Mortal: My name is Ma Liang, and I also possess a magic brush.

Qin Yue hurriedly waved his hand, "I didn't mean that! You know, ever since I ran away back then, I haven't touched a single resource from the family. I've been able to cultivate to this level entirely through my own hard work and struggle!"

"And I'm about to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage! When I left home, I said I would definitely make a name for myself through my own abilities!"

Upon hearing the words "Foundation Building," Ma Liang suddenly remembered something important: this kid was carrying a Foundation Building Pill!

"Qin Yue, where's your Foundation Establishment Pill? Let me see it!"

Qin Yue chuckled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Hehe... I ate it."

"have eaten?"

Ma Liang raised an eyebrow. "You mean, you took the Foundation Establishment Pill but still didn't break through to the Foundation Establishment stage? So you failed to break through?"

"Hehehe..." Qin Yue's laughter became even more guilty, and he nodded hesitantly, "Yes..."

"Bullshit!" Ma Liang immediately rolled his eyes. "You have dual spiritual roots! You've taken pills and you're still stuck in the Qi Refining stage! You even bragged to me before that you'd make your way in the world on your own, is that all you've got?"

"I think I should just go back to my family and inherit their vast fortune. Otherwise, I'll just waste my life wandering around the cultivation world for a few more years and end up losing it all before I even achieve immortality!"

"How can you blame me for this!" Qin Yue immediately retorted, his neck stiff. "I was stuck at the crucial moment of my breakthrough, my spiritual energy was almost solidified, and then that lousy family communication talisman suddenly appeared! I was so startled that my mind went blank, and my spiritual energy went astray!"

"If I hadn't reacted quickly and dispersed the medicinal effects of the pill, I would have exploded and turned to ashes by now! In the end, it was all because of that mess that the family was messing up!"

Ma Liang picked up his wine cup and took a sip; the wine was refreshingly cool as it went down his throat.

"Didn't you activate a protective array when you broke through? Otherwise, how could the communication jade talisman have broken in?"

"It's open!" Qin Yue sighed with a bitter face. "I guess the clan was in a hurry, so they used one of those special communication talismans. Low-level protective arrays can't stop it at all!"

He paused, his expression turning serious. "I came here today to say goodbye. If I don't go back to deal with this wedding soon, the clan might send people to kidnap me next time, and the situation will be even more ugly."

Ma Liang refilled their glasses, and the wine slid down the sides of the glasses, creating a fine layer of foam.

He raised his glass in a gesture of greeting, and Qin Yue quickly followed suit. The two glasses clinked together, making a crisp sound, and the two of them tilted their heads back and drank it all in one gulp.

After setting down his empty cup, Ma Liang finally spoke, "It's good that you're going back now. While you're at it, please tell your family that they should leave Xu Kingdom as soon as possible, because this place is probably going to be quite turbulent in the near future."

Qin Yue had just finished drinking his wine when he heard this, he paused, shook his head and said, "My family is not in Xu Kingdom."

Ma Liang raised an eyebrow. "Not in Xu State? Then where?"

Qin Yue remained silent for a moment, as if weighing whether he should say it or not, before finally saying, "The Yu Kingdom... have you heard of it? It's the Yu Kingdom under the jurisdiction of the Nine Kingdoms Alliance."

"The State of Yu!"

"Snap"

Ma Liang slammed his hand on the stone table, causing most of the wine in his cup to spill out, and he abruptly stood up.

"That place is far from here. How did you, a Qi Refining cultivator, end up here?"

A hint of hesitation flashed across Qin Yue's face. "This matter... is really hard to say."

Seeing this, Ma Liang stopped asking questions, knowing that he must have his own secrets.

But curiosity couldn't be suppressed, "So, what level has the most accomplished cultivator in your family reached?"

Qin Yue frowned. "Ma Liang, how did you become like this? My family's power is one thing, but I, Qin Yue, am another."

He raised his wine cup and handed it to Ma Liang, changing the subject, "Don't ask about family matters anymore, come on, let's drink."

Seeing his resolute attitude, Ma Liang gave up on asking further questions.

He was only curious at the moment and did not necessarily want to pry into other people's privacy.

Without saying another word, he raised his wine cup, clinked it with Qin Yue's, and drank most of it down.

Qin Yue took a sip of wine, as if he had made up his mind.

"When I go back this time, I will definitely make things clear to my family. I have no choice but to break off that marriage."

"puff"

Ma Liang suddenly spat out the wine he had just drunk.

He coughed twice, staring at Qin Yue with shock in his eyes. "What? You're going back to your family to annul the engagement?"

Qin Yue was puzzled by Ma Liang's reaction and asked in confusion, "It's just a broken engagement, what's the big deal? I don't even know what the other person looks like. My family decided my life with just one word. This marriage is absurd."

"No, no, no, don't say that yet!" Ma Liang hurriedly interrupted him. "I have two questions for you! First, was the woman's family once very famous in your area, but later declined?"

"How do you know? That happened many years ago."

"Never mind how I know!" Ma Liang waved his hand, then immediately posed his second question, "Was that woman originally an exceptionally talented cultivator, a prodigy, who somehow suddenly became a cripple?"

Qin Yue shook his head, looking bewildered, and said, "No. I heard from my family that her talent for cultivation has always been quite good, and I've never heard of her becoming a useless person."

Hearing this, Ma Liang felt relieved and immediately breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, the key buffs weren't all gathered."

He wasn't worried about Qin Yue, after all, in those kinds of scenarios, the people involved in these stories often get into trouble last, while their close friends and family often become the first to suffer.

He had known Qin Yue for a while, and if that woman really possessed the complete set of "declining family + genius turned waste", he would have to sever ties with Qin Yue immediately to avoid getting into trouble for no reason.

Ma Liang's concerns dissipated, and he advised, "Don't be so hasty in making any definitive statements. Go back and get to know the girl first. What if you find you click and she's someone you can confide in?"

Then, he changed the subject, deliberately provoking Qin Yue: "Could it be that you look down on their family because they've fallen on hard times, and that's why you're in such a hurry to break off the engagement?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Yue immediately became agitated. "How could you think of me like that? If I really cared about such superficial things as family background and social status, could we even be friends?"

"Back when you first joined the sect, you were a penniless rogue cultivator, without even a single spirit stone on you, yet I still treated you like a brother."

Ma Liang was speechless after hearing his words, his face darkened instantly, and only one thought remained in his mind.

"He must have had nothing better to do than try to persuade that kid!"

Ma Liang suppressed the urge to punch someone, glaring at Qin Yue through gritted teeth: "You brat, get home and deal with your mess! If you stay a couple more days, you might get beaten up because of your mouth!"

Qin Yue chuckled and lightly slapped his own mouth. "Look at my mouth, that's just my straightforward personality, don't take it to heart."

He then raised his wine cup and handed it to Ma Liang, saying, "Come on, let's not talk about those unpleasant things, let's drink!"

The two immediately put aside their worries and began to drink heartily, until the wine on the table was almost gone.

As the wine flowed freely, the smile on Qin Yue's face faded somewhat.

"After this parting, I don't know when we'll meet again."

After saying that, he took out a jade tablet from his storage bag and pushed it in front of Ma Liangmian. "If you ever come to the Yu Kingdom in the future and want to find me, just transfer your spiritual power into the jade tablet, and it will guide you in the right direction."

Ma Liang picked up the jade plaque on the table and examined it twice. He saw that both sides of the plaque were engraved with intricate landscape paintings, but there was not a single character on it.

He grinned, and without hesitation, casually put the jade token into his storage bag. "Alright! If I ever have the chance to go to the Yu Kingdom, I'll definitely come looking for you and eat your Qin family out of house and home!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The two exchanged a glance and burst into laughter. The smell of alcohol on the table mingled with their laughter, washing away most of the melancholy of parting.