Qiu Ling had no idea that his previous lies had managed to ruin his relationship. Instead, he was giddy with excitement. Alright, yes, it wouldn't be easy to find that child the God of War knew nothing about but hadn't Xin Lan said the same about someone of blood that was mixed three ways? And now look at this! They already knew about three people with that type of blood! If that was so easy, then it shouldn't be too hard to find that child.
He looked at Qiang Yan with shimmering eyes. "So, uncle-in-law, do you have any idea how to find your child?"
Qiang Yan frowned. He had only found out about this child now. How would he know where to find it? It wasn't like he had returned from that trial yesterday and could just go to the place where Huan Yin and he had lived before to find them.
"Don't take too much time to think about it. This is a very important matter!"
Qiang Yan looked at Qiu Ling and shook his head. He really didn't know what to say to this guy!
Xin Lan also narrowed his eyes at Qiu Ling. With how excited that boy looked, he should probably worry that he would give away what this really was about. He couldn't let that happen!
"Fate's Scribe, that child should have a high amount of human blood. There wouldn't be a scroll of fate detailing its life, would there?"
Shun Tao shook his head. "Unfortunately not."
"Then can't you …" Qiang Yan frowned. "Don't the scribes have the ability to see what is going on in the mortal realm? I remember seeing them observe people through plain water."
Shun Tao nodded. "We indeed have that ability. But just like the scrolls of fate it only pertains to mortals. That child … I'm afraid it was born immortal."
Xin Lan's eyes narrowed further. They already had such a huge lead. He couldn't disappoint his master! What they needed now was another clue, just one bit of information that would give them the possibility to search further from there. They at least needed a name or a place where that child had been or maybe a person it had come into touch with.
Mn? Xin Lan's gaze shot to the scroll of fate in Shun Tao's hands. That Huan Yin hadn't had a scroll of fate either but they had still managed to find a clue about her so … "Fate's Scribe, you were able to find this woman through the God of War's scroll of fate. Can't we do the same for the child?"
Shun Tao once again shook his head. "His fate has already ended. His scroll —"
"I'm not talking about his scroll of fate. Naturally, the God of War wasn't there then. But the child certainly hasn't only been in contact with his mother. They lived in the mortal realm and considering that they are immortal it should have been for a fairly long time. It is impossible for them to have evaded mortal eyes for all this time. Thus they should appear in quite a few scrolls of fate of mortals. Isn't that right?"
Shun Tao slowly nodded. "That's true."
"Then how about searching for these scrolls instead? It might take a lot of time but we could at least gather some clues as to where those two have been. If we get a clear enough lead, we could go and investigate further in the mortal world."
All four men looked at the Fate's Scribe but Shun Tao seemed a little hesitant.
"What is it, Fate's Scribe? Can't that be done?" The Heavenly Emperor frowned. Senior Xin had made the matter sound urgent. He really didn't want to delay.
Shun Tao smiled. "Well, it could be done but, Your Majesty, you also know that there is a myriad of scrolls in the scribe's palace. That child was born in ancient times, its mother even earlier. The number of people they met won't be small. Finding them isn't the problem but I might need to mobilize every single scribe we have to gather them and then figure out how all these clues connect and even then it would take a lot of time."
"That's true." The Heavenly Emperor frowned even more. This was important but the scribe's palace had other tasks too. He could hardly have them neglect all of them and only focus on this.
Qiu Ling also frowned. "What's the problem with that? Just get some other people to help! Even I could read some scrolls if that is what you're worried about."
Four pairs of eyes turned to look at him condescendingly. Especially the Heavenly Emperor wasn't happy about it. Just how dumb was this self-proclaimed son-in-law of his?! And he dared to go after his child?!
Xin Lan sighed. "Your Majesty might not know but the scrolls of fate can't be read by just anyone. One would either need to be a scribe of the scribe's palace or have a very high level of power. I'm afraid in the whole Nine Heavens there are only a handful of people outside of the scribe's palace that would qualify for this task."
"Then what about us?"
"We're dragons."
"So? I've never heard that dragons can't read."
Xin Lan refrained from answering that and instead turned back to the Heavenly Emperor. "I know this is problematic but I can only ask Your Majesty to make a decision on behalf of the future of our two races. It would spell trouble if the demons succeeded in their plans."
Rong Su nodded. He also understood that. "Senior Xin, be honest with me just how incremental are these people of mixed blood to the demons' plans?"
Qiu Ling also turned to look at Xin Lan. He wasn't afraid anymore that that guy wouldn't be able to lie his way through, after all, he had proven himself to be a worthy liar. But he was quite curious just how Xin Lan would manage to get through this.
Xin Lan took a deep breath. Forgive me for this, master, but between revealing His Highness' secret and finding your lover again you yourself would certainly choose to reunite with your lover.
Xin Lan lifted his gaze to the Heavenly Emperor. "I'm afraid this is the main point of Jian Heng's plan. The dragons and demons were one race once. His first step would have been to rejoin them before moving against the gods. Your Majesty might not know but the current demon king, Jin Ling, is actually of mixed descent. It was intended for him to follow not only onto Jian Heng's throne but to also take that of the dragon realm."