Night had already fallen. In fact, it was quite late. The sedan left the bustling district and headed toward the back gate of the Ye Manor.

Going through the front gate required a detour, so ever since moving to the inner courtyard, Ye Kong always entered and exited through the back door.

Just as they passed the intersection ahead where the Ye Manor’s back gate would come into view, an unremarkable small sedan came from the opposite direction.

The two sedans passed right by each other. The night wind lifted the green curtain of the opposite sedan, making it flutter. In that crossing moment, Ye Kong caught sight of a familiar face.

“Second Wife!” Ye Kong’s heart stirred and his eyes opened wide. “Good thing she didn’t see me, or I’d have to deal with more nonsense.”

As soon as that thought settled, another one floated up. “Where’s she going so late at night?”

“Probably off to steal a wild man,” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ half-dead voice chimed in again.

“Don’t talk nonsense. Who would dare put a green hat on Ye Haoran? They’d be tired of living,” Ye Kong didn’t believe it.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs snorted. “How old are you? Do you know how old this ancestor is? A hundred thousand years! A hundred thousand years!”

Ye Kong had heard this “hundred thousand years” line so many times his ears had calluses. He said irritably, “Yeah, yeah, I know. ‘A thousand years makes a turtle, ten thousand makes a tortoise.’ You’re just a super old turtle, a green-furred turtle. Happy now?”

“Your old man is the green-furred turtle!” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs rolled his eyes and said angrily, “Didn’t you see your Second Mother was all dolled up today? She even had makeup on her face. Look at that flirtatious appearance – she’s definitely going to meet a wild man.”

“Get lost. Don’t women always dress up when going out?” Although Ye Kong’s mouth didn’t stolen contentbelieve it, doubt had already sprouted in his heart. His old man had been gone to An Capital for over two years. This Second Wife was a mature woman still in her prime. Maybe she really was up to something.

As the saying goes: at thirty like a wolf, at forty like a tiger, at fifty sitting on the ground she’d suck up dirt. It was quite possible that Second Wife couldn’t endure the loneliness and was getting up to something outside.

“Don’t believe it? Want to follow and see?” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs asked again.

“Go, go, go. Go back and refine pills for me.” Ye Kong had no interest in exposing whatever Second Wife was doing. Even if she was meeting a wild man, what did it have to do with him?

Although Second Wife had treated his mother poorly before, she’d been pretty decent recently. Even if she had Xiaohong probe for information, it was just because she wanted Ye Wen and Ye Wu to have more prospects. Her mistakes weren’t major. There was no need to fight her to the death.

Arriving at the Ye Manor’s back gate, Ye Kong got out of the sedan. These sedan carriers were all from the Lu brothers’ household and couldn’t conveniently enter the manor, so Ye Kong let them return on their own.

Large households had guards at the back gate too, though not as formally as at the front gate. The one on duty was just an old man. With a knock on the door and announcing his name, the gate opened.

Ye Kong wanted to ask the old man whether Second Wife often left the manor late at night, but after thinking about it, he didn’t ask. The person guarding the back courtyard gate was definitely Second Wife’s trusted confidant. Asking him would be pointless.

“Brother Ye Kong, why are you coming back so late?” Lu Qin had rested for a whole day and had long since recovered, bouncing around full of energy again. It was so late but she still hadn’t gone to sleep.

“Mm, I discussed some matters with your brothers,” Ye Kong said vaguely.

“Discussed matters my ass. Obviously went drinking at a brothel and had that proprietress wipe your thing. Haha,” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs mercilessly mocked him.

“Get lost! Wasn’t it you who wanted to go!” Ye Kong cursed internally, then smiled at Lu Qin. “Don’t wait up for me in the future. When I go out, I’m often delayed with business. Just go to sleep early yourself.”

“Okay, Brother Ye Kong, you should sleep early too.” Lu Qin smiled, waved, ​noodles​and ran back to her own room.

“Little rascal, went to the brothel again? Reeking of rouge!” Chen Jiuniang’s nose was quite sharp.

“No way, Mother, you should go sleep too. Your son isn’t that kind of person.” Ye Kong thought to himself that fortunately he hadn’t shown his face today, or tomorrow the entire manor would be gossiping about it again.

The night wind began to grow stronger, blowing through the cracks in the vermillion windows and producing sharp whistling sounds.

Ye Kong returned to his room, took out a spirit stone, activated the Spiritual Cultivation Formation, and slapped his storage pouch. A bag of millet and over ten round, black Starvation Tree fruits appeared on the bed.

“Alright, Comrade Ancestor, prepare to come out. Time for you to work.” Ye Kong sat cross-legged on the bed.

“Have you really thought this through?” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs said lazily. “Although this ancestor’s spiritual power is pathetically weak now, crushing you at Qi Refinement Layer 2 would still be effortless. If you really want to let me out, you’d better think it through clearly.”

Ye Kong stuck out his tongue, licked his lips, and smiled mockingly. “Old Ancestor, didn’t I tell you? I’m a hooligan! Don’t look at how hooligans are all scoundrels who seem unreliable, but real hooligans value loyalty above all. Since I, Ye Kong, see you as a friend and trust you, that means I trust you unconditionally! If you treat me as a brother, I, Ye Kong, will never forget it for the rest of my life. But if you betray that trust, then I’ll consider myself blind and deserve whatever I get!”

“However, hooligans have another characteristic – if you’re going to do it, kill me outright. Otherwise, as long as I have one breath left, I’ll come after you with endless revenge… until one of us is dead!”

After hearing this, Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ face showed no change. He still said lazily, “Threatening me won’t work. If this ancestor could be intimidated by someone at Qi Refinement Layer 2, I might as well stop being human.”

Ye Kong smiled. “I’m not threatening you. I really do see you as a friend. Maybe you’ll say I’m naive, but I feel like you won’t kill me, won’t betray me… yeah, it’s just a feeling.”

“You really are naive. One day your feelings will get you killed!” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs glared and said, then waved his hand. “Let me out. At least this old ancestor is still waiting for your Five Elements Ascension Scripture. For now, I won’t kill you.”

Ye Kong smiled slightly. Using his intent, he controlled the golden light of the Complete [noodles]Collection of Talismans and directly pushed Old Ancestor Yellow Springs to the edge of his Spirit Platform. Yellow Springs flew out of Ye Kong’s head on his own.

This was Ye Kong’s first time using his physical eyes to see someone’s Nascent Soul leave the body. He saw a fist-sized infant fly out from his own head, then grow larger and larger in the air, finally stabilizing at the size of a four or five-month-old infant, sitting steadily beside Ye Kong.

If it weren’t for seeing Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ face full of beard and adult expressions, Ye Kong really would have thought this was just a very ordinary infant.

“Wow, you’re so indecent, not wearing anything. Haha, your little brother is so small, and you’re still making a fuss about wanting women?”

“Get lost! Careful or this ancestor will get angry!” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs glared at Ye Kong irritably and said, “If you’d let me out earlier, all that spiritual energy in the small sword artifact wouldn’t have been wasted. Sigh, that was however many years of my cultivation.”

Ye Kong thought to himself, if I’d let you out back then, wouldn’t I have been looking for death? But on his face, he smiled and said, “Didn’t you not mention it back then?”

“Hmph.” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs clearly saw through his hypocrisy, though he also knew that if Ye Kong had let him out back then, he definitely would have killed the kid.

Then Old Ancestor Yellow Springs raised his hand again. “Hand it over.”

Ye Kong was startled. “Hand over what?”

“The spiritual energy you stored in the depleted spirit stones! This ancestor needs to use infant fire. How is the bit of spiritual energy I have now enough?”

“Oh, oh. How many pieces?” Ye Kong wouldn’t be foolish enough to give him all of them.

“Three pieces.” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs didn’t ask for more. Taking the three depleted spirit stones Ye Kong handed over, he kept muttering complaints. “Little fox. Just now you talked so heroically about loyalty, feelings, and brotherhood. This ancestor was almost moved… hmph, letting me out, aren’t you still afraid of me? Not even daring to give me more spiritual energy.”

Although he was cursing, Ye Kong just chuckled and [unauthorized copy]had no intention of giving him more spirit stones.

The spiritual energy in those depleted spirit stones was originally Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ own anyway. He didn’t need to refine it – he could just absorb it back for use. After using it up, it would slowly recover in his body later.

Then Old Ancestor Yellow Springs began refining pills.

He raised his left hand, and a flame appeared at his middle fingertip, just like a lighter. However, that flame was blue-green with churning white flames on top.

The flame wasn’t small, but standing beside it, one didn’t feel any heat.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs controlled the size of the flame. When it stabilized at one finger’s length, the flame maintained that size, the blue-green fire dancing.

Next, Old Ancestor Yellow Springs beckoned with his right hand, and a Starvation Tree fruit flew over. The fruit was then placed above the flame.

The Starvation Tree fruit was even bigger than a coconut, like a human head. Ye Kong had thought it would be hard to burn, but who knew that as soon as the fruit touched Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ infant fire, it immediately softened and melted, finally becoming a mass of blue-green-black liquid.

That mass of liquid hung suspended in midair with the blue-green infant fire below. The flames made the liquid rotate and churn. The top of the liquid bubbled continuously, and black or red particles kept churning up.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ hand moved like lightning. His free right hand moved rapidly, shooting out needle-like air currents that accurately flicked away those granular impurities.

Those tiny particles, trailing white thread-like smoke, disappeared like dust, invisible to the naked eye.

Watching Old Ancestor Yellow Springs refine the Starvation Tree fruit, Ye Kong’s hands got itchy too. He raised his left hand, silently recited the incantation, and a small fireball appeared in his palm.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs turned his head [Read on Jormuntl]to glance at him, said nothing, just snorted disdainfully, then turned his head back.

Without reaching the Golden Core stage, one couldn’t produce flames like Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’. This was also why one could only have a natal magical treasure at Golden Core – natal magical treasures all needed to be personally refined, and if you didn’t even have pill fire, how could you refine a natal magical treasure?

Ye Kong just didn’t believe in evil. Holding the small fireball in one hand, he beckoned toward a Starvation Tree fruit with the other hand. But what made Ye Kong lose face was that the fruit didn’t move.

“Damn it to hell.” Ye Kong stole a glance at Old Ancestor Yellow Springs and, seeing he wasn’t paying attention, recited the Object Control Technique incantation and beckoned again.

This time it moved. However, the fruit didn’t obediently stop above the small fireball. Instead, it came smashing toward Ye Kong’s face, leaving him flustered and scrambling.