Chapter 63 : Chapter 63

Chapter 63: The Violet Firmament Imperial Dynasty of a Hundred Years Ago?

The corner of Chen Guan’s mouth twitched hard.

This damned girl!

Even at a moment like this, she was still putting on an act in front of him!

He raised a hand and pointed toward the magpie corpse lying beneath the ancient tree in the distance, then roared, “Then do you know who that is?!”

Luo Li followed the direction of his finger and looked over, then immediately shook her head. “I... I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?!”

Chen Guan was so furious at that innocent, wide-eyed look of hers that he actually laughed.

This damned girl was far too good at pretending!

One moment she was willful and arrogant, the next she was quirky and clever, and the next she was acting cute and innocent.

Hadn’t she been switching masks all along this journey precisely to hide her true identity, so that he would think she was only some harmless little princess and would escort her obediently all the way to Great Zhou?

He strode forward, bent down, and pointed at the bird’s corpse as he said, one word at a time,

“That is Xi’er, the maid who grew up with you from childhood!”

“What?!”

Luo Li’s body shook violently at those words, and all the color drained from her face in an instant.

“Th-that’s impossible!”

“Impossible? I just killed her with my own hands!”

Chen Guan’s voice was cold and heavy.

“You will now, right now, tell me every last detail! Why did your grandfather try to stop you from going to Great Zhou? And why did your aunt send people to kill you?!”

“No... that’s impossible. It absolutely can’t be!”

It was as though Luo Li had not even heard him. Her eyes were empty as she kept shaking her head in utter disbelief.

Her grandfather trying to stop her from going to Great Zhou—although she had never understood it, she could at least vaguely imagine some reason for that.

But her aunt... her aunt wanted to kill her?

That... was impossible!

In truth, Chen Guan had long since sensed that there was something off about Su Yue.

The first time he met Xi’er, he had already noticed a trace of extremely faint demonic qi on her.

And before their departure, he had also caught a fleeting sliver of killing intent from Su Yue. At the time, he had thought she was harboring resentment toward Do Not Look Back outside the city.

But now, it seemed clear that every danger that had arisen along the road, one after another, had something to do with that woman and that rotten old man.

Yet he still could not understand why they had not acted before the journey even began.

Why had they gone to the trouble of hiring him, only to make their move after he set out?

Chen Guan took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the fury in his heart before speaking in a cold voice.

“Fine. Then let me spell it out for you.”

“The demon wolves outside Sanhe Town and the uncanny fiend outside Wangyue City—Do Not Look Back. Why did they never appear early or late, but just happened to appear when we passed by?”

“And those Grudgebound Demon Apes in the Qingcang Mountains—those things are the kind of rulers that dominate the deep reaches of the Ten Directions Marsh. Yet someone invited them out just to block our path!”

“And those twenty-four Escort Masters your aunt arranged for you—more than half of them were deathsworn who had been lying low in Pingyang Commandery for over ten years, all for the sole purpose of assassinating you!”

Chen Guan’s gaze was as sharp as a blade, as though he meant to split open Luo Li’s thoughts and see everything hidden inside.

“And of all people, who besides Su Yue could have arranged every single obstacle along this route so perfectly for you?!”

“I’ve walked escort routes around Sanhe Town for ten years and never once saw so much as a strand of wolf fur! As for a legendary thing like Do Not Look Back, I’d scarcely even heard of it before!”

“And you’re telling me it’s impossible? That you know nothing?”

In truth, he had sensed that something was wrong all along this journey.

The reason he had not dared suspect Su Yue was precisely because Su Yue had raised this troublesome girl from childhood.

If she truly bore a grudge against her, wouldn’t she simply have strangled her to death long ago?

Any normal person would never suspect Su Yue because of that.

Unfortunately, Chen Guan was also a normal person.

He stared at Luo Li and saw only confusion on her face. His voice grew even more certain.

“That demon wolves and Do Not Look Back were the first checkpoint meant to stop you from leaving Sanhe Town!”

“And those Grudgebound Demon Apes in the Qingcang Mountains were the second checkpoint, meant to stop you from leaving Great Yun!”

“As for the deathsworn lying in wait along the road, they were the final safeguard!”

“One layer of danger more deadly than the last—every one of them was a killing move meant to stop a troublesome girl like you from reaching Great Zhou...”

At this point, Chen Guan looked down at the corpses strewn over the ground.

“And this all-or-nothing assassination happening right here in front of me... and you’re still telling me it’s impossible?!”

“You really think I’m a fool?”

Upon hearing that, endless grief welled up in Luo Li’s bright eyes. After a long silence, she slowly lifted her head with red-rimmed eyes and looked at Chen Guan, her voice carrying a sob.

“B-Brother Chen... if... if I say that I truly know nothing... w-would you believe me?”

The corner of Chen Guan’s mouth twitched violently again.

She was still acting!

At that moment, he genuinely had the urge to strangle this troublesome girl to death!

But he held himself back.

Because he had suddenly realized that the “doom beyond redemption” spoken of by the Peach Blossom Immortal and Xi’er was not the sort of doom he had first imagined.

Chen Guan drew a deep breath, forced down the urge to slap her to death, and said coldly, “I don’t care whether your aunt is good or bad!”

“But right now, this instant, you are going to tell me honestly—are you really a princess, and what exactly are you going to Great Zhou to do?!”

Luo Li lowered her head. Her two small hands clenched unconsciously as the mountain forest sank into dead silence, with only the rustling of leaves in the wind.

After a long, long pause, Luo Li finally raised her head and said, “Brother Chen, I did not lie to you.”

Her eyes were red, but her voice had grown calm. “I am a princess. But... my surname is not Zhou.”

“Not Zhou? What do you mean?” Chen Guan froze.

Then, all at once, a flash of understanding struck him.

He realized he had overlooked one crucial point.

Great Zhou had only existed for less than a hundred years...

“Damn it!”

He blurted it out in shock, then immediately asked, “You are... a princess of the former dynasty, the Violet Firmament Imperial Dynasty?!”

Luo Li said nothing. She only looked at him and slowly nodded.

“Uh...”

Chen Guan stood there frozen, instant understanding dawning on him.

Now he understood everything.

No wonder Su Jingyan had tried to stop her from entering the capital even at the cost of his life. No wonder Su Yue had woven such an all-encompassing death net just to ensure her death.

It turned out that this was not because she was the illegitimate daughter of the current emperor at all.

It was because this troublesome girl did not bear the surname Zhou. Her surname was Luo.

The Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty had stood for less than a century.

And Great Zhou itself had only been founded after overthrowing the once-magnificent Violet Firmament Imperial Dynasty, changing the era name and establishing what was now called Great Zhou.

Luo was the imperial surname of the Violet Firmament Imperial Dynasty!

She was a remnant of the former dynasty!

At that thought, Chen Guan’s heart gave a violent thump, and his scalp went numb. He immediately asked, “You... are going to Great Zhou... to restore the dynasty?”