Chapter Sixty: Vanished Without a Trace

"Xiao Eleven, you've come?"
Her tenth aunt sat by the bed in a bright red wedding dress, her gentle eyes smiling at her, yet blood suddenly poured from her chest.
The blood snaked downward, and in an instant, it was impossible to distinguish whether it was the color of the wedding dress or the blood itself…
"Tenth Aunt—"
The scene shifted. A young man in green robes appeared before her.
"Xiao Eleven, congratulations!" Gu Qinghao gave a shy smile.
He suddenly looked down at his abdomen, where, unbeknownst to him, a flying sword had pierced through.
His eyes filled with shock and unwillingness as he collapsed backward, blood covering his body.
"Sixth Brother—"
Gu Qinghao faded away, replaced by a young woman who regarded her with a calm expression. "It was just children's play, Xiao Eleven. Did you really take it seriously?"
As she spoke, a flying sword abruptly pierced her chest. A girl in purple rushed forward, tightly clutching the woman and screaming with all her strength, "Mother!"
"Seventh Aunt—"
Tenth Aunt was dead! Sixth Brother was dead! Seventh Aunt, too, was dead!
All of them were dead!
"No! Please, no!" Gu Weiyu desperately shook her head, muttering unconsciously.
The last image in her mind was of a man in crimson robes, wounds appearing one after another on his body, blood staining the red fabric…
"Ah Yu, you must take care!" The voice was distant, yet it burrowed deep into her mind.
"Great Ancestor—" Gu Weiyu's chest heaved violently as she abruptly awoke from the nightmare.
Had it all just been a nightmare? Gu Weiyu tried to convince herself.
She opened her eyes and was greeted by the azure sky. Gentle insect sounds drifted to her ears.
She lay alone on the grass, coolness seeping steadily into her body from the ground beneath.
Everything before her was unfamiliar, shattering her illusions in an instant.
This was neither her Emerald Bamboo Garden, nor the Joyful Residence where her tenth aunt married, nor any place in the Gu household.

She sat up from the grass, unclenching her tightly gripped right hand, and a pale green jade slip appeared before her eyes.
The existence of this jade slip once again reminded her with absolute clarity: none of what had just happened was merely a nightmare.
Great Ancestor, Third Grandfather, Third Brother, Fourth Sister, Ninth Sister, Twelfth Brother… She had no idea what had become of them.
And her father, mother, and Little Stone—would they be implicated, too?
Grief overwhelmed Gu Weiyu. She pressed the jade slip against her cheek, burying her head as she sobbed.
She did not know how much time had passed before her emotions finally settled. Carefully, she picked up the jade slip and pressed it to her forehead, sending her spiritual sense inside.
A vast landscape painting unfolded in her mind, and at the top of the scroll, three bold characters shone—Voidless Realm.
The jade slip contained the map of the Voidless Realm. Gu's family resided in Qin Prefecture, which she searched for a long time before finally locating in the northern corner of the map.
Third Grandfather had once said that Qin Prefecture was but a remote corner of the Voidless Realm, and this was no exaggeration—the entire Qin Prefecture was barely the size of a palm on the map.
Gu Weiyu put the jade slip into her storage ring and stood, surveying her surroundings. She was in a small valley, and within the reach of her spiritual sense, she could see only dense forests.
The most urgent task now was to determine exactly where she was.
"Qingtuan—" Gu Weiyu called softly. She sat atop Qingtuan and floated into the sky.
Looking down from above, she saw that the valley lay between two high mountains. In the distance, wisps of cooking smoke rose on the other side of the mountains.
"Qingtuan, let's go over there," Gu Weiyu said, pointing toward the smoke.
"No problem!" Qingtuan's voice echoed in her mind, and before long, she had reached the other side of the mountain.
As the sun set behind the emerald peaks, a small village appeared, half-hidden beside the forest.
"It looks like a mortal village," Gu Weiyu directed Qingtuan to descend at the foot of the mountain, deciding to seek information in the village.
Walking by the creek outside the village, she caught sight of her reflection in the water and froze:
A delicate, pretty girl appeared alone at dusk outside a remote village—no matter how one looked, it was odd.
Gu Weiyu considered for a moment, then took from her storage bag a set of genderless blue robes and changed into them, gathering her hair into a messy topknot like a boy.
She crouched by the water, examining herself, then smeared some wet mud from the stream onto her face, hands, and clothing, making her hair even more disheveled before finally stopping.
Gu Weiyu stood up and slowly walked toward the village. Before long, her spiritual sense detected an elderly woman carrying a bamboo basket.
She sat on the ground, covering her face and began to cry softly.

The old woman was a little hard of hearing and did not notice her crying at all, passing by the thicket where Gu Weiyu hid.
Only when the woman walked farther away did Gu Weiyu stand up in confusion; she had even rehearsed her words, but the woman hadn’t taken the bait?
With no other choice, Gu Weiyu continued toward the village.
This time, she deliberately sought out a middle-aged man who looked relatively young. As he approached, she suddenly fell onto the stone path not far from him.
But she misjudged her strength—the stones hurt so much that she genuinely wanted to cry.
The man was startled by Gu Weiyu’s sudden appearance. He looked closely and realized it was a child, relaxing slightly. "Child, why are you out here without saying anything?"
Gu Weiyu raised her head, looking at the man with tearful eyes.
Wang Wu stared, seeing her eyes swollen like walnuts, but her face was unfamiliar. "You… whose child are you? It's so late—why aren't you home?"
"Home?" Gu Weiyu thought of how she could not return home now, and tears began to fall in earnest. "I… I lost my grandfather…"
Wang Wu saw that his simple question made Gu Weiyu cry even harder, and he was at a loss. "Hey, don’t cry…"
A quarter of an hour later, Wang Wu returned home with a little shadow following behind—Gu Weiyu.
"What's this?" Wang Wu's wife, Mrs. Niu, was astonished to see him bring home a child.
"Xiao Yu got lost. I saw him crying so pitifully, I brought him back," Wang Wu scratched his head awkwardly.
The child looked about the same age as his own son, Huzi, and seeing him sobbing so desperately, Wang Wu couldn’t help but soften.
Gu Weiyu looked up at Mrs. Niu and sweetly greeted her, "Good evening, Auntie!"
Mrs. Niu saw that although Gu Weiyu was thin, she was tidy and well-formed, only a little disheveled and with red, tearful eyes that inspired pity. She fell silent.
But Mrs. Niu was shrewder than Wang Wu. Xiao Yu’s clothes were plain, but the fabric was rare fine cotton. The hairpin on his head, though wooden, was exquisitely carved, and the cloud boots on his feet…
Mrs. Niu withdrew her gaze, already certain that Xiao Yu’s background was anything but ordinary.