In his eyes, MingYue was just a frog in the well who had probably had some lucky encounters. Still, he didn't blame her for opening her own sect and trying to leave the family because her reasons were justified.
'Vesa, you can do it, right?'
[Of course, Queen. It seems they separated the formation outside from the one inside, so in case something happened, they could still use the formation in here to escape.]
MingYue didn't care much about Vesa's explanation; she didn't feel any interest in learning how the formation worked.
She just wanted to quickly get over it and return to the secret realm. The resources here would be useful for her little brother and other people in the sect.
"I hope you won't regret what you said, Gramps," MingYue said with a smirk. She then walked toward the door and placed her palm over it, allowing Vesa to start working on the array.
Meanwhile, MingHao was sitting on the ground outside the Xueqi family estate, observing the commoners busy with their own tasks.
ZanLu, passing by the area, noticed MingHao's pale face and approached him. "Young Master, are you alright?"
"No, I am not," MingHao answered.
"You shouldn't think too much about it. I am sorry to say this, but those people you killed deserved it. It would take me two days to list every single person that fell victim at their hands."
ZanLu dared to say this because he saw MingHao as a kind person, unlike other cultivators, which made him want to comfort MingHao.
MingHao didn't want to talk about it because it would just remind him of their dying faces.
Even though he understood why his sister did it, he still felt it would have been better to just enslave them.
"It seems most people in the city will follow Sis out. What will happen with the rest, then?"
ZanLu turned his gaze toward the street, seeing people moving around.
"They will stay here, of course. It's their own choice; they should already know the risk. A commoner staying without a cultivator protecting them is just waiting for death."
He had seen the fate of some neighboring villages burned to the ground for offending some cultivator.
The only reason most of these villages were safe was that they had nothing of value for the cultivator to plunder.
But Dai Yin city was different; it had a lot of wealth.
He could already see the affiliated families starting to fight over the empty seat of the Xueqi family, only for it to be taken from them by stronger cultivators who heard the news.
This place would become a bloodbath soon.
But MingHao didn't know about this possibility. If he knew, he would run around trying to convince those who chose to stay to go with them.
"How did you meet my sister?"
"The lady? One day, she came to our village and started giving out elixirs that healed those who were sick. She then offered us to follow her and sign a slave contract.
We thought at first we would be used as cannon fodder or for hard labor in construction, but we still agreed to it since our village had a lack of food, and your Mistress said she would take everyone.
At that time, our village lacked young people, which is the same as any other village.
Those young and talented would try their luck looking for work in the city, sects, or any prominent family like yours."
"My sister did that?" MingHao asked in disbelief.
He had always thought of MingYue as someone cold, only doing things that benefited her.
In his mind, there should be no benefit in taking people from a village like that. If anything, she would just take the useful ones, not everyone.
"Lady MingYue is not bad.
Compared to other cultivators I've met so far, Mistress gave us a path to survive and become stronger.
As I told you, we expected hard work and to be paid only with food. But Mistress gave us more than that; you will see it later with your own eyes.
Now, even without the slave contract, I would follow Mistress even if it cost my life. I know my family will be taken care of," ZanLu said with eyes filled with reverence.
Seeing ZanLu respect his sister so much made MingHao realize there were many things he didn't know about her. He then started asking ZanLu more about his sister.
Back inside the ancestral hall, the old man's face started turning ugly as he could feel the control of the array disappearing from him.
This prompted him to quickly float toward MingYue's side; with panicked eyes, he quickly said, "Stop! Stop! I will give you the control."
This left MingYue puzzled since the end result should have been the same.
[Queen, other than the secret vault he talked about, there is another one deeper underground.
I am sure something there is the reason why this wisp of a soul has survived this long.]
Reading this made MingYue's lips curl up into a cold smile.
"Hey, geezer, let's make a deal. At this point, your life is in my hands anyway.
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The old man's soul then realized MingYue had already found out his secret. He couldn't believe he was beaten by someone far younger than him.
He knew the one who had built this array was someone far stronger than him.
To be able to decrypt the formation in this short time made the old man accept his defeat sincerely.
After all, what really mattered to him was for the Xueqi family to rise again.
"Yes, so do you want me to kneel down now? What do you want?" he asked.
"This is a different matter. I want you to protect and teach my younger brother since you're always here. You should know him.
Even though he is not a genius, he will reach heights far beyond what you can imagine."