"Yun Yan, I didn't expect to run into you here."
Zhang Yuan stared at Nalan Yanran's face, an extremely absurd suspicion surfacing in his mind.
"Yes, it has been a long time." Nalan Yanran tucked her hair behind her ear and fixed her beautiful eyes on Zhang Yuan. "Brother Zhang, why are you here?"
"This is my home. It is only natural for me to return." Zhang Yuan narrowed his eyes.
His words made Xiao Zhan and the others feel immensely pleased.
As expected of the disciple they had invested so many resources into raising. He also carried the bloodline of the Xiao Clan. The only regret was that his surname was not Xiao.
Zhang Yuan's father was named Zhang Zhengming. He was the elder brother of Xiao Yan's mother, Zhang Rushi.
Zhang Yuan's mother was named Xiao Shu. She was the younger sister of Xiao Yan's father, Xiao Zhan.
Simply put, Zhang Zhengming and Xiao Zhan had each married the other's younger sister.
Zhang Yuan could call Xiao Zhan his uncle by marriage, or he could call him Uncle.
Zhang Yuan's maternal grandparents were Xiao Yan's paternal grandparents, and vice versa.
"Home?"
Recalling how Zhang Yuan had addressed Xiao Zhan earlier, Nalan Yanran's face suddenly turned pale.
Seeing her expression, Zhang Yuan said bluntly, "If I'm not mistaken, your surname isn't Yun, and your name isn't Yun Yan. You're Nalan Yanran, aren't you?"
Nalan Yanran instinctively took a step back, biting her lip as she nodded.
His inner suspicion confirmed, Zhang Yuan was completely speechless.
He had never imagined that Yun Yan, the Misty Cloud Sect disciple in charge whom he had happened to help during a mission to eliminate a Beast Tide branch in the Magical Beast Mountain Range half a year ago—and who had later followed his command—was actually Nalan Yanran.
Was this what one would expect from Yun Yun's disciple? She had used a false name with such ease.
If he had to do it again, he would still help her without hesitation.
After all, she was a beauty, and saving her had only been a convenient act.
It was just that Yun Yan, who clearly seemed somewhat interested in him, had turned out to be Nalan Yanran. He would have to adjust his original plan slightly.
"I heard outside that you came to the Xiao Clan to break off an engagement?" Zhang Yuan asked coldly.
"Yes!" Nalan Yanran nodded, not daring to look at Zhang Yuan.
He did not know whether she felt that she had done something wrong, or if it was for some other reason.
"And you even brought out Qi Gathering Powder. What generous compensation." Zhang Yuan glanced at the pills on the table and waved lightly. A box appeared on the table beside Xiao Zhan.
Three pills lay inside the box, identical to those Ge Ye had produced.
Then he said mockingly, "The Xiao Clan will offer you three Qi Gathering Powders as compensation. Today, my cousin Xiao Yan will repudiate you and grant you the freedom you desire. How about that?"
"You want him to repudiate me?!" Nalan Yanran raised her head and stared at Zhang Yuan in disbelief, her face as pale as a ghost.
In the corner, Xiao Yan watched this unfold and felt thoroughly satisfied.
Although they had not seen each other for two years, Zhang Yuan was still that good cousin who "loved" him and was as important to him as Xiao Zhan.
Zhang Yuan was one year older than Xiao Yan. Both had begun cultivating Qi at the age of four, possessed Nine-stage Dou Qi at ten, successfully condensed a Dou Qi Vortex at eleven, and became Dou Zhes at twelve—the youngest Dou Zhes the Xiao Clan had produced in a century. They were known as the Twin Pride of the Xiao Family.
But the heavens had played a joke on him. After breaking through to Dou Zhe, Xiao Yan's cultivation had regressed for three consecutive years, leaving him stuck at Three-stage Dou Qi and turning him into trash. Meanwhile, Zhang Yuan only grew more dazzling, breaking through to Four-star Dou Zhe at thirteen and becoming a Six-star Dou Zhe at fourteen.
With Zhang Yuan setting such a high standard before him, Xiao Yan, despite being a transmigrator and secretly rather proud, had never looked down on others. He had even cultivated harder than most, so after becoming trash, he had not been hated by the younger generation of the clan.
A year after Xiao Yan became trash, Zhang Yuan had left to gain experience, just like his biological elder brothers Xiao Ding and Xiao Li, while also trying to find a way to cure him.
Half a year ago, a Second-grade Alchemist had come to the Xiao Clan, saying he had been sent by Zhang Yuan to treat him. Unfortunately, he had failed to identify the cause of Xiao Yan's condition.
His cousin was still that same good cousin. Xiao Yan would repay him with his life if necessary!
"Ridiculous." Zhang Yuan calmly met Nalan Yanran's gaze and said coldly, "You should know perfectly well how much humiliation your visit to break off the engagement would bring to my cousin, my Uncle, and the Xiao Clan. Yet you insisted on doing it anyway. Do you not allow the Xiao Clan to repudiate you?"
"What else could I do?" Nalan Yanran's eyes grew moist. With a trace of grievance, she said, "When I brought this up to my grandfather, he refused because of his pride. So was I supposed to marry a stranger I had never even met?"
Hearing this, Zhang Yuan frowned. "Wasn't it because my cousin's talent had vanished and you felt that he was no longer worthy of you, the personal disciple of the Misty Cloud Sect's sect leader, that you came to break off the engagement?"
Xiao Yan stared fixedly at Nalan Yanran, veins bulging on his clenched fists.
That was what he had believed as well.
"Is that how you see me?" Nalan Yanran said, her voice carrying a sob. "If I, Nalan Yanran, were the sort of person who fawned over the powerful and trampled the weak, would my master have accepted me as her disciple? Do you think the Misty Cloud Sect would take in someone so petty and snobbish?"
"I simply do not want to marry a stranger. Why should a moment of whim by our ancestors determine the course of my entire life?!"
The question was deafening, leaving Xiao Zhan and many of the younger Xiao Clan members speechless.
Setting aside the gap in status and strength between Nalan Yanran and Xiao Yan, from Nalan Yanran's own perspective, a childhood betrothal indeed had many drawbacks.
But when the collective interests of a clan and political marriages were taken into account, such sacrifices were common.
One could only say that if one enjoyed the benefits provided by the clan, one should make sacrifices in return.
However, Xiao Zhan and the others were not suited to say such things.
"Why should you?"
Zhang Yuan stepped forward and said seriously, "Because you were born into the Nalan Family."
"While others fought desperately for a mouthful of food, you lived in fine clothes and luxury, with meals brought to your mouth."
"While others fought desperately for a Yellow-tier low-grade cultivation method, you had a Mysterious-tier high-grade cultivation method prepared by your family."
"You think you have decent talent, but if you had not been born into the Nalan Family—if you had merely come from a small clan or even been a commoner—do you think you could have displayed that talent? Do you think you would have had the chance to be accepted as Yun Yun's disciple?"
"So tell me, why shouldn't you?"
Nalan Yanran staggered back several steps and leaned against the wall, every trace of color gone from her face.
She was only fifteen. She had truly never considered the issues Zhang Yuan had raised before.
So, had she been wrong?
"Yuan'er..." Xiao Zhan was deeply gratified.
The child he had raised himself had indeed not turned into an ungrateful wretch.
"Han Feng should really come hear these words." Inside the ring on Xiao Yan's hand, a soul sighed inwardly.
"So you mean I should simply accept my fate?" Nalan Yanran revealed a bitter smile.
"That's not what I said." Zhang Yuan shook his head.
Nalan Yanran:?
The Xiao Clan members:?
"You are not wrong either. No one else should decide your life for you." Zhang Yuan said seriously, "From what I know of Brother Yan, he would not want to marry a strange woman either, no matter how outstanding or beautiful she was."
"Isn't that right, Brother Yan?"
Zhang Yuan turned to look toward the corner.
"That's right!" Xiao Yan strode over to Zhang Yuan's side, his expression serious. "I once discussed our engagement with my father. If possible, I wanted us to privately dissolve it."
"Putting aside the fact that if I, Xiao Yan, remained useless forever, I would only hold back a proud daughter of heaven like you, I also did not wish to marry a woman I knew nothing about."
"But Father said that the Xiao Clan could not compare to the Nalan Family. If we took the initiative to mention it, the Nalan Family would certainly lose face, so we pretended not to know."
"If your Nalan elders came to break off the engagement, we would agree. If the Nalan Family elders said nothing, then once you and I came of age, we would tacitly avoid mentioning it and act as though nothing had ever happened."
"But now, as a junior, you have relied on the influence of the Misty Cloud Sect to come break off the engagement. This is not only slapping the Xiao Clan's face, but also the Nalan Family's."
"I... I..." Nalan Yanran could not say a word.
She finally realized what her problem was.
There was nothing wrong with wanting to end the engagement, but she had chosen the wrong method.
She had been self-righteous. She had relied on Yun Yun's favor to play clever little tricks.
"I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't..." Nalan Yanran wanted to apologize, but she did not know how to say it.
Seeing this, Ge Ye wanted to speak up and smooth things over. After all, Nalan Yanran was the personal disciple of the Misty Cloud Sect's sect leader.
However, Zhang Yuan suddenly glanced at him, making him feel as though he were being watched by a Third-tier Magical Beast. A chill ran down his back.
"Apologizing is useless. The mistake has already been made, and a price must be paid." Zhang Yuan withdrew his gaze and said to Nalan Yanran, "You can repay what your family has given you in other ways. Obeying their orders to marry is not the only way.
"But before repaying even a fraction of your family's kindness, you caused both the Xiao Clan and the Nalan Family to lose face. How you explain yourself to the Nalan Family is none of the Xiao Clan's concern. As for the Xiao Clan..."
Zhang Yuan looked at Xiao Yan, clearly meaning that Xiao Yan should decide his own matter.
Xiao Yan blinked, then looked Nalan Yanran over a few more times before asking, "How about changing the marriage partner to you, cousin? We can pretend Nalan Yanran's visit to break off the engagement never happened."
Zhang Yuan:?
Nalan Yanran inwardly: +ω+
That was not impossible. This Xiao Yan was quite a good person.
Xun Er: ""
My Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame wants to burn something.
(End of Chapter)
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