“Um. Can I talk now?”
Xiu Lanxin asked, looking at her seriously.
Lin Ling waved her hand dismissively and wrote: “Your father told Xiu Jiming not to go near the Yuzhou Fox Clan?”
Xiu Lanxin nodded and said, “Yeah, but I think you’re so cute, and you don’t have any of that foul, demonic energy. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Lin Ling automatically ignored the second half of her sentence and quickly wrote on the paper: “Does your father know? Does he know what happened to the Yuzhou Fox Clan back then?”
Xiu Lanxin glanced at Lin Ling’s words, thought for a moment, and said, “He knows. In fact, he was one of the participants.”
At that moment, Lin Ling’s heart nearly skipped a beat.
She tightly gripped the scrolls in her hand, her heart racing with excitement.
‘It’s the classic case of finding by luck what one couldn’t find by searching far and wide,’ she thought.
Lin Ling felt a wave of emotion, but then she remembered Xiu Lanxin’s nagging for the past 1 hour and immediately took back her previous thought.
‘Then again, maybe it wasn’t entirely effortless.’
Lin Ling wrote on the paper: “Can you take me to see your father? I want to ask him some things.”
Confused, Xiu Lanxin shook her head then nodded.
“That’s not a problem, but why do you suddenly want to see my dad? Do you really want us to help arrange a marriage with Brother Jiming?”
“Where is he?”
Lin Ling was getting irritable and kicked Xiu Lanxin in the knee.
Xiu Lanxin cried out in pain and looked at Lin Ling reproachfully.
“What was ê·¸ that for? That really hurt!” Xiu Lanxin said, feigning misery.
Lin Ling rolled her eyes and wrote on the paper: “I have no interest in your Xiu Jiming right now. I am more interested in my own history. So, I suggest you take me back to see him immediately. If you do, I might actually become interested in your Brother Jiming.”
Xiu Lanxin was stunned by the words, failing to understand what Lin Ling meant for a moment.
She could only stammer, “Um. That makes sense. But why don’t you just ask Brother Jiming? He was a direct participant back then. Wouldn’t he be more of an authority than my dad?”
Lin Ling froze, digging her finger into her ear as if she had misheard.
**[What did you say? Xiu Jiming was an insider back then?]**
She pulled out her pen again and wrote down her thoughts with a complicated expression.
“Yeah,” Xiu Lanxin replied.
“He had quite a lot of contact with your Yuzhou Fox Clan back then. But it was also from that time onward that Brother Jiming’s cultivation completely stalled. He was stuck at the Imperial Realm for nearly 20 years, and it seems he only broke through recently.”
Lin Ling’s expression soured.
She looked at the information in her hand with a conflicted gaze, finding it hard to believe.
‘Does the Fox Immortal Case really have something to do with Xiu Jiming?’
Dreadful associations began to form in her mind, but she quickly steadied herself.
No matter what, she needed to find out the truth.
She was becoming more and more curious about what exactly happened all those years ago.
—
Inside the Imperial Inspectorate.
The Library of Heaven.
This was the headquarters of the Yunzhou Imperial Inspectorate, responsible for coordinating all missions and assignments throughout the province.
At this moment, Xiu Yansheng was organizing the major cases handled by the Inspectorate in recent years, including operations to wipe out large-scale cults and demonic sects.
Through these repeated clashes, many heroic figures had been born.
However, the vast majority of them had already passed away.
Pensions and extra rewards from the Emperor needed to be properly arranged.
He felt a sense of relief knowing that his nephew, who had been a disappointment for so long, had finally rediscovered his Dao heart and stopped wallowing in self-despair.
The Xiu family’s situation had not been great in recent years.
Among the younger generation, only Xiu Jiming was truly outstanding, yet he had wasted nearly 20 years of his life in depression because of a foreign race.
This made Xiu Yansheng somewhat dissatisfied.
A genius.
Even if the current Xiu Jiming had only successfully entered the Manifestation Realm at the age of 34, he was still a genius among geniuses.
But compared to his original terrifying speed, he was naturally far behind where he should have been.
The Xiu family had gradually fallen into a weak position during recent clan competitions.
If Xiu Jiming remained in his previous state, the family would likely end up at the bottom of the next Five-Clan Tournament.
Thinking of this, Xiu Yansheng sighed softly.
There was nothing he could do.
If he had to blame someone, he could only blame Xiu Jiming’s father—his own elder brother, Xiu Daocheng.
Xiu Daocheng was born naturally charming and hated staying at home.
When he went out to travel in his younger years, he left a trail of broken hearts everywhere.
There were countless women who came to the Xiu family wanting to be the eldest young master’s wife.
When Xiu Daocheng finally returned, he brought a child with him.
He had happily told everyone that this was Xiu Jiming, his own flesh and blood.
After the family verified it, they confirmed that Xiu Jiming was a pure descendant of the Xiu family’s direct line and that his mother was also human.
However, Xiu Jiming’s father consistently refused to tell the family who the mother actually was.
He raised Xiu Jiming until the boy was 9.
Seeing that the child had such a talent for cultivation, Xiu Daocheng simply dumped him on the family to be raised and then wandered off to parts unknown.
Xiu Jiming’s current temperament was likely inherited from his father.
Xiu Yansheng felt a headache coming on just thinking about it.
But forget it; regardless of anything else, his nephew had finally regained his Dao heart and become a seeker of the path once more.
Just then, his daughter, Xiu Lanxin, appeared at his door, acting suspiciously.
Xiu Yansheng glanced at her but ignored her.
This girl was like this every day, walking without a sound.
He didn’t know who she had learned that from.
Xiu Yansheng continued with his work.
After a moment, he looked up, his brows furrowed tightly.
“What do you want?” he asked.
Xiu Lanxin sat obediently across from her father, smiling sheepishly.
“Well, Dad… that little fox Brother Jiming asked me to look after says she wants to see you. She wants to know about the events in Yuzhou.”
Xiu Yansheng’s brow furrowed even deeper.
“You mean she’s a descendant of the Yuzhou Fox Clan?”
Xiu Lanxin nodded quickly.
“Yes, yes! I knew you’d understand me, Dad. And little Ling’er seems very eager to know what happened back then. She didn’t even listen to what I was saying. Oh, right, and Brother Jiming…”
He ignored his daughter’s long-winded rambling and began to contemplate the matter.
Finally, his expression shifted between light and dark as he said, “I’ll see her. I must see her. If anyone from the Yuzhou Fox Clan survived, perhaps… perhaps we can topple that guy after all.”
After a brief preparation, he had Xiu Lanxin bring Lin Ling to see him.
The moment he laid eyes on Lin Ling, Xiu Yansheng was nearly unable to remain seated.
His hand gripped the armrest of his wooden chair so hard that he crushed it into splinters.
He stared at Lin Ling with a look of pure shock.
Lin Ling looked at the old man, wondering what had suddenly come over him, and instinctively took a step back.
Xiu Yansheng pointed at Lin Ling.
“You… how can it be you?! How can you possibly still be alive? And you’re still so young!”
Lin Ling’s heart stirred.
She knew she had found the right person.
This man definitely held the key to the secrets of the past.
Calming herself, Lin Ling took a deep breath and walked toward Xiu Yansheng.