Wait a minute, where is my master?

The goat-bearded man stepped into the formation.

After Jin Xu raised a golden spiritual power shield to envelop both women,

he followed them inside.

Inside the formation,

a faint mist floated in the air.

This mist was not dense and did not obstruct the view, but it added an ethereal, immortal vibe to the formation.

The young Taoist, with the two women in tow, did not disperse the spiritual power shield upon seeing the unclear mist around them, but instead looked around cautiously.

He noticed that the formation wasn't vast. One could clearly see its boundaries with the naked eye.

And in the very center of the formation, two wooden stakes stood out abruptly.

The goat-bearded man stood by these stakes with a smile, quietly waiting for the young Taoist to approach.

"You two wait here for me within this shield; do not venture out. I'm not sure if there's anything odd about the mist outside. Little Black, take good care of them."

Jin Xu first instructed the two women, then spread his left hand and placed the Gu worm, which he had already named, onto the ground, whispering a couple of instructions.

Upon hearing this, Little Black quickly crawled into a "1" on the ground, indicating it understood.

This was what the young Taoist had taught it.

Crawling a "1" was always a bit faster than making a "good".

"Brother Jin need not worry, breathing this mist in alone is harmless to humans. Besides, I truly bear no malice toward you," the middle-aged, goat-bearded man called out loudly to explain, upon seeing that only the young Taoist had come out of the spiritual power shield.

But Jin Xu paid him no attention.

Even though the Beidou Seven Stars Order was an item of his master,

according to the elder Big Willow Tree, his master would only give such a token to someone extremely close. But who knew where this cultivator had gotten it from?

Moreover, the man claimed to be a representative from Jingyu Building.

Previously, this organization had been entrusted by others to secretly investigate him.

The reason the young Taoist was willing to accompany him was not that he trusted the man; he simply did not want to give up any clue that might lead to his master's whereabouts.

"Speak. How did you come by that order? And what was the meaning of kneeling in the street to welcome me back to the building today?"

Jin Xu stepped forward and asked with an indifferent expression.

It was only then that he noticed that what he had thought were two wooden stakes did not seem to be stakes at all.

They were… plant people, with facial features and orifices, but their bodies completely petrified—wooden.

"Please calm yourself, Brother Jin, and allow me to explain everything one by one," the goat-bearded man first soothed the young Taoist, then dropped a bombshell.

"In fact, the name Nalan Yuandao has always been used by the elder Tianxing Taoist. I only inherited it a hundred years ago."

Upon hearing this, Jin Xu's face remained expressionless, but his pupils imperceptibly shrank a fraction.

"The name of the leader of Jingyu Building turns out not to be a name, but a codename. And the previous holder of this codename was my master?" he silently mused before addressing the goat-bearded man, "Continue."

"This Beidou Seven Stars Order was also given to my father by Elder Tianxing Taoist, and my father later passed it on to me,"

the goat-bearded man gently caressed the exquisite token in his hand, a look of reminiscence in his eyes.

"I was born into a minor Cultivation Family in Miao State's Cultivation World. I was considered a little genius in my family enclave. Thus, from childhood, I lived without worrying about food and clothing, had enough resources for cultivation, and enjoyed the company of a childhood sweetheart.

I had never encountered contempt from my clan or suffered through unfortunate incidents like someone calling off an engagement.

I originally thought my life would continue in this mundane fashion, that I would marry, have children, and pass on the family lineage, and my cultivation would reach the Nascent Soul Realm like my father's or, with luck, break through to Refining Void.

But everything changed in the year I turned fifteen.

At that time, the other two Cultivation Families in the city secretly allied with cultivators from the Demon Sect to ambush the merchant caravan my parents were escorting.

My mother died in battle on the spot, and although my father desperately made it back home, his injuries were too severe, and he passed away after less than three days in a coma. Before he died, he gave me this token, but didn't have the chance to tell me how to use it."

At this point, Goat Beard laughed at himself in self-mockery, then continued, "If my father had told me how to use this token, maybe what happened next would have never occurred.

Because we lost my father, our family's top combatant, our power plummeted, and our businesses were being eroded away by the others.

Even though we had already tried to cut back, the other two families seemed unwilling to let us off the hook and were intent on wiping us out completely.

In the beginning, everyone in our clan was very united, saying we would resist together and get through these tough times until another Nascent Soul Realm member emerged from our family.

But from some day on, the other two families spread a rumor saying that if we killed a member of our own bloodline, we could exchange it for a status far beyond the past and a wealth of cultivation resources with them.

When the clan members heard the news, they were first shocked, then scoffed at the idea, declaring they would never commit such an atrocity.

But that evening...

Three of my clan brothers died tragically in their own rooms.

That night, I actually heard some noise outside my room, but for some reason they didn't choose to kill me. Maybe they were concerned about me being the heir of the Clan Leader, huh~"

Goat Beard sneered coldly. The little Taoist, however, frowned slightly.

"Afterwards, the heads of those three tragically slain clan brothers appeared in front of the doors of the two families the very next day. The Great Elder of our clan was furious and swore to investigate the matter.

But this thing called greed, it's like the Nine Provinces Sea Eye, once opened, it can't be closed.

From that day on, clan members were being killed every night.

And I knew I could no longer stay in this place.

So, on a dark and windy night, I packed up some belongings, took the token, and fled from the family.

When the two families in the city learned that I had run away, they issued a reward specifically for me, offering more resources and greater temptation.

Those evil spirits in the family, once they heard the news, went completely insane.

At that time, I was only fifteen years old and had barely reached Foundation Establishment.

After a grueling half month of fleeing, I was still cornered by my kinsmen at a cliff.

"Brother Jin, do you know who was leading the charge to capture me then?"

Goat Beard asked Jin Xu a question, but didn't expect an answer, he continued, self-answered, "Hehe, the person who came to capture me was that Great Elder who always praised me for having the potential for Divinity Transformation, treated me like his own grandson, and was enraged at the death of the three clan brothers, vowing to thoroughly investigate.

He was so afraid that I'd jump off the cliff that he tried to coax me to go back.

Later on, I learned that the caravan's route, during the incident with my parents, had been leaked by this amiable old grandfather.

Oh, and by the way, I found out about this from when I used the Soul Cutting Saber to slice up that old thing's three souls and seven spirits, and he couldn't bear the pain and cursed me, inadvertently letting it slip."

A sickly hue crossed Goat Beard's stern face, but it faded quickly.

He paused for a moment, as if to collect his emotions, then resumed speaking, "I was lucky that Tianxing Taoist arrived in time to save my life back then.

He gave me two choices.

One, he would wipe out the three families in the city for me and leave me with a sum of Spirit Stones to live as a Loose Cultivator.

Two, leave those from the three families to me to take revenge personally.

Heh, I didn't even hesitate and chose the second option.

Since then, the old Taoist has taken me under his wing in Jingyu Building.

So, when I found out after coming out of seclusion that someone in the building had actually accepted a commission about you, Brother Jin, I immediately brought them to see you."

As Goat Beard spoke, he knocked on the "vegetative person" beside him.