Wang Jize strode out of the council hall, then directly rode his Flying Sword toward the southeast.
The old man in white robes, with white beard and white hair, soared into the sky atop his Flying Sword. The clan members had found their pillar once more. Not a trace of panic remained as they methodically maintained the Lineage's operations, and the Lineage returned to peace.
The old man was like a pillar that stabilized the sea. With him present, the clan members had confidence.
They had all said Wang Jize had been ambushed while away and his cultivation had fallen. It seemed that had been a smokescreen cast by the Lineage to avoid attracting attention. Wang Jize showed no sign of diminished cultivation now; his aura was far stronger than even the patriarch's.
In just over a day, Wang Jize returned to Jade Spring Peak with Wang Daochang and Wang Zhide. They had traveled there by Flying Sword, but returned aboard a spirit ship. Otherwise, the round trip would have taken only two hours.
Not long after their return, Wang Daoxing, covered in wounds, also made it back to Jade Spring Peak. The matter was of great importance, and the elders, along with Wang Jize, had no time to wait for him to recover. They directly asked Wang Daoxing what the patriarch had said at the time.
Wang Daoxing's account was completely identical to Wang Daoyuan's. The elders all let out a sigh of relief. They unanimously decided that if Wang Zhian or Wang Shouye had not returned to Jade Spring Peak within a month, they would immediately announce that Wang Daochang would inherit the position of patriarch.
With the overall situation settled, the storm of internal power struggles subsided. Having confirmed the Patriarch Successor, Wang Zhide had not even had time to catch his breath before Wang Jize dispatched him once more, sending him to Qingli Market to investigate the details of the battle at Returning Goose Valley.
Wang Zhide had been stationed at Qingli Market year-round. Over several decades, he had accumulated many connections and made several close friends among the Rogue Cultivators. Rogue Cultivators came in every variety, making them perfectly suited for gathering information.
Other than Wang Zhide, only Wang Zhian and Wang Shouye frequently traveled outside and had some connections among Rogue Cultivators. But their lives and deaths were unknown. When it came to mobilizing connections and gathering intelligence, no one but Wang Zhide could truly handle the job.
Wang Daoyuan had no chance to rest either. Along with Wang Daoxing, he was surrounded by the elders and questioned about the details, as well as his experience escaping.
Wang Daoxing was as fierce as ever. While Seventh Uncle Wang Shouhong was still tending to his wounds, he volunteered to begin recounting his glorious journey of fighting his way back, carrying himself with the air of Lord Guan scraping poison from his bone.
Wang Shouhong was an alchemist at Qi Refining Layer Nine. He could now refine every common First-Order Pill, and was only one step away from becoming a Second-Tier Alchemist. He had a temperament that let nothing weigh on his mind and was ordinarily reticent. Aside from alchemy and medicine, he had little interest in anything else.
Yet even such a person kept frowning at Wang Daoxing. He was probably grumbling inwardly, This nephew is really something else.
A quarter of an hour later, his wounds had been treated, yet Wang Daoxing was still endlessly recounting his heroic exploits. "The moment I escaped Cart Gorge, I followed Daoyuan's advice. I didn't go through Golden Goose City and headed straight for Jade Spring Peak. I hadn't even run a hundred li when someone blocked my path.
"The bastard blocking the road wasn't very strong, only at Qi Refining Layer Seven. He couldn't even take one blow from my staff. But the spirit beast he kept was quite troublesome. One man and one beast besieged me, and I had to put in a great deal of effort before I smashed them both to death.
"I ran into five or six groups like that along the way. That delayed my return a little."
After hearing him, Wang Daoyuan felt that something seemed off. He asked, "Second Brother, don't tell me you ran all the way back directly?"
Wang Daoxing answered without hesitation, "Yeah. What's wrong?"
Wang Daoyuan pressed a hand to his forehead. "I gave you so many escape Talismans. Why didn't you use them to flee for your life?"
Wang Daoxing slapped the back of his head and gave an awkward yet polite smile. "I forgot about that."
None of the elders knew what to say. Misfortune at the family gate had produced such a fool.
Wang Zhiren seemed to think of something and laughed loudly. "Daoxing charged about so recklessly and still escaped back safely. The others should have even less to worry about."
Wang Daoyuan could not bear to strike him down, but he feared that concealing the truth would lead the elders to make a misjudgment. He could only say, "The one pursuing me was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator."
"What?" Wang Daoxing asked in shock. "How did you come back alive?"
The others also looked at Wang Daoyuan in astonishment. "I killed him, so I came back alive."
"How is that possible?" an elder cried out. The closer cultivators were to Foundation Establishment, the more keenly they understood the gap between Foundation Establishment Cultivators and Qi Refining cultivators. That chasm filled them with despair. Now, hearing Wang Daoyuan say that he had killed a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, their first reaction was disbelief.
It was not unheard of for Qi Refining cultivators to kill Foundation Establishment Cultivators, but every successful case involved geniuses at the Qi Refining Peak who relied on formidable trump cards to kill cultivators at Foundation Establishment First or Second Layer. And without exception, those successful cultivators were disciples of great powers.
For someone at Qi Refining Layer Seven to kill a Foundation Establishment Cultivator was unheard of. One knew one's own household best; the Wang Clan had no such powerful trump card.
Even Wang Jize was curious. "Daoyuan, tell us the details of how you killed him."
Wang Daoyuan described how he had fled the battlefield, how Zhang Dacheng had pursued him for a thousand li, and how he had ultimately killed him in return.
The elders listened with their eyes and mouths wide open. Wang Daoxing felt somewhat ashamed. "I thought smashing a few enemies to death made me impressive. I never expected Little Seven to encounter such a powerful opponent, escape without a scratch, and even kill him in return."
"Actually, it wasn't that difficult. That Foundation Establishment Cultivator was simply too weak. He hadn't even learned the Sword Control Technique, had no Second-Tier artifacts or Second-Tier spells, and his spirit beast was not suited for combat. On top of that, he had no experience in life-and-death battles.
"Even so, I used up more than a hundred Talismans, including one Second-Tier Talisman.
"My guess is that the enemy had been monitoring the entire battlefield and sending people to intercept cultivators based on their strength and value.
"I scattered Talismans by the handful on the battlefield, so I was probably targeted. And that Foundation Establishment Cultivator pursuing me had a storage bag cleaner than his face. He was likely after my wealth.
"Second Brother only revealed his powerful physical body on the battlefield, so the people intercepting him were not particularly strong.
"And Twelfth Uncle used only the Water Dragon Technique on the battlefield, yet beat a First-Order peak Demon Beast until it could not fight back at all. I suspect the one pursuing Twelfth Uncle was also very likely a Foundation Establishment Cultivator."
After hearing this, the elders all fell silent. Wang Daoyuan had merely revealed some Talismans and was pursued by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator. Wang Shouye had displayed overwhelming combat strength; it was almost set in stone that Foundation Establishment Cultivators would pursue him.
Although Wang Shouye was powerful and possessed many trump cards, killing enemies above one's level was never a sure thing. Wang Daoyuan had been able to kill a Foundation Establishment Cultivator only because that man had truly been too weak. Wang Daoyuan's cultivation was low, and his enemy had underestimated him from beginning to end, allowing him to seize an opening.
Wang Shouye had already revealed his combat strength. His enemies would not underestimate him, and no matter how powerful he was, he could not make up for the difference in realms. All they could do was pray that Wang Shouye could evade pursuit.
Younger members like Wang Daoyuan had only heard that Wang Shouye possessed excellent aptitude. They did not know what Wang Shouye meant to the Wang Clan.
But the elders all understood. Wang Shouye was the Wang Clan's hope of returning to its peak. His aptitude was only slightly inferior to the old ancestor's, but his circumstances were far better.
Back then, Wang Chengzhu had started from nothing. He had no cultivation technique, no one to guide him, and no cultivation resources. He had relied entirely on himself to carve out a bloody path.
But Wang Shouye had the cultivation techniques and cultivation experience left behind by Wang Chengzhu, as well as the Lineage's financial support. So long as he could obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill and cross the life-and-death barrier of Foundation Establishment, then with his talent, barring unforeseen circumstances, he could reach Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer within a century. Opening the Violet Palace would be difficult, but it carried no danger to his life.
Back then, Wang Chengzhu had no Foundation Establishment Pill and no supplementary spiritual medicines for opening the Violet Palace or forming the Golden Core. Yet he had succeeded on his first attempt when breaking through Foundation Establishment, Violet Palace, and Golden Core.
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