17 Past Events (Part Six)

"There are actually two Ran Qinghes in the capital city?"

Ran Qinghe was not annoyed, and smiled: "So, Immortal Lord, you mean to save me?"

Perhaps it was because Lou Tinglan was wearing the mask of "Mu Ting" that she became somewhat different from before. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it could also be her imagination, since she and Lou Tinglan were only in a relationship of fugitive and arrestee, and they didn't really know each other that well.

Lou Tinglan recalled the Tranquil Heart Sword, sheathed it, and then formed a binding seal, striking the vine prison in front of her.

Ran Qinghe's smile froze, and she asked, word by word, "What does Immortal Lord mean by this?"

"Are you really going to leave a weak woman like me, with such low spiritual power, in this dangerous place and just let her die?"

Lou Tinglan replied, "The binding seal I formed cannot be broken by others, including the Imperial Preceptor."

So, although she was trapped again, her safety was also protected, at least that's what Lou Tinglan thought.

Then, he said to Qi Feng beside him, "The mission to capture Ran Qinghe has been completed. The remaining task is to find the whereabouts of the Mirror of Past Lives."

Qi Feng replied with interest, "Senior brother is right, then let's just wait here and wait for them to come to us." He really hadn't expected Lou Tinglan to do this. It seemed that his senior brother... had changed as soon as he met Ran Qinghe.

With the destruction of the vine prison, the Imperial Advisor will surely come to see what happened. In addition, he and Ran Qinghe had made a three-day agreement. Although the details of the agreement are unknown, Ran Qinghe must have played a key role in it.

Seeing that Lou Tinglan had no intention of making a move, Ran Qinghe glanced at him, continued to lie on the spot, crossed her legs, and began to mock him: "You people from the Discipline Hall claim to be the righteous path in the world, yet you use all sorts of low-class methods to take advantage of people in distress."

Lou Tinglan said, "You knew there was a binding array in the room, yet you deliberately lured the Imperial Preceptor here. Is that considered doing something upright and honest?"

Ran Qinghe: "I'm different from you."

Lou Tinglan: "How is it different?"

Ran Qinghe argued forcefully, "I knew the Grand Preceptor before. You two sneaked into his room, so naturally I had to warn him. Otherwise, what if you had ulterior motives and hurt my Grand Preceptor?"

"Therefore, I was concerned for the safety of the Grand Preceptor, which is why I resorted to this desperate measure."

Lou Tinglan was taken aback, unsure how much of what she said was true and how much was false.

His fingers curled slightly. This was completely different from what he had expected. He had thought that Ran Qinghe had seen through the fact that the Grand Preceptor was not the real him, which was why there were rumors circulating among the passersby about whipping the Grand Preceptor.

Unexpectedly, she actually mistook the Imperial Advisor for him and even offered him help.

He then asked, "Then why did you hurt him?"

Ran Qinghe couldn't continue her fabrication, but she still replied confidently, "This is between him and me, what's it to you?"

"No matter what, your leader tricked me into doing hard labor, but then went back on his word."

"You two took advantage of my vulnerability, leading the Imperial Preceptor to imprison me in the rattan prison, and then you stood by and watched me die without offering any help. You people from the Discipline Hall are truly... not a single one of you is any good."

But before he could finish speaking, Lou Tinglan's Tranquil Sword was already drawn, severing the vine cage in front of him.

Ran Qinghe was stunned. It turned out that Lou Tinglan was susceptible to moral blackmail.

Lou Tinglan said, "You can leave now."

Qi Feng stopped him, saying, "Senior brother..."

Lou Tinglan lowered his gaze slightly, stood with his sword on his back, and said nothing more.

Ran Qinghe didn't look at him again, as if afraid he would regret it, and left without the slightest hesitation.

Qi Feng frowned: "Why did you let Ran Qinghe go, Senior Brother?" Could it be that you felt sorry for her, or had some other intention?

Lou Tinglan said, "The Imperial Preceptor has already realized that the Vine Prison has been broken, but he has not come yet, which means that he has been held back. The Mirror of Past Lives is probably not here either."

"He made a three-day appointment with Ran Qinghe in advance, but then trapped her here, which must be because he didn't want her to interfere with anything."

"When I formed the binding seal, I left a positioning spell on her."

Qi Feng nodded in agreement: "I see. Rather than waiting passively, we might as well use Ran Qinghe to lure the snake out of its hole."

Ran Qinghe's purpose in descending to the mortal realm was probably not just to evade the Discipline Hall's pursuit; perhaps her purpose overlapped with that of the Imperial Preceptor.

Qi Feng then asked, "Does Senior Brother have any guesses about the identity of the Imperial Preceptor?"

Lou Tinglan said, "This person's cultivation level is around the late Nascent Soul stage or the early Deity Transformation stage, while the highest level among the disciples in the hall is only the late Golden Core stage. If he is indeed a member of the Discipline Hall, he is very likely one of the Seven Elders."

Besides the hall master, the Discipline Hall has seven elders, all surnamed Lou, and their names are derived from the seven characters "立关封镇飞双虎" (Li Guan Feng Zhen Fei Shuang Hu).

The elders are Lou Li (First Elder), Lou Guan (Second Elder), and so on, up to Lou Hu (Seventh Elder). Although the elders hold official positions in the Discipline Hall, they mostly perform supervisory duties and are only required to intervene in the arrest of a very few prisoners.

Qi Feng said, "I have already sent a message to the hall master to inquire whether the Seventh Elder is still in the hall. As for the identity of the Imperial Preceptor, I should have a result soon."

"But there's one thing I don't understand: why would he use the forbidden face-changing technique to impersonate you?"

Lou Tinglan couldn't understand this either.

*

Daylight had broken, and the two followed the trail of the location spell once again. But contrary to the norm, the main street of the capital, which had been bustling with pedestrians the day before, was now deserted, as if the market had closed, and eerily quiet.

Lou Tinglan focused her attention and continued to investigate, but as if she had sensed something incredible, she investigated twice more.

Seeing his solemn expression, Qi Feng asked, "Senior brother, have you detected any traces of the location spell?"

Lou Tinglan said, "Yes, but there are two paths."

Qi Feng exclaimed in surprise, "Two? Could it be that Ran Qinghe sensed the presence of the location spell and deliberately tried to confuse the situation?"

Lou Tinglan shook her head: "It shouldn't be. The positioning spell tracks the aura of cultivators. As long as it remembers the aura of a cultivator, it will mark the aura of the cultivator. But now, it has marked two auras at the same time. One leads to the imperial city, and the other leads to the deepest part of this market."

Qi Feng joked, "There can't be two Ran Qinghes in this capital city, can there?"

Lou Tinglan handed him a spirit leaf and said, "I can't be sure right now either. Let's split up and use this spirit leaf as a signal."

Qi Feng took out a spirit leaf from his storage bag and handed it to Lou Tinglan. Following Lou Tinglan's directions, he headed straight for the imperial city. Lou Tinglan, on the other hand, went deep into the market. The location mark of the locating spell was at the end of the market on the right.

At the end of the road stood an old courtyard house, its walls a mottled gray-white, stained with streaks of dirt left by years of rain. The vermilion paint on the gate was peeling off, and the brass rings and locks were covered in rust, but the plaque hanging above the gate was unusually new, with the three large characters "Ciyouyuan" (Orphanage) painted in gold, and the signature in the lower left corner—Ran Zheng.

Lou Tinglan had once read the general history of the mortal world. In the mortal world, female infants were often abandoned. Therefore, the imperial merchants of the capital raised funds to build orphanages in the local areas, specifically to take in abandoned infants and raise them to adulthood.

Lou Tinglan couldn't figure out why the location spell had led him here. He cast a concealment spell and stepped through the main entrance.

Although the entrance was small, the courtyard of the orphanage was quite spacious. Several girls were washing clothes by the pool, chatting and laughing as they did so. Other girls were gathered together embroidering patterns, chattering about their coming-of-age ceremony; Ran Qinghe was among them.

She lowered her head, holding the fabric in one hand and embroidery needle in the other, moving it up and down.

Lou Tinglan was stunned for a moment, staring blankly at her, feeling that she was Ran Qinghe, yet not Ran Qinghe.

Instead of her usual red dresses and plain clothes, she wore a light blue silk skirt today. The color was very pale, and there were no elaborate patterns on the hem and wide sleeves. Only a few orchids were sparsely outlined on them. She looked extremely aloof and cold, but her smile carried a rebellious vitality.

Lou Tinglan, hidden to the side, wondered if the positioning spell was faulty, when he heard someone call out from within:

"Sister Qinghe, your coming-of-age ceremony is the day after tomorrow. Have you decided which outfit you want to wear?"

Ran Qinghe said, "Of course I will wear the vermilion red dress you gave me. You embroidered so many patterns on it, do you expect me to do that?"

The sisters next to her laughed again: "I thought you were going to wear that peach-pink and gold-embroidered dress that Master Ran prepared. That dress is gorgeous and dazzling. Don't you like it, sister?"

Ran Qinghe joked, "Oh, then I'll wear that outfit."

The women around her started shouting again, "No, no!"

"We worked so hard to embroider it."

“After your coming-of-age ceremony, we will no longer see you, nor will we see you wearing the clothes we embroidered.”

Ran Qinghe smiled and agreed, "Okay, okay, don't worry."

Lou Tinglan silently observed her every move. He had never imagined that Ran Qinghe was like this before she ascended to the realm of immortals—gentle as water and considerate to the extreme.

Indeed, he had already realized that the person sitting in front of him was Ran Qinghe before she attained enlightenment. There was no spiritual energy fluctuation on her body; she was a completely mortal.

He thought that he must have mistakenly entered the Mirror of Past Lives, or that the Imperial Preceptor had trapped them in the Mirror of Past Lives, and that the vine prison was just a facade, while the Mirror of Past Lives was the real prison.

When the Mirror of the Past is activated, it will reproduce events that happened in the past. The person who activates the Mirror of the Past is the Mirror Master. Unless he or she actively stops it, the Mirror of the Past will continue to operate until all the events of the past have been reproduced.

He removed the original concealment technique, so the person in the Mirror of Past Lives could not see the person outside the mirror, and there was no need to waste spiritual energy here.

He suddenly remembered the three-day agreement that the Imperial Preceptor had made with Ran Qinghe, and now, this "Ran Qinghe's" coming-of-age ceremony happened to be the day after tomorrow.

He stood under the eaves with his sword, patiently waiting for his chance. Inside the large dormitory, the girls were still excitedly discussing their coming-of-age ceremony. Although he didn't care about it, he could roughly understand from their joyful words.

After reaching marriageable age, the girls in the orphanage could leave and start working independently. Most of them either became embroiderers in government-run embroidery workshops or did some weaving, tea picking, or other work.

On her coming-of-age day, Ran Qinghe changed into an exquisitely embroidered red dress, and her mother-in-law helped her tie her hair, put on a silver hairpin, and present her with the coming-of-age ceremony wine...

No, that's not right. Lou Tinglan stood beside his mother-in-law and witnessed her slip the medicine powder into a wine glass and hand it to Ran Qinghe. As Ran Qinghe accepted it with a smile, he raised his hand to knock it over, but suddenly stopped.

He warned himself, no, no, not even the slightest change can occur in the mirror of the past.

At the same time, the spirit leaf flickered, indicating that Qi Feng had found the real Ran Qinghe...