The old man sighed, slowly raised his head and looked at Anpei Lan’s back, his gaze complicated.
"Family Head, if the forr Family Head’s spirit is watching from the heavens..."
"Heh," before the old man could finish, Anpei Lan suddenly let out a cold laugh, a sinister chill seeming to seep from his whole body. "If his spirit is watching from the heavens and sees the Anpei Family growing stronger, I’m sure he’d be very pleased. Uncle, he’s just a dead man. There’s no need to bring him up again."
"...Yes... Family Head, please get so rest. This old slave will take his leave." As he spoke, the old man slowly backed into the crack from before and disappeared.
Anpei Lan did not look back, his spine straight as a rod. He stared fixedly at the photo on the wall, flicked his sleeve, and turned to leave.
In the empty study, the tightly shut window slowly opened a slit. The gap widened, and two figures flipped in from outside.
As soon as An Yiqing’s feet steadied, Gu Yelin patted her shoulder and glanced toward the spot where the old man had just withdrawn.
An Yiqing shook her head, indicating the old man was gone. She turned, closed the window, then walked over to the spot where Anpei Lan had just been standing.
"This person is..."
"The previous Family Head of the Anpei Family, Anpei Yutian," Gu Yelin said.
Anpei Yutian, Anpei Lan’s biological father. It was said that Anpei Yutian was a man whose thods were no less ruthless than Anpei Lan’s. When he was still alive, the Anpei Family’s status in Country Bai was even more revered than before. No—rather than ’revered’, it would be more accurate to say ’feared’.
Anpei Yutian had a violent temper and was a man of extrely cruel ans. It was said that decades ago, there was once an Onmyoji Aristocratic family in seclusion that refused to accept the Anpei Family’s position and ca to challenge them. Anpei Yutian personally took the field and had that family’s Family Head dismbered by five horses, not even sparing the one-year-old infant.
That extermination of a hidden family in a single night cented Anpei Yutian’s reputation for viciousness.
"When Anpei Yutian was alive, he favored Anpei Feng, the eldest brother of Anpei Lan, the son born by the woman he liked most." Gu Yelin’s voice was low as he slowly recounted, "Anpei Feng did live up to expectations. At a very young age he had already achieved a lot. When he first rose to fa, people didn’t even know who Anpei Lan was. But later, for so unknown reason, turmoil broke out in the Anpei Family. Anpei Yutian just died in his sleep. Anpei Feng vanished without a trace, and Anpei Lan took the seat of Family Head. The elders of the Anpei Family were all against it at first, but Anpei Lan’s thods were even more ruthless than his father’s, and his Yin Yang Technique had long since reached Great Achievent. Only then were the voices of opposition within the Anpei Family suppressed."
An Yiqing’s eyes narrowed slightly as she stared in a daze at the man in the photo. His features were cold and sharp, his gaze imposing even without anger. Even though it was only a photograph, it was as if one could still feel the dense killing aura. She was not of the Mystic Arts world, but she had grown increasingly adept at the feng shui and fate-calculation techniques Shennong Shi had left behind. From this photo, Anpei Yutian should have died a violent death.
There was absolutely no way he had just "died in his sleep" that simply.
"Let’s see if there’s anything good in the study. The Anpei Family gossip can wait." Drawing back her gaze, An Yiqing said with a faint smile.
Gu Yelin had the sa idea. The two split up: one went to rummage through the bookshelves and desk, while the other openly started digging through the files on the computer.
And sure enough, after a bit of searching, they actually found quite a lot of useful things.
An Yiqing found records about Nuan Yin and its location in a hidden compartnt. Within the Anpei Family, they all referred to Nuan Yin as the Divine Herb. The information stated that the Divine Herb was an Extrely Yang Object, a sacred item used to raise the cultivation level of practitioners. Seeing this, An Yiqing arched a delicate brow. So the Anpei Family didn’t know about Nuan Yin’s other uses.
On another sheet of paper were the Anpei Family ancestor’s deductions about the location of Nuan Yin, which were almost exactly the sa as her own guesses. It was located at the junction between the crust beneath Lemin Mountain and a volcanic conduit, close to the very center of the lava. The docunt also ntioned that every few hundred years, the Divine Herb had to find a high-temperature site to undergo a period of dormant evolution. During that ti, its surrounding temperature was extrely high; a human body would be burned to ash just by getting close. Only when the Divine Herb awoke from its dormancy and its body temperature dropped would it be the best ti to approach.
For so reason, when An Yiqing read this line, sothing seed to flicker through her mind, but she couldn’t grasp it.
Frowning slightly, she put everything back where she found it, then walked over to Gu Yelin’s side to look at the computer.
"Anything?"
"Anpei Lan is indeed working with Smith. Each year, a considerable amount of funds flows into the Anpei Family from Country Fei." Gu Yelin’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he spoke without turning his head.
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