"Were you also a disciple of the Medicine Sect in the Human Realm, Sect Master?"
After hearing the green-robed woman bare her heart, Chen Changming felt both surprise and joy. In that instant, a warm current seemed to well up from his chest and rush through every limb and bone.
He and the sect master had both come from the Medicine Sect in the Human Realm. What lay between them was not merely the fellowship of belonging to the same sect, but a shared connection that carried the memories of the Human Realm's legacy-
This bond was far deeper and more genuine than the relationships between the sect master and the Medicine Sect's native Spirit Realm disciples, which were sustained by interests and rules.
"Thank you, Sect Master."
Chen Changming bowed with his hands clasped, a faint smile touching his lips. All the pressure weighing on him melted away like spring ice.
He knew he had finally made it through the soul search-a perilous ordeal that had nevertheless drawn to a clean, decisive close.
At the same time, he had truly earned the sect master's trust.
That trust settled heavily in his heart, far outweighing the courtesy and tentative overtures behind his earlier symbolic title of "honorary elder."
The green-robed woman nodded slightly, then shifted her gaze from him to the dome high above the great hall, as though looking through the layers of tiles and clouds toward somewhere far more distant and indistinct.
A moment later, she withdrew her gaze. Her expression grew solemn, and her voice deepened. "What is the state of the Medicine Sect in the Human Realm now? Why has no cultivator ascended from the Human Realm in ten thousand years?"
Clearly, this question had lingered in her heart for a long time.
Over those long