After a long while, Ye Zeyun offered a bitter smile. "I finally understand why you had to hide your identity. With a background like yours, if you had told us back then, we never would have dared to reach out to you! No wonder you never stepped foot outside the Ye family villa after marrying into the family. Even when you did, you always veiled your face. We thought you were just afraid your beauty would draw unwanted attention and bring trouble to the Ye family. Looking back, I was too short-sighted."
In this world, the stronger a woman’s background, the more forbidden it was for her to marry beneath her station. Even if the two were deeply in love, it was out of the question. Even if the woman herself agreed, would her family ever allow it? In a fit of rage, they would likely wipe out the weaker clan’s entire lineage!
"Yanran, does your family know you’ve come back?" Ye Zeyun asked, his voice heavy with concern.
His words instantly made Ye Yizhou tense up.
"Rest assured, my return this time is completely above board," Gongsun Yanran said. "My family knows about Yizhou and me, but they will no longer pursue the matter."
"They won’t pursue it? Are you sure? Is the Gongsun family truly magnanimous enough to accept us?"
"It has nothing to do with magnanimity. This is all thanks to Xuan’Er. He is my pride and joy." Gongsun Yanran looked at Ye Xuan beside her, her eyes brimming with pride.
"Xuan’Er? What happened?"
"Yizhou, Xuan’Er put his life on the line to make a wager with the Gongsun family, and he won," she explained. "That is why I can return openly. I know you all still have many questions about what happened recently. Yizhou, find us a place to sit down. I haven’t seen everyone in a long time; let’s catch up properly."
Soon after, the entire Ye family gathered in the grand hall, reminiscing while listening to Gongsun Yanran recount the events of the past few days.
Ye Xuan did not stay to listen. Instead, he went to find Hua.
"Hua," he said sternly, "are you hiding something from me?"
"Mr. Xuan, why would you say that?" Hua’s gaze shifted evasively.
"What, you still want to keep it a secret? I want the truth."
"Mr. Xuan, I really don’t know what you’re talking about."
Ye Xuan’s eyes suddenly turned cold. "Do you really think I didn’t see it? The Martial Techniques you used earlier! Those were absolutely no ordinary Martial Techniques. If I’m not mistaken, that was an inherited Divine Secret Technique, wasn’t it?"
He would never forget the peerless, ethereal aura that had radiated from Hua when she manifested the Fairy Statue. While this Martial Technique might not be quite on par with the Divine-Demonic Overlord Body, it was not far off.
"Mr. Xuan... you saw it?" Hua bit her lip, completely at a loss for how to explain herself.
After a long silence, she finally spoke. "Mr. Xuan, since you saw it, I won’t hide it from you anymore. This is the Hua family’s inherited Secret Technique, the Fairy Seal."
"The Hua family..." Ye Xuan frowned.
When he first met Hua, she had been tied up by mountain bandits who were preparing to burn her to death. However, he knew very little about her past. She had only ever mentioned that she had been wandering the world since she was very young.
"If that’s the case, your Hua family shouldn’t be weak," Ye Xuan said. "Then why were you wandering aimlessly? Was it because of your appearance? Were you abandoned and cast out by your family?"
Hua did not answer his question. She merely gritted her teeth as tears welled up in her eyes.
She gestured with her hands, "Mr. Xuan, I don’t want to talk about my past. It’s all behind me. Let’s not bring it up, okay? At least, not right now. Mr. Xuan, you gave me my life, and I only want to protect you properly. It’s just a pity that my strength is still too weak."
Ye Xuan shook his head. "You’re not weak. Your cultivation is already in the Super Spirit Realm, isn’t it? Which level?"
Hua hesitated for a moment before gesturing the number six.
"The sixth level of the Super Spirit Realm! Doesn’t that make you stronger than me?!" Ye Xuan was thoroughly shocked.
He had never given Hua any cultivation resources suitable for the Super Spirit Realm. How on earth had she managed it?
As if a sudden realization struck him, he said, "When I was in the Profound Cloud Sect, I spent ten years in a depressive slump after saving Meng Dieyi. During those ten years, I barely paid any attention to you. Did your cultivation really improve this much in that time?"
Hua did not deny it, simply nodding in affirmation.
"So it’s true!"
Ye Xuan’s pupils shrank, feeling a profound sense of astonishment for the first time. Hua was even more of a Demon than he had ever imagined.
On the day her shattered meridians were restored, she had only released the aura of the Frenzy Spirit Realm. Ye Xuan now realized she had done so on purpose. In truth, she had possessed the strength of the Super Spirit Realm even back then. She had hidden her full power so that she could better protect him.
After his initial shock subsided, Ye Xuan let out a soft chuckle. "It seems I’ll have to work harder at finding resources. Otherwise, if I don’t even have enough for myself, how can I provide you with what you need to rapidly increase your cultivation?"
"Mr. Xuan..." Hua was deeply moved, never expecting that he was already thinking about securing cultivation resources for her.
Ye Xuan waved his hand casually and continued, "Alright, let’s leave it at that. We both just need to keep working hard. With you here, as long as the Ye family doesn’t encounter an expert at the Demon Spirit Realm again, I can be at ease."
Hua quickly gestured in response, "Mr. Xuan, I don’t want to stay with the Ye family. I want to stay by your side. Last time, when that middle-aged man took you away, I couldn’t follow because the gap in our strength was too immense. But in the future, if anything happens, can you bring me with you? I want things to be just like before—wherever you go, I follow. I can handle all the trivial matters for you."
Ye Xuan considered this for a moment before saying, "We’ll see when the time comes."
If he truly had to travel in the future, Hua might actually be the best attendant to bring along. Compared to him, Tang Long’s cultivation was significantly weaker.
"Thank you, Mr. Xuan!"
Even though Hua was wearing her Peach Blossom Mask, Ye Xuan knew without a doubt that she was smiling. In her heart, he was not just her master; he was the man who had grown up alongside her.
Ye Xuan did not say anything more, turning around and walking out into the courtyard.
He sighed inwardly and thought, "Hua, I don’t know what you went through as a child, but I know you’re keeping it from me for my sake. You don’t want to burden me or put any pressure on me."
Approaching the Array, he wanted to test if it had been completely destroyed. Sticking an Array Banner into the ground, he found that he couldn’t activate the Array no matter what he tried. After probing the energy on the ground with his senses, he realized that some parts of it had been damaged.
He thought, "I wonder if I can repair this Array."
Ye Xuan sat down beside the broken Array, calming his mind to sense the natural energy of heaven and earth. A broken Array was much like a house with a few snapped wooden support beams. However, figuring out the original shape and structural placement of those broken pieces required meticulous deduction.
After analyzing it for a while, his mind was completely tied in knots. He was only a level-one Array Master. Trying to repair a level-four Array was indeed quite a daunting task.
He ultimately gave up on repairing it and decided to carefully study the intricate runic lines of the level-four Array instead. He wanted to understand the exact differences between the patterns of a level-four Array and a level-one Array.
While the knowledge imparted by Array Fool required him to build his comprehension starting from level-one Arrays and slowly upgrade his skills, it did not mean he couldn’t reverse-engineer insights from a higher-level Array.