Reunion

The threat in those words was already plain.

But Song Yan's confidence in saying them came from more than just the Dongyuan Sect behind him.

Of the three, only Lu Xiaowei was at Qi Refining, Third Layer; the other two were both at Qi Refining, First Layer. Who knew where they had found the courage to bluster here?

Sheng Nian simply did not understand how these things worked. Otherwise, with the physique he had built through years of martial training, he could have killed those two at Qi Refining, First Layer in a surprise attack if he moved quickly enough.

These backcountry rogue cultivators were usually people without the aptitude to enter a sect, or those expelled because their aptitude was too poor.

Never mind combat techniques-even their control of spiritual power was crude. Even if all three attacked together, they would be no match for Song Yan.

Xu Darong and Sheng Yun supported Sheng Nian on either side. Seeing the face beneath the bamboo hat, they called out in delighted surprise.

"Ye Sheng!"

"Brother Ye Sheng!"

Song Yan walked over slowly and let the bamboo hat hang behind his back.

"Senior Brother Zhao, thank you for your efforts."

"Think nothing of it."

Zhao Fengcheng waved a hand.

He counted as half a Dongyuan Sect disciple, and had entered the sect decades before Song Yan. There was nothing improper about politely addressing him as senior brother.

Among the sect's outer disciples were many cultivators with extremely poor aptitude whose cultivation had not advanced an inch in decades. Once they grew older, they either recognized that they had little hope of ascending the Great Dao of Longevity, or were simply expelled by the sect and sent down the mountain.

In any case, back in the mortal world, someone at Qi Refining, Third Layer could just about count as a martial arts master.

Some among them refused to accept their fate. With the sect's approval, they would be sent down the mountain and stationed as attendants in villages, towns, or prefectural cities within its sphere of influence.

If they reported promising candidates suited to immortal cultivation to the sect, they would also receive rewards.

Their usual duties were simply to remain in their assigned territory and keep the peace.

That was Zhao Fengcheng's situation. He was Shiliang Town's attendant, and he was the one who had selected Song Yan and sent him to the Dongyuan Sect.

In a sense, he had been Song Yan's guide onto this path.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, your Protective Jade Talisman has shattered. Persisting in this dispute would be dangerous indeed."

Song Yan walked up to Lu Xiaowei and patted his shoulder, leaving an almost imperceptible trace of his presence there.

"I would also like to return to my sect and report back soon... why don't you gentlemen be on your way?"

He looked down at the three of them, both his expression and his tone carrying a deep threat.

Only now did Song Yan truly experience what it felt like to grow stronger!

His strengthened divine sense allowed him to cast law techniques he had not previously mastered with greater fluency, while the rise in his spiritual power cultivation simply and directly enhanced their effects.

Without the support of his current divine sense, it would have been difficult to control the direction and speed of spiritual power flowing through the two law techniques he had just used-the Yi-Grade Green Vine Technique and the Ding-Grade Flame Technique-let alone combine them.

Song Yan told himself that he needed to pick up the pace of his practice with that unnamed mnemonic.

His desire to unleash seventeen divine thoughts at once grew ever more urgent.

Lu Xiaowei stared coldly at him, his eyes filled with venomous resentment.

The Protective Jade Talisman Master bestowed on me!

That was a Treasure Talisman capable of withstanding an all-out strike from someone at the peak of Qi Refining!

Because this man interfered, a mortal ruined it with a single saber strike!

His heart bled.

"Fine, fine, fine... I was outmatched. We're leaving."

Lu Xiaowei's two junior brothers took him away.

Zhao Fengcheng was over forty, but had little courage or fighting spirit. Still uneasy, he hesitated before speaking. "Junior Brother Song... they..."

"It's fine. I'll find them again."

Song Yan's tone was calm.

Zhao Fengcheng was startled. "Find them?"

"They claimed they came to our Shiliang Town looking for some 'fortuitous opportunity'... Senior Brother Zhao, this place is so poor and remote you couldn't dig up two catties of dirt with a hoe. What fortuitous opportunity could there be...?"

Back in his hometown, Song Yan had begun speaking more casually as well.

"They must have some other aim. Since I'm here anyway, I might as well find out exactly what they came for."

"Mm..."

Zhao Fengcheng nodded thoughtfully.

Song Yan walked over to the Sheng siblings. Spiritual power shone green in his hand as he pressed it down just above Sheng Nian's shoulder.

"New wounds on top of old ones-do you still want this arm?"

"Ahem... hehe..."

Sheng Nian's bloodied mouth split into a grin. He actually laughed. "Whether I get to keep it... is up to Doctor Song."

Sheng Yun hurriedly asked, "Brother Ye Sheng, how is my brother?"

"Beyond saving."

Song Yan shook his head, startling everyone.

"His wounds are fine, but this foolishness of his comes from being born thickheaded and missing a screw. There's no cure for that."

"Bah, you quack. I ought to tear that foul mouth of yours apart..."

Sheng Nian spat a mouthful of clotted blood to one side and felt considerably better.

"Hahaha."

The two boys' bickering made Sheng Yun laugh.

Looking at the girl before him, Sheng Nian's younger sister, Song Yan feigned surprise and raised a hand to measure her height.

"You've grown so much taller!"

"Haven't I!"

Just then, Uncle and Aunt Meng came forward with their daughter.

"Ye Sheng, thank goodness you came... I... I..."

Tears streamed down Meng Tongzhou's aged face, lingering fear written all over it.

"Please, Uncle Meng, you're treating me like an outsider."

"When Grandpa was alive, he took me to your house to cadge meals plenty of times."

"Besides, Lulu grew up with me too, didn't she...?"

The Meng family's daughter, Meng Lu, was fourteen that year, quiet and reserved. Having just suffered this ordeal, she was still somewhat shaken.

But she was already very different from the little girl Song Yan remembered.

"It's been a year and a half. You've grown taller too."

Song Yan looked at her and smiled casually. "Have Senior Brother Zhao test your spiritual roots later. If you really have the aptitude for cultivation, someone will come to take you up the mountain to join the sect."

Meng Lu said nothing, merely nodding firmly.

Seeing that Song Yan put on none of the lofty airs of an "immortal" and was still just as he had been as a child, the townsfolk around them finally dared to gather and greet him.

"Ah Sheng! It's been over a year. You look quite a bit thinner."

"What are you talking about, old woman...? He's grown taller, so naturally he looks thinner."

"That's true."

One familiar face after another appeared before Song Yan's eyes.

"Shopkeeper Liu."

"Auntie Zhao..."

While they exchanged greetings, Sheng Nian had already fended for himself and retrieved his saber, though the pain left him grimacing. "Come on, let's have a meal at my place."

"Let's go."

Outside Shiliang Town, at the Peach Blossom Pavilion.

"Senior Brother, how are you?"

"Cough... I'm fine. Fortunately, it was a mundane weapon. The wound isn't deep."

Lu Xiaowei sat cross-legged, slowly circulating Spiritual Qi.

"Senior Brother, the person Master told us to find... could it be that brat surnamed Song?"

"Probably not..."

Lu Xiaowei's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

"The person Master told us to find should be a mortal. If it were that fellow surnamed Song, with spiritual power fluctuations far beyond the Early Qi Refining Stage, how could the three of us possibly take him away?"

"Back then, that martial artist named Tong Chuping fled here with a Sheyang Sect disciple token and died in Shiliang Town..."

"After thinking it over, the person Master meant..."

"Should be that constable surnamed Sheng."