"good."

Seeing that Ye Feng had rejected him, Lu Hanjian was neither disappointed nor angry. He smiled and turned to leave.

Wang Zongde then said, "Young Master Gong, don't listen to that guy's nonsense. Zhongshan Hall's motto is loyalty, kindness, benevolence, and righteousness. It's much better than those merchants from Xinyou Hall."

"No need to explain, I'll know once I go and see," Ye Feng said calmly.

Ye Feng and Wang Zongde left the mine together and flew towards Crane King City.

However, Ye Feng and Wang Zongde did not fly directly to Zhongshan Hall. Instead, they landed in the air when they reached that area and walked there.

As they walked, Ye Feng asked, "Tell me about what happened back then, and about Zhongshan Hall."

Wang Zongde immediately launched into a long and detailed explanation.

It turns out that Wang Zongde was once a disciple of a small sect in the inland region, but only an ordinary outer disciple. One of his senior brothers stole rare and precious materials from the sect for cultivation, and as a result, the matter was exposed.

The sect elders personally investigated, and seeing that the guy couldn't escape, they pushed Wang Zongde out to take the blame.

"Are you really willing to take the blame for your senior brother?" Ye Feng asked.

Wang Zongde said, "There's no other way. That senior brother was kind to me. If I take the blame for him once, I'll repay his kindness and won't owe him anything anymore."

Night Breeze didn't offer much comment, only nodding and saying, "Go on."

After Wang Zongde spoke up on behalf of his senior brother, he was expelled from the sect and exiled to the Ten Absolute Islands.

Once Wang Zongde arrived at Shijue Island, he joined Zhongshan Hall. He worked in the mine for a few years before discovering a miraculous herb in the mountains.

"Tell me in detail about the medicinal herb you discovered," Ye Feng said, his expression quite serious.

Wang Zongde then described the medicinal herb in detail.

Ye Feng said with certainty, "There's no mistake, the spiritual herb you found is the Seven Treasures Purple Ganoderma, an extremely rare spiritual herb that can be used to refine a seventh-grade spiritual pill."

"What? So precious?" Wang Zongde was taken aback.

"Did you eat that medicinal herb?" Ye Feng asked again.

If Wang Zongde actually ate it, it would be such a waste.

Wang Zongde shook his head and said, "No, I didn't eat it. I don't know anything about medicinal herbs, and I don't recognize what it is. I just thought it was a treasure, so I took it back to offer to the head of Zhongshan Hall."

"The sect leader must have rewarded you, right?" Ye Feng laughed.

"The hall master rewarded me with a Heavenly Abundance Pill," Wang Zongde replied, a complex expression on his face.

The night breeze suddenly stopped.

Tianfeng Pill is only a second-grade spiritual pill, which has the effect of strengthening true qi.

The value of the Seven Treasures Purple Ganoderma is enough to exchange for a ton of Tianfeng Pills!

It seems that Lu Hanjian's statement that the people of Zhongshantang are all hypocrites is indeed somewhat true.

The head of Zhongshantang exchanged a single, ordinary Tianfeng Pill for the priceless Seven Treasures Purple Ganoderma from Wang Zongde.

This is simply... indescribable!

Wang Zongde was originally quite grateful to Zhongshantang, after all, he had received a lot of protection from Zhongshantang and felt that Zhongshantang had treated him very well.

Now that he understood the value of the Seven Treasures Purple Ganoderma, Wang Zongde felt as disgusted as if he had swallowed a fly!

Without thinking any further, Wang Zongde shook his head, skipped that part, and continued, "Later, I encountered the demons invading the inner city of Ten Absolutes Island, so I was called up to join the army. On the battlefield, I happened to save a general. That general was named Zhou Yingjie. I don't know if he is still on Ten Absolutes Island now."

"Later, it was with Zhou Yingjie's help that I was able to return to the mainland. I just never expected that after twenty years, I would come back to Shijue Island."

There are two ways for martial artists on Ten Absolutes Island to leave the island and return to the mainland.

The first option is to return by cloud boat.

The second option is to fly back on your own.

Returning to the mainland by cloud boat is a slim hope, because the cloud boat came from the mainland full of prisoners, but returned from Ten Absolute Island full of goods, which are the various mineral products of Ten Absolute Island, all of which are good materials for refining weapons.

Therefore, the cloud boats returning inland can only carry a limited number of people; each cloud boat returning inland can carry no more than ten people.

It's easy to imagine how difficult it would be to return to the mainland by taking a cloud boat!

If Wang Zongde hadn't saved the general named Zhou Yingjie on the battlefield, he would never have been able to return on the cloud boat.

As for flying back to the mainland, those without the strength of a True Essence Realm martial artist should not even think about it!

The straight-line distance from Ten Absolute Islands to the mainland is more than 35,000 miles. The various monsters living in the vast ocean make it impossible for martial artists to even land on the sea to rest!

To fly back to the mainland without stopping, one must be at least a True Essence Realm martial artist, and also have a large number of elixirs to replenish true energy!

As they were talking, they arrived at Zhongshan Hall.

Looking at the imposing and luxurious plaque at the entrance of Zhongshan Hall, Wang Zongde suddenly felt that the four large, flamboyant characters "Loyalty, Kindness, Benevolence, and Righteousness" were somewhat glaring.

Wang Zongde took out the token of Zhongshan Hall and showed it to the guard, then prepared to take Ye Feng inside.

Just then, a burly man with hair as thick as steel needles strode out from inside.

Upon seeing Wang Zongde, the burly man paused for a moment, then burst into laughter: "Wang Zongde, it's you! You lucky bastard, didn't you take a boat back to the mainland? What are you doing back on Shijue Island?"

“Master Chen, I encountered some trouble in the inland areas and had no choice but to return here to make a living,” Wang Zongde said with a smile.

Then Wang Zongde introduced Ye Feng: "Young Master Gong, this is Chen Honglong, one of the five leaders of Zhongshan Hall. I used to beg for food under him."

"Hello," Ye Feng said calmly.

Chen Honglong immediately looked towards Ye Feng.

However, after scrutinizing Ye Feng from head to toe for a long time, Chen Honglong still couldn't see anything special about Ye Feng. He couldn't even sense the slightest fluctuation of true energy from Ye Feng.

So Chen Honglong treated Ye Feng as an ordinary little person.

He ignored him completely, turned to Wang Zongde and said, "Wang Zongde, now that you're back on Ten Absolute Island, do you still want to work under me? If you do, I can let you... wait, what's your current cultivation level?"

"Early stage of True Essence Realm," Wang Zongde replied.

"What? Twenty years have passed, and you've actually reached the early stage of the True Yuan Realm!" Chen Honglong exclaimed in surprise.

Back then, Chen Honglong was in the mid-stage of the True Yuan Realm, while Wang Zongde was just a minor martial artist in the Opening Yuan Realm.

Twenty years have passed, and he has only advanced from the mid-stage of the True Yuan Realm to the late-stage of the True Yuan Realm, while Wang Zongde has grown to the early-stage of the True Yuan Realm and is now qualified to talk to him!

How could this not shock him!

Wang Zongde didn't even ask Chen Honglong what job he wanted him to do under him; he had no intention of returning to Zhongshan Hall.