Shi Sheng was startled by Hao Shuai's words. He clutched his flying sword and stared at him, at a loss for what to say.
Hao Shuai continued, "Don't be afraid. I'm Hao Shuai, a Qi Cultivator of the Pure Yang lineage. Your mother, Lu Rongbo, asked me to come and take you away."
Though Shi Sheng was an Immortal Embryo born of a spirit stone and no ordinary child, he had lived alone since birth and was unusually mature for his age. Still, he had little experience with outsiders or the world at large. Hao Shuai deliberately circulated the Pure Yang Sword Art, letting a righteous Taoist aura radiate from him, and Shi Sheng began to believe his words.
But he remembered his mother saying that the person coming to guide him would be Jin Chan, son of Qi Shuming, the Emei Sect's leader. Jin Chan was a Taoist too, but his status was different from the man before him. Suspicion and indecision filled Shi Sheng's heart.
As if he had guessed what Shi Sheng was wondering, Hao Shuai explained, "Are you wondering why the Emei leader's son, Jin Chan, didn't come?"
Shi Sheng didn't answer. He merely nodded, inwardly surprised and curious about how Hao Shuai knew what his mother had told him.
"That's because I once met your mother," Hao Shuai said candidly. "She told me all of it, including that you shouldn't wear clothes or meet outsiders!"
"Y-You're lying! My mother has already ascended to the upper realm. How could you have met her?" Shi Sheng retorted. "Unless you came down from the upper realm. But that's impossible!"
"It's true that I didn't come down from the upper realm. But your mother isn't there, either!" Before Shi Sheng could ask, Hao Shuai explained, "I met her at