Qingxu glanced at the elder who had spoken. Zhuo Feiyu, elder of the law enforcement hall. He recognized the man and was deeply disgusted by him.
"I'll leave her with you," Qingxu said simply. As soon as he finished speaking, he turned to leave.
"Did I give you permission to go? Stop!" Zhuo Feiyu's face twisted with anger as he suddenly lunged toward Qingxu.
"Wait a moment, Elder Feiyu. Let me ask what happened first." Zhuo Shaoze moved quickly, positioning himself directly in front of Zhuo Feiyu and intercepting his attack on Qingxu. "What's wrong with Yunqing? Her wounds are serious! And you... those are sword wounds, aren't they? Even though you've made a grave mistake, you haven't actually been removed from the ancestral records yet. As long as you belong to our Zhuo family, no one in Yunhuang City should dare attack you so boldly."
"It's nothing complicated," Qingxu replied calmly. "Zhuo Fengyun and Zhuo Fenglei couldn't wait to capture me. After I defeated them, they joined forces with Fang You, Jin Wu, and a disciple from Hunyuan Heaven Sect to kill me. Yunqing was hurt by that woman's sword technique."
"Hah!" Zhuo Feiyu sneered. "You defeated Zhuo Fengyun and Zhuo Fenglei? Then you claim they worked together with Fang You, Jin Wu, and even a disciple of Hunyuan Heaven Sect? Not to mention the sect disciple—Jin Wu alone is an Impurity Refining master. Fang You, Zhuo Fenglei, and Zhuo Fengyun are all stronger than you. You expect me to believe they needed to team up against you? You're trying to put gold on your face with such lies. If you really had such great accomplishments and talent, would the elders have been so harsh with you?"
Qingxu was too lazy to explain to Zhuo Feiyu. Now that Yunqing had been safely delivered, he had no reason to stay longer. He turned to leave.
"Stop!" Zhuo Feiyu roared, suddenly rushing forward to lock onto Qingxu's neck.
However, before he could complete his grab, Qingxu's sharp sword came up with dazzling light, blocking the direction of Zhuo Feiyu's attack. If the elder dared take another step forward, he would strike the blade and be wounded.
"You dare draw your sword against an elder!" Zhuo Feiyu's eyes narrowed. His move, which had originally been meant to capture alive, suddenly became more vicious.
He changed tactics, trying to break the collarbone on Qingxu's right shoulder and cripple his sword arm.
Buzz!
The sword hummed as it moved.
Qingxu's blade shifted to meet each change in Zhuo Feiyu's technique. No matter how the elder altered his attacks, Qingxu's sword responded perfectly.
The two exchanged several moves without making substantive contact, but Zhuo Feiyu's expression quickly grew grave.
This scene caught Zhuo Shaoze's attention, making his eyes flash with interest.
"Qingxu," Shaoze said, his voice reaching only Qingxu's ears through a special technique. "Your father has already sent word to Miss Fei. If you don't want to lose face and truly wish to surpass Lan Yutong, go to Miss Fei for training. If you concentrate on cultivation with your talent, you won't be weaker than any inner disciple of Hunyuan Heaven Sect!"
Qingxu glanced at Zhuo Shaoze.
It seemed that although Qingxu's father had been extremely strict with him and hadn't hesitated to expel him from the family, in the end it was just tough love. Blood was thicker than water.
Unfortunately, the real Zhuo Qingxu was already dead.
"You..." Qingxu's sword suddenly shifted, forcing Zhuo Feiyu to step back. Taking advantage of this opening, he also stepped backward. "You can't keep me here. That's all there is to it."
After speaking, his body suddenly soared upward.
"Stop!" Zhuo Feiyu roared and quickly pursued. At the same time, he shouted at the other two law enforcement experts at Marrow Cleansing level: "What are you two doing? Stop him!"
The two law enforcement hall experts who received the order quickly moved to surround him, but Qingxu was already flashing past them in a blur. He leaped up and away, opening distance between himself and his pursuers.
Zhuo Feiyu chased after him, but before they could even leave the street, they had lost all trace of Qingxu. His face became quite ugly.
However, Zhuo Shaoze had watched Qingxu retreat calmly while surrounded by Zhuo Feiyu and two law enforcement hall experts. His eyes couldn't help but brighten.
"It seems Qingxu has reached the Marrow Cleansing realm. It's probably because of that Marrow Cleansing Pill. But his actual combat ability is far beyond my expectations... His defeat of Zhuo Fengyun and Zhuo Fenglei may actually be true. If he had shown this talent earlier, the clan leader would have used the inner disciple token to send him to Hunyuan Heaven Sect. Now that he's learned from his shame, I wonder if there's still time..."
---
Yunlin pavilion...
As one of the top restaurants in Yunhuang City, its power was amazing. Its branches spread throughout all of Lorraine Kingdom.
It was said that sixty percent of the restaurant's profits were used to pay tribute to a true disciple of Hunyuan Heaven Sect every year. In exchange for that disciple's protection, they could open restaurants throughout the north and south of the kingdom.
At this time, in a superior guest room, Lan Yutong was speaking with an old man.
The old man looked about sixty, but had a deep and mysterious feeling about him. Even though he stood before Lan Yutong like a servant, he still couldn't hide the unique aura of the truly strong.
"Mr. Yuan, since I can't act directly, I can only ask you to handle this matter." Lan Yutong seemed to have finished explaining what she wanted done. Finally, she bowed respectfully to the old man before her.
The old man, named Yuan Yang, was a servant of Elder Jiri of Hunyuan Heaven Sect. Because he could understand the elder's intentions perfectly, even though his cultivation was considered poor, he was highly valued by Elder Jiri.
However, the so-called poor cultivation was only in the pill elder's eyes. In reality, he was a martial arts master who had achieved great success in Blood Exchange. Only because the blood in his body had been difficult to awaken, he couldn't condense true qi and couldn't shed his mortal body to step into the Six Realms of Eternal Life.
When Lan Yutong had wanted to come to Yunhuang City to clear her reputation, he had been sent by the pill elder to protect her safety.
"Miss, your decision is very wise," Yuan Yang said. "Although Zhuo Qingxu has missed the golden age of cultivation and has limited future achievements, no one knows whether this young man might receive some opportunity to soar. There are countless examples in history of strong martial artists rising after being abandoned. Especially... in recent years, the mysterious 'Chaos Temple' has been active frequently, and hundreds of Sons of Chaos have emerged in our Eastern Wasteland, not counting those hidden in the shadows. Ending this early is indeed the best solution."
"Sons of Chaos..." When Yuan Yang mentioned this, Lan Yutong suddenly said, "Sir, when Zhuo Qingxu was fighting with Jin Wu and my junior sister just now, he raised his cultivation from Marrow Cleansing to a level no less than Impurity Refining. It seemed like the Sacred Art that can supposedly only be practiced after reaching ten levels of Chaos. Could he... by chance have entered the 'Chaos Temple' and become a Son of Chaos?"
Yuan Yang laughed. "I'm just being cautious. How could it really be Chaos Art? It's probably just some secret technique. You said it yourself—Sacred Art is a legendary technique that can only be practiced after ten levels of Chaos. Although there are many Chaos Sons in the Eastern Wasteland, more than ninety percent stay at the first level their entire lives and can't advance an inch."
"They rely on first-level comprehension or recovery... What treasures with Dao Rhyme are precious indeed. Every time such a treasure appears in the world, it leads to fierce fighting. Powerful people from the Six Realms and Three Realms of Eternal Life fight personally. Therefore, those with higher Chaos levels are either patriarchs or holy land elders."
"If ordinary people have high Chaos levels without strong cultivation backing, they would have been captured and tortured alive by those great patriarchs and holy land elders, forced to reveal their Chaos Temple opening methods and have their Chaos levels forcibly 'inherited.' Even after 'inheriting' ten levels, there are still more levels beyond that. Many elders' Chaos levels are below five."
"Could his Chaos level also be inherited from another Son of Chaos?" Lan Yutong guessed.
"Impossible! Sacred Art is a tenth-level Chaos method. As far as I know, the highest Chaos level in the Eastern Wasteland belongs to Dao Xuanyi, master of the Creation Profound Gate, at level fifteen. To inherit from him, the successor's Chaos level would need to reach at least twenty. The entire Eastern Wasteland can't produce even one such character."
Yuan Yang said this as he stood up. "Miss, don't worry too much. I'll handle this matter personally. Your mind needs to focus on awakening your bloodline. It's not worth wasting energy on someone who's about to die."
Lan Yutong nodded. She also felt she had been overthinking. She bowed slightly: "This matter needs to be carried out secretly. It all depends on you, Mr. Yuan."
Yuan Yang's eyes glinted coldly. "A mere Marrow Cleansing cultivator, even with some talent, is still just an ant. I'll make sure he disappears quietly, without any connection to you."