The past laid bare.

The four people continued to drink and eat for quite some time, only stopping when Lei Qiang's daughter woke up and started making noise. Xue Wen went in to check up on her daughter, and seeing that the sun was already setting, Liang Chen and Yan Ling decided that it was about time for them to leave, standing up and stretching their bodies.

"Alright, we'll be returning to the sect and stop emptying all your wine and taking up your time. If you ever need anything, you can just send a message to the Bai clan, they'll notify me immediately."

While Liang Chen was speaking, he and Yan Ling put on the Heaven Altering Masks and changed their appearances again. Lei Qiang raised the cup of wine he was holding, nodding at Liang Chen and Yan Ling with a smile.

"Alright, I'll make sure to keep it in mind. If the two of you ever get tired or just want some company while drinking, you know where to find me, the doors to my home are always open. And Chen, you're growing up faster than a weed, so keep my advice in mind before it's too late."

Lei Qiang sent Liang Chen a quick wink, causing Liang Chen to roll his eyes before turning around and leaving, giving Lei Qiang a wave as walked away. Lei Qiang didn't say anything else, simply chuckling lightly and bringing the cup of wine to his mouth, sipping it slowly and enjoying the spicy taste.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling quickly made their way out of the city and headed for a secluded place where they could take out the flying chariot without being seen. They quickly found such a spot, boarding the chariot and taking off, flying towards the Floating Rose nation so that they could return to the Storm Wolf sect.

While they were flying, Liang Chen noticed that Yan Ling was rather quiet, clearly thinking about something. She had done the same when they left the Snow Mirror nation and she had decided to undertake the heavenly tribulation in hopes of awakening her bloodline. Because of this, Liang Chen kept himself ready and vigilant just in case she decided to do something similar this time.

In the end, his vigilance was for naught, the two of them reaching the Floating Rose nation without incident. They didn't waste any time in the Floating Rose nation, using their spatial array to return to the Storm Wolf sect, appearing inside the Mission Castle.

The two turned in the mission and received the rewards, 300 contribution points, pushing Liang Chen's total up to 450 contribution points. It still wasn't enough to buy even the cheapest weapon, but as he no longer had a need for a new weapon, he could spend the points on other resources instead.

Yan Ling continued with her thoughtful silence even after they returned to the Storm Wolf sect and handed in the mission, so Liang Chen was starting to get curious just what it was that she was thinking about. But he could tell that whatever it was she was thinking about, it was not something easy for her to talk about, so he was in no rush to ask her. His patience was rewarded shortly after the two left the Mission Castle and were making their way back to their lodgings, Yan Ling speaking up with a somewhat low voice.

"Would you be willing to follow me somewhere and listen to a disjointed story?"

It seemed to have taken Yan Ling all her strength just to say those words, but at the same time, it also seemed like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Since she had mustered up her courage to ask, how could Liang Chen disappoint her?

"Of course. As long as you are willing to talk, I am willing to listen."

Yan Ling nodded her head, grabbing onto Liang Chen's sleeve and speeding up slightly, leading him through the sect. They received quite a few stares from the disciples they passed, but even in the past Liang Chen hadn't cared about their stares, much less now that he had gotten used to them.

Yan Ling led Liang Chen away from the housing area, bringing him to the back of the mountain and leading him to an arched gate made from cyan wood. Liang Chen knew what this gate was, it was the entrance to the Hero's Tomb, the graveyard where the disciples of the Storm Wolf sect were buried. Seeing the place where she was bringing him, Liang Chen could somewhat guess what Yan Ling was about to show him.

The two entered the arched gate and stepped into the hidden realm that was located past the gate, a vast plain covered in verdant grass and blooming flowers, jade rods engraved with names covering most of the plain. Standing only a short distance away from the place where Yan Ling and Liang Chen arrived were six statues, the statues that depicted the greatest heroes of the Storm Wolf sect.

Yan Ling continued to lead Liang Chen, bringing him deeper into the hidden realm, past the countless jade rods that served as grave markers. The two continued to walk for over three hours before Yan Ling finally stopped in front of a tall oak that had two jade rods standing in its shade. Carved into these two jade rods were the names Yan Xieren and Yan Xuefeng.

Yan Ling looked at the two jade rods with a forlorn expression, her shoulders slumped. She sat down in front of them and curled up, pressing her knees up against her chest and resting her chin on them, sitting in a fetal position as she continued to look at the two names. She continued to look at the names for some time, occasionally opening her mouth and looking like she was about to speak. but each time she opened her mouth, she closed it again, her eyes turning redder as time passed.

Liang Chen stood at her side while she continued like this for several minutes. After she closed her mouth again for the eighth time, Liang Chen decided that it was about time for him to do something. He stepped back and sat down behind her, coiling his arms around her and embracing her in a hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. She trembled slightly when Liang Chen stepped back, seemingly worried that he was leaving, so he spoke up in a soft voice after embracing her in the hug.

"This is something my mother did for me when I was a child. Whenever I was hurt, afraid, or lonely she would do this, blowing away all my worries and fears. I'm not going anywhere, so you can take your time."

Yan Ling stopped trembling when Liang Chen spoke up, taking several deep breaths to calm herself. After she spent a few minutes calming herself, she slowly started to talk, her gaze firmly locked on the two names on the jade rods.

" Xieren and Xuefeng were my younger siblings, a pair of twins born six years after me. Xieren was my younger brother and Xuefeng was my younger sister. You know, despite being the oldest sibling, I was the weakest and least talented. Xieren was born with a bloodline that was already slightly awakened, so his strength and control over the law of wind grew blindingly fast. By the age of 8, he had already entered the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. Xuefeng didn't have Xieren's bloodline strength, but she inherited my mother's talent in the law of darkness, growing stronger at a pace just a bit slower than Xieren's, entering the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm when she turned 8. The two had the greatest talent our sect had seen in the last 10 000 years."

Liang Chen could not even begin to fathom just how blindingly fast that cultivation speed was. The target of his hatred, Qing Lan Yong, had reached the peak of the Heaven's Gate realm at 17 years and was considered a genius. Yet Yan Ling's little brother had reached practically the same stage at just 8 years old, showing just how mighty the bloodline flowing in the Yan family was once it managed to awaken even by a little.

"Just Xieren and Xuefeng were enough to cause the entire sect to rejoice, with the two of them, our future was secured. But then father returned from a journey and brought with him Big Brother, a child with excellent talent in the law of blood, causing the sect to rejoice even further. Big Brother had lost his entire family after his previous sect was wiped out by the Moon Dragon sect, so when he arrived here he was filled with hate and resentment, wanting nothing more than to burn down the entire Moon Dragon sect. When he arrived in the sect, Xieren and Xuefeng had just turned eight, and I was about to turn 14."

Liang Chen knew that Yan Ying wasn't Yan Ling's blood brother, but this was the first time he was hearing about the circumstances behind him being adopted by Yan Ling's father, Yan Wuhan. Liang Chen could guess how Yan Ying must have felt back then because he too had been in the same position as him. Yan Ling took a short break from talking, taking a few more deep breaths to calm her emotions.

"Over the next two years, thanks to the care and love that father showed, Big Brother was slowly becoming better, his flames of hatred slowly diminishing. Xieren and Xuefeng were still just children, so they were a bit too arrogant and proud, so they didn't treat Big Brother as well as father did. They weren't mean to him, just dismissive and indifferent, mostly just ignoring him."

This was only to be expected. No matter how well they were raised, if one was hailed as a genius from a young age and was constantly better than everyone else, they would, of course, grow an ego, especially if they were still just children.

"Two years after father returned to the sect with Big Brother, he decided that it was time for him to break through to the middle stage of the Transcended Immortal realm, increasing the strength of our sect by quite a bit. He set up a specially prepared hidden realm and prepared all the resources he felt that he would need to flawlessly complete his breakthrough."

Liang Chen was somewhat shocked at hearing about the sect master's cultivation for the first time. The Transcended Immortal realm was the realm just below the Sovereign God realm, the cultivation realm that the books said was the peak. In this realm, each breakthrough would require vast amounts of energy and resources, as well as a deep understanding of the laws. Yan Ling's voice turned a bit lower as she continued, a tinge of hatred appearing in her voice.

"He started his breakthrough, everything going smoothly at first. But then, just as he was at the most important point in his breakthrough, my mother attacked him. No one had expected it, so we were unable to even react in time, mother drawing her sword and stabbing father straight through the chest, nearly mangling it completely in the process."

Liang Chen couldn't help but be shocked once more. Her mother had attacked her father while he was in the midst of his breakthrough? No wonder he had never heard anything about her mother, it was clearly an extremely sensitive subject. And it was because he realized how sensitive this subject was that he felt warm inside. Yan Ling telling him this story was a sign of how much she trusted him, of how close the two had grown.

"It turned out that mother was a spy prepared by the Nightshield sect. And she wasn't just any spy, she was one of the Nightshield sect's 5 Hall Masters who had voluntarily killed herself so that she could be reincarnated into the Storm Wolf sect and serve as a spy that could infiltrate the higher echelons of the sect thanks to her fast rate of improvement."

Just how great was the status of a Hall Master in the Nightshield sect? It was the position just below the patriarch, below one but above thousands. How could anyone guess that such a person would be willing to kill themselves just so that they could become a spy?

"I'm not sure if she did something to him or not, but Xieren flew into an extremely unusual and violent rage, activating as much of his bloodline as he could, drastically increasing his strength. Like a bloody gale, he dashed at mother and brandished his axe, trying to cleave her in half with a single swipe. But mother simply vaulted over father and pushed him into the path of the attack, using him as a shield. Xieren had completely lost his mind in his rage, so he wasn't even able to see that father had been pushed into the path of the attack."

Yan Ling's eyes were distant as she talked, as if she was seeing into the past and reliving the scene once more. Liang Chen didn't say anything, he simply continued to hug her from behind and quietly listen to her story.

"Big Brother dashed forward as fast as he could, but he specializes in attacking, not in speed, so he would need time to reach father and Xieren. But Xuefeng was different, she could connect herself to father's shadow and instantly move to it, which she did. She appeared right in front of father, right in Xieren's path of attack. She pushed father back and hastily prepared her defenses. She wanted to block the attack, but she had always been weaker than Xieren, especially now that he was blinded with rage and had activated his bloodline."

The law of darkness was an exceedingly strange one that had countless applications, it was useful for just about every situation. It was very popular and powerful, but gaining insight into it was very hard, so it was hard for people to cultivate it, especially if they didn't have the talent for it. As Yan Ling continued to talk, a slight shudder ran through her body, tears starting to run down her face.

"His axe went directly through her hastily prepared defense, cutting through her chest and killing her almost instantly. Xuefeng failed to block the attack, but by taking the attack for father, she had been able to buy Big Brother a bit more time. Xieren was still blinded with rage, so he didn't even notice that he had killed Xuefeng, preparing his axe for the next attack, once again aiming it at father. It was at this time that Big Brother reached Xieren."

Just what did such a scene have to look like, just what would one feel in such a situation? Liang Chen had no way of imagining it, no way of even guessing at what sort of pain Yan Ling must have felt back then.

"Big Brother barely had any time, only a short split second, to stop Xieren's attack. And in that split second, he decided that saving father was the most important, so he drew his sword and stabbed out with all his might. Xieren was fully focused on his own attack, so he hadn't prepared any defense, allowing Big Brother's sword to pierce cleanly through his throat and steal his life, his axe and body dropping to the ground with dull and haunting thuds. And while all this was going on, I stood stock still a short distance away, frozen in fear and shock. I wanted to move forward alongside Big Brother and Xuefeng, I wanted to attack mother like Xieren, but my body refused to move, completely frozen."

Yan Ling let out an exceedingly weak and self-deprecating laughter after she finished talking. She hadn't been able to do a single thing, all she could do was watch. She stretched out her arms slightly, holding her shivering hands up in front of her face, looking at them with a mixture of disgust and rage.

"Even now I can still remember it, that horrid feeling when I realized that I had only stood and watched, that I had only been able to stand and watch as father was attacked and my two younger siblings died. Even to this day it haunts me in my dreams and steals my sleep. Back then, why couldn't I be a bit braver? Why couldn't I have been a bit stronger? If I had just been a bit of either, I might have been able to make a difference, maybe Xieren and Xuefeng wouldn't have died."

Would things have changed if she had been more focused on cultivation? Would she have been able to save them if she had put more effort into her training? She didn't know, she had no way of knowing, she could only guess, hope.

Liang Chen didn't say anything, only further tightening the hug. He knew how she felt, because he had been in the exact same situation as her. He watched his own parents get executed, cursing his weak self that was unable to save them. Would the Qing clan have chosen someone else as a scapegoat if Liang Chen was stronger? Would he have been able to tear them away from the Qing clan and flee if he had more strength? Just like Yan Ling didn't know, so too did Liang Chen not know.

"Right after she pushed away father, mother fled using some strange talisman, her sword still stabbed through father's chest. Father ended up surviving thanks to a talisman he had been given by the previous sect master, but Xieren and Xuefeng were already completely dead, with no way of saving them. Big Brother always blamed himself for what happened, saying that Xieren and Xuefeng died because he hesitated for a split second before dashing with all his might. Even I hated him for a bit after hearing this, pushing all the blame for Xieren's and Xuefeng's death on him."

Now Liang Chen understood the meaning behind the words Yan Ling had spoken to Yan Ying after she finished the second trial in the Mystic's Hidden Realm, the trial where they had to overcome an illusion. She didn't blame him for Xieren and Xuefeng's death, she didn't hate him for the choice he had made.

"But it wasn't his fault, it had never been. Everyone would hesitate for a bit upon seeing such a scene. The one who was at fault was mother, it had all been her fault, her's and the damnded Nightshield sect that gave her the orders."

Yan Ling's voice practically dripped with hatred as she spoke, the same hatred Liang Chen's voice dripped with whenever he spoke of Qing Lan Yong. It seemed like both had quite some fate with the Nightshield sect, both of them losing people dear to them because of someone from the Nightshield sect. Yan Ling placed her hands on top of Liang Chen's her gaze growing determined and steely.

"I want to become stronger. I want to awaken my bloodline and become so strong that the entire Nightshield sect quakes in fear. And then, then I will kill mother and present her corpse to these gravestones. And after that, you will help me bring Xieren and Xuefeng back to life, just like you promised me."

Before Liang Chen and Yan Ling faced the heavenly tribulation in Sky Piercer Forest, Liang Chen had told Yan Ling that even if he had to scour this entire planet for every grain of ash that remained of his parents, he would revive them. In response, she told him that it wasn't he that would revive them, they would do it together. But in return, he had to bring some people back for her, something he had easily agreed to. Yan Ling had finished her story, so Liang Chen spoke, his voice starting out soft and gentle but slowly growing determined.

"I will, don't worry I will. I'll help you with your revenge and I'll help you bring them back, I promise."