Volume 1, Chapter 43 – The Shocked Liu Family

The commotion at the gates of the Liu estate was like a sudden clap of thunder, tearing through the gloomy, oppressive atmosphere that had hung over the residence.

The first person to rush out was a beautiful middle-aged woman in a long purple dress, her features gentle and refined. She was Liu Ruyan’s mother, Madam Zhou.

The moment her gaze met the red-clad figure standing at the gate, her entire body froze.

Then tears poured down her cheeks like pearls from a broken string.

“Yan’er! My Yan’er! You have finally come home!”

Madam Zhou nearly stumbled as she rushed forward and pulled Liu Ruyan tightly into her arms. Her voice choked with tears, filled with the wild joy and lingering fear of recovering someone she had thought lost.

“Do you have any idea how worried your mother was?”

“You foolish child, how… how could you dare go to a place like that all by yourself?”

Following close behind Madam Zhou was a girl of about fifteen or sixteen. Her features resembled Liu Ruyan’s by sixty or seventy percent, though she appeared younger and more innocent.

Her large eyes were also red at this moment. She was Liu Ruyan’s younger sister, Liu Ruxue.

“Big Sister!”

Liu Ruxue rushed forward as well and clung tightly to Liu Ruyan’s arm.

“You frightened us to death! Mother and I could not eat or sleep every day. Father, Second Uncle, and the others were also…”

Her mother’s and sister’s agitation instantly brought moisture to Liu Ruyan’s eyes.

She could feel her mother trembling as she held her and the chill in her sister’s fingertips. Their worry and concern came from the depths of their hearts.

Across three cycles of reincarnation, this bond of blood and family had always remained the softest place in her heart.

“Mother, Xue’er, I am sorry. I made you worry.”

Liu Ruyan wrapped her arms tightly around her mother and gently patted her sister’s back. Her own voice was slightly choked.

“I am fine. Look, have I not returned safe and sound?”

At that moment, a burst of hurried footsteps approached.

Liu Beichuan arrived in the front courtyard with several clan elders.

When he saw Liu Ruyan standing unharmed between Madam Zhou and Liu Ruxue, relief finally appeared on his tense face.

However, it was soon replaced by a trace of doubt and scrutiny.

He strode forward, first nodding to Madam Zhou to reassure her, then looked at Liu Ruyan with a complicated expression.

“Ruyan, where… have you been all these days? Why was there no word from you?”

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His gaze involuntarily drifted toward the white-clad woman standing silently behind Liu Ruyan, whose bearing was elegant and otherworldly.

Despite his late-stage Golden Core cultivation, he could not see through the woman’s depths at all.

He could not even sense any obvious fluctuations of spiritual power from her, causing warning bells to ring faintly in his heart.

Sensing her second uncle’s gaze, Liu Ruyan gently comforted her mother and sister before turning around and bowing respectfully to Liu Beichuan.

“Second Uncle, respected uncles and elders, Ruyan has been unfilial and caused all of you to worry.”

“It is a long story. Could we… go inside before I explain? Also, this is…”

She turned to look at Yun Yun.

Yun Yun nodded slightly and spoke in a warm, calm voice.

“My surname is Yun. I am… a senior from Ruyan’s sect.”

She did not directly reveal her identity, but the words “a senior from her sect” were enough to make her status clear.

Liu Beichuan’s heart trembled, and he hurriedly cupped his hands.

“So it is Senior Yun. Forgive my lack of courtesy! Please, come inside!”

The group moved to the main hall of the Liu estate.

Madam Zhou refused to release Liu Ruyan’s hand, while Liu Ruxue sat pressed closely against her sister, secretly studying Yun Yun with curious eyes.

Liu Beichuan ordered servants to bring spirit tea. The atmosphere in the hall still carried the lingering excitement and confusion that followed Liu Ruyan’s return.

Liu Beichuan took a sip of tea and composed himself before looking at Liu Ruyan again. His tone was gentle, but probing.

“Ruyan, can you tell us now? What exactly happened? You… seem somewhat different from before.”

He had keenly noticed that his niece’s aura had become far steadier and more condensed. The anxiety and uncertainty once hidden between her brows had vanished.

In their place was a settled confidence and composure. She even gave him the faint feeling that he could no longer see through her.

He was a late-stage Golden Core cultivator!

Yet Liu Ruyan had only been at the peak of Qi Refinement before leaving home!

Liu Ruyan drew a soft breath. She knew that certain matters had to be explained clearly.

However, she could not reveal too much about Yaochi Immortal Palace, especially its true foundations, without her Master’s permission.

After organizing her thoughts, she began to speak.

“Second Uncle, Mother, Xue’er, I encountered a life-or-death crisis during this journey and nearly lost my life.”

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Madam Zhou’s and Liu Ruxue’s faces immediately paled again.

“However, I also gained fortune through disaster.”

Liu Ruyan continued, sincere gratitude appearing in her eyes.

“At the critical moment, I was fortunate enough to be saved by my Master, who is also the Palace Master of Yaochi Immortal Palace. She considered my aptitude acceptable and my character resilient, so she made an exception and accepted me as her disciple.”

“Yaochi Immortal Palace?”

Liu Beichuan and the clan elders exchanged bewildered looks. None of them had ever heard that name before.

They had heard of every well-known sect and sacred land in the Southern Region, yet there had never been one called Yaochi Immortal Palace.

Was it a hidden sect?

Or perhaps…

“Yan’er, you have joined a sect?”

Madam Zhou was both surprised and delighted. As a mother, she already considered her daughter’s safe return an immense blessing. Learning that Liu Ruyan had also entered a sect made her even happier.

Although she had never heard of it, she was still overjoyed.

“Then… does your Master treat you well? Where is Yaochi Immortal Palace? Is it far away?”

“Mother, Master treats me extremely well. The palace… is some distance from here, but its environment is excellent, and its spiritual energy is abundant.”

Liu Ruyan avoided going into detail. She then looked at Liu Beichuan, her expression turning solemn.

“Second Uncle, I returned this time for two reasons. The first was to report that I am safe and put the family’s minds at ease. The second was to carry out my Master’s instructions.”

“Your Master’s instructions?”

Liu Beichuan straightened in his seat.

“Yes.”

Liu Ruyan nodded. She took out the storage pouch Gu Han had given her and presented it to Liu Beichuan with both hands.

“Master knows that I come from a cultivation clan, so she specially bestowed a few resources and instructed me to bring them home in repayment for the family’s care and upbringing.”

Liu Beichuan accepted the storage pouch and instinctively extended his divine sense inside.

The next moment, he shot to his feet.

The steadiness and curiosity on his face were instantly replaced by utter shock. His pupils contracted violently, and even the hand holding the storage pouch began to tremble!

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“Family Head?”

“Beichuan?”

The clan elders and Madam Zhou were all startled by his sudden and intense reaction.

Liu Beichuan, however, seemed unable to hear them. His entire attention had been seized by the scene inside the storage pouch!

Spirit stones!

An entire storage pouch filled with mid-grade spirit stones!

Even through the storage pouch, he could faintly feel the pure and surging fluctuations of spiritual energy!

At a rough glance, there were definitely more than ten thousand of them!

Ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones were equivalent to one million low-grade spirit stones!

What did that amount represent?

The Liu family mainly dealt in medicinal pills, yet its total annual income amounted to only around three hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones!

These ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones were nearly equal to the Liu family’s entire income over more than three years, even if it spent nothing at all!

Yet that was not what shocked him most.

Beside the spirit stones floated three artifacts, each radiant with flowing light and possessing a restrained Dao resonance.

The first was a pale azure feathered robe, as thin as a cicada’s wing, with faint wind-spirit patterns flowing across its surface. It was a profound-rank supreme-grade artifact robe!

The second was a fiery-red longsword. Its crystalline blade seemed to contain slowly flowing magma and emitted scorching yet stable fluctuations. It was a profound-rank supreme-grade artifact!

The final item was a palm-sized bronze mirror. Its hazy surface seemed to reflect countless phenomena, while profound cloud patterns were engraved across its back.

A heavy, ancient, obscure, yet majestic aura faintly emanated from it. It was an earth-rank mid-grade artifact!

“Two profound-rank supreme-grade artifacts… and one earth-rank mid-grade artifact…”

Liu Beichuan’s voice was unbearably dry, as though the words had been forced from his throat.

Profound-rank artifacts were commonly used by Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation cultivators!

The Liu family possessed only a single profound-rank mid-grade artifact, let alone a supreme-grade one!

As for an earth-rank artifact… to them, such a thing existed only in legends!

It was a treasure that only Body Integration or even Mahayana cultivators could possess!

Such objects existed only in the treasuries of the greatest sects and ancient clans that dominated entire regions!

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Their value could not be measured in spirit stones at all!

When the members of the Liu family saw Liu Beichuan lose his composure and heard the words he muttered, they all froze.

Then boundless shock swept through the entire hall!

“An earth-rank… artifact?”

The voice of a white-haired, white-bearded clan elder trembled, and he nearly failed to catch his breath.

Madam Zhou and Liu Ruxue stared with wide eyes, completely unable to believe what they were hearing.

Liu Beichuan forcibly suppressed his heart, which seemed ready to leap from his chest. Only after taking several deep breaths did he manage to ask in a trembling voice,

“Ruyan… these… all of these… were bestowed by your Master?”

He could not imagine what sort of existence his niece’s “Master” was to casually grant such terrifying resources!

Ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones might still be explained as the result of doting on a disciple.

But an earth-rank artifact… that had already gone beyond the scope of a mere “reward.” It was something that completely overturned his understanding of the world!

Liu Ruyan took in everyone’s reactions, and her gratitude and reverence toward her Master deepened further.

She calmly nodded.

“Yes. Master bestowed all of these.”

“Master also said that, to her, they were nothing particularly precious, merely a few little trinkets.”

Nothing particularly precious?

Merely a few little trinkets?

Liu Beichuan and the clan elders felt dizzy, their understanding of the world suffering an enormous impact.

An earth-rank mid-grade artifact was only a little trinket?

Then what rank were the objects this Palace Master used in daily life, or the treasures stored within Yaochi Immortal Palace’s treasury?

Earth-rank supreme-grade? Or perhaps… the legendary heaven rank?

What they did not know was that these were merely “failed products” Gu Han had made while casually experimenting with artifact refining in her spare time, then tossed into a corner of the System warehouse.

As for the successful earth-rank supreme-grade and even heaven-rank magical treasures, those were still lying quietly inside the warehouse.

Had they learned this, they probably would have fainted on the spot.