The cave was very quiet, so quiet that one could hear the sound of water droplets falling from the tips of stalactites in the distance.
Yan Qingning stood there, her Divine Sense spreading like an invisible tide, covering every corner and every stone crevice of this massive space.
There was an invisible, extremely profound, and powerful Formation force, like an inverted giant bowl, enveloping the entire cave.
This Formation was connected to the water veins in the lake and even to some residual power deep underground.
It could perfectly isolate all Divine Sense probes, as if erasing this space from the world entirely.
No wonder even she hadn't noticed it.
This was clearly the work of the Blood Prison Nether Spider from back then.
She had thought the Blood Prison Nether Spider lived within the blood lake; she hadn't expected it to hide an Immortal Cave as well.
But at this moment, the Immortal Cave was slowly and irreversibly disintegrating.
Like a body that had lost its heart, though the blood had not yet run dry, its vitality was already severed.
"The core of the Formation... has been taken," she whispered to herself, her gaze falling on a pool in a corner of the cave.
The residual spiritual fluctuations there were the most chaotic and intense.
Unfortunately, it was now empty.
The remains of a few spiritual materials were scattered on the ground, long since decayed over the long years, their Spiritual Qi completely gone, leaving only piles of dull dust.
Her gaze finally fixed on an open space in a dark room.
There, a small pile of ashes lay.
The ashes were still fresh, their edges maintaining a rough outline, clearly from a campfire that had recently burned out.
In the air, there seemed to be a trace of a strange aura that did not belong here.
Someone had been here.
And quite recently.
Yan Qingning's brow furrowed slightly.
This place, which even she failed to discover—who could have known about it?
After the Blood Prison Nether Spider was slain, the world thought this place had perished along with that great demon, turning into ordinary mountains and rivers.
A Yao Beast that had lost its intelligence and possessed only instinct—who would have thought it could leave behind such a hidden legacy?
She closed her eyes, her fingers moving again as she silently operated the Heavenly Divination Art, attempting to trace the residual traces of Karma in this place and glimpse the identity of the intruder.
However, as far as her Divine Sense reached, it was still a mass of Chaos.
Just like when she previously calculated Frost Radiance's movements that night, a thick mist obscured the heavenly secrets, preventing her from seeing anything clearly.
Once might be a coincidence, but twice was definitely no accident.
She opened her eyes and turned her gaze toward the two fish watching nervously in the pond, her voice cold:
"Have you seen anyone else come here recently?"
The black fish hurriedly shook its head, causing ripples in the water:
"To answer the Fairy, little fish... little fish didn't pay much attention. This lake is too big, and very few people come deep into this area.
Oh right, a few days ago there was a woman by the lake... bathing, but I really don't know anything else."
A woman? Bathing?
Yan Qingning pressed: "What did that woman look like?"
The black fish tried hard to remember, its fish head swinging left and right, appearing somewhat strained.
It had gained intelligence, but its memory and thinking were still simple:
"Height... not tall, small, skin quite white... um, that's all I remember.
Little fish only caught a glimpse before my wife chased and pecked me for a long time, so I didn't see clearly..."
It spoke vaguely, but a few keywords stirred something in Yan Qingning's heart.
She raised her hand, spiritual light flowing from her fingertips, quickly sketching a lifelike phantom of a young girl.
It was exactly Sang Linger with her hair in a ponytail.
"Is it this person?"
The black fish leaned closer to the phantom, its bead-like eyes blinking, finding her more and more familiar: "Yes! It seems to be her! The figure is very similar!"
Linger?
The cloud of doubt in Yan Qingning's heart did not dissipate; instead, it grew thicker.
If Linger had accidentally discovered this place and taken the treasure... with Linger's cultivation and those few Magical Artifacts for masking her aura, it would be absolutely impossible for her to block the Heavenly Divination Art so completely.
Unless the person who took the items was someone else.
And Linger's presence by the lake was perhaps just a coincidence.
Someone who could remain hidden from her calculations and know of this secret Immortal Cave that even she hadn't found... As soon as this thought emerged, it was like a spark falling into dry wood. With a "boom," a prairie fire that even she felt startled by ignited in her heart, which had been frozen for a thousand years!
A name, a figure, almost broke through the blockade of a thousand years, ready to come out.
Could it be possible?
She didn't even dare to let the thought become fully clear.
But once that crazy thought was born, it spread, took root, and grew wildly in her heart at an alarming speed!
The method of verification was very simple.
"Frost Radiance," she called.
The Frost Radiance sword spirit manifested from her shoulder, curiously looking around:
"Master, where is this? It feels... a bit familiar, and a bit unpleasant."
"This place," Yan Qingning's voice remained steady, yet seemed to be suppressing something, "is the nest of the Blood Prison Nether Spider that you slew back then."
"Ah?!"
Frost Radiance's little face immediately scrunched up, showing an expression of disgust.
"No wonder! A smell of old blood! Master, let's leave quickly, it's uncomfortable here!"
Yan Qingning did not move, her gaze falling on the dodging eyes of Frost Radiance's spiritual body, each word clear and slow:
"Frost Radiance, I know you two have already met."
"How much longer do you intend to hide it from me?"
Frost Radiance stiffened all over, her large ice-blue eyes widening, her little face written with the panic of 'how did you know.'
But she was still holding out:
"Who, who? Master, what are you saying? I don't understand... I hate this place, let's go quickly!"
Yan Qingning looked at her. Her heart, which had been suppressed for a thousand years, was now like a deep pool into which a giant stone had been thrown, causing sudden waves.
In her voice, there was a slight tremor that even she hadn't noticed:
"This place was the nest of the Blood Prison Nether Spider. In this world, only two people could know the location of its blood pool."
"One is me."
"The other... you tell me, who would it be?"
The world rumored that it was she, Yan Qingning, who slew the Void Tempering great demon and made a name for herself in the Southern Region.
But only she knew that after that incredibly tragic battle, she was the first to collapse in exhaustion.
The one who finally delivered the fatal blow to the Blood Prison Nether Spider and truly knew the core secrets of this Yao Beast's nest... was only 'him.'
The person who gave Frost Radiance to her.
Frost Radiance didn't dare look at her master anymore, her small body shrinking back.
Her two little hands unconsciously twisted together, and she muttered in a voice as thin as a mosquito:
"I... I promised Daddy... I can't say..."
The word "Daddy" was like a thunderclap from the Nine Heavens, striking hard at Yan Qingning's heart!
Her body swayed as if she were truly drunk, and in those eyes that reflected eternal ice, a monstrous wave suddenly rose!
The only one who could be called that by Frost Radiance was her first master who forged her, the true master who had delivered both the sword embryo and his heart's blood to bring Frost Radiance to life!
He... really came back?
The impact of this realization was a thousand, ten thousand times more intense than discovering this Immortal Cave!
But... why did he... not come to find her?
A thousand years of searching, a thousand years of waiting—was it all for this... avoidance?
Frost Radiance knew she had let it slip and was stomping her feet in panic, shouting with a sob:
"Th-this was guessed by Master yourself! I didn't say anything! It doesn't count as me breaking the agreement!"
Yan Qingning took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the overwhelming turmoil in her heart, but her voice was colder and more urgent than before:
"Where... is he now?"
Frost Radiance knew she could no longer hide it, her little face full of grievance and self-blame.
She had clearly promised Daddy to keep the secret, yet she couldn't even hold it for two days.
She hung her head and recounted the whole process of how she sensed the familiar aura that night, how she followed the trail to find Jiang Xun, and how she was asked by Daddy to keep it a secret.
Finally, she shook her head dejectedly:
"But... Frost Radiance really doesn't know where Daddy is exactly. He told me to come back first and said he would come to find Master later..."
After hearing Frost Radiance's account, Yan Qingning fell silent.
A thousand years.
She thought her heart had long since become like still water, treating memories as bitter wine, brewing cup after cup, and swallowing them back into her stomach.
But at this moment, when that possibility which had almost become a delusion was confirmed, when she learned he was near this mountain range but chose to stay hidden...
An indescribable emotion, like a dormant volcano, suddenly exploded in her chest!
Was it joy? Was it anger? Was it grievance? Was it disbelief? Or... the panic and anxiety of seeing the dawn after a thousand years of waiting, only to be shrouded in mist again?
All these emotions mixed together, breaking down her prideful logic and coolness.
"Haha... Hahaha..."
She suddenly began to laugh softly. At first, it was just a suppressed chuckle, but it gradually became clear and resonant, yet with a heart-trembling, almost broken quality.
"A surprise?"
She whispered to herself, her gaze turning toward the outside of the cave, as if piercing through the thick rock to see the figure hidden somewhere unknown.
"I'm afraid... that if I wait for this surprise of yours, I'll have to wait another thousand years."
Before her voice finished, the aura around her suddenly changed!
The physical Frost Radiance sword, which had been hanging quietly by her side, let out a clear and spirited sword hum and automatically flew into her palm.
Seeing this, Frost Radiance also dove back into the sword.
She didn't care about anything anymore; she was going to sleep!
The hilt felt slightly cool in her hand, and the sword blade burst with light!
Yan Qingning gripped the sword, not even assuming a sword stance, but simply made a light stroke toward the void in front of her.
"Rip!"
There was no world-shaking sound.
But where her sword tip passed, the space silently split open like cut cloth, a smooth rift flowing with the aura of Chaos at its edges!
She took a step forward, her white-robed figure disappearing into the rift.
The next moment, the moonlight remained the same, and the lake water shimmered.
She had appeared out of thin air above the great lake, her toes lightly touching the water's surface as ripples spread out in circles beneath her feet.
The cold moonlight spilled over her, draping her in a silver glow.
Yet it could not dispel the complex, burning flame in her eyes that seemed ready to ignite.
She looked up at the moon, yet seemed to be looking through the moonlight at a more distant, unknowable place.
Her cherry lips parted slightly, her voice low as a whisper, quietly drifting across the silent lake surface:
"Are you... unwilling to see me, or... are you afraid of me?"
"But, it doesn't matter anymore."
She slowly tightened her grip on the Frost Radiance sword, its faint light illuminating her beautiful profile, which was no longer cold but filled with a near-obsessive determination.
"I will find you."
"And then... I'll make it so you can never leave me again."
Under the same moon.
In the dilapidated earthen house of the Jiang family in Yunshan Town.
Jiang Xun and Jiang Wanxing were sitting at a crooked wooden table, quietly eating dinner.
The halo of the oil lamp was warm but limited.
Jiang Wanxing took small sips of her porridge, occasionally peeking at her brother.
Seeing him safe and sound, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curled up slightly.
Jiang Xun was somewhat distracted, his mind still calculating how to handle the items in his storage ring.
He no longer had to worry about Brother Hu's debt.
Selling that small golden bell would solve it.
And the tax medicinal herbs had also been collected from the mountain crevices.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Just then, a series of neither heavy nor light, yet exceptionally clear knocks on the door abruptly sounded.
The sound against the dilapidated wooden door was very dull.
Jiang Xun's movement of scooping porridge stopped.
Strange. Of all the people who came to his house, which one ever knocked? Didn't they all just kick it open?