Chapter 178

Chapter 178: Personal Choice

After hearing Yun Xi’s words, Dian Dian’s black bean eyes spun several times. It blurted out in shock, “Master, you want to force Wei Yun Qing to fall into evil-”

Before it could finish, Yun Xi pressed a finger to its mouth. She smiled brightly. “Dian Dian, some things don’t need to be said out loud.”

Dian Dian flicked its tail to show it understood. Only then did Yun Xi withdraw her finger.

“But Master, how can you be sure she’ll do what you expect?” Dian Dian asked.

Yun Xi said indifferently, “I’m not sure. The choice is in her hands.”

Dian Dian could only twitch its ears and start thinking about what Yun Xi meant.

On the other side, Wei Yun Qing had already been helped back into her room by Du Ruo Lan. After swallowing a healing pill from her storage bag, her face finally looked a little better.

When Du Ruo Lan saw her daughter open her eyes, she asked with concern, “Qing Er, are you alright?”

“Mother, I’m fine,” Wei Yun Qing said. “This time, I was rash.”

Wei Yun Qing answered her mother’s worry, but the hatred in her eyes gave her away.

Du Ruo Lan looked at her daughter like this and did not know how to comfort her. Her daughter had suffered another loss at Wei Yun Xi’s hands, but Du Ruo Lan still soothed her. “Qing Er, Mother hasn’t achieved much in cultivation, but I know that rising in cultivation can’t be done overnight.”

“She may be stronger than you right now, but you’re not bad. Mother believes you’ll surpass her one day. Just in talent alone, you already beat her.”

“Who knows whether her Golden Core was formed with pills, or if her master helped her? You didn’t take a master, yet you still cultivated to mid-stage Foundation Establishment by your own ability. That proves you’re stronger than her.”

“Forming a Golden Core is only a matter of time. Even forming a Nascent Soul is not out of reach. You don’t need to fight over short-term gains.”

Du Ruo Lan understood her daughter well. Those words hit exactly where Wei Yun Qing itched. Wei Yun Qing’s expression eased, and she regained some confidence.

Every word of their conversation was relayed into Yun Xi’s ears through Fei Xia Butterfly. Yun Xi lightly rubbed the black game piece between her fingers and smiled.

From this alone, it was clear that Wei Yun Qing truly had the heavens’ favor. At least, she had a mother who put her first. When her daughter’s emotions surged, she could calm her in time. That alone was much better than Yun Xi, who stood alone.

Still, in Yun Xi’s eyes, those were only external factors. In the end, what choice someone made would still depend on themselves.

“Yun Xi, today’s matter was Second Uncle’s poor judgment. You were wronged,” the Wei Family Head said apologetically.

Yun Xi had been holding her piece without placing it for a long time. Only after Wei Ling Tao spoke did she set it down, then smile. “Second Uncle, you were only caring for the younger generation. You weren’t wrong, and I wasn’t wrong.”

“It’s Wei Yun Qing whose thoughts are extreme. She decided that I, with three spirit roots, shouldn’t be stronger than her.”

“Yun Qing’s talent really is the best among this batch of clan disciples,” Wei Ling Tao said. “The clan head and elders all have high hopes for her. Over time, it’s inevitable that she’s been influenced by that.”

“But with you here, it proves that talent isn’t the only condition that decides a clan disciple’s future path.”

“Because of talent, there was an argument in the clan before…” Wei Ling Tao stopped there, as if he did not want to dig deeper into the topic.

Yun Xi was interested. She smiled and asked, “Did this have something to do with Ancestor?”

Wei Ling Tao raised his head and looked at Yun Xi. He seemed to marvel at her sharpness, then nodded. “Yes. This matter does involve Ancestor. The other person involved is Ancestor Chen Yin, who is currently cultivating at the Hao Ran Sect’s Law Peak.”

Yun Xi was unfamiliar with that name, but she knew that the Hao Ran Sect had a Wei Family cultivator among its inner disciples who was a Golden Core Elder. That person was the biggest support the Wei Family’s disciples had.

So Yun Xi asked with interest, “Second Uncle, can you tell me about it?”

Wei Ling Tao placed a white piece and chose his words carefully before he began to tell the grudges of the Wei Family’s previous generation.

The Wei Family’s current Ancestor, Wei Nan Feng, and the Hao Ran Sect Law Peak Elder, Wei Chen Yin, were brother and sister of the same generation. Like Yun Xi and Zong Hao and Zong Jin, they had been in the same batch of disciples who entered the family’s training hall to cultivate.

Among that group, Wei Nan Feng had the best talent. Like Wei Yun Qing, he had dual spirit roots. Wei Chen Yin was a bit worse. Like Yun Xi, she had three spirit roots.

Back then, the Wei Family had not yet built ties with True Lord Yu Feng, so it could not guarantee, the way it could now, that the disciples it sent would be able to cultivate in the sect. If they wanted to enter the sect, they could only wait for the Hao Ran Sect’s public recruitment.

Wei Family disciples all longed for the outside world, so they went together to take the Hao Ran Sect’s entrance test. Wei Nan Feng and Wei Chen Yin both passed and became Outer Sect disciples. After that, the two cultivated together in the Hao Ran Sect.

As members of the same clan, they should have looked after each other, but Wei Nan Feng looked down on Wei Chen Yin. He believed she had worse talent than him and would definitely be left far behind, so he rarely trained or went on experiences with Wei Chen Yin.

Besides cultivation, Wei Nan Feng spent the rest of his time befriending disciples whose paths looked smooth. He felt those people were worthy of being his friends, and they would become his connections and support in the Cultivation World.

After he built his foundation and was promoted into the Inner Sect, he ran into Wei Chen Yin, who had entered the Inner Sect before him. That shocked him and made him extremely uncomfortable.

After that, he began to seek Wei Chen Yin out frequently, wanting to know why she had advanced into the Inner Sect ahead of him.

Wei Chen Yin was not stupid. She knew Wei Nan Feng had never thought much of her. Now that he suddenly acted close, he only wanted to probe her opportunities. But a cultivator’s opportunities were not something to casually tell outsiders, much less a clan brother who had never been close.

So Wei Chen Yin accepted a long-term task and left the sect. Her departure made Wei Nan Feng even more convinced that she must have some treasure or technique that allowed rapid advancement, so while Wei Chen Yin was away, he “accidentally” let the matter slip.

When Wei Chen Yin returned after completing her sect task, she suddenly became a hot commodity. Many disciples with their own agendas approached her. Some even wanted to form a dao companion bond with Wei Chen Yin, hoping to gain her trust and then seize that opportunity.

When Wei Chen Yin was sick of it all, Wei Nan Feng stepped forward and claimed to protect his fellow-clan sister. In private, he promised Wei Chen Yin that as long as she shared the secret method of rapid advancement with him, he would send all those people away.

If Wei Chen Yin still did not understand where the problem lay, she would have been an idiot. She held her clan brother’s scheming in contempt. She turned around and offered her cultivation technique, ?Supreme True Essence Conversion Art?, to the sect. Her only condition was that Wei Nan Feng be driven out of the Hao Ran Sect.

Yun Xi asked curiously, “What was special about that technique?”

Wei Ling Tao said, “That technique has no spirit root restrictions. Anyone with spirit roots can cultivate it, but it’s best with spirit roots that support each other. If your spirit roots clash, like water and fire, then it’s not suitable to cultivate this technique.”

“I see,” Yun Xi said. “That’s why Ancestor Chen Yin entered the Inner Sect ahead of him.”

“Yes,” Wei Ling Tao said.

Yun Xi said with open sarcasm, “So Ancestor Nan Feng ended up with nothing.”