Upon hearing this, Xu Mingxuan nodded.
He patted Xu Dezhao's shoulder and said with satisfaction, "Worthy of being your father's son. You must remember, as a member of the Xu family, you must think thrice before acting in all matters, and as the family head, you must think thrice even more."
"Third Brother, are you taking this opportunity to scold me?" Xu Mingshu raised her delicate eyebrows. "Careful, or I'll go back and tell Father."
Xu Mingxuan shook his head and smiled, "Xueji, you've been spoiled by Father. If your impulsiveness brings disaster to the Xu family, see if Father won't punish you."
"Third Brother, I was impulsive this time. Next time I'll definitely listen to your opinion first, how about that?"
"One can only hope."
At that moment, an eagle cry came from the sky.
Xu Mingshu looked up and said to Xu Mingxuan, "Ah Da says they've gone in the opposite direction from us."
"That's good. If they had taken the road toward our Xu family, we would have had to consider whether to make them stay forever in this Broken Fang Mountain Range."
However...
"Third Brother, didn't you say there might be future troubles? How would we keep them here then?"
"This humble one has his own clever plans."
Xu Mingxuan smiled lightly, then turned to Wang Yan and asked, "How are you? Have your injuries healed?"
"Reporting to Third Young Master, this subordinate feels completely recovered."
Xu Mingxuan nodded, "Then let's continue forward. Let's try to finish exploring this area today and return home in three days."
"Yes, Third Young Master."
On the other side, Su Dingzhen and his group had searched for several days but only found one spiritual herb that was several decades old, the Blue Heart Flower, along with a dozen or so herbs that were only ten-some years old.
In such a poor and remote place, spiritual herbs were pitifully scarce.
In the end, they could only return disappointed.
Back at the Su family, the various herb-gathering teams that had gone out all submitted the spiritual herbs they had collected and the demon beast materials they had hunted.
Apart from their team, all others had suffered varying degrees of casualties.
Where spiritual energy was abundant and spiritual herbs plentiful, demon beasts were naturally numerous as well.
Su Dingzhen's team ranked second to last in harvest, so naturally they received no share of the martial pills.
…
Su Family Mission Hall.
Main Hall.
After everyone else had left, Su Dingzhen remained.
The Su family elder in charge of the Mission Hall stroked his beard and looked at him with puzzlement, "Su Dingzhen, is there something else?"
"Reporting to Elder Shangfang," Su Dingzhen cupped his fists respectfully and said, "During this outing, we encountered an unexpected matter."
"Oh, do tell." Su Shangfang said indifferently.
"While searching for spiritual herbs, we encountered an herb-gathering team from another family."
"What's so strange about that? Did they attack you?"
"No, but someone among them was riding a demon beast mount, and when a Postnatal martial artist was injured, they bestowed a healing pill upon him. It wasn't one for ordinary people to use, but a Jade Dew Pill commonly used by early-stage Qi Refining immortal cultivators."
"Is that so?"
Upon hearing this, Su Shangfang's eyes immediately showed surprise. He pondered, "As I recall, there are no families in our Yuehu Commandery that tame spirit beasts. Furthermore, Jade Dew Pills haven't become cheap enough to be given to ordinary mortals."
"Moreover," Su Dingzhen continued, "they were in the Broken Fang Mountain Range, where spiritual energy is thin. Rarely would any great family send an herb-gathering team to such a place."
"Deliberately appearing in a place with thin spiritual energy? That's rather thought-provoking."
Su Shangfang's gaze deepened, "It seems some people have calculated that our Su family's ancestor's time is running short and are preparing in advance."
After a pause, he looked at Su Dingzhen and smiled faintly, "Dingzhen, you've done well. I will report this matter to the Family Head and the Grand Elder. It's time we thoroughly investigated the backgrounds of some families in the commandery city."
With that said, with a wave of his hand, two bottles of pills flew out from his storage bag and landed in Su Dingzhen's hands.
"One bottle contains martial pills to reward the Su family guards who went with you. The other bottle contains a Barrier Breaking Pill."
His divine sense swept over and he said indifferently, "Peak fourth layer of Qi Refining, your cultivation is still a bit low. The higher your cultivation, the better you can serve the family."
"Dingzhen understands and will not disappoint Elder Shangfang's expectations."
"Mm, you may leave."
"Dingzhen takes his leave."
Su Dingzhen retreated several steps, then turned and walked out of the Mission Hall's main hall.
"Taming spirit beasts? There are very few families in Great Wei capable of taming spirit beasts, though there are quite a few in Great Liang. Which family could it be?"
Su Shangfang subsequently reported this matter upward.
Within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
The Su family's Family Head, the Su family elders, including all experts at mid-stage martial grandmaster level and above, except for those in closed-door seclusion and those away from home, had almost all gathered.
Unfortunately, like Su Dingzhen, they had preconceived notions, believing it must be some Qi Refining family in Yuehu Commandery secretly building up strength.
They were just waiting for the Su family's ancestor's time to come, and when Yuehu Commandery fell into chaos, they would seize the opportunity to rise.
Above Yuehu Commandery city, dark clouds gathered, with the appearance of an impending storm.
On the Qingjiang Dongxi side, however, the sun still shone brightly.
When Xu Mingxuan and his group returned to the Xu family, Xu Mingxuan naturally told Xu Chuan, Xu Mingwei, and Xu Mingyuan about the matter.
"I know of the Su family," Xu Mingyuan said. "They were previously the only Foundation Establishment family in Yuehu Commandery. Ever since the Zhou family rose, they've declined greatly. I've heard the two families have long had grievances, and in recent years, friction between their disciples has been constant.
"Also, I've heard a rumor that the Su family's Foundation Establishment ancestor's time is approaching. It's likely not groundless, though I don't know the exact timeframe."
Upon hearing this, Xu Mingwei and the others all fell into contemplation.
After a moment, Xu Mingwei said, "Chaos is approaching Yuehu Commandery. It has already become a situation of wolves devouring the tiger. This should be an opportunity for our Xu family."
"Big Brother is right. Not to mention the Zhou family, that strong tiger watching covetously from the side.
"If we could obtain the Dao repository of the Su family, this established Foundation Establishment family, it could save our Xu family decades of accumulation."
The Xu family's strength was now not weak, but the family's collection of Dao scriptures and immortal cultivation texts was quite sparse, not even comparable to other Qi Refining families in Yuehu Commandery.
Xu Mingyuan smiled slightly, "Tantou has grown a lot these two years. His insights are now quite remarkable."
Xu Mingwei also nodded with satisfaction.
"What about me?" Xu Mingshu asked curiously.
"Your strength is growing at a decent pace, but your temperament still needs tempering," Xu Mingwei said indifferently.
"Big Brother~"
"Enough, Xueji. Stop being willful and just follow your brothers' arrangements."
Xu Chuan surveyed them, a half-smile playing at the corner of his lips, and nodded, "You've all done well. When our Xu family should lie low, we lie low, but when the wind rises, we must also rise with it.
"However, there are many dangers in this matter. You several should plan carefully. Once you've discussed and reached a conclusion, come tell me about it."
"Yes, Father."
They left the bamboo house one after another.
Apart from Xu Mingshu, whose temperament was still lacking, the others had all grown to be capable of handling matters independently.
Xu Chuan no longer needed to give excessive guidance. He only needed to offer pointers at key moments when deficiencies appeared.
These past few days, Xu Chuan had divined the family's fortune, and all results were balanced hexagrams.
This indicated that the encounter with the Su family's herb-gathering team currently had no impact on the Xu family and so it was in reality.
The various counties far from the commandery city remained calm and peaceful, but within the commandery city, dark clouds hung overhead, and things were unsettled.
Half a month later.
The Su family invited the heads of all Qi Refining families to a gathering at the Su residence. During it, they proposed to nurture the talents of the various families and asked each to send one or two people to the Su family.
The Zhou family naturally stormed off on the spot, and those who left with them were all families on good terms with the Zhou family.
Those remaining were the Su family's allies.
With just one proposal, the entire Yuehu Commandery city was clearly divided.
This situation further affected other martial families, for grandmaster-level experts were also formidable fighting forces. Both the Su and Zhou families sent people to secretly make contact.
…
On another front, Xu Mingxian's search in the Imperial City had yielded nothing.
After all, items like first-rank high-grade formations, soul restriction secret arts, breath-concealing techniques, and spirit beast restriction methods were all extremely rare, only likely to appear at auctions.
Under normal circumstances, unless one had a fortunate encounter, they would be hard to find in any major shops or street stalls.
"I only managed to find an introductory text on the Dao of magical artifacts and the Dao of talismans."
Ordinary formations were of little use to Xu Mingxian.
As for the pill Dao, unless they were ancient pill classics or the like, they would be useless to Xu Chuan as well. However, such ancient texts were mostly collected by various great families, so how could they be easily brought out? Unless Xu Chuan, the pill Dao grandmaster, personally came calling, perhaps then some could be traded.
"That's true. If such things could be easily found in the market district, then how would the rogue cultivators of Great Wei be struggling so hard?"
"Forget it. If there's no progress in the next two days, I'll just go home. I've failed to meet Father's expectations."
Xu Mingxian walked along the market district street.
Suddenly, a middle-aged voice came from behind him.
"Fellow Daoist over there, please wait."
Xu Mingxian turned around in surprise and saw three people standing not far behind him. The one in the middle had the same cultivation as him, both at the eighth layer of Qi Refining, but by his appearance he seemed past seventy years of age, wearing a dark ink-colored robe.
The other two were also at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, with graying hair and beards.
The one on the left wore a gray Daoist robe, while the one on the right wore a green wide-sleeved robe.
The leading eighth layer Qi Refining cultivator smiled faintly, "Fellow Daoist, don't be nervous. We mean no harm. I am Zhang Yanzhi."
As he spoke, he gestured to the one on the left and then the one on the right, saying, "This is Daoist Chongxu, and this is Fellow Daoist Jinhu. May I ask how to address you, Fellow Daoist?"
An unprompted conversation surely had something suspicious behind it.
Xu Mingxian was extremely wary in his heart, but since the other party was courteous and proper, he couldn't be rude either.
"Daoist Yunming," Xu Mingxian returned the courtesy and said indifferently, "What business do you Fellow Daoists have with this poor Daoist? We shouldn't have met before, correct?"
"This Zhang and Fellow Daoist Jinhu are old friends of many years, and I only met Daoist Chongxu recently. As for why we called out to you..."
Zhang Yanzhi's lips curved slightly as he smiled faintly, "May I ask if Fellow Daoist is a formation master?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Mingxian became even more guarded, "How did Fellow Daoist Zhang know?"
"Actually, we've been wandering around the market district for several days, looking for a formation master. A few days ago, Daoist Chongxu happened to see you, and you seemed to be searching for formations and array Dao texts.
"We had originally planned to leave and explore the ancient cultivator's cave dwelling on our own if we found no one."
"Exploring a cave dwelling?"
Zhang Yanzhi said, "Exactly. The cave dwelling is protected by a grand array. Though it's not a top-tier formation, without a formation master, who knows how long it would take the three of us to break through and explore inside."
"Cave dwelling..." Xu Mingxian pondered silently: This trip has yielded nothing, and I have no face to show Father. An ancient cultivator's cave dwelling should have some ancient texts, perhaps there might even be unexpected gains.
However, his divine sense swept over them again: one at late eighth layer Qi Refining, one at late seventh layer, and one at early seventh layer.
In a one-on-one fight, Xu Mingxian feared none of them but if this was a trap...
"This poor Daoist does indeed know some formation-breaking techniques," Xu Mingxian said.
"Then would Fellow Daoist Yunming be interested in joining us to explore the ancient cultivator's cave dwelling?" Zhang Yanzhi's eyes gleamed with intense light.
"What realm of immortal cultivator left that cave dwelling?"
"Judging by the formation's strength, it's below second-rank. And since it's located in a place with somewhat thin spiritual energy in Guangling Commandery, it should have been left by an ancient cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining," Daoist Chongxu speculated.
Guangling Commandery?
Xu Mingxian's heart stirred. Wasn't that right next to Yuehu Commandery?