Her Past (II)

The library was quiet. There were only a few people about this time before dinner so Long Yifei did not attract any attention. She greeted a few familiar faces in passing but gave the excuse that she was researching the history of song and dance. Everyone was focused on their own studies and they didn't pay her any extra attention.

Long Yifei arrived at a particularly deserted section of the library which contained books about the history of the Martial Brilliance Continent. She had searched for material about the Great Falls Province without success for several weeks before she recalled something from her deeply seated memories. Her mother had told her something when she was young, a name. It was not her mother's name but the name of a secret friend she had.

Long Yifei stopped beside a dusty, crowded bookshelf and finally found it. It was a series of books named The Records of the Abbotess of Glacier Springs Province. Its author was Immortal Tranquil Flute Dong Ruming, the person her mother had named.

"Finally…" She muttered softly.

Dong Ruming was an Abbotess of the Virtuous Order of Chunzhen. She was in charge of the Glacier Springs Province within the Martial Brilliance Continent. Such was the power and influence of the Virtuous Order that a single province required an abbotess to manage its affairs.

Long Yifei dragged her hand along the spines of the books until she found the one she wanted. It was the records from the decade that contained her birth and her eventual escape from the calamity that befell her family. She hoped that it would give her a clue, something, anything.

Everything else about the Kingdom of Silver Cascades and Great Falls Provinces as a whole had been wiped out from the records. Not a single tome in this vast library spoke of these two names as if they had never existed in history. It was obvious that someone or some group didn't want anybody else to know. Their reason for doing so had to have something to do with her past.

Long Yifei took the tome to a secluded table and began to study it.

Immortal Tranquil Flute Dong Ruming was a careful and detail-oriented person. Each page was filled with tiny, hand-written characters that detailed everything and anything about her province. There were records of all the Sacred Daughters that had been recruited from the province. There were discussions about power struggles between local sects as well as outside influence from the Seven Potentates. There were accounts of the seasons and the weather patterns. There were detailed numbers about the population and economy.

However, there was still no mention of the Kingdom of Silver Cascades or Great Falls Province, even after reaching the end.

A sharp pang of nervousness filled Long Yifei's heart. This wasn't right. There had to be something here. There had to be. It was her only hope!

She couldn't give up. If this lead didn't work, she really had no other ideas. She had already looked everywhere else. She briefly thought about asking Chen Wentian for help but quickly stashed that idea away.

She hadn't even told him about the contents of her memories yet. She didn't want to rely on him for everything and anything. This was something she had to find out on her own!

Long Yifei pushed the tome to one side and retrieved another one from the same collection. This one was a record of the previous decade by the same author. After reading through everything and finding nothing, she picked up another from an older decade.

Dinner and evening activities were forgotten. She read into the night, covering the history of Glacier Springs Province decade by decade. At some point, the author was no longer Dong Ruming but the previous abbotess that had been in charge of the province. She continued reading, learning far more about a province than she ever wished to know.

All of it was useless to her except… one lonely page.

It took over two hundred years of boring history before she finally found it, a few stingy lines that mentioned her mother's name. It was nestled in a large section that described all the women that had joined the Order who was born in the province.

With shaking hands, Long Yifei traced her finger across the rough pages and read word by word.

"In the year eleven thousand six hundred and thirty-three of the Virtuous Order, Long Tao from Glacier Springs Province was identified as a potential Sacred Daughter at the age of fifteen. Her background was unknown, with no family or relatives, so she was directly recruited into the Order."

It was her! It was her mother!

Long Yifei didn't remember her mother's face or her name before but staying in the dream array had unlocked those memories. She could now recall her ethereal features that weren't dissimilar from her own. Her mother's name was Long Tao and this person recorded on the page had to be her. With such devastating beauty, there was almost no chance that her mother wasn't recruited by the Order, especially if she resided in a province under the management of the Order.

The only problem was the year. This record was over two hundred years ago, two hundred forty to be exact. How could her mother have lived for so long and given birth to her? There was only one possibility.

Her mother had been an immortal, a Spirit King at least!

Great waves of relief washed over her taut mind. Her hopes and expectations were satisfied by only a little but it brought a smile to her face. She finally had a tiny ray of hope.

Even if the enemies that wiped out her family and her kingdom had all the power in the world, it was impossible to completely erase the trace of a Spirit King of the Virtuous Order, especially one that was recruited so recently. There had to be people still alive who knew her mother, that knew what had happened!

With this idea in hand, she continued reading the record and found what she was expecting.

"In the year eleven thousand six hundred and forty-three of the Virtuous Order, Dong Ruming was recruited from Glacier Springs Province as a Sacred Daughter at the age of twenty-five. She came from the Eastern Spring Clan."

Long Yifei couldn't help but let out a laugh. There it was.

Her mother, Long Tao, and Dong Ruming had to have been classmates. Their age was the same. For two Sacred Daughters from the same year to both become Spirit Kings, they had to know a lot about each other. Her mother had mentioned that Dong Ruming was her best friend growing up. Given such a background together, it made every sense in the world.

An unfamiliar feeling of satisfaction struck her. After desiring answers about her past for so long, she finally had a solid lead. Although the full truth behind the fall of her family and her kingdom remained hidden, she now had a name, a real living person who was still an active abbotess of the Order.

Although it was past midnight and she was already very tired, she continued to study the records, hoping for any more clues. The mystery of her past, someone or some group had put in so much effort to conceal it. She was determined to reveal it slowly and carefully until it had nowhere to hide.

She continued valiantly but her eyelids dropped lower and lower. Eventually, her head hit the aged pages and she lost herself to slumber. The only sound that permeated the vast halls of the library was her occasional soft murmurs as she dreamed.

---

Thank you to all my patrons!

Support me and read ahead by 35 or even 70 chapters!

p atreon.com/kigreenwriting

Join my discord for updates, delays, and my ramblings :)

d iscord.gg/dY5UApw