The Quest for Understanding

When E Ye arrived there, he did not see Wen in person. All around were signs left from a battle, enveloped in mist. E Ye saw a group of assassins dressed in black robes with red patterns approaching through the fog after Wen's clone dissipated. Taken by surprise, Wen was overpowered, knocked unconscious, and taken away. Fortunately, she had hidden Cui Yuan earlier, who remained undiscovered.

"Danfeng..." Following the clues Wen left behind, E Ye deduced that those who captured her were from Danfeng City. He figured she must have helped someone she shouldn't have or seen something she shouldn't have. Not showing any particularly strong emotions, he prepared to leave with Cui Yuan after finding her.

"Listen up, you lot around here. I'm in a foul mood right now. You trash, don't bring trouble upon yourselves!" Dragging Cui Yuan, E Ye sensed people outside. He put her down as the mist around him seethed, as if concealing sharp swords ready to fly out at any moment.

"If it were the head disciple, I might show some respect. But you, merely the second in rank, what gives you the right to tell us to step aside? Furthermore, you've learned things you shouldn't have. We can't leave you alive." A voice came from the woods. "As for your few companions... who knows if you'd spread the news? So, we took the trouble to deal with them—a convenient stroke of work!"

"The ones tampering with the messages in secret... it wasn't Fellow Daoist Wen, it was you, wasn't it?" E Ye's expression noticeably darkened. The surrounding mist boiled and rapidly expanded in all directions.

"So clever. You guess!" The voice rang out amidst screams, then fell silent.

E Ye lifted Cui Yuan again and quickened his pace.

Luckily, the group had rehearsed this beforehand. Apart from Yan, the others were found with only minor external injuries and were largely unharmed.

...

While chasing those men in black, he accidentally tripped over a branch by the roadside. Many small wooden splinters pierced his palms and knees.

"Er Gou, are you okay?" A hand reached out in front of Yan. He looked up in disbelief, countless glistening tears welling up and swirling in the corners of his eyes.

"B... Boss!" Yan grasped that person's hand and was pulled up. The one who lifted him was the Boss, who had long since been dead.

"Er Gou, how could you be so careless? You fell this badly?" The Boss steadied Yan, patted the dust off his clothes, and then carefully pulled out all the thorns that had embedded themselves in his flesh.

"A true man sheds blood, not tears! Look at you, what kind of state is this?" The Boss wiped the tears from the corner of Yan's eye and patted his shoulder. "What, did someone bully you? Tell me, and I'll beat them up for you!" In the blink of an eye, they were back in the village.

"Er Gou! Do you have any idea how long you were unconscious up on the mountain? A young man from the neighboring village was the one who found you up there!" Then, a stern yet heartbroken voice suddenly sounded behind him. "Oh my! What happened to you? You're covered in blood! Let mom see, let mom take a look!"

A woman walked out of the house. Initially, she had been furious and ready to give Yan a good lesson, but when she saw him covered in wounds and with tears in his eyes, her heart suddenly softened. She hurriedly approached him, stroked his face with a pained expression, and pulled him into her arms.

"Mother!" Feeling the warmth of his mother's embrace, Yan suddenly couldn't hold back the tears any longer; they streamed out uncontrollably.

"Zeng Zi, is Er Gou feeling better now?" A man walked out from behind the Boss. At first glance, it was Cisheng.

"It seems like there's no big problem now. Probably just had a bad dream or something!" The Boss stepped aside.

"It's okay, it's all over now! Those bad dreams won't come true! Everything will pass!" Hearing this, Yan's mother immediately bent down and whispered words of comfort.

Yan cried even harder. Knowing this was a moment for just mother and son, Cisheng led the Boss away. Before leaving, he left a packet of medicine he had brought from the city, saying it was remarkably effective for treating bruises and sprains.

That night, after applying the ointment, Yan's wounds didn't become inflamed. Looking again the next morning, they had already scabbed over. As it was like this, he didn't think much more of it and got up early to help the family with farm work.

Yan's father and mother, however, were surprised. They'd never forbidden Yan from going out to play, nor forced him to do farm chores. Why was he so sudden today... They could only attribute it to him having had a not-so-good dream.

By noon, Mother Yan had prepared a table full of dishes. Yan volunteered to call the Boss and Cisheng over, but in Father Yan's memory, he wasn't usually this proactive about inviting others to their home...

This continued for several days. His parents asked if something had happened, but he remained silent. Eventually, they came to the same conclusion: perhaps something had possessed Yan. Regardless of his consent, they dragged him to the nearby city. They visited doctors and sought out immortals, but they found nothing conclusive. Mother Yan, however, did buy quite a few things to bring home.

After a few days of peace, Yan suddenly heard that Cisheng had gotten engaged.

He rushed over, his heart full of joy to offer congratulations. But then he saw the woman—a head of black hair, a slim waist, an oval face, beautiful and captivating, yet unnervingly bewitching, as if not real. A sudden, splitting headache struck him, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

In his unconscious state, he felt as if he were being pulled apart and shaken. Voices were calling him from both sides. Everywhere, the calls were so urgent, so sincere. Both sides were people of utmost importance to him. For a moment, he didn't know where he should go.

"Little brother Yan, sister-in-law is fine now, you must wake up! Everyone is so worried about you!" Suddenly, a woman's voice pierced through the haze and reached Yan's ears. His eyes snapped open.

"Sister-in-law, you're alright..." Yan opened his eyes, tears still swirling in them, somewhat dazed. He saw Cui Yuan before him, calling out to him anxiously.

"Yes, it's all thanks to you, little brother Yan, calling for reinforcements in time!" Seeing Yan was awake, a glistening tear escaped from the corner of Cui Yuan's eye.

Cisheng rushed over and held Yan in a tight embrace, patting his back firmly, releasing him only after confirming it wasn't an illusion. "Little brother Yan, don't act so recklessly in the future!"

"Well done, junior brother!" Yan Kui stood nearby, looking at Yan with relief and nodding.

"Brother Cisheng, can we go home for a bit? I miss father and mother!" Yan recalled the scenes from his dream again and felt homesick.

"Mm, we'll go back in a few days. It's perfect timing, I and your Senior Sister Cui will return to hold our wedding ceremony. We'll invite our master and the other junior brothers too!" Cisheng patted Yan's shoulder. "But before that, you need to stay under observation here for a few more days. We can't let you go back until we're sure you're fine!"

"Alright, alright, time for the check-up is here! Senior brothers and sisters, please don't disturb him for now!" Lian Fulan entered from the door, timing in hand, carrying another bowl of brownish medicine.

Everyone left. Lian Fulan first placed the medicine on the bedside table, then sat down beside Yan. "Give me your hand. Before, your pulse was completely chaotic. Now that you're conscious, let me check again!"

She grabbed Yan's hand, felt his pulse for a moment, then nodded and released it. "Not bad. At least it's stable now!" As she spoke, Lian Fulan pinched Yan's cheek. "You're never easy on our hearts, are you? Didn't I tell you not to use the Immortal Seed recklessly!"

"Fulan... I know I was wrong! This time, I only used a bit of its Mind Force right at the start. I don't know anything about what happened after that!" Yan winced in pain, his whole body moving with the force of her pinch.

"Still, you did help a lot this time. Yun Feng and Senior Sister Cui's injuries wouldn't have been easy to treat without that elder." Seeing Yan's comical state, Lian Fulan narrowed her eyes with a smile and let go.

"Fulan, can you tell me what exactly happened?" Yan recovered his wits and asked.

"Well, you came looking for me to call for reinforcements before, didn't you? I was with Senior Sister Mu Han at the time. Master Xian and Senior Sister Jian found us, and after we arrived, they went to help Senior Brother E. I went to find you first by following the lingering energy signature I'd left on you before. As soon as I got there, I found you standing there all dazed and vacant—you must have fallen under an illusion spell without even realizing it. I then planned to drag you away, but a bunch of Danfeng trash surrounded us. What happened next was probably one of the beings from your Immortal Seed taking over your body, fighting them all, seizing the chance to break through the encirclement with me, and reuniting with Senior Brother E and the others. We fought while retreating, waiting to regroup with the Masters.

However, it seems Master Xian and the others were held up too; they didn't come for a long time. That group Danfeng sent even had quite a few True Gods among them. Who could've expected that? Their foundational techniques and insights were utterly pathetic, but they had numbers!

Fortunately, we all managed to hold our own. During that time, you... or rather, that being from the Immortal Seed, instantly transmitted half of a cultivation technique to Yun Feng in a flash, allowing her to control the surrounding plants to bind those people. He even told her... to go to a certain mountain in the Imperial City if she had the chance, saying she could obtain the other half of the technique there. I only found out later that Yun Feng had been controlled at some point without anyone knowing. That act of his wasn't just waking Yun Feng up; it synergized with the violent outburst caused by the sudden implantation of another cultivation technique upon her initial awakening, killing a whole lot of enemies in one go!

And also, the coordination between him and Senior Brother E was seamless! Imposing and heroic, poised and commanding—they simply cut down enemies amid casual conversation!" Lian Fulan started by narrating factually, but her eyes gradually grew distant, her cheeks slightly flushed, and her description became increasingly exaggerated.

In reality, even with Yun Feng awakened and Cui Yuan's condition stabilized, the few of them were utterly incapable of facing such a number of enemies and soon found themselves at a disadvantage. Ultimately, they held on until Master Xian arrived, managing to avoid any fatalities.

"Then... why was the Imperial City taken down by you all?" After thinking for a moment, Yan blurted out.

Lian Fulan didn't evade the topic. She let out a sigh and explained to Yan, "First, that Danfeng trash, even if their cultivation reached the so-called True God realm, were only forcibly elevated through elixirs and special techniques. They had long since lost all potential. In terms of techniques, they only had a few of the easiest-to-cultivate garbage techniques from start to finish. Even us rogue cultivators, unless we were several major realms above them, could at best only achieve a pyrrhic victory against them!"

"Wasn't it said that from Demigod to True God..." Yan tried to ask but was interrupted. "Danfeng developed an elixir that allows a Demigod to advance directly to True God. The cost is that their cultivation can never progress an inch from that point on, and the actual combat power they can wield is only at the mid-stage Demigod level. Coupled with their worthless techniques, even a stronger Infant Transformation cultivator wouldn't fear them. They're far too weak compared to the proper True God armies of the Heaven Beyond Heavens!"

"Then what are they after?" Yan didn't quite understand.

"Numbers! True Gods can practice some special techniques. Although they're weak, they barely count as True Gods and can still use these techniques to catch people off guard. After all, no one would expect someone this weak to be able to unleash True God-level arts!" Lian Fulan's tone was dripping with sarcasm.

"Then, how do you compare to Danfeng..."

"A few of their elders could wipe us out. After all, a major city's resources and foundations are immense. We can't handle cannon fodder at the pseudo-True God level or those old monsters who've cultivated for ages!" Lian Fulan had a very clear understanding of their own capabilities.

"Then..."

"Danfeng has made too many enemies and has been involved in plenty of shady dealings. They've long been on the Imperial City's radar. Moreover, when we attack other factions, the Celestial Clan's pride keeps them from intervening. But if Danfeng goes... now that would be quite a show!" Lian Fulan thought of that scenario, shaking her head with a cold laugh. "Also, the previous Heterodox Emperor only arrogantly ascended because he saw it was us launching the attack. In his plan, crushing us was like crushing ants. But if it had been Danfeng, he would have squashed them first before ascending!"

"Oh right, one more thing. My grandfather was a genuinely cultivation-attained True God and, like Mo Wenxi, was extremely skilled at divination. Before his end, at the cost of his soul being extinguished, he divined a single glimmer of survival for us. Everyone acted strictly according to that omen, with no small amount of luck involved. After all, most of the Imperial City's main forces were absent back then, because all the older generation of that era's Heterodox Emperor had ascended. He himself also halted the extermination campaign against us due to a divination from the master of the Heaven Beyond Heavens. The new generation of prodigies were either secretly sent away, killed, assigned fatal missions, or lay in comas, unable to return and reinforce."

"So you won by capitalizing on perfect timing, advantageous terrain, and harmonious conditions?" Yan ventured, summarizing.

"A pyrrhic victory, to be precise! Four Demigods died, and the survivors lost any chance of reaching True God. Even so, it counts as seizing every advantage of time, place, and unity. Otherwise, I might have ended up a prisoner myself!" Lian Fulan couldn't resist adding a lighthearted remark at the end.

"Then what about the Sub-Institute..."

"Don't worry. The previous Heterodox Emperor was on very good terms with the old Institute Head. As long as he remains alive and well, nothing will happen here either!" Lian Fulan patted Yan, signaling him not to overthink it.

...

Before meeting with the others, E Ye had discovered some clues at the place where Wen was captured. Under the cover of night, he secretly called out Cisheng. They deliberated for a long time, preparing to do something in secret.