Inside the Magnificent Hall, apart from Ai Jian, there was only a young man seated at ease in a chair, holding a cup of clear tea.
He wore a plain white cloth robe, his hair secured with a green hairpin. A Black Jade Mask covered most of the left side of his face, leaving only his eye exposed.
For some unknown reason, that eye was entirely crimson, with a blood-colored silhouette seething with killing intent sealed within it.
It surged back and forth inside his eye, roaming ceaselessly...
Had Chen Heng been here, he would have recognized this man as the male favorite beside the beautiful woman who had come looking for the Yin Celestial half a year earlier.
It was his whispered guidance that had extinguished the beautiful woman's desire, allowing Chen Heng to escape disaster.
Now.
Hearing Ai Jian's accusatory question, Chen Ying leisurely shifted the lid of his teacup. Only after taking an unhurried sip to moisten his throat did he speak indifferently:
"You didn't hear me? Then I'll say it again. The late True Person Yue's eldest disciple, your eldest senior brother, Wang Shu-the one in your lineage with the greatest hope of forming a first-rank core-has died while gathering medicines in Southern Chan Province."
His voice rang clearly through the Magnificent Hall, carrying the faintest trace of amusement:
"I heard he fought Zhu Ling of the Divine Control Sect over some superior heavenly wander mud. In the end, his skills fell short, he lost by a few moves, and he could only surrender the heavenly wander mud. When he formed his core, precisely because he lacked this great medicine, he had to make do with some middling heavenly wander mud. Perhaps something also went wrong when he exploded the mercury, so he achieved only fourth-rank