Qin Moyu didn't care how devastated he was; she continued to cry loudly until her voice was hoarse.
Left with no other choice, he could only transform into the old Taoist priest once again, donning that tattered Taoist robe, which he wore for more than a decade.
The infant in swaddling clothes grew up little by little under the watchful eyes of Master Xuanjing. From initially accepting someone's entrustment to later genuinely caring for him, Master Xuanjing did consider taking Qin Moyu back to Guanlan Sect to raise him.
The plan to bring Qin Moyu back was doomed to fail the moment Qin Moyu revealed the Red Lotus Karmic Flame.
"Master, what is this?" Qin Moyu's face still had some baby fat, and her big, bright eyes seemed to be able to speak. Her voice was childish and innocent. "It's so strange."
With his last glimmer of hope, Master Xuanjing touched the thing that resembled the legendary Red Lotus Karmic Fire.
In an instant, his fingers were covered with a layer of ice, almost instantly causing him to lose all feeling in his fingers.
"well?"
Qin Moyu looked at the Red Lotus Karmic Fire in surprise, and tried to poke the Red Lotus Karmic Fire in his palm like Xuanjing Zhenren, but there was no reaction.
At this point, it would be unreasonable for Master Xuanjing to continue deceiving himself, but it is precisely because this is the real Red Lotus Karmic Fire that it is the most troublesome.
The Red Lotus Karmic Fire is related to the Extreme Cold Land, so Qin Moyu's background is obvious. No matter what happened in the Extreme Cold Land, based on the old Taoist's description of finding Qin Moyu, Xuanjing Zhenren knows that he must be related to a certain Tribulation Transcending Realm expert in the world.
If he takes Qin Moyu back to Guanlan Sect now, there are many people in the sect who are watching closely. It's better to be safe than sorry. If the news that Qin Moyu possesses the Red Lotus Karmic Flame gets out, the consequences will be unimaginable.
In the blink of an eye, Master Xuanjing thought about many things. He had grown up in the Guanlan Sect since childhood and naturally did not want to bring about the destruction of the Guanlan Sect. Therefore, he could not even tell Qin Moyu his true identity.
The best course of action would be to completely sever ties with Qin Moyu. As long as he is handed over to a good family—which wouldn't be difficult given Qin Moyu's appearance—and all attention is cut off, even if Qin Moyu's background attracts the attention of a Tribulation Transcending stage expert in the future, no matter what happens, it won't involve Xuanjing Zhenren.
But……
Looking at Qin Moyu, who was carefree, smiling brightly, and calling him "Master" repeatedly, Master Xuanjing couldn't bring himself to be cruel.
Let's wait a little longer, until he's a bit older, then I'll leave.
Master Xuanjing told himself this, but whose heart isn't made of flesh and blood? In the years they spent together, he and Qin Moyu were more like father and son than master and disciple.
He repeatedly broke his own bottom line, from small things like eating an extra bite of pastry to big things like letting Qin Moyu go down the mountain because he couldn't resist her longing gaze. All his persistence was completely defeated by Qin Moyu.
The reason he "sent" Qin Moyu down the mountain that day was partly because of Shen Mo's letter, and the sect kept urging him to return; and partly because he had made up his mind to stop running away and tell Qin Moyu his identity.
But fate played a cruel trick on him. He never expected that his stubborn refusal to immediately reveal his identity to Qin Moyu would become the beginning of all the tragedies that followed.
On the day he was defeated by Fen Qi and was on the verge of death, Master Xuanjing still thought of Qin Moyu.
He thought.
—Even without me, you must eat well, you brat.
Chapter Sixty-Four: Jade Pendant I don't believe in fate, but I do believe in encounters…
Fen Qi showed no mercy to Xuan Jing Zhenren, his attacks were all aimed at his vital points, which is why even with the help of imperial physicians and a large number of rare and precious medicines, Xuan Jing Zhenren remained unconscious until today.
As for how Master Xuanjing escaped and how he came to the Southern Kingdom, even he himself didn't know.
“I fainted at the time, and when I woke up I was here. If I had to say there was anything special about it…” Master Xuanjing pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered something, “When I first returned to the sect, a man named Nanxun came to find you, saying he wanted to repay a debt of gratitude and asked me to give you something. Do you know him?”
Southward search?
Qin Moyu was slightly taken aback, then nodded: "I know him."
Since that night when they parted, Qin Moyu had never seen Nan Xun again. He hadn't taken Nan Xun's previous words about repaying his debt of gratitude seriously, and he never expected that the other party would actually go to the sect to look for him.
No matter how hard Qin Moyu racked his brains, he couldn't figure out what Nan Xun wanted to give him.
"I remember it was a jade pendant... covered with arrays." Master Xuanjing tried hard to recall what it looked like. At the time, he hadn't paid any attention to it. He only put it in his inner pocket when Nanxun said he was going to give it to Qin Moyu.
A jade pendant engraved with array formations?
Qin Moyu felt that he had seen what Xuanjing Zhenren was talking about somewhere before. He took off his storage bag and searched through it several times before finally finding the jade pendant that he had forgotten about.
"Is this it?" Qin Moyu asked, taking out the jade pendant.
Master Xuanjing's eyes lit up, and he said with absolute certainty, "Yes! That's it!"
Qin Moyu held the jade pendant, looking towards the door with mixed feelings.
He remembered this thing... it was given to him by Shen Yebai, who said it could save his life.
"Maybe he can tell us why."
Qin Moyu said softly.
"Who?" Master Xuanjing looked in the direction Qin Moyu was looking, completely bewildered, but only saw a tightly closed door.
Even though the door was tightly closed, Qin Moyu's intuition told him that Shen Mo was right outside the door.
He gestured to Master Xuanjing not to rush, and then slowly and quietly walked towards the door.
Qin Moyu carefully opened a crack in the door and saw Shen Mo standing under a tree not far away, lost in thought.
Shen Mo seemed to have been standing there for a long time, oblivious to the fallen leaves landing on his shoulders. He was looking down at something, his back view inexplicably lonely.
Although the sound of the door opening was faint, it still caught Shen Mo's attention.
He turned around and was stunned when he saw Qin Moyu peeking at him through the crack in the door. Then he smiled at him with a helpless yet indulgent expression.