Chapter 105 False Benevolence:

Rong Xie raised his head and looked at the woman in the main seat.

He had never met this person before, yet this person said he looked "familiar." It seemed that this person had already met him privately when he first came here.

Rong Xie thought of the old woman who suddenly appeared without saying a word. Lu Yinglin said that the old woman was sent by the head of the family to secretly observe him. The head of the family strictly controlled the social interactions of the Lu family members. In this light, it is very likely that the old woman was sent by this woman.

The woman sat beside the old man, acting as a bridge between him and others, given his communication difficulties. She conveyed all of the old man's intentions, which gave her considerable power. Judging from the Lu family's respectful attitude towards her, she was probably the one in actual power.

However, none of these things surprised Rong Xie the most. What surprised him the most was that the woman's voice and appearance had an indescribable awkwardness, as if... she were a man!

“This is Madam Mei,” Lu Yingqi’s voice rang in Rong Xie’s ear, he used telepathy to communicate with her, “She is the old master’s second wife, and she is in charge of all the family affairs.”

Rong Xie suppressed the urge to ask Madam Mei if she was a man, and bowed to her: "Greetings, Madam Mei. What you say is true. I came here with Lu Yinglin before."

"Hehe, young man, you have quite the skills. You've managed to befriend both of my young masters, the Qilin." Madam Mei laughed, her words laced with sarcasm. "The two of them have been at odds for over ten years. The family has tried to reconcile them, but to no avail. Yet you can manage to come to this one today and that one tomorrow. Truly impressive. It seems our two young masters will have to rely on you to mediate between them."

"I wouldn't dare." Rong Xie sensed Madam Mei's hostility. "I only met you two by chance. We can't be considered friends. As for the events of ten years ago, they have nothing to do with me. I'm not in a position to say anything about things I wasn't involved in."

"Ha, young man, you certainly have a sharp tongue," Madam Mei's smile turned cold. "May I ask your name and ancestral home?"

"Rong Xie," Rong Xie replied. He knew that these people had already investigated him thoroughly. They were just being mysterious and saying these things because they didn't like him and wanted to give him a hard time. "I currently live near Shengjing, and my household registration is also there."

"Oh? I've heard that you're the adopted child of our old neighbor, the Shen family, and the servant of the famous demon-slaying swordsman, Shen Bingsi?" Madam Mei revealed Rong Xie's background as expected. "But I wonder why the swordsman Shen's servant wants to befriend our young master Qilin and get involved in our Lu family's affairs?"

“Madam Mei knows more than I do,” Rong Xie smiled. “I didn’t even know when I became Shen Bing Si’s page.”

"What's the difference? You don't actually think you're the young master of the Shen family, do you?" Madam Mei laughed sarcastically.

"That's not necessarily true. Besides the young master and his servants, the Shen family also has ordinary people," Rong Xie said dismissively.

Madam Mei frowned, her thick, dark eyebrows furrowing. This exchange had not yielded the desired effect. Just as she was about to speak again, the old man coughed incoherently, making "ah" sounds.

A flash of disgust crossed Madam Mei's eyes, but she quickly put on a smile again, turned her head, leaned close to the old man's mouth, listened to him speak, and nodded occasionally. Then she leaned close to the old man's ear and said, "I know, Little Mei is just concerned about Young Master Qi's friend, not some irrelevant bystander."

After the old master spoke, Madam Mei stopped bringing up Rong Xie and turned her attention to Lu Yingqi with a smile on her face.

Rong Xie could finally breathe a sigh of relief; he felt extremely uncomfortable talking to this male concubine.

Compared to Rong Xie, Lu Yingqi showed no sign of disgust, remaining as cold as ever. In response to Madam Mei's warm and enthusiastic concern, the two exchanged a few words, and Madam Mei began to arrange for servants to attend to Lu Yingqi in his courtyard, while also arranging for Rong Xie to stay in a guest room far away from Lu Yingqi's courtyard.

Rong Xie didn't care. The farther he was from Lu Yingqi, the easier it would be for him to act in private. He had already observed that the people the Lu family left in the main residence were all ordinary people without any cultivation. The old master did have some cultivation, but it was on the verge of exhaustion. Madam Mei also had cultivation, but she had not yet reached the Foundation Establishment stage. Judging from her aged appearance, she could only have the power of the third or fourth level of Qi Refining at most. Rong Xie was still in his prime, with a cultivation approaching the tenth level of Qi Refining. Even if he faced her head-on, he would not be afraid at all.

However, Lu Yingqi had a different plan.

“Madam Mei, there’s no need for arrangements. We won’t stay here. We’ll go back once we’ve clarified things,” Lu Yingqi said.

Lu Yingqi's words shocked the Lu family and Rong Xie.

I traveled all this way back, but I can't even stay here. No, this isn't what I expected.

"Ying Qi, why are you leaving so soon?"

"I only come back once every ten years, I can't just leave like this!"

"The other families are hoping you'll come over there, to meet them, and have a chat..."

"And the younger ones are all waiting outside, eager to hear you talk about the Xuan Tian Sect. Sigh, you can't leave!"

The Lu family immediately surrounded Lu Yingqi, while Rong Xie secretly cheered them on from the outside.

Lu Yingqi seemed somewhat troubled.

The Lu family was even more eager to keep Lu Yingqi here.

Lu Yingqi's face darkened, and he released a silencing spell, which abruptly stopped the Lu family's discussions. Everyone looked at each other helplessly, as if their mouths were clamped shut.

“I came back for this one thing, and I told you all in advance,” Lu Yingqi said. “If you all want to chat and catch up, you can do so another day. I have no such plans this time.”

The Lu family had no choice but to watch helplessly.

Rong Xie was secretly disappointed. He hadn't expected that even his relatives couldn't keep Lu Yingqi. As expected of a powerful figure from the Ruthless Path, he could leave without staying overnight even after returning home. It seemed that he would have to think of a way to keep Lu Yingqi until the treasure-hunting team arrived tomorrow.

Lu Yingqi parted the relatives and looked at the old master. After a moment, he turned his gaze to Madam Mei: "Madam Mei, I came back for the matter of the servant boy. Please give up your control over the servant boy."

Lu Yingqi got straight to the point, stating his demands directly, which shocked the Lu family members present. They immediately made "uh-huh" sounds, wanting to express their opinions, but their mouths were sealed by a gagging spell, and they could not speak.

Rong Xie was also taken aback, not expecting Lu Yingqi to say it so directly. He immediately looked at Madam Mei and the old master.

The old man remained incoherent, his mouth slightly open, leaning back in his chair, showing no reaction to Lu Yingqi's words.

Madam Mei's hand trembled slightly as she held the teacup. She put the teacup down and said slowly, "So that's what it is. You could have just written back to ask. Why did you have to travel all this way back to ask? We could have explained it more clearly in the letter. Why hurt our relationship in person?"

"..." Lu Yingqi stared at Madam Mei, "I wrote a letter, but it was useless."

"You wrote it? Oh, right, I forgot. That letter was written a long time ago, wasn't it? I wasn't in charge then. The reply should have been from the old master. The old master's reply must have explained things more clearly than mine. Why does Young Master Qi need to ask again?"

Rong Xie, who was listening nearby, was secretly shocked. Lu Yingqi had actually written a letter home about this matter? Such an important matter, Lu Yingqi hadn't even told Xiao Zhi. Xiao Zhi thought that Lu Yingqi didn't know anything about the servant boy, but now it seemed that Lu Yingqi probably knew just as much as Xiao Zhi.

If a letter had been written, things would make sense. Lu Yingqi wasn't cold-blooded and unwilling to help; rather, he already knew Xiao Ya was beyond saving and didn't believe anything Lu Yinglin could do to save her, so he refused Lu Yinglin's offer...

However, Lu Yingqi did not tell anyone about the reply he received after writing home to inquire about the servant boy, not even Xiaozhi. This is why Lu Yinglin mistakenly believed that he had abandoned him in his time of need.

The preconceived notions that Lu Yingqi had left in Rong Xie's mind were gradually loosening.

“I did receive a reply, and I acknowledge the response. But times have changed. Now that I have established myself in the Xuantian Sect, I have my own ways of taking care of any Lu family members who come to the sect. There is no need for my family to train servants for them anymore,” Lu Yingqi said in a deep voice.

Upon hearing this, Madam Mei's thick, dark eyebrows twitched, and her smile became somewhat stiff: "Young Master, you are currently Elder Bai's favorite, but you alone cannot possibly take care of all the Lu family's disciples. Even if you could, what about the Lu family disciples who have gone to other sects? No matter how capable you are, you can't extend your reach to the Liujin Sect and the Lingjing Sect."

“Then we should do what other aristocratic families do: recruit children with spiritual roots to serve as servants, instead of abducting other families’ children and turning them into servants,” Lu Yingqi said.

“Young Master, our Lu family can’t compare with those aristocratic families. We are just a small family in a remote corner. It is thanks to this spiritual spring well that we have an advantage over the aristocratic families in training servants. If we give up this advantage, how can our Lu family train such an outstanding ruthless sword cultivator as you?”

Madam Mei also spoke eloquently, delivering a long speech that sounded entirely in the best interests of the Lu family. She was also subtly implying that Lu Yingqi would not have risen to his current position if he hadn't been a modified pageboy.

“Then we should let them reunite with their families, cut off the control over them, and give them the choice to leave or stay,” Lu Yingqi said.

Although Lu Yingqi didn't say much, every word he uttered hit the nail on the head. At this moment, Rong Xie began to believe that he was genuinely prepared to resolve the problem.

“Young Master Qi, you are kind-hearted, but have you ever thought about the impact this will have on your family? Our Lu family is just a small family. How can we have the financial resources and energy to raise some cultivation talents for others for free, and then send them away freely when they grow up? Even the Shanxin Hall is not that generous.”

Madam Mei chuckled, her voice filled with disdain. She looked at Lu Yingqi as if he were a pampered young master who seemed untouched by worldly affairs.

"Furthermore, those children were unwanted to begin with. Did their families not know what they would face when they sent them here? Or did they send them here because they didn't want them? Unwanted children would freeze or starve to death if left outside. We took them in and raised them with care, which is clearly a good deed, but the young master won't let us do such good deeds anymore!"

"Young Master, do you know how many children in the surrounding villages will die silently because of your careless words? They will die in chamber pots, ditches, and ravines... The families of those children could have had hope before, but now they can't even have that anymore. Is Young Master really doing this to accumulate good karma, or is it just to make yourself feel better?"

Lu Yingqi closed his eyes, seemingly speechless.

When Madam Mei got excited earlier, she walked up to Lu Yingqi, waving her handkerchief as she talked on and on. Only when she saw that Lu Yingqi had nothing to say did she turn away, satisfied.

Just as he was about to return to his seat, another clear and gentle voice suddenly came from behind him:

"Since that's the case, it's fine to raise them as proper pageboys. Why bother teaching them the art of dual cultivation?"

"I'm not quite sure whether your family is training pageboys or something else. Young Master Lu Yinglin told me about Xiao Ya. It seems that Xiao Ya knew about this kind of thing very early on. He grew up in the Lu family since he was a child, so he probably didn't have any other opportunities to learn about dual cultivation. He certainly wouldn't have suggested dual cultivation to Lu Yinglin when he encountered a bottleneck in his cultivation. I'm sure Madam Mei knows very well why Xiao Ya knows these things."

Madam Mei's expression darkened, and the smile on her face vanished abruptly.