31 Divine Presence

Wei Guang opened his mouth to speak but then closed it without saying anything. He just stared at the woman in front of him without saying anything for a long while.

There was no denying that he had spent the past year in misery because of Chen Xiang Ling but looking at the woman in front of him at the moment, he couldn't feel even an ounce of contempt or anger toward her. Instead, he kept feeling an entirely different emotion whenever he came across the current version of Xiang Ling. He couldn't describe what feeling it was but he knew that it wasn't a negative one at all.

Realizing that she wouldn't be getting any response from the man, Xiang Ling closed her eyes and returned to the meditational state to cultivate spiritual qi. On the outside, it seemed like she was just sleeping but a cultivator could easily tell that she was actually cultivating spiritual energy in her mind space*.

Xiang Ling's main purpose was to create a proper balance between her mortal body and her spiritual powers so that she could wield them properly at will. Besides, this connection would also make her mortal body powerful which would ultimately fulfill one of the many wishes of the previous owner of the body.

By the time their carriage finally arrived at the entrance of Shengdu Village, barely an hour was left before sunset.

Xiang Ling came out of her cultivation state and opened her eyes. She quickly removed the curtains from the window on her side of the carriage and looked outside to get a glimpse of the village. However, the moment her gaze fell on the view outside, she was left both confused and surprised.

"Why are there so many refugees here?" She asked out loud to no one in particular as her gaze took in the vast number of refugees who were resting on either side of the street. Everyone looked in the worst state possible. They were covered in dirt, injuries, and blood. The children were crying for food while the elders were trying to hold them back and console them.

"Fu Xiao, first head to the family house." Wei Guang ordered Fu Xiao who accepted the order from the front of the carriage and they headed forward, leaving behind the gloomy state of the village.

Xiang Ling turned her questioning eyes toward Wei Guang and the man gave her a reassuring nod before speaking, "Let's find Li Xian first. We will ask him about the refugees later."

Finding his plan a good one, Xiang Ling nodded her head in agreement and they all headed toward the far north end of the village where the ancestral home of the Chen family was located.

The carriage stopped right outside the entrance of the small Chen Manor which looked nothing compared to the huge manor of the Chen family that was built in Dongzhi City.

But as Xiang Ling crossed the entrance and stepped inside the front garden, one look was enough to tell her that despite the difference in their sizes, both the manors were in the same state of doom. Just like the Chen Manor in Dongzhi City, the Chen Manor in Shengdu Village was also left in neglect as if no one had taken care of it for years.

A sigh escaped her lips as she decided to not ask any questions about the state of the manor for the time being. Something was telling her that if she asked, the reason would turn out to be her.

"Are we at the right place? It doesn't look like anyone is living here." Wen ZheYuan said as he followed closely behind her along with Wei Guang. Xin Cheng and Dao Ming were also following them but those two were just silently observing everything.

"Where is Li Xian?" Wei Guang asked as he looked around the Manor. There were only the outer and inner courtyards along with a small garden. Though it was still a big house compared to the small houses of the people living in the village, the entire house was still not even big enough to compare with the size of Xiang Ling's courtyard in the Manor back in the city.

While Fu Xiao, Wen ZheYuan, and Wei Guang headed inside to look for Li Xian, Xiang Ling used her spiritual sense to find the whereabouts of her second husband, only to find that he was nowhere in the house.

"He's not here."

"It seems like he's not here."

Both she and Wei Guang spoke at the same time, causing the two of them to look straight at each other for a few seconds before they both quickly looked away.

"Though the house looked as if it hasn't been clean in a long time, the inside is actually decent as if someone cleaned it a few days ago." Wen ZheYuan informed as he returned to the garden where the others were assembled.

Walking away from the others, Xiang Ling focused on the variations that she had been sensing in the air ever since she entered the manor. There was some sort of divine energy present there and though it was very faint, she could still tell that it wasn't any usual divine energy.

She was still trying to get a better sense of the divine energy when Little Pink suddenly started shrieking inside her space in panic.

"Master! Master!"

Xiang Ling let out a sigh of frustration. She couldn't enter the space when she was in the presence of so many people and she couldn't talk to Little Pink through telepathy because they weren't in a spiritual contract yet. She just hoped that it would reveal why it was panicking on its own without her needing to say anything.

As if Little Pink heard her thoughts, it added quickly - "Master, I just felt the divine presence of His Highness The Crown Prince. He's here in the Shengdu Village!"