Your Daughter Ran Off with Someone

Your Daughter Ran Off with Someone

He shook his head, a slightly sly smile appearing on his face.

"Teacher, it's all in the past."

"Now, you only need to focus on recovering properly. I've found you quite a few outstanding juniors, all waiting for you to train them personally."

At those words, Yao Chen blew his beard and glared, then laughed and cursed, "You little brat! My soul body hasn't even fully recovered, and you're already planning to make me work myself to the bone for you?"

"What are you saying, Teacher?" Han Feng leaned closer with a chuckle. "We're master and disciple, practically family. Why bother distinguishing between yours and mine? What's yours is mine, and mine... is still mine."

"Get lost!" Yao Chen laughed and cursed irritably. The heaviness and estrangement in his heart completely vanished amid their banter.

After the joking ended, the atmosphere turned serious.

Han Feng took the initiative to bring up the real matter. "Teacher, what are your plans for Junior Brother now? I've already accepted him into the sect on your behalf. Should he cultivate under me from now on, or will you teach him personally?"

At the mention of Xiao Yan, a complicated expression appeared on Yao Chen's aged face.

He pondered for a moment before slowly saying, "No matter what, we owe the Xiao Family a favor. This child is good material. Since you've already accepted him as a disciple on my behalf, we naturally cannot handle the matter carelessly."

He paused, then revealed his decision.

"I intend to pass the Flame Mantra on to him."

Flame Mantra!

Han Feng's gaze sharpened slightly upon hearing those two words.

This cultivation technique could be said to lie at the very heart of the entire story of Battle Through the Heavens.

"First," Yao Chen said in a low voice, "I am now only a soul body. If I wish to reconstruct my physical body and return to my peak, I must rely on the power of multiple Heavenly Flames. The Flame Mantra is the only method capable of merging multiple Heavenly Flames."

"Second, the origins of the Flame Mantra are mysterious. Even I cannot estimate what grade it may ultimately evolve into. For that boy, this is indeed an immense opportunity."

Yao Chen's soul body drifted toward the window. His gaze seemed to pierce through the barriers of Sacred City and reach the distant Ancient Realm in the Central Plains.

"Third... that little girl named Xun'er beside him is certainly no ordinary person. If Yan'er wishes to be with her, the resistance he will face in the future will likely exceed all imagination. Without power sufficient to awe heaven and earth, everything else is empty talk."

Han Feng nodded at those words.

"I understand. Teacher has considered everything thoroughly, and I have no objection." He added, "However, the path of the Flame Mantra is one where nine die out of ten. When the time comes, Xiao Yan should make the choice himself."

"Of course." Yao Chen stroked his beard and smiled. "His path must ultimately be walked by him alone."

Meanwhile, outside Sacred City.

Mo Shan, the chief enforcement officer, personally accompanied Xiao Yan's group as they toured this towering city of steel.

The shock on the faces of Xiao Yan, Xiao Xun'er, and Ling Ying had not faded since they stepped out of the spatial passage.

"Please look, the three of you." Mo Shan pointed at a broad main road outside the city, wide enough for ten carriages to travel side by side, his tone filled with pride. "This is the Sacred Road that runs through the entire Black-Corner Region. It is three thousand six hundred li long, with thirty-six guard cities along the route and Enforcement Corps patrols day and night. Now, an ordinary merchant caravan can travel safely from Black Mark City at the easternmost edge of the Black-Corner Region to our Sacred City in just seven days."

Ling Ying's heart pounded wildly.

Seven days? Safely?

He remembered clearly that, when he had traveled the continent in his early years, he had once escorted a treasure across the Black-Corner Region. That journey had taken a full month and a half. They had encountered no fewer than twenty assassination attempts, and even a Dou Wang traveling with them had perished because of it.

And now, it only took seven days?

"Under Sacred City's rule, all murder, arson, and plunder are grave crimes. Minor offenders have their cultivation abolished and are exiled to the mines for lifelong labor. Major offenders are executed in the streets as a warning to others." Mo Shan's voice was cold and even.

Just then, a burst of commotion came from the entrance of a tavern not far away.

Two burly mercenaries seemed to have started fighting over an unequal division of spoils.

One of them had just drawn the saber at his waist and had not yet swung it down.

Whoosh!

A black figure descended from the sky, swift as lightning!

It was a squad captain of the Enforcement Corps, clad in dark iron armor. Without wasting words, he flicked the long whip in his hand. Like a venomous snake striking from its den, it coiled precisely around the wrist of the mercenary who had drawn his saber.

"Argh!"

The mercenary screamed, and his saber fell from his hand.

The squad captain did not even look at him. He merely spat out two cold words.

"Take them away."

Two Enforcement Corps members immediately stepped forward, shackled the two mercenaries with special restraints, and efficiently dragged them toward a prison cart in the distance.

The entire process flowed smoothly and took less than ten breaths.

The surrounding merchants and pedestrians had long grown accustomed to such scenes. They did not even have the interest to spare it another glance.

Xiao Xun'er took it all in, and the shock in her heart gradually turned into deep wariness toward Han Feng.

Over the years, he had not only united this chaotic land, but had also turned his own will into iron laws engraved into the bones of everyone here.

Such methods, such resolve, had already surpassed the realm of ordinary experts.

He was a true pioneer, an emperor!

Brother Xiao Yan, following such a Senior Brother... will the future bring fortune, or...

She did not dare think any further.

Central Plains, Ancient Realm.

At the summit of Emperor Mountain, shrouded in clouds and mist, stood the Ancient Clan's council hall.

The atmosphere was grave.

Gu Yuan, the Ancient Clan's patriarch, quietly listened to the report of a black-robed elder below.

"Patriarch, news has just arrived from the Northwest Continent. The young lady... has already left the Xiao Family."

Gu Yuan's expression did not change in the slightest.

"Where did she go?" His voice was calm and unruffled.

The black-robed elder lowered his head even further.

"According to the last message sent back by Ling Ying, the young lady... followed that boy named Xiao Yan to the Black-Corner Region."

"The Black-Corner Region?"

Several supreme elders beside Gu Yuan, who had been resting with their eyes closed, opened their eyes at the same time and frowned slightly.

"Outrageous! What is the young lady going to do in such a barbaric and chaotic place?"

The black-robed elder forced himself to continue. "According to Ling Ying, an expert named Han Feng intended to accept Xiao Yan as a disciple on his master's behalf and bring him to the Black-Corner Region for cultivation. The young lady insisted on going with him..."

"Han Feng?"

One of the supreme elders seemed to recall something and said in a deep voice, "That name sounds somewhat familiar. Didn't the Intelligence Hall submit a confidential report on this person not long ago?"

The black-robed elder hurriedly nodded. "Reporting to Third Elder, it is indeed him. He is the disciple of Medicine Venerable Yao Chen, the young master of Falling Star Pavilion, and is suspected to have... entered the Half-Saint realm."

"A Half-Saint..."

A brief silence fell over the hall.

A Half-Saint less than a hundred years old carried enough weight that even these ancient clans had to take him seriously.

"Hmph, he is merely a wild Half-Saint. How can he compare to the foundations of our Ancient Clan?" An irascible elder snorted. "The young lady possesses the divine-grade bloodline, unmatched in our Ancient Clan for a thousand years. How can she follow some man of unknown origins to such a filthy place?"

"Enough."

Gu Yuan, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke slowly.

He uttered only two soft words, yet the clamor in the entire hall instantly subsided.

His gaze was deep and distant, as though it pierced through endless space and fell upon that faraway Black-Corner Region.

Yao Chen's disciple, Xiao Xuan's descendant, and a newly risen, mysterious Dou Sheng... Why had these three become entangled together?

Gu Yuan looked at the intelligence report in his hand. It recorded in detail all publicly known information concerning Han Feng's rise, along with the final assessment that he was suspected to be a Half-Saint.

He pondered for a long, long time.

In the end, he merely said indifferently,

"Have Ling Ying continue following her."

"Wait and see."