Chapter 49: A Monumental Misunderstanding (Part One)

The spiritual transmission was suddenly cut off. While Meng Meng was left to her wild imaginings, Meng Xinglei was on the verge of collapse: “It’s over, it’s over. I didn’t explain things clearly—will my little sister really take action?!” In his despair, Meng Xinglei banged his head against the wall. The passing disciples and servants of the Meng family looked on in disbelief—what on earth was the young master doing?

A wry smile surfaced on the handsome face adorned with sword-like brows and star-bright eyes.

In fact, over the past few days, not only the entire Meng family but the whole Celestial Azure Realm had been thrown into an uproar. The reason was simple: the Myriad Phenomena Demon Lord had inexplicably struck out against the Meng family!

He had set out from the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon Sect, and at every Meng family estate he passed, he asked, “Is Meng Qingchen here?” It seemed as if all he wanted was to meet the Immortal Lord Meng for a conversation, but no one in the Celestial Azure Realm believed that for a moment. At a certain level of cultivation, such powerhouses could sense each other’s presence. Did the Myriad Phenomena Demon Lord truly not know where the Immortal Lord was? Clearly, this was provocation.

Moreover, his methods of inquiry were oddly violent; it was said that many Meng clan members traumatized by the “knock, knock, knock” at their doors now harbored deep psychological shadows, and reacted excessively to the phrases “Is anyone home? Is Meng Qingchen here?”

All along, Chu Hanyu pressed on with his relentless questioning. Yet Meng Qingchen did not stoop to Chu Hanyu’s crude games. He let Chu Hanyu make his noise, or perhaps, stir up his drama, while he himself remained calm and composed, steadfastly stationed at his original abode until Chu Hanyu finally arrived, and only then did he invite him in.

The Meng family’s upper ranks and those with a nose for secrets, of course, knew that the eldest young miss had gone to confront Zhang Ning, so they found Chu Hanyu’s actions unsurprising, at most thinking he was being excessively protective of his pupil.

But for Meng Xinglei, what he had witnessed was enough to leave him deeply unnerved—he would rather not have learned the truth at all.

Half a day earlier—

Meng Qingchen sat there, serene and unruffled, showing not the slightest sign of tension at facing a peerless giant: “I didn’t expect you to be so anxious. It seems your concern for your disciple surpasses even the matter we have long feared most.”

Chu Hanyu arched a brow, utterly clueless as to what Meng Qingchen meant.

His memories reached only as far back as his eighth year; though his cultivation was largely under his instinctive control, his recollections were not. Yet Chu Hanyu cared little for any of this—he had come only to deal with those who dared slander his beloved disciple.

With not a hint of emotion, he replied, “Nothing is more important than my little Ning.” At this, Meng Qingchen looked at Chu Hanyu with faint surprise, then merely smiled and shook his head, making no further comment on the statement.

Chu Hanyu’s gaze fell on a handsome youth with sword-like brows and star-bright eyes, quietly serving tea to the two exalted figures—even giving the Phoenix’s Triple Nod. Inwardly, he mused that anyone permitted to serve tea on such an occasion must be of no ordinary standing! A mischievous thought began to stir in his heart. After a brief silence, Meng Qingchen asked, “So you’re not planning to keep the matter from Zhang Ning? You intend to let him bear the burden as well?”

This was a matter concerning the fate of the entire Celestial Azure Realm. The more who knew, the greater the danger, and those with such knowledge would carry an even heavier weight. The exalted ones had always chosen with utmost care who should be informed. Renowned for his divinations and calculations, Meng Qingchen was even more cautious—he kept everything hidden from his subordinates and family, his own son and daughter included; not a soul knew the truth.

It was rumored that on Chu Hanyu’s side, only his third disciple, Zhuge Yi, knew the reality. That child’s life had been fraught with hardship, making him exceptionally shrewd and cautious; Meng Qingchen trusted him to keep silent. Yet seeing the overt fondness Chu Hanyu displayed towards his newly accepted disciple, Meng Qingchen could not fathom the reason for his choice—Zhang Ning was but eight years old. Was that tender shoulder truly to bear such a weight? Or rather, what qualified Zhang Ning to carry this all?

Chu Hanyu’s thoughts and Meng Qingchen’s never truly converged. With a sly glance, Chu Hanyu placed his hand close to Meng Qingchen’s on the small tea table beside them, meeting his gaze with profound intensity, his voice low and filled with something unspoken: “Through all these years, you have shouldered so much. I know that, keeping it hidden from so many, your burden is no less than mine.”

Meng Qingchen, surprised by this sudden sentimentality, nodded with poise, “It’s nothing. Is this not the path for us both?”

Meanwhile, Meng Xinglei, serving tea and eavesdropping, convinced he was about to hear secrets that would determine the fate of the Celestial Azure Realm, was left with a psychological scar too vast to measure. For from an angle hidden from Meng Qingchen, Chu Hanyu cast Meng Xinglei a glance both ambiguous and brimming with affection, nearly driving Meng Xinglei mad.

Meng Xinglei knew all too well that the Myriad Phenomena Demon Lord excelled in every “unorthodox art.” It was said that a third of the realm’s ingenuity had been swept into Chu Hanyu’s sleeves; his expertise in arrays and elixirs was legendary. And so Meng Xinglei’s imagination ran wild.

He and Meng Meng had never seen their mother since childhood. When they asked their father, he claimed they were conceived through special talismans and elixirs, using Meng Qingchen’s blood and nurtured in a gourd—children bearing only Meng Qingchen’s lineage.

The family, unlike a sect, placed immense value on bloodlines, so Meng Xinglei understood his father’s actions.

But as the siblings grew older, they increasingly sensed their father was hiding something from them—something momentous. After wracking their brains, they realized that the only reason their father might be so reluctant, so secretive, would concern their mother!

Their father was so deeply preoccupied, sometimes sleepless from worry. What could weigh so heavily on an Immortal Lord? Could it truly be some rival giant or another matter in the realm unknown to them? As children of a lord, what could they possibly be forbidden from knowing?

Such matters might trouble him, but they should not make him so anxious. Therefore, there could only be one truth—the story their father told them was a lie! They did have a mother! (They had truly been fooled by him back then!) But her identity must be sensitive, or perhaps she and their father had quarreled.

All these years, Meng Xinglei had sought to discover his mother’s identity, making him particularly sensitive to the subject. That glance from Chu Hanyu, combined with the ambiguous words exchanged today, sent his thoughts spiraling off in wild directions.