903 Ring 2

"Do you all still remember, within that stone dwelling, the words carved into the wall?" Jun Wu Xie asked, her eyes narrowed up.

Qiao Chu and the others immediately quieted their hearts and tried to recall. After awhile, Hua Yao was the first one to remember the subtle link the scribblings had mentioned and he suddenly raised up his head, his handsome eyes glinting with slight comprehension.

"You are saying that the man who had been trapped at the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff was linked to the Fire Country?"

Jun Wu Xie removed the ring from her finger and handed it over to Hua Yao and the others to inspect closely.

Hua Yao and his other companions quickly found the Chinese character for "Fire".

"I remember….. that the man had mentioned within those lines that he was the Emperor of a certain country. Don't tell me….. He was originally the Emperor of the Fire Country? Because he disappeared and that is why this current Emperor is on the throne?" Qiao Chu's eyes bulged once more. He had never once thought that the ring Jun Wu Xie had accidentally picked up at the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff would be so intricately linked to the Fire Country.

"No. Calculating based on the time that would have passed, the time when that man had gone down to the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff would be closer to a hundred years ago or not too far away from that, and the current Emperor's age does not match that period of time." Hua Yao said immediately, shaking his head in disagreement.

"Even if it was the previous Emperor who had passed on, the link to the present Fire Country is still there." Fan Zhuo quipped.

Fei Yan's eyes narrowed up like he was thinking hard about something. A few moments later, his suddenly flared open.

"I remember it now!"

Fei Yan's face suddenly looked highly excited as he looked at Jun Wu Xie to say happily: "I had looked into the Fire Country previously and I had also gained a certain understanding after hearing some things about the Fire Country's past generations of rulers. The Fire Country's first Emperor of this bloodline, who is the current Emperor's grandfather, was once not the ruler of the Fire Country. The Emperor of the Fire Country had originally been his elder brother, but that elder brother had suddenly disappeared one day. The Fire Country had been thrown into some years of tumult after that and the first Emperor of the current line had only chosen to ascend to the throne to stabilise the political courts and government of the country. Based on the timing of the occurrences, the man in that stone dwelling could very well be the elder brother of the first Emperor of the current line, the original Emperor who had suddenly gone missing!"

"With the way you put it, it does sound rather plausible. But that had happened so long ago, so what does it have to do with the present?" Fan Zhuo asked, turning his head that was supported by his hand to look at Jun Wu Xie.

Jun Wu Xie told them: "Last night, when I met the Grand Adviser in the Imperial Garden, we had initially only exchanged a few perfunctory words of greetings. But when Wen Yu saw the ring on my finger, he hinted that I should leave the Fire Country quickly. He said that if I remained here, unpleasant things might happen. I had initially thought that he was talking about the Prime Minister's assassination attempt, but after thinking through it carefully, I concluded that Lei Fan wants to kill me because I saw his real face, and not because of this ring. But what Wen Yu was talking about has definitely got something to do with the ring."

It was obvious, that the dangers Wen Yu had mentioned was not about Lei Fan.

"That sounds really strange. Even if the ring is linked to the a certain generation of Emperor of the Fire Country, what could the ring really represent? How can it be that the Emperor is suddenly trying to kill you just because of a old and inconspicuous ring? Doesn't that sound too strange to be true? Even if he want to take the ring back, he could have very well just asked you directly couldn't he?" Qiao Chu still did not understand what kind of dangers could a single ring like that bring.

"On that point, I still do not have a full picture. But Wen Yu's words couldn't have been entirely baseless. He must know something or has reason to be guessing at something, and that was why he gave me that reminder." Jun Wu Xie said as she put the ring back onto her finger. Although she now knew where the ring had originated from, but she still could not fathom why Wen Yu had told her to quickly leave the Fire Country.