Now, since Wei Hua believed that Situ You wasn't pretending, it was highly likely that he wasn't lying.
After thinking about Situ You, Wei Tu looked at Wei Hua. A flash of golden light appeared in his eyes, and then he pointed at the position of Wei Hua's dantian with two fingers.
The next moment, a bronze lamp, glowing with blood-red light, rose from Wei Hua's dantian, carrying a round golden core.
"Is this the Lifesaving Star Lamp?"
Wei Tu flipped his palm and caught the bronze lamp. He carefully examined it for a moment.
Like his "Dao Immortal Source Scripture," the "Lifesaving Star Lamp" evasion technique couldn't be fully mastered through simple cultivation. It required a special treasure, like the "Dao-Forging Pill," to form the foundation, after which cultivation could succeed.
Now, the Lifesaving Star Lamp in Wei Tu's hand was the foundational item required for practicing this technique.
This was also Wei Hua's biggest opportunity, inherited from the master of the ancient cultivation cave.
"This item is a fourth-tier mid-grade treasure. Looks like this technique is more powerful than I thought. It could possibly be used as my lifesaving technique in the Nascent Soul stage."
Wei Tu's eyes flickered slightly as he pondered to himself.
Originally, he thought Wei Hua's cicada-shedding technique was just a technique at the Golden Core stage, so he had never taken it seriously.
Today, after capturing Wei Hua, it was only because he had learned Wei Hua's whereabouts while soul-searching Elder Ma, and came by to eliminate the problem.
But unexpectedly, this evasion technique brought him great surprise.
It enriched his Nascent Soul abilities.
However, Wei Tu did not kill Wei Hua. After taking Wei Hua's golden core from the Lifesaving Star Lamp, he sealed his golden core and soul inside a pill bottle to carry with him.
Wei Tu planned to, when the time was right, give Wei Hua's golden core to Situ You... so that Situ You could see Tian Qiuyun's true nature, fulfilling their friendship.
...
With Yao Chongshan and his wife eliminated, and with no further purpose to stay hidden, Wei Tu chose to return to the Ying Ding Tribe.
"Six years is within my expected time to form the nascent soul, no major events should occur."
"However, it's better to be cautious just in case."
Half a day later, Wei Tu returned to the Ying Ding Tribe's territory. He stopped at the place where he had previously buried the formation base, thinking to himself.
Although he had successfully formed his nascent soul within half a year inside the Great Void realm's inner region, the time spent afterward had dragged on a bit longer.
He had spent three years waiting for Bai Zhi and the Wind Cleaving Eagle outside the Cloud Ze Secret Realm.
Afterward, it took two years to kill Yao Chongshan and his wife.
In six years, if he were in the mortal world, the world would likely have changed greatly.
However, in the cultivation world, six years wasn't considered a long time.
"Form!" Wei Tu took out the "Instant Transmission Formation" and cast several spells on it.
In a moment, the six-point formation disk began to form intricate formation patterns, projecting a crystalline yellow portal.
Then, Wei Tu's escape light flashed, and he entered the crystalline yellow portal.
Moments later.
Wei Tu returned to his Cloud Lark Pavillion secret room.
He flicked his sleeve, opened the secret room, and used his magic to gather the numerous letters outside.
"It seems I worried too much."
After reading this batch of letters and seeing that nothing major had happened in the six years, Wei Tu sighed in relief, his expression relaxing a bit.
However, despite this, Wei Tu didn't regret his "overcautious" actions.
As the saying goes, "Prevent problems before they arise."
From his humble beginnings, to his current position, aside from his "late-bloomer" fate, his carefulness had played a major role.
After all, anyone who had made it this far had their own share of opportunities.
"Go!" Next, Wei Tu took out a pre-written "good news letter" and sent it toward the Right Virtuous King's residence.
"I wonder how Yuan Jie will feel when he receives this letter?"
Wei Tu raised his head and sighed lightly.
This letter, though a "good news" letter about his successful nascent soul formation, was also a letter of division in his friendship with Yuan Jie.
In a way, it was... the end of their friendship.
After all, the fact that he had gone out to form his nascent soul meant something that even a three-year-old child could understand.
It was simply that his role as the chief alchemist showed his lack of trust in Yuan Jie, his long-time friend in hardship.
But soon, when he remembered Yuan Jie's deliberate deception about the Guo Yan Dan matter from years ago, the feeling in his heart gradually faded.
...
The Right Virtuous King's residence was not far from the Lark Chamber, only about ten miles away.
After Wei Tu sent the "good news letter," less than fifteen minutes later, Yuan Jie, who was handling tribal affairs in the king's residence, received the letter.
"Wei Tu's letter? This is rare."
Seeing the name on the letter, Yuan Jie couldn't help but chuckle and said to the Fairy Bao Hua, who was assisting him.
They had known Wei Tu for nearly two hundred years, familiar with his personality. They knew that he was a cultivator focused on hard training. Except for sending them messages on important matters, he usually wouldn't disturb them.
"Daoist Wei has been in seclusion for several decades. This time, he must have either improved his cultivation or made great progress in alchemy... that's why he's specifically writing to inform us," Fairy Bao Hua said with a smile.
"It seems so," Yuan Jie nodded slightly, agreeing with Fairy Bao Hua's words.
However, when he opened the letter and saw its contents, the smile on his face slowly faded.
"Darling, what's wrong?" Fairy Bao Hua asked with a frown, looking at Yuan Jie in confusion.
At this point, there had been no major incidents outside the tribe.
Therefore, what Wei Tu mentioned could only be his personal matter.
And if it were just a personal matter, whether it was good news or bad news, someone of Yuan Jie's status wouldn't have reacted like this.
"Wei Tu... he has formed his Nascent Soul," Yuan Jie said, his voice trembling slightly as he explained to Fairy Bao Hua.
"What?"
"Wei Tu has formed his Nascent Soul?"
Upon hearing this, Fairy Bao Hua could no longer stay calm. Her expression changed slightly as she reached for the letter in Yuan Jie's hand and read through it.
"This can't be! There's been no Nascent Soul tribulation in the tribe recently, and Wei Tu's cultivation was only at mid-Golden Core stage decades ago... even if there was some concealment, he should only be at late-Golden Core stage..."
Fairy Bao Hua's face showed shock as she voiced her disbelief.
After reading the letter, although she instinctively felt that Wei Tu's success in forming his Nascent Soul might be a lie, her rational mind told her that Wei Tu was unlikely to deceive them, especially since he had no reason to joke with them.
After all, Wei Tu was a well-known figure.
"He must have concealed it too well!" Yuan Jie's face hardened slightly as he said in a low voice.
Years ago, when the Feng Wu Tribe sent Lou Sanhua, Granny Ke, and Granny Ma to assassinate Wei Tu, he and Bao Hua initially thought that Wei Tu survived the crisis with the help of some talismans. They thought it was just luck.
Now, looking back, they realized they were terribly wrong.
Even without the talismans, Wei Tu wouldn't have died in that calamity.
"A hundred years ago, Wei Tu was captured by two great Golden Core cultivators and forced to go to the Great Void realm..."
"Afterward, he managed to turn the situation around, so it must be related to his own strength, not just luck."
Yuan Jie continued.
At this moment, Yuan Jie even suspected that Wei Tu might have already reached late Golden Core during his capture, or else he wouldn't have survived that tribulation and formed his Nascent Soul today.
"So, what should we do now?"
After regaining composure, Fairy Bao Hua began to ask Yuan Jie about the next steps.
At this point, Yuan Jie and Fairy Bao Hua could tell that Wei Tu must have formed his Nascent Soul outside the Ying Ding Tribe, hiding it from everyone.
This action not only signified Wei Tu's distrust of the two of them but also his distrust toward the Ying Ding Tribe.
But... distrust or not, Wei Tu was now a Nascent Soul Ancestor. In terms of his cultivation level, this situation was not of great consequence.
Fairy Bao Hua understood that the three Divine Masters wouldn't overly focus on Wei Tu's actions. They would probably think that it was the couple's fault for mishandling things, which caused Wei Tu to grow distant and forced him to leave to form his Nascent Soul.
After all, the real rulers of the Ying Ding Tribe were the three Divine Masters, not the Right Virtuous King's residence.
Now that Wei Tu had reached the Nascent Soul stage, he would become one of the Divine Masters of the Ying Ding Tribe. So what did his loyalty matter?
Compared to a Divine Master, Yuan Jie and she were too insignificant in the tribe!
Therefore, Fairy Bao Hua's question was to ask Yuan Jie how they should act to minimize the negative effects of this situation.
"We can only... cover for Wei Tu," Yuan Jie said after a brief moment of thought, clenching his fist and speaking with a slightly grim expression.
"We'll say that Wei Tu offended the She Ri Tribe and Feng Wu Tribe and that forming his Nascent Soul in the tribe would have been dangerous. After informing us, he secretly went outside to form his Nascent Soul."
After thinking for a while, Yuan Jie tightened his fist and continued, "If a newly ascended Divine Master breaks off from the tribe, on the small scale, it shows my incompetence as the Right Virtuous King; on the large scale, it means I'm trying to destroy the tribe's foundation."
Although Yuan Jie knew that the three Divine Masters had some responsibility in driving a wedge between him and Wei Tu—since they had restricted foreign cultivators from joining the tribe and only took advantage of them—he couldn't blame them for this.
And the three Divine Masters wouldn't admit to this either.
Simply put, the restriction on Wei Tu, the chief alchemist, from getting too involved in tribal matters was his accomplishment as the Right Virtuous King.
But causing Wei Tu to grow distant from the tribe was his fault.
"Darling, look at it this way. At least with Wei Tu, we have a Divine Master on our side, which gives us another ally," Fairy Bao Hua said, noticing the troubled look on Yuan Jie's face. She hurried to offer some comforting words.
After all, regardless of whether Yuan Jie cared about their past friendship, Wei Tu was no longer someone they could provoke.
Let alone hold a grudge against.