Although Thomas Chu and Lydia Zhu already had a child together, the Zhu Family refused to acknowledge Thomas Chu’s status. In their eyes, his background was far too lowly to be worthy of Lydia Zhu.
The two were secretly brought back to Hongtian City. The Zhu Family didn’t harm Thomas Chu—instead, they assigned him a small courtyard to live in with the infant Evan Chu, but strictly confined him there, forbidding him to step outside for fear the secret would leak.
Thomas Chu took it in stride—raising his child while cultivating. As for Lydia Zhu, in the five years after arriving at the Zhu Family, he only saw her twice.
Later, by chance, Thomas Chu learned that Lydia Zhu was engaged to the Lesser Prince of Jin, and would marry him in half a year.
This news left him unsettled, but more than anything, heartbroken. He’d always hoped Lydia Zhu would change her mind, but now she was about to marry someone else—he’d waited all these years for nothing.
In the end, he requested to meet with Lydia Zhu one last time.
No one knows what they discussed during that meeting, but soon after, Lydia Zhu successfully married the Lesser Prince of Jin—now the Prince of Jin.
After Lydia Zhu’s marriage, Thomas Chu returned to Gracefield Town with Evan Chu, still under the Zhu Family’s watch.
From then on, he rarely left Gracefield Town—even so, the Zhu Family never relaxed their surveillance.
When the Zhu Family learned that Thomas Chu planned to go into seclusion and break through to Core Formation, they panicked.
They couldn’t allow Thomas Chu to become a Core Formation martial artist—too many unpredictable changes could arise. But the main reason was that the Prince of Jin might inherit the throne and become the next emperor of the Liang Dynasty.
If Lydia Zhu became empress, the Zhu Family would reap endless benefits.
Once Lydia Zhu became empress, the Zhu Family would profit immensely. That made Thomas Chu and Evan Chu’s existence a ticking time bomb—they absolutely couldn’t let Thomas Chu break through.
So, while Thomas Chu was in seclusion trying to reach Core Formation, he was ambushed by Zhu Family experts. The attack drove him mad, and a few days later, he died unwillingly.
Originally, they wanted to deal with Evan Chu as well, but Drake Chu ended up doing it for them—he crippled Evan Chu.
A cripple with a ruined dantian was no threat anymore. Given Drake Chu’s personality, the Zhu Family figured he’d eventually kill Evan Chu once the Chu clan stabilized, so they left it at that to avoid exposing themselves.
They also worried about Lydia Zhu’s reaction. Evan Chu was her biological son—even if she’d never acknowledged or cared about him, if she ever grew resentful toward the Zhu Family, it could backfire badly.
Later, Ian Song replaced Evan Chu, reclaimed the Chu Family, and began investigating Thomas Chu’s death.
That was when the Zhu Family started to panic, leading to everything that followed.
But in the midst of all this, the people from Myriad Flower Valley appeared.
Because of this, the Zhu Family couldn’t act freely. They struck a deal with the masked girl: as long as Ian Song returned to Gracefield Town within three days and stopped investigating Thomas Chu’s death, they’d spare his life.
As for why Myriad Flower Valley sent the masked girl to protect him, even Victor Zhu didn’t know—there were probably other secrets involved.
The System’s mission was ‘avenge your father,’ and the mastermind was Gavin Zhu, patriarch of the Zhu Family. Judging by the System’s usual style, Ian probably had to kill Gavin Zhu to complete the task.
But Gavin Zhu was a Sun-Soul Realm expert.
The Transcendence Realm is split into Body-Tempering, Divine Strength, and Divine Sea; the Divine Ability Realm is split into Core Formation, Sigilforge, and Sun-Soul.
Core Formation is equivalent to Golden Core in immortal cultivation, Sigilforge matches Nascent Soul, and Sun-Soul is like out-of-body primordial spirit.
If Ian Song’s cultivation and primordial spirit weren’t sealed, killing a Sun-Soul martial artist would be easier than squashing an ant.
But right now, killing a Sun-Soul expert was anything but easy.
“So what should I do next? Should I just go straight to Hongtian City and kill Gavin Zhu?”
But even though his formation skills were impressive, his low cultivation meant he couldn’t set up many powerful arrays.
So, he decided to focus on raising his cultivation first.
But the Profound Heaven Manual Thomas Chu left behind could only help him reach Core Formation—the power was just too limited.
“Maybe I should switch to cultivating immortal-path techniques?”
With his experience, the Divine Temple cheat, and a ton of resources, he could probably rebuild to Golden Core or even Nascent Soul in no time.
But then he figured the System must have sealed his cultivation and primordial spirit for a reason—most likely to make him walk this world’s martial path.
After a bit of thought, Ian decided to find a much stronger martial cultivation technique to train.
Martial techniques have grades too: Mortal-Grade, King-Grade, Emperor-Grade, Saint/Immortal-Grade, and Divine-Grade.
The Profound Heaven Manual is just a peak Mortal-Grade technique—a bit stronger than the Chu Family’s standard art, but not by much.
Cultivation techniques are like engines—the higher the grade, the more explosive the power.
The next day.
Ian Song wandered around the city with Chloe Snow again, mostly visiting shops that sold martial arts manuals.
After checking out dozens of stores, Ian was disappointed.
All the shops only sold Mortal-Grade techniques—a few peak Mortal-Grade manuals, but none were better than the Profound Heaven Manual he already cultivated.
“What’s wrong? Trying to buy a higher-grade technique?”
The masked girl blocked Ian Song’s way once again.
“Yeah, got any good suggestions?” Ian asked with a smile.
The masked girl scoffed, “Idiot! How could advanced techniques ever be for sale? Take my advice and drop the idea—unless…?”
“Unless what?” Ian pressed.
The masked girl deliberately stayed silent, giving Ian a teasing look—like she was saying, ‘Beg me, and I’ll tell you!’
“Heh.”
Ian just smiled. He wasn’t some clueless rookie—he’d traveled through multiple worlds. The masked girl’s hint made it obvious: to learn high-grade techniques, you usually had to join a sect or a force that controlled them.
So, he took Chloe and headed straight to the inn.
The masked girl was briefly stunned, wondering what Ian was up to—did he really not care to know?
Back at the inn, Ian directly summoned the innkeeper and asked bluntly, “I want to find an advanced technique—got any good suggestions?”
The innkeeper replied, “Sir, you have two choices if you want to learn advanced techniques: either go to a big city and spend a fortune to buy one, or join a major martial sect or influential force.”
The innkeeper’s answer confirmed Ian’s guess. He continued, “Are there any major sects nearby?”
The innkeeper said, “Yes. About five hundred li from Maplecloud City there’s a mountain called Red Sun Mountain, home to the Scarlet Flame Sect—the biggest sect within two thousand li. Supposedly, Sun-Soul experts sit in town there!”