"Elder Yuan, you needn't worry so much. Perhaps things aren't that bad." Seeing the state he was in, Yun Chong could only offer gentle reassurance.
But he immediately added inwardly, They might be even worse.
For some reason, he kept having the same ominous premonition.
Still, the Spirit Artifact Hall Master across from him was clearly reassured. His face was no longer as white as paper.
"Was there some commotion up there just now? What happened?" Lan Yue was enjoying the spectacle when she suddenly realized something was wrong. Why had faint roars suddenly come from the previously quiet sky?
Then a glowing formation obscured the sky above the Four Arts Hall. Before, she had still been able to steal glimpses of the elders, but now she could see nothing at all.
Beside her, Li Bai hesitated before choosing his words carefully. "Junior Sister, something may have happened with the Spirit Artifact Hall Master. Master just sent me a voice transmission saying the Sect Master was asking about that missing disciple."
Of course, Yun Chong had instructed Li Bai to reveal this. After all, Lan Yue would surely notice Yuan Su's condition, so it was better to volunteer the information.
"I see. Our Sect Master really is a good Sect Master. He went to check on those disciples just after hearing a piece of news." Lan Yue sounded rather moved.
"I hope the Sect Master can get to the bottom of this soon."
Hearing that, Li Bai had a thought. "Junior Sister, have you heard anything about the missing person?"
Lan Yue immediately shook her head like a rattle drum. "How could I? I'm not that capable! I just hope he resolves it soon so I can feel at ease when making my choice!"
"Junior Sister, aren't you planning to study Divination?" Li Bai paused.
"Yes, I am, but no one said I couldn't study other things too, right?" Lan Yue gave him a puzzled look.
Li Bai: "..."
It wasn't really his fault. His junior sister's inability to learn Sword Flight after all this time had simply left too deep an impression on him.
So much so that Li Bai had now begun worrying about his little junior sister's cultivation progress.
"Of course you can. Lan Yue can study whatever she likes." At some point, Qing Zhu beside them had opened her parasol, and she looked over with a warm smile.
"You can study Formation Arts too, Lan Yue. I'm studying Formation Arts over there myself."
Lan Yue nodded repeatedly. "Then sorry for the trouble in advance, beautiful Senior Sister!"
Across from her, Qing Zhu smiled softly again.
*[Lan Yue: Speaking of such a good Sect Master, I suddenly remembered that in the original novel, Sect Master Yun seemed to disappear not long after the female lead officially became a disciple of the Southern Spirit Sect.*
Otherwise, the female lead's identity wouldn't have gone undiscovered from beginning to end. I wonder what happened back then.
*Damn it, I should've read the original novel more carefully! But that plot point should still be a few years away. I'll have to keep a close eye on things until then!]*
"Senior Brother, could it be the Demon Domain..." The Second Elder's face was full of worry.
"Those damned demonic beasts! It must be them stirring up trouble again!" The Sixth Elder stamped his feet in anger.
Even Guangji's brows were tightly knitted, his expression worried.
"Don't get worked up. Perhaps I found an opportunity to break through then and went into seclusion." Yun Chong gently reassured the elders.
Still, he was immensely grateful that he hadn't acted rashly when he first discovered Lan Yue possessed an Immortal Artifact.
Otherwise, if he had angered the Immortal Artifact and it had taken Lan Yue away, how could he have learned so much? How could he have met his daughter ahead of time?
Following the course described in that so-called original novel, they would only have missed each other again and again.
*[Lan Yue: Forget it, I won't think about that anymore. There are still a few years for me to observe things. I'd better keep looking into what's going on with Yuan Bao.*
Huh? Why is Yuan Bao's profile card black and red? That Ghost Creature from Black Ghost Village had the same-colored card!
*Wait, am I seeing this right? Yuan Bao isn't human! He-he's a hybrid!]*
Above, the hall master of the Spirit Artifact Hall sighed. "Yuan Bao does indeed carry another bloodline. I suspected it might belong to some kind of Demon Race, so I sealed that part of his bloodline as soon as I brought him back."
"I failed my younger sister, too. I couldn't protect her at that critical moment. But I was on the Four Domains Battlefield then. Sect Master, even if my achievements count for nothing, please consider my toil. When the time comes, I'll take him away myse-"
Before Yuan Su could finish, a loud inner voice rang out across the entire mountain again.
[Lan Yue: Holy shit, a human-ghost hybrid! Yuan Bao is actually the child that Ghost Creature had with a local villager! My entire worldview just exploded. That's actually possible!!! Talk about an eye-opener!]
The hall master of the Spirit Artifact Hall froze halfway to his knees.
Even the other elders looked solemn, because they had realized something crucial.
If Yuan Bao was the child of that ghost and a local villager, where had Yuan Xia's real child gone?
Where had that ghost gone? Why hadn't Elder Yuan noticed it when he went there?
*[Lan Yue: Then where is the Spirit Artifact Hall master's real nephew? So that's what happened. So that's what happened.*
Yuan Xia's child had a Spirit Artifact protecting him. The Ghost Creature couldn't breach it, though he coveted him desperately.
He could only have the villagers take Yuan Xia's child in and gradually coax him into lowering his guard.
But he hadn't expected that those villagers' appetites had long since been spoiled. They were used to making money by robbing and murdering people. Why would they put any real effort into raising a child? They only beat and cursed him.
*That child spent his days enduring beatings and abuse. Surviving in that mire at all was no easy feat.]*
"Yuan Xia's real child isn't Yuan Bao?" The Spirit Artifact Hall Master looked dazed.
So the nephew he had painstakingly raised all these years was actually that Ghost Creature's child?
"Impossible! Yuan Bao clearly carries Yuan Xia's aura. He truly has the Yuan Household's blood!"
How could Yuan Su have been deceived so easily? Naturally, he had his own means of verification. He had found the child using the Bloodline Detection Formation.
The Yuan Household's bloodline was somewhat unusual. Their blood contained far more abundant vitality than other people's.
Yuan Bao matched both of those traits.
"Ah, perhaps the spiritual energy in the Spirit Artifact eventually ran dry, and those people began cruelly draining his blood." Fang Ding sighed. The thought had suddenly occurred to him, making his scalp prickle.
If that had truly happened, what fate had befallen Yuan Xia's real child?
"Pfft!" The hall master of the Spirit Artifact Hall violently spat out another mouthful of blood.
Across from him, Fang Ding wiped the blood that had splashed onto his face, then took out a handkerchief and offered it to him.
Yuan Su didn't take it. His mind had descended into chaos, filled with images of his real nephew trussed up by those villagers, his blood drained again and again.
*[Lan Yue: Later, those people somehow learned that Yuan Xia came from the Southern Spirit Sect. They began laying their plans right from the start, drawing blood from that child every month and transferring it into Yuan Bao.*
Not only that, the Ghost Creature actually had a large piece of ten-thousand-year cold jade. It could conceal the ghostly energy on both Yuan Bao and the Ghost Creature.
By the time the Spirit Artifact Hall Master arrived, what he saw was Yuan Bao, all neatly packaged for him. He had no idea his nephew was a hundred meters underground, nailed to a Cold Jade Bed by that Ghost Creature.
*My god, what kind of misery novel opening is this? Anyone who didn't know better would think it was some ultimate villain's tragic childhood!]*
"So that was it. To think such a tiny place actually had ten-thousand-year cold jade!" Yun Chong suddenly understood.
Ten-thousand-year cold jade was an exceptionally rare spiritual material for Artifact Refining. Of course, its most important properties were its ability to heal injuries, conceal all traces of aura, and even seal bloodlines.
Even their Southern Spirit Sect had only a few portions of such a rare treasure.
Whenever ten-thousand-year cold jade appeared, the various sects and cultivation aristocratic clans would fight over it to make protective jade charms for their disciples.
Protective jade charms like those could heal injuries and conceal both aura and cultivation. Who wouldn't want one?
Beside him, Yuan Su couldn't care less about ten-thousand-year cold jade. Merely imagining that scene from back then brought him to the brink of collapse.
He had found things strange at the time, so why hadn't he searched the surroundings? Why had he insisted on putting on the airs of an exalted expert? Not only had he immediately taken the Ghost Creature's child away, he had even given gifts to everyone in the village!
He had personally given Longevity Pills to the people who murdered his sister! He had even wished them good health and a long life!
"Urgh." He coughed up another mouthful of blood. His blue-green robe was already stained red.
Several elders of the Spirit Artifact Hall behind him were worried and kept trying to approach, but Fang Ding held them back.
"In this situation, we'd better not disturb him. Let him spit blood for a little longer. His bloodline is brimming with vitality anyway. Never mind these three mouthfuls-he could spit blood all day and be fine."
"Better to let him spit out a few more mouthfuls than keep it all bottled up inside."
The other elders of the Spirit Artifact Hall: "..."
It wasn't that they didn't want to comfort him. The Alchemy Pavilion elder simply made too much sense.
They silently put away the Spirit Artifacts in their hands and sighed inwardly as well.
How had their hall master ended up caught in something like this?
Yuan Bao looked so amiable. Who could have imagined he was a human-ghost hybrid born of a Ghost Creature?
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