Chapter 118: Madness

Though he didn't intend to reveal his identity, he could appear, ask his questions, and then erase the other person's memory.

A cultivator's spiritual sense possessed infinite uses, making such actions simple when dealing with mortals.

Thus, Elder Qin, drowsily asleep, suddenly shivered. When he opened his eyes, he saw an otherworldly young man with white hair, a tall crown, and a jade hairpin. He was handsome and dashing, with sharp, chiseled features that held a hint of keenness, yet his eyes were full of gentleness.

Elder Qin couldn't help but rub his eyes, gasping, "Young Master Yu… Young Master Yu."

Elder Qin had once been his stableman and also helped guard his courtyard gate. He had accompanied him for ten years, starting from when Wang Yu was six. He wasn't sure why he had ended up as the gatekeeper.

As a cultivator, Wang Yu was far from the age of decline. Compared to a decade ago, he had only matured, shedding his youthful innocence. His features were more refined and fairer—benefits brought by cultivation. Overall, he bore an eighty percent resemblance to his sixteen-year-old self.

"It's me. Long time no see. Is my father in the manor?"

"This..." Elder Qin couldn't help but rub his eyes again. After a long silence, two streams of old tears rolled down his cheeks. He sobbed almost uncontrollably, his voice trembling.

"Young Master, you've returned too late. Now, Wang Wu is in charge of the Wang Manor. Even Grand..." He stopped abruptly, as if remembering something, and urgently asked, "Young Master Yu, are you a cultivator now?"

"Yes." Wang Yu had prepared himself for bad news before coming, but he hadn't expected it to be so severe.

Only after confirming Wang Yu's cultivation power did Elder Qin recount the events of the past years in detail.

"After Young Master Yu disappeared that year, your father searched all over Stone Lake City but couldn't find you. He suspected Young Master Wu was behind it, so he asked the clan elders to preside over justice. Young Master Wu was about to go to the Lingjiu Sect for cultivation but was stopped by the clansmen. He claimed it wasn't him, but your father refused to believe him and insisted he hand you over. The elders also sided with your father. They believed Young Master Wu had gone too far, saying that they were all from the same clan, so why go to such extremes? As a result, after a few days' delay, the immortal master from the Lingjiu Sect couldn't wait any longer and sent people from the City Lord's Mansion to arbitrate. The City Lord's Mansion blamed everything on your father, siding with Young Master Wu. They even beat him, breaking all his limbs..."

As he spoke, Elder Qin's tears flowed again, and Wang Yu's eyes were also red, his fists clenched. Others might not know the true situation, but he knew it clearly. They were all birds of a feather, daring to be so ruthless.

"After that incident, your father became depressed. He would stare blankly from his bed every day, unable to hear. He lay in bed for half a year and then passed away."

"Three years later, Young Master Wu returned once. He said you were captured by a demonic sect to be a slave and must have died. After that, he displayed several immortal techniques. He expanded the Wang family's businesses several times over. Now, five or six streets in Stone Lake City are Wang family assets, and there are tens of thousands of acres of fertile land outside the city. His relationship with the City Lord's Mansion grew increasingly close."

"But to expand the team of herb gatherers, Wang Wu clashed with the clan elders. Wang Wu demanded they offer a centennial medicinal herb daily. These are centennial medicinal herbs, already very scarce, and the mountains are extremely dangerous. Only by expanding the team of herb gatherers would there be a chance to find them, and he didn't want the ones grown in the medicinal fields. In short, the elders didn't want to see too many deaths and injuries, saying it went against the natural order. And then... the elders were all buried in the clan tombs. Now, there isn't a single direct family member over fifty years old in the Wang Manor."

Wang Wu was truly cruel. His father had indeed been right that year; he was a vicious villain who would kill without hesitation. Elder Qin took a deep breath, his eyes filled with fear.

"Then, five years ago, he wanted to send the younger generation of women from the family to the Lingjiu Sect, including his own sister, Wang Shulan. Initially, everyone thought it was a good thing, after all, they were going to the immortals' domain to serve immortals. But... after sending four or five, it wasn't enough; he wanted more than twenty. How could our Wang family have so many unwed women? We could only select from the retainers. The third time, he needed a hundred young women. Wang Wu's father, your eldest uncle, couldn't help but ask for the reason. And then, for the past five years, we haven't seen the family head again."

Enraged to the extreme, Wang Yu instead calmed down, returning to a state of logical thinking. The dead could not be brought back, and at that time, he couldn't even protect himself, let alone save others. Now that he had returned, revenge was inevitable.

He had truly given birth to an animal.

"In the previous generation, there were hundreds of people in the Wang clan. In this generation, there are only about thirty left. Your third and fourth uncles are dead, and your aunt married into Qianqiu City, so they only communicate by letter. Oh, and Wang Wen had many children, two of whom are twelve years old and capable of cultivation, but they couldn't join the Lingjiu Sect, so they are in the Wang Manor."

"I understand. Where is my father's grave?"

"They're all on the mountain where the clan tombs are."

"Good."

After understanding the situation, Wang Yu sighed. A wisp of spiritual sense emerged from his brow and entered Elder Qin's mind, causing him to fall asleep quickly. When he awoke, he would only remember having a hazy, beautiful dream.

He truly hadn't expected Wang Wu to be so depraved. All Wang family members who opposed him had died, and even those with minor disagreements were not spared.

Lingjiu Sect, City Lord's Mansion... Wang Wu. One by one, he would settle the score with them.

As for the vanished young women, he couldn't think of any other possibility besides yin-yang dual cultivation. Orthodox sects did not forbid dual cultivation methods, but they did forbid the demonic practice of 'harvesting vitality'. The question was, what was there to harvest from mortals? Could it simply be for perverse pleasure? Such twisted tastes were hard to imagine.

As for the two cultivators of the Wang family, Wang Yu discovered after a scan that they were merely cultivators at the first level of Qi Condensation, with only a few strands of spiritual energy in their bodies. Moreover, those spiritual energies were dark in color and lifeless, indicating they hadn't cultivated them themselves. Indeed, at only twelve years old, without the baptism of rare treasures, their bodies hadn't fully developed and simply couldn't withstand the power of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. This was clearly an evil technique, far inferior to true demonic cultivation methods, and they were likely to be 'waste spiritual roots'.

Wang Yu did not harm them. After planting a spiritual sense imprint, he would wait until Wang Wu returned from the Lingjiu Sect to settle accounts. There must be other secrets behind this. Considering the situation with the slave-catching team, the transactions between them were based on cooperation. Could the slave-catching team's other task be related to this matter? Or perhaps, it was simply a plan by the Hehuan Sect, since both the Hehuan Sect and the Ni Lingxue Sect were not far from Black Mountain Pass. It would be perfectly normal for the two sects to conspire in the Taihu Spiritual Domain.

Feeling displeased, Wang Yu left the Wang family and headed to the cemetery mountain, where he found his father's tombstone and paid his respects.