He was a middle-aged warrior with thick eyebrows and fierce eyes, tall and imposing. His name was Feng Haopeng, and he was the current leader of the Feng family in Gusu, a practitioner at the early stage of the Tianyuan realm.
"Nephew Wang Yue, I pay my respects to Uncle Feng," Wang Yue said. He was not someone who lacked manners, nor was he arrogant just because his cultivation level was higher than Uncle Fengâs.
Feng Haopeng smiled and helped Wang Yue sit down, saying, "Itâs been several years since we last saw each other. Youâve grown so much and become so handsome. Itâs a pity youâre already engaged to the Chen family; otherwise, Uncle Feng would really like to have you as my son-in-law."
"Uncle Feng, youâre joking. How are Grandpa Feng and everyone else?" Wang Yue asked.
"They are all doing well. Come on, sit down and letâs talk," Feng Haopeng said, inviting Wang Yue into the living room. Suddenly, he sighed.
"Wang Yue, donât be too sad about what happened three years ago," Feng Haopeng said carefully, trying to comfort him. "As the saying goes, good people are always blessed by fate. Maybe this turn out to be a good thing. In the past, there have been warriors who got trapped in secret realms, and some stayed there for a long time. When they finally emerged, their cultivation levels had greatly improved. Maybe the same thing will happen to your father and the others."
"Thank you, Uncle Feng. Thatâs what weâre also thinking," Wang Yue said, though he wasnât really optimistic.
Indeed, in the past, there had been warriors who got trapped in secret realms and saw their cultivation levels increase significantly after coming out. But usually, such incidents lasted for at most ten or twenty days, or at most a year. However, the men from the three major families had been missing for three years already.
Moreover, Wang Yue, having memories from his previous life, knew that they would not appear again in three years.
Was it possible for someone to be trapped in a secret realm for six years or even longer?
Seeing that Wang Yue looked somewhat gloomy, Feng Haopeng changed the subject and asked, "Wang Yue, what interesting items has your Wang family prepared for this summit? Could you tell Uncle Feng in advance?"
This so-called Warriorsâ Summit was actually a gathering where the five leading families organized transactions and cooperation among various martial arts factions and independent practitioners from both cities.
During the event, in addition to seeking partners, many people would bring items that they or their backing forces didnât need and exchange them with others or sell them in the form of credit points.
As the initiators, the five major families usually took the lead and contributed many valuable items. These items might not mean much to the five families themselves, but they were extremely precious for those lower-ranked martial artistsâitems that even money couldnât buy.
Wang Yue knew that Feng Haopeng was just joking and trying to change the subject, so he also laughed and said, "I donât know about that. My grandmother prepared everything; it will be delivered this afternoon."
"Has your grandmother been well lately? After the summit is over, I must go and pay her a visit." Feng Haopeng truly admired these women from the three major families of Jinling. With the men all missing, these women had bravely managed to keep these three powerful families going, and their influence had not diminished in the slightest.
Among them, the ones he admired the most were Ling Xueyan from the Chen family, Su Mengyun from the Su family, and Liu Ruoshi from the Wang familyâthese three women who were the leaders of their respective families.
The first two were his peers and younger than him, so it wouldnât be appropriate to use the term "pay a visit" in their case. Only Liu Ruoshi deserved his personal attention.
As for the other two pillars of the three major families of JinlingâShen Siying from the Chen family and Chen Lingwei from the Su familyâalthough they were skilled, their abilities were not particularly outstanding, so they were considered second-in-command within their families.
As the leader of the Feng family of Gusu, it was acceptable and appropriate for Feng Haopeng to visit them privately in his capacity as a junior, but it would have been inappropriate to do so publicly.
While they were talking, someone suddenly burst in, shouting, "Brother Peng, has that kid Wang Yue arrived yet?"
The person in question looked to be in his thirties (well, we wonât mention his exact age, since itâs impossible to tell the true age of a martial artist just by looking at them). He wasnât particularly tall, just a bit taller than Wang Yue, but he was extremely muscular, almost like he had been built horizontally. He had a round, plump face with small eyes and a small nose, which made him look quite comical.
This personâs name was Bao Guo. If people didnât know who he was, they might think he was running some training class. In fact, he was the younger brother of the current leader of the Bao family of Gusu. After all, this was just a summit, and it was already a great honor for the two major families of Gusu to have their leaders attend in person. When the three major families of Jinling went to Gusu for such events, usually only one leader from each family would attend, with someone from the other two families accompanying them.
As soon as Bao Guo saw Wang Yue standing beside Feng Haopeng, he walked over quickly and gave Wang Yueâs shoulder a firm pat. "Little Wang Yue, right? Itâs been years since we last saw each other. Youâve grown taller, but youâre still a bit too thin. You really need to train harder and get stronger, okay?"
"Uncle Bao," Wang Yue said with a wry smile. After all these years, Uncle Bao was still the sameâso friendly with everyone and always bragging about his muscular build.
The Bao family was also a pure internal martial arts family that didnât use any external training methods. It was really unclear what purpose he had in making himself look so muscular.