When the old man finished speaking, Chu Feng’s heart trembled violently.
Just this one sentence made Chu Feng realise.
Regarding the mystery of his grandfather’s disappearance, this elder most likely knew the truth!!!
“Senior, do you know where my grandfather went?”
“What is he trying to do?”
Chu Feng asked.
“You are his family.”
“Surely, you really know nothing at all?”
The elder looked at Chu Feng, his gaze somewhat complicated. He was waiting for Chu Feng’s answer.
Yet before Chu Feng could reply, the elder began talking to himself.
“However… not telling you about that matter does sound like something he would do.”
“With his personality, he would never want you to worry about him.”
The elder muttered to himself, but it only made Chu Feng extremely anxious.
He desperately wanted to know what the matter the elder referred to actually was.
Still, Chu Feng also sensed that the elder seemed to be deliberately avoiding the subject.
The elder was unwilling to tell Chu Feng anything more about his grandfather.
“Senior, whatever my grandfather is going to do, please, I beg you to tell this junior.”
In his urgency, Chu Feng pressed the question again.
“I…”
The elder looked at Chu Feng. The deep light in his eyes began to flicker uncertainly.
He was hesitating, as though making some kind of decision.
Chu Feng had guessed correctly. This elder truly did not wish to tell him, though Chu Feng did not know what unspeakable difficulty lay behind it. All the same, Chu Feng had to know everything.
With a thud, Chu Feng dropped to his knees before the elder.
“Senior, from childhood until now, I have never once seen my grandfather.”
“To be honest with you, even my father has never seen him.”
“My grandfather left the family when he was very young and never returned after that.”
“Even my father was sent back by someone else that year, yet no one knows exactly who brought him back to the family.”
“When my father was returned to the family, he was still an infant. Apart from a cultivation method, he had nothing else on him.”
“For so many years, whether it was my father, me, or anyone else in the clan, we have all been deeply concerned about my grandfather’s whereabouts.”
“What you know, senior, may well be the key to finding where my grandfather went.”
“Please, I beg you to tell this junior.”
At this moment, Chu Feng was exceptionally agitated. Everything he said was the truth.
He had always been extremely curious about his grandfather and had once asked the Chu Clan heavenly leader about it.
According to the Chu Clan heavenly leader, after his grandfather had been forced away by people from the Star Region Main Realm that year, he had never come back.
His father had been sent back by someone, but no one knew who that person was.
That mysterious individual had only left a simple letter explaining that Chu Xuanyuan was the son of Chu Hanxian.
Apart from the letter, the only thing on Chu Xuanyuan’s body was a cultivation method, the Divine Punishment Mysterious Technique that Chu Hanxian had obtained by extraordinary fortune back then, his most precious possession.
There were no other clues. They did not even know whether Chu Hanxian was alive or dead, let alone who Chu Feng’s grandmother was.
Yet according to the Chu Heavenly Clan, although the infant Chu Xuanyuan had borne no wounds or traces of blood, a very strong scent of blood had clung to him.
That was an ominous sign.
It most likely meant that Chu Xuanyuan had probably been carried out and escaped from some bloody place.
No one knew what kind of scene that bloody place had been.
But it indicated that sending Chu Xuanyuan back had been an act of last resort.
“Senior, please tell this junior. Were you not waiting for me to come in?”
“Why, now that I am here, are you unwilling to tell me?”
Chu Feng’s voice trembled with emotion, and even his eyes had turned red.
“I let you in because I wanted to learn about your grandfather’s situation.”
“I never expected it would turn out like this.”
“Alas…”
The elder let out a long sigh.
After hearing Chu Feng’s words, he too was deeply moved.
At last, the flickering in his gaze ceased. He had made his decision. He wanted to tell Chu Feng what he wished to know.
Ugh—
Yet the moment the elder opened his mouth, an expression of pain appeared on his face.
The pain grew worse. He actually collapsed to the ground, clutching his head with both hands, his whole body convulsing.
“Senior.”
Chu Feng hurried forward, supporting the elder, trying to help him.
But he discovered he was powerless. His boundary techniques and all other methods were completely unable to treat the elder’s condition.
The elder grew weaker and weaker, and even his body began to turn faint and translucent.
If this continued, the elder might very well dissipate and die.
This thoroughly panicked Chu Feng.
However, just when Chu Feng was close to despair, the elder surprisingly began to recover.
After a while, the elder was finally able to speak again.
“You see, it is not that I do not wish to tell you. Some things, this old man truly cannot say.”
“Trapped in this place, I ceased long ago to be a free person.”
“Not only am I not free, your grandfather is actually not free either.”
“Although the name engraved on that map now is your grandfather’s, the true master of this place is not him.”
The elder said weakly to Chu Feng.
So this was the unspeakable difficulty.
Some power was controlling him, a power that prevented him from speaking about what Chu Feng’s grandfather intended to do.
“If the master of this place is not my grandfather, then who is it?”
Chu Feng pressed.
He felt that the true master of this place, the power controlling the elder, was most likely the chief culprit.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
At that very moment, the entire grand hall began to shake violently.
Immediately afterwards, monsters began burrowing out from the ceiling, from beneath the ground, and from all four walls.
This time, the number of monsters had increased again, reaching tens of thousands.
“Anyone who trespasses here shall be killed without mercy!!”
“Anyone who trespasses here shall be killed without mercy!!”
The moment these monsters appeared, they directed gazes brimming with killing intent towards Chu Feng and began closing in on him.
This caused the already emotionally turbulent Chu Feng to once again realise how extraordinary this place was.
Clearly, just moments ago these monsters had addressed him as master.
How could they suddenly turn hostile in the blink of an eye, treating him as an enemy?
“Stop!!!”
Suddenly, the elder raised his hand and shouted.
In an instant, strange light burst forth from the elder’s body.
At the same time, all those monsters froze in place as though petrified.
Yet at that moment, pain surged across the elder’s face once more.
Although the elder had managed to control the monsters, doing so placed no small burden on him.
“You must leave quickly.”
“There are far too many this time. I cannot hold them for long.”
“This place will open again. It might be several thousand years, or it might be a few decades. In any case, it will definitely open once more.”
“If you truly wish to know the truth, cultivate diligently. When your cultivation is strong enough, it will not be too late to return.”
“If your cultivation is insufficient, you must never come in again!!!”
“And remember, your grandfather is by no means an evil person. If he ever does wrong, there will surely be a reason. Do not blame him!!!”
The elder’s words kept pouring into Chu Feng’s ears.
But as those words reached him, Chu Feng also felt a powerful force envelop him completely.
In an instant, blinding white light filled his surroundings.
When the white light faded, Chu Feng discovered that he had already left the grand hall and the secret realm.
He had returned to the mountain range, standing just outside an ordinary cave.
“Damn it, who on earth is the true master of that secret realm? What is his relationship with my grandfather?”
“Why did he stop that senior from telling me everything?”
“What exactly is my grandfather doing? Why did that senior say my grandfather might do wrong?”
Chu Feng’s mind was filled with questions, yet he could not go back.
Because at the end of the cave, the talisman was gone, and so was the door that led into the secret realm.
Even setting aside how extraordinarily dangerous the secret realm was, Chu Feng could no longer enter even if there were no danger.
At this moment, his heart was in turmoil and could not calm down.
Chu Feng realised that his grandfather must have gone through something inside that secret realm.
At first, Chu Feng had thought it might be an immense stroke of fortune. After all, his grandfather’s name was engraved on the map.
But after what had just happened, Chu Feng changed his mind. His grandfather entering that secret realm might not have been a fortune. It might have been a nightmare.
That secret realm far exceeded Chu Feng’s imagination.
Monsters of terrifying power stood guard…
An elder who had survived from ancient times in a special form…
His grandfather’s name was engraved on the map, yet his grandfather was not the true controller…
After leaving that place, his grandfather had not returned to the Chu Heavenly Clan, which meant he surely had something extremely important to do…
But just what was it?
Far too many secrets lay hidden within that secret realm.
