Chapter 73 So you're my High Priest after all. Moving isn't...
Moving is not a simple matter, especially for Tou Lan and his group of wounded teenagers.
Even so, the boys still collected everything they could as quickly as possible, either tying it to the cart or carrying it on their backs. Even the injured Tou Lan carried two pieces of sheet metal on his shoulder.
“…Let’s go.” Looking back at the home she had lived in for so long, Tou Lan sighed, pulled her sisters, and nodded to Sang Zhi Tao.
Sang Zhitao pulled the piled-up cart ahead, while the others followed behind, supporting each other.
Not long after they left, another group of people dressed in rags came to the ruins.
“Sister Hong, Tou Lan and the others really left.” One of the gray-skinned boys said to another red-skinned girl.
"Little Grey, are you sure they followed Blue Star?" The girl, known as Sister Red, frowned as she looked around.
Little Gray nodded: "I'm sure, I saw Blue Star come to pick them up with my own eyes."
“Sister Hong, they cleaned it up very well.” Another gray-skinned boy walked around the ruins and then came to Sister Hong.
"Alright, now that you've left, this place is ours." After a moment's thought, Sister Hong instructed, "Little Gray, go and tell everyone to prepare to move in. Big Gray, you check carefully again to make sure there are no dangerous places."
"Don't worry, Sister Hong, I know what I'm doing." Big Gray nodded.
Little Gray was puzzled: "Sister Hong, this place is nice, but there's nothing here. Why are we moving here?"
Sister Hong raised an eyebrow: "If it weren't for the fact that Tou Lan and his group are good fighters, I would have taken over this place long ago. It's close to the garbage dump and it's safe."
Just as Little Grey was about to ask another question, Big Grey tapped him on the head: "Alright, Sister Hong knows what she's doing. Go do your thing."
Little Gray pouted, glanced unhappily at her brother, then looked at Sister Red. Only after receiving a somewhat displeased look from Sister Red did she quickly look away and run back to where her friends were.
Sang Zhitao and the others had no idea what happened after they left, but even if they did, they wouldn't care, since in the Garbage Mountain, strength always reigns supreme.
Given Tou Lan and the others' current injuries, this territory will eventually become someone else's property.
Even if Sang Zhitao doesn't ask to take them away this time, they will have to leave sooner or later.
After all, even if Tou Lan and the others managed to evade the plundering by Sister Hong's forces, they couldn't withstand the successive struggles of other forces.
"No wonder it's the land that my mother-in-law seized; it's really great." Looking at the tin shack so close to the garbage dump and the empty land with no other buildings in sight, Tou Lan couldn't help but feel envious.
The old woman was the maid who brought the female protagonist out of the palace in the original book, but she encountered pollution on the way to escape. In the end, she made a deal with the lord of the garbage city with her life to obtain a safe place for the female protagonist. This gave the female protagonist sixteen years of peace. Unfortunately, it was ultimately destroyed when the female protagonist's bloodline power was restored.
"No need to be envious, this will be your territory from now on." Sang Zhitao pointed indifferently to the empty space next to her. "That's yours now, do whatever you want with it."
Tou Lan looked at the open space with surprise. He thought Lan Xing would only give him a small area, but he didn't expect Lan Xing to be so generous.
The two Jinglan sisters still looked innocent, their doe eyes revealing caution and barely concealed surprise as they carefully examined their future home.
The other children, however, couldn't contain their excitement and cheered as they ran towards their future home.
"Ahem." Tou Lan awkwardly touched her nose. "Um... I'm sorry you had to see that."
"It's alright, it's great, it's lively." Sang Zhitao stretched and replied with a smile.
Seeing that she didn't seem to care, Tou Lan breathed a sigh of relief, carefully put down what was on her back, and bowed deeply to her.
Seeing this, the friends who had run away all ran back and bowed to Sang Zhitao, including the Jinglan sisters.
"What are you doing? Get up quickly!" Sang Zhitao was startled and rushed forward to help Tou Lan up.
Tou Lan straightened up, looked at Sang Zhitao and said, "Saying thank you too often is meaningless, but we will remember this kindness in our hearts."
Before Sang Zhitao could speak, he continued, "Let me reintroduce myself. I am Tou Lan, the captain of the Tou Lan Squad."
"This is Jinglan Jingqian, my younger sister, who possesses healing abilities."
He then pointed to several of his companions: "Touqing, our combat leader; Touhui, our treasurer; Touhuang, our logistics officer; and Touzi and Toulv, our scouts."
"From this day forward, the Blue Sky Squad will be your most loyal subordinates, swearing never to betray you!"
After saying this, Tou Lan raised her right hand and placed it on her left shoulder, and the others did the same, swearing an oath to Sang Zhi Tao.
“…I helped you not because of these things.” Sang Zhitao sighed.
“We know, but this is what we mean by it,” Tou Lan explained with a smile.
"Fine, whatever you want." Sang Zhitao scratched her head and reluctantly agreed.
Seeing this, Tou Lan handed the perfect-grade gem to Sang Zhi Tao: "Here, this is yours."
"Wow, this is a perfect-grade gem!" Touqing exclaimed in surprise as she approached.
His grey eyes gleamed with an astonishing light, and he looked like he was drooling, but there was not a trace of greed or malice in them.
Touhuang and the others also crowded forward, their little faces full of curiosity and amazement.
“Although I don’t know what it’s used for, Gray Card values it so much, so it must be very important. Keep it safe,” Translucent said, pointing to the gem.
Sang Zhitao held the gemstone, but then thought of something else.
"By the way, do you know where the Floating Mirror Lake is?"
A hint of wariness flashed in Tou Lan's eyes, but it quickly disappeared. She tentatively asked, "Why are you suddenly asking about this?"
Sang Zhitao thought for a moment before revealing a little: "Before my mother-in-law passed away, she told me that I must go to the Floating Mirror Lake after I came of age, which is why I wanted to inquire about it."
"But aren't you only fifteen years old this year?" Tou Lan looked at her with some suspicion.
Sang Zhitao shook her head: "No, I'm an adult this year."
In the world of gems, sixteen is the age of adulthood, and for Sang Zhitao, who is sixteen years old now, she can indeed be considered an adult.
Tou Lan breathed a sigh of relief, and after thinking for a moment, said, "The Floating Mirror Lake is on the other side of the planet, very, very far away."
After saying that, seeing Sang Zhitao frowning, he said, "If you want to go to the Floating Mirror Lake, in addition to solving the problem of the journey, you also need to find a way to cross several urban areas."
Sang Zhitao frowned, recalling the plot of the original book.
In the original book, after escaping the garbage city, Lan Xing accidentally hid on a truck carrying miners and took the place of a girl who had died unexpectedly, becoming a miner with a name and a surname.
After encountering Tou Lan, his identity was discovered, he escaped the mine, and after a series of unexpected events, he fell off a cliff and entered the Floating Mirror Lake.
"I remember there's a mountain, very high, near the Floating Mirror Lake. You can reach it by going around from Garbage City. There's a secret passage on the mountain that leads directly to the Mirror Lake." She thought for a moment, then became a little uncertain.
A look of surprise flashed across Tou Lan’s eyes before he nodded: “Yes, that mountain is called Mirror Mountain, the sacred mountain of the Mirror Clan.”
Upon hearing the words "Mirror Clan," Sang Zhitao instantly thought of a character from the original book. She looked sharply at Tou Lan and exclaimed in disbelief, "You're a member of the Mirror Clan?!"
Tou Lan stood there, pursing her lips, thinking for a long time before nodding.
Sang Zhitao didn't know whether to be moved by Tou Lan's trust or to marvel at the wonder of fate.
The Mirror Clan is a special race, the natural protectors of the royal family and the priestly clan of the Gem Kingdom. They have always held the responsibilities of high priests. However, after the royal riots sixteen years ago, the emperor died, the empress temporarily took over the imperial scepter, and relied on the Dark Duke to temporarily govern the country. The priestly clan also disappeared.
In the original book, one of the companions Lanxing later met was a member of the Mirror Clan, who eventually became Lanxing's High Priest.
But he never expected that the group of friends he had unintentionally saved were also members of the Mirror Clan.
"Why are the Mirror Clan here? Didn't you disappear sixteen years ago?" Sang Zhitao looked at them in confusion.
She didn't doubt whether Tou Lan was lying, because even if ordinary orphans knew about the Mirror Clan's sacred mountain and the floating Mirror Lake, they wouldn't know enough to know about the secret passage. Moreover, the healing abilities of the Jing Lan sisters happened to be the abilities of a priest.
"...I don't know." Tou Lan pursed her lips and shook her head dejectedly.
He looked at his friends who had already run to the open space to build houses, but his sister, who was helping silently, and sighed.
"However, why do you know about the secret passage? Did Grandma tell you? This is a secret known only to the Mirror Clan." Unlike Sang Zhitao, who had the original plot as a reference, Tou Lan genuinely didn't understand why she knew so many secrets.
Sang Zhitao looked at Tou Lan and reached out to touch his wrist.
Tou Lan instinctively tried to dodge, but her pupils dilated in shock under the white light. She looked at Sang Zhi Tao in disbelief, then at the white light. After a long while, the darkness within her body lessened a little before she spoke: "You... this... bloodline power."
"I am the daughter of the late emperor, Princess Stardust Blue Star." Sang Zhitao did not intend to hide it from Tou Lan. The Mirror Clan had absolute loyalty to the royal family, which was a power derived from their bloodline. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Tou Lan had helped Blue Star several times in her previous life.
“Princess Stardust! But in the palace…” Tou Lan’s eyes widened, about to argue, but then she suddenly realized, “That’s fake?!”
Sang Zhitao nodded before continuing, "Sixteen years ago, the Dark Duke betrayed the royal family, killed my father, imprisoned my mother, and I was taken out of the palace and sent to the Garbage City."
“Then…Grandma…” Tou Lan felt completely confused. If Princess Xingxie was deliberately stolen from the palace, why would her grandmother protect her with her life for sixteen years?
“My mother-in-law must have been the one who saved me by accident. I suspect that the Dark Duke originally only wanted to imprison me and become the one who controlled my mother. It’s just a pity that I was saved, so that’s why there was a fake princess.”
“If that’s the case, we need to return to the palace as soon as possible. You are now an adult, which means the princess is about to take power. To prevent the queen from discovering his identity, the Dark Duke will definitely seize the throne before the coronation ceremony. We must stop him,” Tou Lan said with a deep frown.
“Therefore, we must go to the Floating Mirror Lake as soon as possible to find the three keys of the priest clan. Only the three keys can fully activate my bloodline so that I can stop the Dark Duke during the Moonlight Ritual.” Sang Zhitao nodded.
Tou Lan pursed her lips and said after a long while, "Leave it to me, I will try my best to remember that road."
Sang Zhitao nodded in agreement. Just then, Tou Qing called out from behind, and the two walked towards the crowd, tacitly covering up the matter.
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