After hearing Su Qingzhuo's answer, Yunxi smiled slightly. "Which elder is your master?"
Su Qingzhuo lowered his gaze. "My master is Feng Fen Zhēnjūn of Tianyun Gate."
"Tianyun Gate?"
Yunxi rubbed her fingers, searching her memory for anything on Tianyun Gate. Fragments surfaced from the five years she had spent in the Hive, when she had pored over countless jade slips and formed a rough map of the sects and powers across the Weiyu Realm.
Ten thousand years ago, Tianyun Gate had been a major force among first-rate sects. They could trace the past, divine the future, read fortune and misfortune, even change a person's fate. Yet meddling with fate offended the Heavenly Dao. In the ages that followed, Tianyun Gate disciples suffered one "accident" after another and were struck by collective backlash, as if cursed. Their numbers shrank. Rumors worsened their decline. The sect slid downhill until it was reduced to a single lineage.
In short, Tianyun Gate now had only two people, one master and one disciple. Feng Fen Zhēnjūn was the sole living inheritor. People called him the "mad old man," and his whereabouts were always a mystery. The Hive held no record of him taking a disciple.
These thoughts flashed through Yunxi's mind and vanished. She smiled and asked, "Did your master cast a divination for you?"
Su Qingzhuo nodded, a little dejected. "He did. He said the Su family will be dragged into a great vortex that will implicate the entire clan. I am Su family, so I cannot escape. But…"
He glanced at Yunxi. She humored him. "But what?"
"But my master saw a sliver of Shengji in the hexagrams. It is faint, so he risked backlash and cast again. He said my benefactor would come to Qianling City. He told me to wait here."
When he finished, Su Qingzhuo snuck another cautious look at her.
Yunxi's smile deepened. "Your master dotes on you. He went to great lengths for your sake. Your Illusion-Piercing Eye is also from Tianyun Gate?"
"Yes. My master accepted me because my eyes could cultivate that secret art."
On this point, Su Qingzhuo was honestly proud.
Yunxi asked with interest, "And the Su family allowed you to join a sect with no future like Tianyun Gate?"
Her bluntness made his mouth twitch. "I am not required to inherit clan affairs. As long as I cultivate properly and ascend, that is enough. Besides, Master said I have talent for divination and will surely ascend one day."
Yunxi clicked her tongue inwardly at that generous promise. Still, after meeting Su Qingzhuo, she found this young master's thoughts very clear, with few twists and turns. To put it plainly, a bit simple and sweet.
Otherwise he would not have rashly ordered Golden Core guards to "invite" her. Any other cultivator would first verify her background and confirm she matched the benefactor shown by the hexagrams before arranging a meeting.
For divination, however, the purer the mind, the more accurate the result. Fewer distractions meant fewer chances to skew the omen with one's own bias.
Su Qingzhuo saw the woman across from him smiling in silence and felt she was laughing at him. He clenched the jade compass at his waist. "My master is certainly correct. He has never misread a casting."
Yunxi did not doubt Feng Fen Zhēnjūn's skill. She smiled. "So then?"
"So then what?"
"So how do you know I am the one you seek? If I am, how do you want me to help you? Or, how do you want me to save you?"
She tossed the question back to him.
Su Qingzhuo was stumped. His master had not given him next steps. Not wanting to lose face, he frowned. "Master said that once I found you, I should follow your instructions."
"Follow my instructions? And you are not afraid I might…"
Yunxi paused deliberately and drew a hand across her throat.
Su Qingzhuo swallowed. "D… do not try to scare me. My cultivation is beneath yours, but my eyes are formidable. I cannot pierce your disguise, yet radiance coils around you. One blessed by merit would not be a wanton killer."
At that, Yunxi's expression cooled and her brow arched. "Su Qingzhuo, did your master never teach you that the more one speaks, the more one errs? Do not casually spill another's secrets."
Su Qingzhuo answered at once, "I would not say such things ordinarily. Only because you are my benefactor. Master said that if I want your help, I should display some ability, prove I am useful."
"Feng Fen Zhēnjūn knows you well."
Yunxi could only hold back a sigh. A disciple this straightforward could only be released by a "mad old man." She still did not know how she might help him, but she was interested in the Su family's affairs.
Su Qingzhuo watched her with hopeful eyes, waiting for her to speak.
After a moment's thought, Yunxi asked directly, "Eight hundred li from Qianling City lies a secret realm belonging to your Su family. It vanished not long ago. Do you know about this?"
He did not know why his benefactor asked, but he answered anyway. "I do. Word spread throughout the clan. Everyone says the realm had been picked clean and could no longer earn spirit stones for the Su family, so the Ancestors abandoned it."
"The last opening should have been five years ago. Why did it not vanish then, but only five years later?"
"I do not know."
"Go back and investigate."
"Alright."
He agreed, then seized the chance to ask, "If I learn anything, how should I report it to you, Benefactor?"
Yunxi smiled. "Give me your communication jade."
"Oh, okay."
Su Qingzhuo promptly presented his jade with both hands. Yunxi flicked a sphere of spiritual light onto it, leaving her aura behind, then marked Su Qingzhuo's aura in her own slip. "I still do not know how I will help you, but your calamity comes from your clan. The most conspicuous matter right now is the disappearance of that secret realm. Start there."
"Will that really help?"
"Investigate and you will know. Do it privately. Do not alert anyone else in the clan."
"Why?"
Yunxi's tone held deeper meaning. "Because the disappearance of the Su family's secret realm is connected to evil cultivators."
Su Qingzhuo could no longer sit still. He stood up. "Impossible. The Su family would never consort with evil cultivators."
"I never said the Su family had dealings with them. I worry the Su family will become their target."
Yunxi's voice was calm.
"Who are you, really?"
"Only now you think to ask?"