The group reached the attic on the top floor. Even though there was a solid wooden door in between, they could still hear the dull and slow coughing echoing inside the room.
Xue Yier whispered, "It's really strange. Old Master Fu was quite healthy in the early years. But in recent years, his health has been getting worse and worse, which is why he withdrew from the Dao Alliance and secluded himself in this quiet place."
Yu Nian nodded thoughtfully. She knew that there was a high chance that Fu Qingxuan had recognized her.
What puzzled her was that with Fu Qingxuan's abilities, it should have been extremely easy for him to conceal his demonic aura. However, the demonic aura on the invitation card was very obvious, as if Fu Qingxuan was worried that Yu Nian wouldn't come and deliberately revealed the demonic aura.
Yu Nian lowered her eyes. Fu Qingxuan had grown up under her watch, but after a hundred years, she couldn't quite figure out what Fu Qingxuan was up to.
The old butler bowed respectfully to Yu Nian and said, "The master is waiting for you in the room. Please come in."
Just as Xue Yier was about to follow Yu Nian in, the butler stopped him.
"Master Xue, this way, please."
Xue Yier scratched the tip of his nose, feeling a bit confused, but he still obediently followed the butler away.
Yu Nian pushed open the tightly closed door with a slight force.
The room was well - lit. There were many ancient books stacked around, and the aroma of tea lingered in the air. Yu Nian could clearly see the old man standing in the middle of the room.
The old man's back was extremely thin. Yu Nian found it hard to associate him with the little boy who used to follow her around all day long, shouting "Uncle Xuande."
Hearing the footsteps, Old Master Fu slowly turned his head and bowed deeply to Yu Nian in the old - fashioned way.
"Uncle...?" Fu Qingxuan's voice trembled a little. When he uttered this address, he even smiled sheepishly.
After so many years apart, he had become a centenarian with cloudy yellow eyes, while Xuande still looked as graceful and charming as before.
Yu Nian's long eyelashes fluttered slightly as she nodded and said, "Qingxuan, long time no see."
The once - decisive Old Master Fu in the Dao Alliance suddenly had red eyes: "I knew you would come back, Uncle."
Yu Nian quietly sized up the old man in front of her. His gaze was gentle yet focused, with a hidden elegance. Different from the childish boy back then, Old Master Fu had clearly developed a kind and compassionate appearance.
Yu Nian finally realized that she had been away for far too long.
Yu Nian didn't want to beat around the bush, so she asked calmly, "With the current prestige of the Fu family, Fu Sui doesn't have to participate in this Xuanmen competition. And you've been out of the Dao Alliance for a long time. Why did you come out of seclusion to be a judge in this competition?"
Old Master Fu was slightly taken aback but was also honest: "Uncle is really wise. Everything I've done is to obtain the prize of the finals - the Tianyuan Stone."
Yu Nian raised her eyebrows slightly.
The Tianyuan Stone was a precious treasure that could shape spiritual bodies and physical bodies. But Fu Qingxuan's spiritual body wasn't damaged. What did he need the Tianyuan Stone for?
Suddenly, Yu Nian seemed to think of something and asked Old Master Fu again, "You should know about Zhou Zhen sending the hanged ghost and the loach spirit to harm the contestants, right?"
Old Master Fu lowered his eyes and sighed softly, "I didn't instruct Zhou Zhen to do these immoral things. But ultimately, this matter started because of me. Zhou Zhen had been with me for more than a decade. He knew that I was in urgent need of the Tianyuan Stone, so he took the initiative to try to eliminate other strong contestants for Fu Sui. He just didn't expect... the first contestant he tried to harm was you, Uncle. I've been cultivating in purity all my life, but at the age of a hundred, I've accumulated such a karmic obstacle. I'm really ashamed."
At first, Zhou Zhen wasn't targeting Yu Nian. He just heard the rumors about Yu Nian's talisman - drawing skills. Zhou Zhen thought that Yu Nian would be a very troublesome opponent in the later stage, so he sent the hanged ghost to Yu Nian's room first, trying to scare her into withdrawing from the competition.
But he never expected that Yu Nian was so powerful that she directly exorcised the hanged ghost he had carefully raised!
Then Zhou Zhen was worried that the matter would be exposed, so he hired the loach spirit in an attempt to kill the witnesses.
The result was predictable. The loach spirit was also released by Yu Nian...
Zhou Zhen was completely confused. In fear, he finally confessed to Old Master Fu what he had done.
Just like that, as soon as the semi - finals ended, he was stripped of his position as a judge and went to the Dao Alliance to receive his punishment.
Yu Nian nodded thoughtfully and then slowly turned her gaze to the tightly closed door at the end of the room, confirming that the demonic aura lingering on the invitation card came from there.
Fu Qingxuan's body suddenly stiffened, looking like a child who had done something wrong.
After a long moment of silence, he slowly said, "Uncle, please follow me."
The tightly closed door was pushed open, and a breath unique to ancient great demons rushed towards them. Only then did Yu Nian discover that there was a whole new world behind the door.
It was a huge water reservoir, very large in area and deep in water level. There were many precious spiritual herbs planted around, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of fine white sand, with a few crystal - clear things like gemstones mixed in, shining brightly in the sunlight.
At first glance, this place looked like a vast blue sea.
Yu Nian noticed that although the water surface was calm, there seemed to be something moving and tumbling rapidly underwater.
Old Master Fu tapped on the open space a few times, and several huge waves surged up.
The next moment, a huge shadow leaped out of the water.
Only then did Yu Nian clearly see what that thing really looked like.
The demon was divided at the waist, with a human upper body and a fish tail.
His face was handsome, with a pair of extremely deep blue eyes. His silver long hair, like moonlight, was wet with water and clung to his almost perfect waist in strands.
The shiny fish tail slapped out of the water, glowing with colorful lights in the sunlight, extremely stunning.
Yu Nian stared at the demon for a while, and a look of surprise flashed across her ever - calm face: "This is... a merman?"
Mermen were a very magical kind of demon. They had existed since ancient times. It was rumored that their tears could turn into priceless pearls.
Moreover, mermen were very good at weaving and could weave dragon silk that was extremely tough and wouldn't get wet in water.
The oil in their bodies had an extremely low ignition point, and a single drop could burn for several days. It was rumored that there were ever - burning lamps fueled by merman oil in Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb.
Because of this, mermen had been hunted down wantonly from ancient times to the present, and their numbers were pitifully small. People in the Xuanmen hadn't seen a merman for many years and thought that this kind of demon had already gone extinct.
The merman swam towards Old Master Fu. His deep, ocean - like eyes were extremely strange, but his gaze was as clear as that of a child.
"Fu Qingxuan, you're here?"
Old Master Fu responded and kindly called his name: "Quanke."
Fu Qingxuan turned to look at Yu Nian and said respectfully, "Uncle, I met Quanke when we were young. For humans, a hundred years is a lifetime. But for demons, a hundred years is like a year. He has a kind and pure nature and has never seen the evils of the outside world. I know that my end is near. I'm worried that Quanke will fall into the hands of bad people after I'm gone, so I want to shape a human body for Quanke so that he can adapt to a world without me as soon as possible. I've read many ancient books and continuously sent spiritual power into Quanke's body, but it's all been in vain. It wasn't until I heard about the Tianyuan Stone... that's why I asked my great - grandson Fu Sui to participate in the competition, and I dragged this old body back to the competition arena."
Seeing that Yu Nian remained silent, the fingers beside Old Master Fu curled up a little, and he softened his tone: "Uncle, I've never troubled you with anything. Please help me this once. The Tianyuan Stone recognizes its master, and there's only one in the world. Only your powerful strength can conquer it."
Yu Nian stood there silently for a while and then said calmly, "Never troubled me with anything? Who went to the black bear spirit's lair to steal honey when he was eight years old, got beaten up, and then crawled back to ask me to back him up? And who accidentally took the descendant of the mysterious bird while climbing a tree to steal bird eggs on the Western Mountain when he was twelve years old, got pecked almost to death, and came to me for help?"
Old Master Fu: ...Why do you remember these things so clearly?