Yun Yun: What a Roller Coaster

"Lu Yuan, you're not joking with me?" Yun Yun's voice trembled.

In the present-day Jia Ma Empire, there wasn't a single Dou Zong expert.

In terms of influence, Pill King Gu He stood at the top. As a sixth-tier alchemist, he could persuade a Dou Zong to act.

Yet Xiao Yan had actually taken an eighth-tier alchemist as his teacher. Even Dou Zun experts would take the initiative to befriend someone like that.

Such a person was Xiao Yan's teacher, which meant he was the teacher of the man who would originally have become the Misty Cloud Sect's young sect master's husband. Now, however, the two sides might end up bearing a grudge against each other.

"Xiao Yan took an eighth-tier alchemist as his teacher."

Within the Purifying Lotus Triple Flower Pupils' space, the Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python's closed eyelids twitched.

It seemed Xiao Yan was the person Lu Yuan wanted to trade with when he asked for the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame.

For an eighth-tier alchemist, getting the other party to acknowledge that he had helped her obtain a chance to have a seventh-tier pill refined was a small matter.

"Why would I joke with you about something like this?" Lu Yuan motioned for Yun Yun to sit down, then picked up the teapot and poured him some tea.

"I really didn't expect Xiao Yan to have such a fortuitous encounter." Yun Yun sat back down and picked up her teacup, shaking her head with a smile. "I wonder if that girl Yanran will regret it when she finds out."

"I don't know whether Nalan Yanran will regret it, but you seem to regret it very much." Lu Yuan's tone was teasing.

"Of course." Yun Yun admitted it openly. "If the engagement hadn't been broken, Yanran would have been Xiao Yan's rightful fiancée. Once Yanran inherited the position of sect master, Xiao Yan would have been the sect master's Dao companion, and that eighth-tier alchemist would have been Yanran's Dao companion's teacher, one of our own in the Misty Cloud Sect."

"You should have heard of Pill King Gu He. He's only a sixth-tier alchemist, yet he's a guest elder of the Misty Cloud Sect and holds a very high position."

"An eighth-tier alchemist..."

Yun Yun felt that, with an eighth-tier alchemist backing it, the Misty Cloud Sect might grow to surpass even what it had been when Patriarch Yun Potian was still alive.

"And that's just looking at it from the standpoint of benefits." Yun Yun sighed softly and shook her head. "Actually, I already regretted it not long after it happened."

"That marriage was first proposed by Nalan Jie of the Nalan Family back then. Xiao Lin of the Xiao Clan agreed after much deliberation."

"After Yanran broke off the engagement, the Nalan Family's reputation worsened. Nalan Jie was so furious that the lingering poison in his body flared up, putting his life in danger."

"A rift appeared between the Nalan Family and the Misty Cloud Sect, and rumors spread throughout the Jia Ma Empire that the Misty Cloud Sect acted overbearingly. Recently, the Imperial Family has imposed many restrictions on the Misty Cloud Sect and suppressed it in several matters."

"The marriage between the Nalan Family and the Xiao Clan was meant to bring the two families closer. Now we'll be fortunate if they don't become enemies."

"Sigh."

Hearing this, Lu Yuan shook his head with a smile. "Actually, there was nothing wrong with breaking off the engagement. The problem was how Nalan Yanran handled it back then."

"If Xiao Yan really had remained a good-for-nothing, should the future sect master of the Misty Cloud Sect have married a disciple who, according to the Xiao Clan's rules, would have been sent away?"

"If that happened, Nalan Yanran would probably become the laughingstock of the Jia Ma Empire and all the surrounding factions."

"Besides, as far as I know, Nalan Yanran had wanted to break off the engagement with Xiao Yan before he became a good-for-nothing."

"It's just that the way she went about breaking it off back then was far too much of a slap in the face. She might as well have been trying to form a deadly feud with them."

"Let the Three-Year Agreement be the price of a lesson learned."

Yun Yun agreed with this assessment. Judging by the circumstances at the time, breaking off the engagement hadn't been wrong.

It was Nalan Yanran's high-profile visit to break it off, with both threats and offers of compensation, that had been far too much of a slap in the face.

"What's done is done. There's no point regretting it now." Yun Yun wasn't one to dither; she only looked forward. "Yanran was indeed wrong to go and break off the engagement, and Xiao Yan is indeed impressive to have taken an eighth-tier alchemist as his teacher. But surely he wouldn't destroy the Misty Cloud Sect over it?"

Having the woman's side come to break off an engagement was indeed a slap in the face, but it would be enough to slap back. At most, he could demand some compensation as well.

But to destroy someone's faction at the drop of a hat was going a little too far.

Even factions in the Black-Corner Region would show restraint in such matters.

It would be easier than easy for the Misty Cloud Sect to destroy the Xiao Clan as it was now, yet it had never entertained such a thought.

"If it were only about the broken engagement, of course it wouldn't come to that." Lu Yuan shook his head gently. "Xiao Yan and Nalan Yanran made the Three-Year Agreement. Once he wins the match and regains the face he lost when the engagement was broken, as long as the Misty Cloud Sect doesn't refuse to accept defeat and let its seniors bully a junior, the matter will naturally end there."

"You can rest assured of that. If Xiao Yan really wins, the agreement will be honored as it should be," Yun Yun said immediately. "Making Nalan Yanran his slave or servant is impossible, but I'll offer ample compensation. Besides, Yanran won't necessarily lose."

You really are willing, but others may not be.

Lu Yuan thought of what Yun Leng had done. Anyone who didn't know the truth would think Mo Cheng was his own son. And then there was that fool Ge Ye.

If Xiao Yan really was someone capable of unleashing the fighting strength of a Dou Emperor, and was so young besides, why go and offend him?

However, that matter wasn't the dead knot between the Misty Cloud Sect and the Xiao Clan. It could only be considered the fuse.

Now that he had become Dao companions with Yun Yun and had agreed to become a guest elder of the Misty Cloud Sect, he naturally ought to resolve the matter.

"It has nothing to do with that." Lu Yuan took a sip of tea and continued, "The real reason is that your teacher was asked by someone to thoroughly investigate every family surnamed Xiao and every talented independent cultivator in the Jia Ma Empire, and capture the people in charge."

Yun Yun: ???

Her teacher had taken a job without even her, his disciple, knowing. How had Lu Yuan found out?

And this job would put the Misty Cloud Sect in danger of destruction.

"How do you know?" Yun Yun asked outright.

"It has to do with the inheritance I obtained." Lu Yuan deftly attributed every inexplicable point to his inheritance.

On the Dou Qi Continent, when it came to information related to cultivation and growing stronger, such as the inheritance of an unknown expert, even Dao companions would not pry.

"How would your inheritance know about my teacher?" A puzzled look appeared on Yun Yun's delicate face. Perhaps feeling that her question was somewhat improper, she added, "I'm not interested in your inheritance. It's just that, ever since I can remember, my teacher has disliked worldly affairs and preferred cultivating in seclusion."

"After I broke through to Dou Wang, he handed the position of sect master over to me and had the elders assist me in managing the sect's affairs, while he went off to cultivate in seclusion on the mountain behind the sect."

"I used to see him often in the earlier years, but now it's been several years since we last met. If I couldn't still sense his presence, I'd worry that he'd fallen."

"Why would he do what you described?"

Killing, setting fires, and plundering for someone else did not match Yun Yun's impression of her teacher.

"Do you remember the scene of Queen Medusa's evolution a few days ago?" Lu Yuan asked instead of answering.

Queen Medusa: ?

What does that have to do with me?

"I do."

Leaving aside the fact that it had happened only recently, Yun Yun would not have forgotten it even after a long time.

For the sake of evolution, she had touched the Heavenly Flames and narrowly escaped death. The process had been agonizing and miserable, yet she had refused to shrink back.

"To go that far for the sake of evolving, for the sake of breaking through to Dou Zong, was admirable."

As he spoke, Lu Yuan set down his teacup.

"Then tell me, if your teacher's lifespan were nearly exhausted and a chance to break through to Dou Zong were placed before him, what would he do?"

Yun Yun: !