The blind girl is called a saint with a sword!

She had already decided that she would make An Qingwan her maid and bully her severely to avenge the loss of the Gu King.

"Your hands are quite skillful, not bad, the strength... ah—"

Leng Qingyou cried out in surprise, because An Qingwan had pressed her finger on the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of her foot.

This happened too suddenly.

The cold celadon glaze made his toes curl up, and his body tensed up completely.

At that moment, An Qingwan suddenly stuffed all the things she had mentioned earlier into her mouth.

then……

"you."

Leng Qingyou looked at An Qingwan with a mixture of surprise and anger.

An Qingwan smiled and said, "Lord Leng, do you feel like my voice is sometimes near and sometimes far now?"

Leng Qingyou was almost furious; these were clearly her words!

"How come you weren't poisoned?"

An Qingwan asked, "Why do you think I stopped you from tracking Su Nong that day?"

Leng Qingyou was shocked: "You did this on purpose?"

"That's right, I suspected you were up to something, so do you really think I would eat the food you brought me?"

An Qingwan reached out and gently lifted Leng Qingyou's chin.

"Help Miss Lan detoxify, or I can't guarantee what I might do to you?"

Leng Qingyou gritted her teeth and said, "Don't even think about it."

An Qingwan sighed, "Why be so dishonest?"

An Qingwan reached out and picked up a feather duster from the side.

"Is the cold-hearted landlord ticklish?"

A feather duster gently brushed across the cold celadon-glazed feet.

The cold celadon glaze immediately drew a sharp breath.

"I'll take the medicine, I'll take the medicine, okay? The antidote is hidden in my left sleeve."

An Qingwan immediately fetched medicine to detoxify Lan Xiaogu.

Just as she was about to teach Leng Qingyou another lesson, a parrot suddenly flew in from the horizon and landed on the window frame.

"Goddess, could you spare her this time for my sake?"

An Qingwan frowned.

The parrot continued, "I am the Heavenly Venerable, the master of the Western Regions Heavenly Sect."

Oh?

An Qingwan raised an eyebrow.

More than a month ago, Xia Chongxuan of Tianzong said that the Heavenly Venerable wanted to meet her, but she never expected that they would meet under such circumstances.

P.S.: Thank you Wanqijue for the donation, and thank you Wanqijue and Nanxingyuan for the razor blades!

Lan Xiaogu, the successor of the 144th Heavenly Venerable, and her maid Leng Qingyou [4.5k]

"Parrot...parrot?"

Once she regained consciousness, Lan Xiaogu stared in astonishment at the parrot perched on the window.

"The renowned Celestial Venerable is actually a parrot?"

An Qingwan's lips twitched as she explained, "The Celestial Venerable isn't a parrot. He's just using this parrot to speak. If you look closely, you'll see a very thin silk thread tied to the parrot's leg. His voice is transmitted through that silk thread using his internal energy."

Lan Xiaogu looked closely and indeed saw a flash of light in the setting sun.

"It really is true. It can transmit sound through silk threads without any leakage along the way, making it sound as if the parrot is speaking. What an ingenious technique."

The parrot spoke again: "It's nothing but some low-class tricks and gimmicks. But the goddess is extraordinary, seeing through these tricks in an instant. It's said that the goddess's observation skills are unparalleled in the world, and it's true."

An Qingwan smiled and said, "Now that the technique has been cracked, why doesn't the Celestial Venerable show himself and we can talk?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a thick fog suddenly rose outside.

The fog was too thick.

It was so thick that it almost completely obscured the afterglow of the setting sun.

That fog was too eerie.

It was so eerie that it made me feel suffocated and unable to breathe.

Just then, Lan Xiaogu and Leng Qingyou both saw a figure appear in the fog.

It was a very pale figure, so pale that it was barely visible.

He is an illusion.

He is unpredictable.

He was like a fleeting ghost.

No one knows when he appeared there. Perhaps he wasn't there at all, and it was just a projection. Or perhaps he has always been there, standing there since time immemorial.

Everyone knew that the figure in the fog must be the Celestial Venerable.

This time, An Qingwan, Lan Xiaogu, and Leng Qingyou all understood why the Celestial Venerable was the most mysterious grandmaster in the martial arts world, and why no one had ever seen his true appearance.

He is like a fog; who can see through his true nature?

Even the Emperor's Qi Observation Technique can only capture his physical form, but it is difficult to see through his true nature.

"Is it because his martial arts are special, or because his skill is extremely profound?"

An Qingwan cupped her hands in greeting: "Previously, Senior Heavenly Venerable had Xia Chongxuan, the Lord of the Heavenly Department, send me messages. Those messages were of great help to me. Since Senior asked me to spare Lord Leng this time, I have no objection, however..."

The Celestial Venerable in the mist said, "You want to ask me why I helped Leng Qingyou, because she doesn't seem to recognize me, right?"

An Qingwan said, "That's right."

Leng Qingyou also wants to know the answer to this question.

The Heavenly Venerable said, "It is because she is my granddaughter."

An Qingwan, Lan Xiaogu, and Leng Qingyou: "?"

Three big question marks immediately popped up.

The answer was so astonishing that Leng Qingyou's eyes widened in disbelief.

"What nonsense are you talking about? My maternal grandfather died a long time ago and has been buried for over forty years."

The Celestial Venerable said, "In your mother's eyes, I am indeed dead, after all, I abandoned her back then."

Lan Xiaogu patted her cheeks: "What exactly is going on?"

The Heavenly Venerable said to Leng Qingyou, "I am a close friend of Leng Xuanci, the former master of the Rebirth Pavilion. More than forty years ago, I went to the Great Liang Palace alone to assassinate the Great Emperor of Great Liang."

"Before I left, I entrusted your young mother to Leng Xuanci's care. She was very unwilling at the time and insisted on going with me, but how could I take her with me? I could only leave with a heavy heart. From then on, your mother deeply hated me for abandoning her and told everyone that I was dead."

Lan Xiaogu asked, "How can you prove that what you're saying isn't false?"

The Celestial Venerable said, "Just let Qingyou go back and ask her to find out the truth. I didn't hide it from her, and she knows that I am the Celestial Venerable."

Leng Qingyou's eyes flickered intensely.

She suddenly remembered many things.

From a young age, her mother told her that when she became the master of the Rebirth Pavilion, she could lose to anyone but the Heavenly Venerable.

At that time, she did not understand the meaning, but was just puzzled, since there was no apparent conflict between the Rebirth Pavilion and the Heavenly Sect.

After hearing the Celestial Venerable's words today, she suddenly understood many things.

So that's how it is, but...

Lan Xiaogu asked the question that was on Leng Qingyou's mind: "Why do you insist on challenging the founding emperor of the Great Liang? Do you want to destroy the Great Liang, or do you have a grudge against him?"

The Celestial Venerable said, "My enmity with him is not an ordinary enmity, but a national and personal vendetta."

"Family feud?"

An Qingwan looked suspicious.

Emperor Taizu of Liang destroyed more than one or two countries in his lifetime. Which country is this Celestial Venerable a descendant of?

Just as she began to have doubts, the Celestial Venerable spoke up.

"I am the second son of the Prince of Yueyang of the Great Qi Dynasty."

Wait, the Prince of Yueyang?

"Is he the Prince of Yueyang who left behind the Great Qi's secret treasure?"

An Qingwan and Lan Xiaogu said in unison.

At this moment, An Qingwan finally understood what Xia Chongxuan meant by what he had said to her that day.

At the time, Xia Chongxuan said that she had helped the Heavenly Venerable and that the Heavenly Venerable wanted to repay her favor. She couldn't understand how she had helped the Heavenly Venerable. Now that the Heavenly Venerable had revealed his identity, she suddenly understood.

"Actually, I didn't help him, but Xiao Changying, another descendant of the Prince of Yueyang. I saved Xiao Changying and escorted him to the Thirty-Six Islands, so he is grateful to me!"

It's connected, everything's connected.

However, this gave An Qingwan a new set of doubts.

If the Celestial Venerable has such power, why did Xiao Changying still live such a miserable life?

The Celestial Venerable understood An Qingwan's doubts, or rather, he had anticipated the doubts that those who heard the truth would have even before revealing his own identity.

“Xiao Changying’s great-grandfather was my elder brother. Sixty-three years ago, when Jiangling fell, my father, the Prince of Yueyang, sent my elder brother and me to secretly escape from Jiangling with the treasure map. He told us to lie low and wait for the Great Liang to crumble before using the Great Qi’s secret treasure as a foundation to plot the restoration of the country.”

"Back then, I was young and impetuous, and I really didn't want to wait. My elder brother tried his best to persuade me, but I couldn't understand him, so we had a big fight, and then I left alone. I tried everything to overthrow the Great Liang Dynasty, until more than forty years ago, when I infiltrated the Great Liang palace alone to assassinate the Great Liang Emperor. In that battle, I was almost killed, but I survived by sheer luck. Only after that did I understand how mature and prudent my father and elder brother were."

“I wanted to go back to apologize to my brother, but I could no longer find him. He had already taken his family and disappeared to another place. I also wanted to find my daughter, but she refused to see me. Disheartened, I went to the borderlands and established the Heavenly Sect in the Western Regions. I originally intended to use the Heavenly Sect as a base to overthrow the Great Liang Dynasty, but during the process of establishing the Heavenly Sect, the founding emperor of the Great Liang Dynasty died. Since his death, the Great Liang Dynasty has become weaker with each generation and has been in turmoil.”

"Looking at the decline of the Great Liang Dynasty and thinking about the tragic state of the Great Qi Dynasty in its twilight years, I suddenly realized that there are sects in this world with thousands of years of inheritance, but are there any dynasties that can truly last for ten thousand generations?"

"From that time on, I completely let go of my obsession. I no longer cared about the general trend of the world. It was at that time that I truly attained enlightenment. My martial arts skills improved by leaps and bounds, and I became the Celestial Venerable who is now revered by countless people in the martial arts world."

An Qingwan sighed, "It's really not easy for a person to let go of their obsession and break free from the obsession that has trapped them for half their life."

The Celestial Venerable said, "It is not easy."

An Qingwan said, "Since you have let go of your obsession, why do you suddenly reappear in the world now?"

The Heavenly Venerable said, “Because I am old, so old that I am about to die. Once people get old, they tend to reminisce about the past and think about what will happen after they die.”

An Qingwan suddenly realized: "You want to meet your brother's descendants, and you also want to meet your daughter."

Suddenly, Leng Qingyou shouted angrily, "How dare you go see my mother?"

The Celestial Venerable said, "That was actually not a bad thing for your mother. If she had stayed with me when I was focused on revenge, I would have been powerless to take care of her. She would probably have died long ago. She would not have met your father, nor would she have had such an outstanding daughter as you."

Before Leng Qingyou could continue cursing, An Qingwan rubbed the sole of her foot with a feather duster, pinning her down until she couldn't speak.

“You’re wrong,” An Qingwan said.

The Celestial Venerable said, "Was I wrong?"

An Qingwan said, "She cares about you. She didn't want you to go to Daliang to die, but you went anyway, so she hates you. I think if you were willing to make amends afterward, she would slowly accept you. But you left heartbroken and went to the Western Regions, where you stayed for many years. What should she think? Of course, she can only hate you."

The Celestial Venerable remained silent.

The silent atmosphere made Lan Xiaogu sigh.

No matter how capable a person is, managing family relationships well is still a difficult task.

Throughout history, imperial families have also experienced numerous disasters.

An Qingwan asked, "Senior Celestial Venerable, is your trip here solely to see an old friend?"

The Celestial Venerable said, "Besides seeing old friends, I also need to consider the succession of the Celestial Sect. I established the Celestial Sect with my own hands, so it is like my child. I must choose a good successor for it."

An Qingwan asked, "Aren't the people from the Heavenly Sect suitable?"

The Celestial Venerable said, “They have reached their limit and cannot bear the weight of such a massive Heavenly Sect. Moreover, there are some corrupt officials within the Heavenly Sect, and I will definitely use the matter of succession to eliminate them.”