"Have you been here before?" the two asked somewhat curiously. They couldn't think of any other explanation.

"No," Xiaoyao shook his head. Though he could say he'd been in this area for quite some time, he'd never had the opportunity to go out and explore. The Fuyun Sect was so far from his area of activity—how could he have been here?

"Did you investigate?" Since he hadn't been here, he might have investigated the situation here. Yes, it must be like this.

"No!" Xiaoyao shook his head. He didn't understand Fuyun Sect matters—he hadn't had time to collect information about this area, having been busy all along.

"Then how do you know this is the Fuyun Sect?"

"It's on the map," Xiaoyao replied simply. That's right—though he hadn't collected intelligence, he had looked at maps. He still knew where the Fuyun Sect was located.

"On the map? Just based on that?"

"Though I don't know where you're taking me, I know the general direction. Adding distance calculations, though I'm not certain of the exact location, I roughly know," Xiaoyao replied.

...

"Oh..."

The two stopped talking. They could accept this explanation—they hadn't deliberately concealed their route when coming, so anyone who could calculate would figure it out.

Besides, they didn't care about this at all, so naturally they wouldn't think much about it. If he knew, he knew—they were going to tell Xiaoyao about this matter anyway.

"What's the meaning of inviting me here?" Xiaoyao asked. Though he knew the two in front of him might not answer, and indeed that's how it was.

"You'll know when the time comes," the two indeed didn't answer anything. Their duty was just to bring Xiaoyao here—they wouldn't concern themselves with other matters.

Soon, Xiaoyao landed in the Fuyun Sect's plaza, attracting quite a bit of attention. Many people pointed at Xiaoyao's appearance, with most not knowing who he was or why their sect's two top experts would bring such a person here.

If they knew Xiaoyao was the spark that ignited the war between them and Flowing Stone Kingdom, they would definitely come over wanting to beat and kill him, because they had truly suffered these past few years. Especially now, they were even more frustrated, plus so many people had died, including some of their good friends.

Of course, the Fuyun Sect master and these two God Level martial artists wouldn't let Xiaoyao lose his life, though they wouldn't care if he was beaten or cursed.

"Hello, I'm called Le Xiaoyao. May I ask what you want with me?"

Xiaoyao met the Fuyun Sect master—an elderly man with white hair but youthful face, who was Yun Qingyi's father, Yun Kaitai.

Though Xiaoyao was very polite, the other party didn't seem very polite, looking at Xiaoyao very unfriendly and coldly snorting: "You're that bastard!"

"Who are you calling a bastard?" Xiaoyao looked around somewhat confused. This was actually a very simple trap.

"I'm calling you a bastard!" Yun Kaitai snorted coldly. He had always been high and mighty—how would he know such small traps? At the same time, he felt that in Xiaoyao's current situation, how would he dare play any tricks on him?

Xiaoyao was just one person, while this was the Fuyun Sect's headquarters, not Flowing Stone Kingdom. If it were in Flowing Stone Kingdom, he might have no way to deal with him, but here, Xiaoyao was meat on the chopping block, at his mercy.

Xiaoyao remained silent, and the scene fell into momentary quiet...

"Sect Master, this little bastard is playing with you," someone beside Yun Kaitai spoke up.

"..." Yun Kaitai was silent for a moment. He quickly understood Xiaoyao's little trap and immediately showed intense killing intent, but soon suppressed it again.

"Do you know that killing you would be as easy as stepping on an ant?" Yun Kaitai looked at Xiaoyao disdainfully, still with that high-and-mighty attitude.

"I don't know," Xiaoyao shook his head in reply. He really couldn't see it—if Yun Kaitai wanted to kill him, it wouldn't be as easy as Yun Kaitai thought. He didn't voice this point—too lazy to say it, and disdained to say it.

"Everyone says you're a smart person. Doesn't look like it—you can't even see the situation clearly. Foolish," someone beside chimed in, trying to save face for Yun Kaitai.

Even so, the Fuyun Sect people all felt Xiaoyao seemed too calm, still daring to act this way in such circumstances.

"Can we not study who's foolish? What exactly do you mean by capturing me? Let's talk about that instead of wasting time," Xiaoyao ignored those people's thoughts and didn't want to say much to them.

"..."

Yun Kaitai and others fell silent for a moment. After a while, Yun Kaitai spoke: "Why we captured you—don't you know?"

"How would I know what you want to do? But I also want to ask here—was my mother killed by you people back then?" Xiaoyao asked directly.

"What if I said yes?" Yun Kaitai looked at Xiaoyao and asked.

"I'm a fair person. I won't blame innocent people—whoever was involved can pay with their life," Xiaoyao said indifferently.

"Hahahaha..."

Yun Kaitai and others laughed, as if this were the funniest joke they'd ever heard.

"What if I was involved?" Yun Kaitai said.

"Then naturally you must die. Don't joke about this—don't cry injustice when you die later. I won't take responsibility for wrongful killing," Xiaoyao said indifferently, not caring at all about Yun Kaitai and others' mockery or Yun Kaitai's attitude.

"Haha, can you even do that?" Yun Kaitai looked at Xiaoyao coldly with some contempt.

"Don't test my resolve, and don't think I'll be polite to you just because you're Yinping's grandfather," Xiaoyao looked at Yun Kaitai, still with that calm expression, without any emotional fluctuation.

For some reason, Yun Kaitai was stunned for a moment, seeming to feel this really would happen. But this thought lasted only an instant before he dismissed it.

Because this idea was truly too ridiculous. Who was he? The Fuyun Sect master. Even though the current war with the Luo family had caused some losses, to kill him would be impossible even if the entire Haoran Sect mobilized.

Not only did the Fuyun Sect have massive foundations, but he himself was a veteran God Level martial artist. Even setting aside the Fuyun Sect factor, there weren't many people in this world who could kill him.

And what was Xiaoyao? Just a minor figure. Even though Guxing and others were currently troublesome, they didn't consider Xiaoyao a significant person. Instead, they saw Xiaoyao as a weakness, a breakthrough point for defeating Guxing and the others.

This was why they captured Xiaoyao—Xiaoyao was a hostage. They had waited near the Carefree Sect for a long time to capture him. Also, they had shot down Xiaoyao's messenger eagle.

If one was careful, Xiaoyao's messenger eagle was very dangerous and being shot down wasn't too difficult.

"I don't know if you're ignorant or stupid. Don't you know your current situation?" Yun Kaitai looked at Xiaoyao, his words clearly showing "pity for you."

"What situation? Aren't I just invited here as a guest?" Xiaoyao said unconcernedly.

"Guest? Why would I invite you as a guest, you bastard!" Yun Kaitai sneered, looking at Xiaoyao and showing another trace of killing intent.

"Speak more politely, old man. Though I respect elders, if an elder is disrespectful, that's an exception," Xiaoyao looked at Yun Kaitai.

"Haha, you're just a bastard, from your shameless father who found some wild woman somewhere," Yun Kaitai pointed at Xiaoyao and sneered.

"Just for that statement, I'll make your Fuyun Sect into chaos," Xiaoyao said. This wasn't enough to kill someone, but he would definitely teach them a lesson. At this point, Xiaoyao still didn't know about the war between the Fuyun Sect and Guxing and others—otherwise it wouldn't just be chaos.

Chaos...

This was actually already the case.

The Fuyun Sect people sighed inwardly—the current situation was far worse than chaos. If it weren't like this, you wouldn't be here.

"Your courage is great..."

"Stop talking nonsense and tell me your purpose," Xiaoyao said impatiently. He didn't want to waste words with these people. Even if he was a prisoner, he didn't want to waste this time and energy.

"Xiaoyao, his meaning is to capture you as a hostage, to use you to threaten the Luo family, especially Nangong Su and those few girls."

At this moment, a beautiful woman walked in, going straight to Xiaoyao and staring at Yun Kaitai, seeming to want to protect Xiaoyao.

Was there someone here to protect Xiaoyao?

Not to mention protection—there weren't many people who even knew Xiaoyao. The most likely person to do this would be Yinping, but Yinping wasn't a beautiful woman. Even though three years had passed and she had grown up, she couldn't possibly have become a married woman.

This beautiful woman was Xiaoyao's stepmother—though perhaps she couldn't be called stepmother, because she was Luo Yuntian's original wife. She was Yun Qingyi.

Xiaoyao had never known which side Yun Qingyi belonged to, but at this moment, he felt she seemed to truly want to protect him and should be on his side.

However, this didn't mean she had been on his side before, or that she had nothing to do with his mother's death.

"Qingyi, step aside. You don't need to interfere in this matter—just pretend you don't know," Yun Kaitai said.

"I've already seen it—how can I not know?" Yun Qingyi said very resolutely, indicating she couldn't ignore this matter. "I already made mistakes—I don't want to make them again."

Xiaoyao could sense that Yun Qingyi's words were sincere, though he didn't know what mistakes she spoke of or to what degree.

(End of Chapter)