Above the source of Tao

"Xiaoxiao, can you walk with me for a while?"

After Chu Jiangruan finished dealing with the affairs of the court, he turned to look at Chu Xiaoxiao beside him. She was just standing quietly beside a deep pit not far away, looking down. A pool of water had formed in the deep pit, and the water was still rising. Chu Xiaoxiao and the others had been to this secret cave before, and there was also a small lake there.

He heard a familiar voice, calling his name in a slightly hoarse voice. He turned around and saw Chu Jiangruan walking towards him.

"Okay, where do you want to go?" Chu Xiaoxiao responded.

Chu Jiangruan was pleasantly surprised to hear his agreement. She did not refuse, which meant that his relationship with her could be eased. Putting her mother under house arrest was the thing he regretted most. Chu Jiangruan obviously still loved her mother so much, but because of his momentary dizziness, he made a decision that made him regret for half his life.

In the second half of his life, he kept sending people to look for his daughter, but no matter how hard he looked, he could never find her. He even suspected that Chu Xiaoxiao might have died in a desolate place, but he never expected to see her again when he was dying of poison.

After hesitating for a moment, he slowly said, "Just go and see your mother."

Chu Xiaoxiao had been to Qingxin Palace before and met her mother whom she hadn't seen for a long time. However, her mother was not in a good condition, so she didn't disturb her too much. She just looked at her mother from a distance for a long time.

On the way, Chu Jiangruan looked at Chu Xiaoxiao beside him. Several times, the words he wanted to say came to his lips, but he swallowed them and couldn't say them out.

As if she saw his concerns, Chu Xiaoxiao said without turning her head, "You can say whatever you want to say. There is no need to be shy about anything. Of course, if you want to keep me here, I can also clearly say that it is impossible. I will not stay here. Even if my mother asks me to stay, she will not let me stay."

As if she had seen through all his thoughts, his words and thoughts were interrupted. He didn't know what to say. After a long time, he changed his words and said, "I know that you have been away from this mortal world since you joined the immortal sect. I don't dare to hope for anything else to see you again. I just hope you can come to see your mother more often. I met your mother before and told her about you. She really wants to see you."

After a pause, he continued, "It must have been hard on this journey, my girl."

Chu Xiaoxiao felt a little sore in the nose, and her throat felt a little itchy as if a ball of cotton was stuffed in it. "Is my mother okay?"

"Go and see for yourself."

As he spoke, he arrived in front of Qingxin Palace. It seemed very peaceful here. It was a secluded place in the palace.

A gold-plated plaque engraved with the three large characters "Qingxin Palace" hangs high above the gate of this palace. When you push open the gate and walk in, you will see a forest garden from which the sounds of chirping birds can be heard.

He walked along a small path straight to the door of the main hall. Without knocking, Chu Jiangruan pushed the door open and entered.

Then he saw a beautiful woman with a slightly pale and haggard face, but even so could not hide her beautiful and gorgeous face. She stood up from the chair and looked at Chu Jiangruan with surprise, but then stopped and stared at the woman beside him in a daze, tears in her eyes had already uncontrollably flowed out.

"Mom." Chu Xiaoxiao was the first to speak.

"You are Xiaoxiao...my Xiao girl." Jiang Qinyi covered her mouth and nose, fearing that the heart-wrenching cry would overflow from between her fingers, but her tears flowed down like a flood that broke through the dam.

Chu Xiaoxiao quickly stepped forward and helped up Jiang Qinyi who was lying on the ground. Chu Jiangruan also took the initiative to leave the room, leaving some space for the mother and daughter.

Before parting with Chu Xiaoxiao, she told Yun Changan to go to the west gate of the city and come to find him after she saw her mother.

Yun Chang'an came to the main street of the royal city. At that moment, a large mass of dark clouds gathered in the sky, and soon drops of drizzle hit his face.

A Taoist priest passed by him. Yun Chang'an didn't pay attention to it at first, until he heard a slight sound of collision with the ground.

The sound was so harsh that Yun Changan could not hear any other sound in the noisy street except that sound.

Looking back, I saw a copper coin dropped on the ground.

Yun Changan turned around, bent down, picked it up, and was about to speak, "Your copper coin..."

The scene around him became illusory, but in just a moment, it returned to normal, so fast that he was unaware of it.

When the Taoist heard this, he turned around and said with a barely perceptible smile, "It's this copper coin. It's mine. Thank you, young man, for picking it up for me. You are a kind person. If someone else had picked up this gold copper coin, they might have already put it in their pocket and walked away without even looking for the owner of the coin. But since you and I are destined to be together, why not let this Taoist count your losses as a token of gratitude?"

It seemed that he was asking for Yun Chang'an's opinion, but the Taoist did not stop his actions. After a while, he took out a small table and a roll of straw from the bamboo box behind him.

Yun Changan just felt it was amazing that so many things could be taken out of this small box.

Only then did he see that the Taoist priest was wearing a blue Taoist robe, a tall Taoist crown on his head, and holding a long wooden cane in his hand.

The Taoist priest motioned for him to sit down, but said indifferently, "I didn't say I wanted to tell fortunes."

The Taoist priest heard what he said and continued to tidy up the things on the table.

Yun Chang'an looked at the various strange things appearing on the table and couldn't help feeling curious.

The Taoist priest looked up at him and said, "Boy, I am a Taoist priest who has the knowledge of heaven. I can see everything in the world and understand the cause and effect. I have never made a mistake. I am afraid that the whole city could be filled with people who come to me for fortune-telling. But you don't know what is good for you."

Yun Chang'an had a questioning look on his face and thought to himself, "This Taoist is talking nonsense. Could he be a liar? But what can he cheat me of? Could it be that he wants my Four Yang Gourd Lamp?"

So, he placed his hands on the lamp at his waist and held it tightly.

The Taoist saw Yun Changan's actions and found it funny. "You kid, you don't think I'm a liar! Don't worry, I have no interest in your treasures. If I take your things by force, I will be contaminated by karma that is not mine. It's just that I have a liking for you, so I want to save your life."

Yun Changan put down some of his guard, thinking that it was just a matter of life and death, and it was not a big deal, so he said, "Okay, since the Taoist priest has this intention, I will naturally not refuse."

Sitting on the floor, the Taoist priest began to fiddle with the things on the table. After a while, he closed his eyes as if he was looking for something. A drop of cold sweat flowed down his forehead.

"It's weird."

Yun Chang'an only heard the Taoist muttering something, but he didn't say anything. At this time, the Taoist opened his eyes, stared at him for a long time and said, "I don't believe that I can't find your 'thread'."

He closed his eyes again and muttered something.

But after a long time, he did not open his eyes, and the sweat on his forehead became more and more, until a drop of sweat fell on the object that looked like a silver toad on the small table. Suddenly, the Taoist spat out a ball of blood from his mouth and looked at Yun Changan with horror.

This sudden scene caught Yun Changan off guard, and he hurriedly asked, "Master, are you okay?"

The Taoist priest took a long time to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth before speaking, "It's okay. I can't see through you, kid. This has never happened before. However, I still want to tell you that some bad things have happened to you recently. If you meet a woman, stay away from her. Whether you can escape depends on your own destiny."

Yun Changan asked in confusion, "Girl? What girl?"

The Taoist said nothing and just packed up the things in front of him.

The Taoist priest carried the bamboo box on his back and muttered to himself, "Curiosity really kills the cat! I shouldn't have investigated this kid's fate out of curiosity. His fate is actually obscured by something. Even I can't find his fate line, and there is actually an extra golden line on my body."

The young Taoist priest looked at the golden thread on his body and couldn't help but smile bitterly. Since he had been involved in the law of cause and effect, he could only let nature take its course. He turned to Yun Changan and said, "Boy, take this gold copper coin. Consider it a meeting gift from me. If you can survive in the future, you can come to Tianyuan Taoist Temple with this copper coin to find me, but I don't want you to come to me. So don't come to me unless you have something to do!"

After saying this, in just a moment, the Taoist priest disappeared.

On a mountaintop, the Taoist priest looked at the Chuwang City at the foot of the mountain and whispered to himself, "It is a calamity of love, but also a calamity of death."