Zhuge Yi adjusted his monocle as Anissa sat back in her seat, taking a deep breath to compose herself.
"I am no longer doubting your intentions," Zhuge Yi began, his tone measured. "I’ve confirmed that you had no initial plan to gain an audience with me. One of my store clerks mentioned that you merely needed to use the teleportation array, which happened to be dysfunctional today."
“Thanks to the Clan Leader for his grace,” Feng Zhiming and Anissa replied in unison, their voices respectful.
“However,” Zhuge Yi continued, “since you have helped my daughter, I am indebted to you. She insists that I grant you something. So, state your wish.”
Anissa remained silent for a moment, receiving the full details of the request from Feng Zhiming via voice transmission. After a brief pause, she cupped her hands and lowered her head.
“I beg the Clan Leader for his help in getting justice for my clan. If that is not possible, please support the Circle of the Forgotten One. When I was alone and lost after losing my clan, the Circle helped me greatly, and I joined their cause.”
Zhuge Yi didn’t respond immediately. He leaned back, his eyes narrowing as he pondered her request.
“Regarding justice,” he finally said, “naturally, since Dao Lord Fury has targeted my clan, we will investigate him thoroughly. I won’t count that as your request. As for the Circle you mentioned, I promise to support them financially and socially, should I encounter them. Let it be known that a Zhuge clan member has never been ungrateful.”
With that, Zhuge Yi stood up, signaling the end of the conversation. “Please excuse me, I have matters to attend to. Stay the night, and I will personally see you off to the teleportation array tomorrow morning.”
Anissa and Feng Zhiming bowed in gratitude before the old man from earlier entered the room to guide them out.
Once they had left, Zhuge Yi sat back down and gestured for someone to appear.
“My lord,” a figure fully cloaked in green replied, bowing deeply before him.
“Is it true that the Evermore estate has been destroyed?” Zhuge Yi asked.
The figure vanished for five breaths before reappearing, nodding in confirmation.
“And is it true that this girl was rescued by this Circle of the Forgotten One?” Zhuge Yi pressed further.
Again, the figure disappeared and returned after five breaths. “From the best available information, the narrative is that she somehow ended up in a bandit camp and was set to be sold to the Dual Divine Demon Sect. However—”
“However?” Zhuge Yi leaned forward, his interest piqued.
“The bandit camp was burned to the ground, and the bodies of the bandits were arranged to spell ‘Circle of the Forgotten One,’” the figure reported.
Zhuge Yi nodded thoughtfully, stroking his chin. “It is rather interesting… the disciple of a prodigious swordswoman somehow exudes no sword intent.”
The figure in the green cloak began to sweat slightly. “From our understanding, she met this boy after the church saved her. It might be logical that he does not possess any sword intent yet.”
Satisfied with the answers, Zhuge Yi leaned back, more content now that he had verified the information. As a shrewd businessman and leader, he knew better than to engage with unknown entities without first understanding them.
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“Too much is happening all at once,” he mused to himself before dismissing the figure with a wave.
...
Later that night, Anissa and Feng Zhiming sat in their guest room, continuing the conversation they had started earlier.
“You said that Dao Lord Fury isn’t targeting the Zhuge Clan?” Anissa asked, her curiosity evident as she watched Feng Zhiming eat some of the cake the Zhuge clan had provided.
“I have methods to make people say things they wouldn’t normally reveal,” Feng Zhiming explained casually. “I used one of these methods to force the man to mention Dao Lord Fury’s name.”
Realization dawned on Anissa. By making Dao Lord Fury an enemy of the Zhuge Clan, Feng Zhiming had secured multiple advantages for them.
“This way, the Zhuge Clan will see me as an ally, as I’ve lost my family to their aggressor. This also means we won’t need to expend resources hunting him down, and the Circle of the Forgotten One will gain the Zhuge Clan as an ally through a common enemy,” Feng Zhiming added, nodding in agreement with her thoughts.
Anissa felt a wave of calm wash over her, as if the fire of her rage, which had been growing ever stronger, was now under control. For the first time since her father’s death, she felt a semblance of peace.
“Do you feel better now? That heart demon nearly consumed you,” Feng Zhiming remarked, putting down his bowl of cake.
“I—” Anissa began, but Feng Zhiming interrupted gently.
“Don’t misunderstand. My primary goal was to ally with the Zhuge Clan for their support. The fact that I used Dao Lord Fury as the means to achieve that was a fortunate coincidence,” he explained.
Feng Zhiming had noticed, during their time together, that Anissa carried a deep hatred—a hatred that had manifested into a heart demon. From his own experience, he knew that unresolved hatred could become a barrier to one’s cultivation, potentially crippling them. Initially, he hadn’t been overly concerned, but after discovering her immense talent, he wanted her to be in pristine condition.
Now that her rage had subsided, Anissa’s fists, which had always been clenched tightly, began to loosen. But with the release of anger came another emotion: sorrow.
Feng Zhiming deployed his spiritual sense to form a noise cancellation barrier around them. It wasn’t as subtle or durable as one made with divine sense, but it would suffice.
Anissa’s expression slowly shifted from relief to a shallow frown, and tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
Feng Zhiming had been prepared for this. He knew that once the flames of rage subsided, the dam of tears would inevitably break.
“There can be no doubt… it was a tragedy,” he said softly as he wrapped his arms around her.
That was the breaking point for Anissa. The tears she had held back for so long now flowed freely, like a waterfall.
“I-I spent so long cultivating, trying to impress my fath-father,” she sobbed, her voice choked with emotion.
Feng Zhiming gently patted her head as she cried on his shoulder.
“Now it feels so usel-useless. I wish I had spent those hundred years with him, not cultivating!” she cried, her grip on Feng Zhiming tightening.
“HOW COULD HE LEAVE ME? HE HAD A LIFE SPAN OF TWO THOUSAND MORE YEARS! I SHOULD BE A MIGHTY CULTIVATOR, YET I FEEL SO WEAK AND HELPLESS!” she screamed, her aura fluctuating wildly, causing damage to the room.
“I DON’T WANT THE OCEAN SPLITTING SWORD ANYMORE! I DON’T WANT THIS SPIRITUAL AWAKENING CULTIVATION! I JUST NEED MY FAMILY BACK! I JUST WANT A LITTLE MORE TIME!”
Zhuge Yi, who had been meditating nearby, noticed the damage and peeked into the room. Seeing Anissa in such a state, he chose not to breach the noise suppression barrier but could guess the reason for her distress.
He looked down at his daughter, who was sleeping beside him as he cultivated. After nearly losing her today, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her alone in this world. To protect Anissa’s privacy, he used his divine sense to reinforce the room, preventing it from shattering further.
Back in the room, Feng Zhiming continued to pat Anissa’s back as she cried her heart out.
“I ALWAYS WANTED HIM TO BE AT MY WEDDING! I WANTED HIM TO VISIT MY MOTHER’S GRAVE WITH ME! I’M A CULTIVATOR, BUT I WAS ALSO HIS DAUGHTER!”
“The heavens are merciless,” Feng Zhiming murmured in a soothing tone.
“IF I COULD TRADE REVENGE FOR MY FALLEN CLAN, I WOULD! I HATE THIS FEELING! I HATE TO HATE! IT HURTS, IT HURTS SO MUCH!”
“Unfortunately, the heavens do not barter; they only do as they please,” Feng Zhiming replied gently, continuing to console her as she poured out her grief.
He had known this moment would come from the moment he noticed her heart demon. Despite their attempts to transcend human emotions, cultivators were not gods, they were still human, with all the vulnerabilities that entailed.
“WHY DO I FEEL LIKE THIS? I HATE IT!” she screamed, her grip on him tightening to the point where it nearly shattered his bones.
“It’s only human to feel,” Feng Zhiming whispered, understanding all too well that they were, after all, only human.