Inherited 100 Million - Chapter 24

Di Xiang stared blankly at Zhuang Yi, as if she hadn’t quite heard what she had just said.

“My Lady?” Zhuang Yi reached out and waved her hand in front of Di Xiang’s eyes.

Di Xiang came back to herself and looked where Zhuang Yi had pointed earlier. “So that’s Moon City?”

“You really never pay attention to these things,” Zhuang Yi leaned against the city wall, the evening wind ruffling the hair at her temples. The smile on her face was impossible to hide. “That’s the first city you built, and also… the place where we first met.”

Zhuang Yi laughed. “Thinking about it now, it feels like a dream. I’m incredibly grateful that you were willing to stay, every time I remember it.”

Di Xiang scoffed. “You were the one grabbing my sleeve and not letting me leave.”

Hmph, such a tsundere. Xue Yizhuo rolled her eyes.

“Yes,” Zhuang Yi’s smile was bright, and the compliments flowed out easily. “My Lady is kind-hearted.”

Di Xiang, however, was clearly pleased. Xue Yizhuo estimated that, given her current demeanor, Di Xiang sincerely agreed with Zhuang Yi’s compliment.

Zhuang Yi was grateful that Di Xiang stayed, and Xue Yizhuo was equally surprised. Di Xiang might not be a cold-hearted person, but Xue Yizhuo knew she was a powerful cultivator, whose age far surpassed that of mortals. Over the course of a cultivator’s long life, they experience countless people and events. Di Xiang had seen the full spectrum of human life, met many pitiable people, and witnessed countless regrets, so why did she choose to stay here?

She established Guque here, and ultimately, she found her long rest here.

Di Xiang leaned against the city wall and asked softly, “You said ten years have passed?”

“Yes,” Zhuang Yi nodded. “Ten years and three months.”

Di Xiang lowered her gaze. “Time flies. I was completely unaware.”

Ten years, to her, might be only the time spent in a single secluded meditation. In the end, it was but a blink of an eye. However, that was in the past. Now, every day that passed meant one less day of the few she had left.

She stayed here, but her soul felt as if it was still drifting in the past.

While Di Xiang was oblivious, time flowed swiftly by.

Di Xiang looked at Zhuang Yi and realized that the girl who had clung to her sleeve was all grown up. Ten years was enough time for a mortal to completely change their appearance. At some point, Zhuang Yi had grown taller than her, transforming into an elegant woman. Her every smile and expression reminded Di Xiang of the lotuses ubiquitous in Guque—indescribably graceful and gentle.

The disheveled girl in the sandstorm was only a faint shadow on her now.

Ten years. Caught between the present and the past, she had drifted through ten years in a daze.

Di Xiang noticed a slight weariness in Zhuang Yi’s eyes. She pressed lightly between Zhuang Yi’s brows and said softly, as Zhuang Yi stared at her, “How long has it been since you rested?”

Zhuang Yi paused, then smiled casually. “Lotus City has just been completed, and there are many matters to attend to. I’ll get some proper rest once this busy period is over.”

She added, “I’m not that tired.”

“You say this is my country, but the five cities were clearly built under your supervision…” Di Xiang’s voice was very low, as if it would scatter in the evening wind.

“Hmm?” Zhuang Yi hadn’t heard the whole sentence.

Di Xiang turned her face away. “Nothing.”

Zhuang Yi smiled faintly and squeezed Di Xiang’s hand. “Without My Lady, there would be no Guque. It was My Lady who stopped the frequent sandstorms, who freed the Desert People from the harm of the wind and sand, so they no longer have to worry about their homes being destroyed overnight, or a future of displacement.”

Zhuang Yi said softly, “At best, I can only give the tribe a place to settle, but only My Lady could give us the lotus flowers.”

Xue Yizhuo honestly wanted to applaud Zhuang Yi.

Di Xiang lowered her head, her expression unreadable. Xue Yizhuo didn’t know if she was touched, but after waiting quietly for a long time, just like Zhuang Yi, Di Xiang finally looked up.

If Di Xiang’s eyes had been like a dried-up ancient well before, now living water was springing up within them. Her eyes held a brilliance Zhuang Yi had never seen. Di Xiang held her hand and said sincerely, word for word, “This is not only my Guque, but from now on, it will be your Guque.”

Her tone was incredibly solemn, but at the time, Zhuang Yi couldn’t grasp the deep meaning behind it.

Until another ten years had passed.

“It’s snowing,” Xue Yizhuo raised her hand and caught a falling snowflake. The snowflake quickly melted in her palm, leaving only a chill.

By the second scene change, Xue Yizhuo was used to it. This time, she didn’t appear mid-air but was standing on a bridge.

She was still in the Yangsuo Desert, but it was snowing. This was a strange phenomenon, and Xue Yizhuo felt a sense of unease.

The snow fell silently, melting into the lake, and blending with the white lotus petals.

All sounds were hushed.

Hasty footsteps broke the silence.

Xue Yizhuo turned around and saw a much older Zhuang Yi hurriedly climbing onto the bridge. She looked almost forty now, with fine lines around her eyes that even makeup couldn’t conceal, and she had become a dignified middle-aged woman.

Yet, for a moment, Xue Yizhuo thought she saw the Zhuang Yi of the past.

It was too similar. The panic in Zhuang Yi’s expression now was like that of the young Zhuang Yi whom Xue Yizhuo had seen the night she learned her sister was missing.

Xue Yizhuo had a guess.

She followed Zhuang Yi as she ran into the royal palace. The interior of the palace was complex. Xue Yizhuo followed Zhuang Yi through countless long corridors to a sleeping chamber.

The chamber was empty, with only white silk draping down from the ten-meter-high ceiling. It was layered like the petals of a lotus flower wrapping around its heart. Deep inside the white silk was a large bed. Di Xiang was sitting on the edge of the bed. When Zhuang Yi pushed aside the last layer of silk and approached her, Di Xiang looked up and smiled at her.

Xue Yizhuo frowned. Di Xiang’s condition didn’t look good at all. Although her expression was relaxed, her face was so pale that there was almost no color in it. Only her lips retained a faint red.

Zhuang Yi had run all the way, but she stopped the moment she saw Di Xiang.

Di Xiang smiled and called her name. Zhuang Yi walked to Di Xiang’s side and suddenly knelt down, burying her face in Di Xiang’s lap.

Xue Yizhuo heard a low sobbing sound.

She felt a pang of sympathy. Zhuang Yi at this moment seemed so heartbroken she was close to death.

Di Xiang’s expression was incredibly calm. She gently stroked Zhuang Yi’s disheveled hair and said, “Everyone must die.”

Zhuang Yi choked out, “Aren’t you an immortal…”

“Leaving aside whether anyone truly knows if the immortals of the Upper Realm have an endless lifespan, I, myself, haven’t ascended yet,” Di Xiang said.

Zhuang Yi shook her head and looked up at her. “I don’t understand those things.”

She looked at Di Xiang with swollen, pleading eyes, as if begging her not to die.

Di Xiang was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, “I knew this day would come. Long before I met you, I knew I would die within a few decades.”

“I had no attachments and didn’t know where to go. I just numbly traveled eastward. Crossing the Liduan River, passing through Great Yan, I thought I would reach the end of this continent and die alone in an uninhabited place. But I never expected that after half a lifetime of wandering, a place would finally accept me.”

Di Xiang gently stroked Zhuang Yi’s long hair. “It wasn’t that I stayed. It was that you accepted me.”

Zhuang Yi gripped her hand stubbornly. “How can I save you? I’ll do anything if you just stay alive!”

“It’s no use,” Di Xiang whispered. “My life has already reached its end. This is a karma I cannot defy. I’ve already lived for decades longer by relying on my cultivation. Now, it really is the end.”

Zhuang Yi was heartbroken. Di Xiang was no longer just the immortal who saved her; she was an inseparable presence who had been by her side for most of her life.

Di Xiang was willful and indifferent to everything. Zhuang Yi knew her gaze at Di Xiang was always unconsciously filled with tolerance, but she never imagined that one day, Di Xiang would look at her with such a gentle and accepting gaze.

Zhuang Yi held her hand tightly, afraid that if she let go, Di Xiang would disappear before her eyes.

Di Xiang said helplessly, “That hurts a little.”

Zhuang Yi let go in a panic.

“Zhuang Yi, sit here.” Di Xiang patted the bed beside her.

Zhuang Yi obediently sat down, but her anxious eyes never left Di Xiang.

Di Xiang cut her index finger with a speed Zhuang Yi couldn’t react to at all. Blood quickly seeped from the wound. Di Xiang touched Zhuang Yi’s forehead with her fingertip and whispered, “Don’t move.”

Zhuang Yi instantly froze.

Di Xiang carefully drew a rune on Zhuang Yi’s forehead, stroke by stroke. With her proficiency in runes, she could have finished it in one go, but Di Xiang had never drawn anything with such seriousness, without a hint of disrespect or carelessness.

The rune was completed and briefly emitted a faint golden light. The light vanished instantly, and the rune dissolved right after. Di Xiang’s blood seemed to seep into Zhuang Yi’s body.

“I leave the black lotus in Guque, and I give my blood to you,” Di Xiang looked intently into Zhuang Yi’s eyes. “From now on, the black lotus will only be used by you and your descendants. As long as your bloodline exists in this Guque for a single day, Guque will not be afflicted by the wind and sand.”

Di Xiang said softly, “This is your Guque.”

She had said a long time ago that this would be Zhuang Yi’s Guque.

After finishing the rune, Di Xiang couldn’t hide the weariness on her face. She seemed to have used up most of her strength and even sitting felt exhausting. She slowly leaned against Zhuang Yi.

“You grabbed my sleeve back then, and I somehow stayed,” Di Xiang murmured. “It turns out I was destined to finally stop somewhere.”

Zhuang Yi didn’t know Di Xiang’s past. She only knew that her tears were flowing uncontrollably.

“This place has been waiting for your arrival.”

••••

Xue Yizhuo felt dizzy.

Did the scene change again? Where am I this time?

As Xue Yizhuo thought this, she heard someone say impatiently, “Hey, hey.”

Xue Yizhuo opened her eyes. Her vision gradually returned, and Di Xiang’s face appeared in her sight.

“You’re not dead?” Xue Yizhuo blurted out.

Di Xiang’s expression froze for a moment.

“Uh…” Someone suddenly grabbed Xue Yizhuo’s throat.

The translucent Di Xiang viciously choked her throat, yet she smiled gently. “What exactly did you see?”