The Ma Family Elder

"What happened?" Card Fairy had heard the noise too and asked Wang Yan.

"I don't know! It sounds like a Demon Beast came!" Wang Yan answered hurriedly. He hesitated, then quickly swam toward the edge of the small pool...

"Someone's coming! A Core Condensation Realm cultivator, too!" Just then, Card Fairy seemed to notice something and hurriedly warned Wang Yan.

"A Core Condensation Realm cultivator!" Wang Yan's heart jolted, but he could detect no sign of anyone approaching. He hastily whispered, "Is someone really coming?"

"Why would I lie to you? Hide, quick! One of them is that Ma Family brat who escaped!" Card Fairy urged him, though he had no idea how she had detected them.

"The Ma Family brat who escaped? That fellow wasn't killed?" At the mention of the Ma Family, Wang Yan's heart lurched. He knew its members were no easy opponents, and now there was a Core Condensation Realm cultivator among them. Although they might not know he had killed those two cultivators, he had already witnessed their methods... An entirely uninvolved person like him would probably come to no good end if he encountered them. Still, he was surprised the young man in the long robe had not been killed by the Fang Bear Beast.

With that thought, Wang Yan dared not delay. He had already reached the shore, so he grabbed his clothes and swiftly dove beneath the water. Although a Core Condensation Realm cultivator's spiritual sense could reach quite far, the water between them might let him hide, provided they did not deliberately search for him. Hiding anywhere else would actually make him easier to discover...

Wang Yan had only submerged a few feet.

"Hm?" An almost inaudible voice came from the distant forest, followed by the rustle of rapidly approaching footsteps.

A short while later.

Rustle, rustle, rustle! Leaves stirred as four or five cultivators sprang out from the treetops and landed on the shore in a few bounds.

Sure enough, one of them was the long-robed young man who had escaped the Fang Bear Beast's pursuit with a talisman that day. The fellow had been lucky; needless to say, he had escaped. His complexion looked normal, and he held half the carcass of a massive snake ten to twenty feet long in one hand. In the other, he carried its huge head, crowned with a red, crownlike growth. Apparently, this was the Demon Beast they had just killed?

Beside him stood a horse-faced middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties or forties, dressed in luxurious purple robes with a cold, stern gaze. There were also two young people in their twenties, a man and a woman, whose auras and cultivation seemed far from weak.

"Tsk! We'll rest here!" the horse-faced middle-aged man said gravely. He moved onto a rock, his back facing the pool.

"Yes, Third Elder!" the three Ma Family cultivators answered hurriedly.

"Go! Clean this Red-Crowned Snake, then roast some meat!" the female cultivator ordered the long-robed young man in a stern voice.

"Yes, Third Senior Sister!" The long-robed young man did not dare utter so much as a peep of protest. He answered respectfully, tossed the Red-Crowned Snake's head and body onto the ground, and took out a short blade magic artifact shimmering with blue light to cut it apart...

The other young man and woman exchanged a glance, then walked over to the Third Elder.

"Grandfather! Will our little sister be all right?" the young man asked him.

"Ah!" The Third Elder gave a long sigh, as though the question had touched a sore spot. "I told her long ago to stop running about and focus on cultivating, but that girl simply wouldn't listen!"

"Exactly! That little brat! Running off without permission was bad enough, but she even stole Grandfather's Thousand Spirit Arrow!" the young woman said spitefully. "Her dying is no great loss, but she's dragged Grandfather into trouble!"

"Hey! Third girl! How can you say that?" the Third Elder declared with righteous indignation, his face somewhat gloomy. "Whatever else may be true, you're sisters!" He paused, then continued, "The Thousand Spirit Arrow is a minor matter. I never imagined that little girl would have the gall to steal the Treasure Map to Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain. Truly hateful!"

"The map to Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain?" The two exchanged glances at this, and the young woman hurriedly asked, "Grandfather! What is that map for?"

"It leads to a treasure ground discovered by our Ma Family ancestor. They say there's a treasure inside! It could even make our Ma Family a first-rate aristocratic clan!" the Third Elder said gravely, a trace of longing in his voice.

"Hm? Then why has our Ma Family never gone to retrieve it?" the young woman promptly pressed.

"Ah! It isn't much of a secret, really!" the Third Elder said helplessly. "When our Ma Family ancestor returned back then, he had suffered some unknown injury. He left only this map and the name Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain before passing away. No one knows where Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain actually is!"

"So that's it! No wonder Father and the others travel every year. They're actually searching for Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain, aren't they?" the young man said, looking enlightened.

"That's right!" The Third Elder nodded. After a pause, he frowned and said, "That little girl is such a meddler, always causing this old man trouble. I hope the little brat is still alive!"

Submerged dozens of feet beneath the pool's surface, Wang Yan heard every word the Ma Family's Third Elder and the two young people said. Now that he was a Cultivation Realm cultivator, his magical power alone could let him breathe underwater for two to four hours without any trouble. Still, hearing that they intended to rest here put him in a difficult position. He did not have enough magical power to stay underwater for fourteen to sixteen hours...

If there had only been a few Cultivation Realm cultivators like the young man and woman, things would have been manageable. Wang Yan could have quietly slipped away through the water and perhaps escaped. But the Third Elder was clearly a Core Condensation Realm cultivator. Vanishing without his noticing would be rather difficult...

Still, when Wang Yan learned that the Third Elder was these young people's grandfather, he was rather surprised. The fellow looked only thirty-three or thirty-four, yet he was already the grandfather of youngsters in their twenties.

However, Wang Yan had heard that the higher an immortal cultivator's cultivation, the longer they could live. Supposedly, those who reached the Core Condensation Realm could live for three or four hundred years. Even so, Wang Yan had his doubts about whether that was true...

The mention of the map to Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain reminded Wang Yan of the map made from the hide of some unknown Demon Beast. From its appearance, it seemed to be quite a fine Treasure Map, which naturally stirred his interest. But hearing that even the Ma Family did not know where Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain was made his excitement come to nothing...

When the Third Elder expressed his hope that the female cultivator injured by the Fang Bear Beast and then killed by Wang Yan was still alive, Wang Yan sneered inwardly. Alive? Dream on!

Just then.

"Oh, right! Grandfather!" The young man suddenly seemed to remember something and raised his voice slightly. "Recently, I heard Father will be returning soon. Could he have news of Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain?"

"Cough! Cough!" At those words, the Third Elder glanced at the busy long-robed young man and suddenly coughed several times, as though his throat were bothering him. "I'm not sure. Your father is coming back because he hasn't returned to the sect in a long time! It isn't because of Moon-Embracing Purple Mountain!"

"Mm! That's true!" The young man exchanged a glance with the young woman. Both seemed to understand something, and he nodded as he spoke.

"All right! You stay here tonight. I'm going to absorb the essence of the full moon!" the Third Elder said. Spiritual light flashed around him, and he released a longsword that sent out a startling burst of radiance before hovering in midair. He landed on the sword, and spiritual light surged with a whoosh as he flew away upon it, heading toward a tall mountain in the distance...

At the sight.

"If only we could fly on swords someday!" the young man said wistfully, full of envy.

"Yes!" the young woman murmured. Then she turned to the long-robed young man dissecting the Red-Crowned Snake's carcass. "Hurry up and finish that. Call us when the snake meat is roasted!"

"All right, Third Senior Sister!" the long-robed young man answered hurriedly...

"Let's meditate and rest for a while too!"

With that, the young man and woman found a clean, quiet spot beneath a tree and settled down to rest.

Watching from beneath the pool, Wang Yan grew reflective. When he had been in the Wang Household, his low cultivation had sometimes left him being ordered around like that too. But he was stubborn. He would not stand for ordinary outer-clan disciples bullying him, so he had never gotten along with them. The inner-clan disciples, however, all had cultivation far above his. When they bullied him, he had no power to resist and could only obediently do as he was told...

To put it plainly.

Anyone stronger than you could bully you...

It seemed that whether it was the Wang Household or the Ma Family, they were all the same.

Still.

Now that the old fellow was gone, this was a good chance to slip away. With that thought, Wang Yan slowly swam along the bottom, preparing to emerge on the other side of the pool...

Wang Yan moved lightly, without making the slightest sound. In the blink of an eye, he had swum seventy or eighty feet away. A stand of trees happened to screen him from view, and only then did he slowly approach the shore...

However.

Just as Wang Yan was about to surface.

Suddenly!

"Who's there?!" The long-robed young man dissecting the Red-Crowned Snake suddenly shouted, looking straight toward Wang Yan...

Wang Yan's heart jolted. Have I been discovered?

"What is it?" At the long-robed young man's cry, the young man and woman meditating in the distance reacted with great speed. They sprang up from the ground in an instant, releasing magic artifacts glowing blue and gold respectively, and called out as they looked toward the pool.