“You mentioned before that the Holy Emperor of the Empire is likely our common ancestor. I found that very interesting, so I put in some effort and had someone investigate it for me.” Xu Bai looked at the Imperial Princess and spoke calmly.
Before the Imperial Princess could react, Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong grew excited. “What did you find out?”
“You want to know too?” Xu Bai smiled. “Then exchange it for the Holy Blood Embryo Transformation Technique.”
Xiao Hong was about to respond, but Xiao Qing reached out and stopped her.
She took a deep breath, calmed herself slightly, and said to Xu Bai, “You want to gain something for nothing just based on that one sentence? At the very least, you have to show us that the information you uncovered is actually worth the exchange.”
“That makes sense.” Xu Bai nodded approvingly and then extended his right hand.
In the next moment, a pitch-black feather appeared in his palm.
As soon as they saw the feather, both Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong felt a familiar presence.
“Xiao Hei?” Their bodies trembled, and they exclaimed in unison.
“It seems that you are not unfamiliar with this Fate Black Bird either. That makes things easier—I won’t have to waste my breath.”
“Thanks to the Federation of All Worlds, which allows connections across the myriad worlds, I was fortunate enough to find Xiao Hei’s remains in a small world.”
“This feather is the only thing left from its body. Along with it, there was also a fragment of Xiao Hei’s memories from when it was alive.”
At this point, Xu Bai suddenly stopped.
“Xiao Hei is dead?” Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong were momentarily shocked, then stared intensely at Xu Bai.
After deliberately building their suspense, Xu Bai glanced at them before sneering, “Xiao Hei was far more loyal than you two. To search for my ancestor’s whereabouts, it didn’t hesitate to deplete its own lifespan, traveling across the small worlds of the Xuanhuang Realm.”
“Though it never found Xu Ke before it died, it did not return empty-handed.”
“Xu Ke might still be alive.” Xu Bai spoke slowly.
His soft-spoken words hit Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong like a thunderclap.
“Impossible!” they both refuted in unison.
“If Master were still alive, we would definitely be able to sense it. But we lost all connection with him a long time ago.”
Xiao Qing furrowed her brows, and a cold glint flashed in her phoenix eyes. “To deceive us into handing over the Holy Blood Embryo Transformation Technique, you would even fabricate lies about Master’s life and death…”
Despite Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong’s rising hostility, Xu Bai remained unshaken. He shook his head and sighed. “This is exactly why, back then, Xu Ke favored and trusted Xiao Hei the most.”
“You claim that you could sense Xu Ke’s life and death, but are you saying Xiao Hei couldn’t? Yet, even knowing that, why did it still firmly believe that Xu Ke was alive, searching across countless small worlds for him?”
As he spoke, Xu Bai pointed his finger into the air.
A projection appeared before them.
It was a fragment of Xiao Hei’s memories from its remains—scenes of it traversing many small worlds, ceaselessly searching for Xu Ke.
Watching the images flash by, revealing different small worlds, and seeing Xiao Hei’s movements gradually slow as it aged and weakened—
Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong trembled slightly, their expressions turning incomparably complex.
The image abruptly stopped.
Xu Bai said nothing. He simply watched them in silence.
After a long silence, he finally spoke again:
“The Xuanhuang have countless small worlds, though vast and seemingly endless, it does have a limit.”
“Back then, Xiao Hei personally visited some of them and had already ruled out those small worlds.”
“And first, we can be certain of one thing—my ancestor never left the Xuanhuang Realm back then.”
“So…”
Finally understanding, Xiao Qing’s eyes flickered with hope as she stared at Xu Bai. “The master is in one of the remaining small worlds?”
Xu Bai neither confirmed nor denied it.
Instead, he casually shifted the topic. “Even if we knew this before, we would have been powerless in the face of the countless remaining small worlds. But now, things are different.”
“The Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance is now unifying the Xuanhuang Realm, sweeping through and conquering all the small worlds.”
“Through the relentless campaigns of countless cultivators who fought without regard for their lives, many of these small worlds have already been thoroughly explored. As a result, the possible locations where Xu Ke might be have been greatly narrowed down.”
At this moment, Xiao Hong could no longer hold back and spoke up. “Doesn’t that mean the master is in great danger?”
Xu Bai nodded. “If the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance finds Xu Ke before we do, given their current modus operandi, I’m afraid the outcome will be dire.”
Xiao Hong’s expression darkened instantly. “No! I must—”
“Calm down, Hong.” It was Xiao Qing who remained composed.
She stopped Xiao Hong with a look, then turned to Xu Bai and said, “Your reasoning doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.”
“Not to mention that there’s no real evidence proving that the master is still alive. Even if he does still exist, how can you be sure that he is within the remaining unexplored small worlds?”
Before she could finish her sentence, Xu Bai interrupted her with a burst of laughter.
“Ah, Daoist Qing, you’re truly rational to the extreme. Fine, I admit that what I just said was all based on conjectures derived from Xiao Hei’s memories. But can you deny the possibility that Xu Ke is indeed still within the remaining small worlds?”
“Back then, when facing an endless sea of unknown small worlds, Xiao Hei never flinched. But now that the search area has been significantly reduced, you still refuse to face reality?”
“What exactly are you afraid of, Daoist Qing?” Xu Bai’s gaze was sharp and piercing as he stared directly at Xiao Qing, questioning her.
Xiao Qing’s body trembled as if struck by a heavy blow.
Her mouth opened slightly, but no words came out.
“Besides,” Xu Bai continued, his tone carrying a hint of mockery, “all I seek is a technique that Xu Ke once passed down so casually. Yet now, after all this time, those closest to him are actually willing to disregard his life and death just to protect something as insignificant as the Holy Blood Embryo Technique.”
Xiao Qing was about to speak when the Imperial Princess, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke up.
“I accept your request. Regardless of whether the Holy Emperor is dead or alive, I will not allow him to remain lost in a foreign land any longer,” she said with unwavering determination.
Faced with the Imperial Princess’s decision, Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong remained silent.
Xu Bai, on the other hand, nodded approvingly. “A wise choice.”
Then, with a gentle wave of his hand, a map of the Xuanhuang Realm appeared before them.
“The Xuanhuang Realm has undergone earth-shattering changes over thousands of years.”
“However, our Federation of All Worlds has always been monitoring and recording everything in secret. So, the small worlds Xiao Hei once explored can still be matched with our current records.”