Having made his decision, Chang Qingzi quickly descended from the clouds. No longer paying heed to anyone else, he slipped into a quiet chamber.
Just as Chang Qingzi had hoped, Xiao Hua was not headed to the Zhu family of Wuyuan County this time. He had merely come to Fengxiang Kingdom to seek out You Zhongquan. Yet Wuyuan County happened to lie within Fengxiang Kingdom. Xiao Hua vaguely had a feeling that the person who had invited You Zhongquan here might well have been a disciple of the Zhu family. Moreover, on the bone pellet Zhu Cheng had given Xiao Hua that day were two verses left behind by Saint Zhu Xi: "The ancestral hall's wooden statue bears primordial Qi; the genealogy's Silk Brocade records later generations." Xiao Hua had never figured out their meaning. Now that he had reached the Zhu family, how could he not take a look?
After flying for a while, Xiao Hua released his soul sense. Once he found nothing unusual, he descended and lightly altered his appearance, transforming into Zhang Xiaohua, with a small nose and tiny eyes. He changed into Confucian robes as well, then rode a light cloud toward Wuyuan County. Before long, Xiao Hua arrived near Wuyuan County. Yet after using the Clear Sight Technique to observe for a moment, doubt rose in his heart once more.
Logically speaking, a place capable of nurturing a Confucian sage like Zhu Xi should surely have been a land blessed by the spirits of heaven and the beauty of earth. But the place before Xiao Hua's eyes was not merely lacking in such spiritual splendor—it could not even be called a place of clear mountains and fair waters. In particular, the towering mountain ridges were covered in gray-spotted moss, with strange patterns spreading across