After expending some effort, Zhou Ping finally located the house he had rented next to the Lin Estate, a look of joy washing over his face.

"Changhe, Minghu, I am here."

But looking at the wide-open doors, no response came from within. Zhou Ping's expression changed drastically as a profound sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

He hurriedly rushed into the house, anxiously searching through the rooms.

"Changhe, where are you?"

"Minghu, Father is here. Where are you?"

Meanwhile, underneath Zhou Yuan's bed, Zhou Changhe and Zhou Minghu had long since fallen asleep, exhausted from a night of terror and anxiety.

In his deep sleep, Zhou Changhe vaguely heard someone calling his name and woke up groggily. Hearing Zhou Ping's shouts, he immediately cried out in ecstatic joy.

"Uncle, we are here!"

Zhou Ping had almost fallen into despair, but upon suddenly hearing Zhou Changhe's weak voice, he wept tears of joy and bolted in that direction.

Pushing open the door, a pungent stench of wine and meat assailed him. A scene of utter disarray met his eyes.

Seeing two figures crawling out from under the bed, Zhou Ping's eyes instantly filled with hot tears. He stepped forward and pulled the two of them into a tight embrace.

"I arrived too late. You have suffered."

"Father, I am hungry."

Zhou Minghu's childish voice sounded, accompanied by the faint rumbling of an empty stomach.

"Father will take you to eat right now." Zhou Ping's heart ached as he stroked Zhou Minghu's head, leading the two of them outside.

At a street-side flatbread stall.

Zhou Ping watched Zhou Minghu wolf down the food, his heart aching with pity.

How much suffering had these two endured during his absence?

"Changhe, what exactly happened?"

Zhou Changhe swallowed a mouthful of flatbread and recounted everything in full detail.

"What an ungrateful dog!" Zhou Ping cursed angrily after hearing the tale, a burning rage erupting in his heart.

That Zhou Yuan was an old servant raised by their family. Back at the old estate, he had been fine-honest and dutiful. He never expected that upon arriving in the county town, the man would collude with outsiders, betraying his masters and plotting murder for wealth.

"Do you remember his two accomplices?"

"Although your nephew was afraid, I watched carefully from beneath the bed. Even if they turned to ashes, I would still recognize them," Zhou Changhe said firmly, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.

'If Zhou Yuan and those other two ever fall into my hands, I will make them suffer unbearable torment and beg for death.'

"Later, come with me to find Registrar Lin. We will have him verify the identities of those two men first, and then decide how to proceed," Zhou Ping said slowly.

"I will follow Uncle's arrangements." Zhou Changhe nodded. "By the way, Uncle, I still do not know how things are at home. Are Eldest Uncle and my father safe and well?"

"A month ago, the Liu clan's entire household of forty-nine people was slaughtered by the combined forces of our three families."

Zhou Changhe shuddered violently, but quickly regained his composure.

The destruction of the Liu clan was fated from the moment word leaked out. If their Zhou clan did not have his Uncle holding the line, they inevitably would have suffered the exact same fate.

Then, Zhou Changhe thought of something and asked with a solemn expression, "Then... did the Liu clan's immortal cultivation technique fall into the hands of the Wang and Sun families? Or was it never found?"

Zhou Ping slowly shook his head. "It was not found. However, I left a few altered techniques behind for the Wang and Sun families to obtain."

As to the true whereabouts of the Liu clan's cultivation technique, neither Zhou Ping nor the Sun and Wang families had been able to locate it. It was as if it had vanished into thin air.

It might have been taken by someone, or it might have been hidden away in some unknown place.

Hearing that the Wang and Sun families had not obtained the real technique, Zhou Changhe breathed a sigh of relief.

Although their clan had few members, they at least had an immortal master like his Uncle. Moreover, with an immortal cultivation inheritance and Minghu's spiritual nature, their future rise was guaranteed.

Back then, those four families knew the Zhou clan possessed a cultivation technique, yet they did not demand it. It was simply because they knew Zhou Ping would refuse, and even if he did hand it over, they would not dare cultivate it out of fear that he had tampered with it.

In truth, all the returning Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators in Qingshui County kept their techniques hidden with absolute secrecy. Even if no one in their own clan possessed cultivation aptitude, they would never pass their methods on to outsiders.

The reason was simple: resources.

The resources of Qingshui County were strictly limited. Every time a new Spirit Awakening Realm cultivator was born, it heralded the rise of a new family. While there currently were only a dozen or so families established by Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators across the eight townships and over a hundred villages of Qingshui County, if techniques were spread indiscriminately, time would eventually see the entire region filled, with every scrap of territory divided cleanly among them.

After all, cultivation in the Spirit Awakening Realm posed almost no true difficulty. As long as one possessed aptitude and a Guide Qi technique, even someone with the absolute worst talent could cultivate to the peak of the Spirit Awakening Realm in just over ten years.

For this very reason, those families naturally treated their techniques as supreme treasures and would never teach them lightly.

Even Zhou Ping had only cultivated the lowest-grade Guide Qi method upon joining the Azure Cloud Sect. It was only when he departed the sect that he spent years of accumulated contributions to exchange for a decent Guide Qi technique. He intended to make it his clan's heirloom method; how could he casually pass it on to strangers?

"Now, both the Wang and Sun families have people practicing the techniques I left behind, and someone has even dropped dead," Zhou Ping said with a cold smile.

What he had left for the Wang and Sun families was a genuine Guide Qi technique, but it was excerpted from specific methods for gathering the perilous energies of heaven and earth.

A member of the Sun family had died suddenly, their entire body scalding hot. That was the result of drawing Extreme Yang Qi into their body, ultimately incinerating their five viscera and six bowels alive with solar essence.

Extreme Yang Qi was something even Qi Condensation cultivators did not dare to gather rashly, let alone mortals. Zhou Ping only knew the method for extracting it but had never dared to attempt it himself.

Since that Sun family member was able to gather Extreme Yang Qi at all, it meant they genuinely possessed cultivation aptitude. But their ignorant audacity had ultimately led to a gruesome end.

Seeing that both children had eaten and drunk their fill, Zhou Ping stood up. "Let us go. We will seek out Registrar Lin and drag those three dogs out into the light!"

But suddenly, a small hand grabbed the hem of his clothes. He turned his head to see Zhou Minghu.

"Father, Minghu wants to cultivate. Teach Minghu, please?" Zhou Minghu looked at Zhou Ping with pure, innocent eyes.

Zhou Ping's heart trembled as a wave of immense guilt washed over him.

Minghu was still very young. Even when he had kept his child close by and taught with diligent care in the past, Minghu would often become distracted and fail to become a Novice.

For Minghu to take the initiative and ask to cultivate now, it was surely because the torments of the past month had left a deep scar on that young spirit.

As a father, he had allowed his own child to endure such terrible hardship. How could he not feel guilty and overflowing with regret?

"Alright. Father will definitely teach Minghu."