Clearing Up Doubts

"He must be someone from the scroll."

Chen Guan paced back and forth, the sense of familiarity in his heart growing heavier with each step.

Furthermore, Chen Guan had another thought.

Could it be that only those from the scroll possessed this "awkward intuition"?

If this hypothesis held true.

And following the ink wash paintings in the scroll, along with the names in the afterword.

Chen Guan first confirmed that this person was neither Tiger Immortal, nor Xiao Qing, and certainly not Bandit Brother.

Tiger Immortal definitely did not evoke this sense of intimacy.

Chen Guan felt that if he were to meet him, and he were to shapeshift.

He would likely want to kill him, just as he felt toward Bandit Brother.

As for his younger sister Xiao Qing, there would be intimacy, but in a mere eighteen years, she shouldn't have been able to cultivate a physical body.

Then, afterward.

Chen Guan thought of one person.

That was his cheap grandson, Chen Changhong!

But this person's name was different.

As for his appearance, decades had passed.

Chen Guan had long since forgotten it.

Even if he hadn't forgotten, Chen Changhong had been just a child back then.

After these few decades, who knew what he would look like now.

"In the afterword, my grandson comes to find the bandit."

Chen Guan gazed out at the lake.

"And according to the timeline, this feeling appears again...

Otherwise... should I try calling out my grandson's name?"

After mulling it over, Chen Guan prepared to ask, despite the potential awkwardness.

Even if the person didn't respond, or looked at him with curiosity.

He could always claim he had called the wrong person.

At the same time.

Seeing Chen Guan quietly gazing at the lake, Chen Changhong felt he looked like someone lost in memory and doubt.

He did not want to disturb him, nor did he dare to.

He turned to look toward the location of Yanhe Pavilion, preparing to find the shopkeeper.

But before he could walk away.

After much deliberation, Chen Guan braced himself for a cold reception and tentatively called out, "Are you... Hong'er?"

Tap—

Chen Changhong's footsteps suddenly halted. He slowly turned his body, his heart palpitating, and looked at Chen Guan with eyes full of surprise and agitation.

Seeing his reaction, Chen Guan knew he had guessed correctly.

This person was indeed Chen Changhong.

And in the next second.

A cluster of memories bloomed in Chen Guan's mind.

It was an evening.

He was sitting on a small stool, clumsily carving a wooden grasshopper for his grandson.

Five-year-old Chen Changhong was squatting beside him, dazed and expectant, watching him carve with care, when 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; from a young age, he could see the fire essence in the air.

And now.

Within Chen Guan's field of vision, that five-year-old Chen Changhong slowly overlapped with the Hero Li standing before him.

"That grasshopper..."

Chen Guan smiled unconsciously and pointed toward Bandit Brother's Yanhe Pavilion.

"Was burned by the shopkeeper of Yanhe Pavilion, otherwise I would have brought it for you."

As Chen Guan spoke, he extended his palm, a faint trace of fire spiritual energy emerging from his fingertips.

"Now, I finally know what the 'fire-red flowers' Hong'er spoke of really are."

Upon hearing Chen Guan's words.

Chen Changhong did not speak, but his eyes grew increasingly red.

My grandfather... is... is a cultivator...?

That's right... once one becomes a cultivator, perhaps by some stroke of fortune, they can awaken the wisdom of their past life...

Chen Changhong was deeply stirred, and within his heart, he felt no sense of awkwardness toward this "young Chen Guan" of the current world.

If he had been guarded before, fearing a conspiracy.

Then, with these few sentences spoken by Chen Guan.

And that familiar, self-reproachful tone.

Chen Changhong, who valued filial piety above all, felt that whether it was a conspiracy no longer mattered.

It was like keeping vigil when an elder passes; if the elder's soul truly returned on the seventh day after death.

Then whether it was human or ghost, or a conspiracy, was no longer important.

What mattered was the joy and reluctance to part upon seeing them once more.

This reunion of long-lost kin could suppress all caution and worry.

Chen Changhong was in exactly such a state of mind now.

After a moment.

He finally suppressed his agitation, bent his knees, and ignoring the surprised gazes of several passersby in the distance, knelt and kowtowed to Chen Guan:

"Grandson... is unfilial... and has let you suffer..."

Drip-

Chen Changhong wept, and in his guilt, he dared not even lift his head.

"He... this..." Faced with this sudden situation, Chen Guan was completely stunned.

Although his memories held familiarity and affection for his grandson.

Chen Guan had never truly been a grandfather in the literal sense.

Now, seeing his grandson like this.

Beyond a long sigh in his heart, Chen Guan felt at a loss.

But seeing more and more people in the distance looking over with curiosity.

Chen Guan stepped forward, intending to help his grandson up.

Yet, with a single lift.

Chen Guan's twelve years of cultivation, combined with his "850 proficiency" Bear-Type Strength, totaling nearly five thousand catties of force, failed to budge Chen Changhong in the slightest.

The sensation Chen Changhong gave Chen Guan now was that of a towering tree rooted deep into the earth.

His cultivation was far higher than his own.

Noticing this, Chen Guan suddenly felt fortunate that he hadn't tried to sneak into his grandson's room at night, or it would have been quite the joke.

When Chen Changhong felt his grandfather pulling him, his cultivator's instinct had initially kicked in, subconsciously circulating his mana to remain as immovable as a mountain, easily neutralizing the force applied to him.

But then, realizing it was his grandfather.

He hurriedly followed the momentum to stand up, restoring his original handsome appearance.

At the same time.

His gaze turned cold and hateful as he looked toward the Yanhe Pavilion that Chen Guan had pointed out earlier.

"Grandfather! Today, this grandson will surely take that man's life, extract his three souls and six spirits, and cast them into the Underworld Bureau purgatory! I will make him suffer the torments of the Avici hell!"

Chen Changhong appeared refined and filial, a picture of a gentle, easygoing man.

But on his journey back, he had already slaughtered thousands of demons and evildoers.

In particular, while passing a bandit stronghold on the road, he had killed over six hundred people in less than half an hour.

A "good man" was certainly not what Chen Changhong was.

In the next second.

Before Chen Guan could speak.

Whoosh-

Accompanied by the gasps of the surrounding crowd.

Chen Changhong stepped into the air, each footfall leaving visible sparks in the sky, covering over a hundred feet with every step as he flew straight toward the Yanhe Pavilion!

"Air-Stepping Technique?" Seeing this art, Chen Guan recalled hearing the name in some cultivation manuals.

It was a rather miraculous technique that allowed cultivators to "fly short distances" through clever means while at a low realm.

It generally belonged to the secret arts of sects that were not passed on to outsiders.

Unlike the manuals one could collect in the martial world, which were mostly "basic techniques."

"As expected of someone from a prestigious sect, unlike a rogue cultivator like me who only scrapes together idle books."

Chen Guan pondered, his footsteps never faltering as he sprinted toward Yanhe Pavilion.

After all, Bandit Brother carried the "Karma of Killing Tribulation" from the scroll.

If his grandson were to kill him instead of him finishing the deed himself, Chen Guan had no idea if this legacy talent could still be inherited.