The east of Liuyun City was originally a continuous mountainous area, but it had long since turned into a flat land due to the Divine Phoenix Army.
Although Yun Che grew up in Floating Cloud City, he had never been to this place before he was sixteen. In the back mountain area where there were many low-level profound beasts, Xiao Lie would not prohibit him from entering with Xiao Lingxi or Xia Yuanba accompanying him. However, Xiao Lie would never allow him and Xiao Lingxi to go to the mountainous area in the east of the city. Perhaps it was because this place was too far from Floating Cloud City and he could not be sure of their safety.
Yun Che arrived in the sky and quickly released his spiritual sense, covering the land that was trampled by the Divine Phoenix Army.
Although it was very faint, Yun Che could still vaguely sense that this piece of land had once been covered by a blocking profound formation. It was obvious that after the Phoenix Divine Sect discovered the purple crystal mine here, they immediately set up an invisible isolation barrier to prevent the purple crystal aura from being detected by others.
But surprisingly, his spiritual sense scanned up to twenty miles away, but he did not sense any scent of purple crystal.
There is no doubt that the Phoenix Sect was extremely cautious about this matter and cleaned up the place thoroughly without leaving any traces. After all, for the Phoenix Sect at that time, if the four sacred places noticed anything, the consequences would be extremely dangerous.
Descending from the sky and stepping on the already thick ground, Yun Che frowned in thought, still unable to figure out why there was a hundred kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal here.
Previously, he only had this doubt in his mind, but then there were too many things to do, and he had forgotten about the doubts about the Purple Veined Divine Crystal. While dealing with Xuanyuan Wendao, he suddenly thought of something that was absolutely abnormal - a hundred kilograms of Purple Veined Divine Crystal, even if it was buried very deep, would definitely release an extraordinary aura of mysterious crystal. It was already very abnormal that the four holy places had not discovered it, and twenty-four years ago, the people of Tianwei Sword Domain and Sun Moon Palace had come to Liuyun City to hunt down his parents Yun Qinghong and Mu Yurou... Xiao Ying was also killed at that time.
If they had only been there before, it would be understandable that they had not found anything. But after they arrived at Floating Cloud City, they had clearly searched the surrounding area for several days, and even if they had not dug deep into the ground, it was almost enough. With the strength of spiritual perception at the holy land level, why didn't they notice such a large and high-level amethyst mine?
Moreover, those who were sent to hunt down Yun Qinghong and Mu Yurou must be figures at the level of emperors... The Sword Domain was still led by the young master Xuanyuan Wendao himself.
Could it be that this amethyst mine did not exist at that time?
No... it's impossible. Such a huge amethyst mine must have taken an extremely long time to form. How could it be possible to form it in just twenty years?
In addition, according to the depth of the secret excavation of the ground beneath his feet detected by his spiritual sense, the amethyst mine was not buried very deep. On the contrary, it could even be said to be quite shallow, with the shallowest part being less than twenty feet from the ground. At the beginning, the Divine Phoenix Army sent two hundred thousand troops to station here, and made a huge noise through daily "exercises" in order to cover up the sound of grabbing the shallow amethyst mine.
Yun Che stood there for a long time, but he was puzzled. If he said that the four holy places had never been close to this land in the past few thousand years, and therefore had never noticed it, it might be a barely explainable explanation, but to say that all the people from the holy places who came to Floating Cloud City had short circuits in their brains and were stupid... it really didn't make sense.
Just as Yun Che was hesitating whether to sneak into the mountains to find out what was going on, a figure suddenly appeared in the west, walking slowly towards him.
Yun Che turned his eyes and saw an old man of medium build and kind face. His eyes moved immediately and he stood up and flew over, landing in front of the old man: “Master Hong, why are you suddenly interested in coming here?”
The old man stopped and smiled. "It's you, young master. Alas, it's Madam's anniversary soon, and the master asked me to pick some rudbeckia flowers, which Madam loved the most. Young master, why are you here?"
In the Xiao Clan, Yun Che respected Xiao Lie the most, and the other person was Xiao Hong. Xiao Hong was not originally from the Xiao Clan, but was rescued by Xiao Lie's father when he was traveling abroad, brought back to the Xiao Clan, and changed his surname to Xiao. He has been taking care of Xiao Lie's daily life since he was a child and is loyal to Xiao Lie. When Yun Che and Xia Qingyue got married, he was also the one who escorted Yun Che to pick up the bride.
Every year on his wife's anniversary, Xiao Lie would bring a bunch of purplish orchids, because this was his wife's favorite flower when she was alive, and Yun Che and Xiao Lingxi knew this since they were young.
“I just came here on a whim to take a look.” Yun Che glanced around and said, “It seems that there are no purplish orchids around here. How about I go look somewhere else with Master Hong?”
"No need," Xiao Hong smiled and shook his head, "Young Master is now worth a fortune, how can he accompany me to do such rough work. In previous years, purpura flowers could be seen everywhere at this time of year. Since the arrival of the Divine Phoenix Army, this place has been razed to the ground, and purpura flowers seem to be hard to find. Alas."
“It turns out that the purplish orchids in previous years were all picked here.” Yun Che said with emotion: “Speaking of which, from childhood to adulthood, grandpa never allowed me and my aunt to come here to play. I don’t even know what this place looked like before.”
"Haha, of course." Xiao Hong smiled and said with emotion: "After all, this is the sad place of the master. Even he himself rarely comes here after that."
“A sad place?” Yun Che was slightly stunned: “What happened here? Why is this place Grandpa’s sad place?”
"Oh?" Xiao Hong looked surprised: "Has the master never told the young master about this? Oh...haha, that's no wonder. The master really shouldn't take the initiative to mention that kind of thing to you. After all, that's what hurts the most in the master's heart."
“…” Yun Che sensed that something was unusual, and pressed on: “Grandpa Hong, what on earth happened here? Why is it the place that hurts Grandpa the most? If you know, please tell me in detail. After all, I am no longer the child I was before. After knowing this, maybe I can find a way to help Grandpa get out of the shadow of this place.”
Xiao Hong shook his head: "I can't help, after all, the dead are gone. However, it's okay to tell the young master about this, after all, the young master is such a great figure now."
"Young master, do you know how your madam passed away?" Xiao Hong suddenly asked.
Yun Che said, “Uncle Xiao Ying was murdered and died, his wife committed suicide for love, and their child is still unknown. Grandma was hit so hard that she became depressed and died soon after giving birth to my aunt… Although grandpa didn’t tell me this, everyone in the Xiao Clan and Floating Cloud City said so. Could there be some hidden story behind this?”
Xiao Lie's wife died of depression after giving birth to Xiao Lingxi because of the pain of losing her son. Yun Che never doubted this before he was sixteen. After he turned sixteen, he had more memories of the Azure Cloud Continent. When he thought about this matter again, the medical skills he had learned naturally made him doubt.
As the saying goes, women are weak by nature, but strong as mothers. Although the pain of losing a son was heart-wrenching, Xiao Lie's wife shifted all her attention and love to her newborn daughter after giving birth to Ling Xi. No matter how much pain she felt in her heart, she would try to turn it into strength - this is a mother's instinct, and it is also the greatest thing about mothers.
No matter what, I would never just give up on my daughter right after she was born and die in depression.
What's more, she was definitely not alone at that time, there was Xiao Lie, with whom she had a deep relationship.
Therefore, whether from the perspective of medicine or human nature, Xiao Lie's wife should not have died of depression, there must be other reasons. For example... died of illness?
Xiao Hong looked at the flattened mountains in the east and slowly narrated, "Back then, Master Xiao Ying was murdered, and the young master was missing, and the situation was not good. Madam suffered a great blow and cried every day. She was pregnant at that time. The master was afraid that she would be too sad and get sick, so he tried his best to comfort her and cheer her up every day... Alas, the master was also heartbroken at that time, but his feelings for Madam were indeed deep."
Yun Che: “…”
"When Madam was pregnant with Miss Lingxi for about six months, the purgatory flowers here were in bloom. The purgatory flowers are Madam's favorite flowers, so the master brought Madam here to quietly appreciate the purgatory flowers blooming, hoping to ease her pain of losing her son. I followed and served by her side at that time."
"From morning till evening, Madam's mood did improve. Just when the master was about to take Madam back to Floating Cloud City, an unexpected accident suddenly occurred."
“What accident?” Yun Che asked immediately.
"Madam... was suddenly hit by a bolt of lightning." It has been more than 20 years since that scene happened, but when Xiao Hong thinks about it now, his face is still filled with fear.
“Hit… a bolt of lightning?” Yun Che was stunned, his brain was unable to process for a moment: “What does that mean? How could he be… hit by lightning?”
"My master and I are completely baffled." Xiao Hong sighed, "The bougainvillea flowers were in bloom, the sky was clear, there were no clouds, not even a thin cloud. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Madam... and that lightning was a strange black color."
"……black!?"
"Yes, the master and I saw it clearly. It was indeed a black lightning, the only one the master and I have ever seen. Its color and appearance were extremely strange. The master thought at that time that someone had plotted against us, and that the villain who killed Master Xiao Ying had come back to wipe out the roots. He searched furiously, but there was no other figure in the entire mountain except the three of us. After that, no other accidents occurred."
“What happened after that? How did grandma fare after she was struck by the black lightning?” Yun Che asked anxiously, his brows furrowed tightly.
Thunder in the clear sky was extremely abnormal. If he encountered it, his first reaction would definitely be that it was caused by someone. As for the black lightning… the basic color of lightning profound power was purple. After his Yun family's Purple Cloud Power reached a very high level, it would turn into red lightning. However, whether in the Profound Sky Continent, the Illusory Demon Realm, or the Azure Cloud Continent back then, he had never seen or heard of anyone or any sect whose lightning power could be pitch black.
When Fen Juechen and Xuanyuan Wentian released their dark profound energy, the extremely compressed dark profound energy would sometimes form lightning-like profound light, which looked like black lightning… However, there was no dark profound energy at all in the Profound Sky Continent more than 20 years ago. The only one who could use the dark profound energy, the Moon Slaughter Devil Lord, was being firmly locked up in the Moon Slaughter Devil Cave outside the continent.
"The lady was struck by lightning and fell unconscious on the spot. She was unconscious for three whole days before finally waking up. But strangely, there was no sign of injury from the lightning on her body. But after that, the lady's body became extremely weak. She often had convulsions during the day and nightmares at night. The master sought out famous doctors inside and outside the city and tried all kinds of tonics, but there was no improvement. Later, the lady was pregnant for thirteen months before she finally gave birth to Miss Lingxi. After that, her health deteriorated and she passed away not long after..."
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