When the old man heard
"What happened to them?" Jiang Chen's expression shifted, a blow landing squarely on his chest.
Ever since he was small, he'd been close with his uncle Jiang Tong's family. He and Jiang Yu were cousins on paper, but in truth they were as close as blood brothers.
The old man's tone sent a chill through Jiang Chen's heart. Something must have happened to his uncle and his cousin.
"Old Man… are they— are they gone?" The question left a bitter taste in Jiang Chen's mouth.
"They haven't fallen, exactly."
"What do you mean, 'believe'?" Jiang Chen frowned.
"Here's what happened. When I first led a group out of the Treasure Tree Sect, I brought your uncle and cousin along, planning for us to escape together. At that point, the Crimson Cauldron Central Domain hadn't yet launched its attack on the Myriad Phenomena Region. The journey was peaceful enough at first. After we'd put considerable distance between ourselves and the Myriad Phenomena Region, we made for the Fengming Lower Region. It's a remote area—relatively peaceful. We intended to find some hidden spot and settle down. But one day on the road, we encountered a hunting party. Among them was a young woman. For reasons I could never understand, that young woman took a particular interest in your brother Jiang Yu. She kept picking fights with him, looking for trouble…"
A girl interested in Jiang Yu? That should have been a good thing.
Jiang Chen was completely bewildered.
"I thought about it afterward. The young woman was probably interested in you, Jiang Chen, and wanted to attract Jiang Yu's attention by extension. Or perhaps Jiang Yu himself caught her eye. Either way, once the hunt concluded and the young woman was ready to leave, she simply ordered her men to bind Jiang Yu and carry him off. And they took your uncle as well. I gave chase immediately, but the opposition was formidable—even a common warrior among them was barely weaker than I was. Their leader's strength far exceeded my own!"
Ye Chonglou let out a heavy sigh. "My ability was simply too limited to protect them."
Self-reproach saturated every word.
Jiang Chen sat in contemplation. Listening to Ye Chonglou's account, he could tell the whole affair was genuinely absurd—and the old man truly couldn't be blamed.
Come to think of it, his cousin Jiang Yu did cut a refined, handsome figure. A lady-killer in the most literal sense. That much was undeniable.
But just how extreme had that young woman's curiosity been? Kidnapping someone outright over sheer fascination?
The sheer audacity was staggering. It bordered on lawlessness.
Jiang Chen deduced that the girl must be some spoiled scion of a powerful noble house—one of those who, regardless of gender, delighted in acting with complete impunity.
"The Fengming Lower Region? Brother Mo, do you know the place?"
"I know of it, but I've never been. Most rogue cultivators avoid such remote backwaters unless some powerful resource is suddenly discovered there or a secret realm opens up. Otherwise, very few strong cultivators venture into the lower regions of their own accord."
Jiang Chen nodded, reflecting that Ye Chonglou's group had fled a full ten years ago now. A decade—anything could have happened in that time.
"Old Man, in those ten years, did you ever learn anything about the young woman's identity or background?" Jiang Chen asked once more.
Ye Chonglou sighed. "For these ten years, we haven't been in the Fengming Lower Region at all. After the incident with Jiang Yu, the young woman's subordinates delivered a clear warning. If we set foot in the Fengming Lower Region again, they would kill us on the spot."
The old man was clearly not someone afraid of death, but neither would he throw his life away for nothing.
If Ye Chonglou couldn't even determine what force they'd been dealing with, that made things considerably more complicated.
"Oh— I do recall one thing. The young woman and the warriors under her command, their sable-fur caps all bore the same emblem embroidered on top."
Ye Chonglou suddenly recalled this detail. He sketched the emblem roughly as he remembered it.
"Something like this, more or less. It should be connected to the power standing behind her."
Jiang Chen glanced at the drawing and nodded.
With even a single thread of a clue, things became far more manageable. The Fengming Lower Region was, at the end of the day, just a lower region. While none of the lower regions across the land could be quite as weak as the old Myriad Phenomena Region had been, a lower region still wouldn't produce a great number of powerhouses.
Chances were that the young woman's background was extremely prominent in the Fengming Lower Region. Otherwise she never could have gotten away with brazenly kidnapping people in broad daylight.
Without backing of that magnitude, who would dare act so outrageously?
Still, there was no rushing this matter. Ten years had already passed—panicking over it now wouldn't change a thing.
"Old Man, Old Tang, now that you're back, do you have any plans?" Jiang Chen asked.
Tang Hong scratched his head and shook it blankly. He was a cultivation maniac through and through. Questions about the future or what he intended to do next simply never crossed his mind.
"What about you, Old Man?" Jiang Chen's respect for Ye Chonglou ran deep. The Jiang Yu incident truly couldn't be laid at the old man's feet.
After all, Ye Chonglou's own strength had only ever gone so far.
"I had originally thought it wouldn't be bad to return to the Treasure Tree Sect for a quiet retirement. But the place is probably destroyed by now—there's no going back. Then, on top of everything, I ran into Consort Dan by sheer chance. In that case, wherever Consort Dan goes, I'll go."