Ceremony

Half an hour later.

Meng's Cloth Workshop, along with nearly half the street, had been placed under martial law by the armored guards and martial artists maintained by Immortal Guest House.

The pale-faced boy, draped in fur robes, was the first to enter the not-entirely-unfamiliar shop, followed by a girl in fitted clothes and a middle-aged man in brocade.

Everything inside the dimly lit shop was as it had been before. Bolts of cloth, garments, and various accessories still lay quietly displayed in the cabinets along both walls.

The strange-tales novel atop the cabinet behind the counter still remained open.

The only difference was that the Meng-surnamed girl who kept watch over the shop every day had vanished without a trace.

Qin Yi stood beside the counter, staring at that strange-tales novel for several breaths before suddenly asking,

"Shopkeeper, did the Meng mother and daughter ever say anything to you?"

Ever since returning to Yellow Bamboo Town, Nie Junyue had kept his brows tightly furrowed. Hearing the question, he immediately replied,

"No, they did not."

After a pause, he hesitantly asked,

"Young Master, do you mean that the Meng mother and daughter are practitioners of the same path as your family? And that they have been following you for many years?"

"Yes."

"..."

Nie Junyue's cheek twitched.

Who would have thought that such hidden dragons and crouching tigers were lurking in the tiny pond that was Immortal Guest House?

Qin Yi glanced at the inner-realm experts maintaining the lockdown outside and said softly,

"Shopkeeper, there was really no need to make such a grand mobilization. I only came to see whether they left behind any clues. If the Meng mother and daughter truly bear hostility toward me, these people would be nothing more than psychological comfort."

Nie Junyue hesitated for a moment before saying quietly,

"If that is the case, then the person who came from your family should not have been enough to frighten the mother and daughter into leaving."

Qin Yi turned back, somewhat surprised.

Nie Junyue pondered for a moment, choosing his words carefully.

"During the negotiations, I probed him and found that the reason he gave Hongyi the Soul Mound cultivation path was actually because he wanted to use it to forge an unequal partnership with me, making Immortal Guest House his aid. In other words, the forces in my hands should also be capable of threatening him in turn."

"Is that so..."

Qin Yi frowned at those words.

That suit of black armor from his memories surfaced once more.

He did not think a powerhouse of that level would need Immortal Guest House.

Had someone of lower standing or cultivation been sent to find him because they did not wish to draw attention? Or was this already the greatest effort his Lineage could currently make?

Or was there some other reason?

Too much could happen over the course of more than ten years. Qin Yi had no way of judging what earth-shattering changes his family background had undergone.

The only thing he could be certain of for now was that Meng Peijiu had most likely not fled because someone from his Lineage had arrived.

His train of thought broke off.

Qin Yi did not like that feeling.

The sensation of being manipulated in another's palm left him deeply insecure.

At that thought,

Qin Yi suddenly looked at his older sister, who had been silent beside him all this time.

"Sis, what do you think about this?"

"Huh?"

Ruan Su lifted her eyes and blinked listlessly twice.

After a pause,

Ruan Su did not answer Qin Yi's question. Instead, clutching the hem of her clothes, she asked in a small voice,

"Xiao Yi, your family is coming to take you away..."

"..." Qin Yi was speechless.

All right, it seemed Ruan Su's attention was entirely fixed on the matter of his family coming to take him away.

Qin Yi sighed helplessly and smiled.

"It is not like I am leaving you behind. Why do you look so aggrieved?"

"Who looks aggrieved?!"

Ruan Su's eyes lit up, and the melancholy expression she had worn moments ago was swept away. She reached out and ruffled the boy's hair, only then realizing that he had grown quite a bit taller again. He was now only half a head shorter than her. When they went home, she would have to mark it on the doorframe with charcoal.

With that thought in mind, Ruan Su finally looked around again and asked,

"What did you ask me just now?"

Qin Yi rolled his eyes, pulled open the curtain behind the counter, and headed toward the rear courtyard.

"Why do you think Sister Meng suddenly disappeared?"

Ruan Su raised a hand and scratched her head. Following after him, she pondered aloud,

"Because she was afraid of your family, so she ran away?"

Qin Yi immediately gave up. Relying on his older sister's intermittent intelligence was indeed not a viable option.

As that thought passed through his mind, his steps suddenly halted.

He saw a man in the courtyard.

As far as the eye could see,

The courtyard was still piled high with goods.

A middle-aged man in a loose, slovenly worn green robe was sitting cross-legged atop a pile of goods, stroking his chin and gazing up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, as though contemplating something.

Qin Yi instinctively glanced at the old shopkeeper who had entered behind him.

Nie Junyue imperceptibly shook his head at him.

He did not know him.

What was going on?

Qin Yi instinctively began observing the other man's breathing pattern.

The middle-aged man in green, having heard the movement, did not continue posing. He turned and glanced at the three who had entered the rear courtyard. Then his gaze instantly locked onto Ruan Su. He narrowed his eyes slightly, stared at her for several breaths, and smiled.

"Ho... A Calamity Seed in a place this small? Ha, what a coincidence."

As he spoke,

He shifted his gaze to Qin Yi and asked meaningfully,

"Little one, what are you staring at me for?"

Qin Yi blinked and replied in a childish voice,

"Mm... I was wondering why someone would sit on a pile of goods and stare at the sky."

"Hahahaha..."

The middle-aged man in green laughed and shook his head, exposing him loudly.

"If you want to study my breathing technique, just study it. Why make excuses? Many people new to cultivation like making that mistake."

As he spoke,

The middle-aged man in green jumped down from the pile of goods and landed lightly. As he walked forward, he asked in a familiar, easygoing manner,

"Judging by the formation outside, did you discover that something was wrong with this household?"

Nie Junyue stepped forward and cupped his hands in salute.

"Indeed. May I ask who you are, sir?"

"Just passing by."

The middle-aged man in green seemed wholly uninterested in Nie Junyue. He walked straight around him and came before the siblings.

"I noticed traces of an 'ritual' here and thought I would come take a look. After all, anyone capable of conducting a 'ritual' in such a poor backwater is most likely not a good person. But after inspecting the place for quite a while, I could not make heads or tails of it. It seems both you and I arrived too late."

Qin Yi swiftly gathered the information and asked as though it were merely casual,

"A ritual? What is that?"

The middle-aged man in green bent down, intending to take a closer look at the boy, but Ruan Su blocked him. Seeing the hostility in the girl's eyes, he immediately stepped back and raised his hands to show that he meant no harm, then said with a genial smile,

"Little one, rituals come in all shapes and sizes, but to put it simply, they fulfill certain conditions in order to communicate with the Spirit Realm and Soul Realm, strengthening oneself. To be more specific... have you seen blood sacrifices in storybooks? Killing a heap of people and arranging them into a particular ritual array—that is one kind of ritual.

"Of course, there seem to be rituals of even higher standing, but this uncle is not qualified to know about those yet.

"You two little ones, if fate allows, we shall meet again."

With that said,

The middle-aged man in green was as casual in his departure as his sense of dress. He had no intention of lingering and headed straight outside.

Qin Yi turned to watch the man's retreating back, then realized that the timing seemed off and suddenly asked,

"Uncle, when did you come here to inspect this place?"

The middle-aged man in green turned back, looking somewhat puzzled, but still waved a hand and answered,

"Mm... about three days ago."