Chapter 582: The Full Story Uncovered—The Lord’s Disappearance |
"Your Highness, we have successfully lured His Majesty into the Panlong Palace as planned. His Majesty should currently be collecting that batch of gold."
Above Qinghe Town, Qingyu spotted Xia Yulong from afar and immediately couldn't wait to deliver her report. However, she didn't receive a response.
Only when she drew closer did she realize that Xia Yulong's eyes were currently brimming with tears, her whole body trembling slightly. Her emotional state was clearly not right.
"Your Highness, what's wrong?"
The two sisters quickly rushed to Xia Yulong's side, their faces full of concern as they inquired.
Xia Yulong continued to shed tears silently. After more than ten breaths, she spoke with a slight sob in her voice:
"I just saw... a child..."
"What child?"
"Xiahou Xuan!"
In terms of familiarity with Xiahou Xuan, the two sisters were actually not inferior to Xia Yulong.
In the future Great Xia Dynasty, not all children of the royal clan were qualified to receive fiefdoms. Xia Yulong herself only received the title of Jade Coiling Heavenly Dragon Princess in the 85th year of Great Xia, after passing His Majesty's test.
The princess's fief was the entire north bank of the Ying River; her official palace was the golden palace beneath Red Dragon Lake, which was later renamed Panlong Palace.
As for Xiahou Xuan himself, he wasn't particularly special—just an ordinary, commonplace admirer from the princess's youth.
During her youth, although Xia Yulong's origins were mysterious, she was personally raised by the Queen Consort, Li Xuanling. Furthermore, since she was brought back to Great Xia when she was less than two years old, and the Crown Prince, the Eldest Princess, and the other Highnesses were already adults, she became His Majesty's youngest child.
The youngest usually receives the most affection, especially a little princess.
Xia Yulong's entire upbringing could be described as the focus of all affection. Additionally, her temperament was gentle and soft, not as astoundingly intelligent and awe-inspiring as the Eldest Princess, nor like her other sisters who were either willful, cold, or aloof. Consequently, her admirers were famously numerous. Not just in Great Xia, but even in neighboring Great Wei, Great Qi, and Great Zhou, there were countless.
From the time the princess reached adulthood, matchmakers and suitors seeking marriage proposals streamed into Xia Capital almost without interruption.
It could be said that among Xia Yulong's many admirers, Xiahou Xuan, whether in terms of family background or personal aptitude, truly wasn't outstanding. His only notable point was probably his devotion—and the kind that never expressed his feelings, silently accompanying Xia Yulong by her side.
For a very long time, people didn't even know about his feelings for Xia Yulong because Xiahou Xuan never spoke of it in front of others. In the 57th year of Great Xia, Xiahou Xuan broke through to the Sun Manifestation Level and entered the Dragon Garrison, assigned to the then 16-year-old Xia Yulong. For the following decades, he always adhered to his duty, protecting Xia Yulong in his capacity as a guard, never overstepping.
Until the 73rd year of Great Xia, when the 32-year-old Xia Yulong broke through to the Tribulation Body Realm and led troops for the first time against a Feudal Town. At that time, Xiahou Xuan, as her guard, naturally accompanied her on the campaign.
Although Xia Yulong had strength, she was, after all, raised within the palace, kind-hearted, and overly naive. Furthermore, Xia Hong, intending to test her, didn't give her much support. Therefore, this campaign didn't go smoothly. Xia Yulong, the Commander-in-Chief, even fell into an enemy ambush and nearly lost her life.
At the critical moment, it was Xiahou Xuan, the guard, who sacrificed his life to save Xia Yulong. What was most moving was that Xiahou Xuan only confessed his admiration for Xia Yulong on his deathbed.
The Qingyu sisters were sent by Queen Consort Li Xuanling to Xia Yulong's side when they were six years old. Therefore, not only were they aware of these events, they could even be considered firsthand witnesses.
"In the 57th year of Great Xia, Commander Xiahou was 50 years old. Now it's the 13th year of Great Xia, so he's indeed just turned 7. It's not impossible to coincidentally encounter him here. The future events haven't happened yet, Your Highness need not..."
"In the 57th year of Great Xia, when Xiahou Xuan first met me, he said one sentence to me. Do you know what it was?"
Qingyu's words were interrupted before she could finish. Seeing the tear-streaked face of Xia Yulong, her heart ached. She immediately flew forward, wiping the tears while asking, "What was it?"
"He said, 'This subordinate has seen Your Highness long ago.' I didn't understand back then, but now I realize... he really had seen me. He really had..."
Qingyu was just about to offer words of comfort when she suddenly realized something. Her body stiffened abruptly, and she immediately closed her mouth, not continuing to speak.
She fell silent, but her younger sister, Qingyue, on the other side, belatedly realized something and exclaimed with sudden understanding, "So that's how it is! No wonder His Majesty didn't stop Your Highness..."
"Yue'er, shut up!"
Qingyu didn't let her sister finish before sharply interrupting her.
But it was a bit too late!
Xia Yulong, who had been sobbing, had clearly already noticed something. Her brows furrowed slightly, and then she looked at Qingyu with a stern expression, saying in a deep voice, "Qingyu, you have something... you're hiding from me?"
Hearing this, Qingyu's expression immediately became tense.
She had grown up with the princess since childhood. Though called a maidservant, their relationship was practically that of sisters. Xia Yulong rarely used the royal "we" in front of her. Using it now meant she was already very angry.
"You jumped into the blood pool and traveled here following me. Before you came over, Father was already here, wasn't he?"
Seeing Qingyu still stubbornly refusing to speak, Xia Yulong's expression grew increasingly somber. She began to unravel clues from Qingyue's earlier slip of the tongue.
From the moment she saw Xiahou Xuan, she had actually harbored some vague suspicions.
Her sadness was partly due to seeing Xiahou Xuan again, but another part...
"The future Xiahou Xuan said he had seen me long ago, meaning my coming here is destined. The Blood Pool was just a trigger. Whether it existed or not, I would have come here. This means..."
Xia Yulong's tone suddenly became sorrowful, and her anger towards Qingyu vanished instantly, clearly because she had realized something.
Qingyu knew silence was useless now and said softly, "Your Highness, before Qingyue and I jumped into the blood pool, His Majesty had indeed already arrived. And His Majesty should have had the ability to stop you from coming, but he didn't do so. Qingyue and I were a bit puzzled before, but now we understand. Before Qingyue and I jumped into the blood pool, we heard His Majesty say..."
Here she paused, then looked at Xia Yulong, a trace of heartache appearing on her face. "His Majesty said, 'From the moment the Blood Pool Patriarch opened the blood pool and connected the two timelines, the future has already become irreversible. No matter what you do, it's useless.'"
Xia Yulong fell silent for a moment, then a look of bleakness appeared on her face.
That meant her birth was destined. The fall of Wei Bo, her birth mother Li Baobao's eventual suicide... none of it could be changed.
"I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I've already prevented their first meeting, and I made Father find the gold ahead of time. With that batch of gold from Panlong Palace, Great Xia's strength will immediately advance by leaps and bounds. It won't take many years to crush the Four Feudatories. Where would Wei Bo get the capital to contend with Great Xia for so many years..."
Xia Yulong's face was full of unwillingness, her mouth constantly muttering. She had clearly developed an obsession, unwilling to accept that everything in the future would still develop according to the established path.
"Hmm? Wait, that's the aura of the Blood Pool Patriarch..."
Just as she was struggling internally, she suddenly sensed a surge of energy fluctuation. She quickly turned her head to look towards the direction of Red Dragon Lake, her pupils becoming uncertain and alarmed.
"Your Highness has forgotten. The Blood Pool Patriarch's lair is in the Blood Mire Plains south of Mo'ao Chuan. During this period, it hasn't been driven away by the Lord Leader yet. For it to connect the two timelines and lure Your Highness here, it definitely has a scheme!"
This scheme wasn't even hard to guess.
On the night they followed Xia Yulong through time, Wei Bo's town was breached by Xia troops. The princess's birth mother, Li Baobao, committed suicide in the Mufu. The Blood Pool Patriarch, who had lurked in Wei Bo for many years, was also severely wounded by His Majesty, only a step away from death.
In its dying moments, it bewitched the mentally unstable Xia Yulong to travel to this current timeline. This was clearly a self-preservation attempt by the Blood Pool Patriarch.
How could the Blood Pool Patriarch save itself?
One could guess—it couldn't defeat the future His Majesty, so it could only try to deal with His Majesty from this period, whose strength wasn't that formidable yet.
Therefore, this scheme was obviously targeting His Majesty Xia Hong.
But according to His Majesty's words, from the moment the Blood Pool Patriarch connected the two timelines, the future had already become irreversible. So logically, its self-preservation attempt couldn't possibly succeed.
Having figured this out, even though Qingyu also sensed the Blood Pool Patriarch's aura, her expression still showed no change whatsoever.
In her heart, His Majesty Xia Hong was directly equivalent to a deity. Even though he hadn't fully grown up yet, dealing with a mere Disaster-level Divine Abomination like the Blood Pool Patriarch would be effortless.
"Wait, no! It was only for an instant. The Blood Pool Patriarch didn't come. This aura... it's the Dark Realm! It opened an entrance to the Dark Realm!"
Xia Yulong's body trembled slightly. A gilded crown suddenly appeared on her head. The thirteen cyan jade beads embedded along the crown's rim, as if sensing something, suddenly began to darken. As that aura grew stronger, the speed of their darkening increased wildly until they finally turned completely black.
Not ordinary black, but a matte black hue with a jade-like texture. From the outside, it was obvious that a large amount of gas was brewing inside the beads, even faintly beginning to seep out.
"It must be the Dark Realm. The Thirteen Capital Heavenly Fiend Beads can sense all fluctuations from other realms. Blood Pool wants to lure Father into the Dark Realm..."
"The Dark Realm!"
Upon hearing this, Qingyu's face changed drastically in alarm. She exclaimed, "His Majesty currently only has Sun Manifestation Level cultivation! Entering the Dark Realm at this time would be..."
A dead end!
Due to the deep-seated reverence and fanaticism towards Xia Hong in her bones, Qingyu ultimately couldn't utter those four words.
But Xia Yulong was in no mood to listen further. She clearly also realized how dangerous it would be for Xia Hong of this period to enter the Dark Realm. Without a second thought, she flew towards Red Dragon Lake.
"Your Highness, wait for me!"
The Qingyu sisters naturally didn't dare to delay and hurriedly followed behind her. However, their speed was too slow; they simply couldn't catch up. They could only watch as Xia Yulong arrived above Red Dragon Lake first.
At this moment, on the ice surface of Red Dragon Lake, the Great Xia group led by Li Xuanling had already panicked.
"This... this golden palace is getting smaller and smaller..."
"The Lord Leader hasn't come out yet!"
"It was still palm-sized just now, now it's only thumb-sized."
"The outline is already unclear, it's turned into a point of light. It'll be gone soon."
"It's going to disappear! The Lord Leader is still inside! What do we do?"
................
Hearing the voices of the people around her, even the usually calm Li Xuanling showed a trace of panic in her pupils.
The reason was that the golden palace underwater, which had been normal all along, had actually begun to shrink at a visible rate not long after she came out.
Xia Hong was still inside and hadn't come out!
Li Xualing had been taken into the palace by Li Longyu and the other two. She clearly understood that this palace only seemed to be underwater; in reality, it was probably an otherworldly space, at most somewhat connected to the waters of Red Dragon Lake.
If the palace disappeared, they wouldn't be able to find it. The problem was her husband Xia Hong was still inside. If the palace disappeared, could Xia Hong still return?
Splash!
Worry leads to confusion. Li Xuanling ultimately couldn't withstand the panic in her heart. With a splash, she directly jumped into the water, attempting to find the entrance to enter the palace before the underwater point of light disappeared.
The problem was, she simply couldn't find it.
Earlier, after finding the gold, Xia Hong had her take the two children out of the pool immediately. After she entered the pool, she only felt a momentary daze, and then she was already standing at the bottom of Red Dragon Lake. She had absolutely no idea how she got out. How could she possibly find the entrance now?
Swoosh........
Right at that moment, a sound of flowing water suddenly came from above. Li Xuanling hurriedly looked up and discovered that the newcomer was actually Li Longyu, who had previously abducted her and her two children.
But now, seeing the other party, her face showed not fear but instead was full of pleasant surprise. She quickly spoke, "Young lady, don't you know how to enter that palace? Can you take me in?"
Hearing this, Xia Yulong instinctively reached out her hand, trying to pull Li Xuanling along into Panlong Palace. But she quickly realized that her mother from this period was too weak. Taking her in would be useless. She then directly refused.
"Madam, rest assured. Lord Xia will be fine. He will return soon! That place is too dangerous... Madam better not enter."
After saying this, a bright light suddenly rose from between her eyebrows. That light was actually identical to the palace's radiance. Then, under Li Xuanling's gaze of both anger and anxiety, she directly disappeared into the water.
The palace had now shrunk to an extremely minute golden point of light. After Li Longyu completely vanished, the point of light finally disappeared as well, leaving only Li Xuanling floating alone in the water, her face full of worry.
Looking at the empty lake bottom, Li Xuanling gritted her teeth. Ultimately, she had no other recourse and floated up towards the surface.
"Madam, the Lord Leader, he..."
"Don't worry. The Lord Leader has probably gone to some other realm. Seal off the area around Red Dragon Lake. No one is allowed to enter or leave freely."
Li Xuanling frowned deeply. First, she gave an order to Cheng He, then directly stood on the ice surface, intending to guard until Xia Hong came out.
However, as the sky gradually brightened, she guarded until dawn—the ninth day of the first month—yet no movement came from the lake bottom.
First...........·....
Li Xuanling continued guarding like this until the fifteenth day of the first month, the final day of the Cold Origin Festival in the 13th year of Great Xia. The broken part of the lake surface had already refrozen into a layer of solid ice. Still, not a single ripple emerged from the lake bottom.
Even Li Xuanling, with her decent mental fortitude, now began to feel extremely anxious and uneasy. The panic in her pupils grew increasingly intense.
"Sister-in-law, where is my brother?"
On the first day of the second month, Xia Chuan, who had temporarily extricated himself from affairs in the five northern towns, rushed over in great haste. Seeing only Li Xuanling alone on the lake surface, his face instantly darkened to the extreme.
Suppressing the panic in her heart, and seeing Xia Chuan had come alone, Li Xuanling directly recounted everything that happened on the night of the eighth day of the first month in detail.
Since last year's northern campaign began, Xia Chuan had been in the north the whole time. The three major battles with Caiqiu were mainly fought by Yuwen Tao's Right Route Army, with Eldest Brother Xia Hong personally supervising. Furthermore, after Eldest Brother subsequently negotiated a ceasefire with Caiqiu, his energy had been focused on the aftermath work in the five northern towns and on the 100,000-strong army of Chencang at Dongchuan City.
He only learned about Eldest Brother's disappearance at Red Dragon Lake on the final day of the Cold Month Festival, through the person sent by Sister-in-law Li Xuanling. On his way here, he was filled with pent-up anger, thinking that for such a major matter, Li Xuanling had actually delayed telling him for a full seven days. But now, hearing Li Xuanling recount the course of events, he pondered for a moment, understood the ins and outs, and naturally wasn't that angry anymore.
Clearly, Li Xuanling initially thought Eldest Brother would return soon. Not sending someone to notify him was probably because she worried about causing panic. Moreover, for such a major matter, the fewer people who knew, the better. Once it spread, given the current situation, it would be nothing short of a catastrophic disaster for Great Xia.
Yes, a catastrophic disaster!
Eldest Brother was gone, and no one knew when he would return.
The problem was, unlike his departure to Mo'ao Chuan four years ago, this time when Xia Hong disappeared, he had taken the Sacred Cauldron and the Frost Beast Stakes with him.
Great Xia currently hadn't yet dealt with Chencang's 100,000-strong army. The ceasefire agreement negotiated with Caiqiu was scheduled to be signed next month, in March. With Lord Leader Xia Hong absent at this time, once Chencang and Caiqiu found out, the consequences would be severe.
Xia Chuan wasn't worried at all about Xia Hong's personal safety. He had absolute confidence in his eldest brother. But the predicament Great Xia would face next left him no choice but to feel panicked. Even some terrifying consequences began to surface in his mind.
"Eldest Brother doesn't know when he can return. If he can't make it for Caiqiu's ceasefire agreement next month, Caiqiu will inevitably become suspicious. And then there's Chencang's 100,000-strong army at Dongchuan City. With Eldest Brother gone, without the Sacred Cauldron and the Beast Emperor Puppets, relying solely on ourselves, I'm afraid..."
For a moment, Xia Chuan's mind was in turmoil, even to the point of losing some composure.
"Seal the news about Red Dragon Lake. Announce publicly that the Lord Leader is at a critical moment of breakthrough. I will personally appear to sign the Caiqiu agreement normally. As for Chencang's 100,000-strong army, we not only have to deal with them, but our methods must also be more forceful. We must quickly drive them out of the Southern Foothills territory. Delaying will cause complications.
Furthermore, we must quickly establish contact with Wei Bo and Hecang as well. We won't participate in Chencang and Caiqiu's war, nor will we actively involve ourselves in the conflicts among the Four Feudatories. But we should engage with them normally, adopting the posture of a Feudal Town!"
Xia Chuan looked up at Li Xuanling, slightly taken aback. He then quickly calmed himself down and carefully considered her three suggestions.
"Sister-in-law's insight is brilliant! It can only be this way!"
At this critical juncture, Great Xia not only cannot show weakness, but must instead be even more resolute.
I sent Chu Dahe a letter a month ago, sternly warning him to withdraw Chencang's 100,000-strong army from Dongchuan City. He neither agreed nor refused, seemingly wanting to stall. We can't let him continue stalling. The rebel forces in the five northern towns have been mostly dealt with. I'll return immediately, mobilize the army, and deliver a final ultimatum to Chu Dahe. I don't believe Chencang truly dares to fight!"
Xia Chuan's face was grim. After speaking, he directly turned and left.
Li Xuanling remained standing in place, staring at the lake bottom for a while, accepting the fact that her husband wouldn't be coming out anytime soon. She clenched her fist slightly, then also turned and flew away towards the north.
"Cheng He, continue sealing off this area. I will soon dispatch the Longyuan Army here. At that time, hand this place over to them and go attend to your own duties."
Before leaving, he didn't forget to give another instruction to Cheng He by the lakeside.
"This subordinate obeys!"
Cheng He was somewhat confused. On the eighth day of the first month, after Li Xuanling emerged from the lake bottom with the two Highnesses, she immediately ordered him to lead his men to withdraw from the ice surface. Therefore, he didn't know exactly what had happened.
"Did the Lord Leader... come out without me seeing, or hasn't he come out? What about Xiahou Yong and Jiang Yifan? They've disappeared too. Why did the Department Chancellor come personally? Could it be..."
Of course, he wasn't stupid. He vaguely sensed that something major had occurred. A terrifying conjecture arose in his mind, and his pupils contracted slightly.
Being inherently cautious, he ultimately didn't dare to continue that line of thought. Instead, he turned to summon his subordinates and began deploying personnel to seal off Red Dragon Lake.