Qin Yueshan continued to press Tianjue.

  “This junior is a potential vessel for your Liu Family to smuggle Wen Family karma. My Jingquan Sect is naturally very interested in what he’s carrying.”

  Tianjue clenched his fists. He knew it would be hard to win this argument.

  More importantly: Yuming’s qi circulation did match the contamination briefly. Why?

  Does he know? Is he trying to get Qin Yueshan to keep him here?

  But that doesn’t make sense. If he knew that much, why would he have saved his brother a few months back?

  Maybe he doesn’t know the mechanism but has grown suspicious. He’s astute, after all.

  Tianjue sighed, realizing he had to get the higher-ups involved.

  Meanwhile, Yuming was thinking about his “weight.”

  What does weighing more mean? Does it mean they can strap more karma on me easily?

  All along, he’d questioned why the Zhan Branch chose him specifically. He’d assumed it could have had to do with his Unbroken Ledger True Scripture.

  But maybe that was completely wrong.

  They want to strap something to me. Bad karma?

  Yuming didn’t believe that there was such a thing. Would the world truly punish injustice?

  Liu Chengxu has killed thousands in the north…

  Maybe there truly was a karmic consequence, or maybe there was some separate mechanism, and they wanted the cost to fall on him.

  He’d thought about this before, shortly after the Qinglu Market incident. He concluded that he didn’t know enough.

  But if I have more weight…it really does make that explanation more plausible.

  The contamination pulsed in his meridians. He kept his face blank, the confused expression of a junior who didn't understand the argument happening above him.

  But internally, his mind was racing.

  The Chengxu matter should concern his descendants, the Xu Branch. So why is the Zhan Branch so invested?

  He thought about it.

  The Yang Family had their own karmic identity. Qin Yueshan mentioned “Wen Family karma,” so they should too.

  If that’s the case—

  The Xu and Zhan branches are both far larger than the Yang or Wen families, perhaps they have their own identities, it’s not just Liu!

  It made sense. He was forming his own identity, yet he could be part of something larger. Why couldn’t Liu have separate sub-groups?

  Yuming recalled the history of the Yang Family, how they were hurt when the Chen Family fell apart.

  The Zhan and Xu Branches are much closer than the Yang and Chen Families were. If Xu gets shaken—Zhan does too.

  A cold feeling settled in his stomach.

  What did Zhan want to do? They’d want to separate from Xu—to cut their karmic connections before Chengxu’s consequences dragged them both down.

  But I doubt you can sever a bond like that. The karma has to go somewhere! Somewhere with enough weight to hold it!

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  Somewhere that could absorb what Xu carried without letting it splash back onto Zhan.

  He thought of every gift Liu Tianjue had given him. Every debt carefully cultivated. Every favor that bound him tighter to the Zhan Branch while keeping him separate from the rest of the Liu Family.

  They weren't investing in him, they were preparing him.

  Oh.

  That's what I am to them. A place for someone’s sins to land.

  His fault line shuddered.

  Chenming felt horror. They’d plucked a mortal boy from a village, fed him, clothed him, saved his life. And the whole time, they were building a container for someone else's rot.

  Yuming felt recognition, the shape of the trap was becoming more visible. Every gift was a chain, every kind word was a lie dressed in silk.

  They never saw a person, they saw a vessel with legs.

  The Ledger twisted between them, grinding the two reactions together. Horror and calculation, grief and fury.

  Wounded humanity and sharp clarity.

  With all of that Xu Branch karma, I’d become like a slave to them. I wouldn’t be able to cultivate an inch without their permission.

  So that’s why Xu doesn’t care…

  He forced himself to not show his realization on his face. Tianjue and Qin Yueshan continued their spirited discussion.

  Tianjue was finally giving in. “If Jingquan wants to investigate, go ahead. We have nothing to hide.”

  Yuming heard this and held in his smile.

  Tianjue paused for a moment, then added: “But Fellow Daoist, I will be informing my Seniors.”

  Qin Yueshan smiled, then gave Yuming a meaningful look before leaving.

  Tianjue helped Yuming up and gave him some medicine to heal quicker. He called Liu Zhong back down and handed him medicine as well.

  Tianjue watched the attendants take the juniors away, lost in thought.

  This sabotage was done by Jingquan or a third party. Could it be Xu? Some of them are worried about falling down while we stand strong.

  Yuming couldn’t have done this on his own—but his qi pattern truly did match the contamination.

  Maybe his talent is that extraordinary, or maybe he wanted to attract suspicion.

  And if he wanted to attract suspicion, perhaps it was the Xu Branch that instructed him.

  And who from the Xu Branch spoke to Yuming recently?

  Liu Xuehan!

  His heart dropped.

  I can’t make such an accusation about an elder without evidence.

  ….

  Far away from the Wen compound, where hills gave way to open sky, three figures stood motionless in the air.

  They formed a triangle, one maintaining a careful distance from the other two. Foundation Establishment cultivators didn’t meet on the ground—they preferred the immortal feel of the sky.

  Liu Xuehan wore her usual icy expression. She stood with her hands behind her back, her eyes shifting between the other two figures.

  Yan Fengran floated slightly higher than the others. Her violet robes fluttered slightly, her gaze reaching into the distance.

  She sighed inwardly. The Yan Family cleaning up the Liu Family’s mess, it was a tale that had become increasingly common over the past few decades.

  Of course, they were partly to blame for that.

  The Yan and the Liu were two of the great families that ruled the Chudeng Sect. When one slipped up, another was inevitably dragged in.

  Standing opposite the two was Qin Mozhi, the oldest of the three and a great-uncle of Qin Yueshan. He wore the typical pale blue robes of the Jingquan Sect.

  He had come prepared for a confrontation, but Liu Xuehan’s cooperation had caught him off guard.

  “Fellow Daoist, let me be certain I understand.” He asked, unsure if his ears had grown deaf. “The Liu Family will not intervene with our investigation of this junior Liu Yuming?”

  Liu Xuehan had to maintain some appearances, so she pushed back a little. “Fellow Daoist misunderstands. We won’t forcibly take him back, but we won’t allow you to do whatever you please.”

  She fell silent after finishing her sentence, waiting for Yan Fengran to play the mediator.

  As expected, Yan Fengran spoke shortly after. “Both parties will not send Foundation Establishments to the Wen Family compound. If there is a confrontation, let it remain amongst our Qi Condensation juniors.”

  Qin Mozhi nodded in agreement. Liu Xuehan gave a reluctant look and then nodded a second later.

  Inwardly, she was quite pleased.

  It’s good that Tianjue’s mistake allowed me to come here instead of someone from the Zhan Branch.

  The Zhan Branch was already benefitting much more from the Yuming matter than the Xu Branch was. Xuehan’s Senior Brother, Liu Zhenwei, had even been in favor of stopping the plan entirely.

  But now the Zhan Branch was truly going too far. They’d already locked in Yuming’s karma, and now they aim to control his cultivation?

  What use would the boy be as a pawn if he’s stuck with low cultivation?

  Xuehan frowned. If Yuming was at Zhenyuan, the Zhan Branch would absolutely control his cultivation progress. At least far away he would have a chance of progressing more naturally.

  A Yuming who advanced under Zhan's total control was a Yuming shaped entirely to Zhan's purposes. A Yuming who advanced with some independence would be easier for Xu to use.

  Why else would they add him to the Ancestral Tree program?

  Sigh, the real problem is Zhenyi. What a weak Family Head. But what more can be expected from a compromise choice?

  Xuehan and Yan Fengran flew back in the same direction. After a few minutes of silence, Xuehan suddenly spoke up.

  “Junior Sister, when will your family’s Grotto-Heaven issue be resolved?”

  Yan Fengran bit her lip. If she was a mortal she’d likely be sweating.

  But she’d long since shed those aspects of her mortality.

  “It should be at least a few years.”

  Xuehan nodded, and the two continued back in silence.