Yang Qing, caught a little off guard by that remark, found his mind wandering as his gaze fell on the downcast Xia Fang.
If her grandfather was one, then is she…
Xia Fang looked up just in time to catch Yang Qing's expression. She smiled sadly and shook her head.
"I'm not one," she said. "Not for lack of trying, though. My grandfather refused me." Her expression wavered between resignation and sorrow.
"What reason did he give?" Yang Qing asked curiously. Given the state her clan was in, they were in no position to be picky—not when their survival hung in a precarious balance.
They needed all the nodes they could get, and given that their resources were rapidly dwindling, they didn't have the luxury of choice. They likely couldn't spare those resources for anything else outside of ensuring their formation diagram remained standing for as long as possible.
