Inside the Xu clan estate, within one of the small buildings located near the ancestral hall.

At the moment, two middle-aged men were looking at four unconscious people that laid down on separate beds, all of them giving off an aura that their qi was chaotic at varying levels. In fact, there was one more person within the small building, it’s just that this person gave off the feeling that he wanted to be dead rather than alive at this point.

Unsurprisingly, these five people were the group of five that were tasked to head to Jian and Qin’s place to hinder the couple from making any short-term progress. However, their goals eventually turned into keeping the budding spirit vein for themselves thanks to a moment of greed.

Sadly for them, the budding spirit vein that they were planning to keep was sentient, deciding to retaliate against the four of them by overloading their bodies with qi, causing them to experience Qi Overflow. As for the remaining one, he was left alone for some reason, allowing him to carry out the four that were targeted.

About two days had passed since then. During that time, they still had no clue that the five of them were attacked by a budding spirit vein. In their minds, they thought that the couple had hired a protector at a high cultivation level to attack them in the dark.

Looking at the only person awake among the group of five that seemed more paranoid than ever, one of the middle-aged men, a man in a white robe, could not help but shake his head as he said to the other middle-aged man, “Ai, Patriarch. This one here’s a lost cause. He’s suffered a ton of mental anguish from the incident to the point that it has already formed an inner demon, making him unable to progress any further lest he were to find out the culprit behind their attack.”

“As for the others…” The middle-aged man looked at the unconscious four. “Although they’ve been afflicted with Qi Overflow, their doctor made the right call and saved them from death’s door. Sure, there’s also the chance that they would have an inner demon thanks to the incident, but resolving them is far easier as they haven’t seen the entire thing.”

Although the doctor among the group of five heard all of that, his expression was still that of paranoia, slightly rocking back and forth as he continued to stay seated on one of the chairs in the building.

Seeing the state of the doctor, Xu Zhouhuang could not help but let out a light sigh as he told the middle-aged man, “Is there really nothing you can’t do to help this man, Elder Sheng?”

Elder Sheng, whose full name was Xu Yisheng, shook his head as he replied, “It’s not that I can’t do anything to help him. After all, there are various pills out there that help out in the quelling of inner demons. However, the scarcity of such pills makes it so that the prices of said pills are superbly exorbitant. Even the entire asset of someone at the Stellar Fusion Realm isn’t enough to buy one pill.”

“With that being said, I apologize for sounding rude, but… are you really willing to spend all of the clan’s assets just to save a man at the Essence Condensing Realm, Patriarch?” he continued.

Hearing that, Xu Zhouhuang let out yet another sigh before becoming silent. Half a minute later, he went ahead and sent a strand of his qi outside, prompting an attendant to enter the building a minute later. As the attendant kneeled in front of him, he then told the attendant, “Tell Elder Ye to remove Number 2 from the Nightblade Regiment. Also, tell him the reason why Number 2 was being removed was due to meritorious reasons.”

“After that, help Number 2 move to Red Jade Town and notify Manager Zhu there that Number 2 will be appointed as his store’s guardian,” he continued before clicking his tongue. “That bastard’s been pestering me for a few months already to give him someone to guard his store. But since his store makes quite a decent amount of money, I’ll acquiesce to his desires just this once.”

“Understood,” the attendant respectfully nodded. “Will that be all, Patriarch?”

“Make sure that Number 2 will get a Low-tier Spirit Stone every month for the next 5 years,” Xu Zhouhuang said soon after, prompting Elder Sheng to look at him with a hint of surprise. After all, Low-tier Spirit Stones were quite precious even for them.

After seeing that Xu Zhouhuang did not seem to have anything else to say, the attendant respectfully bowed to the patriarch, then to Elder Sheng as he held Number 2 by the hand, who was still seated inside the building.

As the attendant and Number 2 eventually left the building to head somewhere else, Elder Sheng could not help but look at Zhouhuang and say, “A Low-tier Spirit Stone every month? For someone like him, that’s enough for him to live without a care for the world if he isn’t aiming to reach higher realms.”

“Kindness begets kindness, and evil begets evil,” the patriarch said in response. “Since he has contributed to the clan, then it’s no surprise that it’s the clan’s turn to give back to him.”

“In any case…” He narrowed his eyes as slight killing intent suffused around him, making Elder Sheng let out a bit of cold sweat.

“We have to find out who did this to our clan members.”

“Nngh…” Coincidentally, just as he was finished saying those words, one of the four unconscious men started groaning, prompting the two to come closer to the man as Elder Sheng tried to rouse the man awake. Fortunately, a few strands of qi and a pill was more than enough for the man to eventually sit up straight on the side of his bed.

“Mind telling me your identity?” After he was certain that the man had finally become aware he was back at the Xu clan, Xu Zhouhuang decided to ask him some questions.

“Number 5…” the man responded, his voice sounding more like groaning rather than an actual voice. Nevertheless, the two middle-aged men did not care about that as they asked him multiple questions regarding the incident near Jian and Qin’s house.

…

After half an hour of back and forth questioning, a couple of medicinal pills, and a few shocking truths that the one being questioned did not take kindly to, Elder Sheng and Xu Zhouhuang left the small building as they allowed the four to recuperate in silence, making their way to the ancestral hall.

“So, from the answers we’ve gathered from Number 5, they were scooping up the Spirit Slag from the budding spirit vein to take back to the clan when one of them was infused with qi all of a sudden,” Elder Sheng said.

Nodding in response, Xu Zhouhuang continued, “At first, all of them thought that it was just the budding spirit vein sending qi. However, as time passed, the influx of qi did not stop, making that person experience Qi Overflow.”

“Such a cunning way of attacking,” Elder Sheng could not help but say. “To utilize pure qi to deal damage to one’s foes… is it possible that the one attacking them has already formed the seed of a Concept?”

“Possibly,” Zhouhuang replied. “Or perhaps, the assailant hails from a sect found at the center of the continent. With Jian’er being gone for two years, it’s not surprising if he made his way to the center of the continent, found someone there to be his protector, and went back.”

“That’s also possible.” Elder Sheng nodded in response. “Since we’re talking about people from the center of the continent, it may be possible that the person is not using qi to attack, but has instead gained control over the budding spirit vein near Jian’s house and turned it into a weapon.”

“How high of a realm would someone have to be in order to do something like that?” Xu Zhouhuang asked in response with a slight shudder. “For all we know, the budding spirit vein might have gained a mind of its own and decided to retaliate against the five.”

After a few seconds of silence, the two of them burst out into laughter as they arrived at the ancestral hall, knowing very well that such a thing was more or less impossible. After all, they had never heard of spirit veins gaining sentience before.

Talking a bit more about the possible assailant that attacked the group of five near Jian and Qin’s house, they eventually arrived at a topic that seemed to fit very well into their current conversation as they both sported serious expressions.

“What are the chances of the Huang clan using this incident as a way to get back at us?” the patriarch asked.

“With them relying on our support in order for their clan leader to be changed to someone else, the chances of that are not high,” Elder Sheng said in response, only to narrow his eyes soon after.

“But that does not mean it’s impossible.”

“Do they even have someone in their clan that’s capable of such a feat?” Zhouhuang asked in response, to which Elder Sheng shook his head, saying, “As far as I know, no. However, it may be possible that the Huang clan is hiding them since they don’t want our clan to know that they did it.”

“It seems we both arrived at the same conclusion,” said Xu Zhouhuang as he sent a strand of his qi out the ancestral hall. About a couple minutes later, a young man that had similar facial features to him appeared in front of the two before respectfully bowing to the two.

“Cheng’er, I have an important task for you,” Xu Zhouhuang looked at his son with a solemn expression, to which Zhoucheng replied, “As long as I can do it, Father, I’ll make sure it shall be done.”

“Good.” Xu Zhouhuang nodded in response. “Now, listen to me very well, Cheng’er. What I want you to do is to head to the Huang clan and…”

“…cause chaos.”