Liu Yun slowly emerged from the inner room.
Her hair at the temples was white as snow, and she wore a blue cloth tunic washed pale.
Deep furrows crisscrossed her face, engraved with a century of wind and frost.
Only her eyes remained clear and tranquil, as though she had seen through the affairs of the world.
"Ziyu, why have you come here today instead of presiding over matters at home?"
Liu Yun sat down in the grand armchair in the hall, her tone calm.
Xu Ziyu stepped forward and solemnly knelt to perform a full obeisance:
"Your great-grandson pays his respects, Great-grandmother!"
"The day before yesterday, I received a secret letter of unknown origin. Its cipher was strange, and I truly could not decipher it. Feeling uneasy, I came specifically to ask Great-grandmother to examine it."
As he spoke, he took the secret letter from his sleeve and raised it above his head with both hands, presenting it to her.
Liu Yun took the thin sheet of parchment, her gaze falling upon it.
At first, her expression remained unchanged, but mere moments later, her body suddenly shuddered as though she had been struck by lightning.
The fingers holding the letter trembled slightly.
She froze in her chair, her eyes fixed on the handwriting as though she meant to see right through it.
Xu Ziyu stood beside her with his head lowered, increasingly puzzled, yet he dared not disturb her with a word.
Silence filled the thatched hall, broken only by the faint sound of mountain wind passing through the courtyard.
A long time passed.
Without warning, a clear tear fell onto the back of her aged hand.
Only then did Liu Yun come to her senses. She drew a deep breath and said in a trembling voice:
"This letter tells you to go swiftly to Hundred Fragrance Valley, find a cultivator surnamed Zhang from the Azure Wood Sect, and retrieve some things... Judging by the journey, that person should already have reached Hundred Fragrance Valley."
"This concerns the Lineage's future. Choose several capable confidants immediately and go there in secret. You must be cautious and bring the things back yourself."
Liu Yun delivered these words with great haste, then stood up.
Without another glance at Xu Ziyu, she returned directly to the inner room, her retreating figure looking somewhat lonely.
Xu Ziyu's heart was full of questions, but seeing his great-grandmother's demeanor, he knew this matter must be far from trivial and dared not neglect it in the slightest.
He bowed once more toward the inner room, then hurried out of the thatched hall and immediately began arranging the journey to Hundred Fragrance Valley.
Inside the inner room.
Liu Yun stood by the window and unfolded the secret letter again.
Her fingertips brushed gently over the familiar handwriting, and tears fell silently once more.
They welled up, winding down along the wrinkles in her cheeks.
"The spirit in this handwriting... It's you. It must be you."
"Since you've returned, why won't you see me..."
"Is moistening each other with foam truly worse than forgetting each other in the rivers and lakes?"
She murmured to herself, her voice somewhat choked, until it finally became a long sigh.
Several days later, Xu Ziyu and his party secretly arrived at Hundred Fragrance Valley.
Following the letter's instructions, he indeed found the Azure Wood Sect cultivator named Zhang Jie.
The man was middle-aged with a kindly face. Once Xu Ziyu identified himself, he readily handed over a seemingly ordinary medicine pouch without saying much.
After taking leave of Zhang Jie, Xu Ziyu found a secluded spot and eagerly extended his spiritual sense into the medicine pouch.
There were no rare treasures inside, only several jade slips of ordinary quality and a box of carefully sorted spiritual herb seeds.
Yet when his spiritual sense swept over the contents of the jade slips, towering waves instantly surged within his heart.
Methods for surveying spiritual veins.
Basic pill formulas.
The sect's spiritual plant cultivation techniques!
Any one of these jade slips, if circulated, would have been enough to stir up a considerable storm among Rogue Cultivators.
Yet now they had come into his hands so easily.
Xu Ziyu drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressed his excitement, and immediately realized that this matter concerned the Lineage's lifeblood.
He promptly ordered his accompanying confidants to swear an oath that they would never reveal even the slightest detail to outsiders.
After solemnly thanking Zhang Jie, he secretly summoned Xu Jingyun, who was handling affairs in Hundred Fragrance Valley, to question him closely.
Xu Jingyun pondered for a long time before recalling that there was indeed a collateral descendant of the Xu Household named Wang Tong in the sect. His blood ties were distant, and he ordinarily showed neither mountain nor water.
Xu Ziyu grew still more puzzled.
A collateral descendant on the fringes of the bloodline.
Why would he risk sending such precious treasures back to the main Household?
What was his purpose?
Unable to understand the reason for the moment, Xu Ziyu could only suppress his many doubts and decide to return to the Lineage before considering the matter further.
Upon returning to Xu Household Market, Xu Ziyu immediately set things in motion.
He personally selected several trusted clansmen, sorted the contents of the jade slips by category, and ordered them to study them in secret.
In particular, he selected two descendants with steady temperaments who could endure solitude.
He gave them a small quantity of resources.
In a secret chamber, they began attempting to refine the most basic pills according to the formulas.
At the same time, he ordered several mu of new herb fields opened in a concealed spot on North Ridge Mountain, carefully sowed those spiritual herb seeds, and assigned guards to watch them day and night.
As the Lineage's channels quietly went to work, more detailed information about Wang Tong soon reached Xu Ziyu's desk.
Reading the sparse lines recorded in the dossier, Xu Ziyu knitted his brows tightly.
"This young man is merely a collateral descendant. His bloodline must be traced back to Ancestor Changgeng's generation. His aptitude is mediocre, and he has no patron within the sect..."
"What exactly does he seek by giving everything he has to send such a generous gift?"
Having managed the Lineage for years, he knew well that no favor in this world came without a reason.
Behind this "great gift," there must be entanglements of cause and effect.
The man was far away in the Azure Wood Sect, and the Xu Household could not easily make contact with him for the time being.
After repeated consideration, Xu Ziyu went to North Ridge Mountain again to seek an audience with his great-grandmother, Liu Yun.
This time, Liu Yun did not appear. She merely had her maid Qingchan convey a single sentence.
"This man can be trusted. The Xu Household must spare no effort in cooperating with him."
The words were brief, yet they weighed a thousand jun.
Xu Ziyu knew well that his grandmother would not loose an arrow without a target, and most of his doubts immediately dissipated.
Since Grandmother is so certain, there is no need to keep testing this man.
His heart settled firmly. He bowed deeply toward the inner room, then turned and left.
For now, his only course was to watch quietly as matters unfolded.
Let us see whether more letters arrive in the future.
Inside the Azure Wood Sect's herb garden.
Xu Xuan continued weeding, watering, and observing the growth of the spiritual plants every day.
His words and behavior were no different from those of an ordinary menial disciple.
Only during breaks in his work would he occasionally straighten up, his gaze seeming to pierce the mountain ranges as he looked toward Hundred Fragrance Valley.
For now, this is all I can do.
He silently recited this to himself, a gleam flashing through his eyes. Next, I need to improve my own strength as quickly as possible.
Xu Xuan's state of mind had long since been tempered into something like a deep pool or an ancient well.
He knew well that every grand plan needed to rest upon sufficient cultivation.
In his previous life, he had lacked cultivation resources and remained trapped in Meridian Opening, unable to break through.
Now, he had entered the Azure Wood Sect and already opened his spiritual treasury. Breaking through to Qi Refining was only a matter of time.
Afterward, whenever a caravan headed to Green Moss Market to purchase supplies, Xu Xuan always found a way to accompany it.
Like a seasoned chess player, he laid out his position without haste or delay.
Occasionally, he placed an insignificant piece, and time would always prove its worth.
Time slipped by.
Three years passed in the blink of an eye.
On this day, Xu Xuan set foot in Green Moss Market once again.
The riverbank was still bustling with voices, cultivators of all kinds weaving among the stalls while the sound of bargaining rang endlessly in his ears.
Compared with his first arrival three years earlier, little in the scene before him still felt novel.
After three years of diligent accumulation, Xu Xuan was no longer the outer disciple with an embarrassingly light purse he had once been.
By virtue of his superb skill in cultivating spiritual plants.
He not only tended his own herb garden well, but also frequently took jobs helping others grow spiritual herbs and eliminate insect pests.
He had amassed a considerable sum of spirit stones.
This time, he wanted to search for an advanced Qi Refining cultivation art.
Because his memories of cultivation in Kunlun were incomplete, the Grain Garment Art was not quite suitable.
And the Qi Refining cultivation art Yuan Qiu had bestowed upon him, the Green Grain Art, could take him only as far as the third level of Qi Refining. Its ceiling was too low, making it unsuitable as a cultivation art for the Lineage to pass down.
After cultivating it himself, Xu Xuan also felt that this art was too much like a chicken rib-hardly worth keeping, yet a pity to discard. Its efficiency in refining spiritual energy was too low,
If he wanted to go further in this life, and even shelter the Lineage.
A profound cultivation art pointing directly toward higher realms was indispensable.