The fight between Wei Tu and Situ Yang hadn't caused much of a scene at first. Only Zhao Huamin and Zhao Zhujun, aunt and niece, were there to watch. Later, a few more Zhao clan members who were nearby heard the commotion and came over.
Afterward, the aftermath of the battle was also intentionally kept quiet by the Shengya Zhao Clan. They forbade anyone from talking about it or spreading rumors.
At least, Fu Dalu, who was visiting Shendu Island, didn't know what had happened. Even though he sensed some magical fluctuations in the distance, he never imagined someone at mid Golden Core realm like Wei Tu could get involved.
That kind of power felt almost on par with the clan's top elder Ji Zhang.
This move by the Shengya Zhao Clan was a good thing for both Wei Tu and Situ Yang. The tallest tree catches the wind. When facing Situ Yang's provocation, Wei Tu had used talismans and artifacts to fight at first, only showing his body refinement skills at the very end.
His goal all along was to hide his true strength.
Now that the Shengya Zhao Clan was controlling the spread of the incident, it played right into Wei Tu's plan.
As for Situ Yang, being the Dao Child of Shengya Mountain but losing to an outsider loose cultivator—he also wouldn't want that news to spread.
"I wonder who it was fighting on Shendu Island yesterday. The commotion was huge, and every Zhao Clan cultivator was on high alert, all nervous and tense…" Fu Dalu followed Wei Tu down the mountain. Once they left the gates of Shengya Mountain, he started chattering nonstop.
In his words, it was clear he was trying to fish for information from Wei Tu, who was now obviously close to the Shengya Zhao Clan.
During these days on Shendu Island, Fu Dalu had clearly noticed the Zhao Clan treated Wei Tu differently.
When they arrived, everyone was friendly. When they left, the clan elder Zhao Huamin spoke to Wei Tu in a warm, almost familial way.
She even hinted, as they left, that there were many suitable female cultivators in the clan who'd be willing to marry Wei Tu.
"I was involved in that fight, but Elder Min said those involved are sensitive figures, so it's not really something to talk about… I hope you understand, Young Master Fu." Wei Tu smiled and politely declined.
He wasn't lying. After the duel, the Zhao Clan had not only ordered those present to keep quiet, but also asked him not to make a fuss about it, to avoid attracting jealousy or complicating things for the clan's clean-up efforts.
"Of course, of course." Fu Dalu nodded right away.
Still, he was shocked inside. He never thought he'd underestimated Wei Tu's position. He'd actually been invited by the Shengya Zhao Clan to watch a fight?
Wei Tu's status was now clearly on par with the clan's own direct bloodline.
'Just what is Wei Tu's real identity, to get treated like this by the Shengya Zhao Clan? Maybe the Ying Ding Tribe is planning to work with the Zhao Clan? No, it can't be! Even if they worked together, the clan wouldn't treat Wei Tu this well. Besides, the Ying Ding Tribe would probably send their own clansmen…' Fu Dalu kept guessing in his mind.
'Could Wei Tu's real surname be Zhao?' That thought popped up too.
But no matter how much he guessed, Fu Dalu never once suspected Wei Tu's real strength—after all, in the world of cultivation, realm was what really mattered.
...
After leaving Shengya Mountain, Wei Tu didn't immediately leave Haizhou. Instead, he headed east, toward another Zhao Clan stronghold—Lingyan Island.
Lingyan Island was different from Shendu Island. It wasn't a floating island raised by an array, but a large spiritual island in the southeast part of Chiming Sea.
The Chiming Sea was vast and endless. Some legends claimed that at its farthest reaches, there were other cultivation civilizations, but officially, no cultivator had ever found such a world.
Still, the near sea area of Chiming Sea had developed into a sea cultivation world unique to the Xiao Kingdom.
Haizhou's wealth, about eighty percent, came from harvesting the riches of Chiming Sea.
Most of the cultivators living on Lingyan Island were Xiao Kingdom branches of various families. The Qi Yue Zhao Clan, which had migrated from Zheng Kingdom to Xiao Kingdom, was settled here by their main family.
This time, Wei Tu came to Lingyan Island to see his sworn elder brother from years ago—Wei Fei.
"It's been a hundred years since we last met. I wonder how Second Brother is doing now…" Hovering over the Chiming Sea, Wei Tu looked off into the distance, his usually calm face showing a bit of longing.
Now, his age was already three hundred and one, while Wei Fei, two years older, was three hundred and three.
Foundation Establishment's lifespan is four hundred years. But not all cultivators can peacefully live to exactly four hundred.
Some die at three hundred and ninety, or three hundred and eighty.
Back then, Wei Fei had failed at his first Foundation Establishment attempt, leaving his body with hidden injuries. Even though he'd managed to make a lucky breakthrough later, that injury meant he'd never make further progress.
As for his remaining years… Wei Tu guessed Wei Fei might make it to somewhere between three hundred seventy and three hundred eighty.
Anything beyond that would be hard.
After all, he was only early Foundation Establishment.
This meant that, from now on, every meeting would be one less.
Nothing tests a cultivator's state of mind like watching those close to you pass away, one after another.
...
At the same time.
In the southeastern corner of Lingyan Island, inside a large manor with a sign reading "Wei."
In the courtyard, a plump, well-dressed old man—looking a bit like a prosperous country squire—was lying on a bamboo chair, holding a leisure book in his right hand, reading with a smile.
With his left hand, he grabbed a handful of seasonal fruits from a plate next to him and munched happily.
"Stop reading those leisure books, old man,"
"The island's puppet workshop is planning to open a branch on a nearby island. You might not be a top puppet master, but you're at least Foundation Establishment. Maybe you can land a manager's job…"
A young woman came out of the house just then. She glanced at the plump old man relaxing in the courtyard, her brows raised with frustration, looking like she was angry at his lack of ambition.
"Puppet workshop? I'm not going," the plump old man shook his head and refused without a thought.
"Not going?" The young woman jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and shouted, "If you don't go, how will our Ping'er cultivate in the future? Are you just going to watch him have no future at all?"
"Ping'er only has a lower-grade spiritual root, he has no prospects. No matter how much I help, he'll never amount to much." The old man put down his book and sighed.
"All these years, I've spent a fortune on pills for him. If it weren't for the clan leader remembering old ties and helping us, our family would have been broke long ago."
"Now, how could I have the face to ask the clan leader for another favor and try to get a manager position?"
The old man's tone was helpless.
Once or twice, he could swallow his pride and ask for help. But if he begged too many times, even the thickest skin would be too embarrassed.
"This is about Ping'er's future! If you don't go beg, you'll be ruining his whole life," the young woman said. Realizing that arguing was useless, she plopped onto the ground and cried into her handkerchief.
This act worked.
The plump old man couldn't sit still anymore. He got up to help her, supporting her as he said, "The clan leader has changed now, it's not the old one anymore. I have no standing with the new clan leader! I've already begged a few times, and if I try again for a manager job at the puppet workshop, the new clan leader probably won't do me any more favors."
"If that happens, we'll really lose face."
He tried to reason with her.
She wiped her red eyes and said, "Aren't you acquainted with Qingluo Junzhu? She's a Golden Core cultivator now and went to Shengya Mountain to train. If she speaks up, even if the clan leader forgets old ties, he'll still have to listen."
"Qingluo Junzhu?" Her words pulled the old man's memories back more than a hundred years.
Back then, in Qiyue Mountain, he was a guest elder of the Qiyue Zhao Clan, and would occasionally meet Qingluo Junzhu, known as a genius of the Zhao Clan…
Besides Qingluo Junzhu, he had old friends and relatives there, all left behind in that homeland.
But after moving to Xiao Kingdom, after coming to Lingyan Island, all those ties gradually faded away. That included Qingluo Junzhu.
After she went to Shengya Mountain, they'd lost touch for decades.
Even though he still had the old token Qingluo Junzhu had given him out of respect for the past, the plump old man wasn't sure if it was right to use it now.
'After all, this favor really belongs to Third Brother,' the old man understood clearly. Qingluo Junzhu and he had almost nothing to do with each other—she'd given him a way to reach out purely because of his sworn brother.
"No. Absolutely not!" The plump old man rejected firmly.
Even though he knew that using that token could easily get what he wanted, he also knew that once it was used, it would only make trouble for his sworn brother.
That favor would be spent for his sake, not for his brother's. Everything would have to be paid back by his brother.
"Wei Fei! I must have been blind to follow you. Life's impossible like this. You refuse this and that, you're Foundation Establishment, but live like a Qi Refinement cultivator—who lives like that…" The young woman sobbed.
As soon as she said this, the neighbors' divine sense immediately probed over, curious about the noise in the Wei home.
The old man's face turned red with embarrassment. He didn't know how to answer.
With his aptitude and temperament, he should never have reached Foundation Establishment in his life. If not for his sworn brother and former in-laws helping, he would never have succeeded.
So, his strength was among the weakest of Foundation Establishment cultivators, and he didn't have much talent in immortal skills either.
After moving to Lingyan Island, he'd barely managed to learn a simple puppet technique.
The young woman wasn't wrong.
He had Foundation Establishment cultivation but lived like a Qi Refinement cultivator.
'If only I hadn't chased after glory back then, if I'd focused on cultivation, maybe I wouldn't be in this mess today,' the old man regretted.
Just then, he sensed something and looked up into the distance.
He saw a blue figure in the sky, flying towards them at incredible speed.
"Golden Core True Lord?" The onlookers turned pale, trembling and afraid to breathe too loudly.
"Which Golden Core True Lord is this? Did someone on the island find a cultivator prodigy?" An elder in late Foundation Establishment robes stepped out of his house, looking delighted and hurrying to greet the visitor.
Although Lingyan Island was a territory of the Shengya Zhao Clan, not many Golden Core True Lords came and went. Most of them had business here.
The most common reason was to recruit talented youths to go train at Shengya Mountain.
'That person… looks like Third Brother?' The old man, ignored by everyone else, had a flash of joy in his eyes and murmured to himself.