The faces of the three elders from the Xiao family darkened. One of them, a Golden Core late-stage elder, stepped forward and snapped back.
"You dare slander us with baseless accusations? For all we know, those words from the Xiao junior were forced out by you. Where is your proof? How dare you accuse the Xiao family of colluding with evil cultivators?"
"Exactly! You think one sentence is enough?"
Wei Chenyin hovered in mid-air, her voice calm and steady as it echoed through the space.
"Patriarch Xiao, did you know that Xiao He planned to extract my nephew's spiritual root and offer it to you?"
She looked down at them, voice laced with gravity.
"You once reached the Nascent Soul realm. You should understand better than a Golden Core cultivator like me that this is an evil art, one condemned by the heavens. Even if you succeeded, you'd never ascend to the Spirit Realm in this lifetime."
"Silence!"
A figure burst into view, eyes blazing with fury. It was Xiao He.
Just moments ago, the entire conversation captured in the memory jade had been transmitted into the secluded chamber. Even the isolation formation couldn't block it—something Xiao He hadn't anticipated. Xiao Ye turned toward his son, disbelief written all over his face. His voice trembled.
"Is what she said... true?"
"Father..."
"Answer me!" Xiao Ye's voice cracked like a whip. "Tell me, is it true?"
"Father, I just wanted you to live."
"There were other ways to keep me alive. But you chose the cruelest one. Do you even understand what you've done? What about the lives of others? What about mine?"
Xiao Ye had never imagined his son would go this far. Blood surged up his throat and spilled from his lips. Then, he collapsed.
Xiao He rushed to his side and quickly checked his condition. The spiritual root in Xiao Ye's body had completely dissolved. The timing was perfect. He gently lifted his father from the jade vat and laid him onto the formation carved into the chamber floor, fingers forming seals as he activated the array.
At that moment, Cao Yi, who had been waiting for just such an opportunity, instantly sensed the fluctuations of the formation. Using the compass in his hand, he began tracking the other end of the array.
Back in the chamber, Xiao Ye slowly regained consciousness. He felt a steady stream of vitality pouring into his body from the formation below. The pain from the spot where his spiritual root had once been was now replaced by a gentle warmth.
"Stop," Xiao Ye said in a low, cold voice.
But Xiao He didn't listen. His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice trembled.
"Father, just hold on. It's almost done."
"Even if I recover my spiritual root, what difference does it make? Your actions have already been exposed."
Xiao He's voice rose, half mad with desperation.
"If you have your spiritual root back, your cultivation won't regress. You can return to the Nascent Soul stage. You can protect me and my sister again!"
He shook with frustration.
"They have no proof. Just baseless accusations! As long as they don't find Wei Lingkai, they can't convict us. It'll all blow over."
"You've lost your mind, He'er."
Xiao Ye felt a chill in his bones. His son had truly gone mad. Even now, he refused to let go. Summoning every ounce of strength he had left, Xiao Ye pushed himself upright, trying to free himself from the formation feeding him life force.
Then the formation beneath him flickered twice… and shut down completely.
Xiao He's face turned deathly pale.
"This... this can't be..."
The array had stopped. Something had gone wrong on Wei Lingkai's end. Without wasting a moment, Xiao He stormed out of the chamber.
Outside, he arrived just in time to hear the last of Wei Chenyin's words. His guilt, fury, and desperation flared all at once. He roared to silence her—and so began the confrontation.
A short time earlier…
After parting ways with Wei Chenyin, Yun Xi and Cao Yi followed Dian Dian through the winding paths of the Xiao estate. They were tracking the lingering trace of Wei Lingkai's aura, heading for the last place he had been sensed.
Wei Chenyin's role was to use Xiao Lei as leverage, negotiate with the Xiao family, and, ideally, provoke Xiao He into exposing himself. The goal was to cause a scene—anything to buy more time to locate Wei Lingkai.
Meanwhile, Lin Keyang and Zhang Lingrui stayed hidden in the shadows, ready to act in case the Xiao family made a desperate move, or to assist Yun Xi and Cao Yi if necessary.
Since advancing to the second tier, Dian Dian had inherited the bloodline of the treasure-seeking mouse, and his sense of smell had grown even sharper. After circling through the complex paths of the Xiao compound, he stopped in front of a secluded courtyard.
"Master," Dian Dian said, sniffing the air, "this is where Uncle Wei's scent ends."
Yun Xi spotted a restriction covering the area and stepped back, letting Cao Yi take the lead.
Cao Yi formed a hand seal and tested the strength of the barrier. Then, without hesitation, he began setting up a formation to tear open a passage. In a flash, they slipped inside, just before several Xiao family disciples arrived in response to the disturbance—too late.
Inside, Dian Dian darted straight into the room where Xiao He usually cultivated. He circled the space several times, then sent a telepathic message to Yun Xi.
"Master, I'm certain Uncle Wei was here. After this point, his scent vanishes."
"You're sure he didn't leave the room?"
"Absolutely."
Yun Xi didn't hesitate. She released her divine sense, scanning every inch of the room, unwilling to miss even the smallest detail.
Cao Yi did the same, but both searches came up empty.
"There has to be a hidden chamber here," Yun Xi said, frowning.
"But divine sense didn't detect anything."
Cao Yi tried again, but still found nothing. Just then, his compass reacted, its needle swinging to point at a wall inside the room.
"Wei Daoyou, no matter where he hid the person, there's definitely a hidden chamber behind this wall. A formation is active inside, channeling some sort of energy. We have to move fast."
Yun Xi's mind jumped instantly to the last chapter she'd read before crossing over—where Sheng Yuhong activated the array beneath the villainess. She already had a guess what kind of formation it was.
She reached out to touch the wall Cao Yi had indicated, and her eyes lit up. She recognized this type of stone. Her mother had used similar spirit-blocking stone slabs to hide her portable medicine garden from her greedy father.
Because the material blocked divine sense, they had missed it on their initial sweep.
"Senior Brother Cao, this is made from spirit-isolating ore. If he hadn't activated the formation, we never would've noticed."
"Then we need to act fast."
Urgency surged through Cao Yi as well.
Without another word, Yun Xi gripped the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff. With a surge of icy spiritual power, she drove it through the stone slab, shattering the barrier.
A doorway, just large enough for one person, opened in the wall. Yun Xi tossed in a wind-based detection spell. The moment the spell returned, her expression twisted in rage.
"I found him. It's my uncle. Hurry!"
She flashed through the doorway.
Cao Yi saw the change in her face and immediately followed.
Inside, Wei Lingkai was trapped within the formation. His hair had turned half white, and his skin was deathly pale. As Yun Xi stared at him, it was like seeing her own future reflected back at her. Her grip on the staff tightened. Lightning flickered along its surface, raw fury surging through her.
Cao Yi could feel the sudden shift in her energy. He quickly warned her.
"Junior Sister Wei, don't lose control. If you forcefully destroy the formation, you'll hurt your uncle."
Yun Xi clenched her jaw, forcing back the storm inside her. She squeezed out her words, one syllable at a time.
"Senior Brother Cao... break the formation. Now."
"Got it."
Without hesitation, Cao Yi began laying down another array. His method was direct: use a secondary formation to disrupt and suppress the active one.
And he succeeded.