Guess who wasn't invited?

The next day at noon, Chen Lu lingered outside the Wang family's estate, pondering who should lead him inside.

He had to stay in the library for two consecutive days. Whoever brought him in had to take him out, but there weren't many members of the royal family living in the royal estate.

It's not that we can't afford a house, but our clan's home is far from the market town, and we work in the market town, so traveling back and forth is too troublesome.

People usually only come back during festivals to celebrate; most of the residents here are elderly people.

Chen Lu did not have a good relationship with them; they only talked about meaningless principles, which annoyed him.

"Hey~, Brother Lu!"

Suddenly, a woman with a dignified demeanor emerged from the village. Her hair was styled in a bun, and she appeared quite relaxed.

"Huh? Ah Ning!"

Chen Lu's face lit up with joy. After searching for half the morning, he finally saw an acquaintance.

The visitor was Wang Shengning, the eldest daughter of the Third Escort, who was about the same age as him and had average talent and cultivation.

When they first joined the escort team, the third escort leader intended to match them up.

Chen Lu, full of vitality, couldn't help but feel his heart flutter when he saw her.

After several years, Chen Lu was shocked to discover that his romantic relationship was slowing down his cultivation.

So, he hardened his heart and resolutely broke up with him. The cultivation world was so vast; he didn't want to be confined to Maple Forest Lane for the rest of his life.

Wang Shengning was heartbroken when she found out, and almost did something terrible.

The third镖头 (head of the镖师) was so angry that he almost beat him to death. Only after the third镖师 solemnly assured him that he was truly devoted to cultivation and did not want to delay Wang Shengning's future did he put his mind at ease.

Later, the family arranged for another member of the Wang family to join them. He was of average appearance but had decent talent. Under pressure, the family had no choice but to agree.

When the wedding took place, everyone in the caravan went to celebrate. Apart from the groom being somewhat unhappy to see him, there was almost no commotion.

After marriage, she received a lot of resources and seems to be managing some of the family's businesses.

"A-Ning, what are you doing in the clan's territory?"

Chen Lu deliberately kept his distance and spoke loudly so that the old people who had been watching him all morning wouldn't misunderstand.

"We just had a baby boy in the family, and I'm currently in postpartum confinement at home."

I overheard the old folks outside the courtyard talking, saying that you've been looking here all morning, but no one is willing to take you in.

"I had nothing better to do anyway, so I thought I'd stop by and take a look."

Wang Shengning smiled gently, approached Chen Lu, and kindly prepared to pull him inside.

"Come on, let me show you around~."

Chen Lu was so startled that he quickly shrank back and waved his hands repeatedly.

"I have other things to attend to right now. I'll make sure to get together with your family another time, and I'll definitely give you a nice gift then!"

"Hey! Dad! What brings you here?"

Wang Shengning suddenly looked behind him and greeted him with a surprised expression.

Chen Lu panicked and quickly looked back, but there was nothing there, not a soul in sight.

Before he could react, his arm was already being embraced by a soft, warm embrace.

Chen Lu was so startled that he quickly pulled his hand away, but then he saw a slightly mischievous glint in her eyes, and her lively appearance made him lose his composure.

Then, his expression turned cold, and he roughly pulled his hand away.

"Wang Shengning, you can speak your mind directly. The Third Escort will definitely take care of it for you."

Wang Shengning pouted, somewhat dissatisfied, but then smiled again.

"Okay, okay, I won't tease you anymore." She then looked towards the back of the courtyard wall not far away.

"Honey, are you satisfied now? You had to come up with such a crooked idea, and now we can't even be friends anymore."

As soon as he finished speaking, a man with a slightly broad build and short stature walked out from behind the courtyard wall.

Chen Lu had previously felt that someone was watching him from behind the courtyard wall.

But such gazes were commonplace in the Wang family's territory; even when they needed to use the outhouse, these gazes never disappeared.

"Brother Lu, I have made this foolish decision; it was a folly of my mind. I hope you will forgive me," said A Ning's husband apologetically.

Chen Lu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling fortunate:

"Thank goodness, thank goodness, my Dao heart was cleared up enough last night, and my mind is now completely clear."

But outwardly, he remained cold, and his words were full of rejection:

"If you're here today just to test if you still have feelings for someone from the past, I can tell you definitively, no."

My cultivation schedule is very tight; I have neither the mind nor the time to be as idle and carefree as you two.

Chen Lu began to curse this damn rule in his heart.

He was left standing there in such an awkward position; if he left, his trip would have been for nothing. But he couldn't get in either, leaving him in a dilemma, staring at each other helplessly.

A Ning's husband smiled and shook his head, explaining:

"Yesterday at noon, the family notified us that there would be a small meeting. I happened to be taking care of A-Ning at the ancestral home, so I went to check it out."

Some people say that you captured the remnants of the Yuansheng Clan alive, thus saving the family from considerable losses.

The elders praised you highly and rewarded you with many things, which made us all extremely envious.

I heard you were already waiting outside an hour before the meeting.

After lunch, I heard you were still there, so I thought I'd come and see if it was really as good as the elders said.

A sudden surge of rage welled up in Chen Lu's heart.

The curfew had just been lifted, and it was still dark when I rushed over, hoping to run into someone I knew as soon as possible and get into the Scripture Pavilion to begin my cultivation.

As a result, after searching for three whole hours, the acquaintances were either not there or were busy.

So it turns out he went to do this kind of thing.

He was supposed to be rewarding himself at the meeting, but he didn't receive a single message.

It seems the meeting ended a long time ago, and he still doesn't know anything.

But considering his purpose for today, he gave up on arguing about it.

After exchanging some perfunctory pleasantries, he was finally allowed in.

After registering his visit at the entrance of the clan's residence, Wang Shengning and his wife led him all the way to the Sutra Repository.

As for why he came here, neither of them asked any further questions.

For monks, this is one of the most important secrets, almost as important as their lives.

The couple will be here often during this period.

In particular, Ah Ning, in order to take care of the child, would not leave the clan's territory and return to the market to continue working until he could walk on his own, and this period of time was almost exactly one year.

After agreeing on a time to leave, the two departed.

Wang Shengning secretly turned around and looked at him a few times with some reluctance, her red lips slightly parted as if she was saying something.

Chen Lu pretended not to see it and turned to enter the library.

As soon as I approached the gate, before I could even ask for permission, the two lynxes hiding behind the gate pushed the door open with their heads, and then sat back down on either side of the gate.

Resisting the urge to reach out and touch it, he went inside.

He had seen the two civets countless times, and sometimes he thought he was familiar enough with them, so he reached out to touch them.

As a result, he had to lie in bed for several days and was laughed at for a long time.

I later learned that the area by the door was their designated resting area, while the passageway in the center was where outsiders walked.

To them, your approach is seen as a blatant provocation.

If you can beat them, feel free to touch them; if you can't, forget about it. They're both at the same cultivation level, both at the peak of Qi Refining.

The Elder of Transmission appeared on the first floor, seemingly waiting for him.

"Chen Lu, you weren't invited to the family meeting. You don't have any complaints, do you?"

Chen Lu quickly bowed and said respectfully, "This junior is only focused on cultivation and dares not take credit for my own duties."

My family has treated me with boundless kindness, and I will never harbor the slightest resentment.

The Elder nodded slightly, touched his storage bag, and saw a pile of neatly arranged medicine packets in front of him.

"The other elders wanted to give me some nice-looking but useless things, but I refused."

From the family treasury, we've prepared sixty sets of top-grade elixirs for your chosen secret technique, enough for you to successfully begin practicing.

Chen Lu's joy this time was genuine.

Just when he was worrying about how he would afford such a large expense, Elder Chuanjing thoughtfully solved the problem for him.

Even if there were plans to help him master the skill as soon as possible so that he could become famous quickly, that would still be at least half a year from now.

According to calculations, the actual time I spent practicing was less than a year.

Half of his time was spent on escorting the guards, and the remaining half of the six months was devoted to practicing alchemy.

In other words, he only practiced "Sharp Metal Sword Finger" for 3 months.

A total of thirty doses of secret medicine are needed, each dose containing approximately forty lower-level spirit pills, for a total of one thousand two hundred lower-level spirit pills.