" Su Yu." Zhao Chengkong stepped aside, hesitated for a moment, and then introduced Su Yu's identity.
"My colleagues from the Demon Suppression Bureau, friends I invited back."
In his own heart, his uncle was someone he could trust.
Su Yu nodded slightly as a greeting. He didn't speak, but calmly returned Zhao Kuohai's gaze.
He Earth Realm Fifth Level... but at this moment he had completely concealed his aura, looking just like an ordinary middle-aged scholar.
Zhao Kuohai glanced at Su Yu and nodded. "Young man, very good."
He did not inquire about Su Yu's origins, nor did he ask about the purpose of the Demon Suppression Bureau Division sending him.
This measured approach allowed Zhao Chengkong to relax a little.
"Uncle, the Grand Elder..."
"His matter will be decided at the elders' meeting in three days."
Zhao Kuohai turned around, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the reliefs on the ceiling of the palace again.
It was a " Heavenly Evolution Star Map," covered with obscure runes and star trails.
" Chengkong, you just got back. Take your friend and settle in. Don't provoke him for the next three days."
"The manor's guards..."
"I'll handle it."
Zhao Kuohai's voice was calm, but beneath that calmness lay absolute control.
"You only need to remember one thing: no matter what happens in three days, you only need to do one thing."
Zhao Chengkong pricked up his ears.
Zhao Kuohai slowly uttered five words.
"Take care of yourself."
After saying that, he waved his hand. "Go on. I need some more time to calm down."
Zhao Chengkong opened his mouth, but all his questions ultimately turned into a sigh. He clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Yes, Uncle."
As he turned to leave, he caught a glimpse of Su Yu still standing there, his gaze not on Zhao Kuohai, but on the wall behind the throne.
A huge landscape painting hangs there.
Su Yu glanced at it briefly before looking away and left with Zhao Chengkong.
The palace doors slowly closed behind them, and the pale golden light curtain closed again, isolating everything.
Only after stepping off the white jade steps did the invisible sense of oppression completely disappear.
Zhao Chengyu and Zhao Nan had been waiting below. When they saw the two men come out with solemn expressions, they hurriedly went to greet them.
"Brother, what did Father say?"
"They told me not to cause trouble and to wait for the elders' meeting."
Zhao Chengkong's words were concise and to the point. He knew in his heart that his uncle's last words were meant for everyone—including any spies or informants who might be lurking around.
"So now..."
"Go back to my yard."
Zhao Chengkong looked towards the northwest corner of the villa. "Settle down first. Also, Chengyu, go to the storeroom and get the Jade Heart Pill, as your uncle said. Go straight home after you get them, don't go anywhere else."
"But..."
"Listen to me."
Zhao Chengyu pursed his lips and nodded. Zhao Nan immediately said, "I'll go with my second brother."
Zhao Chengkong glanced at his sister but didn't object. After the two younger ones left together, he said to Su Yu, "Brother Su, please make do with what I have for now."
"Polite."
Zhao Chengkong's residence within the villa was a separate courtyard in the northeast corner.
The courtyard was small, with a few stone houses, a low wall around it, and several clumps of unknown green bamboo growing in the corner.
Compared to the grandeur of other halls and pavilions within the resort, this place is so simple it's almost shabby.
"My mother passed away early, and my father later..." Zhao Chengkong pushed open the courtyard gate, his tone calm, "This courtyard was left to me by him. It's not as nice as my uncle's place, Brother Su, please don't mind."
"It's nice." Su Yu walked into the courtyard, his gaze sweeping over the stone house, bamboo grove, and bluestone ground. It was clean and tidy, showing signs of being meticulously maintained despite being uninhabited for many years.
Zhao Chengkong led him into the main house.
The house was small and simply furnished.
A bed, a desk, and a chair. On the desk are several scrolls of bamboo slips and an extinguished oil lamp. On the wall hangs a painting.
Su Yu stopped in his tracks.
The painting occupied half of the wall. It depicted a sea of clouds.
Thick, ink-like clouds rolled and piled up, with distinct layers, ranging from light gray to deep indigo, creating an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Above the sea of clouds, a few wisps of broken sunlight could be faintly seen, but they were swallowed up by the even darker darkness.
And from within the sea of clouds, a blue dragon bursts forth.
The dragon was agile and lithe, its scales and claws flying, and its blue scales reflected a cold luster in the clouds.
Its body was mostly hidden in the clouds, with only its head, a winding forepaw, and a tail that stirred up the wind and clouds showing.
What is most captivating are its eyes—vertical pupils, eerie green, cold, carrying an indifferent gaze that seems to look down upon all living beings, piercing through the painting and staring directly at the viewer.
Zhao Chengkong also noticed Su Yu's gaze falling on the painting. He explained, "This painting was left by my father."
He said there was a hidden opportunity in the painting and told me to study it carefully. But I've looked at it for over ten years, and besides thinking the dragon looks quite realistic, I haven't figured anything out.
He gave a wry smile, walked to the window, and pushed open the window frame. The mountain breeze, carrying the fresh scent of bamboo leaves, rushed in.
Su Yu did not respond.
He walked up to the painting and looked up at it.
Yunhai's brushstrokes are bold and unrestrained, carrying a wild and unconventional spirit.
The lines of the dragon are exquisitely Subtlety, with the patterns of every scale and the direction of every whisker clearly visible.
This contradictory combination creates a strange balance in the painting.
But what truly attracted Su Yu was not the brushwork.
It's an aura.
The ink on the painting is very old. It's not new ink, but rather the kind of aged ink that has settled deep into the paper over decades, or even centuries.
However, the scales of that azure dragon were exceptionally bright in color, even faintly revealing a very faint, almost imperceptible... fluctuation of Spiritual Qi.
It's as if something is sealed within the painting.
Or... the painting itself is an object.
Su Yu reached out, his fingertips hovering an inch in front of the painting. He didn't touch it, but simply felt it quietly.
Within his sea of consciousness, the Purple-Gold Prison-Suppressing Scripture operated spontaneously, and a wisp of purple-gold divine consciousness quietly emerged.
The moment the edge of the scroll was touched--
Buzz.
A very slight tremor.
The sea of clouds in the painting seemed to move for a moment. The eerie green vertical pupils of the azure dragon seemed to blink.
Su Yu's eyes narrowed slightly, and he withdrew his divine sense.
"Brother Su?" Zhao Chengkong noticed his unusual behavior.
"This painting," Su Yu turned to look at Zhao Chengkong, "Did your father say anything else?"
Zhao Chengkong recalled for a moment, then shook his head. "No. He only said that the opportunity lay within, and told me to calmly contemplate it."
I tried inputting my true essence, probing with my divine sense, and even dripping my blood on it, but there was no reaction. Perhaps... my time hasn't come yet."
He spoke casually, as if he were talking about something trivial from the past.
Su Yu didn't say anything more, but took one last look at the azure dragon in the painting.
Vertical pupils, dark green.
Zhao Chengkong didn't notice Su Yu's unusual behavior. He got up and went to the side to brew a pot of tea.
The room fell silent.
Su Yu slowly closed his eyes, and every detail of the painting was crystal clear in his mind.
The rolling sea of clouds, the Azure Flood Dragon breaking through the clouds, the eerie green vertical pupils, and the almost non-existent fluctuations of Spiritual Qi.
Wang Du summoned him to the Heavenly Evolution Mountain Manor to learn about the Spirit Refinement inheritance.
Zhao Kuohai's seven-day seclusion suggests he had anticipated the Grand Elder's power grab.
The mountain villa's protective array automatically opened for Zhao Chengkong and him.
And this painting.
The clues were like scattered beads, not yet strung together. But Su Yu had a premonition that this bead—the azure dragon in the painting—might be a key link.