Chapter 3

It was a quiet afternoon in the City lords mansion, but it was broken by a cry from one of the yards. Some of the guards nearby heard the scream and ran towards the yard. Into the room from where they could hear the cry. What they saw when they entered made them both speechless. On the ground were three people, the city lord's daughter next to her mother, who was trying to wake her up by pulling on her arm, and her cousin on the bed with closed eyes, unmoving like he was asleep.

"I'll get help!" One of the guards hastily said as he ran out of the yard yelling for help.

The other guard went over to Ziyuns mother and felt her pulse. He couldn't feel anything. He tried to take the pulse on the other two as well, but still, there was nothing. He then went over to Ye Long, whose pulse was weak, but there was still a tiny sign of life there.

Ye Mo and Ye Zong flew into the room and froze. He couldn't feel any sign of life at all. He went over to his wife and sent his soul force into his wife, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law simultaneously.

"My lord! Ye Long's pulse is weak, but he is still alive." The guard said to the city lord.

Ye Zong, lost in his thoughts, didn't hear him. Ye Mo went over to Ye Long and sent his soul force into Ye Long's body, trying to wake him up. Ye Long was halfway between awake and asleep, but thanks to Ye Mo, his mind jolted and became more coherent. He worked hard to open his eyes but couldn't focus his sight. He tried to speak, but words wouldn't come out. Only sounds came out. Studying Ye Long's expression, Ye Mo leaned over to see if he could make out what he was saying. Ye Long took a few breaths and tried to speak one more time. His eyes were still foggy, not because he couldn't focus but because he remembered everything that had happened and his mother's last words. Ye Mo saw how Ye Long struggled and said.

"Take it slowly now, my child. Take it slow and breathe. Everything is okay now."

Ye Long couldn't almost take it anymore but took Ye Mo's advice. He was still unbearably weak but slowly extended his finger towards the table and got out one word.

"Poison."

Ye Mo followed his finger towards the table and saw the bottle on the table. When he looked back, Ye Long was no longer conscious. Ye Zong, who had snapped out of his daze, had heard the one thing Ye Long had said and had gone to the table to examine the bottle.

"Father, look here."

Ye Mo examined the bottle but couldn't find anything wrong with the bottle and called out to one of the guards.

"Get Gu Yan from the alchemic association over here, right now."

The guard dashed out immediately.

Now that Ye Mo and Ye Zong were the only two left, Ye Zong broke down next to his wife and couldn't stop his tears flowing as he hugged his wife and daughter. She couldn't understand what was happening or why her dad was crying. Seeing him cry made her cry as well. Why she did, she did not know. But the feeling of loss was in her even though she didn't understand why.

Ye Mo took the opportunity to let his son be alone with his wife and child. For the time being, he picked up Ye Long, brought him out of the room, and headed towards the adjacent room to lay Ye Long on a bed. Ye Mo sat down next to him and examined him more thoroughly. It took about 10 minutes, but he understood why Ye Long was like this. The most likely reason was that Ye Long had some of the poison in his body, given that he was so small. His soul realm had yet to form; the poison acted faster in his body, so the others most likely tried to help him survive, but it took all the strength they had to keep him alive. Ye Mo's eyes became truly sad at this point when he figured out that the two sisters gave up their lives to help him survive. Now why he is still unconscious is a mystery.

Gu Yan arrived at the yard the next moment and saw Ye Zong hugging his wife and child through the open door. To the right, in another room, Ye Mo sat next to a small boy with his hand over the boy's head in deep contemplation. Ye Mo felt Gu Yan's presence and quickly left Ye Long's side and went outside to Gu Yan.

"What has happened, lord? The guard was not forthcoming in anything except that the city lord required my presence at once." Gu Yan asked

"Please take a look at this Gu Yan," Ye Mo answered as he waved his hand, and the bottle in the room woshed out and stopped right before Gu Yan.

Gu Yan looked at Ye Mo with a questioning look but did as he asked. He took the bottle and looked at it but could not find anything wrong with it yet. Gu Yan sniffed and could detect a faint hint of wine from the empty bottle. Then he turned it upside down, and a few drops fell out of the bottle, which he caught with his soul force. Gu Yan examined the liquid with his senses, and in the end, he frowned and looked up.

"Lord Ye Mo, I'm not sure what you are looking for, but I don't know what I can tell you about this wine. there seems to be diluted wine like it was watered down wine." Gu Yan looked towards the two rooms again, and he couldn't believe he didn't connect the dots before and looked back towards Ye Mo.

"Lord Ye Mo, the wine I said was watered down could very well be diluted with something else than water, but it's not enough for me to check what it was."

Ye Mo nodded his head.

"I understand, Gu Yan. Could you please go and take a look at Ye Long for me?"

Gu Yan hesitated for a second but proceeded as he was asked. He performed the same way Ye Mo had done in his examination. He could feel that there had been poison in the young boy's body but had been expelled from it. He tried to come up with alternatives to why he was unconscious. Still, the only thing he could come up with was that the boy's body took some damage even though the poison was expelled. However, why he couldn't find out that reason through his examination was what stumped him with this train of thought.

Gu Yan sighed. Stood up and went over to Ye Mo.

"My lord Ye Mo. There are signs that poison was in the boy's body but was expelled from it. However, why he hasn't awakened yet, I can not say because I don't understand it."

Ye Mo just nodded and said.

"I came to the same conclusion."

Ye Mo then turned around and asked the guards.

"Have you been close to this yard the entire day?"

"no, sir, our shift started just after our lunch, my lord, a little after noon, that is."

"Did anyone visit this yard during your patrol?"

"none that we saw, sir." the guards answered.

"Please go and check with the other guards and make a list of who visited the city lord's mansion the last few days."

The guard saluted and hurried away to accomplish their task.

The other guard that was left was sent on another assignment by Ye Mo to send people to investigate the day of the people here. What happened and where they had been and done.

However, after multiple people had done independent investigations, everyone on the list of those who had visited the city lord's mansion was questioned, and none of the people were connected to the poisoning. Every stone they turned over led to another dead end. After one whole week of searching and investigating, they couldn't find any more leads, clues, or ideas on where to look. They could only stop the search for now and focus on de burial of the three people that had died.

Ye Long had yet to wake up and was in a comatose state. None of those they invited to analyze and help him could wake Ye Long up.

Ziyun, who had a tough time understanding what was going on, could often be seen next to Ye Long as he lay in bed. Either just being next to her friend and playmate or trying to wake him up by pulling on his arm. However, when she started to do that, she always began to cry since it reminded her of her mother. The latter acted precisely the same way and never woke up either.

One week stretched into two weeks, and still no sign of change in Ye Long's condition. During this time, the funeral of his parents and Ziyuns mother took place. Ziyun had been told that her mother had sadly died, and it took another week of questions, crying, and mourning for it to sink into her. But no matter what anyone told her, she didn't understand why Ye Long was still sleeping.

Ye Long had been unconscious for two months, and there was still no sign of change. During this time, only one thing that could be said to be possibly good for Ziyun is that she met a friend the same age as her. Her new friend's name was Xiao Ning'er. She came by almost every day after the funeral and played with Ziyun. It took nearly a month for the two of them to bring Ziyun back to who she used to be.

The months stretched into years, and still, no sign of change for Ye Long.

However, one day many years after Ye Long's comatose state began, came the day of Ziyuns 12th birthday, and there was a small banquet in her honor. The guests had gathered in a small hall, and well wishes were thrown around all over the hall. Ye Ziyun had on a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Shen Yue had tried to talk to her since he got to the hall. But Zuyin tried to avoid him and almost everyone who wanted to speak to her.

Xue Yin walked up to her, and when Ziyun saw her, her smile changed, reaching her eyes. Ever since that horrible day, not that she remembered much of that day in detail, but since then, Aunt Xue Yin had taken care of her. More than her own father even. She also took care of Ye Long, not that there was much for her to do for him. They started chatting, and after a few minutes, the door opened up, and a servant walked in and quickly scanned the room. The servant began to walk towards them hastily and whispered something in Xue Yin's ear. She was shocked at what the servant told her and quickly excused herself to Ziyun and started to walk to Ye Zong at the other end of the room.

Ziyun wanted to ask what had shocked her but didn't have the chance to ask before Xue Yin started to walk toward her father, but she decided to follow her to find out.

"City lord, may I have a moment of your time?" Xue Yin asked.

"But of course, you may. What can I do for you?" Ye Zong answered

"My lord, there is news. Your nephew seems to have woken up from his comatose state."

Ye Zong and Ziyun were flabbergasted at those words before anyone could stop her. Ziyun turned around and started to run towards the door. Ye Zong wanted to stop her but stopped and excused himself since he also wanted to see the now young man who had missed so much.

At the yard of Ziyun where Ye Long had been moved a long time ago in his room sat a young man with pure white hair long enough to rival Ye Ziyuns, which also fell down to her waist. He was thin, though, and not healthy lean, even though he was injected with soul force, so his muscles wouldn't go into atrophy. But he had missed almost nine years of meals.

Ziyun could be seen running into the room, and Ye Long turned his head towards her. His eyes grew big in de realization of who she was.

"Sister Ziyun, is that you?" Ye long got out in a raspy voice.

She laughed and cried simultaneously as she flew towards him in a big hug.

"You're finally awake!" She mustered out between sobs and laughs

"Finally? How long have I been sleeping?"

"You've been sleeping for almost nine whole years, my boy" The voice came from the doorway where 2 men could be seen standing, one with a relieved smile and the other with such a poker

face that Ye Long was speechless.

"Lord Ye Mo, Lord uncle, have I been asleep for 9 years?" Ye Long said with a nod towards both of them.

"You know, even when you were little, I asked you to call me grandpa," Ye Mo said with a chuckle, who was overjoyed to see Ye Long awake again.

"What do you remember?" Ye Zong asked with a bit of harshness in his voice which made Ye Long raise an eyebrow in confusion.

Ye Long's eyes fogged over as his mind returned to the last day he could remember. The first thing that came to mind was his mother's last words. He couldn't remember his father's last words, which depressed him to no end. Trying to hold in his emotions as best he could, he answered.

"I remember everything of that day."

"What happened?" Ye Zong asked, again with an unusual harshness that Ye Long hadn't seen in his uncle before.

"Ye Zong, leave it for now. Go back to the party and explain what is going on." Ye Mo said, he too with a growing harshness to his voice.

Ye Zong right eye flinched for a millisecond. He hesitated for about the same time before leaving to go back.

"I'm sorry about Ye Zong," Ye Mo said to Ye Long.

"What's going on with uncle? G-grandpa" Ye Long finished with some hesitation, but when he said it, it felt rather good.

Ye Mo smiled and said

"Ye Zong has had it pretty hard to keep his emotions since that day which resulted in him building up a wall to always be like this."

"Grandpa, I know what you want to ask. It's the same thing I wanted to answer last time, but since you want to ask me, there was no proof, right?"

"Yes, we searched for many weeks and questioned almost everyone that had been in the city lord's mansion going back 6 months." Ye Mo answered.

Ye Long nodded. Thought so.

"Ziyun, would you please give grandpa and me some time alone?"

Ziyun didn't want to leave, but after Ye Mo urged her, she agreed to go outside but not back to the party.

Ye Mo closed the door and used his soul force to seal the room so the sound wouldn't leave the room.

"There, I've sealed us off with my soul force so we can speak unhindered. I guess that is what you wanted." Ye Mo said.

"Yes. The problem is that there is no proof at all of my words. Even though I remember everything of that day from the start to my mother's last words, " his voice started to waver at the end of his sentence.

"Take it slowly now, you have just woken up, and you don't need to tell me everything. I have guessed much of what you will tell me. Let me ask you two questions. Those two are the only things in my opinion that I can't guess by myself." Ye Mo said factually.

Ye Long only nodded appreciatively.

"Did someone visit the yard on that day? if so, who? and do you know who gave them the wine?" Ye Mo asked.

Ye Long nodded and answered.

"Yes, someone did visit. And the person that visited was Chen Hong, who wanted to congratulate Ziyuns mother a belated congratulations on becoming a black gold ranker. The present he gave was that bottle of wine."

"Chen Hong?!" Ye Mo was shocked. He wasn't on the list of people they had questioned at all. He didn't even visit the city lord's mansion for the last six months before the incident.

"Are you sure about this, Ye Long?"

"without a single doubt in my mind."

"Then it's good that you didn't answer right away when Ye Zong asked. I hope you can do me a favor. Keep this to yourself for now. I will tell Ye Zong about this, so he doesn't run over there with the family to start a war."

Ye Long nodded but still asked.

"What should I tell uncle if he asks again?"

"You don't need to worry about that. After the banquette ends, I will pull Ye Zong aside to talk to him. I won't tell him right now, but he won't ask you about it. But thank you for telling me about this. Now there is one thing we need to correct," Ye Mo finished with a smile.

"What?"

"We need to look into your soul's color so you can start cultivating. You can't miss more time, which will help you regain your strength quicker."

"Oh, sounds great; how do we do it?" Ye Long answered even though he knew it wouldn't be accurate. But he could start his cultivation which was good anyway since he would spend more time than he liked in bed.

"I need to inject soul force directly into your body, so could you please take off your shirt and lay down on your stomach."

Ye Long did as he said, and at the same time, he found out why Ziyun was a bit uncomfortable about this in the novel.

"I will start now and help clear a few of your paths as I go, so please concentrate and feel for how I guide the soul force in your body."

Ye Long could feel a current rushing through his body which started in his lower back.

Ye Mo continued for a few minutes before retracting his soul force.

"My boy, you have a red soul realm, I'm sorry, but your talent will probably hinder a lot of progress for you."