Cloud-Hidden City.
In a room at an inn for cultivators, Song Wen sat on a low couch, holding Qiluo's communication Jade Slip.
"Qiluo, it's been so many years... have you been well?"
Song Wen's voice trembled slightly, brimming with excitement, like a lovesick man about to see the beauty from whom he had long been parted.
"Ye Hua, you disappeared for almost twenty years. I thought you were dead!" Only three hours later did Qiluo reply, her tone faintly mocking.
The discontent in Qiluo's words left Song Wen somewhat uneasy.
Back then, Qiluo had wanted to meet him, but he had feared she harbored ulterior motives-that she intended to harm him to conceal her involvement in Chi Pei's death-so he had not gone to see her.
Now that he needed her help, he could not help worrying that she still held a grudge over that incident and would refuse to assist him.
"Throughout these twenty years, not a moment passed without me thinking of you. I wished I could fly straight to your side. But I was gravely wounded and could only enter seclusion to recover. The moment my injuries healed, I hurried to Cloud-Hidden City, just to see you once," Song Wen explained earnestly and urgently.
Qiluo said, "Ye Hua, though there was once something between us, that is all in the past. Why bring it up again? From now on, it would be best if we didn't meet. Hong Zhe and the others still haven't left the Qicang Region."
"Chi Pei has been dead for forty years, and the Divine Blood Sect still hasn't given up investigating his death?" Song Wen asked in surprise.
Qiluo said, "Who knows? In any case, Hong Zhe and the others are still at the Moon-Covering Hall. Apart from occasional trips to the