CHAPTER 1327: NIANZU, ’THINKING OF ANCESTORS’ (3)

Yang Qing returned the courtesy before diving into his reasons for seeking him out.

"I have someone I need you to accompany. You’ll protect her till she reaches her destination, the Banyan Battlefield," he said before quickly adding, "Don’t worry, you don’t have to go in there with her, just escort her to the boundary," when he saw the slightly apprehensive look Han Lei showed at the mention of the Banyan Battlefield.

"Use this to cover the expenses," Yang Qing said as he tossed over a storage ring that had fifty high-grade spirit stones. "Use it to hire a ferry," he said, "... just not one in Gold Eagle Town," he added with a slight hesitation to his tone.

Han Lei nodded as he accepted the storage ring.

"I will come by later," Yang Qing said, addressing Luo Suyun. "Let’s go," he added, this time addressing Han Lei. He redeployed the teleportation rune that brought him here, which took him and Han Lei back to his office.

Xia Fang looked up in surprise upon arrival, casting a curious glance at the newcomer.

"This is Han Lei, a colleague," said Yang Qing as he gestured toward Han Lei, who cupped his fists toward Xia Fang with a gentle smile on his face. "If you don’t mind, I’d like him to escort you," he added.

"It’s not needed, really. I can go by myself," said Xia Fang in a bid to politely decline the request, before bitterly smiling in resignation when she saw the firmness in Yang Qing’s deep gaze. "I can’t refuse, can I?"

"Not really," replied Yang Qing with a smile. "Thank you for accommodating my selfishness, and in that spirit," he continued as he waved his sleeve, and four items appeared before him. One was a bamboo flask, one was a wine jar, one was a tea kettle, and the last was a tiny vial that held a deep amber liquid. It looked like honey, with flaming colors swirling within it that gave it an ethereal look.

"This you’re only to use once you reach the point I told you about," Yang Qing said as he pointed to the bamboo flask. "When you feel ready, that is when you take this," he repeated. "Not a moment sooner," he cautioned.

"As for the rest, you can take them at your own leisure. They should make things... easier," he said with a comforting smile as he gestured to the rest of the items.

The bamboo flask contained water from the Brook of Clarity, which would help her deal with her heart demons when she felt ready. The wine jar was filled with precious ingredients that would aid her cultivation. If it were to be graded, it would be no different from a middle-tier blue grade potion in that regard. The tea was jasmine tea infused with his spiritual qi, which would help relax her mind and heart, or at least be her rope when she felt she was drowning.

As for the last item, that vial, it contained sap from the Green Flame Tree, and of everything present, it was probably the most valuable because it represented a second life.

That tiny vial could restore a body from the brink of destruction and save someone who had only a single breath left in them. Curses, poisons, and injuries to the soul would be remedied by that sap. The sap had also been infused with his spiritual qi, which made it one of the most potent items of its level when it came to the denseness of its life aura and its effectiveness in healing and restoration.

Xia Fang, even though she didn’t know the worth of the presented items, instinctively knew they must be precious. Han Lei, on the other hand, as a veteran former assassin who no doubt interacted with many precious items in said role, instantly recognized the worth of one of the said items. Though he masked his emotions well, his gaze never left the small vial. Even though much of its aura was firmly locked away in the vial, with his sharpened senses, he acutely caught a trace of the pure life aura contained within that vial, and that wasn’t the only thing he caught from it.

"You have a storage ring?" Yang Qing softly asked. Xia Fang nodded and took it out, storing the items before moving to bow deeply to Yang Qing for close to half a minute.

Yang Qing patted her back, then led her and Han Lei out of his office to the hallway, and together they made their way to Gold Eagle Town, down to the doors of the Bluefin escort agency, where Xia Fang offered the two escort supervisors in Liu Ying and Duan Ting—who both looked just as haggard as her—a lengthy apology, followed by a deep bow. Then came the time for her to leave.

"Thank you for everything, Judge Yang Qing," she said with a smile.

"No problem," said Yang Qing. "’Live,’ Xia Fang," he softly urged.

"I will try," whispered Xia Fang.

They cupped their fists in farewell, and Xia Fang and Han Lei departed as Yang Qing stared at her frail-looking back. He wasn’t sure if she would make it to next week, other than hoping she would. As for him, he found peace in knowing he had done everything he possibly could.

They never met again, but Xia Fang never forgot him, and probably neither did he. She never broke through to the palace realm, as she never gained the confidence to face its tribulation. Instead, she chose the safer path of avoiding it entirely and lived out her years as a core formation expert. The reason she couldn’t take that gamble was because she found something that made her hesitate. She got a family.

She became a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, and eventually an ancestor. As for her family and her name, she shed the Xia name and adopted another. The name she chose—and which her new family later carried—was Nianzu, her grandfather’s given name, which meant "Thinking of Ancestors." She felt it was fitting to adopt it as her family name.

Just as Yang Qing had advised her, she thought of her grandfather constantly and clung to the conversations they had as if she were holding on to dear life, which, in truth, she was. If she made it through, ninety-nine percent of it was because of her grandfather and the memories and conversations that she had with him.

To her, her ancestry lineage began with him. As for what came before, she let it go and buried it along with the old Xia Fang. She never reached out to Xia Huang or any other members of the Xia clan.

Nianzu Fang lived to the age of 5,700, exceeding the normal lifespan of a core formation expert by seven hundred years, thanks to the items Yang Qing had given her. She bore four children, had twenty-eight grandchildren, and over sixty great-grandchildren. By the time she died of old age, the Nianzu clan had grown to more than three hundred descendants.

Thousands of years later, long after her passing, her clan produced a domain expert. His name was Nianzu Qing, her last-born child, whom she had named after the other person she felt greatly indebted to.