In the ancestral lands of the Xiao family, within a courtyard built over the eye of a spiritual spring, a woman in court dress sat high at the head of the hall. With a solemn expression, she said, "Xiaoyu, in the past you were tied down by far too many worldly entanglements, burdening yourself with far too much karma and karmic debt. From now on, you must sever every worldly bond. Only then, ten years from now, will this West Mountain Rain of yours have any chance of minor success. Our Xiao family is currently weathered by storms and facing an impending crisis; it is time for your younger generation to shoulder responsibility."
Though Xiaoyu was somewhat reluctant, he still murmured his assent. Several people stood to his left and right, all of them the cream of the Xiao family's younger generation.
The woman's expression softened slightly as she said, "In the past, you were steeped in worldly affairs, insisting on playing city lord, which has already delayed much of your cultivation. This time, you must be resolute in cutting off all ties with Qingming."
Xiaoyu suddenly asked, "I can just focus on my cultivation. Why must I sever ties with Qingming?"
"Qingming has its own looming tribulations in the near future. For now, a clear line must be drawn between us and them. Anything else can wait until their tribulation has passed."
"Are we cultivators not supposed to deliver others from peril and disaster? How can one look on with folded arms while fellow disciples are in distress?" Xiaoyu countered.
The woman's face darkened. "That is the way of rogue cultivators! As members of the Xiao family on the verge of ascending to dharma idols, your priority must be the clan above all else! A great battle looms for our family, and we cannot afford to be entangled in more trouble. Xiao Nian, keep a close watch on your grandson. He doesn't have much time left either."
Xiao Nian, standing to one side, replied, "Understood."
Just then, a messenger rushed in to report: "Elders, a dharma idol cultivator named Wei Yuan has arrived at the foot of the mountain seeking an audience with Xiaoyu."
The woman's expression shifted slightly. Without hesitation, she said, "Refuse him! Drive him away!"
***
Sunrise and sunset passed.
Wei Yuan had already sat in the pavilion for an entire day. The gazebo possessed no formations to shelter from the wind or ward off the cold; it was just an ordinary pavilion.
Passersby pointed and whispered mockery at Wei Yuan, assuming he had come to beg a favor of the Xiao family, only to be denied entry at the very gates. Many such incidents had occurred in the past, including people who knelt at the foot of the mountain for over half a month. But the Xiao family held high standards; when they said no, no amount of kneeling would change their mind.
Wei Yuan merely sat and listened, unbothered. Even in the Western Regions, very few could recognize him by sight, let alone here at the Xiao family hundreds of thousands of li away.
In a warm pavilion atop the mountain peak, a steward peeked out cautiously and whispered, "He has been sitting there for a long time."
"I know. You may go," Xiaoyu said calmly.
Beside him, Xiao Nian opened his eyes from meditation and said, "Your heart is unsettled."
"It isn't."
"Mm." Xiao Nian closed his eyes again, sinking back into a state of selflessness.
Xiaoyu suddenly opened his eyes and lightly tapped the low table beside him. A faint, wispy figure materialized, kneeling before him.
"How many people mocked him?"
"One hundred and sixty-seven."
"Did you record them all?"
"Not a single one was missed."
"Where is the list?"
The figure promptly presented a sheet of jade paper. Xiaoyu read it slowly, committing each name to memory before closing his eyes in quiet cultivation.
***
All at once, Xiaoyu snapped his eyes open, only to realize the morning light already filled the sky.
Xiaoyu drew in a breath of true spiritual qi, stood, and walked outside to gaze up at the rising sun. Behind him, the figure manifested again and murmured, "Three hundred and nineteen."
Xiaoyu frowned slightly. "Three hundred and nineteen what?"
The figure offered another sheet of jade paper. Looking at the newly added names, Xiaoyu's face finally darkened, and he gritted his teeth. "Drive everyone on this list out beyond the mountain gates!"
The figure did not vanish, instead cautioning, "Once expelled down the mountain, they are bound to harbor resentment."
Xiaoyu sneered. "Since when do I fear their resentment? If anyone has complaints, tell them to come find me! If I can't hack them to death in three sword strikes, I'll reincarnate and cultivate anew! And if a single one of these clowns amounts to anything in the future, I'll reincarnate and cultivate anew as well!"
Xiao Nian finally opened his eyes and smiled. "Not bad."
Xiaoyu's face suddenly flushed red, and he snapped, "Can't you actually enter secluded cultivation for once?!"
Xiao Nian replied with a smile, "You're even more exceptional than I was back in the day, so I can't bear to miss a single moment of your growth."
Xiaoyu huffed. "You just want bragging rights with your old cronies!"
"And what if I do? What can you do about it?"
"No respectability for your age!"
Xiao Nian chuckled slyly. "Going up against your own grandfather? You're still too green. Oh, by the way, quite a lot of snow has piled up on him."
"Impossible!" Xiaoyu knew Wei Yuan's realm all too well. Snowflakes wouldn't bother him; even if sealed in ten-thousand-year profound ice, he would be completely unscathed.
"His aura is dropping."
"That's even more impossible!"
"Mm."
Xiaoyu settled into the courtyard, facing the morning sun, and began circulating and ingesting the essence of the great sun. But upon taking the first breath, he broke into a violent fit of coughing, completely unable to calm his mind.
Xiaoyu gritted his teeth. With Immortal Sword Great Sun in hand, he strode outside. Behind him came Xiao Nian's voice: "Hurry back!"
Xiaoyu looked back and snapped, "Am I even your own blood?"
"Picked you up off the street."
Xiaoyu's figure flickered away, and in the next instant, Wei Yuan's broad face appeared before his eyes.
Xiaoyu looked frost-faced. "What did you come here for?"
Wei Yuan smiled slightly. "I have a sword strike..."
Expressionless, Xiaoyu barked, "Barbarian, take my sword!"
With that, Xiaoyu thrust his sword straight toward Wei Yuan's face. Seeing Wei Yuan smiling and making no move to evade, Xiaoyu added thirty percent more force, only to pull back ninety percent of his power the instant the tip touched flesh.
The blade of Immortal Sword Great Sun pierced through skin and flesh until arrested by bone.
Xiaoyu's hand trembled, widening the wound to double its size.
Wei Yuan sat motionless, as though it were neither his flesh being pierced nor his blood spilling.
Xiaoyu was stunned. "Have you lost your mind?!"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "How could I?"
Xiaoyu covered his face with his hand, thoroughly exasperated. "Ancestor of mine, out with it. What on earth do you want?"
Wei Yuan laughed heartily. "It had been a while since we last saw each other, so I originally just wanted to drop by and see you. But after arriving, I calculated the heavenly secrets and karmic luck, and decided to take a sword strike from you to add a few more karmic bonds between us."
The wound on his face knit itself closed, and Wei Yuan stared intently at Xiaoyu's face.
"Is there a flower on my face?"
"Your cultivation is a bit lacking; you couldn't blossom anything pretty."
"Then am I ugly?"
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment before answering earnestly, "A tiny bit better-looking than me."
Xiaoyu froze. His sword, raised halfway, simply couldn't thrust forward, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward uncontrollably.
"Don't you have anything better to do? Have you abandoned Qingming? Traveling all this way just to shoot the breeze—are you really that idle? And what about my Yong'an? Is it built yet?" Xiaoyu fired off a volley of questions.
Wei Yuan rose to his feet. "Alright, I've seen you, established our karma, and now I know what needs to be done. I'm leaving!"
Xiaoyu frowned. "What do you plan to do?"
Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "What I plan to do doesn't matter. Either way, for all of you, there is nothing I wouldn't do!"
Watching Wei Yuan's departing figure, Xiaoyu suddenly blew up in fury. "You make that clear right now! Who exactly is included in 'all of you'?!"
From the distance came Wei Yuan's voice: "I don't answer questions from Dao Foundations."
***
In the State of Wu, at the ancestral lands of the Bao family.
Bao Yun sat upright with proper posture and asked, "Why are you here again?"
Wei Yuan said, "Will you come with me?"
Bao Yun gave a slight smile. "Beg me!"
Wei Yuan blinked in shock, gritted his teeth, his face flushing crimson in an instant, before forcing out two words: "I beg you!"
Bao Yun immediately grabbed Wei Yuan's hand. "Let's go!"
"Halt!" Zhao Fusheng stepped out from around the courtyard gate, killing intent glinting in his eyes.
Within the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, Wei Yuan spoke to Maiden Yin-Yang: "I don't need your help! Stand still and don't move."
Wei Yuan held Bao Yun's hand and walked straight ahead. Zhao Fusheng stood directly in their path, not uttering a word.
Wei Yuan reined in all his dharmic powers, charging forward with purely physical might to crash right into him! The instant they collided, they rebounded apart. In that split second, the Bao family's ancestral lands trembled and quaked, forcing elders to break their seclusion.
Zhao Fusheng was knocked back three steps. Seeing that Wei Yuan had retreated only a single step, his expression darkened. He too reined in his dharmic power and charged straight in for another collision, only to be knocked back three steps once more. Wei Yuan, yet again, retreated just one step.
Wei Yuan remarked, "Testing pure physical strength is a bit unfair to you. Let's make it a civil match!"
Zhao Fusheng's face turned ashen. "Do you think I, Zhao, fear you in a clash of bodies? Though I owe you a life from the secret realm, on this matter there can be no concession. If I accidentally kill you in a moment, I will pay with my own life to square the debt."
Wei Yuan shook his head. "You're getting ahead of yourself."
Zhao Fusheng said coldly, "You don't believe I would pay you back with my life?"
"Whether I believe it or not makes no difference. In any case, you won't have the chance to pay with your life."
Without another word, Zhao Fusheng threw his entire body forward once more. Tremors shook the earth again and again, with both of them recoiling farther back with each collision.
By the tenth collision, all the elders of the Bao family were forced to emerge from secluded cultivation; any longer and their cultivation would have suffered severe deviations.
A mountain-like aura descended, pinning Wei Yuan and Zhao Fusheng firmly in place. Soon after, several elders appeared, their expressions varied. One elder, having just been interrupted from his meditation, had an ashen face as he bellowed, "Outrageous nonsense!"
Bao Yun whispered to Wei Yuan, "We've been caught. What do we do?"
Wei Yuan looked around and sighed. "Looks like we won't be leaving anytime soon. Well then, let's talk business first."
Chapter 432