Emerging from Seclusion, Facing the Pang Family Again!

"Rumble—"

The great doors, sealed shut for thirty-five years, slowly shifted apart.

Su Yueli stepped out. A strand of incomparably fresh mountain wind rushed toward her, carrying the scent of earth and green grass, instantly washing away the cold, deathly air she had breathed for thirty-five years.

She let out a long breath and lifted her eyes.

Thirty-five years had passed in the blink of a white colt, and the flourishing and withering of the plants outside had long since transformed the world.

The ancient trees that had been only arm-span thick when she entered the mountain now blotted out the sky and covered the sun. The once-familiar path through the scattered rocks had also been completely buried beneath dense shrubs.

Standing at the entrance, Su Yueli instantly spread out her powerful Martial God senses. Within several miles, not even the flutter of a bird's wings could escape her perception.

The surroundings were empty. There was no sign of anyone from the Pang Family standing guard.

On second thought, Su Yueli found it only natural.

To lofty cultivators, thirty-five years might have been nothing more than a single period of secluded cultivation, but for mortal martial artists, it was already most of a lifetime.

Who would be foolish enough to guard an unopened gate for decades on end?

After pondering for a moment, Su Yueli's first thought was to return to Azure Province City and see Tie Tu and Ling'er.

But just as she took a step, she stopped.

Thirty-five years had passed. Whether the Pang Family had truly let her go, even if they had left no guards behind, remained unknown.

If she rashly returned to Azure Province City now and was spotted by the Pang Family's informants, she would only lead a monstrous flood of disaster to Tie Tu and the others.

"Since that's the case, I'll wait here."

Su Yueli simply lifted her robe and sat cross-legged upon a clean bluestone.

Here, she would settle every last grudge in one stroke and leave behind no loose ends.

"..."

Half a day later.

Great Li Imperial City, Pang Family inner residence.

Bang!

An old man with grizzled hair and a withered face viciously slammed his palm onto the table. A fierce glint flashed through his deeply sunken eye sockets.

The Pang Family's patriarch, Pang Jinbiao.

Thirty-five years had passed, leaving irreversible marks upon his face. He had changed from the burly middle-aged man of old into an old man with one foot in the grave.

Yet the fluctuations of his blood and qi were even more terrifying than they had been thirty-five years ago, faintly showing signs of bursting from his body.

Over these thirty years, he had successfully shattered his shackles and entered the Ninth Realm of the Martial Dao. He was only a hair's breadth away from the Martial God Realm, the pinnacle of mortals.

"What did you say? That little bitch came out?!" Pang Jinbiao's voice was hoarse, brimming with shock.

The kneeling shadow guard trembled all over and hurriedly kowtowed. "R-Reporting to the Patriarch, the bronze gate at the Azure Cloud Ruins opened for no reason today. Su Yueli has indeed walked out of the forbidden ground. She is currently guarding the entrance, seemingly waiting there deliberately."

"Good! Very good!"

Pang Jinbiao laughed in extreme fury, his laughter thick with killing intent. "This old man thought she had long since died in the mouths of those demonic beasts. I never expected her to hide for a full thirty-five years! Does she think that after a few decades, this old man will let her go? That I'll forget Lei'er's blood feud? Dream on!"

One of the spies at the side hesitantly asked, "Patriarch, for that woman to survive in ruins filled with demonic beasts, she must have some tricks up her sleeve. Shall this old servant lead men to capture her?"

"No need. This old man will make the trip personally!"

Pang Jinbiao rose to his feet, his eyes overflowing with killing intent.

Two generations of core geniuses had been crippled. This was the greatest humiliation the Pang Family had suffered since establishing itself in the Imperial City. To prevent any unforeseen escape, he, the patriarch, had to personally wash away this blood debt.

However, the shadow guard kneeling on the ground stammered, his expression strangely awkward as if he wanted to speak but hesitated.

Pang Jinbiao furrowed his brows and coldly barked, "If you have something to say, spit it out! Why are you stammering like that?!"

The shadow guard swallowed and said in a trembling voice, "Patriarch, the intelligence reports that the woman's appearance... I do not know whether this subordinate saw wrongly, because..."

"Because thirty-five years have passed, yet her appearance has not changed in the slightest. There is not even the faintest sign of aging. She still looks twenty years old..."

"What?!"

Pang Jinbiao's expression instantly froze, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

A mortal martial artist showing not a trace of age after thirty-five years—how could that be possible?!

No matter how martial artists cultivated, even upon reaching the upper three realms, at most their blood and qi would last longer than ordinary people's, allowing them an extra twenty or thirty years of life. But the body's aging was absolutely irreversible.

An ageless appearance was a privilege reserved for those lofty cultivators!

"Could it be that some supreme treasure capable of preserving one's looks lies hidden inside those ruins?"

Pang Jinbiao's thoughts immediately became active, and amid the killing intent in his eyes, a trace of greed quietly mixed in.

A wild girl with no background must be hiding some earthshaking secret!

"Go, summon the three Seventh Realm elders and leave the city with this old man!"

Pang Jinbiao gave a savage grin. With four others, he erupted into motion, using their movement techniques to become several streaks of light that sped straight out of the city.

In the primordial mountains, at the entrance to the Azure Cloud Ruins.

Su Yueli had already remained amid this pile of rocks for a full day and night.

She had not been idle. Instead, she wore Little Black and leisurely practiced an unnamed fist art in the clearing.

Watching fallen leaves blanket the ground, listening to a few birdcalls.

Thirty-five years of lonely, painstaking cultivation had made her state of mind as calm as a pool of stagnant water.

By noon on the second day.

Su Yueli's fists paused slightly as she threw a punch. She raised a brow, and a smile curled across her lips.

"Old enemies, have you finally come?"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several sounds of something tearing through the air rang out, forcing great swathes of the surrounding shrubs to bend low.

Amid flying sand and rolling stones, five figures descended upon the rocky clearing in a half-encircling formation, locking firmly onto Su Yueli.

The old man at their head was none other than the white-haired Pang Jinbiao.

Behind him, the three Pang Family elders all radiated the heavy pressure of the Seventh Realm of the Martial Dao.

Pang Jinbiao himself had fully unleashed the Ninth Realm. The terrifying waves of force made even the surrounding gravel tremble.

Su Yueli slowly withdrew her fists, turned around, and looked at the old man before her. Then she burst into laughter.

"The father of Young Master Pang, Patriarch Pang—long time no see. How did you grow into such a miserable old wreck in the blink of an eye?"

Seeing the young girl's face before him, exactly the same as it had been thirty-five years ago—her skin even fairer and more delicate than before—Pang Jinbiao's breathing instantly became heavy.

This was no joke!

There truly was not the slightest trace of aging!

Pang Jinbiao forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart and said coldly, "Little bitch, this old man never expected you to survive until now. Still less did I expect you to dare sit out here so brazenly, waiting for this old man to come send you on your way."

As he spoke, Pang Jinbiao released a strand of Martial Dao perception and began repeatedly sweeping it over Su Yueli's body.

What worried him most was that Su Yueli had encountered an immortal opportunity during these thirty-five years and become a cultivator.

But after carefully investigating her, he let out a breath of relief.

There was not the slightest fluctuation of heaven and earth spiritual energy around Su Yueli, nor did she possess a cultivator's Purple Mansion Radiance.

Although the blood and qi within her body was exceptionally powerful—so much so that even he could not fully see through it—it was undeniably the pure Martial Dao blood and qi of a mortal martial artist!

So long as she was not a cultivator, she could not turn the heavens upside down!

Having confirmed this, the greed in Pang Jinbiao's eyes nearly overflowed.

A mortal martial artist, without spiritual power protecting her body, had survived thirty-five years in these resource-starved ruins while remaining eternally youthful.

There was something unusual here.

The inner region of the Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom must contain an unrivaled opportunity capable of slowing aging, perhaps even granting immortality!

As long as he captured this woman and tortured that secret out of her, Pang Jinbiao might be able to break through the limits of a mortal lifespan and, like those lofty immortal masters, live forever through the ages!