Nightfall, a teahouse in the southern part of the city.
Zhang Yuge held a teacup, reclining by the window of a private room on the second floor.
Zhang Qingyao knelt beside him, silently brewing tea.
A bright full moon hung in the night sky.
Looking down below was the bustling Flower Street, lit with countless lanterns.
Handsome men and beautiful women strolled side by side in front of various stalls.
The most popular attraction was the lantern riddle guessing game, where erudite young gentlemen freely displayed their talents before wealthy young ladies.
Willow branches drifted down into the river, floating on the surface.
Paper Boats carrying burning candles drifted downstream, bearing the wishes of talented scholars and fair maidens toward distant places.
“At this moment, I really want to recite a couple of poems to express my feelings,”
Zhang Yuge sighed.
“You have such refined taste, Young Master. Could you recite something for Qingyao?”
Since Zhang Yuge made a vow before Zhang Qingyao to save her family, the girl had been deeply moved.
If before she had been reluctant and half-hearted toward Zhang Yuge, now she clung to this last straw with all her might, refusing to let go.
“Bright moonlight before my bed, could it be frost upon the ground? I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon, then lower it to think of home.”
“Such a fine poem, Young Master, truly splendid.”
No matter what poem Zhang Yuge recited, she immediately clapped her hands in admiration.
But she soon realized the content was a bit off.
Though Zhang Qingyao was undeniably a spoiled noble daughter, she grew up in a wealthy family and was somewhat literate.
“Young Master, shouldn’t it be ‘moonlight before the window’ instead? And what does ‘frost upon the ground’ mean? Isn’t it still summer now?”
Damn it, failed at pretending to be cultured.
She had read plenty of transmigration novels before, where the protagonist would casually recite a few lines of poetry and instantly earn applause from everyone.
Why didn’t it work on her?
Besides, how did those protagonists remember so many poems?
After thinking hard, only two simple ones remained in her mind:
“Bright moonlight before my bed” and “Spring sleep knows no dawn.”
Apparently, everything learned in Chinese class had been returned to the teacher.
“小遥, what time is it now? Why haven’t Li Yuhan and Li Yuluo arrived yet?”
“It’s the sixth quarter of the Hai hour (10:30 PM). They’re already half an hour late.”
“Could they be standing me up?”
“Young Master, if they really don’t come, can my family still be saved?”
Zhang Qingyao asked anxiously.
“Don’t worry. Those two brothers are unreliable, but there’s still Master. With Master’s power, we can just break in by force.”
Zhang Yuge gently stroked the girl’s head to soothe her nerves.
“Disciple, although your Master is strong, he’s not omnipotent.”
At this moment, the usually silent and invisible Yun Lan finally spoke.
“The power I can provide you is at most at the early Jiedan Realm level. After one use, I need a long rest before I can offer it again. Jiedan power is more than enough to deal with one family, but if multiple families attack together, even Jiedan won’t be enough.”
Hearing this, Zhang Yuge nodded.
“Don’t worry, Master. I won’t use your power unless it’s an absolute emergency.”
Even without Yun Lan’s reminder, Zhang Yuge could vaguely sense that Yun Lan was deliberately concealing his aura, wary of exposure.
He knew Yun Lan well.
Low profile was not Yun Lan’s nature, but since arriving in the capital, Yun Lan rarely communicated with Zhang Yuge.
Almost always communicating only by mind, Yun Lan hadn’t even stepped out of the ring.
After all, back at the Zhang residence, Yun Lan had never hesitated to show himself openly in front of Zhang Qingyao.
As for Yun Lan’s claim that he could only offer early Jiedan-level cultivation power, Zhang Yuge remained skeptical.
He believed there must be some figures in the capital that Yun Lan feared.
Lending too much power would surely reveal his whereabouts and cause unnecessary trouble.
Yun Lan had mentioned his background before.
He was once the sect master of the Demonic Path’s Hehuan Sect.
The sect was destroyed long ago.
For some unknown reason, Yun Lan died but did not fully perish.
A fragment of his soul now resided inside a ring.
That ring was hidden in the Zhang family’s treasury and was even packed as part of Zhang Qingyao’s betrothal gifts when she went to the Zhong family.
If it weren’t for the unexpected ambush on the betrothal convoy by the Zhong family, this ring containing Yun Lan’s soul would have entered the Zhong family treasury unnoticed.
For Zhang Yuge, there was a pressing question.
Why had Yun Lan’s ring ended up in the Zhang family’s treasury?
What was the connection between Yun Lan and the Zhang family?
The Hehuan Sect was destroyed five hundred years ago, and Yun Lan died at that time.
So where was the Zhang family five hundred years ago?
Zhang Yuge put on a casual facade and started talking to Zhang Qingyao.
“Why haven’t those two guys arrived yet? Could it be that they were killed?”
“Well… with Li Yuhan’s strength, that’s unlikely,”
Zhang Qingyao answered uncertainly.
“By the way, Qingyao, when did your Zhang family begin Cultivation?”
“Uh, well… it seems like the first Progenitor of the Zhang family was already cultivating.”
“You mean the first cultivator in your family was your Progenitor?”
“Yes, but…”
“But what?”
“When I was little, I heard from my father that the father of the first Progenitor was also a cultivator, and a very powerful one at that. But there are no records before that. The earliest cultivator recorded in our genealogy is the first Progenitor.”
“How long ago was this first Progenitor, according to your genealogy?”
Zhang Yuge asked.
“Hmm… about five hundred years ago, I think.”
“Has your family always been stationed in Ningzhou for those five hundred years?”
“No, actually, they moved several times. Early on, they lived in counties farther and more south, which weren’t even part of the Great Zhou territory then. The Zhang family lived in a kingdom called Chu.”
“As the Great Zhou’s territory expanded, the Zhang family’s counties moved farther from Great Zhou, until about two hundred years ago they returned to Great Zhou’s land. They settled in a place rich with spiritual veins — Ningzhou.”
“But there’s an unwritten rule within the Zhang family — at least according to my mother — that all family members avoid contact with the capital city. Whether in business or official positions, they avoid the capital if they can. I asked why once, but my mother didn’t know either, only said the five major families in the capital can’t tolerate other Cultivation families from outside. It’s best not to provoke them.”
Zhang Yuge listened quietly to Zhang Qingyao’s story, trying to connect Yun Lan with the Zhang family’s history.
Yun Lan feared the capital city.
The Zhang family also shunned it.
Five hundred years ago, the Hehuan Sect fell, Yun Lan died, and the ring containing his remnant soul ended up in the Zhang family’s treasury.
The Zhang family’s genealogy records the first Progenitor as appearing around the same time.
The Zhang family’s earlier history remains a mystery even to the second young master.
But it’s clear that the Progenitors were far stronger than the current generation.
Early on, the Zhang family tried various ways to avoid the Great Zhou capital, even moving to another kingdom.
As Great Zhou’s territory expanded, they evaded for three centuries before finally returning to Ningzhou.
A conclusion formed in Zhang Yuge’s mind — the most reasonable explanation.
The Zhang family Progenitors stayed far from the capital to guard Yun Lan’s lingering soul.
For all these years, an unknown force sought to eradicate Yun Lan’s soul completely.
The Zhang family descendants who protected Yun Lan for over three centuries gradually forgot their mission, then returned to Great Zhou territory.
By Zhang Qingyao’s generation, the ring housing Yun Lan’s soul was forgotten in some corner of the treasury, until one of the second generation heirs stole it as a wedding gift.
What Zhang Yuge didn’t know was that Yun Lan inside the ring had overheard everything Zhang Qingyao said.
Nor could Zhang Yuge see the look of surprise flashing across Yun Lan’s expression at this very moment.