At dusk, Elder Zheng returned to Qiandao City. Several fellow practitioners who were longtime friends of his came to see him off.
At the banquet, everyone was filled with emotion. Some regretted Elder Zheng's departure, while others could not bear to see him go and invited him to serve as a guest elder at their families or sects.
Elder Zheng declined them all.
After the feast, they bid one another farewell.
Elder Zheng returned to his residence, closed his eyes, and rested for a while.
When the time came, he packed away all his treasures, Array Manuals, and Array Diagrams, then left the Cave Abode he had lived in for decades without looking back, heading straight out of the city.
He took a carriage out of the city and, about an hour later, arrived at Cloud Ferry Port on the border of Ganxue Prefecture.
After boarding this cloud ferry and transferring three times along the way, he would reach Zhen Province in roughly a month.
Elder Zheng had thought he had nothing left to miss. Yet as he stepped away, for some reason, a trace of attachment suddenly rose in his heart.
The face and voice of that young brother he had met during the day surfaced in his mind once more.
Elder Zheng sighed with feeling.
Amid the flourishing, fame-chasing, profit-seeking Ganxue Prefecture, there truly was such a disciple—born poor, wholly sincere, and possessed of extraordinary comprehension.
His previous judgment had indeed been biased.
The cloud ferry sounded its whistle. It was about to depart.
Elder Zheng took a step, then abruptly stopped.
"Once I board the deck and leave Gan Province, I'm afraid I'll never return in this life..."
His steps grew heavy, and unease suddenly gripped his heart, as though leaving now would cause him to miss