Immortality and cultivation begin at age forty, starting with Foundation Establishment.

The Golden Core Elder Chen Ying, who was leading the team, had a prejudice against Chen An, and several Song family elders who were with Chen Ying knew this.

The elders of the Song family believed that after Ye Hongyi refused to become their disciple, Chen Ying blamed Chen An for not being able to accept a disciple.

No matter how the elders of the Song family tried to persuade Chen Ying, they couldn't change her opinion of Chen An.

Ye Hongyi possesses a Heavenly Spiritual Root. If she were to be accepted as a disciple by Chen Ying, it would actually become a problem for the Song family.

The Song family is not qualified to cultivate two non-family cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots at the same time. Such a practice is too ostentatious and does not conform to the inheritance interests of the direct and collateral branches of the sect.

This is an unwritten rule of the direct lineage of the Xuan Yang Sect. It is also to ensure that during the inheritance of the Golden Core family, the pattern will not be affected by outsiders and spread to the entire sect.

Chen Ying's Daoist partner, Song Qi, the patriarch of the Song family, has already reached the peak of the Golden Core stage. He only needs to wait for an opportunity to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. After refining Chen Ying's Yin energy and with the help of elixirs, he has a high probability of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.

At that time, the Song family will leap to become a Nascent Soul family within the sect, gaining greater influence and enjoying more resources.

At this critical moment, the Song family will not allow any accidents to happen to Chen Ying.

If it weren't for the fact that some of the sect's resources were used to help Chen Ying quickly break through to the Golden Core stage, Chen Ying wouldn't even have needed to participate in this war.

Fortunately, the Song family had enough Golden Core cultivators to directly offset the risks Chen Ying had to take, which led to Chen Ying's life of living off the border.

Chen Ying leaned against the carved railing, her fingers unconsciously tracing the cloud patterns on it. The sky outside the window was pressed down low by the gloomy atmosphere.

A blood-scented wind from afar swept up a withered leaf, lashing against the window of a small courtyard with green tiles not far away. Before the leaf could fall, it was swept away by a divine sense.

Chen Ying's gaze seemed to be fixed on the rolling dark clouds in the distance, but her pupils were unfocused. What she saw in her eyes was not the grayness of the sky, but a clear picture.

After arriving on the battlefield, Chen Ying specifically studied the art of divine sense in order to find the demonic cultivators. Now, her divine sense can not only search for the location of the enemy, but also break through the barrier spells cast by some Foundation Establishment cultivators, and explore the situation inside the barrier without disturbing the other party.

In the courtyard with its blue-tiled roof, an invisible divine consciousness pierced through the room's barrier and landed in a corner of the room.

There were four elders of the Song family in the room. They were all Song family cultivators who had advised Chen Ying and helped her earn more resources. They were also people sent by the Song family to monitor Chen Ying.

"They're all surnamed Chen, maybe they were family thousands of years ago. I don't know what got into Aunt Chen Ying, she had to target that brat Chen An."

"Who can argue with that? The Yu family and my Song family have been on good terms for generations. The Yu family put Chen An in our team because they believe we can protect him and help Pei Yao obtain the Foundation Establishment Pill. However, Martial Aunt Chen Ying has been targeting Chen An, which makes things very difficult."

"If anything goes wrong with this, we old folks will have to make up for Yu Peiyao's Foundation Establishment Pill. Otherwise, the Yu family will definitely think that we deliberately prevented Chen An from gaining merit, rather than that Martial Aunt Chen Ying was obstructing him."

"What kind of nonsense is this? I don't have any Foundation Establishment Pills. I still haven't found the Foundation Establishment Pills for my grandsons. What kind of nonsense is it to give them to others?"

"No, I think we must talk to Martial Aunt Chen Ying and make things clear. We must send more Foundation Establishment cultivators to the Demon Wolf Legion. Otherwise, they can't earn enough merits on their own. If we really have to give them Foundation Establishment Pills, the younger generation in the clan will curse us to death."

"The four of us are following Martial Aunt Chen Ying to earn battle merits, and we absolutely cannot watch Martial Aunt Chen Ying mess things up. We must talk to Martial Aunt Chen Ying about this matter."

Hearing the anxious looks of the four Song family elders, Chen Ying's eyes lit up. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand to stop herself from laughing out loud, her shoulders trembling slightly as she suppressed her laughter.

"You old geezer, always wearing that stern face, you think you're so great!"

"I'm targeting Chen An, let's see what you can do about it. What does your lack of Foundation Establishment Pills have to do with me? You're following me and trying to control me, you deserve to suffer."

"That old bastard Song Qi is so polite to me. Who do you think you are, trying to control my thoughts?"

"Chen An, you can't blame me for your bad luck. If I'm unhappy, none of you will have an easy time either."

In private, Chen Ying is not the senior that outsiders see. Apart from her cultivation level, she is actually just a girl who has been in seclusion for many years and has never seen the world.

Chen Ying's actions were no different from those of a young girl in her late teens, and there was nothing out of place about them.

Like other teenage girls in their rebellious phase, dissatisfied with being controlled but afraid to break free from their families, all she could do was play pranks on such trivial matters.

The secret joy that follows mischief is the only pleasure in her life.

Although her Heavenly Spiritual Root was strong, Chen Ying knew even more clearly that the Song family's foundation was something she couldn't contend with, not to mention that the Song family had the entire Nascent Soul sect standing behind them.

If she had a second or third spiritual root, she might have had a chance to escape, but she has a heavenly spiritual root, so she can never escape, and neither can her family.

The story of a genius protagonist seeking revenge for his family is unlikely to happen in the real world. This world is not lacking in geniuses, but I have never seen any genius who could destroy a Nascent Soul sect with a history of more than ten thousand years.

The story of a rogue cultivator rising to become a top expert is just a dream that rogue cultivators have before they die.

Chen Ying could not break free from her own restrictions, nor could she watch her family be destroyed. Even though her family had betrayed her, she still felt a strong sense of belonging to them.

The ideas instilled in her by the Jin Dan family had deeply penetrated her heart, and she had even accepted the fate of becoming a furnace for powerful beings.

The ending is good for everyone.

The Song family rose to prominence and became a Nascent Soul family.

The Chen family has offered up their Heavenly Spiritual Root, and will become a Golden Core family.

Chen Ying will become the Daoist partner of a Nascent Soul cultivator, formally integrating into the Song family and receiving more support from family resources.

This kind of ending doesn't seem so unacceptable.

As for Chen An...

Chen Ying was initially envious.

The investigation revealed that Chen An had a remarkably clear resume.

Chen An's rise to prominence was not without precedent. He was known for his daring during the Qi Refining stage. While other disciples were unwilling to leave the sect to do missions, he did missions for many years in a row, honing his skills in killing.

The most famous battle was when he killed a demonic cultivator in the Qi Refining stage who was wielding the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. At that time, the demonic cultivator was two minor realms higher than Chen An and was known as a ferocious monster among rogue cultivators.

Chen An won. He didn't keep the incredibly powerful Ten Thousand Souls Banner for himself, but sold it to the sect.

Several Foundation Establishment cultivators wanted to take Chen An as their disciple, but they couldn't reach an agreement because Chen An had already decided to venture into the Trial Grounds.

The Foundation Establishment family can't help Chen An; on the contrary, they will limit his future.

The more Chen Ying read about Chen An's experiences, the more envious she became. They shared the same surname, Chen An, but Chen An's life was the life she wanted.

In the trial grounds, Chen An bravely ventured into dangerous areas and obtained a large number of medicinal herbs, briefly appearing in the sight of the Golden Core cultivators.

It was during that time that Chen Ying saw Chen An's name and learned that Chen An existed.

The act of sending someone to their death was laughable to cultivators from other sects.

Chen Ying, however, admired Chen An's courage.

Chen An reached Foundation Establishment at the age of forty, once again appearing in the eyes of Golden Core cultivators. Chen Ying also saw this name again and began to pay attention to Chen An.

It wasn't the infatuation of a young girl in love; she just felt that Chen An was a rather special ant.

After Chen An established his foundation, he quickly established contact with the Yu family, assembled a large demon-hunting team of several thousand people, and even trained Qi Refining stage cultivators to fight against second-tier demon beasts, reaping a lot of low-level resources.

Chen Ying had also hunted demons, but she couldn't venture into dangerous areas and couldn't experience the thrill of hunting demons to earn resources.

Envy grew over time, eventually giving rise to initial resentment.