Phoenix Destiny

Xie Lianzhen nodded, “Name? Is he in Zhongzhou?”

“He…” Lu Mingshu smiled upon remembering him. This was the first time she genuinely smiled tonight. “He’s called Yan Wugui, a disciple of the Seventh Truth Platform.”

Oh, so she has a dimple.

Xie Lianzhen tried to recall, “Any more information? Which clan is he in? Or what’s his cultivation, age, and appearance?”

“He said that he’s from the fifth clan. He should be twenty-four this year…. He was in the Harmonization Realm five years ago, and he has been to Jade West Mountain Forest before. He is good at using knives. Oh yeah! He had a big scar on his face, around here,” Lu Mingshu pointed on her face.

Xie Lianzhen didn’t speak for a long time. The shadow of the wall blocked his expression.

After a while, Lu Mingshu called out to him since she didn’t get any response, “Alioth Star-Lord?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Xie Lianzhen was called back down to earth, “From what I know, there’s nobody in the fifth generation who’s called Yan Wugui.”

“What?” Lu Mingshu eyes widened in shock, “That’s not possible.”

Yan Wugui said that he’s a Seventh Truth Platform disciple! He wouldn’t lie to me.

“I’m definitely sure,” Xie Lianzhen nodded. “If you are just searching for an ordinary disciple, I would have to go back and flip through the name-list. However, if you’re searching for someone in the fifth generation who was in the Harmonization Realm at the age of nineteen… as a clan leader, I would have noticed him, and I have not seen anyone with such a big scar on his face.”

The answer that she got was totally out of her expectations. Lu Mingshu stood rooted to the ground upon hearing that.

“Moreover,” Xie Lianzhen continued, “the Seventh Truth Platform focuses on swords, so not many would use a knife as their weapon. So far in the fifth generation, none of the disciples is skilled with knives.”

Perhaps because Lu Mingshu looked so disappointed, Xie Lianzhen continued, “Miss Lu, I think you might’ve remembered wrongly.”

Lu Mingshu shook her head violently.

Remembered wrongly? How could that be possible? During the past eight years, there weren’t many who gave her a helping hand or treated her nicely. Those short two weeks interacting with him were carved deeply in her memory.

“Alioth Star-Lord, is he perhaps some kind of external disciple who only comes to the Seventh Truth Platform to learn? You guys have a lot of such disciples, right?”

Some rich kids had a place in the Seventh Truth Platform, but they didn’t stay there. Yan Wugui’s body language told her that he probably wasn’t from a wealthy family, but the rare treasure he had wasn’t something that low-level disciples would have. She was afraid that he might have a special identity.

Xie Lianzhen shook his head, “If he was just with us to learn, then he wouldn’t be considered part of the fifth clan.” He raised his eyebrows as he looked at Lu Mingshu, “Were you deceived?”

“No!” Lu Mingshu shouted. “He would never lie to me!”

She sounded so angry that Xie Lianzhen kept quiet for a moment, “Well, neither would I.”

Lu Mingshu took a deep breath and looked at him awkwardly, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to doubt your credibility.”

“It’s okay.”

After a while, Xie Lianzhen broke the silence, “Could I ask… what’s the relationship between you two?”

Relationship? Lu Mingshu shook her head. They haven’t related at all… just two strangers who came together by chance.

“Alioth Star-Lord, could I change my request then?”

Xie Lianzhen nodded, “The pendant is still in your hands. What’s your request?”

“Could I get the name-list of all the disciples who went to Jade West Mountain Forest five years ago?”

Lu Mingshu was clear that this request was overboard. Name-lists weren’t exactly some rare treasure, but they weren’t something that outsiders could see. However, she couldn’t accept the answer given by Xie Lianzhen.

Maybe Yan Wugui had some hidden troubles that forced him to use some other identity. Or maybe Yan Wugui simply wasn’t his given name. However, a human who went to the Jade West Mountain Forest alive and kicking wouldn’t possibly vanish into thin air.

Xie Lianzhen didn’t agree or disagree. Instead, he questioned her, “Since he’s not related to you, why do you care so much?”

This sounded like an interrogation. Normally, Lu Mingshu wouldn’t answer, or she would say something sarcastic. However, at the moment, she was too emotionally confused to be rude. She stroked the dagger that was tied to her waist and muttered, “I need to give him something.”

“What is it?”

Lu Mingshu bit her lip in silence.

She looked at her feet. The moonlight created a long shadow.

How can a living person not exist?

She could hear the wheelchair moving further away, and Xie Lianzhen’s voice rang across the alley, “The name-list will be sent to Miss tomorrow.”

Without even a farewell, he just left.

…

In the hotel, Lu Mingshu sat on a stone and stared blankly into space while Little Daze munched on an apple in her hand.

Munch. Munch. The apple was soon finished.

After a while, Lu Mingshu sighed and stroked Little Daze’s horn, “Little Daze, do you remember the guy who picked you up with me?”

Before Little Daze could react, she continued, “Oh yeah, I forgot. You were only just born back then. How could you remember?”

“You know, today, I met the Alioth Star-Lord, but he said that there’s absolutely no such person in the Seventh Truth Platform. Even though five years have passed, I still remember it all clearly! I would have been dead by now if it wasn’t for him.”

“The Alioth Star-Lord says that I may have been deceived, but that’s impossible, right? There’s no reason why he would do that, and besides, he mentioned things about the Seventh Truth Platform too! If he wasn’t a disciple of the Seventh Truth Platform, why would he know so much about it?”

“Who is he actually? Why am I the only one who has seen him? Oh my god, is he just an imaginary friend?”

Lu Mingshu hugged her head. She had never felt so confused in her whole life before.

Over the years, she was a girl who received hardly any love, and she treasured any that she got. That teenager back then might’ve just been a random stranger, but since he had saved her and took care of her, she would remember it for her whole life.

She sighed.

Little Daze seemed to sense that she wasn’t in a good mood. It stuck out its tongue and licked her hand, attempting to comfort her.

Lu Mingshu fed it another fruit.

“There are two possibilities: one – he used a fake identity. It’s weird that he came to the Jade West Mountain Forest to train in the first place. The Seventh Truth Platform is not a small sect, so there should be plenty of places for him to train. Perhaps he has some difficulties?”

“Two – Yan Wugui isn’t his real name. Is there some reason he couldn’t tell me his real name?”

Suddenly, a lightbulb lit up in her head, “Oh yeah. Xie Lianzhen said that there’s no disciple in the fifth generation who’s a master with knives, but he is, which is why he didn’t care about the sword skills on that stone wall. Is it that he wished to keep it a secret that he’s a master in knives, which is why he was so far from his own sect? Was the scar on his face fake as well?”