The old man sitting in the main seat remained expressionless and said nothing.
"Lost your memory?"
Meanwhile, Steward Yin, standing behind the old man, showed a face full of astonishment and suspicion:
"You mean to say, aside from your own name, you don't remember anything now, including your identity and background?"
"Yes."
Chen Yan immediately affirmed his answer without revealing any flaws.
Steward Yin still wore a look of half-belief, half-doubt.
"Poor child..."
Then, the old man sitting in the main seat sighed and shook his head:
"Replying to the Master, I sent people to inquire at the magistrate's office and also asked around on the streets. Recently, in this Yunyang City, no household has reported losing a child of this age."
Steward Yin replied.
Yunyang City?
Chen Yan memorized the information Steward Yin had just mentioned;
the city he was currently in was called Yunyang City.
It was a place he had never heard of before.
"Is that so... then it's difficult..."
The Master sitting in the main hall nodded thoughtfully, then said:
"Judging by this young man's appearance and manners, he doesn't seem like a beggar or a child from a poor family. Steward Yin, what do you think we should do?"
"Master, in my opinion, we should give this lad some provisions and send him on his way. After all, our Xing Mansion has already saved his life;
we have no obligation to continue..."
"Nonsense!"
Master Xing slammed the table, cutting off Steward Yin's words.
Steward Yin shuddered, his face showing panic:
"Master, please calm your anger!"
"He's just a half-grown lad of fourteen or fifteen, physically weak and having lost his memory. If you drive him out, where else could he go?"
Master Xing said loudly:
"Starting today, as long as I, Xing Kai, have a bite to eat, he will have a bite to eat. Steward Yin, hurry up and arrange living quarters for him!"
"Understood!"
Steward Yin hurriedly acknowledged.
"Yan Chen thanks the Master for your great kindness and virtue. A drop of kindness shall be repaid with a spring of gratitude..."
Chen Yan once again cupped his hands in salute toward Master Xing.
His heart stirred not a single ripple, because the act these two old men were putting on was simply too clumsy.
Compared to his cheap master and cheap martial uncle, they were far, far inferior.
In short, it was a classic good cop, bad cop routine.
If they were simply taking him in out of pure kindness, Chen Yan might be grateful, but he wouldn't have any special thoughts about it.
But if Master Xing insisted on taking him in against all opposition, then his image would immediately become grand and noble in Chen Yan's mind.
It was just a little trick to win people's hearts.
As for why they wanted to win over him, a youth of unknown identity picked up from the official road outside the city, Chen Yan had a rough guess in his heart.
Because whether it was his bearing, demeanor, or the aura he exuded in his every gesture, Chen Yan absolutely did not seem like a child from an ordinary family.
They had ulterior motives.
However, Chen Yan didn't care. He understood the principle that no one acts without self-interest.
Moreover, as long as the Xing family was willing to take him in and wouldn't harm him, that was a kindness to him.
Chen Yan considered himself relatively reasonable.
He couldn't do the kind of thing where a small kindness breeds gratitude, but a large one breeds resentment.
In the end, Chen Yan decided to stay in the Xing Mansion for the time being, gather as much information as possible, and then make further plans.
...
Two weeks later.
Chen Yan had a general understanding of his current situation.
He was still on the Chenping Continent.
As for the time, it should be the third year after the Outer Court Cataclysm of the Kongshan Sect.
The city Chen Yan was currently in was called Yunyang City, a city located in the eastern part of Jin'an Country.
Jin'an Country was located in the southern part of the Chenping Continent. The closest of the Five Great Sects to this area was the Star Heaven Sect, where Qin Qingyu was.
The Xing Mansion he was currently in was a martial arts family within Yunyang City. Not just in Yunyang City, but throughout the entire Jin'an Country, the Xing family's military command stick was quite famous.
In recent years, the Xing family's power and prestige had seen a qualitative improvement compared to previous years.
Even the few immortal cultivation families within Yunyang City treated the Xing Mansion with a degree of deference and respect.
The reason was simple.
Master Xing of the Xing family had three sons in total.
Among them, the second son of the Xing family's second branch, Xing Ziang, possessed outstanding talent and had been accepted into the largest immortal cultivation sect within Jin'an Country's borders, the Biqiu Sect.
Unlike the Five Great Sects, which had quite strict requirements for severing mortal ties.
For sects like the Biqiu Sect, which could barely be considered a third-rate immortal cultivation sect on the Chenping Continent, the requirements for disciples to sever their mortal ties were not very strict.
As long as they didn't do anything too outrageous, like leaking the sect's internal cultivation techniques or seriously interfering in the affairs of mortal dynasties, the Biqiu Sect would often turn a blind eye.
Now, nine years had passed since Xing Ziang was accepted into the Biqiu Sect at the age of fourteen.
It was said that the twenty-three-year-old Xing Ziang's cultivation level had already broken through to the Qi Circulation Realm. Even in this Yunyang City, he could already be respectfully addressed as an Upper Immortal of the Qi Circulation Realm.
The Biqiu Sect also placed considerable importance on Xing Ziang. Some time ago, Xing Ziang sent a letter back to the Xing Mansion.
The letter stated that two months later, the Biqiu Sect would send people to Yunyang City to recruit inner sect disciples. This time, the total number of inner sect disciple spots the Biqiu Sect was recruiting was only twenty.
Xing Ziang would also return to Yunyang City at that time. In the letter, he told the Xing family's younger generation to make ample preparations, because he also had a certain amount of say in the matters related to the Biqiu Sect's recruitment of inner sect disciples in Yunyang City this time.
Meaning, as long as their talent was passable, he would definitely ensure that the Biqiu Sect's inner sect disciple spots landed on members of the Xing family.
In fact, during these two weeks in the Xing family, aside from information about the immortal cultivation families in Yunyang City, as well as the Biqiu Sect and Xing Ziang, he hadn't collected any information related to the cultivation world.
Let alone the current situation of the Kongshan Sect, which was millions of miles away.
Chen Yan had no plans to return to the Kongshan Sect for the time being, because he had absolutely no way to explain why he was still alive.
If he were secretly labeled as a "Cause of Calamity" by certain people, even Lin Qifeng and Yue Chi probably couldn't protect him.
And he also had no way to return for now.
Over the past two weeks, Chen Yan had been continuously trying to use the spiritual energy between heaven and earth to cleanse his body and enter the Body Forging Realm as soon as possible.
He planned to participate in the Biqiu Sect's inner sect disciple selection two months later, under the identity of Yan Chen.
Although the Biqiu Sect, in the territory of the Chenping Continent, didn't even have the qualification to participate in the Dao Inquiry Assembly of the Chenping Continent.
But still, the Biqiu Sect was considered one of the top immortal cultivation sects in this Jin'an Country.
Whether it was cultivation resources or various channels for obtaining information, it was far superior to this small Yunyang City.
"Still two months, huh..."
Chen Yan muttered to himself.
He formed a hand seal of the Hidden Immortal Art, and silently, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth began to gather toward his direction.