Hearing this, the old man also recovered from his embarrassment of losing face. He looked at Qingwu, who was lying unconscious under the instrument, and his brow furrowed.
Seeing that he remained silent, Wan Lei and the others felt their hearts sink to the bottom.
"Senior?"
Wan Lei cautiously probed.
"Alas."
The old man sighed first,
"The lifelong Dao of a Boundless realm expert, with their heart fire cultivated to the utmost limit, was never something that a mere mortal realm cultivator like her could withstand. Moreover, this bead entered her sea of consciousness. If you hadn't protected her with the Origin Fire, she would have already perished."
I'm not here to listen to your analysis, just give me the result! Where did your impatience go?
Wan Lei felt like giving the old man another slap.
"As for saving her, it can be done."
The elder sighed,
"Constantly suppressing it is not a good strategy. Just like floods, when they accumulate too much, the levee will eventually break. What we need to do is create an opening to release the flood, allowing the flood... the heart fire to go where it should.
To guide and restrain this bead, we need to use the Grand Supreme Runes passed down by the founding ancestor of our Xiangren Sect to seal and guide it. After all, this is the complete Dao of a Boundless realm expert, which is certainly beyond my meager cultivation of the Taiheng realm."
"You sighed just now, will the next sentence tell me that the rune is lost?"
Wan Lei squinted at the old man.
"No, no, no, how could the founding ancestor's runes be lost? These runes are still in my possession."
"Then please, senior, use the runes to save her. This junior will be eternally grateful and will surely repay you handsomely."
"You are not a cultivator from the Eastern Lands, are you?"
Wan Lei looked up and saw that the Xiangren Sect personnel around him were all looking at him with peculiar gazes.
"Runes are just runes; they cannot achieve any effect. Only by inscribing runes onto a person or an artifact can they exert their corresponding functions."
"Then... then you engrave it."
"To engrave the founding ancestor's Grand Supreme Runes, one needs to use his Grand Supreme Engraving Knife, which is our ancestral treasure, a treasure of the sect.
Alas..."
"Lost?"
"Pretty much. It wasn't lost, we know where it is, we just can't get it back."
"Where is the engraving knife?"
Upon hearing this, the ancestor looked at the elders. The elders turned their heads away, as if unwilling to speak, leaving it to the ancestor to say it himself.
The ancestor's old face blushed slightly, and he said with some shame,
"I gave it to someone else a few days ago."
"Ancestor, please don't beat around the bush, just tell me where it is."
"Five days ago, I went out to rescue someone. On my way back, I saw the Three Oddities of Jingshan bullying a Tai Xu realm cultivator, beating him to death. How could I stand by and do nothing? I immediately stopped the three oddities and told them to cease their attack."
The ancestor glanced at the pale young man in the corner,
"It's him."
Wan Lei's gaze became even more astonished.
"Unfortunately, when I told them to stop, they not only didn't stop, but they even intensified their assault on this young friend. I was indignant and ended up fighting them."
"And then..."
"I lost."
"So, the Three Oddities of Jingshan are three Taiheng realm cultivators?"
"Yes, they have several Tai Xu realm subordinates and hundreds of disciples. They occupy Jingshan and are a local bully, but they are not entirely evil.
After beating me up, they told me to get lost and continue beating this young friend."
"Then why were they beating this young brother?"
"Because this young brother seduced the daughter of the third family..."
"It wasn't seduction. Xiao Yue and I are in love, but they thought I had low cultivation and little wealth, and that I wasn't worthy of their daughter."
The young man retorted loudly.
"That shouldn't be the case. You are already a Tai Xu realm cultivator. Do they want to find a Tai Heng realm old monster for their daughter? If you, a Tai Xu realm cultivator, joined them, you would be a great help."
Wan Lei raised a point of doubt.
The young man stammered for a long time before saying,
"It's my backing forces that have a conflict with them. They refused to marry Xiao Yue to me, and a Tai Heng realm expert also took a liking to Xiao Yue...
So I planned to elope with Xiao Yue, but they caught me red-handed, and that's when those things happened."
"Oh, I see. Senior, please continue."
"Yes, it's like this. After they beat me up, they told me to get lost and mind my own business.
But how could I stand by and watch this young friend be beaten to death by them? So I asked them how they would let this young friend go, and they proposed a condition."
"The Grand Supreme Engraving Knife in exchange?"
Wan Lei looked at the old man with disbelief.
"Young friend is indeed exceptionally intelligent..."
Does this have anything to do with intelligence? Anyone with common sense could guess that.
"And then you exchanged it?"
"Young friend indeed..."
"Alas,"
Wan Lei sighed,
"Senior, you are truly a gentleman who can be easily deceived."
"There's nothing I can do. The Grand Supreme Engraving Knife is just an inanimate object. Compared to a human life, it's nothing."
Their values differed. If someone tried to force Wan Lei to hand over an ancestral treasure by threatening the lives of outsiders, Wan Lei would have scoffed, thinking, "What does it have to do with me if they kill ten thousand or a hundred thousand people?"
Clearly, the Three Oddities of Jingshan had counted on the Xiangren ancestor's character when they did this.
Thinking of this, Wan Lei's mind stirred, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Senior, how do you know this kid didn't team up with those three oddities to put on a charade, a play of self-inflicted injury, just to trick you out of your engraving knife? Once this kid recovers, he'll leave, and where will you find him?"
The Xiangren ancestor was stunned, "This... impossible."
"I am not that kind of person."
The young man vehemently defended himself,
"I am from the Lingyun Sect. Everyone knows me. Our Lingyun Sect is sworn enemies with the Three Oddities. I would never collude with them to trick a senior."
"Then how do I know you're not using this to gain favor, all for the sake of successfully marrying your beloved?"
"Impossible. I swear by the Heavenly Dao, I absolutely did not collude with the Three Oddities to deceive the senior."
Clearly, this was a naive and impetuous youth.
"Senior, when you encounter such a situation, why didn't you call the police?"
Wan Lei remembered that the Five Elements Hall seemed to handle such matters.
The old man sighed and waved his sleeve,
"Matters of the martial world should be settled within the martial world. As cultivators, when disputes arise, must we always rely on the authorities? If word got out, wouldn't we be laughed to scorn? Moreover, it was an exchange of one item for another, so what reason would there be to involve the authorities?"
This... this is so societal?
Are you an idiot? Is your reputation more important than your ancestral treasure?
Looking at the righteous old man before him, Wan Lei felt a headache coming on.
This guy's character was reliable. If they could retrieve the engraving knife, he would definitely do his best to save Qingwu.
But this guy was simply too stubborn.
Naïve and childish, beyond saving.
"Senior, what cultivation level do those three oddities have? Are they early-stage Tai Heng realm or late-stage?"
This was the question Wan Lei was most concerned about.