Those ruins, destroyed so thoroughly that not even broken walls remained in sight, were not what made the scene feel most tragic to them. Rather, it was the flesh and blood on the spherical crater, ground into a pulp by the coldness and wind blades so much so that whether one could even distinguish who was who, or even confirm whether those remains were human at all, relied entirely on fragments of clothing.
Whirling snowflakes, the largest reaching half the size of a palm, drifted downward. Their pristine white color, blanketing the blood-and-flesh-blurred remains, appeared exceptionally jarring.
In just that single, fleeting instant, everything had transformed into what lay before their eyes.
And the cause was the pair of twins still suspended in mid-air.
The hand Ji Aotian had been using to hold King Yue finally relaxed, extending flat out before him as a fierce gale swept toward his four children, who were still suspended between the two cliffs. The gesture seemed as though he wished to rescue his own offspring.
At that moment, Xueyi Wright and the birth mothers of the other two princes all reacted as well.
Helena Winnie’s face turned ashen! Ji Zilun was not only her child, but her very hope! Who did not know that the Emperor of the Chu Yun Empire was deeply infatuated with King Yue, and that only King Yue received his favor day in and day out for decades? For concubines like them, merely obtaining a moment of the Emperor’s favor was already a delusional pipe dream. Therefore, no matter how many children the Emperor had, aside from Xueyi Wright’s pair, not a single one shared the same mother.
Yet King Yue was ultimately a man; no matter how favored he was, he could never bear a child.
In other words, Ji Zilun was the only child she was ever likely to have in this lifetime, and he was her sole advantage over King Yue. He was the guarantee for her future… And now, her only child, the stake for her life hereafter, was suspended out there with his life or death completely unknown.
The birth mother of the 15th Princess was frail to begin with; managing to walk this far had already relied entirely on the support of her maidservant, and now she fainted straight away.
Xueyi Wright clenched her fists tightly. She knew all too well that if she did not use physical pain to keep herself sober, she might not be able to hold on. She could be considered the one with the most complex state of mind: down there were her two children, the true attachments of her heart within the Chu Yun imperial palace. Yet these two children were sensible beyond compare, so why had such an incomprehensible and bizarre phenomenon occurred around them?
Once this incident came to light, the external rumors surrounding Ranran would undoubtedly become even more rampant, and this time, even Ziyu would not be able to escape.
Most importantly, Xueyi Wright had no idea what on earth had transpired between the two children.
If… if it weren’t for the fact that His Majesty wanted the two children to undergo their talent tests prematurely…
The chaotic thoughts and every single hypothesis flashing through her mind subjected her to sheer agony.
After resting slightly, Corain Allen also attempted to channel his magical energy to rescue the princes who were caught in the talent test and unable to respond to the outside world.
However, both his and Ji Aotian’s magical energies were entirely absorbed. Just like a droplet of water falling into a deep lake, they merely produced a few ripples on the surface before generating no further reaction whatsoever.
They could only watch helplessly as that multicolored, intertwined black-and-white “flower bud,” encasing the 17th and 18th Princes while pulling the 15th and 16th Princes along with them, hovered in the air for a brief moment before plunging downward abruptly.
All that remained before their eyes was a scene of utter, tragic devastation, as though everything had been wiped out by a forbidden spell unleashed by a senior magus, or even a grand magus.
Helena Winnie collapsed onto the ground, forgetting the graceful and exquisite poise she had consistently maintained. As for Xueyi Wright, after gazing for a long time down into the bottomless abyss where nothing could be seen save for a vast expanse of pale, hazy gray she slowly raised her head and cast a profound, piercing look at Ji Aotian.
This caused Ji Aotian’s eyes to narrow slightly, though he quickly returned to an unconcerned demeanor, putting his arm around King Yue and instructing the remaining less-than-one-fifth of the guards to swiftly regroup and return to the palace.
This was hardly a trivial matter, after all…
Chapter 020: The Black Child Who Invites Misfortune (Part 2)
Setting aside how the destruction of the holy temple and altar due to the talent test, the loss of thousands of guards, and the disappearance of four princes brought boundless chaos to the snowbound Chu Yun Empire…
Let us turn our attention to Ji Ziyu whose power had suddenly spun out of control during the talent test, causing the portion of his divine seed already connected to his body to riot violently, thereby destabilizing the magical elements within the arena and precipitating the current crisis along with Ji Ran who was with him, and Ji Zilun and Ji Zixin who had been dragged down as well.
The depth of these two cliffs exceeded Ji Ziyu’s expectations. However, because the talent test had not truly concluded, the magical elements enveloping them remained exceptionally dense, meaning there should be no issue when they hit the ground.
Ji Zixin was, after all, a young girl, and she had been utterly frightened out of her wits by this juncture. The earthy-yellow magical elements surrounding her slowly diminished over time. Though only seven years old, she vaguely understood that these earthy-yellow magical elements were protecting her, yet the increasingly palpable terror of death turned her little face chalk-white.
As for Ji Zilun, who was barely six years old, he had lived his entire life surrounded by lavish luxury and meticulous care from attendants. The situation before him completely exceeded his capacity to endure; tears and snot smeared across his entire face, though perhaps due to sheer terror, no sound managed to escape his throat.
Ji Ran, on the other hand, remained steady and composed. Cocking his head with a curious expression, he asked, “What just happened?”
Naturally, he had heard the commotion, but having been continuously wrapped in magical elements, he could not feel the blade-like winds during their descent and merely found the whole affair rather peculiar.
Ji Ziyu glanced at him and replied in an even tone, “Nothing.”
Ji Ran’s eyebrows twitched as he tugged at the hem of Ji Ziyu’s robe. “Really?”
Ji Ziyu’s eyebrows twitched as well, and with earnest solemnity, he repeated a single word in response: “Mm.”
However, Ji Ran did not release his grip on Ji Ziyu’s hem, and Ji Ziyu acted as though he felt nothing, calmly observing the rapidly flashing cliff walls around them and calculating how much longer it would take to reach the bottom.
After another long moment, Ji Ran couldn’t help rubbing his arms. “Why do I feel like it’s getting colder and colder?”
Ji Ziyu fell silent for a brief moment before stating, “We’ve reached the bottom of the cliff, so of course it’s cold.”
“…” Ji Ran opened his mouth, completely at a loss for how to respond!
They truly had reached the bottom of the cliff. With a slight upward lift of Ji Ziyu’s hand, a swirling gust of wind manifested just before they landed, slowing their momentum. The bottom of the cliff was covered in a thick layer of snow, and they crashed into it at such a speed that they didn’t even impact the solid ground beneath.
Trembling, Ji Zixin scrambled to her feet just as the protective light shrouding her body completely dissipated. Previously, her mind had been entirely consumed by the question of whether she was going to die, but now she finally registered that the cold was overwhelmingly intense.
Glancing to the side, she saw that Ji Zilun had been positioned not far from her earlier, but during the fall, goodness knows what had happened—he had rolled an enormous distance away and was now completely wrapped in layers of snow. Resembling a turtle flipped onto its back, he lay face-up on the snowy ground, flailing away incessantly. His tears and snot had frozen into tiny ice shards encrusted across his face, making him look thoroughly wretched.
The runaway power within his divine seed had been successfully reined in by Ji Ziyu and drawn back into his body. The magical elements surrounding them finally quieted down and slowly dispersed.
As Ji Ziyu’s feet touched the soft snow, he stumbled slightly and instinctively grabbed tightly onto Ji Ziyu. “How did we end up at the bottom of the cliff?”
Ji Ziyu pondered for a moment, feeling that this matter was somewhat difficult to explain, and thus remained silent.
Anxious, Ji Ziran pressed, “What about Mother and the others?”
“They’re fine.” Ji Ziyu’s answer was exceedingly concise.
Letting out a long sigh of relief, Ji Ran tilted his head to listen, a puzzled look crossing his face. “Who else is here?”
“Eighteenth Brother…” Ji Zixin offered a greeting, though as for Ji Ziyu, she merely darted a single glance at him before not daring to look another second! She scurried over to where Ji Zilun had been struggling for ages, and while helping him flip back over, she muttered, “Everyone doing the test fell down too.”
Emerging with great difficulty from the snowdrift, Ji Ziran raised his head, caught sight of Ji Ziran standing amidst the vast expanse of white snow with his crown of ink-black hair, and shrieked, “Ah! It must be you! It has to be your fault! You monster, you demon! You ill-fated Black Child!!”
Chapter 021: The Black Child Who Invites Misfortune (Part 3)
The moment Ji Zilun blurted out those words, Ji Zixin instinctively shrank her neck, trembling as she cast a wary side-long glance at Ji Ziyu. The moment she swept past Ji Ziyu’s icy gaze, one far more biting than the surrounding environment she immediately yanked her eyes back.
Ji Ziran was clearly startled as well, yet accustomed to acting haughtily, he stiffened his neck with an expression that seemed to say, What can you possibly do to me?
Ji Ziyu paid him no mind, simply reaching down to loosen Ji Ziran’s fingers from his robe before wrapping his own hand securely around them. The needle-prick-like stinging sensation across Ji Ziran’s entire body instantly began to recede, bit by bit, under the warmth flowing from that hand.
A phrase he had heard long ago flashed through Ji Ziran’s mind. At the time, he had scoffed at it, but now he felt it with profound resonance: No matter how fierce the wind and snow, his heart was warm enough to sustain him through it all.
As for Ji Zilun’s words, he chose to treat them as if he had heard nothing. One could not possibly lower oneself to bicker with a child, especially when that child happened to be one’s own brother.
Though he could not see his surroundings clearly, he possessed common sense: “Xiaoyu, is there any place around here to shelter from the wind and snow? Are there any tracks of large animal activity in the snow? Is there any…”
The hands clasped together squeezed each other gently. Ignoring the questions, Ji Ziyu simply stated, “Follow me.”
Ji Ziran paused, feeling a slight sense of incongruity. Yet he couldn’t quite put his finger on what felt strange. Rubbing his chin with one hand while being led along by Ji Ziyu, he pondered for a long time without managing to figure out precisely what the issue was.
Ji Zixin and Ji Zilun exchanged glances, then hurriedly hurried after the two of them.
However, the temperature was truly too low; the warm breath exhaled from their mouths turned directly into ice crystals and fell away. Their limbs lacked all sensation, snow and wind filled their field of vision entirely, and they could not see ten meters ahead.
Ji Ziran had already cried his fill once, though the moment his tears fell, he instantly regretted it. Forget the fact that the falling tears froze over his eyes, even his eye sockets had nearly frozen shut. After that, he wouldn’t dare shed another single drop of moisture.
Ji Ran could no longer feel the cold, but the difficulty of walking through the deep snow was unmistakable. He tugged on their joined hands and asked, “Xiaoyu, where are you taking us—”