On the other side, a mighty silver dragon shadow descended outside the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's mountain gate.
"Greetings, Young Master Chu."
As soon as he put away the Space Holy Dragon summoned spirit Xiao Yin and, with the Spirit Hall's Eleventh Elder Xue Sha, walked up to the sect gate, four gatekeeping disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect stepped forward to salute.
"Mm. One of you go inform my honored father-in-law and ask him to come to the cemetery. I will wait for him there."
The four answered at once.
Back mountain of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, cemetery.
Before a tombstone carved with the words "Grave of Beloved Wife Feng Heng," two figures stopped.
Long ago, Chu Chengzhou had come with Ning Rongrong as a prospective son-in-law to pay respects to her mother, so of course he knew where his second mother-in-law's grave was.
"Kneel."
Chu Chengzhou turned and spoke to Xue Sha.
With a thud, the "pious believer" Xue Sha knelt before the grave.
Xue Sha: Whatever the great Lord God tells me to do, I will do it, even at the cost of my life.
Footsteps sounded from afar. Ning Fengzhi arrived.
"Boy, this is..."
Ning Fengzhi's eyes at once fell on Xue Sha kneeling before his late wife's grave.
"The Spirit Hall's Eleventh Elder. Title Douluo title Blood Shadow. He is also the one who carried out the assassination of my honored mother-in-law back then."
Chu Chengzhou spoke.
Ning Fengzhi froze, then his eyes reddened. His gaze toward Xue Sha filled with hatred.
But more than ten years had passed. Ning Fengzhi did not lose control. He pressed down his rage for the moment and said in a low voice, "He is an elder of Spirit Hall. As for Spirit Hall's side—"
"Past cause, present effect. Even if he were a Worship Elder, I would still take his head to honor my honored mother-in-law."
Chu Chengzhou spoke without hesitation.
After a moment's thought he added, "Xue Sha was only the executor. The one who gave the order was the former Pope, Qian Xunji."
"The former Pope Qian Xunji is Qian Renxue's father?"
Ning Fengzhi asked with a dark face.
"Correct. But please do not be hostile to Xue'er, because while she is the daughter of your wife's murderer, she is also the daughter of the one who avenged you."
Chu Chengzhou nodded.
"Mm? What do you mean?"
Ning Fengzhi frowned. He did not quite follow.
"Before Bibi Dong succeeded as Pope, she was Spirit Hall's Saintess and Qian Xunji's disciple. What you may not know is that while she was his disciple, she was also Xue'er's biological mother."
"Qian Xunji and Bibi Dong were husband and wife? So they were in a master disciple romance?"
Ning Fengzhi's expression changed and he could not help a low exclamation.
If Qian Xunji were not one of his wife's killers, and given the timing, Ning Fengzhi would be happily watching the drama right now.
"They had a daughter together and were master and disciple, but romance does not apply. You have probably heard of Yu Xiaogang from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan."
"I have heard the name. Yu Yuanzhen's second son. Once a well known cultivation cripple of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan who made a name through theory. Many soul masters regarded him as an academic master, except—"
Ning Fengzhi shook his head and did not elaborate.
That so called Ten Core Competences of Martial Souls may help uninformed soul masters a bit, but to properly trained academy soul masters or those from major powers it is pure prattle.
Strictly speaking, Yu Xiaogang was not an academic master but a summarizer.
What he proposed was either already known and verified, or collected and generalized from predecessors' records.
In the original story, Ning Fengzhi praised Yu Xiaogang to the skies and even said, "He who gains the Master gains the world." That was Ning Fengzhi being diplomatic, and also for Tang San's sake.
Chu Chengzhou did not comment on Yu Xiaogang. He continued evenly, "After being expelled from his clan, Yu Xiaogang went to Spirit City, intending to use Spirit Hall's vast collection of classics to find a way to solve his martial soul problem.
"Bibi Dong was not in her right mind in those early years. She and Yu Xiaogang hit it off and eventually became lovers.
"If Bibi Dong had been an ordinary Spirit Hall soul master, it would not matter. Spirit Hall has countless soul masters. One more or less is nothing.
"But she was the Saintess of Spirit Hall, the first in line to inherit the papacy, a peerless genius carefully nurtured by Spirit Hall. Naturally, Qian Xunji would not allow his painstakingly trained disciple to end up belonging to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
"Breaking them up by force was one thing, but Qian Xunji failed as a teacher and as a man. To keep Bibi Dong in Spirit Hall, he directly violated her, which led to Xue'er's birth.
"Broken lovers first, then violation. With a naturally extreme temperament, Bibi Dong came to hate Qian Xunji from then on.
"Later, Qian Xunji coveted the hundred thousand year ring and bone of Tang Hao's wife, the Blue Silver Emperor. He led men to besiege Tang Hao and his wife. Tang Hao's wife sacrificed herself. Tang Hao used ring explosion to smash Qian Xunji.
At the time, Tang Hao held back for the sake of the Haotian Sect behind him. He endured the hatred of his wife's death and spared Qian Xunji.
As for why Qian Xunji died later, it was because after returning to Spirit City grievously wounded, he was finished off by Bibi Dong, who had been enduring all along.
That is why I said Xue'er is both the daughter of your wife's murderer and the daughter of your benefactor who avenged you.
By the way, do not tell anyone what I just said."
Ning Fengzhi: ...
Blow after blow of explosive revelations left Ning Fengzhi stunned.
So behind those events back then there were so many unknown secrets.
And by this account, the Haotian Sect and Tang Hao were actually quite wronged.
When he recovered, Ning Fengzhi glanced at the kneeling murderer of his wife, then took incense, paper money, plain wine, and other offerings from his storage soul tool.
Ning Fengzhi lit three sticks of incense. Chu Chengzhou bowed three times in solemn respect to his mother-in-law, then took out a large amount of deep sea sunken silver.
Scarlet soul power flickered at his right fingertip. In an instant the sunken silver ingots floating before him melted into a blazing mass of liquid sunken silver.
Then blue light blossomed at his left fingertip. Drawing on a touch of his comprehension of the Law of Water, Chu Chengzhou transformed the gentle water attribute soul power into ice, completely freezing the kneeling Eleventh Elder of Spirit Hall, Xue Sha.
In the next second, under Chu Chengzhou's control, the blazing sunken silver flowed over and fully encased the ice sealed corpse of Xue Sha.
Soon, a kneeling human shaped sunken silver statue stood before the grave.
Sunken silver does not decay for ten thousand years. With the body completely sealed within, so long as the grave remains and no one destroys it on purpose, this sunken silver statue will kneel here for at least ten thousand years.