559 Heaven’s End Cliff 6

Fan Zhuo stared with those eyes at the expressions on Qiao Chu and the others. Suddenly, his expression changed again and reverted back to his usual gentle and amicable smile.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you guys." Fan Zhuo looked at everyone apologetically.

Qiao Chu's expression was rather wooden as he didn't know how to react.

Hua Yao was frowning as he stared at Fan Zhuo. He had not wanted to mention it but Fan Zhuo's reaction had been completely different from what he expected. If he had only heard things about the Middle Realm, then why did he react so strongly? And if he was not mistaken, Fan Zhuo eyes had earlier been filled with pure murder and hatred.

He hated the Twelve Palaces?

Why?

Hua Yao finally said: "You are from the Middle Realm."

Fan Zhuo did not hide the fact and nodded his head. He looked at Hua Yao and the others and said smiling: "As you all are, am I wrong? Brother Hua, Dumb Qiao, Little Yan, Little Ruo….. and Little Xie? No no no….. Little Xie is not, because Little Xie did not react to my words in the slightest."

Fan Zhuo rubbed his chin, his face split into a smile.

"Your guess is correct." Hua Yao nodded and said.

"You hold a grudge against the Twelve Palaces?" Hua Yao asked, feeling a little puzzled. Why had the strong aura of malice earlier suddenly disappeared completely without a trace of it present now? The hatred within those eyes earlier were in no way less than what they all felt. But, why had it faded so fast?

"We cannot coexist." Fan Zhuo's smile grew wider but there was no joy in his eyes.

"Why?" Hua Yao persisted.

"For the same reason as all of you here. Isn't that right?" Fan Zhuo said, laughing.

Hua Yao was surprised.

Fan Zhuo continued: "I had thought that you guys were from the Twelve Palaces, but when I had so obviously displayed such strong enmity earlier, all of you had not reacted strongly to it but had looked shocked instead and did not show any intentions of killing me. In the instant that you all knew that I had strong malicious intentions against the Twelve Palaces, none of you made a move against me, and that ultimately told me that you guys were not from the Twelve Palaces and I do not believe that the Twelve Palaces would have such genuine and sincere people like you among them."

The malicious murder initially had been a test, and the results had made Fan Zhuo heave a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, they were not the enemy.

"You said you are the same as us, what did that mean?" A guess surfaced in Hua Yao's mind and it made him a little anxious and it filled him with anticipation.

Fan Zhuo laughed a little and said: "Long ago, in their quest to locate the Dark Emperor's tomb, the Twelve Palaces had sent out countless highly skilled exponents and among them, only a few of them finally found it. Those few people had come from different palaces and in order to suppress and curtail each other, they had drawn a portion of the map on each others' back and returned to report on their mission. But they had not expected that what finally awaited their return was betrayal from the powers they served respectively. All of them were killed and even their families were not spared….."

Fan Zhuo's smiley eyes were tinged with a slight trace of chill. His eyes swept over Hua Yao, Qiao Chu, Fei Yan and Rong Ruo once again, one after the other. "When the massacre was being carried out, one man secretly infiltrated among them and rescued the young children of those families. One among the children rescued had belonged to the Bone Shifters' Tribe. If I am not wrong, all of you should be those children who were rescued from then?"

Fan Zhuo's line of reasoning greatly shocked Hua Yao and the others. All of them looked at Hua Yao with a queer look, their eyes filled with shock and uncertainty.

"Then….. Who might you be?" He knew the history of the Middle Realm, and he was aware that the Twelve Palaces were searching for the Dark Emperor's tomb. So, what was Fan Zhuo's real identity!?

Fan Zhuo smiled bitterly.

"I am just an orphan abandoned at the Heaven's End Cliff."