211: Making arrangements and bidding farewell to the family

The completion of the five elements qilin divine ark was like a stabilizing needle, completely anchoring the Luck of the Southern Frontier.

Coupled with the City Protection Grand Array that had been personally modified by Shen Yuanmo, which was powerful enough to annihilate a Late Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.

Today, Qingzhou City was as solid as a fortress.

Under the night veil, Qingzhou City was filled with the lights of ten thousand homes, shining like a galaxy of stars.

The market was bustling with crowds, and the playful laughter of children intertwined with the cheerful conversations of Cultivators.

Shen Yuanmo stood atop the Star Gazing Pavilion, the highest point of the City Lord's Mansion, as the night breeze ruffled his robes.

He looked down upon all of this like a craftsman tending to his own garden, watching the plants and trees in the garden grow from barrenness to prosperity.

The last trace of lingering attachment in his heart slowly dissipated along with this flourishing human vitality.

The Family had already embarked on a broad and smooth road.

They would need to walk the road ahead on their own.

And Shen Yuanmo, too, had to go and pursue his own Dao.

That night, in the most top-secret hidden chamber of the City Lord's Mansion.

Shen Yuanmo summoned his father, Shen Qiming, and the Old Ancestor, Shen Zongdao, for a long talk.

The candlelight flickered, illuminating the faces of the three men.

"Father, Old Ancestor, I intend to leave the Family and go out to travel for a period of time."

Shen Yuanmo's voice was as calm as ever, as if he were speaking of a trivial matter.

However, these words fell into Shen Qiming's ears like a thunderclap from the Nine Heavens!

"What?!"

Shen Qiming sprang up from his grand armchair so violently that he even knocked over the teacup beside him.

Boiling tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he did not feel it at all as he exclaimed in shock:

"You want to leave?!"

"No! Absolutely not!"

He rushed to Shen Yuanmo in a single stride, grabbing his son's arms tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white from the excessive force.

"Yuan Mo, you cannot leave! You absolutely cannot leave!"

"Currently, our Shen Family looks infinitely glorious, but in reality, it is like fire cooking oil—a precarious situation—and a big tree attracts the wind! The favor of the Immortal Emperor, the awe of the various tribes in the Southern Frontier, all of this is entirely because of you!"

"You are the sky of our Shen Family, you are the stabilizing needle of my Shen Family!"

"If you leave, the sky will collapse! If the forces behind the Ziyang Song Family do not give up and come to take revenge, what will we use to block them?!"

Over the past few years, Shen Qiming had been prestigious and influential, acting as the number one Family head in the Southern Frontier, but only he knew how he fell asleep in fear and woke up in worry every single night.

He understood better than anyone that the only Foundation for the ten-thousand-foot-tall building that was the Shen Family was the son before his eyes.

As long as his son was here, the Shen Family was as solid as a fortress.

If his son were gone, the Shen Family would instantly be beaten back to its original form, or even smashed to pieces!

"Father."

Feeling the immense force on his arms and his father's uncontrollable trembling, Shen Yuanmo felt a warmth in his heart.

He grasped his father's cold hand in return, his voice still calm but carrying a power capable of soothing the heart.

"In a greenhouse, one cannot raise a goshawk capable of battling the wind and rain."

"The future of the Family cannot, and should not, rely solely on me."

He looked straight into his father's panicked eyes and said, word by word:

"The simplified Great Five Elements Glazed Art and the other five top-tier Five Elements Cultivation Techniques I left behind are enough for the clansmen to Cultivate to the Great Perfection of Nascent Soul Stage."

"The massive amount of resources I left behind is enough to support the Family's high-speed development for a hundred years without any shortages."

"The five elements qilin divine ark and the City Protection Grand Array I left behind are enough to deal with any crisis below the Soul Transformation stage."

"I have already paved the entire road for the Family. Whether they can continue walking and how far they can go depends on the indomitability in our Shen Family's Bloodline, and the striving of every clansman, not on me alone, guarding here forever."

Speaking to this point, his gaze became distant, as if piercing through this hidden chamber and looking toward the endless starry sky and darkness.

"Moreover, my own cultivation has also reached a Bottleneck."

"A Bottleneck?"

The silent Shen Zongdao was stunned upon hearing this, and a glimmer of light finally appeared in his cloudy eyes. "Yuan Mo, you are now a Half-step Nascent Soul, equipped with fifth-Rank battle armor, and your combat power is comparable to a true Deity Transformation Stage Mighty One. At this Realm, looking across the world, what Bottleneck could there possibly be?"

In his nearly two hundred years of perception, Shen Yuanmo's strength was already the unimaginable peak of this world.

"Old Ancestor, my Foundation is sufficient, and my magic power is enough, but my Dao is too empty." Shen Yuanmo shook his head.

"What is Dao? What is an Immortal? One cannot comprehend these simply by closing the door to engage in bitter cultivation and contemplating Cultivation Techniques."

"My Dao needs to be sought by entering the world."

"I need to go and see this vast world, to see the myriad appearances of all living beings, and to go and properly discuss with those true Prodigies whose Dao is higher in this world, using the sword in my hand and the magic in my palm!"

"My sword needs a sharper whetstone."

"My Dao also needs more resources to fill it."

"Therefore, I must leave."

These words were resonant and forceful.

The hidden chamber fell into a long, dead silence, with only the soft "crackling" sound of the burning candle remaining.

Shen Qiming's lips moved, wanting to persuade him further, but he was stopped by a raised hand from Shen Zongdao beside him.

This Middle Golden Core Stage Cultivator, who had lived for nearly two hundred years, looked deeply at Shen Yuanmo at this moment, an incredibly complex light flickering in those aged eyes.

There was reluctance, worry, and shock, but even more so, it was a kind of understanding and gratification that came from the heart.

After a long while, he let out a long sigh, patted Shen Qiming on the shoulder, and said in a hoarse voice: "Family Head, Yuan Mo... he is right."

"When a fledgling eagle's wings are full, it must eventually leave the nest. He is a true Dragon of the Nine Heavens; this shallow shoal of Qingzhou will ultimately be unable to trap him."

"We cannot break his wings and lock him in this small place because of our own selfishness and fear."

"Let him go."

"We will guard this Family business well for him; when he reigns over the world, being able to have a place to return to will be the greatest support for him."

Shen Zongdao's words were like a morning bell and evening drum, striking hard against Shen Qiming's heart.

He looked at his son's calm and firm eyes, inside which burned the longing for scenery at higher heights that he himself had once had in his youth.

It was just that his own longing had long since been smoothed away by the years.

But his son's longing was enough to burn up the heavens!

Yes, how could he be so selfish?

He dejectedly let go of his hand and slowly sat back, the worry and panic in his eyes finally turning into an inseparable, thick fatherly love and reluctance.

"How long... will you be gone?"

"Short as three to five years, or long as... I do not know when I will return." Shen Yuanmo answered truthfully.

The Heaven-Reaching Secret Realm would open in three years.

But he could not see clearly the road after that himself.

"Okay..."

Shen Qiming took a deep breath, as if using all his strength, and nodded solemnly, his eyes already turning red.

"Father... will wait for your return."

Seeing that his father had finally relented, Shen Yuanmo also felt a sense of relief in his heart.

He knew that any comforting words at this moment would seem pale.

He wanted to leave behind the final, and also the most foolproof, contingency for the Family.

He waved his hand casually.

A Storage Ring shimmering with precious light slowly flew in front of Shen Qiming.

"Father, inside this are some fourth-rank spirit treasures and fourth-Rank Medicinal Pills that I left behind from the Five Elements True Lord's Legacy. Do not use them unless the Family is at a critical juncture of life and death."

Immediately after, several jade Formation Plates shimmering with various colors of light and engraved with complex formation patterns flew out.

"These are a few Formation Plates I drew myself. Each one is enough to activate a small-scale Great Five Elements Cycle Array. Although its power is not comparable to the City Protection Grand Array, it is enough to trap and kill one or two Late Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators."

Shen Qiming and Shen Zongdao looked at these treasures that would be enough to make any Fourth-Rank Noble Family fight to the death to obtain them, feeling shocked, but they were already numb.

However, Shen Yuanmo's next action made them truly understand what it meant to be watertight and what it meant to be fully prepared.

Shen Yuanmo's expression was unprecedentedly grave as he waved his hand to set up layers of sound-insulating and Divine Sense-isolating Restrictions.

Then, he took out a jade pendant shimmering with five-colored light, as if it contained a world within it.

It was the control core of the Five Elements True Lord's Small World, the five elements token.

"Father, Old Ancestor, this is the final retreat for our Shen Family."

Shen Yuanmo took out another token carved from ten-thousand-year warm jade. He activated the five elements token, splitting off a brilliant radiance and striking it into the token.

On the token, a mysterious spatial portal pattern immediately appeared.

He handed this token solemnly into Shen Qiming's hands.

"This token can open a one-way spatial channel to an independent Small World once. That Small World is ten thousand miles in radius, rich in Spiritual Qi, abundant in resources, and most importantly... isolated from the world."

"You must remember, this object is the highest-level secret of my Shen Family. Except for the two of you, no third person must know about it!"

Shen Yuanmo's voice became cold and resolute, carrying an unquestionable tone of command.

"If one day the ark is destroyed, the array is broken, and the Family truly reaches the point of an extinction-level catastrophe..."

"Do not hesitate at all; activate the token immediately and lead all the core Bloodline clansmen of the Family to escape into the Small World! Abandon Qingzhou City, abandon everything here!"

"As long as the Bloodline does not die out, my Shen Family will have a day to make a comeback and return!"

After hearing these words, Shen Qiming and Shen Zongdao were completely speechless.

They stared blankly at the token in their hands, feeling their very Divine Souls trembling.

"Yuan Mo... I..." Shen Qiming held the heavy token, his lips trembling, wanting to say something, but he found that no words could express even one ten-thousandth of the emotions surging in his heart at this moment.

"Father, Old Ancestor, take care."

Shen Yuanmo bowed deeply to the two of them.

After doing all this, he rejected Shen Qiming's proposal to hold a grand farewell ceremony for him.

In his view, that was meaningless.

Three days later, on a morning as ordinary as any other.

The sky was just beginning to brighten; Qingzhou City was still shrouded in a thin morning mist, and the first crow of a rooster could be heard in the distance.

Shen Yuanmo changed into a set of the most ordinary cyan cloth robes, stowed all his Magic Treasures and Spirit Treasures into his body, and restrained all the aura from his entire body.

He did not alert anyone and walked out of Qingzhou City silently.

Shen Yuanmo looked back and took a deep look at Qingzhou City, which still appeared incredibly magnificent and surging with Luck in the morning light.

There, he had his Family, his clansmen, and the deepest bonds of his life.

A trace of imperceptible warmth and reluctance flashed in his eyes.

But soon, this emotion was replaced by a more firm and sharper edge.

He turned around, no longer having the slightest bit of lingering attachment.

Facing the rising morning sun that broke through the clouds and scattered ten thousand rays of golden light, he stepped, one step at a time, toward that unknown, vast, and boundless world, embarking on his own journey.