The surname Yang — a perfectly ordinary name. From high officials and noble houses to martial arts clans, from common folk to street beggars, countless people across the world bore the surname Yang.
But among all the Yangs under heaven, there was only one family whose name would make Dong Qinghan specifically point it out.
That was the Yang family of the Eight Great Families of Zhongdu! The eccentric Yang clan, impossible to deal with by any conventional logic — and the number one family among all eight great clans!
The Dong family was itself a first-rate power in the world, but they still fell short of the Eight Great Families of Zhongdu, let alone the strongest among them.
If some young master from another great family had sneaked off to this godforsaken backwater to hide his identity and live as an ordinary disciple, the Wind and Rain Dual Guardians might not have believed it so readily. Which of those young masters wasn't pampered and soft, drenched in luxury since birth, getting everything they ever wanted?
But if this youth truly belonged to the Yang family, the Wind and Rain Dual Guardians believed it without question.
Because the Yang family trained their disciples in exactly this bizarre manner — every generation of direct-line heirs had grown up the same way. At certain moments, all direct-line disciples would be scattered, each sent out to find their own opportunities and cultivate independently, only to be recalled later.
This method of training was dangerous. While cultivating outside, these direct-line disciples could not draw on the family's influence or resources at all. If they got into conflict with anyone, they could easily be killed — and in fact, this had happened many times. Yang family disciples who were sent out before they had fully matured sometimes met an untimely end.
There were drawbacks, but also benefits.
This method of training made every direct-line Yang disciple independent and hardened, scouring away their dependence on the family. Years of struggling on their own taught them that the only person they could truly trust in this world was themselves!
As a result, direct-line Yang disciples rarely exhibited the arrogance or decadence typical of young masters. Every one of them was cold and sharp as a blade, with formidable means.
Moreover, the Yang family leveraged this training approach to amass a vast collection of cultivation techniques and martial arts from countless sects, filling their own family's vaults. If anyone asked which family possessed the greatest number of techniques and martial arts in the world, the answer was undoubtedly the Yang family.
There is a bird in this world called the cuckoo.
The cuckoo lays its eggs in other birds' nests, letting other birds incubate and raise them. The cuckoo chicks are also extremely vicious — not only greedy for food, but they will push the foster parents' own chicks out of the nest to their deaths, hoarding all the parents' care for themselves.
The cuckoo had a poor reputation — much like the Yang family's reputation in the outside world, since their methods were not so very different.
Every time the Yang family's direct-line disciples were about to be scattered, every major sect and powerful faction across the land would avoid the Yangs as if avoiding a fierce tiger. No one wanted to accidentally take in a Yang disciple, only to raise them for years before they sprouted wings and flew away.
This practice of borrowing other nests to raise their young had angered many factions. But since the Yang family stood at the head of the Eight Great Families — with their thick legs and long arms — even those who harbored grievances didn't dare cause trouble for them.
It was said that a hundred years ago, a Yang family disciple had infiltrated a first-rate sect called the Huitian Gate. This disciple possessed outstanding talent — a once-in-a-century prodigy.
The sect leader and elders of Huitian Gate were extremely fond of him and naturally invested heavily in his training. They even discussed naming him as their successor, opening up every secret technique without reservation.
The young man truly lived up to his extraordinary gifts. In just a few years, he had mastered every martial art and cultivation technique of the Huitian Gate, committing them all to memory. His teachers were immensely gratified.
But. Ten years later, this disciple — into whom Huitian Gate had poured countless resources, upon whom the sect leader and elders had placed their highest hopes — quietly left the sect one night.
Only then did the people of Huitian Gate realize that this disciple had been a member of the Yang family all along!
The sect leader and elders of Huitian Gate all spat blood! They nearly fell gravely ill from the shock. Wasting ten years to train an ingrate was bad enough, but countless secret techniques of Huitian Gate had been stolen and become the Yang family's possessions — how could anyone not be furious?
Huitian Gate's people stormed to the Yang family to demand answers, but in the end they received only some compensation.
It was precisely because of this disastrous precedent that every sect and faction in the world became hyper-vigilant against the Yang family's disciples. The lessons of the past serve as warnings for the future. If someone spent a dozen years training a Yang family member, only for them to run off again, wouldn't that be repeating Huitian Gate's tragedy and becoming the laughingstock of the world?
But no matter how much they prepared, when the time came for the Yang family's direct-line disciples to go out and gain experience, they still had to go. Before being scattered, these direct-line disciples were kept hidden — few people knew their names, and fewer still had ever laid eyes on them.
So the Yang family was impossible to guard against!
As the Wind and Rain Dual Guardians' minds raced, they grew increasingly certain of Yang Kai's identity. After all, it had been roughly four years ago that the Yang family had indeed scattered the current generation of direct-line disciples.
Could this mean the youth before them was the youngest young master of the Yang family? Hadn't he been said to be unsuitable for cultivation? How had he already reached the Separation-Union Realm? His strength wasn't exactly high, but it wasn't too shabby either.
Still, it wasn't surprising that their own young master knew him. The Dong family and the Yang family had an intermarriage in the previous generation — the young master's own aunt had married the Yang family's Fourth Master. The young master had visited the Yang family several times as a child. The two had surely met before.
"Come inside and talk." There was a hint of disappointment in Dong Qinghan's eyes — as if expecting more from the youth — along with a trace of surprise and delight. He jerked his head toward the door.
Yang Kai nodded slightly.
The two walked inside. The wooden cabin was as simple as ever, though a table had been added, laden with wine and dishes.
"Sit." Dong Qinghan was brief to the point.