Fragrant green grass, fresh verdant branches.

A gentle breeze drifting softly past.

The village lay hushed and still, like some paradise beyond the mortal world.

The very place Xu Wanyun had dreamed of leaving now gave her the greatest sense of safety.

She let out a slow breath. "Haah."

Soon, as if sensing that someone had entered, dozens of figures came running out from the village — tall and short, stout and slim, men and women, old and young, all of them dressed in exceedingly plain clothes.

They looked over with curiosity, and then someone cried out in delight, "It's Wanyun, come home!"

"And Xu Qing'er? Is Xu Qing'er back too? See if a few of us elders don't smack that backside of hers raw!"

At that, Aqing hurriedly shrank deeper into her aunt's arms.

A man of resolute countenance stepped out from the crowd, looking rather advanced in years, and raised a hand to quiet everyone's clamor.

He looked silently at the aunt and niece, but in the end his gaze came to rest on the face of that bare-chested young man.

He paid particular attention to the black scales on the man's arm and the crimson markings across his body.

The others caught on as well, every one of them wary now.

An outsider! Since the day the Xu family had first gone into seclusion here, this was the first time an outsider had ever entered.

"Auntie, take me over there," Aqing said softly.

"You're not afraid of getting a beating?" Xu Wanyun's heart, which had only just eased a little, tightened up again.

She looked toward the man ahead — her elder brother, which was to say Aqing's father.

And squeezed out a faint smile.

At least in the eyes of the Xu family, she was still that deeply cultivated, gentle and steady extreme-peak Mixed Origin Grandmaster.

"..."

Xu Hongde's expression didn't shift in the slightest, still that same cold and distant look.

Even though one of the pair before him was his own younger sister, and the other his own daughter.

That did nothing to change…