Just as Ye Xiwen had broken through, before he even had time to feel much joy, an icy voice, cold as winter, suddenly drifted out of the void.
Ye Xiwen was instantly jolted awake.
"So you were hiding here. You certainly made me search!"
Ye Kuang!
Every pore on Ye Xiwen's body stood on end. He had never expected Ye Kuang to appear here.
Not only Ye Xiwen, but Ye Xukong, Ye Qianqian, and Ye Qiong deep inside were all startled awake in an instant. Yet they were in the midst of secluded cultivation, refining Kirin meat or the Kirin Heart, and could not extricate themselves. If they forcibly emerged now, all their previous efforts would be wasted. Just as Ye Xiwen had experienced before, forcing one's way out of seclusion could turn a breakthrough that was only a hair's breadth away into something delayed for a long time.
To refuse what Heaven bestowed was to invite calamity.
"Don't move yet. Let me go out and meet him!" Ye Xiwen said at once.
As he moved, a series of crackles erupted from his body, as though he had undergone a complete rebirth. The fragrance of precious medicinal herbs wafted from all over him, mixed with the scent of Kirin meat.
With a sweep of his hand, Ye Xiwen seized the remaining half-pot of medicinal cuisine and put it into the Heavenly Origin Mirror. Then, unhurriedly, he opened the formation and flew out of the valley.
There, in the void, stood a figure like a pillar holding up the heavens. His eyes were as cold as winter snow as he looked down upon the valley where Ye Xiwen and the others were.
When he saw Ye Xiwen emerge, a trace of surprise appeared on his face. He seemed to sense Ye