After leaving Uncle Hua's place, Miao Yi and the others had just returned to Miao Yi's mansion on Jade Capital Peak when Xue'Er and the others informed them that the people from the Martial Manor had stopped by. They informed them that the Overlord wished to meet them tomorrow morning, and reminded them to not be tardy!
Then, just as they were discussing what time they should leave tomorrow, one of the guards stationed at the gates outside came in and reported that Huyan Kang'an was requesting an audience!
The trio exchanged glances, wondering what the old man wanted. Miao Yi frowned and said, "Let him in!"
Not long afterward, the old man that they had previously met in prison walked in. As both parties exchanged glances, Huyan Kang'an repeatedly cupped his fists towards Miao Yi and the others and apologized, "It is all this old one's fault for not properly teaching my own child. I humbly ask that you forgive his transgressions, Oh great immortals!"
Miao Yi and the others felt a little strange hearing the words 'great immortal' come out of this person's mouth. One should know that there were countless 'great immortals' in the cultivation realm who couldn't even measure up to the mortal standing before them right now!
Miao Yi smiled and replied, "We already know about this matter. Huyan Shou only did what he did because he was tricked by someone else. He isn't completely at fault."
Behind him, Qian'Er quietly bit her lips and lowered her head when she heard this.
Huyan Kang'an humbly waved his hand, as though saying—'I know full well what kind of person my son is'. He then turned around and beckoned for his three attendants to come in. Upon his signal, the attendants revealed six palm-sized decorative gift boxes, then placed two of them on the teapoy closest to Miao Yi and Zhao Fei.
"Oh great immortals, you are magnanimous indeed. Thank you for not holding it against us mere mortals. This might not be much, but here is a simple token of my apology!" Huyan Kang'an greatly humbled himself, to the point that it was hard to believe that he was a descendant of the great Huyan Taibao.
Miao Yi didn't know what gifts Huyan Kang'an had brought over to 'redeem himself', but he put up a smile nonetheless and said, "Your ancestor Huyan Taibao is someone we deeply respect. Since you've humbled yourself to deliver these gifts to us personally, there is not much for us to say. Consider it all water under the bridge! However, I still need to remind you of something!"
Huyan Kang'an cupped his fists and replied, "Please enlighten this old one, Oh great immortal!"
Miao Yi replied solemnly, "We can spare your child. However, a certain someone might not share our goodwill, because you ruined his life!"
Huyan Kang'an's eyes immediately brightened. Despite fully understanding what Miao Yi was implying, he still asked, "Do tell me more, Oh great immortal."
"To be frank with you, not too long after we found out that Ren Xuanming was exiled from the Celestial Nation's Chamber of Commerce, we immediately trailed after him out the capital city, in hopes of getting payback for what he did." Speaking up to here, Miao Yi shook his head and sighed.
Huyan Kang'an was evidently quite interested in the outcome and asked, "Then what happened?"
Miao Yi waved his hand and said, "Regretfully, even with the three of us working together, that Ren Xuanming wasn't even the least bit scared. Instead, he made blasphemous claims, saying that he will have his revenge on you and your son for ruining his life. He also warned the three of us that our time will come too. At first, we didn't think too much about his ravings and had only planned on teaching him a little lesson. However, in that crucial moment, a Purple Lotus expert suddenly appeared and rescued him!"
Huyan Kang'an's eyes instantly narrowed as he mumbled to himself, "A Purple Lotus expert…"
"We then realized that Ren Xuanming wasn't simply being full of himself; he really had a card up his sleeve." Miao Yi smiled and continued, "This might sound a little harsh, but we cultivators can at least defend ourselves. It's best if you and your son prepare yourselves while you still can. That Ren Xuanming is definitely not the forgiving type!"
Huyan Kang'an chuckled. He cupped his fists, replying, "Thank you for the reminder, Oh great immortal! This old one has already lived a long life. It matters not whether I live or die. And my son is already sentenced to a decade of imprisonment by Governor Lan Hou. You can say that he reaped what he sowed. Whatever happens to him, that shall be his penance!"
Huyan Kang'an thought that Miao Yi was only giving him this reminder because the latter wished to borrow the strength of his Huyan family to eliminate Ren Xuanming, or perhaps he was just trying to curry favor with him. Huyan Kang'an believed he had seen too many of these kinds of cultivators. After all, even though he may be mortal, Huyan Kang'an had quite the number of cultivators sucking up to him.
After both parties peacefully resolved their grievances, Huyan Kang'an excused himself. Surprisingly, Miao Yi personally walked him out the door. Both parties were very polite towards one another.
As he watched Huyan Kang'an leave, Miao Yi returned to the living room and noticed that Zhao Fei and Sikong Wuwei had already opened their boxes. They each took out a fruit the size of a quail's egg, which bore an appearance similar to that of black jade. Zhao Fei and Sikong were clicking their tongues at the fruit, which was emanating a soothing fragrance.
Miao Yi opened both his boxes as well and found two pieces of the same fruit inside. He held one of them up and asked curiously, "What did that old man give us?"
Zhao Fei smiled wryly and replied, "Fretless Fruits! Many cultivators can only dream of obtaining even one. For a mortal family to give us six in one go… as expected of the number one family within the Celestial Nation."
"This is a Fretless Fruit?" Miao Yi was somewhat taken aback, and he held the fruit up to his nose to take another whiff.
Even though he had never seen it before, he'd heard tales of it. When a cultivator used up too many Orbs of Will, he would, to some degree, be affected by the turbulent emotions and desires within the orb. The more Orbs of Will one used, the more frequently one would have distracting thoughts from the various emotions and desires accumulated deep inside his body. Normally, a cultivator would be able to suppress these wild thoughts and retain his composure with his cultivation. However, whenever a cultivator had to go through a major breakthrough, like from Blue Lotus realm to Red Lotus realm, or from Purple Lotus realm to Golden Lotus realm, he would be highly susceptible to the disruption from all these muddled emotions. In other words, this was a tribulation!
This situation fell in line with Lao Bai's theory of the four major realms, which was from the First Art of Traversing to the Second Art of Levitation, then to the Third Art of Soaring the Heavens, and finally, to the Fourth Art of Infinity.
As his cultivation grew stronger, Miao Yi made an unsettling discovery. In the eyes of lowly cultivators like themselves, there was meaning in the segregation of the realms of cultivation into the various grades, such as White Lotus First Grade or Second Grade, or Blue Lotus First Grade or Second Grade and the like. However, for experts with a powerful cultivation, such a division was practically pointless. To them, there was probably only a difference between White Lotus, Blue Lotus, Red Lotus and so on and so forth. And for people with an even higher cultivation, it was likely that Lao Bai's theory of the four major realms alone was of any significance to them.
Take for example the individuals who were on the same level as the Six Sages. Regardless of whatever grade your White Lotus or Blue Lotus cultivation was in, it was nothing but a joke to them. Perhaps even for Red Lotus Fifth or Sixth Grade cultivators, in their eyes, was there really a difference?
When it came to such major breakthroughs, it was easy for a cultivator to enter an uncontrollable frenzy after being taken over by all those chaotic desires. Should he be unable to suppress his inner demons, that would be where the Fretless Fruit would come in handy. Once the spiritual fruit was ingested, it would, to some degree, quell the turbulent emotions inside the cultivator.
Miao Yi had also heard that for Ol' Third who had the Phoenix form, her innately pure body made her highly resistant to the various chaotic emotions that plagued normal cultivators, which also meant that she wouldn't be easily disrupted by her inner demons. In this aspect alone, she was much more capable than the average cultivator already. This was the power of an inborn cultivation aptitude. And because it made cultivation smoother and faster, the cultivators all coined it with the term 'Phoenix form'.
"A single Fretless Fruit is worth at least as much as a hundred thousand low-grade Orbs of Will. That old man sure is generous. Zhao Fei, this thing is useful to us for when we break through to the Red Lotus realm. That old man sure sent these gifts over at the right time," Sikong Wuwei said with a chuckle.
Zhao Fei nodded and said, "With his background, he actually didn't even need to go this far. For him to willingly humble himself and spend so much money just to resolve this grievance, I can see that not all who come from an affluent family are layabouts. It is clear that the Huyan family wasn't solely relying on their background to remain an influential family for so long."
Zhao Fei and Sikong soon took their leave after a brief discussion amongst themselves. Miao Yi then handed the two gift boxes containing the Fretless Fruits over to Qian'Er and Xue'Er. This was clearly what the old man intended by bringing six of these gifts, as his son had taken advantage of six ladies. However, Miao Yi soon noticed that Qian'Er had silently kept her head lowered this entire time, biting her lips fretfully. Actually, he already noticed this when she came out of prison. He just didn't have the time to ask her about it with so many things happening. Finally, Miao Yi couldn't help asking, "Qian'Er, what's wrong?"
Beside her, Xue'Er timidly asked, "Elder Sister was taken advantage of by that scoundrel… Master, are you going to abandon Elder Sister?"
When she heard this, Qian'Er bit even harder on her lips, almost causing them to bleed, as two teardrops rolled down her cheeks.
Miao Yi was taken aback at first, but he soon understood everything. This was how society worked. Ever since ancient times, it was acceptable for a man to take in multiple wives. However, if a respectable woman was even slightly touched by another man, it would mean that her purity was tainted, and the outcome of that was terrible indeed.
"Silly girl, you're overthinking things. This isn't your fault to begin with. I'm not such an intractable man." Miao Yi lifted Qian'Er's chin up, then wiped away her tears for her.
"But then Master…" Xue'Er continued to stutter as she said, "You… you accepted their gifts… and said that it's all water under the bridge…"
Even though her words were all over the place, Miao Yi understood what she was trying to say. He shook his head and replied, "Just because I accepted his gifts, it doesn't mean that I plan to let this matter rest. Qian'Er had to go through such a terrible experience. How can I just forget about it so easily? You are both my women. If either of you were humiliated, that means I'm being humiliated as well! However, the incident this time has taught us how feeble we really are. If we go head-to-head against our foes, the ones to suffer will still be us. Don't you two worry about it. Before we leave the capital city, I will definitely have that scoundrel's life!"
Hearing Miao Yi's assurance, Qian'Er finally felt a sense of relief. At the same time, she broke out in tears, and dove straight into Miao Yi's embrace, her shoulders quivering uncontrollably. She was really worried that Miao Yi would abandon her...
Morning the next day. The light of dawn was just barely peeking out from the horizon, but Miao Yi, Zhao Fei, Sikong Wuwei, Gu Sanzheng, Tan Lao, and Ye Xin had already begun their ascent to the summit of the lofty Jade Capital Peak.
At the summit, there weren't many clouds, only the wide expanse of the clear, blue sky surrounding a lofty tower. The tower was massive, ancient, and most importantly, solemn.
Arriving ahead of time, Miao Yi and the others patiently waited at the foot of the steps leading up to the tower. They couldn't help feeling a little pensive about climbing up to the top of Jade Capital Peak for the first time. Within the cultivation realm, there weren't many who could make it up to this place. This was something that the six of them had risked their lives for in the Subjugation Crusade; it was an honor they deserved.
Meanwhile, along the mountain, within the prison walls of the Martial Manor's judiciary office, Huyan Shou had already lost all sense of time after being held behind bars for so long without seeing the light of day. He continued to mumble incoherent sentences, as though he had already gone insane.
Suddenly, a peculiar-looking mantid propped up against the bars of the prison cell started to beat its wings. It flew over to Huyan Shou and landed on his head. Huyan Shou then lifted his hand and touched his head out of reflex, but his body suddenly froze the next second, and he was instantly covered by a layer of white frost.
And as his body fell stiffly to the ground, the tiny mantid flew off and disappeared...
The strange noise that came from the prison cell startled the jailer, who quickly ran over to check what happened. When he found the peculiar state that Huyan Shou's body was in, he immediately dashed inside to examine him.
How could a mere mortal possibly withstand the powerful frost venom of the tiny mantid? Huyan Shou had instantly died on the spot...
As the first golden rays of light rose above the horizon, Miao Yi and the others noticed about a dozen purple streaks of light flying overhead and descending upon the summit. The six of them were standing at the bottom of the steps, and because of the difference in height, they couldn't make out the faces of the people who had just arrived. Nonetheless, they couldn't help their astonishment when they noticed the appearance of so many Purple Lotus experts!
As the golden light of dawn dyed the ancient tower in a bright, shimmering yellow, a beautiful woman dressed in elegant attire appeared at the top of the steps. She cast a gentle smile at Miao Yi and the others, and said, "The six of you who have returned from the Sea of Constellations Subjugation Crusade, you have proven the might of our Fifth Earthly Branch. You have done the Overlord a great service, and he has specially granted you an audience!"
"We humbly accept the order!" The six of them stood in a line and cupped their fists in acknowledgment of the order. After which, they ascended the steps.
In the distance, the rolling clouds cast a beautiful contrast against the rising sun, creating an extraordinarily dreamlike sight to behold.
And right beside them was a scenic garden like that of paradise. Along the way, they could see a group of beautiful women dressed in noble attire, carrying a jade pot in their hands as they collected the dew that dripped from the various flowers that surrounded the area...