Chapter 61

The secluded embroidered building stood at the deepest core of the Sun family's ancestral estate.

Free from the footsteps of any superfluous visitors, it was tranquil and quiet, exuding a distinct sense of secluded elegance.

A smile crept onto Wen Shi's face as he nodded slightly and remarked, "It is peaceful here, delightfully free from noise."

The middle-aged man of the Sun family bowed and scraped, obsequiously inviting him to ascend the upper floors.

Although it was improper for betrothed couples to meet before marriage lest the maiden feel shy and embarrassed, Wen Shi was not one to be bound by rigid conventions. He inquired further, "Is Ah Yi still angry with me?"

This question was asked with deep concern. The middle-aged man hastily forced a flattering smile and replied, "Though using Ah Rong to threaten her back then indeed caused her some dissatisfaction, her initial consent to the marriage was only because Ah Rong was in a secluded closed-door cultivation breakthrough, and she feared we might barge into the immortal cave and ruin his efforts. Naturally, there was some lingering resentment. But as time passes, Ah Yi should come to realize that this is a magnificent match. After all... with the decline of our clan, marrying into the Wen family with her meager early Foundation Establishment cultivation is already her great fortune. Why should she insist on bitter cultivation day after day?"

None of the members of the Sun family could understand why these two siblings insisted on living a bitter, grueling, and monotonous life of closed-door cultivation instead of enjoying a comfortable and effortless existence.

For instance, back then, they had even wanted to seek admission into the Primordial Sect.

Not only did they wish to become disciples, but the siblings had also produced several treasure artifacts meant for tracking, wanting to wander about like headless flies to search for their missing patriarch.

Wasn't that a joke?

Leaving aside the fact that nobody knew where the patriarch had gone missing or where to search, if a figure as powerful as the Sun family's patriarch had fallen, his adversaries must have been extraordinarily formidable.

Such enemies should be avoided at all costs; why would anyone deliberately provoke them? Wasn't that just bringing disaster upon the family?

He understood even less why that child was making such an unreasonable fuss over such a wonderful marriage.

Goodness gracious, wouldn't it be wonderful to marry into the Wen family, live a life of ease and wealth, never have to rush about toilfully, forever be under someone else's protection, and never have to practice bitter cultivation until one's hands became calloused like a wealthy matron?

All of this was for her own good!

Everyone in the Sun family felt that these two siblings did not know what was good for them.

If Wen Shi had not set his sights solely on Sun Qingyi, the man would have eagerly married off his own daughter to Wen Shi instead.

Having muttered these complaints internally, he plastered an even wider smile on his face for Wen Shi, who would soon provide protection for his household. "She has been quite quiet lately and no longer makes a fuss about guarding her younger brother's immortal cave. Rest assured, Elder Brother Wen; on the day of the wedding, when she sees the hall full of guests and such grand spectacles, she won't have any unhappiness left."

Which of the wives and concubines in Wen Shi's household wasn't living a leisurely and carefree life, free from the bitter cultivation required to grasp a so-called sliver of opportunity, and free from the desperate struggles of ordinary cultivators out in the world?

Thinking that since the young girl had stopped making a fuss, things were naturally for the best, he looked up at the flying boat soaring across the sky and remarked, "I never expected even the Primordial Sect to send people. I actually thought..."

Lingering fear clutched his heart.

He had feared that the Primordial Sect would be angered because they had refused to take back Lord Sun, whose mind had been sealed due to making trouble outside.

Seeing things now, out of regard for Lord Sun, the Primordial Sect would surely not be so heartless.

Reflecting further on how both the Primordial Sect and the Wen family would jointly protect the Sun family—granting the Sun family an even more comfortable and relaxing future—the middle-aged man grew even more jubilant.

The younger generation in the family was largely unwilling to cultivate within the Primordial Sect because, rumor had it, even the inner disciples of the Primordial Sect had to practice diligently and constantly travel about executing various sect missions.

How could that possibly compare to staying right at home, relying on ancestral prestige, and receiving spiritual pills refined by the personal disciple of the Primordial Sect's Master?

Nevertheless, deep down, he still preferred to be close to the Primordial Sect, which asked nothing of them. After all, the Primordial Sect hadn't picked and chosen among the clan's maidens, nor had they demanded to take any concubines... At the thought of this, a trace of regret flickered in the middle-aged man's heart.

Had it not been for the fact that Sect Master Yu of the Primordial Sect was too busy and showed no inclination to pay attention to the Sun family's maidens, marrying a family maiden to Sect Master Yu would have been far better than marrying her to Wen Shi—she could have become Sect Master Yu's concubine instead.

Word had it that Sect Master Yu currently had only one foolish daughter.

If a daughter of the Sun clan were to serve Sect Master Yu and bear him a clever child, the Sun family's life of ease would be secured forever.

Yet, no matter how much regret he felt inside, the middle-aged man did not dare to reveal it before Wen Shi.

Wen Shi paid no attention to the man's expression. Instead, recalling the confrontation in the cloud-filled skies earlier, he said with a rather complicated expression, "Indeed, the Primordial Sect has arrived today as well."

Thinking of Chu Xingyun—who was so young yet already a Great Ascension cultivator, possessing an even more arrogant demeanor than before—and comparing it to his own insignificance and weakness in front of Chu Xingyun, he drew a deep breath, forced a smile onto his face, and briskly ascended the embroidered building.

Possessing tact, the middle-aged man naturally refrained from following him up at this moment.

Wen Shi walked up the embroidered building alone and headed straight for the innermost room.

The room was dead silent. He gently pushed the door open to find a slender and frail figure sitting with its back facing him.

The figure wore a long, colorful garment and wore a simple hair bun. It seemed unadorned by heavy makeup, but the slender, graceful outline of the back alone revealed that this was a great beauty.

Seeing this beautiful back, Wen Shi felt a surge of heat in his heart. He stepped forward and said with a smile, "Ah Yi, it is I. I have come to see you in person; please do not be angry with me anymore."

His hand gently rested upon the beauty's shoulder.

At almost the exact same moment, Chu Xingyun also descended, carrying the cheerful young toddler. He smiled at the Sun family members who hurried out to welcome them and said, "I heard there is a joyous occasion approaching shortly. Out of regard for Lord Sun, I wish to see Fellow Daoist Qingyi. I wonder if it is convenient."

At the mention of Lord Sun, the welcoming Sun family members turned pale. Stuttering nervously, they hastily replied, "Naturally, how could we dare to neglect a Daoist Lord."

Indeed, he did not dare to neglect Chu Xingyun.

Hearing this from the side, Elder Wen could not help but reveal a look of satisfaction.

The Sun family member was still bowing his head in apology, whispering, "I beg the Sect Master and the Daoist Lord to be magnanimous. This junior did not deliberately neglect the Patriarch; it is simply that our household is currently hosting a joyous event, and this is truly not an opportune time to welcome the Patriarch back into the family. We fear the noise would disturb the Patriarch's quiet recuperation."

As he spoke these words, Yu Youyou rested her chin upon Chu Xingyun's shoulder, looked at him with utter contempt, and pointed, saying, "Black-hearted."

She criticized the Sun family for being ungrateful wretches. Backed as she was by her father and the Ao Xing and Chu Xingyun standing right before her, she felt not a shred of fear.

Merely a little plump toddler, yet she presumed to judge and order about such a prestigious family—how utterly impolite.

The Sun family members exchanged glances, yet they did not dare to retort.

The toddler raised her little head.

She was scolding the unfilial descendants on behalf of Ancestor Sun.

How proud she felt!

The little fellow tilted her chin upward, striking a most arrogant and haughty posture. Anyone witnessing this elsewhere without knowing the context would have thought this was a spoiled and willful child relying on high birth to bully others.

Holding her, Chu Xingyun nodded slightly, feeling that his little junior sister's words were entirely correct.

Anyone who neglected even their own ancestors truly lacked a conscience.

Elder Wen initially felt that Yu Youyou had become like a whole new person in such a short time and was about to smooth things over when the meaning of those words suddenly dawned on him. Stunned, he grabbed the Sun family member's arm and asked urgently, "What did you say? Return to the family? You have found him?"

His household had been thrown into utter chaos lately due to Wen Shi's high-profile acquisition of a concubine, leaving him completely unaware that the Sun family had already found the person. Shock overwhelmed him for a moment.

Seeing his intense concern, the Sun family member was startled. Noticing that Chu Xingyun made no move to stop him, the man replied uneasily, "It was Great Elder Ao Qing of the Primordial Sect who tracked down our family's Patriarch, along with the former Sect Master."

Elder Wen was already trembling uncontrollably.

Slowly turning his head to look at Chu Xingyun, his lips quivered slightly. After a long while, he asked in a hoarse voice, "They have returned, why did no one inform me? They..."

He paused, seemingly trying to calm the agitation in his heart, before slowly continuing after a good while, "Might I go see them?"

The entire cultivation world had not yet received news of the former Sect Master and Lord Sun's return. However, Ao Qing had stated that there was no need to deliberately conceal the matter, and Chu Xingyun had never intended to hide it; he simply hadn't gone out of his way to announce it.

Seeing Elder Wen display such eager supplication—appearing ready to abandon the wedding and head straight for the Primordial Sect—he replied, "It is inconvenient at present."

"Inconvenient?" Elder Wen asked anxiously.

The Sun family member hastily chimed in from the side, "The Patriarch suffered a terrible ordeal; nobody knows whose hands sealed his divine soul, and he is currently unresponsive. Even if you went, he would not be able to acknowledge you."

Their Sun family had long known that the Patriarch had returned, but they dared not inform the Wen family precisely out of fear that the Wen family would also dread that unknown, powerful enemy, call off the marriage, and leave the Sun family without backing.

Now that Elder Wen had overheard this, the man inwardly cursed his own slip of the tongue. Yet Elder Wen murmured in a daze, "Was it only... his divine soul that was sealed?"

Seeing everyone looking at him, he was inexplicably agitated and forced himself to compose, saying, "If only the divine soul is sealed, that is still fortunate. At least he is still alive; that is enough."

Tears of relief welled up in his eyes as he hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Even so, I must go see them. I do not know if they will still recognize me when they see me."

Such urgency caused Chu Xingyun to raise an eyebrow slightly, thinking: What face do you have to go see Lord Sun?

Barely a few years after Lord Sun went missing, you turned around and tried to forcibly marry his clan's maiden.

When the young girl refused, you used her younger brother—who was undergoing strict closed-door cultivation—as a threat to ensure she couldn't resist.

With these thoughts running through his mind, he remained silent. The toddler resting on his shoulder tried hard to mold an extraordinarily vivid look of contempt onto her little chubby face, looking precisely like the little tapeworm wriggling inside her senior brother's mind.

The Sun family members forced smiles to comfort Elder Wen, just as they were about to persuade him not to be overly emotional, when suddenly, from the deepest depths of the Sun family's ancestral grounds, a beam of sword light pierced the sky.

Followed by a miserable, hate-filled shriek.

An immortal light of escape flashed from the depths, carrying a wisp of bloody crimson as it fled in disarray and landed right before them. The handsome yet furious brocade-robed man who emerged was none other than Wen Shi.

At this moment, he lacked his usual carefree and dashing demeanor; one of his arms was reduced to mere flesh and muscle, almost completely severed.

Seeing him injured to such an extent, with an arm nearly hacked off, Elder Wen forgot his excitement over his old friend still being alive and asked in shock, "What on earth happened to you?"

"Father, she isn't..." Wen Shi was nearly driven to distraction, wanting to say something, but shame and fury choked him.

Before he could utter the words, another beam of spiritual light flew in from behind, revealing a youthful beauty with exquisite features and a slender figure.

This beauty radiated murderous intent, her eyes filled with ferocity. If glares could transform into blades, Wen Shi would have been hacked into a thousand pieces.