222: Chapter 220: Seal Keeper 222: Chapter 220: Seal Keeper Without being summoned, Baili An stepped forward at a relaxed pace, speaking as he walked.
“Empress’s divine vision penetrates heaven, observing from afar.
She knows the cycles of fate in the Mortal World.
Undoubtedly, Empress had already known that the Emperor’s secret treasure was stolen.
Yet she allowed the imposter relic to remain in the mountain city.
Empress’s actions have their own heavenly logic, Si Chen does not dare to speculate rashly, but today’s forceful summoning…”
As he reached the side of the screen, the fan-waving maid did not try to stop him but looked at him with interest, as if curious about what he would do or say next.
Baili An lifted his hand and gently pushed the screen aside, his dark eyes subtly moving as he calmly looked at the exquisite beauty under the candlelight.
The woman’s face was very young and beautiful, dressed in robes fit for the palace, her hair held up with a bamboo hairpin.
As the dark clouds at the sky’s edge receded, revealing a pale glassy sky, sunlight streamed through the gauze window, casting a faint glow on the side of her face, highlighting her leisurely grace.
With a faintly moving look in her eyes, the woman gazed at Baili An.
Her voice was no longer old or hoarse but had the clear and lively tone of a young girl, “You have quite the audacity.”
Baili An said, “The person who wanted to see me today is not the Empress.”
The woman lightly gathered her sleeves with her bare hands and said calmly, “If it were the Empress sitting here right now, would you still dare to be so impolite?”
After thinking for a moment, Baili An responded, “I would not.”
It was not a matter of daring, but he would not.
If it truly were the Empress, it would mean that no one was playing him for a fool, and he would listen earnestly to her words.
The woman’s expression turned slightly cold.
How could she not hear the implications in his words?
She asked, “How did you figure it out?”
Baili An said, “Fang Geyu once mentioned the Empress to me.
I imagine the Empress must be a person with a heart as vast as the sea.
Since she summoned me to the Inner City for a meeting, why would she need to oppress me with an overwhelming presence from the very start?
Moreover, the lady earlier said the Emperor’s treasure had been stolen.
In the Mortal World below ‘All Heavens,’ that’s the term of respect for that esteemed person.
If it were the Emperor’s wife, she wouldn’t call him ‘my lord’ or ‘Emperor,’ but just like us, she would call him ‘Emperor.’ This alone is enough to prove that you are not the Empress herself.”
The woman looked intrigued, eyeing the young man with deep and tranquil eyes.
She shook her head slightly and stood up, looking straight at the young man before her, “People say the human heart is as fine as a hair, but you, young man, truly have a heart as intricate as a fine jade.”
I originally wanted to use the Empress’s name to intimidate this wild boy who knows not the extent of the heavens and earth.
In the mortal realm, there are three thousand things, none of which dare to be sharp-edged or angular before the Empress, all becoming hesitant and confused in the end.
Even Fang Geyu, who has the blood of a Golden Immortal, because the Empress looked at him intently for a moment, became one of the most prestigious beings in the Mortal World, envied by all.
No one can maintain their composure without losing their poise before the Empress.
Had this young man shown confusion and disorder, it would not have been difficult to learn what she wanted to know.
“So, lady, who are you, and why did you summon me?” Baili An lowered his eyes and regarded the woman with a formal bow, politely asking in a soft voice.
He managed his composure so perfectly that there was not a single flaw to find.
The sight of him in such a manner gave the woman a slight headache.
Who would have thought that after only a few words, this young man would walk straight up to her without reservation, open the screen, and directly pierce through her identity?
He seemed more difficult to deal with than she had anticipated.
“My name is Qing Xuan, the Seal Keeper to the Empress.”
Baili An immediately understood in his heart.
No wonder she could summon him into the city in the name of the Empress.
A Seal Keeper, who holds the Jade Seal.
“Do not look at me with such a gaze.” The woman named Qing Xuan bent over, picked up a silver needle from the desk, and quenched the flame in the lamp wick, causing the light in the hall to dim slightly.
As her slim waist straightened, her posture regained its grace, erect as bamboo, with an indescribable air of nobility.
Her gaze lightly rested on Baili An’s face, emotionless in her eyes, “As a maid in the Kunlun Divine Temple, I revere the Empress above all.
With the Immortal City in order yet without its master, I have become the one in control of this city.
The Empress handed the Constitution Seal to my keeping, and I have the duty to dispel her worries and troubles without being disturbed by petty affairs.”
It was her duty; there was no question of overstepping authority privately.
After contemplating for a moment, Baili An said, “So, the real organizer of the major test in Xianling City is not the Empress, but Miss Qing Xuan.”
Qing Xuan frowned and said, “Please, I would not bother the Empress with the trifles of human rituals.”
Choosing a master for Xianling City is a significant matter in the Mortal World.
Even Jin Sheng of the Thirteen Swords was deeply moved and lost composure, yet to this woman, it seemed but a mere human ritual.
As if this Immortal City, for which mortals yearn and go mad, isn’t really that important after all.
Baili An also realized something and said with a light chuckle, “So it seems, the Empress is not in this city of the Mortal World.”
Qing Xuan pressed her thin lips together, not answering his question directly, but simply stating, “Today, I have called you here only to clarify one thing.”
“What would the lady like to know?”
“Who exactly are you?”
With the fan shifting silently and the transparent window sheer, one could see the dust motes in the air floating in the woman’s barely visible pupils, her gaze full of scrutiny.
If he could, he would want to know the answer to this question as well.
Baili An replied to himself in his heart.
He said righteously, “The master of Kongcang Mountain, Si Chen.”
The mountain governed by the Ancient Mountain’s Mountain God?”
“When did Kongcang Mountain change its master?”
“It happened three months ago.”
“The Demon Sect attacked, the Mountain God died, great calamity ensued, and Si Chen took over.”
“Kongcang Mountain is a place left by the immortals, and its wealth and Spiritual Power are no weaker than that of Xianling City.
Now that you are the master of Kongcang, why come to my Xianling City?”
Baili An, who had always been forthcoming with answers, suddenly fell silent and just quietly looked at the beautiful woman before him.
Qing Xuan suddenly smiled, her gaze seemingly penetrating his thoughts, “You came for that child from Shifang City?”
Baili An said, “At first I didn’t, but now I do.”
Qing Xuan’s brows furrowed again, “What do you mean by that?”
Baili An took out a piece of underworld paper from his bosom and placed it on the desk, “I thought she lacked nothing, while I was in need of something, so I accompanied her to Xianling City in search.
Now it seems that those who appear to lack nothing are actually the ones who lack everything.
I want to fight for her.”
Looking at the piece of underworld paper on the desk, Qing Xuan showed no significant change in her expression, as if she already knew about the minor moves of some in the border city.
She was indifferent, “I have no interest in human conspiracies and struggles.”
Baili An nodded, “That should be the case, but then, why is the lady so interested in me?”
“Outside the border city of Xianling lies an ancient stele, a stele that was transformed from the bedrock in the spring of the Kunlun peak, standing in the dust of the Mortal World for five hundred years.
The Empress made a promise to a friend that she would find a Decipherer for it in the Mortal World, hence the requirement for cultivators entering the city to smear their blood on the stele’s inscriptions.”