Chapter 135: The Vicissitudes of Life

"Ah-yu, it has been such a long time since we last met. Sister Mu has so many things she wants to talk to you about!"

Mu Ye looked toward Gu Weiyu, walking over with a radiant smile on her face.

Gu Weiyu and Mu walked out side by side. "Sister Mu, how have you been lately?"

"I've been quite well. Quick, tell Sister Mu, have you been to many places?" Mu asked with a curious and probing look.

Knowing that Mu had always been fascinated by the outside world, Gu Weiyu recounted some of the bizarre people and strange events she had witnessed during her travels, sharing them like little stories.

Chatting as they walked, the two of them soon arrived in front of the stone house belonging to Gu Weiyu's family.

Mu still felt somewhat unsatisfied, yet she considerately said, "Ah-yu, you must tell me more about the outside world whenever you get the chance next time!"

With that, Mu turned around with a carefree grace and left.

Gu Weiyu watched Mu's receding figure until it faded from sight before stepping back into the stone house.

"Elder Sister—"

"Ah-yu—"

Seeing Gu Weiyu return, Gu Yun and the other two called out in pleasant surprise.

Just moments after Little Stone had returned, Gu Yun and Madam Qin had been torn between heartache over his injuries and an overwhelming urge to express their pent-up emotions after their long separation.

Now, seeing Gu Weiyu back as well, the hearts of the couple surged with intense emotion. After all these years, their family of four was finally reunited!

Gu Weiyu acknowledged them with a soft murmur. Her gaze landed on Gu Yun's left arm, and the smile on her face deepened. "Father, look at what this is."

Upon seeing the jade bottle, Gu Yun's heart couldn't help but tremble. "Ah-yu, this jade bottle..."

"Inside this jade bottle is the Dragon Scale Pill. Consuming it can bring the dead back to life and regenerate flesh on withered bones. Father, it will surely allow your severed arm to grow back!"

At these words, Gu Yun's breathing grew heavy. He stared with burning intensity as Guweiyu poured a perfectly round pill out of the jade bottle.

Wisps of an exotic fragrance drifted into his nostrils. Just by the scent alone, one could already tell the extraordinary nature of the elixir.

Gu Yun took the pill, placed it in his mouth, and swallowed it with a gulp.

The medicinal efficacy of the Dragon Scale Pill was astonishingly potent. Before even the span of an incense stick could pass, Gu Yun's severed left arm began to slowly regenerate from beneath his sleeve.

"Father's arm really is growing back!"

Witnessing this miraculous event with his own eyes, Little Stone wore an expression of sheer wonder and began to dance around with bubbling joy.

Madam Qin, upon seeing this, had already dissolved into a river of tears. This was a day she had once believed was utterly hopeless, yet against all odds, she had lived to see it arrive!

Gu Yun's gaze remained fixed squarely on his left arm, feeling a surge of warmth continuously coursing through his body as his severed limb emerged from his sleeve at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Gu Weiyu smiled warmly and said, "Father, try picking up your bow."

At her words, a light seemed to be ignited within Gu Yun's eyes. He turned swiftly and strode into the house, bringing out his long-sealed, dust-covered great bow.

Although the great bow had not been drawn for a very long time, it had been meticulously preserved by its owner. Especially the grip, which was exceptionally smooth, clearly showing that someone had cherished and stroked it from time to time.

Even though nearly a decade had passed, the great bow remained exactly as it had always been.

Unable to conceal the agitation in his expression, Gu Yun gripped the great bow tightly with his newly grown left arm. "My hand... My hand can hold things again!"

The sensation of being able to hold objects once more felt as surreal as a dream. Finding it hard to believe, Gu Yun couldn't help pinching himself hard.

As the wave of pain registered on his body, Gu Yun snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream. His hand really had grown back!

However, the left arm had only just regenerated and thus appeared rather tender, unsuited for exerting excessive force. Because of this, Gu Weiyu specifically offered a word of caution.

With utmost reverence, Gu Yun placed the great bow back in its original spot, his emotions churning and surging like the tide.

"Old man—"

Madam Qin walked to Gu Yun's side, her trembling hands patting and stroking his left arm over and over again, treating it as if it were fragile tofu for fear of breaking it.

Seeing this, Little Stone also walked over with curiosity and, imitating Madam Qin's actions, gently stroked Gu Yun's arm.

Feeling entirely self-conscious under their petting, Gu Yun broke out in goosebumps all over. He couldn't help putting on a stern face and saying, "Alright, alright, stop petting it..."

Gu Weiyu watched with a broad smile. The matter that had long weighed heavily upon her heart was finally resolved!

Next, she could set her mind at ease and deal with the issue that had been lingering in her thoughts all this time!

Ninth Sister, Fourteenth Brother, and her fellow clansmen—where in the world were they now?

Gu Weiyu made up her mind. She was going to return to Taihe Residence for a trip!

"Father, Mother, Little Stone, I must be going."

After finishing their midday meal, Gu Weiyu informed Gu Yun and his wife that she had to leave for a while.

Gu Yun, Madam Qin, and Little Stone were all deeply reluctant to see her go. Little Stone, in particular, looked at Gu Weiyu with tear-filled eyes. "Elder Sister, don't go!"

Gu Weiyu half-crouched down and gently stroked his head. "Elder Sister will come back to see you again!"

Hearing this, Little Stone's mouth drooped, and teardrops began to stream down uncontrollably.

Elder Sister was leaving again; he couldn't bear to let her go!

With a wistful ache in her heart, Gu Weiyu silently turned and departed from Qingshan Village.

"Great-ancestor, Third Great-uncle—"

As soon as Gu Weiyu returned to the Gu residence, she went straight to Taihe Residence. Coincidentally, both Gu Qingzhou and Gu Qun were in the courtyard.

One was dressed in a dark-colored long robe, while the other wore a crimson robe with wide sleeves.

One sat upright in front of a stone table with a posture like a pine and a heavy frown, lost in deep thought.

The other lay lazily sprawled across a wooden couch, resembling a free and untethered crane amidst the clouds.

It was truly hard to imagine that these two men were brothers.

"Little Eleventh is here!" Seeing that it was Gu Weiyu, Gu Qun's tightly knitted brow relaxed, and he beckoned to her with a kind smile. "Come over and sit down."

Gu Weiyu glanced briefly at the Great-ancestor resting on the couch, bowed respectfully to Gu Qun, and chose a spot at the stone table, seating herself sideways.

"Third Great-uncle, why have I not seen Ninth Sister and the others anywhere? Could something have..." Carried away by her worries, Gu Weiyu spoke with profound anxiety.

"Little Jiu and the others..." Gu Qun's brow, which had just smoothed out, knitted together once more, forming a small ridge between his eyebrows. "Sigh, that is a long story..."

With that, Gu Qun recounted everything that had happened after Gu Weiyu had been carried away by the Myriad-Mile Trace-Absence Talisman, telling it to her from beginning to end.

Through the words of her Third Great-uncle, Gu Weiyu learned that on the night of the tenth aunt's wedding, among the four Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Gu family, two had died and two were injured!

The Tenth Great-grandmother and Fifth Great-uncle had perished on the spot, the Great-ancestor had narrowly escaped the clutches of evil while heavily injured, and the Third Great-uncle had been deliberately left behind by Chu Xingyun as bait.

Following that, for reasons unknown, Chu Xingyun would periodically send members of the Gu clan who possessed spiritual roots and high potential to the Treasure Pavilion or auction houses to be bought and traded away, thereby acquiring massive amounts of spiritual stones.

"What? This is utterly outrageous!" Hearing this, Gu Weiyu's brows angled upward in fury, her fair face frosted with anger, and her chest heaved violently as if a volcano were buried deep within her heart.

How dare that Chu Xingyun do such a thing? To cruelly treat his own clansmen as mere commodities to be bought and sold?

The thought that her own kin were wandering god-knows-where because of Chu Xingyun sent a sharp pang of pain through Gu Weiyu's heart.

"No wonder I was wondering how someone surnamed Chu could afford to keep a massive bounty hanging in the Mission Hall for so long. It turns out all those spiritual stones were exchanged for the lives of my clansmen!"

Thinking of this, Gu Weiyu couldn't help grinding her teeth and muttering bitterly to herself:

Last night was truly letting that scoundrel Chu Xingyun off far too easily!