"Where is this?" Hou Juan asked as she looked around.
"We're in the Flowing Cloud Sect," Chen Heng replied calmly.
Hearing this, Hou Juan felt stunned.
"In the Flowing Cloud Sect…"
Lying on the bed and looking at Chen Heng, she could not believe it and wanted to check if Chen Heng was joking.
She naturally knew what the situation between the Flowing Cloud Sect and the Zhang clan was like, and she knew what the Flowing Cloud Sect's plans were.
Otherwise, she would not have been so desperate to escape from the Flowing Cloud Sect and contact Chen Heng.
If Chen Heng was in the Flowing Cloud Sect, there were two possibilities.
The first was that Chen Heng had been captured by the Flowing Cloud Sect's people and was also imprisoned like her.
The other possibility was that the Zhang clan and Flowing Cloud Sect had negotiated and come to an agreement.
Otherwise, as the Zhang clan, Chen Heng would not have easily come to the Flowing Cloud Sect.
Lying on the bed, Hou Juan looked at Chen Heng.
Chen Heng looked calm and his aura was completely fine; it did not seem like he had been captured.
With how the Flowing Cloud Sect acted, if they really had captured the Zhang clan's clan leader, they would have imprisoned him in the prison and would not allow him out like this.
So had they settled things peacefully?
Hou Juan thought of various things.
"No need to feel so confused."
As if he could tell what she was thinking, Chen Heng shook his head and got up as he prepared to explain.
However, at that moment, some footsteps could be heard from outside.
A tall middle-aged man walked in from outside.
Looking at Chen Heng then looking at the awoken Hou Juan, he looked back at Chen Heng and said, "Elder… people from the Thousand Mountain Sect have come. Would you like to have a look?"
"Elder?"
Hearing the middle-aged man's words, before Chen Heng could say anything, Hou Juan's eyes widened.
She was not unfamiliar with the middle-aged man in front of her.
This was the Elder who had the most profound cultivation. He was the strongest person in the entire sect apart from the Sect Master, and he was usually quite proud.
Chen Heng had some interactions with him, and he knew that he was not someone to be easily offended.
However, right now, he was standing there respectfully as he bowed to Chen Heng.
Moreover, he had addressed Chen Heng as 'Elder'.
What was going on?
The Zhang clan's clan leader had become an Elder of the Flowing Cloud Sect?
Just what had happened while she had been unconscious?
Lying on the bed, her eyes widened as she thought of various things.
"I see," Chen Heng calmly nodded before getting up.
"I have some things to deal with," Chen Heng said as he looked at Hou Juan, "Your injuries haven't healed yet, so just rest here for now. Ya'Er will come and look after you in a bit."
After speaking, Chen Heng turned and left with Elder Song, leaving behind Hou Juan dumbly staring at Chen Heng's departing figure.
Right now, she was filled with questions and did not know what to say.
Only after a while when Zhang Ya heard that she had woken up and came to see her did she hear from Zhang Ya everything that had happened.
"Breaking through the Flowing Cloud Sect by himself…"
After hearing everything from Zhang Ya, Hou Juan was completely stunned, not knowing what to say.
Just like Zhang Ya, Hou Juan had also been a disciple of the Flowing Cloud Sect, and she knew just how powerful the Flowing Cloud Sect was.
Against such a powerful faction, an ordinary solo cultivator would be nothing in front of it.
Moreover, the Flowing Cloud Sect had its Guardian Formation, which had been left behind by the founder.
Such a powerful force had been defeated by Chen Heng singlehandedly without any resistance at all.
Now, she knew why Chen Heng had become an Elder.
"So it's like that…"
After a long while, Hou Juan came back to her senses. She deeply sighed and said, "As expected from Senior Apprentice Brother Zhang… His strength has most likely already surpassed Profound Understanding and reached the Sage realm."
"That's probably it."
Hearing Hou Juan's words, Zhang Ya lightly laughed before saying, "After all, the Guardian Formation is not something that can be destroyed so easily. As for you, Junior Apprentice Sister Hou, is there anything you want to tell your big sister?"
Zhang Ya sat in front of Hou Juan as she said softly, "The demonic technique…"
There were some things that Chen Heng could choose not to ask, but Zhang Ya could not just ignore it.
After all, in a sense, everything this time had originated from Hou Juan.
If it wasn't for her cultivating the demonic technique, the Flowing Cloud Sect would not have a foothold over the Zhang clan, forcing the Zhang clan to respond.
Although things had ended well this time, the things related to Hou Juan were undeniable.
If news of a demonic cultivator spread, this would not be good, especially within the Yue Kingdom.
Even though 30 years had passed, the Yue Kingdom's people still had shadows of it in their hearts.
Even the Zhang clan and Zhang Ya were the same.
No matter from what perspective it was, she had to ask about this.
"Clan brother does not care about some things, but I can't…"
Sitting in front of the bed and looking at Hou Juan, she lightly sighed and said, "Just what happened to you?"
Hearing this, Hou Juan fell silent for a while.
.........
Only after a while did she raise her head with a bitter smile, "This is a long story, but I don't know if Senior Apprentice Sister wants to hear it…"
...
At noon, Chen Heng left from the Flowing Cloud Sect's main hall and came to the place where he cultivated.
By now, Zhang Ya had come to him with the information that he wanted.
"Did you ask her?"
Standing there, Chen Heng looked at Zhang Ya's serious expression and already knew some things.
"Yes." Meeting Chen Heng's gaze, Zhang Ya sighed and said, "Junior Apprentice Sister Hou told me everything. She did indeed cultivate a demonic technique…"
Speaking to there, her expression became quite grim.
Even though she was expecting it, hearing about it made her feel quite uncomfortable.
For the Yue Kingdom's cultivators, cultivating a demonic technique was very serious.
Following this, Zhang Ya sighed and told Chen Heng everything that Hou Juan had said.
Hou Juan had received the demonic technique about 30 years ago.
That was when the demonic cultivator disaster had begun, and there were demonic cultivators everywhere.
Even though Chen Heng had killed all of the demonic cultivators around Nine Peaks City, there were some ones who had slipped through.
Given their large numbers, it was normal that some demonic cultivators carried demonic techniques with them.
This was how Hou Juan had obtained her demonic technique.
Back then, she had just wanted to take a look and gain some experience, and she did not want to actually cultivate it.
It was just that as time went on, she found it more and more difficult to cultivate to the point that ordinary cultivation was not much use to her. As such, she had no choice but to try cultivating the demonic technique.
The demonic technique system was different to those of normal cultivation techniques—the more one consumed others' qi blood and souls, the more one would be able to progress.
This was how Hou Juan had reached her current cultivation.
"Demonic technique…"
Speaking to there, Zhang Ya could not help but sigh and look complicated.
Honestly, she could understand Hou Juan's decision.
Sometimes, the feeling of working incredibly hard but being unable to progress was simply too uncomfortable.
In order to break through this, many people would try alternative methods to progress.
She could understand it, but when her best friend decided to cultivate a demonic technique because of this, she could not help but feel saddened.
However, hearing Zhang Ya, Chen Heng's expression did not change.
It was just a demonic technique and not a big deal to Chen Heng.
He was not a native cultivator to this world and did not care much about demonic techniques.
From how he saw it, power was essentially the same; the only differences were how easily it could be controlled and how easily it could be gained.
Using cruder but more effective demonic techniques when orthodox techniques did not work was not bad.
After all, even if one cultivated a demonic technique, they did not necessarily have to slaughter innocent beings.
At the very least, Hou Juan had not done this much, or Chen Heng would have been able to sense it.
Since she had been able to control this power and had not used it for evil, she was not a purely evil person.
Of course, that was only what Chen Heng himself thought.
To other people, everyone who cultivated demonic techniques were evil people.
This was not just the Flowing Cloud Sect's cultivators but also most people in the Zhang clan.
The most classic example was the Zhang clan's previous clan leader, Zhang Chong.
If he had known that Hou Juan had been cultivating a demonic technique, there would have been great trouble.
Standing there, Chen Heng thought of various things before shaking his head and looking at Zhang Ya and saying, "Let the Flowing Cloud Sect's disciples know that the news about Junior Apprentice Sister Hou cultivating a demonic technique is fake and that she had simply been framed.
"As for who framed her, just say it was Elder Liu."
The Elders who had come out later had just been defeated by Chen Heng, but the first to appear before Chen Heng, Elder Liu, had been killed by him.
According to his plans, some people from rival factions had been cleared out to make space for the Zhang clan's members.
Hearing Chen Heng's words, Zhang Ya opened her mouth but just nodded and said, "Yes."
Following this, Chen Heng talked with her a bit more before turning and leaving.
Watching Chen Heng leave, Zhang Ya let out a sigh.
For some reason, at that moment, she felt a wave of admiration in her heart.
This had been the same in the past.
For some reason, Chen Heng cared deeply about Hou Juan. This had started from when Hou Juan had entered the Flowing Cloud Sect, and he had treated her well this whole time.
In fact, even when news of her cultivating a demonic technique had been exposed, he was willing to cover things up for her and continue to protect her.
If it was publicly determined that Hou Juan was a demonic cultivator, even if people were wary because of Chen Heng's existence, they would still gossip about her and treat her with enmity.
However, things would be different if Chen Heng publicly cleared her.
Even if some people still suspected Hou Juan, most people would just think that it was the Flowing Cloud Sect trying to frame her.
Even if people had their suspicions, what could they do?
For him to care about Hou Juan so much, even she felt quite jealous.
"Junior Apprentice Sister Hou, just what did you do to deserve this…"
Standing there, she stayed silent for a while before shaking her head and sighing.