The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

They endured, lay low, and waited with anticipation.

Countless days and nights filled with trepidation, anxiety, despair, and hope have finally come to an end today.

Yun Wanlan stood in the corridor of the Pengcheng Gaowu Administration Building.

The door to the honorary principal's office was right in front of me. It was a dark wooden door with a brass handle, and the nameplate on the door read "Honorary Principal...Chen Hao".

She's been standing in front of this door for almost two minutes.

There was no one else in the corridor. Sunlight streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling window on the left, cutting through the corridor in strips of light, dividing it into alternating light and shadow. She stood in the shadowed section.

The words the clan chief had said before he set off kept replaying in her mind.

"Go to Kyushu and find that person. The one with the highest cultivation level, the one who controls the entire Kyushu."

"How do I find it?"

"You'll know when you get there."

She only found out when she arrived. She didn't know.

The person the clan chief described may no longer exist.

But if Chen Hao isn't the one, then who is?

She dared not consider the possibility of "asking the wrong person," because that would mean everything would be for nothing.

Yun Wanlan exhaled and raised her hand.

He knocked three times.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Come in." A female voice came from inside; it was Chen Siyao.

Yun Wanlan pushed open the door.

The office wasn't large. There was a desk by the window, and a man sat behind it. Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing sat on the sofa to the left of the desk.

The first two people she saw were the two girls in the entire school who were the only ones with higher cultivation levels than her.

Chen Siyao held a cup of tea, her posture relaxed. Yang Wanqing sat cross-legged on the sofa, twirling a candied hawthorn stick in her hand. When she saw Chen Siyao enter, her eyes lit up.

Then her gaze shifted to the back of the desk.

the man.

Very young. Much younger than she had expected. She was wearing a plain white shirt, the sleeves rolled up to her forearms. On the table were a cup of tea and a few books.

There was no pressure.

Not a single bit.

Even if a powerful member of the Sushen tribe stands still, the surrounding air will feel heavy due to the pressure of spiritual energy.

The higher a person's cultivation level, the stronger their presence. It's like a boulder sinking to the bottom of the water; no matter how calm the surface, the undercurrents will tell you that something is there.

But the man had nothing on him.

Clean and tidy.

Just like an ordinary person sitting there drinking tea and reading a book.

But it is precisely this "absence" that exudes a vast and distant feeling of overlooking the mountains and rivers and transcending the mundane world.

Chen Hao raised his head and looked at Yun Wanlan at the door.

He spoke.

"The Sushen people?"

Four words.

Yun Wanlan's mind went blank.

He recognized her ethnicity at a glance.

This is not a guess, nor a test. His statement is a declarative sentence.

She wasn't wearing her clan's clothing. She wasn't using her clan's techniques. She even deliberately concealed the lingering aura of the Taiyin Realm on her body. During her months at Pengcheng Martial Arts Academy, no one noticed anything unusual about her.

But Chen Hao saw through it at a glance.

The last trace of doubt in Yun Wanlan's heart shattered completely.

She placed her right knee on the ground and knelt down on one knee.

"Wanlan, the Queen of the Sushen tribe, pays her respects to Your Excellency."

His voice trembled slightly when he uttered the words "Venerable One." Not from nervousness. It was as if something that had been held back for too long had suddenly snapped.

The office fell silent instantly.

Chen Siyao, standing to the side, glanced at Yang Wanqing with a slight look in her eyes. Her cool expression was slightly surprised. She turned her head slightly and looked at Yang Wanqing beside her.

Both of them had the same bewildered look in their eyes, staring at each other in surprise.

They knew that Yun Wanlan had mentioned the Taiyin Realm, and they also knew that their brother wanted to see her today. But it was Chen Hao who first uttered the words "Sushen Clan." He truly knew.

Chen Hao's gaze lingered on Yun Wanlan for two seconds.

Get up.

Yun Wanlan did not rise.

"Tell me. What are the reasons for the collapse of the Nine Provinces that you mentioned?"

Yun Wanlan knelt on one knee, her voice low: "Your Excellency, the Taiyin Realm is being invaded by extraterrestrial demons. My Sushen Clan has been fighting desperately for almost a thousand years."

"But in recent years, the number of Heavenly Demons has skyrocketed. It's five to six times what it used to be. We can't hold on any longer. The earth's veins are depleted, and the Taiyin Realm is on the verge of collapse. If this continues, the entire Taiyin Realm will become a dead realm."

"Extraterrestrial demons?" Chen Hao's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, and a hint of unfamiliarity flashed in his eyes.

Chen Hao's gaze darkened slightly, and he pressed on calmly, each word precise and hitting the nail on the head: "Where do they originate? What is their foundation?"

"I don't know," Yun Wanlan said. "We only know that they feed on the earth's ley lines, absorbing all the ley lines of each realm they cross. Before the Taiyin Realm..."

She paused for a moment.

"The Netherworld... the Netherworld has long been completely devoured by these celestial demons. The earth's veins have collapsed, turning it into a desolate, barren wasteland!"

Chen Hao tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

"Get up," Chen Hao said again.

Yun Wanlan stood up this time.

Chen Hao looked at her for a while.

"Three days later, I will go with you to the Yin Realm."

Yun Wanlan was stunned.

She had prepared for many possibilities. The other party refused. The other party questioned her. The other party demanded proof of her identity. The other party set conditions.

She was even prepared to kowtow, the highest form of etiquette among the Sushen people, which involves kneeling on both knees and hands with the forehead touching the ground; it is used when requesting help from elders.

But Chen Hao only said one sentence.

I'll go with you in three days.

No conditions were asked. No reward was asked. No one questioned her words.

Yun Wanlan's eyes immediately reddened.

She bit her lower lip hard, swallowing back what was welling up. But the tears wouldn't listen. They streamed down her cheeks, dripping onto the floor with a soft sound.

All the pressure of the past few months, coming alone to a strange world, not knowing the customs or rules, not being able to find anyone, not knowing the fate of the tribe, and every night when I closed my eyes, I saw the image of the tribe on fire. All of it came rushing up at this moment.

She cried in front of Chen Hao.

Silently.

Yang Wanqing stood up to hand over a tissue, but Chen Siyao pulled her back.

"Don't move," Chen Siyao whispered.

Let her cry for a while.

A minute later, Yun Wanlan wiped her face with her sleeve. Her eyes were red, but she had regained her composure.

"Thank you, Venerable One."

Chen Hao didn't respond to the thank you. He picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said something unrelated: "The bow you're carrying, is it a standard bow of the Sushen tribe?"

Yun Wanlan was slightly taken aback. She hadn't brought her bow.

"The calluses on your right index and middle fingers," Chen Hao said, "are from drawing a bow."

Yun Wanlan glanced at her fingers subconsciously.

"...Yes. I left my bow at Sister Zhao's house. I didn't bring it to school."

"Hmm." Chen Hao didn't ask any more questions.

Yun Wanlan left the office.

The moment the door closed, Yang Wanqing could no longer hold back.

"Master! How did you know she was from the Sushen tribe?"

Chen Hao put down his teacup.

"I've seen this race since ancient times. It's not that no one cultivated their bodies in ancient times; a small number of races focused on body cultivation. The Sushen people are one of them, and they are known for their body cultivation and their archery skills."