"He should be someone from the Scroll."
Chen Guan thought back and forth, and the familiar feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
And Chen Guan had another idea.
Could it be that only people from the Scroll gave him this "strange intuition"?
If that idea held true,
and he went by the ink paintings in the Scroll and the names in the postscript,
then Chen Guan could be certain this person wasn't Tiger Immortal, Xiao Qing, or Bandit Brother.
Tiger Immortal would absolutely never give him this sense of familiarity.
Chen Guan felt that if he saw him and he transformed,
he'd probably want to kill him, just as he felt about Bandit Brother.
As for his little sister, Xiao Qing, there would be a sense of closeness, but in a mere eighteen years, she shouldn't have been able to cultivate a physical body.
Then,
Chen Guan thought of someone.
His good-for-nothing grandson, Chen Changhong!
But the name of this person didn't match.
As for his appearance, decades had passed.
Chen Guan had long since forgotten it.
Even if he hadn't, Chen Changhong had still been a child back then.
After all these decades, who knew what he looked like now?
"In the postscript, my grandson comes looking for Bandit Brother."
Chen Guan gazed out over the lake.
"And given the timing, this feeling is appearing now too...
"Maybe... I should try calling out my grandson's name?"
After turning it over in his mind, Chen Guan decided to ask, though it might get awkward.
Even if the other person didn't answer, or looked confused,
he could just say he'd called the wrong name.
Meanwhile,
when Chen Changhong saw Chen Guan gazing quietly over the lake, he sensed that Chen Guan was recalling something and feeling puzzled.
He didn't want to disturb him, and he didn't dare to, either.
He also turned toward Yanhe Pavilion, intending to find the proprietor.
But before he could leave,
after thinking it over several times, Chen Guan decided to risk an awkward silence and tentatively called out, "Are you... Hong'er?"
Tap—
Chen Changhong's steps abruptly halted. He slowly turned around, his heart pounding, and looked at Chen Guan with astonishment and excitement.
Seeing his expression, Chen Guan knew he'd guessed right.
This person was Chen Changhong.
And in the next instant,
a memory unfurled in Chen Guan's mind.
It was one evening.
He sat on a little stool, clumsily carving a wooden grasshopper for his grandson.
Five-year-old Chen Changhong crouched beside him, staring at his careful work with eager eyes. Then he innocently asked a strange question:
"Grandpa, Grandpa, there are so many red flowers in the air... Why can't you see them?"
Chen Changhong had exceptional talent. Ever since he was little, he'd been able to see the Fire Attribute in the air.
And now,
in Chen Guan's eyes, the five-year-old Chen Changhong slowly overlapped with Hero Li before him.
"That grasshopper..."
Chen Guan smiled without realizing it, and pointed toward Yanhe Pavilion, where Bandit Brother was.
"The proprietor of Yanhe Pavilion burned it. Otherwise, I would've brought it to you."
As he spoke, Chen Guan extended his hand, a faint wisp of fire spiritual energy appearing at his fingertips.
"Now I know what you meant by 'red flowers of fire,' Hong'er."
Hearing Chen Guan's words,
Chen Changhong said nothing, but his eyes grew redder and redder.
"My grandpa... is... a cultivator?
"That makes sense... Once you become a cultivator, perhaps a twist of fate can awaken the wisdom of your past life..."
Chen Changhong was overwhelmed with excitement, and deep down, he felt no strangeness at all toward the "young Chen Guan" of this life.
Before, he'd been on guard and afraid there might be a scheme.
But after Chen Guan said those few words,
and spoke with such familiarity and regret,
Chen Changhong, who held filial piety dear, felt that whether it was a scheme or not no longer mattered.
It was like keeping vigil after an old person's death. If their soul really returned on the seventh day,
whether it was a person, a ghost, or some kind of scheme no longer mattered.
What mattered was the joy and sorrow of seeing them again.
The reunion with a long-lost family member swept aside all caution and worry.
That was exactly how Chen Changhong felt now.
Only after a moment
did he manage to quell his excitement. He bent his knees, ignored the astonished looks of several passersby, and knelt before Chen Guan, kowtowing.
"Your grandson... has been unfilial... I've let you suffer..."
Drip—
Chen Changhong began to cry. Overwhelmed with guilt, he didn't dare lift his head.
"He... This..." Faced with this sudden turn of events, Chen Guan was completely stunned.
Though his memories held a sense of familiarity and affection for his grandson,
Chen Guan had never truly been a grandfather.
Seeing his grandson like this,
all he could do was sigh heavily inside, feeling utterly at a loss.
But more and more people in the distance were looking over curiously,
so Chen Guan stepped forward, hoping to help his grandson up.
But when he tried to lift him,
Chen Guan's twelve years of cultivation, combined with his "850 proficiency" Bear-Type Strength and nearly five thousand jin of force, couldn't budge Chen Changhong at all.
Chen Changhong felt to him like a towering tree with roots sunk deep into the earth.
His cultivation was far beyond Chen Guan's.
Realizing this, Chen Guan was suddenly glad he hadn't sneaked out to visit his grandson at night. That would've been a joke.
When Chen Changhong felt his grandfather pulling him up, his instinct as a cultivator initially took over. He subconsciously circulated his spiritual power, standing as firm as a mountain and easily canceling out the force exerted on him.
But then he remembered that it was his grandfather.
He hurriedly rose with the pull, returning to his original handsome appearance.
At the same time,
his gaze turned cold and vengeful as he looked toward Yanhe Pavilion, which Chen Guan had pointed out.
"Grandpa! Today, your grandson will take that man's life, extract his three souls and six spirits, and cast him into the Underworld Bureau's hell! I'll make him suffer the full punishment of Avici!"
Chen Changhong looked otherworldly and deeply filial, with the easygoing air of a good man.
But on his way back, he'd already slain thousands of evildoers.
In particular, he'd passed a bandit stronghold and killed more than six hundred people in half an hour.
A mild-mannered gentleman? Chen Changhong was no such thing.
And in the next instant,
before Chen Guan could say anything,
whoosh—
As everyone around them cried out in alarm,
Chen Changhong stepped through the air. Each step sparked visible flecks of fire, carrying him more than a hundred zhang forward. He flew straight toward Yanhe Pavilion!
"Air-Stepping Technique?" Chen Guan recognized the name from some cultivation manuals.
It was a rather mystical technique that let cultivators "fly short distances" by exploiting a trick, even at low levels.
It was generally a sect secret art, never passed on to outsiders.
Unlike the manuals one could collect in the martial world, most of which were merely "basic skills."
"As expected, those trained by orthodox sects are nothing like a Rogue Cultivator like me, who just picks up scattered books."
Chen Guan mused as he hurried toward Yanhe Pavilion without slowing down.
Bandit Brother carried the "Karma of Killing Tribulation" from the Scroll.
If his grandson killed him instead of Chen Guan personally finishing him off,
Chen Guan had no idea whether he'd still be able to inherit that legacy talent.
Before you continue