A Calamity Began . . .
Because Cha Eun Xiao was the brother of Yue Shuang and Yue Han, the two ladies treated Cha Nantian and Yue Gongxue intimately with respect. However, the respect was hidden deep inside their hearts, because they were senior to the couple in the martial world after all. If they acted too respectful, Cha Nantian and Yue Gongxue might panic. Aside from that, because of the two sisters' effort, the four of them got along well with each other like real families. Nobody felt overcautious anymore. Yue Gongxue felt the difference, so she implicitly asked the ladies about it, but Yue Shuang and Yue Han didn't mention a word about Cha Eun Xiao.
They only answered with the same words.
"Your master would never set you up."
"Just do as your master wants you to."
"The only thing that matters is that you should work on your own happiness. That is the only thing you master wants."
"As long as you are happy, your master will be happy too!"
"The relationship between you and Qiong-Hua Palace is over. You don't need to keep thinking much about it!"
"Just be a good wife in Cha Clan. That is all that matters for the rest of your life!"
…
Sometimes, people are helpless facing their sentiments. There is always something unspeakable in people's hearts that make people feel heartbroken. Who could tell? Nobody could truly make it clear.
People couldn't even understand their own feelings… There must be a long list of people in the same situation…
…
As they went farther on the way, Yue Gongxue was becoming happier. The Moon Queen's appearance had driven away most of the negative feelings in Yue Gongxue's heart. Besides, she got Cha Nantian, the man she loved on her side all along. She started to enjoy the pleasant views of the mountains and rivers along the way.
The spring wind breezed, and the soft sunshine splashed over the world. In her mind, even the grass and flowers on the roadsides were full of liveness and hope.
"Where is our son?"
"Why isn't Xiao Xiao with you?"
These are the two questions Yue Gongxue kept asking again and again.
After the sadness in the beginning, her role shifted from a daughter, a disciple, a wife to a mother. The love to her son that had been deeply hidden in her heart for eighteen years was now rising up.
"How does he look like? Does he look more like you or me? Is he handsome? Does he look well? How tall is he? Is he a bit overweighted or just slim?"
The questions made Cha Nantian feel awkward.
He had been loving his son, spoiling him like he was the most precious treasure in the world. For eighteen years, he had been working so hard to be an excellent parent to Cha Eun Xiao. He absolutely had loads of compliments for him.
As he kept commending Cha Eun Xiao again and again in all kinds of ways, Yue Gongxue became happier and happier until her eyes turned into two narrow lines because of her smile. She wished she could see her beloved son at once.
"He is tall, not overweighted or skinny, looks slim when the clothes are on, but muscular when clothes are off, with a strong back and a well-shaped waist. He is handsome, elegant, decent, and pretty. What a pretty young lord in the mortal world, an elegant and beautiful man!" Cha Nantian was also smiling with narrow eyes.
"Great." Yue Gongxue kept nodding, with the eyes shining, "What else?"
"He has a beautiful face, looks like you, but also a bit like me. His face looks like a warm jade, with two sharp eyebrows and two clear eyes, and a nose that stands high-bridged. His eyes are just like a pair of glaring stars in the night sky with a significant glow. When he smiles, the small dimples on his cheeks are adorable…" Cha Nantian just couldn't stop talking.
"Really?" Yue Gongxue's eyes were full of shining stars too.
Cha Nantian nodded against his conscience…"Of course! I raised him by myself. I know every single bit of him!"
Shuang and Han had been enjoying the compliments about Cha Eun Xiao because he was their beloved brother after all. Although what Cha Nantian said was exaggerated, it was not too unreasonable. However, as Cha Nantian said more, the two ladies felt it become more irrational. They knew that their brother was a good man, but what Cha Nantian was describing just didn't sound real at all!
[Warm jade? His face? Come on! His eyes? Two glaring stars in the night sky with a significant glow? No way!] They just couldn't accept the lies. [Since when does our brother have dimples on his cheeks? That doesn't sound like a tough man! Come on! Uncle Ye, are you sure you are talking about our brother?]
However, the two ladies didn't know that what Cha Nantian was talking was the younger Cha Eun Xiao—the seven or eight years old boy. When he was a child, he was indeed adorable with two dimples on the warm-jade-like cheeks.
As for the present… well… it was complicated. He definitely didn't have the cute dimples anyway…
"Is it true that he looks like both of us? He must be handsome. I am sure!" Yue Gangue sounded full of longingness and sighed emotionally, "I must make it up for him after we are finally together… Poor son… He hasn't seen his mother for eighteen years…"
As she spoke, she started to sob.
Cha Nantian hurriedly stopped her. It was such a great day that he finally could bring her home, yet his wife just couldn't stop sobbing and feeling sad all the way along. They should be talking about something happy, yet she still wept. [Women are genuinely made of water!]
The two ladies had been staying with them all along and had seen how the couple act like crazy. Sometimes, they laughed like two blossoming flowers, yet sometimes, one was trying to stop the other from sobbing in tears…
They just kept doing it again and again… never stopped…
[For eighteen years…] The two ladies thought in the heart and sighed.
Thinking about how hard life must have been for the family in the eighteen years, the two ladies felt gloomy. That was why after being close to the couple at the beginning, they started to try to keep a distance so that Cha Nantian and Yue Gongxue could have enough private space…
They didn't move too slowly, but absolutely not fast either.
They never flew at all, just kept walking on the road, enjoying the views along the way, as if they were having a honeymoon.
After three days, they had only moved about four thousand miles.
During the three days, the entire Qing-Yun Realm fell into a real mess!
The reason was simple and violent… All the dominant powers in the world, including the dominant sects, had lost their people that had been sent to Heaven's Terrace… Every single one of them disappeared just like they hadn't been there before.
Even the Prime Master of West Hall, Zong Xingyu, was missing.
Zong Xingyu had led over a dozen good men including his two Prime Guardians and three elders to Heaven's Terrace. Even such a powerful group was missing.
The West Hall was in a mess because they had been leaderless for a long time.
The other people that were missing were not ordinary people either. There was the Second Prime Master of the East Hall, the Second Prime Master and the Prime Enforcer of Qiong-Hua Palace, the elders of Misty Cloud Palace, the Prime Guardian and Elders of Ice Cloud Palace… Yue Changtian of Cold Moon Palace, Wu Huitian of Saint Sunlight Sect, Yun Xiran of Saint Starlight Sect…
These were super influential figures in the realm that people could hardly see their faces in regular days, yet they were all gone missing at the moment!
Aside from these people, many leaders of other important sects were missing too…
All these people were traceless, like muds that sunk in the water.
Nobody saw them alive, but nobody saw their dead bodies either!
…
The different sects had started to communicate with each other and sent out their men to search for the lost people. The sky of the realm was full of flying carrier birds that nearly covered the sun and the clouds.
Everybody was anxious.
[Where are they? Why can't we find them? Why isn't there even traces of them?]
[What is going on? How could it be so weird?]
[Qing-Yun Realm… is going to fall to a calamity…]
That was the common thought in people's minds.
Who was missing? The Prime Master of the West Hall, Prime Masters of Saint Sunlight Sect, Saint Starlight Sect, and Cold Moon Palace, elders of Misty Cloud Palace, Qiong-Hua Palace and Ice Cloud Palace… These people made the most powerful force in the entire Qing-Yun Realm. If any other force could defeat such a dominant team, it must be a force that nobody in Qing-Yun Realm could rival!
The power of the enemy might be horrible, but the mystery of the enemy was even more horrible!
All the dominant forces in Qing-Yun Realm had been working together on the event, but still, even with such a powerful intelligence jointed-network, no useful information was found. The enemy must be marvelous in hiding traces!
Knowing that the enemy was strong and not knowing how powerful the enemy could be, aroused the fear for this mysterious force from the bottom of everybody's heart in Qing-Yun Realm!
Because of the fear, when everybody noticed how dangerous the current situation could be, each of them couldn't help imagining the worst case that could happen. All men shared the same thought.
All the cultivators were terrified, waiting for the arrival of the calamity!
Maybe there would be a sudden thunderclap that stroke the entire martial world and brought the world into endless storms of blood.
However, all they could do was waiting…
…
Yue Gongxue and the others in this group had just walked out a huge mountain.
They were currently four thousand and eight hundred miles away from Qiong-Hua Palace.
What lay ahead of them was a peculiar place of Qing-Yun Realm—the Dark Forest. The forest was thousands of miles wide, covered in shadows and darkness. It was the fairyland of the spiritual beasts of Qing-Yun Realm. In the forest, there were lots of powerful spiritual creatures, and that was why ordinary cultivators didn't dare to enter this place recklessly. However, it was where the great sect would send their young disciples to be trained.
A few years earlier, in the war between Xiao Monarch and the Three Factions, they happened to have a battle in this forest. Those who were qualified to join the group to fight Xiao Monarch must be pretty good. When they fought against Xiao Monarch and moved past the woods, over half of the wood was ruined by their destroying power. They had collapsed several mountains in that battle. After that, the Dark Forest became a little bit brighter.
The forest was still full of big trees with big leaves covering the sky, but some places in the forest finally got the sunshine. It made the forest eventually not so creepy.
"After the Dark Forest, we will walk two more days to approach Oracle District." Yue Gongxue was excited at the moment. She couldn't wait to see her beloved son.
"When we are back to Cha Clan, we won't leave our home if nothing went wrong." Cha Nantian put his hand on Yue Gongxue's waist, holding her, speaking with hope, "We have been parted for eighteen years. It is time to enjoy some peaceful days…"
Yue Gongxue softly leaned on his chest and nodded. "Yes."
They slowly walked over to the Dark Forest.
Yue Shuang and Yue Han suddenly stopped.
They stared at the forest which was covering the sky, and then they were alarmed. They had an uncomfortable feeling of danger about what lay ahead of them.
The dark woods seemed to be full of… killing intents! It was like the entrance to hell.
They felt like they would put their lives in great danger if they entered the forest!
They weren't familiar with such kind of feelings, because it hadn't been there for a long time. Powerful cultivators as they were, there were very few people in the world could cause such feeling in their hearts!
They had passed the Dark Forest many times, but never had such undesirable feelings before, even though they did hate the sunless and dark environment!
"It doesn't feel right here." Yue Shuang was murmuring, exchanged looks with Yue Han.
"Maybe you are just over thinking about it…" Yue Han blandly said, "Things changed fast in martial world… Hidden flows are everywhere… Many people are missing. There must be something big happening… But we don't have to be overcautious. This Dark Forest is full of negative power. It is reasonable that we will have some negative feelings about it…"
"At the very least… Even if there is some deadly danger hidden in the forest, how bad could it be? You and me, we are powerful enough to handle anything. Cultivators should confront all difficulties with confidence and never fear to move on. We shouldn't be frightened." Yue Han was confident, "As long as it is not Zong Yuankai, Xuan Bing, or Wu Fa… I don't see the reason we should be scared!"
The two ladies were born with a strange condition, who had suffered significant damage when they were babies. Gradually, with their efforts, they got rid of the sickness and became two of the most influential figures in the world. However, after cultivating for all those years, they had hidden wounds indie them too.
When they went to Cha Clan and met their brother Cha Eun Xiao, he gave them lots of supreme dan beads which were enough to purify all hidden sickness inside them. He even shared what he had learned from his martial arts to them so that they could be better improved. At the moment, the two ladies were in their most potent status both physically and mentally!
That was why they were pretty confident. In fact, the two of them didn't care about a possible ambush ahead of them—they might intentionally go somewhere there was an ambush to sweep off the enemies!
Not that they were arrogant, they did have their own point…
The martial world was in disturbance… Dangers were hidden under the table… If there were enemies ahead of them, they would love to catch a few and ask some questions to figure out the truth.
They thought they could probably get to know something about what was really happening.
Anything was better than nothing.
The two ladies had a short conversation discussing the next step, and finally decided to stick to the old plan to get past the Dark Forest!
They would love to figure out how dangerous it could be!
Yue Gongxue and Cha Nantian were both in low levels of Dao Origin Stage. That meant they could protect themselves in most circumstances… After all, if Yue Shuang and Yue Han couldn't preserve the couple in the Dark Forest, they wouldn't do any better in other places.
"There might be dangers in the forest ahead of us." Yue Shuang talked to Yue Gongxue and Cha Nantian.
"Dangers?" The couple was much weaker than Yue Shuang and Yue Han in cultivation. Besides, they had been soaked in their own romance all the way along, so they were much less alert. As they heard what Yue Shuang said, both of them were shocked.
"That's right." Yue Han frowned, "Something doesn't feel right in there."
"To keep away from entering a forest is always a safe solution. Maybe we should go around the forest to the other side…" Cha Nantian said after thinking for a while, "We can walk along the edge of the Dark Forest… take a turn near the three forbidden areas and then come back to the route… It will take longer time, but also get us out of many dangers…"
He was an expert in battle strategy, who knew that the dangers in Qing-Yun Realm were much more dangerous than those in the Land of Han-Yang. Even though Yue Shuang and Yue Han, the two domineering cultivators would protect them, he still suggested a safer solution.
"If we go around the forest like that, we will have to walk nearly thirty thousand miles more!" Yue Gongxue was anxious. She couldn't wait to see her son and hold him tight in the arms, so she wouldn't agree to waste time to wait. "Doesn't it mean we have to walk for one month more? Besides, it is a long and difficult way to go… Do we really have to?"
Cha Nantian understood the feeling of his wife, but for safety, he still insisted they should choose the longer path even after thinking for a while.
"Nantian, Qing-Yun Realm is different from Land of Han-Yang. Cultivators here are mostly beyond your imagination. If they can set up an ambush here, they can do it anywhere else… No matter where we go, they will set up traps ahead of us. If we spend more time on the way, they have more time to prepare the ambush. It seems safer to choose the other route, but it may not be really as safe as you think." Yue Gongxue used to be the Saintess of Qiong-Hua Palace after all. She was well informed.
"If they decided to come against us, no matter where we go, we will have to confront the battle!"
Yue Gongxue continued, "Since we know that there is an ambush in the forest ahead of us… we should think of some ways to defeat the enemies once and for all. It should be more efficient than going a long way and staying in a negative position all the time."
"We sisters have the same thought. To face the enemies, we may have the chance to figure out what they have been hiding." Yue Shuang and Yue Han exchanged looks and spoke proudly, "The battle is ahead of us. No matter what it is ahead of us, we should confront it with confidence. No matter how difficult it may be, we will go through it with courage!"
"We go ahead to solve the dangers, not to avoid them!"
"Ladies, you have a strong point. I won't deny it. Maybe I have been fighting in the Land of Han-Yang for too long and couldn't get rid of the influence of the old days. Anyway, I was wrong. However, battle strategy plays the same role no matter what war we are fighting. Since we are going to go through the danger bravely, we have to do our best in preparation before we confront it." Cha Nantian said, "We must think of some schemes that could increase the chance to win the battle."
"Alright, Commander Ye. You know it. The schemes in the land of Han-Yang are not useful in here. I don't think we should waste time on thinking." Yue Gongxue smiled warmly. "I know you are a general, an expert in martial strategy and battle schemes, but the problem is we are a six people team including two maids of mine, Qingxue and Wuxue. No matter how good you are at fighting a battle, your strategy is limited."
Cha Nantian smiled and said, "All that matters in martial strategy is what we keep in mind. There are schemes that could be proceeded by only a few people. My strategy will still work. Sometimes, fewer people may make a better opportunity…"
Aside from Cha Nantian, Yue Gongxue, Yue Shuang, and Yue Han, there were two maids in the group, one was Qingxue, while the other was Wuxue.
"Qingxue and Wuxue were only level nine of Dream Origin Stage. Wuxue was a little better, but still only in the top of Dream Origin Stage. They are my maids, as people know, but in fact, are like my sisters…"
Yue Gongxue knew that Cha Nantian would want to know the real power of the six of them to make a plan of battle strategy, so she started to introduce the others. "Yue Shuang and Yue Han are honorable elders of Qiong-Hua Palace, who are two of the most powerful figures in Qing-Yun Realm. I don't think I need to say more about them, do I?"
Cha Nantian nodded and said, "Ok. I now know about our force here… There are a few things we can do afterward."
He thought for a while and continued, "Since the enemy chose to set up the ambush here, they must know well about us. We don't know who they are yet, but I am sure they must be powerful. They know that we have Elder Shuang and Elder Han on our side, yet still dared to set up the battle. They may have lots of superior cultivators this time. At least they believe their people together can defeat the two ladies. They may even have some equally powerful figures to rival Elder Shuang and Elder Han. We must be cautious."
"Maybe they are from that secret organization which Xiao Xiao told me before…" Cha Nantian frowned and said, "This is unavoidable. Xue-er is right. No matter where we go, we will have to confront the same danger.
"According to what we can see right now, I think they have at least thirty level nine Dao Origin Stage cultivators. Otherwise, they won't be able to rival the two elders.
"Besides, they must have been arranged to stay in certain spots. Over thirty persons fighting together in the forest, they have to wait in certain positions… Only when they cooperate well with each other, they could do the best they could in the battle, to fight against the two ladies.
"However, that means they have a fatal weakness. No matter how well they prepared for this attack, as long as any of them makes one tiny mistake, we will have the chance to destroy them all. In front of powerful cultivators like Elder Shuang and Elder Han, a tiny mistake of the enemies is enough for them to win the battle.
"Environments in the forests are always the same, no matter in Land of Han-Yang or Qing-Yun Realm. They just have different plants. In fact, what matters in the forest while there is a battle are the trees, grasses, and shadows."
Cha Nantian found a quiet place and told everybody to sit down. He said, "Listen. Let me talk about the situation inside the forest before we enter it. Let's assume I am the one who has arranged this ambush… If I were the enemy, I would do this…"