[You casually made up a reason, saying you accidentally heard about it while in Jinzhou City.]
[Your grandfather did not ask further, and began to explain to you: "This Blood Demon Sect is not a force in Jinzhou County, and does not even belong to Lin Prefecture."]
["Good grandson, you should know that our Lin Prefecture has eleven county governments, and Jinzhou County where we are located is one of them."]
[You nodded to show that you understood.]
[Your grandfather stroked his beard and continued: "And this Blood Demon Sect is a Golden Core force. It is said that there are two Golden Core True Persons holding down the fort within the sect, and moreover, this Blood Demon Sect uses fresh blood as a consumable, practicing blood-path demonic arts!"]
[You were greatly shocked. Although you could easily tell from the name that this Blood Demon Sect was definitely nothing good, hearing from your grandfather that it was a demonic sect still gave you a shock you could not bear.]
[After your grandfather spoke with you once more about the dangers of the Blood Demon Sect, he specifically instructed you never to collude with people from the Blood Demon Sect.]
[You nodded in response, letting your grandfather rest assured.]
[Your grandfather gave you a bottle of pills, which were precisely Yellow Grade High Rank Spirit Replenishing Pills.]
[You obtained a Yellow Grade High Rank Spirit Replenishing Pill]
[You accepted it with a trace of embarrassment and then left.]
[Returning to your own room, you reflected once more. You knew that the Blood Demon Sect was a demonic cultivation force not belonging to Lin Prefecture, so why would that old man who looked so much like the Fire Cloud Evil God appear in the secret realm?]
[And there was another suspicious point, which was the Fire Cloud Evil God's strength at the Golden Core Stage. It should not have taken him long to deal with your grandfather, but why didn't he directly leave the secret realm to hunt them down? Did he feel it was unnecessary? Or could he not leave the secret realm?]
[Thinking of this, you seemed to have discovered something. If that old man could not leave the secret realm, then would preventing your grandfather from going to explore the secret realm be able to change your grandfather's fate?]
[And you also knew that it was the Wang Family Ancestor who specially invited your grandfather to go to the secret realm, which meant that the Wang Family Ancestor and that old man must have some collusion.]
[If you could prevent your grandfather and Ancestor Zhang from heading to the secret realm, then with your grandfather and Ancestor Zhang, you wouldn't need to fear the Wang Family, as long as that Golden Core Stage Fire Cloud Evil God did not leave the secret realm.]
[Thinking of this, you made up a certain determination.]
[One month later, in March of the second year, you cultivated diligently and successfully refined the Spirit Replenishing Pill given by your grandfather. You felt that you were one step closer to the ninth layer of Qi Cultivation.]
[In October of the third year, you felt the bottleneck of the ninth layer of Qi Cultivation. You attempted to break through, but ultimately ended in failure.]
[That same month, you learned that your grandfather had been invited by the Wang Family Ancestor to go explore a secret realm.]
[Through your persuasion, your grandfather ultimately decided to give up.]
[You also informed your grandfather, hoping that he could persuade Ancestor Zhang not to go to the secret realm either.]
[Your grandfather expressed that this would be very difficult. After all, the friendship between your Mu Family and the Zhang Family was only average, but he would still try his best to help you.]
[You stated that when the time came to go to the Zhang Family, please be sure to bring you along.]
[You wanted to personally go and persuade Ancestor Zhang, to test whether your conjecture was correct or not.]
[A few days later, Fifth Sister tracked you down, wanting to invite you to explore a secret realm.]
[You immediately refused, and informed Fifth Sister that there was a Golden Core Stage demonic cultivator in that secret realm, and going there would merely be offering yourself up as prey.]
[Fifth Sister did not believe it at first, but when you accurately stated the entrance of the secret realm, Fifth Sister had no choice but to believe your words, and could only abandon the excited feeling of exploration deep in her heart.]
[At the end of the month, your grandfather brought you to head toward the Zhang Family.]
[The Zhang Family was situated at a Crescent Moon Lake on the west side of Jinzhou County, and the Zhang Family grounds were built precisely surrounding Crescent Moon Lake.]
[You arrived at Crescent Moon Lake and discovered that the spiritual energy here was abundant, not losing out to Muye Mountain in the slightest.]
[You felt a burst of emotion, figuring this must be a spiritual vein. You only knew that the spiritual vein of Muye Mountain was a mid-grade spirit tier spiritual vein.]
[Places with spiritual veins could continuously nurture Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, and the higher the grade of the spiritual vein, the purer the spiritual energy it nurtured would be. The purer the spiritual energy, the more benefits it would bring to cultivators' cultivation, such as faster cultivation speed, a higher probability of breaking through bottlenecks, and so on.]
[The arrival of your grandfather naturally aroused the attention of Ancestor Zhang.]
[Ancestor Zhang specifically sent an elder out to welcome you.]
[You and your grandfather were brought into the Zhang Family Hall.]
[You saw Ancestor Zhang, who was a white-haired, extremely elderly crone. She looked even older than your grandfather, but that pair of sharp eyes of hers made you have to remain vigilant. You vaguely sensed a flash of purple light passing through her eyes; someone who could become the ancestor of a family was definitely not simple.]
[Ancestor Zhang did not choose to sit in the highest main seat, but instead sat in the first position on the right. Leaving the high seat empty was clearly out of respect for your grandfather, seeing as they were both Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators.]
[After your grandfather sat down, you stood behind him.]
[Seated in the positions behind Ancestor Zhang were five elders with varying postures, who were presumably the four great elders and the family head of the Zhang Family.]
[Ancestor Zhang asked your grandfather what business brought him here.]
[Your grandfather glanced at you, wanting you to explain.]
[The crowd of Zhang Family elders and Ancestor Zhang all looked over at you in succession, making you feel somewhat uneasy.]
[You suppressed the nervousness in your heart, cutting straight to the chase: "Junior hopes that Ancestor Zhang will not go to the secret realm with the Wang Family Ancestor."]
[Upon hearing this, Ancestor Zhang grew interested, asking you why you said such a thing.]
[You explained that given the personality of the Wang Family Ancestor, to discover a secret realm and still specially invite others to go along—this point alone showed that the Wang Family Ancestor definitely harbored ulterior motives.]
[Ancestor Zhang merely nodded. You knew that relying on this point alone was not enough to persuade her.]
[Ancestor Zhang raised a hand to halt your intention of continuing to explain, instead staring directly at you as she spoke: "Junior, you possess the cultivation of the eighth layer of Qi Cultivation at such a young age. This actually makes this old body of mine even more interested."]
[You were greatly shocked. You clearly hadn't seen this crone use spiritual energy, so how was she able to see through your cultivation?]
[Fortunately, at this time your grandfather softly explained to you: "The Zhang Family possesses a secret-transmission Pupil Technique, so you don't need to be surprised."]
[Only then did you realize that the trace of purple light you had sensed at the bottom of Ancestor Zhang's eyes just a moment ago was actually a Pupil Technique!]
[Pupil Techniques were extremely rare; at least their Mu Family did not have any.]
[You casually made up a reason: "Junior merely has a slight fortuitous encounter, which is still not enough to catch your eye, Senior."]
[Ancestor Zhang naturally did not believe it, but she did not continue to press the matter either, instead saying with lingering interest: "If you can agree to one request of mine, then this old body of mine is not entirely unable to agree to your request."]
[Seeing that there was still hope, your gaze lit up. But upon hearing that Ancestor Zhang also had a request, you felt a degree of hesitation. Knowing that the opportunity was hard to come by, however, you had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask: "Please speak your mind, Senior."]
[Ancestor Zhang put down the teacup in her hand and leisurely began: "I hope you can enter into a marriage alliance with our Zhang Family..."]
Before you continue