Every day, each member of the entire clan gives me a wisp of spiritual energy.

Chapter 46 Huang Family Welcome Banquet

Shen Qing nodded: "Mr. Sun, please continue. I'll just listen from the back."

Shen Qing sat down in the last row of the lecture hall, next to Zhong Xiu, Xu Shouzhen, and Fang Shourou. The three of them were now teaching assistants at the academy, attending classes with the children every day and tutoring the slower learners after class.

Zhong Xiu sat on the far side, holding a copy of the "Thousand Character Classic" in his hands, looking no different from an ordinary teaching assistant at the academy.

But Shen Qing knew that she had mastered the Qi Concealing Technique to an extremely high level. Her cultivation level of the fourth level of Qi Refining was steadily suppressed to the first level of Qi Refining, which even a Foundation Establishment cultivator like Zhao Yuanlang could not see through.

Sun Wenyuan was not affected by Shen Qing's arrival and continued lecturing.

As Shen Qing watched the children's backs and observed them writing words on the sand table stroke by stroke, she suddenly felt a little dazed.

More than half a year ago, when he first taught Wang Shouzhou and the others to write the character "天" (tian, meaning sky), he used a broken blackboard with a missing corner and held white lime in his hand.

Now he sits in a real lecture hall, with real children in front of him.

Everything has changed, yet it seems like nothing has changed at all.

That afternoon, Shen Qing gave the children a math lesson.

He taught the children to recite the "Nine-Nine Song" and to do addition and subtraction using a sand tray.

The children actually learn very quickly. They've only been in school for a few months, but they can do accounting better than their parents.

Looking at the child's innocent expression as he earnestly counted on his fingers, Shen Qing suddenly felt that his utilitarian desire to exploit them for spiritual energy was truly despicable.

After the evening class, Shen Qing summoned Zhong Xiu and the other two to the quiet room. After inquiring about their cultivation progress, he gave them individual guidance based on their different levels of advancement, and then dismissed them.

He sat alone on the futon, and began to deduce the next course of action.

The night wind howled outside the window, and a single lamp flickered dimly in the quiet room.

Late at night.

The following evening, Zhao Yuanlang sat in a quiet room in the backyard of the county government office, flipping through a book.

The chess piece made a crisp sound as it hit the board.

"Is everything settled?" he asked without looking up.

Xuanji stood below the steps and recounted everything he had seen on Qingyun Mountain, adding at the end, "Shen Qing only left three disciples. I personally examined the aptitudes of those three children; with three different spiritual roots, they are indeed mediocre."

Zhao Yuanlang placed a black piece and nodded slightly.

He had always harbored a slight doubt: Shen Qing had taken in so many mortal disciples, was he perhaps searching for a needle in a haystack, secretly cultivating a few truly promising talents among them?

Now it seems he was overthinking things. If there really were genius disciples, Shen Qing would never have left only three mediocre ones on the mountain when he dismissed everyone.

This confirmed his earlier judgment: Shen Qing was a dying man who wanted to leave behind some descendants before his death, and those mortal disciples were indeed too poor in aptitude to be worth cultivating.

"Bring Li Youlai to see me."

Li You, the patrol inspector of Qinghe, arrived quickly. He was a tall and slender young man, wearing the standard military robe of the county government's military affairs department, with a narrow-bladed sword hanging at his waist.

He entered the meditation room, knelt on one knee, and bowed: "Master."

Zhao Yuanlang put down his book and looked at his disciple whom he had taken in Qinghe.

He has good aptitude, possesses dual spiritual roots, and is also quick-witted. After years of training in Qinghe, he has developed a more composed demeanor.

He ordered Li You to bring his yamen runners to Qingyun Mountain early the next morning to be responsible for the safety of the academy's teachers and students.

"Instructors and students." Zhao Yuanlang emphasized these two words clearly. "We don't need to concern ourselves with other people's affairs."

Li You understood the instruction perfectly. It was about protecting the academy, but in reality, it was about keeping an eye on Shen Qing and the few people who stayed behind.

The information about Cha Mo Wentian was also handled by him and Xuanji together.

He clasped his hands in a fist salute and replied, "Yes," then asked, "Master, if there are any unusual movements on Sect Leader Shen's side...?"

"Don't disturb him. Just observe and take notes. If anything seems strange, report it to me first."

Li You acknowledged and withdrew.

Just as Li You accepted the task and was about to leave, Zhao Yuanlang suddenly added, "Also, how's the Huang family doing?"

Li You and Xuanji exchanged a glance, and the former immediately lowered his head.

"Master, I just received news today that the Huang family's people in Fenglin County have sent word that Huang Yuanji has passed through the county. If he travels quickly, he should arrive within the next three days."

Li You thought for a moment, then continued, "In addition, Qinghe County is quite lively right now. The Huang family in the south of the city is preparing a welcoming banquet. I heard that the Huang family sent people to purchase a lot of things. They also sent invitations to various households in the city, and our county government also received them."

"The invitation says that Huang family patriarch Yuanji was summoned to Chuzhou by the Heavenly Emperor and returned after three years. The Huang family is holding a banquet to welcome the patriarch and sincerely invites all relatives and friends from Qinghe to come to the mansion for a gathering in seven days."

Zhao Yuanlang's hand, which was holding a chess piece, stopped in mid-air.

"Three days later?"

Li You nodded.

Zhao Yuanlang remained silent for a moment; Huang Dehou's actions were unexpected.

In his original expectation, Huang Dehou and his father should have similar styles of doing things, being low-key and patient. After all, the Huang family had coveted Qingyun Mountain for more than a hundred years, and they had always worked in the shadows without ever making a big show of it.

But now Huang Dehou has actually put on such a grand show, decorating with lanterns and holding a lavish banquet, as if he wants the whole of Qinghe County to know that Huang Yuanji has returned.

This is very illogical.

Unless, Huang Dehou wanted to use this welcoming banquet to send some kind of signal.

So who is this for?

Shen Qing?

Zhao Yuanlang felt it didn't seem likely.

It's not worth the effort to put on a show for a dying, useless sect leader.

It would probably be more reasonable to say that it's to boost one's own morale.

It is indeed something to boast about for an ancestor at the third level of Foundation Establishment to return alive from the struggle for supremacy in Chu Province.

But given Huang Dehou's shrewdness, he wouldn't make such a big fuss just to show off. Zhao Yuanlang felt there must be a bigger purpose behind it.

Zhao Yuanlang frowned and put the chess piece back in the chess box.

Regardless of Huang Dehou's true intentions, he decided to postpone his departure from Qinghe. Originally, Zhao Yuanlang planned to set off to return to the Heavenly God Sect to report on his duties in the next few days, but now it seems that he will have to wait until after this welcoming banquet.

He wanted to see for himself what kind of person Huang Yuanji was, that he could actually come back alive.

In Qinghe County, where the streets have gradually quieted down, Zhang Dayou is walking with his head down towards the Old Locust Tree Lane in the north of the town.

He was one of the outer disciples of Qingyun Sect who had just received his resettlement allowance today. Because he couldn't bear to leave his seventy-year-old mother and two younger siblings who were still growing up, he voluntarily gave up the job arranged by the county government and chose to return to his hometown to farm.

Besides the gray robe and the handwritten martial arts manual, the bundle also contained loose silver coins exchanged for silver notes. This was the severance pay given by the county government and the private bonus given by the sect leader, Shen Qing.

When Zhang Dayou pushed open the courtyard gate, his old mother, who was mending clothes in the yard, looked up and squinted her dim eyes for a while before recognizing him.

She stood up shakily, touched his face with her withered hand, and asked him why he had come back.

Zhang Dayou opened his mouth, but didn't know where to begin.