Ye Jingyu had never seen eyes like these—or rather, they weren't eyes at all. Within those deep sockets, there was nothing but two balls of sickly green flame. If it were the dead of night, one might mistake them for ghostly swamp lights...

Or perhaps they were the eyes of a phantom, for only a phantom could possess such a gaze...

A chill swept up Ye Jingyu’s spine. If the beautiful and captivating Jiu Feng hadn't been right beside him, he might have already turned tail and fled. This place felt utterly sinister...

"Youngster Ye Jingyu, greetings to Grandfather..." Nevertheless, the elder before him was Jiu Feng's grandfather. Ye Jingyu offered a respectful bow, mirroring Jiu Feng's address.

"Heh heh, such a good child. Tell me, where do you hail from..." The old man did not move; not even his lips twitched. Yet, Ye Jingyu distinctly heard an ancient, desolate voice echo beside his ear...

"I come from Dragon Fang Village, Ninglang Prefecture, Shu Yun Continent..." For some unknown reason, looking into the old man's glowing green eyes, Ye Jingyu felt no urge to resist and recounted his origins clearly. As for his true origins... well, even if he told this old fellow, he wouldn't understand, would he?

"Dragon Fang Village?" Upon hearing the name, the old man’s seemingly grim and terrifying face furrowed slightly, as if recollecting something unsettling...

"Grandfather knows this village?" Seeing the expression on the elder’s face, Ye Jingyu asked out of curiosity.

The old man offered no reply, merely shaking his head gently. Ye Jingyu, unsure what else to say, stood silently to the side...

"Tell me, child, how did you arrive here?" After a pause, the old man spoke again...

Faced with eyes that seemed capable of piercing through every lie in the world (Read the full novel at .1.(1.m.Literature.Net), Ye Jingyu hid nothing. He recounted how he reached White Cloud Mountain, how he became Qin Xiao's disciple, how the White Cloud Manor defied the Imperial Court, his subsequent escape, and how he was ultimately betrayed by Qin Yan.

Of course, he carefully omitted the matter of cultivating the Overlord Origin Art and the Startling Thunder Saber Technique. These were his deepest secrets, which he would never divulge to anyone else...

When he mentioned that Luo Xiaofeng, the Ruler of Shu Yun, had attained the Martial Saint realm, the old man’s brow furrowed deeper. Only after Ye Jingyu finished did the elder let out a long, weary sigh...

"What is it, Grandfather?" Ye Jingyu asked, noticing the profound sadness in the elder’s sigh...

"Child, what is your next step?" The old man ignored Ye Jingyu’s question and instead inquired...

"Me?" Ye Jingyu was momentarily stunned. The face of Qin Yan flashed through his mind. It was this very man who had brought him to the White Cloud Manor, and this was the one who had driven him off the cliff. Had it not been for his luck, he would surely be dead by now. Vengeance was a necessity, but with his current strength, how could he possibly contend with Qin Yan?

Other than continuously cultivating and advancing, what else could he do?

"If you have no immediate plans, why not stay with our tribe for now? This place is several hundred li from the Shu Yun border, filled with miasma that makes it difficult for Shu Yun people to enter. You can rest assured here," the old man said softly, observing Ye Jingyu’s blank expression...

"Thank you, Grandfather..." Although this place exuded an almost wicked aura, for the moment, it was undeniably Ye Jingyu's best option...

The old man said no more, simply waving a hand dismissively.

Jiu Feng quickly bowed to her grandfather, grabbed Ye Jingyu’s hand, and led him away. After exiting the elder’s dwelling and passing several more wooden huts, they arrived before a small structure, perhaps only five or six square meters in size. Along the way, heads occasionally poked out from other huts, observing Ye Jingyu with undisguised curiosity. What puzzled Ye Jingyu, however, was that these observers were exclusively women, elders, and children; there wasn't a single able-bodied adult male in sight. Later, Jiu Feng explained that apart from the guards at the village entrance, all the men had gone hunting and wouldn't return until dusk...

As for the village guards, they were manned by high-level Soul Masters. For instance, Jiu Feng’s grandfather, Chi Yi, the tribal chief, was a sixth-rank Soul Master who had reached the Spirit Manifestation realm—the very same level as a Grand Master...

Upon entering the small wooden hut, Ye Jingyu realized it was incredibly bare. There was no furniture or decoration inside, not even a proper bed. In one corner, a single animal hide was spread out—that must serve as the bed...

"You live here?" Ye Jingyu asked, quite astonished by the stark simplicity of the hut...

"Yes. When my mother was still here, we shared this space. But after she passed, I’ve been living here alone," Jiu Feng nodded quietly...

"What about your father?" Ye Jingyu continued to ask...

"Father lives in the larger hut we just came from, along with Grandfather and my other elder and younger brothers," Jiu Feng replied, proceeding to explain the situation of the Chi Yi Tribe to Ye Jingyu...

It was a tribe structured like a patriarchal clan system. Men held immensely high status within the community; they were the very lifeblood of the tribe. A single man would often have several women, who existed merely as tools for bearing children. After giving birth, if the child was a son, the mother could stay to raise him. If it was a daughter, she had to move out and build a separate small hut nearby. Furthermore, if the man wished, he could even exchange the women like commodities with other tribesmen...

Of course, women like Jiu Feng, once they reached maturity, would also be treated as items to be bartered with other clan members...

After listening to Jiu Feng’s explanation, Ye Jingyu was deeply shaken by the tribe's customs. This was truly a primitive, heartless age where even one’s wife and daughter could be exchanged as chattel. This... this was utterly unbelievable! Yet, seeing Jiu Feng’s matter-of-fact demeanor, Ye Jingyu sensed that this was a deeply ingrained ideology. Regarding the outside world, perhaps only the chief and a select few had any inkling of its existence...

What kind of world was this, filled with such absurdities?

Had he landed in paradise? Or perhaps hell?

Just as Ye Jingyu was silently cursing the heavens, a loud horn blast suddenly echoed from outside. Jiu Feng’s expression shifted slightly; she seized the still-dazed Ye Jingyu and rushed back out...

"Quick, they're back from the hunt! Let’s go to the village entrance to greet them!"

Damn it, what's the big deal? It's just a hunt; why do we need a formal greeting... Grumbling internally, Ye Jingyu still followed closely behind Jiu Feng, sprinting towards the village gates...