Chapter 181 – Liu Yuan’s father
Since the Imperial Chu clan had always been against Long Yu, the princess must have sided with Long Ce and let him kill Long Yu.
On the contrary, the princess intervened and stopped the fight. It seemed like she had some sort of truce with Feng Longsong.
Obviously, Long Ce wasn’t quite happy with this ‘truce’!
After the Imperial Chu clan’s princess intervened, Long Ce dared not to fight again.
When Long Yu asked Feng Longsong about it, he smiled and said: “Young Long Yu, the Imperial city is not a simple place. Forging acquaintances here is a very complicated thing. Although Prince Chu Chao Sheng holds a grudge against me, there are a lot of people inside the Imperial Chu clan who don’t like Chu Chao Sheng at all.”
As Feng Longsong answered, Long Yu understood everything at once.
So that’s how it was!
It meant that Long Ce and the Imperial princess were not the allies of Chu Chao Sheng. In fact, they might be sharing a strained relationship with Chu Chao Sheng!
Just like the Long clan expelled Long Zaitian and wanted to kill his son Long Yu, perhaps the Imperial Chu clan was no different at all.
Although both Chu Chao Sheng and Long Ce wanted to kill Long Yu, there still were some people in the Imperial city who would intervene and stop them!
This had a great connection to Long Yu’s talent.
Originally, in the whole Tang kingdom, it was only Long Yu’s grandfather who had been secretly protecting him while maintaining his pretense of hating him.
After Long Yu’s talent became known to all, several people acknowledged his worth and decided to protect him.
Especially in the Imperial Chu clan, there were some people who opposed Chu Chao Sheng and wanted to save Long Yu from him for the time being, making it possible for Long Yu to create troubles for Chu Chao Sheng and Long clan in the future.
All of it was a much larger game plan than anyone had ever imagined!
In such a large kingdom, any sect or clan which was at the top was usually considered to be balanced or conflict-free.
All the most influential families had thus allied with each other to maintain their ‘balanced’ image, helping themselves to retain their dominant positions.
Prince Chu Chao Sheng made some very rash decisions during the recent times, which might have irked his allies and clansmen. This was perhaps the chief reason behind the Princess’ appearance with Long Ce in order to save Long Yu.
The princess solved the matter perfectly and even had Long Yu’s back.
This way, even the Long clan wouldn’t be able to directly take any action against Long Yu in case he killed or severely injured Long Ce because Long Yu never attacked him first!
Otherwise, Long Yu might have been caught up in great trouble for attacking Long Ji.
Long Yu was no fool. After Feng Longsong dropped some hints, he immediately understood all the complexities of what seemed more like a ‘truce’.
“This Imperial Chu clan’s princess looks like any ordinary fifteen or sixteen years old girl with a cultivation level of Wudao ninth layer….. Who’s the man standing behind her and planning all this?”
Long Yu thought to himself but without any further delay, followed Li Yuan into the Liu clan mansion.
As for Feng Longsong, he slowly walked towards his wife Liu Yu to talk to her. After getting his cultivation restored and even enhanced by one layer, he would certainly pursue her to come back.
Long Yu didn’t want to keep Feng Longsong from finally talking to his wife, so he thought it would be better to follow Liu Yuan and listen to what she had to say.
Other people of the Liu clan who had cultivation level of Zhenling third layer didn’t dare to stop either of Long Yu or Liu Yuan.
The head of the Liu clan, Liu Zeyan, was struck by Liu Yuan so hard that he was sent flying several feet away. Luckily for him, no outsider had seen him in such a state.
Captain Long Ce’s arrival and Feng Longsong’s restoration of his cultivation and breaking through to the next layer was just too much for the townspeople to talk about for months. No one cared to know why the Liu clan chief had stayed away from everything that was happening.
Long Ji’s marriage proposal to Liu Yuan naturally held no significance now.
Liu Zeyan had his bones fractured from the fall that followed after Liu Yuan hitting him.
As Liu Yuan took Long Yu along with her inside the Liu clan mansion, Liu Zeyan could do nothing but to watch helplessly in pain.
“Liu Yuan, where are you taking me?”
It was not Long Yu’s suspicion for Liu Yuan but his sense of security that made him ask this question as he followed Liu Yuan to a secluded corner of the Liu clan mansion.
“To see my father.”
Liu Yuan calmly said.
“To see your… father?”
Long Yu’s complexion changed as he heard Liu Yuan’s words.
He was not prepared to see her father yet.
“When I was too young, my parents went along with a group of other people to hunt for wild beasts. All the people that had gone for hunting died there, except for my father…..”
Liu Yuan’s eyes flashed with grief: “However, when my father returned, he acted unusually. My clansmen always said that he has lost his senses, but I couldn’t believe them. I think he must have encountered something really strange but found no appropriate way of explaining what he really saw during that hunting trip.”
Encountered something strange?
Long Yu was calm once again.
Perhaps Liu Yuan was right. Perhaps her father had really encountered something so strange that he couldn’t find a way to express himself, leading others to think that he had gone insane.
He must have been panic-stricken with whatever he saw and greatly grieved at the death of his wife. Since none of his talks would be making any sense to the others, they all thought that he had turned into a fool.
However, no one knew what exactly happened during that hunting trip!
“Your foster father was severely injured. All his heavenly arteries had been damaged beyond any repair and his cultivation level was suppressed to Wudao realm….”
Liu Yuan continued speaking: “I hope that you might be able to cure my father, just the way you cured your foster father.”
“I don’t have any skill of curing people.”
Long Yu replied to her: “My foster father owes the restoration of his cultivation to a mysterious level immortality pill.”
“Mysterious level immortality pill?”
Liu Yuan gawked with disappointment. She never imagined the reason behind Feng Longsong’s unexpected cure to be some immortality pill!
“Alright, but since you have come this far, I think you should really meet my father once.”
Liu Yuan shook her head as she crossed a corridor to enter a quiet garden. At the innermost corner of the garden were two small huts with thatched roof. It was an isolated place.
However, as Long Yu advanced towards the huts, he found that his previous observations weren’t true.
The two thatched huts were completely withered as if they were being repeatedly attacked by something. Behind the huts, Long Yu finally saw a trembling and shouting fearful figure.
It was Liu Yuan’s father!
“Don’t come near me! Stay away from me! h.e.l.l! Storm! Devil! h.e.l.l! Storm! Devil!”
The madman got frightened and started shouting as soon as he noticed Long Yu and Liu Yuan approaching him. He was trembling like a leaf!
Devil? Storm?
Long Yu couldn’t figure out what the man was trying to say, so he walked straight towards Liu Yuan.
Liu Yuan stood at the garden entrance. She didn’t enter the garden. Staring at her father, she said: “It has been more than ten years since my father returned from that hunting trip. He hasn’t let anyone come near him since then.”
“He is repeatedly shouting about h.e.l.l, storm and devil. What did he mean?”
Long Yu asked.
“I don’t know.”
Liu Yuan narrowed her eyes and said: “But I have always believed that whatever he says isn’t some nonsense blabbering, it holds some meaning.”
“For example?”
Long Yu inquired again.
“h.e.l.l, storm and devil might mean that some beast appeared during a storm and attacked my mother and all the other people.”
Liu Yuan replied in a soft voice.
Some devil that appeared from the h.e.l.l during a storm?
Long Yu wrinkled his eyebrows. In the whole continent, the words devil and h.e.l.l were so rarely used. No one believed in anything except martial arts.
No one would’ve believed any word said about evil spirits, devils or ghosts!
That’s why whatever Liu Yuan’s father said seemed like a madman’s useless blabber to the others.
But Long Yu was moved!
He recollected from his nine hidden dragon mark that the place Liu Yuan’s father had been talking about was actually Shen Wu continent and not Tian Yu continent. Moreover, he remembered that this Shen Wu continent was much larger than Tian Yu continent.
Initially, Long Yu always wondered whether there was some other continent apart from the Tian Yu continent.
Hearing Liu Yuan’s father shouting gave Long Yu some new insights.
Perhaps the Tian Yu continent was just a small fragment of the Shen Wu continent.
The so-called ‘devil that appeared from the h.e.l.l during the storm’ might have been some martial artist from the Shen Wu continent that might have entered the Tian Yu continent. Hailing from the Shen Wu continent, the person might have displayed some supernatural powers or would’ve at least been far more powerful than anyone else in the Tian Yu continent.
Long Yu remembered the nine hidden dragon tribe, whose members were called the descendants of the dragon, where even the youngest of the boys and girls had entered the realm of Man-heaven unity and were far more powerful than Long Yu.
Long Yu had never come across any martial artist belonging to the realm of Man-heaven unity in the whole of Tian Yu continent.
He knew only one man that belonged to the realm of Man-Heaven unity – Xinghai Lun of the seven calamity stars, but he hadn’t met him yet.
Was there really some supernatural world outside of the Tian Yu continent?
If not, what possible relation was there between these two?
As these thoughts continued flashing through Long Yu’s mind, he said to Liu Yuan: “Don’t be disheartened, Liu Yuan. If your father is right, perhaps that beast might just have captured your mother. She might still be alive somewhere. We will soon find a way to get to the bottom of this mystery. Don’t worry.”
“I feel so bad for my father….”
Liu Yuan said sulkily.
“Feeling sad about what happened wouldn’t make things right.”
Long Yu firmly said: “In order to pull your father out of the trauma, we may have to put him as well as ourselves in the same situation that occurred years ago and to overcome that situation, we need to have extraordinary strength!”
“Yes, you are right.”
Liu Yuan nodded and said: “We both obtained one-half of the lunar tablet. Do you mind joining those two halves and meditating together?”
“I don’t have any problem with that.”
Long Yu wasn’t hesitant at all.
Joining the two halves of the lunar tablet would complete it, and a complete lunar tablet was far more powerful than the separate halves. This was surely going to benefit both Long Yu and Liu Yuan.
Seeing Long Yu accept her suggestion, Liu Yuan heaved a sigh of relief.
She found great comfort with Long Yu. Unlike other people, Long Yu didn’t think of her father as some lunatic. He even believed in the possibility of her mother being still alive. She was grateful to him for that.
However, Liu Yuan was completely unaware of all the thoughts that were floating in Long Yu’s mind.
Shen Wu continent, the nine hidden dragon tribe, realm of Man-Heaven unity – Liu Yuan was too far from having any idea about all these things.
Long Yu and Liu Yuan had bonded with each other while fighting Long Ji and now they were entrusting each other with their halves of the lunar tablet.
Suddenly, Long Yu noticed that his nine hidden dragon mark was getting more and more heated up since the moment he saw Liu Yuan’s father!
This made Long Yu wonder: “What exactly is the matter?”