[Xingyao seemed faintly surprised by your unruffled expression. Everyone in the Taihua Sect had always revered the Pure Yang Patriarch beyond measure, yet your reaction was nothing like he had expected.]
[Inside, you were already shaken. Qing Lao had once said that the portrait enshrined in the Founders' Hall had not been left by the patriarch himself; it was merely a copy painted by later generations.
Yet this portrait before you still held a trace of the patriarch's divine intent!]
[You suddenly recalled the patriarch's remains beneath Zhenhai Island. Could there be some hidden connection between his divine thought and those remains?]
[An idea began to surface, but you pushed it back down.]
[Qing Lao had also said that the patriarch's original portrait had been lost seven hundred years ago.]
[Yet Xingyao had produced it today—could the Fate Star Sect be involved?]
[You betrayed nothing on your face and merely shook your head. "The Pure Yang Patriarch Portrait is precious, certainly, but it has little value to me. The patriarch departed this world long ago. The divine thought in the painting is no more than a lingering shadow; once stirred, I fear it would vanish in an instant."]
["This is truly of no use to me."]
[Seeing your calm expression, then noticing that Shi Jinghong and Yue Yunqing also seemed inclined to decline, Xingyao's heart sank.]
[If three of the nine sects clearly refused to take part, this undertaking would likely come to nothing.]
[Fortunately, before his departure, the Star Venerable had instructed him that if the Pure Yang Patriarch Portrait failed to sway Chen Xuanzi, he could make another offer.]
[He steadied himself and said slowly, "Speak freely, Sect Master Chen. The Star Venerable has already said that the Fate Star Sect will grant anything within its power."]
[Even