Lanjiudi—a place where the poor and destitute lived. All kind of people lived there, but they shared two common traits: poverty and having no one to rely on.

Thus, if someone disappeared from Lanjiudi, it might be noticed, but no one really cared.

As the informant, Long Ming watched the Long family interrogate the person they had captured. The man’s screams echoed, bringing back memories for Long Ming of the days when he relentlessly trained, pounding wooden stakes and hardening his muscles.

Long Ye’s father had come up with the training method, and back then, Long Ming was inseparable from Long Ye, naturally learning it as well. But the process was agonizing, bordering on self-torture, and it had to be practiced daily without any break.

At one point, Long Ming had grown weary and slacked off, only to be discovered by Long Ye, leading to a heated argument. He corrected his behavior then, but when winter came a few months later, he grew lax again. This time, it seemed like Long Ye hadn’t noticed.

It wasn’t until Long Ming grew older that he realized Long Ye, being naturally clever and observant, couldn’t possibly have missed it. He must have known that Long Ming had been slacking all along. But after that one argument, Long Ye never mentioned it again, quietly watching as Long Ming went from outperforming him to becoming entangled in mundane concerns.

Long Ye had pretended to be a good friend, but Long Ming could see through the act now. He continued to play along, but it was no longer enough. He no longer wanted to see Long Ye’s smooth path to success.

The interrogation didn’t reveal much beyond what Long Ming had already provided. The captive knew little, except that he was a half-blood mix of demon rat and human, with heightened senses that had allowed him to encounter Long Ye both at Bamboo Forest Hill and the spirit herb shop.

Long Xing, nearing sixty years of age but still looking middle-aged, appeared even more vigorous than his injured younger son. He drummed his fingers on the table, asking, “What exactly is this valuable item?”

“I’m certain it’s something that kid Long Ye obtained from the light that came out of the secret realm. Why else would he run?”

“If he found something valuable and only thought about that girl from the Li family instead of offering it to the clan, that’s unacceptable. Long Xing, you and Chengyang know nothing about it? Your grandson isn’t loyal to the family.”

“But didn’t the ring get taken by the Golden Core elder? What valuable item could still be left?”

The Long family members muttered among themselves.

“Hmph! Whatever it is, there’s no way it’s going to be given to outsiders,” Long Xing said with displeasure. He turned to his younger son and instructed, “Chengyang, keep an eye on him. If he’s carrying anything to the Li family, tie him up and bring him back.”

“Understood,” Long Chengyang responded promptly, getting up and striding out.

The other members of the Long family inwardly cursed: “That old fox Long Xing, always sending his own son to snatch the good stuff.”

Even though they grumbled to themselves, they were curious about whether they might get a share when the time came. After all, despite Long Xing’s obsessive desire to become a Golden Core elder, he was still powerful and the only one in the clan with cultivation on par with the patriarch.

---

“Little Qian, why hasn’t Qing Qian come to find me? Not even a single message.”

Long Ye had just finished his daily training, and the commotion outside had finally died down. Hearing that he could finally go out, he couldn’t help but think about the Li family.

Shi Qian lay lazily in the sunlight, swishing his tail. “Squeak squeak…” The grass is so green…

Shi Qian knew that Long Ye just wanted to talk things over. The young man already had a plan in mind. As expected, Long Ye put on his clothes, packed the remaining spirit-nourishing pills, and asked, “Xiao Qian, I’m going to see Qing Qian. Are you coming?”

Shi Qian shook his head.

Long Ye gave him some instructions, telling him to hide inside if he heard any noise, then left.

With no word from Li Qing Qian or her family, Long Ye grew worried that they might have been affected by the recent chaos.

In fact, Li Qing Qian had only just returned a few days ago. She had gone to experience the splendor of the capital, where even on the streets, Foundation Establishment cultivators—considered powerful in their small town—were everywhere. Rare treasures and spirit herbs, and even spirit beasts, were plentiful.

During her time there, the supposedly mediocre Gongsun young master had broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage, solidifying Li Qing Quan’s decision. She wanted to marry a strong man who could protect her, and this meant her marriage to the Long family had to be settled quickly.

As Long Ye left his home, he quickly noticed someone trailing him. Pretending not to know, he took the opportunity to glimpse the person’s face and grew even more puzzled.

It was his uncle, Long Chengyang. Why was he following him?

Long Ye didn’t get along well with this uncle. For one, his father and uncle had different mothers, so the brothers were distant. By the time it got to Long Ye’s generation, the relationship was even more estranged. Moreover, their grandfather Long Xing was blatantly unfair in how he treated them.

Long Ye wasn’t boasting when he told Shi Qian about his knack for finding medicinal herbs. In fact, he had once stumbled upon two spirit herbs in a row, only to have them snatched away by his uncle under the pretext of filial piety to their grandfather. When Long Ye complained to Long Xing, his grandfather merely asked whether he wasn’t willing to offer such things for filial piety, never considering what Long Ye should rightfully receive in return.

Since losing his father, Long Ye had learned that even family couldn’t be relied upon.

Now, being followed, Long Ye’s first thought was, “Is he trying to rob me again?”

His second thought was to analyze how much his uncle knew and where he had gotten the information.

Soon, he realized that the conversation outside the Li family home that day must have been overheard.

Long Ye felt for the medicine bottle in his robe and, blending into the bustling East Market, slipped into a shop with multiple exits to evade his pursuers.

However, his cultivation wasn’t strong enough, and his destination was all too clear. Soon, he was cornered again.

In front of him stood Long Chengyang, and behind him was another family elder at the late Qi Refining stage.

Long Ye lowered his head and said, “Uncle, it’s you? I thought it was someone else. You scared me.”

“You ungrateful brat. Who else would bother to come for you?” Long Chengyang shot him a glance. “Come back with me.”

“Uncle, I’m just going to deliver medicine to Uncle Li,” Long Ye explained, glancing at the wounds on Long Chengyang’s face.

At the mention of “medicine,” Long Chengyang’s expression darkened, and he slapped Long Ye hard across the face.

“You have medicine but won’t give it to your own family? Looks like we didn’t wrong you after all!”

Long Ye stepped back, avoiding most of the blow, but the lingering force of the spirit-powered slap still hit his face, leaving it numb with pain.

Clutching his face, he muttered, “Fine, I’ll go home. But what did I do wrong to make you raise your hand against a family member?”

Long Chengyang couldn’t be bothered to argue with this sharp-tongued brat. He restrained Long Ye, gagged him, took the bottle of spiritual nourishing pills from him, and forcefully brought him back to the Long family.

Although they used a side entrance, news of Long Ye being tied up and taken to the ancestral hall spread quickly.

In the ancestral hall.

Facing countless ancestral tablets, Long Ye knelt down amidst the swirling incense smoke.

Next to him was a stack of prayer cushions, but Long Chengyang, who had forcibly made him kneel, didn’t offer him one. So, Long Ye’s knees pressed directly onto the hard stone floor.

On either side of the hall, the wide chairs were filled with dozens of Long family elders.

Long Ye heard the patriarch, seated at the front, ask, “Long Ye, what did you obtain on the day the
secret realm appeared at the Jiutian Peak?”

Then he heard his grandfather, Long Xing, interject, “The Long family raised and nurtured you, not to have you deliver people or things to the Li family!”

Surrounded by dozens of scrutinizing gazes, though everyone in the hall shared his blood, and the tablets before him were of his closest ancestors, Long Ye couldn’t feel even a trace of warmth or familial kindness.

His mind flashed to the little spirit beast in his courtyard. After a brief pause, he responded, “Patriarch, I’m weak and powerless. On that day, I was still in the bamboo forest area, far from Jiutian Peak. How could I have obtained anything valuable?”

“My uncle inexplicably dragged me back, even laying hands on me. I’m completely at a loss.”

“Stop pretending!” Long Chengyang interrupted. “This brat was on his way to the Li family. I searched him and found this.”

Long Chengyang pulled out the bottle of spiritual nourishing pills, and poured out one pill, filled with rich spiritual energy.

Someone took the pill and examined it. “It’s a high-grade yellow-class spirit nourishing pill. However, the abundant spiritual energy suggests it’s a freshly refined pill, not an ancient relic.”

The secret realm had existed for an unknown number of years, but based on the information the Long family had gathered, it was at least a thousand years old. If the pill had come from the secret realm, the spiritual energy within it wouldn’t be so pure.

Moreover, while yellow-class pills might be rare for a junior like Long Ye, they were commonplace for the elders, merely offering slightly purer spiritual energy for health and vitality.

Long Ye glanced at the solitary remaining pill, his eyes widening slightly. A bottle contained ten pills; he had used three, Xiao Qian had used one, so there should still be six left.

Long Ye explained, “There were six pills left. They were given to me by a Golden Core stage elder.”

“Why would an elder give you such things?” someone questioned.

“That day, I was in the bamboo forest and saw the disturbance at Jiutian Peak. I was planning to descend the mountain and return home, but I saw a ray of light flying toward the bamboo forest.”

“Following that light was the Golden Core elder. He thought I had obtained something from the light, so he searched me. After finding nothing, he gave me a bottle of pills.”

“That is the whole story.”

“My engagement with Qing Qian has been arranged for some time. The elders are aware of her family’s situation. I regularly bring medicine to her family, and I thought to share some of the pills with Uncle Li.”

“I truly don’t understand why my uncle followed me on the way to deliver the medicine, then captured me and created such a spectacle!”

Long Ye’s gaze swept over the ancestral tablets and the rows of family elders. Though kneeling, his posture remained upright, unyielding.

“Just the spirit nourishing pills?” Long Xing suddenly roared, “We’ve long suspected something. You won’t get away with lying!”

His roar, imbued with spiritual power, caused Long Ye’s head to spin. His blood surged, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Despite this, Long Ye remained resolute. His mind immediately turned to the one other thing that could be of interest—his little spirit beast, Little Qian, back in his courtyard.

But if they only wanted Little Qian, they could just take him by force, right?

No, this was a trap! They weren’t after Little Qian; they were after something he himself didn’t even know about.

How absurd.

Long Ye wiped the blood from his mouth with a cold smile. The crimson spreading across his pale face gave him a faint, sickly madness.

“If I truly had something, Grandpa, wouldn’t you just have my uncle take it from me? Why go through all this?”

“If I say I don’t have anything, then I don’t.” His gaze flicked over to two injured elders, and with a slight cough, he swallowed the blood pooling in his mouth. “So many people in the family couldn’t get anything from this struggle. How could I, a mere junior, possibly obtain anything? I ask the patriarch and all the elders to investigate thoroughly and clear my name.”

Long Ye’s voice rose in fury. “I want to know who is behind this, trying to frame me!”

Meanwhile, in Long Ye’s courtyard…

Shi Qian, with his sharp hearing, overheard a group of Long family boys talking as they passed by, mentioning that Long Ye had been taken to the ancestral hall.

Shi Qian shot up, ready to rush to the ancestral hall to save his new brother.

Unfortunately, being a weakling in combat, he had to think of a plan.

He recalled the plot: Aotian had been summoned to the ancestral hall because he possessed the secret realm ring and was suspected by the family. But Long Ye had deviated from that path due to him; instead of going after treasures, he had run off to dig for ginseng. Surely there wasn’t anything the Long family would be after, right?

He needed more information.

Mouse clans had a trick: a king rat could summon ordinary rats to do its bidding.

Shi Qian decided to recruit some rats to be his eyes and ears.

Using his bloodline sense, he searched for nearby rats.

Great. Long Ye’s courtyard was so poor, there weren’t any rats around.

No problem. He’d just borrow some from the neighbors. Shi Qian summoned two rats, plucked two of his own hairs, and fed them to the rats as payment. He instructed them to sneak over to the ancestral hall and listen.

Rat #1: “Squeak squeak!”

“Big bro! We know the ancestral hall well. Wait here, I’ll bring you some cakes!”

Shi Qian smacked the rat on the head. “Squeak squeak!”

“No stealing! Sneak in quietly, and don’t get caught. Got it?!”