Jun Laoye nodded. "Then let's take him back first." He lifted Lu Chen from Nantian Wan'er's arms, then glanced back and caught Jun Wudi's hesitation. With concern, he asked, "Second Uncle, are you sure you're all right?" Jun Wudi waved his hand dismissively. "I'm fine. Take him back first." He set the round table upright and signaled for everyone to return to their seats and resume the banquet. Hearing that Lu Chen had only fainted from exhaustion, the cultivators inside the cabin let out a sigh of relief and sat back down. "So he was only asleep. I knew someone like Senior Martial Brother Lu wouldn't collapse so easily." "Even so, his strength is terrifying. To withstand an opponent at the Qi Condensation Realm while still at the Qi Regulation Realm, and even turn the tide of the battle. If there had been no aftereffects, I'd think he was hiding his true cultivation." "Exactly. Although I don't believe he's really just at the first level of the Qi Regulation Realm. If he were, why would the lord accept him as a disciple?" "What's wrong with being strong? To achieve such a feat at the first level, and even become the chief disciple. This is nothing short of legendary." "By the time the sect trial arrives, he'll surely reach the seventh or eighth level of Qi Regulation. When that happens, the Serene Void Academy will stand unrivaled among the six academies." "Right, right. Brothers, let's drink and celebrate our new leader." The cultivators gathered once more, feasting and drinking, their conversations circling endlessly around Lu Chen. Jun Wudi sat quietly at the round table, staring at the spirit qi mark on his palm. His mind kept replaying the moment his energy had rebounded. He was certain that power hadn't come from Lu Chen himself. What was that just now? Why did it strip away all my spirit qi in an instant? He clenched his fists. The mark spread across his palm, and he felt a sharp, stabbing pain radiating from it. "And that breeze... I'm sure someone passed right in front of me. Could it be..." A hypothesis began to take root in his mind as he grew suspicious. He thought of the methods that some great sects and aristocratic clans often used for nurturing hidden prodigies, keeping them concealed until the golden age of cultivation and a great upheaval, when they would finally be revealed. As Jun Wudi circulated his spirit qi, he began piecing the puzzle together in his mind. There must be someone powerful behind Lu Chen, someone who has planted this spirit qi within him. When Lu Chen faces mortal danger, it would erupt to protect him. He became increasingly convinced of his own theory. It resolved every doubt he had ever harbored about Lu Chen. Even the strange, inexplicable events since they had first met could now be strung together. Lu Chen's Heavenly Pool looks far too ordinary for the talent and strength he displayed. That can only mean someone has sealed it, concealing his true potential from prying eyes. He has walked alone through secret realms, meeting almost no danger yet reaping countless resources. Clearly, a path has been laid for him. Even his techniques, divine arts, and manner of speech bear the refinement coming from long years of experience, something no village child could ever have. Jun Wudi lifted his head and muttered, "Lu Chen is no country boy. His status may well rival Jun Laoye's." The moment the thought struck him, the mark in his palm flared with a burning sting before scattering into the wind. "And yet... Little Lu seems completely unaware of it." He looked at his palm to find that the mark had vanished. "If he wasn't lying, then someone has deliberately kept all of this from him." Another doubt surfaced. He recalled the major clans across the continent. Among those with established names, none bore the surname Lu. "No... there's still another possibility." Jun Wudi whispered, "Could Little Lu be from a hidden line of some reclusive clan? Could they, too, be vying for this era's fortune?" Meanwhile, Wind Dragon dozed lazily above Lu Chen's head, unaware that a casual ripple of his spirit qi had made Jun Wudi come up with countless theories, to the point he had nearly pieced together the entire truth. Jun Wudi suddenly felt a sharp sting between his brows. It was the innate sense of danger unique to cultivators. "Who's there!" Jun Wudi barked, hurling a stream of spirit qi toward a table near the cabin's entrance. He rushed over right after the strike, but found no one. Only a few peanuts and a half-warm cup of wine remained on the table. The cabin fell silent. Everyone noted Jun Wudi's unusual reaction and rose at once, weapons in hand. The Godslayer Squad saw the tension on his face. Spirit qi flared as they vanished from their seats, guarding key points of the cabin and awaiting his command. Jun Wudi turned to Sun Xiaohu, who had been sitting at the same table, and asked, "Who was sitting here just now?" Sun Xiaohu looked beside him. "Here? Huh? Why can't I remember his face?" He clearly remembered drinking with someone earlier, yet he couldn't recall the person's name or even their appearance. Sun Xiaohu kept knocking on his head, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember. "He was right here drinking with me just now..." The more he thought about it, the fuzzier his memory became. "He's definitely one of us, but why can't I recall his face?" "I can't remember either. What's going on? Could it be we had too much alcohol?" "There wasn't anyone sitting there just now. You must be mistaken. It was only the seven of us at that table." Jun Wudi swept his gaze around. Everyone who had followed him on the expedition was present, with not a single person missing. Listening to the others, Sun Xiaohu's mind suddenly cleared. He turned to Jun Wudi and said, "My lord, maybe you were just too happy and drank a bit too much. There really wasn't anyone there." "That's right, I remember it now too." The cultivators at the table began echoing one another, as if there truly had never been anyone sitting there. "It's just us. Guess we really did drink too much tonight." Seeing Jun Wudi's puzzled expression, Sun Xiaohu lifted the unused bowl and chopsticks beside him. "Look, my lord. These are untouched. No one could've sat here." Jun Wudi lowered his head toward the table, only to find the peanuts and warm wine gone. On the chair, the only trace left behind was the mark of his own spirit qi strike. "Could it really be that I drank too much?" He shook his head, patted Sun Xiaohu on the shoulder, and told him to sit back down. "Keep drinking. I'm fine." He returned to his seat at the round table. He was no longer in the right mood to enjoy the banquet, and the stabbing pain in his mind lingered. Jun Wudi's cultivation had once ascended past the mortal realm into the Earth Core Realm. It's just that his foundation was crippled at the Deer Ridge of the Western Mountain, dropping him back to the Core Breakthrough Realm. Even so, his past comprehension of the mysteries of heaven and earth remained intact. The stabbing pain between his brows grew sharper. He pinched his forehead and quietly released his divine sense. He knew well that once a cultivator ascended toward immortality, their body was no longer like a mortal's. A few cups of wine could never conjure illusions. There had to be someone in this cabin who had been watching him. Boss Wang stepped to Jun Wudi's side. He was unable to sense anything himself, but he still asked in a low voice, "My lord, is someone really here?" Jun Wudi did not wish to startle the hidden presence. He waved lightly. "It's nothing. Seems I drank too much. Go on back." Boss Wang bowed. "Yes, my lord." He gathered the members of the Godslayer Squad, and together they returned to their seats. Boss Wang had yet to break past the Core Breakthrough Realm, even after following Jun Wudi for five hundred years. But he understood his lord too well. Something is wrong inside the cabin. Since Jun Wudi said no more, Boss Wang didn't press further. He simply warned his men to stay alert while drinking, and quietly spread out his divine sense to carefully sense the surroundings. After Boss Wang left, Jun Wudi placed an extra cup on the table and filled it with wine. "You didn't strike us right away, which means you bear us no hostility. Whoever you are, let me offer you this cup first." He raised his own, tapped it lightly against the other, and drained it in one go. When he set his cup down, he noticed the wine in the opposite cup slowly vanish, though nobody had appeared in front of him. Staring at the empty cup, Jun Wudi poured again and spoke in a low voice, "You only showed up after Little Lu collapsed. If I'm not mistaken, you're the one behind him, aren't you?" There was no reply, but the second cup of wine was slowly emptied as well. This time, a few crushed peanut bits appeared on the table. Jun Wudi looked at the empty cup and the peanut crumbs, then shook his head with a bitter smile. "So it's true. In that case, allow me to pour you a few more. I'll make sure Little Lu is well cared for." Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel※fire.net Just as he lifted the wine jug to refill, both cups filled on their own, not with the clear wine from the jug, but with fragrant, burning liquor. He was about to speak when the cup on his left lightly tapped his own, and the liquor inside vanished. Jun Wudi instantly understood. He seized the cup on his right and drank it down. The moment the liquor entered his body, it transformed into pure spirit qi. It flowed straight into his meridians and acupoints, mending his wounds and even beginning to restore his broken cultivation foundation. Jun Wudi quickly cast an illusion barrier around himself, sat cross-legged, and guided the spirit qi to repair his body. The spirit qi flowed through him over and over, washing away the injuries he had carried for decades. Half an hour later, Jun Wudi opened his eyes and exhaled heavily. A mouthful of black, turbid qi burst out. His spirit qi suddenly surged, and color returned to his face. Even without the Yuanyang Heaven-Union Herbs to refine pills, he felt that the spirit qi lingering in his body alone would gradually mend his severed cultivation foundation. Jun Wudi rose, faced the cabin door, and bowed deeply. "Thank you for the wine, my lord. Might you show yourself, so we may drink together and talk?" Yet minutes passed, and the cabin remained utterly silent.