Transmigrated as an Ignored Crown Princess

28 - A Pinch

"Xiao Yun?" Baili Haoyue was partly amazed partly confused.

"It's that boy sister-in-law picked up from the river on our way here," giving a brief reminder, Qing Youya was satisfied with how fast and efficient Ren Xiu processed his clues. In his initial calculation, he estimated that at least he needed to lay bare a fair amount of variable for them to be able to naturally reach his targeted conclusion. However pleasantly betraying his expectation, Ren Xiu turns out to have quite the wild imagination to immediately connect the clues to the mysterious passage of Xuyin.

"That child!?" baffled and feeling incredulous at the turns of event, Baili Haoyue widened his eyes in disbelief.

Everyone felt as though they just took notice of the elephant in front of their eyes, except for Qing Youya.

"Now that it came to this, his right eye socket was empty.. We can now assume it was previously stuffed with the crimson vision... But then, if it really was, where did that crimson vision go?" Yamato ponders.

Perturbed, Baili Haoyue answered, "The child must have gouged the thing out of himself..."

Yamato was shocked, "Huh? Why??"

"Ah, to put it simply.. Using an artifact takes a toll on the user, it needed an abundant amount of energy and an excellent control over it. If you can't control it, the user would just go berserk and the artifact would be a fatal double edged sword, well.. When it happens with sacred artifacts, most of them would end up dead. So you get the gist about why the child did it. Moreover.." Baili Haoyue gradually looked more apprehensive as he began to get heavily disconcerted.

"Moreover what?" Yamato urges, he really have no comprehension regarding any magical things in this world.

"It might be 'Xunxu' sister-in-law."

"Xunxu?"

"Xunxu is a very powerful and ominous sacred artifact sought after and protected by many people, sects, and even countries. It took the shape of a human organs or body part, there was several that we know of or even have at the palace treasury, but most likely not all of it's parts have been unearthed as it was scattered all over the continent. Most people believe that the artifact was parts of the same one person, but because no one know who it is, people named and began to call it Xunxu," Qing Youya explained with a clear and steady voice.

With tightly knitted brows, Baili Haoyue was awfully disquieted upon the thought, "and.. If it really was the eye of Xunxu,  then this problem is no mere serial murder... Feeding Xunxu so much fuel, just what is the perpetrator trying to do??"

For the easygoing general to get aggravatingly vexed told Yamato about the weight of the problem. The serial murder itself might not involve them, but the plot behind the feeding of Xunxu could, considering how they coincidentally proceed to encounter trouble after trouble in the timespan of one day. Moreover, Baili Haoyue was a general with the responsibility of protecting the country, the pressure of being trapped finally triggered his sense of urgency as though he could no longer afford to waste even a second in the mysterious cave.

"Suppose our speculation was true and danger is imminent, it is precisely in times like this that we needed the most calm mind.. Brooding over useless things like the things that couldn't be helped would just add needless stress and pressure, it will eventually threw you into panic as you lose your ability to think clearly as it cloud your judgment, or make you lose determination even. For now just focus on the task at hand, 'getting out of here', then we can carefully contemplate more after safely getting out." Yamato squeezed Baili Haoyue's shoulder, he lowered his mask and displayed a confident and reliable smile, "don't put needless burden on your shoulders, we are in this together."