Unsheathed

The three steeds left the provincial city three days after they arrived.

The young woman who had been wearing a veiled hat the entire time glanced back at the city walls of the provincial city, a complicated look in her eyes.

The Ma Clan's imminent trouble was peacefully solved following the appearance of the young guest elder from Cyan Gorge Island as well as a trip to the governor's manor.

A young child from the Ma Clan who had the aptitude to reach the fourth or fifth tier started to cultivate with an old immortal in the provincial city. He wasn't an unofficial disciple, but rather a legitimate in-house disciple who needed to clearly record his name on the records of the imperial court.

This signified that as long as the child remained the disciple of a renowned cultivator, the Ma Clan would receive another endless stream of immortal coins. Of course, the child's master wouldn't use all of the immortal coins he received to pave a path for his disciple, but no matter what, it could be said that the child no longer needed to worry about other matters. The child would definitely receive some tangible benefits that belonged to themself.

Chen Ping'an didn't say anything as he rode his horse.

Even Zeng Ye, someone who was relatively slow when it came to interpersonal matters, noticed the lack of familial care displayed by the clan leader and his wife toward their daughter, Ma Duyi, during his several days visiting the Ma Clan. They carefully asked about this and that, enquiring about Ma Duyi's relationship with her master and force, asking about her cultivation base, and subtly probing whether the young guest elder from Cyan Gorge Island had a Dao partner yet...

Simply put, Ma Duyi's parents only asked one or two surface-level questions about her sudden transition from a cultivator at Pine Wind Island to a cultivator at Cyan Gorge Island. However, just like the conversations and small talk that took place in banquets and official dinners, these questions were nothing more than necessary topics that held little actual importance. These questions were simply asked to refrain from appearing too uncaring and vulgar.

The relationship between Ma Duyi and her parents was now very distant. Perhaps Ma Duyi had left home for too many years, with her lack of cultivation talent greatly disappointing her old ancestor. She was only able to reach the fifth tier, and she could never manage to leave Bamboo Scroll Lake to return home and visit her clan, so due to the great distance between Ma Duyi and her parents, perhaps they felt like her newfound status was vastly different and too lofty now.

Or perhaps their clan was blessed with many descendants and children who were always running around and having fun beside them, so they naturally felt more attached to these children than their daughter who had traveled far away... There might be tens upon hundreds of reasons, but there was only a single reality.

No matter what an outsider said right now, their words would only be like a knife slicing through Ma Duyi's heart. It would cause nothing but pain.