Chapter 102: Wuwang Village

Chapter 102: Wu King Village

Li Yunda stood up and said, "Third Aunt, you may not know this, but even I only found out about this recently!"

Wu Hong looked at Lady Li and noticed she was frowning, lost in deep thought for a long while without saying a word.

Li Yunda continued, "Prince Wu probably never spoke to you or Third Aunt about his ancestral home. That is because King Wuwei, like myself, was born in a secluded mountain village located at the border of the Great Qian Dynasty and the Great Jin Dynasty—Wu Village."

"Wu Village is nestled deep within the ancient forests, and its people make their living by hunting. It is called Wu Village because the majority of the villagers share the surname Wu.

"The village is completely isolated from the world, unknown to outsiders, because every youth who leaves Wu Village is ordered by the elders to swear an oath never to reveal its existence, lest the outside world disturb its tranquility.

"King Wuwei and I both hail from this very village.

"Those who leave the village are each given a jade pendant. When returning, one must present this pendant to be allowed back in."

As he spoke, Li Yunda drew a dark green, high-quality natural jade plaque from his sleeve. A faint, undulating light shimmered within the emerald, indicating that it contained the essence of heaven and earth.

"What? How do you have my father's jade pendant?" Wu Hong and Wu Songran cried out in unison, utterly astonished. Wu Hong was particularly shocked; King Wuwei had given him that very pendant years ago. During his flight, Wu Hong had met an old man in a ruined temple and traded the pendant for a secret manual—the *True Interpretation of the Great Sun Tathagata*.

He had never expected Li Yunda to possess one as well.

Li Yunda smiled faintly and said, "Young Master, look closely. There are still some differences between this jade pendant and your father's."

Li Yunda handed the jade pendant to Wu Hong. As Wu Hong examined it closely, his heart grew increasingly unsettled. This jade plaque was indeed different from the one King Wuwei had owned.

The dragon carved in the center of King Wuwei's jade plaque was coiled in mid-air and possessed nine claws, whereas the dragon on this plaque had only four.

Without careful scrutiny, it was nearly impossible to tell them apart.

After taking a look, Wu Songran said, "What do you mean? Fatty, isn't this exactly my father's pendant? How did it end up in your hands?"

Wu Songran raised her delicate fist in a playful threat toward Li Yunda, but he merely smiled and did not answer.

The jade pendant was passed to Lady Li. She studied it for a long time but could not spot any difference, though she was deeply astonished by how identical it appeared to King Wuwei's.

After a moment of contemplation, Wu Hong spoke up. "Sister Ran, Third Mother, Li Yunda is correct. This jade pendant is indeed slightly different from Father's."

Lady Li and Wu Songran both looked at Wu Hong, waiting for him to elaborate.

Wu Hong did not keep them in suspense and continued, "The dragon on Father's pendant was full of life—a nine-clawed azure dragon. The dragon on this pendant, however, is a four-clawed soaring dragon. There is no mistaking it."

"Indeed. You have a keen eye, Young Master, to spot the key difference at a single glance," Li Yunda praised.

The jade pendant was returned to Li Yunda, who tucked it carefully into his robes as if it were a priceless treasure.

"Yunda, there is just one thing I do not understand," Wu Hong voiced his doubt. "Since the village requires everyone who leaves to swear an oath never to reveal any information about it, why are you today..."

Li Yunda frowned and said, "Young Master, during a recent village sacrifice, the High Priest observed the celestial bodies at night and discovered that a great upheaval is about to occur in the world! The matter is of such grave importance that the High Priest had no choice but to instruct me to contact the villagers who have ventured outside."

Lady Li and Wu Songran looked bewildered. In the past, whenever either of them asked King Wuwei where his ancestral home was, he would only say it was in a distant village, never revealing its name. It turned out there was a reason for his secrecy.

It seemed that whether it was King Wuwei or Lady Zhou, various signs indicated that their families were far from ordinary.

This was evident from Li Yunda's own success; he had built a thriving business empire and become highly renowned throughout the Great Qian Dynasty. Given his current status, there was no need for him to care about a remote, distant hometown. Yet, at this moment, his face was filled with a deep sense of yearning for the village.

Wu Hong observed Li Yunda closely, then suddenly gasped in shock, "You..."

He found himself unable to finish his sentence.

With a face full of pride, Li Yunda said, "Young Master, your eyes do not deceive you. My martial cultivation has indeed reached the peak of the Marrow Tempering realm."

His words instantly stunned everyone in the room.

"Is that true? I remember you were only at the Blood Tempering realm!" Wu Songran could hardly believe her ears. How long had it been? Li Yunda had actually advanced to the peak of the Houtian realm!

Both Wu Hong and Wu Songran knew that Li Yunda's previous cultivation was merely at the Blood Tempering realm. They had not expected him to make such rapid, staggering progress in just two short years—an advancement even faster than Wu Hong's own.

"Young Master, this is entirely the result of undergoing a special ritual of cleansing in the village," Li Yunda explained. "According to the village rules, those who hold the four-clawed dragon pendant are permitted to undergo one cleansing in the village when they reach forty years of age.

"As for the one who holds the nine-clawed dragon pendant, they may return to the village at the age of twenty to receive a cleansing and inherit the clan's secret techniques!

"I came here today specifically for this important matter, to warn you, Young Master, that the waters of the Great Qian Dynasty run deep. You should attain sufficient strength before investigating the true reason behind King Wuwei's disappearance. This is also what the clan elders instructed me to tell you."

Li Yunda finally revealed the purpose of his visit.

Lady Li, Wu Songran, Li Ruolan, and Wu Hong were all deeply shaken. They had assumed that King Wuwei's village was merely an isolated paradise, nothing particularly extraordinary. While such villages were rare in the Great Qian Dynasty and across the entire Heavenly Firmament Continent, they did exist for the sole purpose of escaping the turmoil of the outside world.

But they had never imagined that the village King Wuwei hailed from would be so formidable. To be able to elevate a martial artist from the Blood Tempering realm straight to the peak of the Houtian realm through a single cleansing was simply mind-boggling.

For a moment, everyone was dumbfounded by the revelation.

Lady Li muttered to herself, "So the Prince had planned all of this! Hong'er, although you were considered a useless youth at sixteen, if you had inherited the title of King Wuwei and reached twenty years of age, someone would have guided you back to the Prince's village. After undergoing the cleansing, you would have become incredibly powerful.

"It is rumored that when King Wuwei was twenty, he disappeared for a period of time. When he re-emerged in the martial world, he was already a master of the Marrow Tempering realm.

"Furthermore, his martial arts were extraordinary, rendering him invincible with hardly any rivals. It turns out all of this stemmed from the cleansing in that mysterious village where he was born and raised.

"It seems the Prince's birthplace is far from an ordinary mountain village! There must be hidden masters residing there."

Though Lady Li had made only a simple deduction, the conclusion was exceptionally startling.

Wu Hong, however, looked rather pale as he said, "But... when I was wandering as a beggar, I lost the jade pendant."

Unable to admit that he had traded the pendant for a secret manual, Wu Hong could only put it this way.

"What? Young Master, you lost the Dragon King pendant?" Hearing Wu Hong speak of losing the pendant so casually, Li Yunda nearly jumped out of his skin.

Shaken by Wu Hong's offhand remark, Li Yunda began to tremble all over, as if the heavens were collapsing.

Li Yunda paced back and forth across the hall, muttering, "This is bad! The Dragon King pendant is actually lost. This is terrible. If you want to become stronger through the clan's cleansing but the pendant is gone, you will have to pass a series of trials first. Sigh—"

Li Yunda was extremely agitated, alternating between laments and frantic muttering.

It was clear that King Wuwei's pendant represented far more than just the inheritance of martial techniques; it also symbolized one's status within the village.