Lan Yan felt the faint breath and breathed a sigh of relief. She looked at Jun Yelan in front of her and said firmly, "Jun Yelan, I will save you."
She called for Lu Qi and had Jun Yelan brought into the room to rest well.
Jun Yelan lay on the bed, his eyes tightly shut, his face devoid of any color.
Lan Yan stayed by his side, wetting a towel and placing it on Jun Yelan's forehead, then covering his hand. She asked, "Lu Qi, how is the City Lord's illness? Is he hiding something from me?"
Lu Qi, standing nearby, looked troubled. Meeting Lan Yan's gaze, she could not lie. "Lan Yan, while you were away, the City Lord's body grew weaker. The previous attack by the righteous sects had consumed all his strength."
"Moreover, the Saintess is locked up, and there's no way to get the medicine now."
Only then did Lan Yan understand why Jun Yelan had insisted on sending her away; he must have known his condition all along. She couldn't help but feel a mist clouding her eyes as she looked at Jun Yelan, "Jun Yelan, you fool."
"Don't worry, I won't let you die!" The Saintess knew Jun Yelan's illness best. If she wanted the Saintess to save him, she needed something to hold over her.
She looked at Lu Qi, "Do you know the Saintess's past? What was her relationship with the previous City Lord?"
Lu Qi shook her head. "The Saintess was already here when I arrived. However, every City Lord has a secret chamber where important matters of each City Lord are recorded. But only the City Lord knows where the key is."
Lan Yan, having finally found a glimmer of hope, refused to give up easily. "Let's search everywhere." She and Lu Qi separated, with Lan Yan going to the desk to search through books and cabinets, but she did not find the key.
She looked up at Lu Qi, who had also found nothing.
Just as she was racking her brain, she looked down at the two money pouches at her waist. Jun Yelan had said to entrust them to her care. She took one down, opened it, and a golden key met her eyes.
Lu Qi said, "So the City Lord had planned everything long ago."
Lan Yan looked at the key and was slightly stunned. The tears she had managed to suppress welled up again. Shaking her head, she urged herself to hurry to the secret chamber and find a way to save Jun Yelan as soon as possible.
Led by Lu Qi, they successfully arrived at an iron door in the back hall.
Lan Yan inserted the key, and with a click, the door opened successfully. It was pitch black inside. She carried a candlestick and walked in, looking at the rows of bookshelves and searching everywhere.
She walked to the nearest bookshelf and saw a book with Jun Yelan's name on it. She couldn't help but open it and read aloud, "Jun Yelan, the thirtieth generation City Lord, born in the Dead City. Trained in a dark chamber for fifteen years. At twenty, he personally killed the previous City Lord and became the new City Lord."
"During his reign, he fought fifty large and small battles with the righteous sects and expanded the population of the Dead City. However, the degree of his killings was beyond that of any other City Lord."
After reading, Lan Yan felt a pang of heaviness in her heart. These cold words did not convey who Jun Yelan truly was, merely recording the important points of his life and his actions.
She closed the book and walked forward. Something fell from a shelf. She picked it up and saw it was a portrait of a woman, whose appearance vaguely resembled the current Saintess.
Her eyes darkened, and she searched the books next to the painting, discovering the record of the previous City Lord. "The twenty-ninth generation City Lord, devoted to martial arts, did not hesitate to experiment with forbidden techniques. Ten years into his reign, he brought back a woman and made her the Saintess, inseparable from him."
"Thirty years into his reign, he suffered from qi deviation and was killed."
Lan Yan placed the books and the painting back in their original positions, picked up the candlestick, and walked out.
Lu Qi, waiting outside the door, saw Lan Yan's expression and asked worriedly, "What's wrong? Did you find anything?"
Lan Yan had a vague idea in her mind but couldn't grasp it clearly. "I need to see the Saintess." There were things she wanted to ask the Saintess face-to-face, hoping it wasn't what she suspected.
If it were, Jun Yelan would be too tragic.
Lu Qi nodded. Since Lan Yan now had the City Lord's key, she was the designated guardian. She still led the way, escorting Lan Yan into the water prison and then guarding the entrance.
The water prison was one of the most severe punishments in the Dead City. People were confined in pools of water, with only their heads exposed and their arms suspended. Occasionally, someone would deliver food in a small bowl, which would float to the prisoner.
Furthermore, those sent to the water prison could not leave easily and usually rotted in the pool.
Lan Yan stood at the prison cell door, looking at the Saintess in the pool, who had lost her former radiance. She said coldly, "You have been domineering in the Dead City for so many years. Do you know why Jun Yelan only acted now?"
Hearing the familiar voice, the Saintess looked up and saw Lan Yan in good health. She roared, "It's all because of you. He changed, and now he dares to lock me up here."
She could not stand the stench, which emanated from her own body.
Lan Yan sneered, "You did so many terrible things; you deserve it. But you shouldn't have made Jun Yelan suffer all this with you."
"He's unconscious and hasn't woken up. You've been poisoning him for years, and there's no way to save him!"
The Saintess was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, her entire face contorting into a hideous grin. "Hahaha, I told you long ago that he doesn't have many days left."
"It seems he used a lot of his martial arts for you again, which accelerated the poison's progression. Even if I had a way, I wouldn't save him. I wish he would die!"
Thinking that Jun Yelan would die before her made her feel that being locked in the water prison was not so bitter.
Lan Yan looked at the Saintess's crazed face, finding a similarity to Jun Yelan's appearance during his episodes. Moreover, the Saintess had raised Jun Yelan until he was five years old before abandoning him at the training grounds.
The Saintess had also been inseparable from the previous City Lord, and she hated both the previous City Lord and Jun Yelan so much.
A thought suddenly struck her, and she blurted out, "You are Jun Yelan's birth mother." As soon as she spoke, she saw the shock in the Saintess's eyes and knew she was right.
Fury ignited in the Saintess's eyes, and she shouted, "What nonsense are you talking about? I have never had children! And I would never have a child like Jun Yelan!"
Lan Yan looked at the Saintess's anxious denial and became even more certain of her conjecture. "Saintess, you are so cruel to have tormented your own child for so many years."
She reached out and gripped the prison door tightly. "Jun Yelan did nothing wrong; you imposed all this on him. You hated the previous City Lord for abandoning you and never accepted it, so you tormented Jun Yelan."
"People like you don't deserve a child like Jun Yelan."
These words pierced the Saintess's mind, causing her expression to become confused. "No, I didn't give birth, I didn't poison him, I don't hate him." She looked at Lan Yan, and for a moment, she saw the previous City Lord, then Jun Yelan.
She had been a young girl then, falling in love with the previous City Lord, who was skilled in martial arts, and returning with him. However, the previous City Lord was solely focused on practicing martial arts and barely interacted with her, eventually going into seclusion and refusing to see her.
She stayed alone in the hall, and resentment gradually grew in her heart. She poisoned the young child, locked him out of the door, and even sent him into the perilous training grounds.
Lan Yan cried out, "Saintess, for the sake of this mother-son bond, please tell me how to save him!"