji Meng coughed softly and said again, "Xun Zhiya lives here too. Only two people live in 607, one is her, and the other is Shu Chujun."

"That's great, they're all people I know," Yu Sui smiled innocently and harmlessly.

Ji Meng felt that Yu Sui made sense. Gu Gan wasn't worried, so why should he be? Besides, Xun Zhiya wasn't the type to lose her temper and cause trouble for no reason.

Yu Sui listened to Ji Meng talk about the medicinal flowers he cultivated, seemingly listening very attentively, but her peripheral vision was scanning the surroundings.

A while later, Gu Gan came out after washing up, wearing clean and fresh clothes. Only the short hairs on his forehead were still wet, clinging to his skin. He came to the table and sat down, casually brushing his hair.

"Why are you standing there eating? Come sit here," Gu Gan said to Yu Sui.

Yu Sui carried the food box over. "I was looking at the medicinal flowers Ji Meng cultivated."

Gu Gan said irritably, "Listen to him brag. It's a miracle he didn't poison anyone to death."

Ji Meng watered his precious medicinal flowers, snorted, and didn't retort.

Gu Gan watched Yu Sui eat, picked up paper and pen nearby, drew something, and the first sentence he spoke was, "Do you know about the Six Kingdoms' Non-War Covenant?"

"Mhm!" Yu Sui nodded.

Gu Gan drew a small, exquisite tower shape on the paper, with seven layers stacked on top of each other.

"Thousands of years ago, when the Six Kingdoms divided the Xuangu Continent, they established the Non-War Covenant. The Six Kingdoms would not plunder or invade each other. Even the world's strongest Nine Schools Techniques, and the most powerful Nine Schools Saints, would die if they used their power for war and to seize other countries' land."

"Even the Six Kingdoms' strongest armies and troops could not cross the borders to attack other countries, because there was always an invisible force that would stop them, crushing any power that attempted to break the Non-War Covenant."

In their initial period of prosperous and peaceful development, the Six Kingdoms each became strong, with no weak nations among them. This continued until later when people's ambitions grew, their desires could not be satisfied, and they greedily craved all the land on this continent.

The Non-War Covenant was a stumbling block for the Six Kingdoms to unify the world, their strongest resistance.

"Legend has it that the Futuo Tower is the key to breaking the Six Kingdoms' Non-War Covenant. As long as all the fragments of the Futuo Tower are found and it is restored, the covenant within the tower can be lifted," Gu Gan said, his brow furrowing slightly, his expression looking somewhat serious. "For hundreds of years, the Six Kingdoms have been searching for the Futuo Tower. It is said to have seven fragments, three of which are in Taiyi."

Yu Sui propped her face with one hand, listening intently, but inwardly she didn't care much.

What did the disputes of the Six Kingdoms have to do with a small fry like her? Let alone the Six Kingdoms wanting to wage war and conquer the world, once her identity as a World Destroyer was exposed, the Six Kingdoms would unite as if they were one family, hunting her to the ends of the earth.

Yu Sui only wanted to know where in Taiyi the Tianzi Text was, what it looked like, and how to use it to remove the Strange Fire Mark within her body.

And how to separate the Primordial Soil without dying.

Only after getting rid of these two threats could she live a little easier.

As for this Non-War Covenant, it seemed to be what Nangong Ming threatened Lady Su to do. Lady Su worked for Nangong Ming, and was also looking for a way to break the Non-War Covenant.

Who did Qingyang want to fight? Or rather, who didn't they want to fight?

Gu Gan said, "We found the Futuo Tower to re-seal it, so as not to give the other three kingdoms a chance to break the covenant."

Hmm?

Yu Sui's expression remained unchanged, but she was astonished inwardly.

"Which three kingdoms?" Yu Sui asked, puzzled.

"Zhou, Dan, and Yan," Gu Gan put down his pen and tapped the drawing on the table. "The four known fragments of the Futuo Tower are in Taiyuan, Qingyang, and Nanjing. Qingyang has two fragments."

Yu Sui said in surprise, "Are these three families cooperating to seal the Futuo Tower together?"

Gu Gan nodded. "That's right."

Yu Sui's gaze swept over Ji Meng, who had finished watering his flowers, and Huo Xiao, who had come out to listen for a while, and then looked at Gu Gan. If the three of them weren't fools, then they were treating her like a fool.

"So that's how it is," Yu Sui said, nodding and earnestly, "Brother Gu, don't worry, I will definitely do my best to help you."