Not long after Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun returned to the courtyard, a knock sounded at the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, it's me, Lu Jianqing."
Lu Jianqing's voice made Zhang Yuan relax a little. He opened the door and welcomed Lu Jianqing inside with a smile that never reached his eyes.
Lu Jianqing was trouble now. It was best to keep his distance.
Still, Lu Jianqing certainly knew more about Lu Qingwu than he did. He could get Lu Jianqing to share what he knew about Lu Qingwu first, then send him packing.
As Lu Jianqing entered, Zhang Yuan asked blandly, "Don't you have anything to say, Fellow Daoist Lu? Who exactly is this Lu Qingwu in the Hengyang Lu Clan?"
Lu Jianqing made himself quite at home. After entering the courtyard, he casually found a stone stool and sat down. "There's no need to hide anything from you. Lu Qingwu, whose Dao epithet is [True Mystery], was a direct-line descendant of our Hengyang Lu Clan a thousand years ago. By seniority, he now counts as an ancestor of our branch."
Zhang Yuan, Xiao Yuanjun, and Li Zhongshuang also brought over three stools and sat down in a row opposite Lu Jianqing, with Zhang Yuan in the middle and Xiao Yuanjun and Li Zhongshuang on either side.
The sight left Lu Jianqing feeling rather odd, as though the three were interrogating a criminal.
But that really was an injustice to him.
He had genuinely never intended to drag Zhang Yuan into this affair. He could hardly do enough to put Zhang Yuan on a pedestal and revere him like an ancestor.
After all, at the Aohai Cui Clan's Dharma Assembly, a True Lord had personally intervened to help Zhang Yuan. What that signified went without saying.
Zhang