133: life experience

"Why should I oppose it?"

Yang Xuanji laughed: "The Wending Sect may not necessarily be inferior to the Taiqing Academy. If you went to the Taiqing Academy, at best you could only become an Inner Sect Disciple. But now, you are already a Personal Disciple of the Wending Sect, with a bright future ahead. I am overjoyed!"

"All these years, I have seen the grievances you have suffered."

"...Old Ancestor." Yang Hao's voice choked.

Yang Xuanji waved his hand, signaling Yang Hao not to say more; he understood.

Then, his gaze swept across the entire assembly, his voice calm yet carrying unquestionable authority: "I have already understood the cause and effect of this matter. The fault lies not with Yang Hao, and even less with the Wending Sect!"

With these words, the tone for the matter was essentially set.

Henceforth, the enmity between the Yang Family and the Wending Sect would be considered settled. The Yang Family would have to swallow their bitter pill.

Immediately after, he looked at Yang Jinshao.

"If there is blame, it lies only with your past excessive doting on Yang Kun and your neglect of proper discipline, which led to today's calamity of losing a son!"

He waved his hand, his tone carrying a trace of weariness and resolve: "Yang Hao, you may leave! Follow the Senior from your Sect and return to the Wending Sect! That place... may be your true home."

Upon hearing this, Yang Hao felt a tumult of emotions in his heart: relief at escaping the cage, yet also a thread of reluctance for the past.

He bowed deeply to Yang Xuanji and Yang Jinshao, then turned to leave with Xu Wenxian.

"Wait."

Yang Xuanji spoke again, stopping him.

A complex, inscrutable light flashed in the old man's cloudy eyes. He looked at Yang Jinshao and sighed: "Forget it, forget it. Who knows when he will return after leaving this time. It is time to tell him the truth."

Yang Jinshao's body trembled slightly, intense struggle flickered across his face, ultimately dissolving into a long sigh.

He walked up to Yang Hao, looking at this child he had raised to adulthood. His eyes were filled with pain, guilt, and reluctance. His voice was hoarse: "Haoer... actually, you are not my biological flesh and blood."

"...What?! Father, what you're saying... is it true?"

A thunderclap seemed to explode in Yang Hao's head. He stared at Yang Jinshao in disbelief, his face instantly turning deathly pale.

Yang Jinshao avoided his gaze, speaking with difficulty: "Your mother... came from beyond the Qinggu Heaven Domain, from a distant and powerful force... As for your biological father... I do not know either."

"Back then, your mother was severely injured, holding you in swaddling clothes, and drifted to the Qinggu Heaven Domain. It was I..." At this point, Yang Jinshao hesitated before continuing, "...it was I who happened to save you both."

"Later, she had to leave in haste due to an extremely urgent matter."

"Before departing, she entrusted you to me, leaving only this token, saying... it might be of use to you in the future."

"..."

"But you... didn't you say my mother... had long since passed away from illness?"

Yang Hao's voice trembled; he felt as if his entire world was collapsing.

He had always thought his father's favoritism was because his own mother was of low birth and status, unlike Yang Kun's mother, who was properly married.

But he never expected that he actually had no blood relation to his father... "I had no choice but to say that..."

Bitterness and guilt appeared on Yang Jinshao's face: "Your mother's identity is no small matter; her enemies are powerful. I... I was afraid that if you knew the truth, you would recklessly seek her out and bring disaster upon yourself."

"Only by making you believe your mother was dead could you grow up safely within the Yang Family..."

As he spoke, a sharp, stabbing pain came from his heart.

After raising him for so many years, he had long regarded Yang Hao as his own. Now, speaking the truth felt like enduring the pain of separation from his own flesh and blood once more, making it almost hard to breathe.

His eldest son had died unexpectedly, and now his second son was also leaving him.

He couldn't bear to let go; he truly couldn't bear to let go!

"...So that's how it is."

Yang Hao finally understood. He was not of the Yang Family's Bloodline, and his parents might still be alive.

However... where they came from, which Family or force they belonged to, what troubles they encountered... Yang Hao knew nothing. Even the Old Ancestor and his father weren't very clear. There was no information, the only clue being the token now in his hand.

Warm to the touch, it was engraved with patterns of lightning.

In the lower right corner was a small character—

'Chen'.

Beyond that, there was nothing particularly special about it; it seemed like a rather ordinary token.

"The Chen Family?"

Yang Hao frowned. The influx of information was too much for him to digest immediately.

Did he really have such a bizarre origin?

His mother was still alive, and her background was astonishing?

Yet his biological father remained a mystery... Xu Wenxian stepped forward, gently placing a hand on Yang Hao's shoulder. A gentle force flowed in, steadying Yang Hao's turbulent mind.

"Let's go, Yang Hao."

Xu Wenxian's voice carried a calming power: "Your path lies ahead, not in the past. This token may be the key to finding your roots, but it is not a shackle."

"When to search, how to search—the initiative lies in your hands."

"When your strength increases in the future, and the Qinggu Heaven Domain can no longer confine you, you will naturally be able to find your parents and learn the truth."

Yang Hao clenched the token tightly, and after a long while, he finally nodded heavily.

He took one last look at Yang Jinshao, whose face was pained and seemed to have aged instantly, and then at the inscrutable Yang Family Old Ancestor. Finally, he forcefully suppressed all his confusion, shock, reluctance, and the newly ignited desire to find his mother deep in his heart.

He bowed deeply once more to Yang Jinshao and Yang Xuanji. This bow contained years of gratitude for their upbringing and also signified a farewell.

"Father... you will always be Haoer's father!"

"I'm leaving, Father... Old Ancestor... take care of yourselves!"

With that, he resolutely turned and, together with Xu Wenxian, transformed into two streaks of light, disappearing into the horizon above Jade Dragon City.

Yang Jinshao gazed in the direction they had vanished, silent for a long time, only his fists clenched tightly within his sleeves, the hidden pain in his heart throbbing.

"When a child grows up, he naturally has his own path to walk."

Yang Xuanji said: "One must know when to let go. And also... from now on, do not provoke the Wending Sect again. If the Yang Family incurs a great disaster because of you, I, your Old Ancestor, will not hesitate to hand you over to appease the Wending Sect's wrath."

"Have you remembered that?"

"..."

Yang Jinshao wanted to say something, but the words stuck in his throat, unable to come out. In the end, he just let out a heavy sigh, as if resigning himself to fate, and said in a low voice, "...Rest assured, Old Ancestor, I have remembered."

...Not long after, in the Xuanji Immortal Kingdom.

The imperial capital, within the court.

"Outrageous!"

"What kind of place is this Wending Sect?"

"How dare they take action within Jade Dragon City, the second greatest immortal city of our Immortal Kingdom, treating the laws of the Immortal Kingdom as nothing!"

"Utterly insolent!"

A military general fiercely stepped forward, his voice like a great bell, causing the radiant light within the hall to ripple.

Clad in black armor, his fury soared to the heavens.

A civil official frowned deeply, stroking his beard in contemplation: "According to the message from City Lord Situ, this Sect appeared out of thin air, its origins unknown. I am intimately familiar with all major and minor forces in the Qinggu Heaven Domain, but I have never heard the name Wending Sect."

"This old official believes it must be Cultivators who recently ascended from some Small World, a newly established minor Sect."

"Nothing to fear!"

"A minor Sect?" Another civil official snorted, stepping forward to refute: "Have you ever seen a minor Sect casually send out an inner sect elder who is at the Mid Heaven Immortal stage?"

"What is your esteemed opinion then?" The first civil official's tone turned unfriendly.

"This old official believes that the Wending Sect... is most likely a supreme Sect from an external domain!"

These words caused an uproar among everyone present.