“Lingxi, don’t get your hopes too high about fusing with Heavenly Divine Power,” Gu Mingyuan said to Chu Lingxi.
Seeing how excited Chu Lingxi was, she refrained from exposing Old Man Ox-Nose as a fraud.
But she was worried Chu Lingxi might be disappointed if she failed to fuse with the power, so she felt the need to caution her.
“Mother, I know it’s difficult, but… I’ll definitely try my best,” Chu Lingxi replied.
“Alright, Chu Feng, Chu Lingxi, come in,” Old Man Ox-Nose’s voice soon echoed again.
Hearing this, Chu Feng and Chu Lingxi didn’t delay and flew into the palace Old Man Ox-Nose had constructed.
Inside, they found the palace vast but nearly empty, containing only two pool-like structures.
Old Man Ox-Nose was nowhere to be seen.
However, deeper within, there was another door, suggesting he was there.
“Wait a moment, I need to prepare a bit more,” his voice confirmed from within.
“Chu Feng, did I cause you trouble again?” Chu Lingxi asked.
“What do you mean?” Chu Feng responded.
“Challenging Linghu Hongfei,” she said.
“Silly girl, you were standing up for me. I’m grateful, how could that be trouble?” Chu Feng said.
“But if I hadn’t acted so boldly, you wouldn’t have had to take such risks,” Chu Lingxi insisted.
“Maybe it’s fate. You know, I’ve been searching for this senior Taoist for a long time but couldn’t find him. Yet, we met him here in the Mirror Sea.”
“If I hadn’t come, I might never have found him.”
“Isn’t that fate?” Chu Feng asked.
“If you put it that way, you should be thanking me,” Chu Lingxi said with a playful smile.
“Exactly, I really should,” Chu Feng smiled back.
But then, his gaze shifted outside the palace.
Master Liangqiu had also used his barrier power to create a palace.
Chu Feng could see that Master Liangqiu, Chu Xuanzhengfa, and Gu Mingyuan had entered it.
Master Liangqiu had retired to his room to rest.
Chu Xuanzhengfa was trying to talk to Gu Mingyuan, likely wanting to discuss something.
But he was met with Gu Mingyuan’s cold indifference, as usual.
Yet earlier, when Chu Xuanzhengfa had used his body to block the barrier gate, Chu Feng had noticed deep worry in Gu Mingyuan’s eyes.
That concern was genuine, from the heart.
The contrast between these attitudes made Chu Feng increasingly curious about what had happened between Gu Mingyuan and Chu Xuanzhengfa.
“Lingxi, do you know what’s going on with your mother and father?”
“They’re your biological parents, but why is their relationship so strained?” Driven by curiosity, Chu Feng asked Chu Lingxi.
He used a private transmission, feeling it was a sensitive matter not suitable for open discussion.
“It’s not a big deal, it’s my mother’s issue,” Chu Lingxi replied, not hiding anything as she began to recount the story.
Chu Xuanzhengfa, while a notable figure in the Great Chiliocosm Upper Realm, was insignificant in the broader Ancestral Martial Starfield.
Gu Mingyuan, however, was a legend, renowned across the Starfield, once considered on par with Chu Xuanyuan in her youth.
She was the backbone of the Wanzhou Ancient Clan, unmatched in both status and strength.
By comparison, Chu Xuanzhengfa and Gu Mingyuan were worlds apart in both identity and power.
But fate can be unstoppable when it arrives.
By chance, Chu Xuanzhengfa discovered a ruin.
There, he encountered Gu Mingyuan.
She desperately wanted the treasure within, but such treasures are never easy to obtain.
They required either breaking a formation or meeting specific conditions.
The ruin’s master had set an odd requirement: only a married couple could claim the treasure.
Gu Mingyuan, naturally, wouldn’t develop feelings for Chu Xuanzhengfa just for a treasure, especially since she looked down on him.
But once the formation activated, they were trapped unless they met the condition.
They were stuck for three full years.
When they finally emerged, they had a baby—Chu Lingxi.
“So, to escape, your mother compromised?” Chu Feng asked.
“Yes, she had no choice, and my birth was an accident.”
“Now you see why my mother resents my father?”
“But my father genuinely loves her,” Chu Lingxi said helplessly.
“I see.”
Chu Feng formed a theory.
He believed someone like Gu Mingyuan, who valued her reputation, wouldn’t have been with someone she didn’t like just for a treasure or to escape.
Nor would she have had a child with him.
Since they were trapped for three years, something must have happened during that time.
Gu Mingyuan had feelings for Chu Xuanzhengfa, and not shallow ones.
If she had no feelings, with her personality, she might have killed him to avoid the world knowing they’d been intimate and had a child.
Instead, she suppressed those feelings, likely due to her pride.
The vast gap between her and Chu Xuanzhengfa made her feel he wasn’t worthy of her, despite her emotions.
This internal conflict explained her current attitude toward him.
