Although Yan Qingsang was reluctant to part, the two departed quietly from Cloud Camel Mountain the very next day. As for Yan Wanjun, shortly after Jiang Chen and Yan Qingsang left, he penned a letter and left it in his cave dwelling. He himself dismissed all his attendants and vanished alone from Cloud Camel Mountain.
It was only several days later that the rest of the Yan family discovered Yan Wanjun's disappearance. The letter he had left behind was found and immediately presented to Elder Liang, the person in charge of Cloud Camel Mountain.
After Elder Liang opened and read it, his face drained of color. Only then did he learn that Grand Elder Yan Wanjun had already departed Cloud Camel Mountain. In the letter, Yan Wanjun had even declared his intention to leave the Yan family, stating that for the foreseeable future, he would no longer involve himself in the family's affairs. As for the reason, the letter only alluded to it in veiled terms.
With Elder Liang's shrewdness, he still could not decipher the deeper implications of the letter.
The letter was swiftly sent back to the Yan family headquarters. When the Yan family patriarch saw it, he slammed his fist down onto the tea table with savage force.
That priceless tea table crumbled into powder in an instant.
"Yan Wanjun, Yan Wanjun! You were born a man of the Yan family, and you shall die a ghost of the Yan family. Do you think that by writing a farewell letter, your sins will simply vanish? Yan Wanjun, you flee in cowardice to escape your crimes — you are the disgrace of this family, its shame! Do you have any idea how much catastrophe you will bring upon us?"
The Yan family patriarch was beside himself with fury. That Black Jade Spirit Coral Plum had indeed been his doing. He had come across its properties in some ancient text and simultaneously knew that Yan Wanjun possessed a stalk of Dream Origin Grass.
The auras of the Black Jade Spirit Coral Plum and the Dream Origin Grass would merge to form a deadly poison.
It had to be said, the patriarch's scheme, had it succeeded, would absolutely have killed Yan Wanjun without anyone ever being the wiser.
But in the end, the ploy had fallen spectacularly short. It simply had not worked. When the intelligence came back, the patriarch had been genuinely shocked.
He could not fathom how Yan Wanjun could possibly have discovered the secret of the Black Jade Spirit Coral Plum?
How exactly had Yan Wanjun figured it out? According to the reports, when the Black Jade Spirit Coral Plum was first delivered, Yan Wanjun had been overjoyed, and he had even planted it in a cultivation area not far from the Dream Origin Grass. The patriarch had known all these details from the intelligence.
Yet who could have guessed that everything would proceed so smoothly in the beginning, only to fall apart in the end?
That alone might have been tolerable. The patriarch had even harbored a glimmer of hope, thinking that Yan Wanjun might not necessarily discover anything. Even if Yan Wanjun realized it was a trap, he might not know that the patriarch himself was behind it.
But after reading this letter, the patriarch understood immediately.
Others might not grasp the true meaning of the letter, but one look was enough for the patriarch. Yan Wanjun had known all along that the Black Jade Spirit Coral Plum was meant to harm him, and he also knew that the patriarch had orchestrated it.
The letter did not state it explicitly. Yan Wanjun, as a member of the Yan family, simply did not wish to blow the matter open and create a rift within the family.
But the patriarch was in no mood to be grateful at this point. On the contrary, his hatred for Yan Wanjun burned even hotter.
"Yan Wanjun, Yan Wanjun — you stir up trouble, then slap your backside and waltz off. Have you even considered what price the family will have to pay for your stupidity and stubbornness?"
The Yan family patriarch ground his teeth, his gaze brimming with vicious intent.
He still remembered how Xiahou Zhen of the Xiahou family had threatened him: if Yan Wanjun did not die, then many people in the patriarch's own bloodline would perish.
In the world of martial cultivation, it had always been every man for himself. How much the patriarch had once relied on Yan Wanjun was a thing of the past.
When the lives of his own bloodline were at stake, would Yan Wanjun's life really matter so much?
People were selfish, and the Yan family patriarch was no exception.
Thus, the moment he learned of Yan Wanjun's disappearance, his heart sank to the bottom of his stomach. In a daze, he seemed to envision Xiahou Zhen slaughtering his bloodline without mercy.
"Yan Wanjun, you walk away just like that — are you trying to condemn the Yan family to destruction?"
By now, Yan Wanjun had already traveled tens of thousands of miles away, so naturally he could not hear the patriarch's raging shouts.
Yan Wanjun's departure by letter had caused an enormous upheaval throughout the entire Yan family.
Many of the family elders voiced their demands, calling for the patriarch to issue an official proclamation stripping Yan Wanjun of his position as Grand Elder.
Furthermore, they petitioned the patriarch to issue a joint kill order, authorizing the pursuit and assassination of Yan Wanjun across the entirety of Myriad Abyss Island.
At the same time, they insisted that the family dispatch its elite forces to hunt down Yan Wanjun.
Each of these proposals had a certain logic to it.
But implementing them was far easier said than done.
Issuing a proclamation — that was simple enough. No difficulty there. However, once such a proclamation was released, countless questions would inevitably arise: why exactly had Yan Wanjun chosen to leave?
If Yan Wanjun truly wished to depart, why would he have chosen this particular moment? After the Patching Heaven Grand Ceremony, he could have simply declined to visit Cloud Camel Mountain and retreated into seclusion in the wilderness.
If he had not intended to resign on the spot, then why leave a farewell letter at Cloud Camel Mountain?
What exactly did the letter say?
It could be said that the entire Yan family was awash with speculation. Anxiety pervaded the ranks. The majority believed that something was terribly wrong.
Before long, rumors began circulating through the Eternal Divine Capital. The story of Yan Wanjun's departure — no one knew where it had first originated — spread like wildfire.
The tale laid bare the reason for Yan Wanjun's flight: the Yan family patriarch had plotted to murder him. It was this that had driven Yan Wanjun to despair and fear, prompting him to leave behind a farewell letter and vanish.