Seeing the living Abbess Miaohui standing before them, Wen Yuxian and Abbess Guanyun fell into a long silence.
As the saying goes, a teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime. The sisters' feelings for Abbess Miaohui were not something that could be explained in a few words.
It was just that Abbess Miaohui showed no mercy. At this moment, her eyes were fixed only on Yan Shouyi.
Seeing Abbess Miaohui appear, Yan Shouyi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least he had achieved the first step – luring the snake out of its hole!
Now that Abbess Miaohui had appeared, he had a chance to defeat her and thus resolve the Emei Lotus Array.
"If I had no clues or evidence, how would I know to use this plan to lure you out?" Yan Shouyi replied loudly.
He did not shy away from his intention to "lure the snake out of its hole." In front of an old witch like Abbess Miaohui, who had lived for over a hundred years, playing mind games was meaningless. It was better to be frank and honest, saving both time and energy.
"However..." Yan Shouyi's expression suddenly turned grim. "Before I tell you the truth, you must answer a few questions for me."
Abbess Miaohui snorted coldly, not taking Yan Shouyi seriously at all. She knew what Yan Shouyi wanted.
To save time and get the answers she desired sooner, Abbess Miaohui spoke directly:
"I am indeed a member of the Twelve Yuan Chen. The tragedy of the Emei Sect was my doing, and I activated the Emei Lotus Array. Currently, only I know the locations of the other two array eyes."
As the saying goes, a woman three years older brings a gold brick, and a woman thirty years older brings an empire... Communicating with an old witch like Abbess Miaohui was incredibly effortless!
Yan Shouyi grumbled inwardly. The uncertainties in his heart were all confirmed.
At least he had no more questions.
However, Abbess Guanyun was full of confusion and couldn't help but ask, "Master! Emei Mountain was once your hard work, why did you abandon us, fake your death to become one of the Twelve Yuan Chen, and inflict such heavy blows on the Emei Sect? What were you after!!"
Abbess Miaohui glanced at Abbess Guanyun but did not answer her question.
"Yan Shouyi, I have answered your questions. Now it's your turn," Abbess Miaohui said coldly.
Seeing that her master ignored her, Abbess Guanyun bit her lip. Wen Yuxian quietly took Abbess Guanyun's hand and comforted her as an elder sister.
"Do you want to hear from the unfaithful man first, or the child first?" Yan Shouyi asked.
"This old nun does not care if that unfaithful man is dead or alive. I only care about the child's whereabouts."
If Abbess Miaohui's child were still alive, they would be nearly ninety years old by now. It was unknown whether they were alive or dead at this age, but Abbess Miaohui still hoped to see her flesh and blood.
This was why she endured the conversation with Yan Shouyi; otherwise, she would not have appeared.
Everyone looked at Yan Shouyi. They all knew that it was time to reveal the mystery.
Yan Shouyi had no intention of playing coy any longer.
"It was all a twist of fate..."
He sighed and said to Abbess Miaohui, "Abbess Miaohui, do you know that the man you resented your entire life never actually wanted to leave you? He even stayed on Emei Mountain the whole time, accompanying you from beginning to end, but you never knew."
Because Abbess Miaohui was no longer the Sect Leader of Emei at this time but a member of the Twelve Yuan Chen, Yan Shouyi would not use respectful language until she was fully reformed.
Abbess Miaohui narrowed her eyes, a cold glint flashing within them. "What do you mean by that?"
The cold glint flashed and then vanished, signifying that if Yan Shouyi's next words did not resolve Abbess Miaohui's doubts, or if she felt mocked, she would attack without hesitation.
This cold glint made those present with lower cultivation levels involuntarily shiver, only Yan Shouyi, Wen Yuxian, and Abbess Guanyun remained unaffected.
Yan Shouyi took a step forward, raised his head, and declared:
"Because your husband and child were in the back mountains of Emei, but... they are already dead!"
Boom—
It was as if thunder struck in Abbess Miaohui's mind, temporarily incapacitating her ability to think.
A few seconds later, her face contorted, and she roared at Yan Shouyi, "I told you, if you dared to toy with me..."
"I am not lying to you!"
Yan Shouyi's voice suddenly increased, overpowering Abbess Miaohui's. "They were killed by demons in the back mountains, and their souls were also extinguished. They never left you, they just didn't have the chance to bid you farewell!"
Once again, Abbess Miaohui fell silent.
The ferocity on her face gradually turned into bewilderment, as if she couldn't comprehend what Yan Shouyi had said.
"Xiao Long, bring the coffins up," Yan Shouyi said, turning his head.
Long Feicheng and the others, who had been prepared, turned and went into the Wuliang Hall to carry out the coffins. Soon, two coffins, one large and one small, were carried out.
In the larger coffin lay the skeleton of an adult male, while the smaller coffin was for Abbess Miaohui's child.
Upon seeing the two coffins, Abbess Miaohui's eyes began to dart away. She had finally gotten her wish to see that man and her child, but she saw only white bones.
She both longed to see these two and feared confirming the reality of their deaths.
Yan Shouyi walked to the side of the two coffins and slowly recounted how everyone discovered the remains and how he deduced the truth through the diary.
Finally, he produced the most crucial piece of evidence – the jade fragment that the child had carried.
"Skeletons can be faked, but this jade fragment cannot. Although I don't know its significance to you, I can be certain that it belonged to your child, and when we found it, it was beside these remains."
Yan Shouyi held up the jade fragment, intending to make it clearer for Abbess Miaohui to see.
The moment Abbess Miaohui saw the jade fragment, all her doubts vanished completely, and her darkened eye sockets gradually turned red.
In fact, when she saw the skeletal remains, her maternal sixth sense had already confirmed they were her child.
It was just that she didn't want to accept the truth that her child had died eighty-seven years ago.
But the appearance of the jade fragment shattered Abbess Miaohui's last illusion, and she was certain – that man and her flesh and blood had died long ago.
Yan Shouyi held the jade fragment high and spoke with resounding conviction:
"You thought they abandoned you, so you held a grudge for so many years, even going mad, faking your death, joining the Twelve Yuan Chen, and doing all sorts of evil, ruining your own merit!"
"Little did you know, your husband and child never left you. They were ambushed on the mountain road and died without being able to tell you the truth!"
"Abbess Miaohui, I have read your diary. Your husband never came to Emei Mountain for so many years. Why do you think he rushed up the mountain that night eighty-seven years ago? Is there a possibility... that on that night, the 'unfaithful man' in your heart wanted to force his way into the Emei Sect with your child, take you away, and flee with you and your child?!"