Unlike last time when he had to ride the Ascending Cloud Flying Boat to reach the Xiao Kingdom, Wei Tu now had a Nascent Soul cultivation and could directly enter the upper skies where the Nine Firmaments Realm was located.
So for convenience, this time he didn't bother buying a ticket or taking the flying boat.
He raised a mana shield, wrapped Wei Xian'er in his sleeve, and shot straight through the clouds toward "Lingyan Island" in Haizhou, where Wei Fei was currently residing.
Two months later.
Flying in the sky, Wei Tu looked down at the landscape. Once he confirmed that this was indeed Lingyan Island from his memory, he stopped his flight and descended directly.
"Just as I thought. Second Brother really is nearing the end of his life. If I had come even half a year later, I might've missed the chance to see him one last time."
Hovering above the Wei residence, Wei Tu swept his divine sense across the estate. When he saw Wei Fei slumped on the bed, breath and blood energy almost completely gone, he sighed quietly.
"Is that… Father?"
Wei Xian'er, whose divine sense wasn't weak either, followed closely behind and caught sight of Wei Fei's current condition. She froze for a moment, speaking hesitantly in disbelief.
After all, when she and Wei Fei had parted ways, he had still looked like a young man. Not like this—frail and aged, clearly at death's door.
"That's Second Madam… and Ping?"
Wei Xian'er scanned the room and noticed a middle-aged woman and a young Foundation Establishment cultivator standing at the bedside.
Seeing this, her expression turned complicated and she hesitated to move forward.
After all, as the daughter of his first wife, she probably seemed like an outsider in this current Wei household.
Still, when she saw Wei Tu already landing in the main courtyard, she clenched her jaw, steeled herself, and followed after him.
"True Lord Wei?" The middle-aged woman who had been watching the courtyard noticed them right away.
Her face immediately lit up with a smile. She shot a glance at Wei Ping as a reminder, then quickly stepped out to welcome Wei Tu and Wei Xian'er.
"True Lord Wei, after you left, my husband and Ping'er have been waiting for your return. But who would've thought it would be over eighty years before you came back."
She was full of enthusiasm.
She clearly knew who was responsible for helping her son, Wei Ping, step into Foundation Establishment.
"Please sit, please sit. I'll make a meal for True Lord Wei and this fairy right away."
As she spoke, the woman tied on an apron and headed toward the kitchen in the courtyard.
"Ping'er, come over and chat with your Uncle Wei. Leave your father for now."
Just as she reached the kitchen entrance, she suddenly remembered something. Pausing mid-step, she called back toward the room.
From start to finish, she hadn't invited Wei Tu and Wei Xian'er inside to see Wei Fei.
Wei Tu could guess the reason.
It wasn't hard to figure out. Judging by Wei Fei's current condition, he was almost no different from an ordinary mortal dying of old age. He probably couldn't even speak properly anymore.
So the woman had subconsciously overlooked it while entertaining them.
"Back when I was working on my Foundation Establishment, Father once took a big risk over thirty years ago and went to Coral Island to hunt a Yellow-Spined Shark… At first, he was fine. But in his later years, the cold injury caught up with him and left him like this."
At this moment, Wei Ping walked out of the room. It seemed he had guessed what Wei Tu was thinking. His face showed deep regret as he explained each word clearly.
After all, if not for him, Wei Fei should have been living peacefully in his old age—not like this, paralyzed in bed and dying like an ordinary man.
"So that's how it is."
Wei Tu's face showed realization.
He smiled, patted Wei Ping's shoulder, and comforted him: "This might've happened because of you, but… it was your father's decision. You don't need to blame yourself too much. Cultivate well—that's the best way to repay him."
Wei Tu still remembered.
When he had first visited Lingyan Island, Wei Fei had refused to humble himself to others just to secure a future for his son. He wouldn't bow to the Zhao Clan of Qiyue Mountain.
And for that, he'd fought bitterly with his second wife, and they'd even gone into a cold war.
Back then, Wei Tu had thought Wei Fei didn't care much for his son Wei Ping, that he was still the same carefree man as in the past.
But now, the truth was clear—his first impression had been wrong.
Wei Fei hadn't stopped loving his only son. It was just that, seeing no hope in the boy's future, he'd resigned himself to decline and had refused to put in any more effort.
More than eighty years ago, after Wei Tu arrived, everything changed.
With his guidance and protection, and after cleansing Wei Ping's marrow and refining his physique…
It was obvious that Wei Fei saw real hope in his son's future path to immortality.
So over thirty years ago, even as an old man, Wei Fei had risked injury from the cold to fight for a brighter cultivation road for Wei Ping.
"Second Brother, if you'd had this kind of determination back then, your life might have turned out very differently."
Wei Tu shook his head.
Everyone makes their own choices.
At the start of his pursuit of the Dao, Wei Fei's choices hadn't exactly been wrong. But once Wei Tu entered the picture as a point of comparison, all of Wei Fei's past decisions began to look like one mistake after another. What once seemed carefree now felt like failure.
"Uncle Wei, this fairy is…?"
Unlike his mother, Wei Ping felt a tug in his bloodline when he saw Wei Xian'er and vaguely guessed something.
"Wei Xian'er."
Before Wei Tu could answer, Wei Xian'er stepped forward and gave her name.
"Wei Ping greets Elder Sister."
Wei Ping recognized her quickly and addressed her directly as "Elder Sister."
The sudden reunion left Wei Xian'er a bit unprepared. But she wasn't easily flustered. After a brief pause, she composed herself.
"Ping."
She forced a smile and returned the greeting.
While the siblings were reconnecting in the courtyard, Wei Tu stepped into the house and walked to Wei Fei's bedside.
"Th… Third Brother, you… you've come."
Wei Fei, lying on the bed, had clouded eyes and slurred speech. But upon seeing Wei Tu, he managed to clearly say those few words.
"Yes, I'm here."
Wei Tu sat at the bedside, took Wei Fei's hand, and slowly infused it with mana. He forced a small smile.
Among the four sworn brothers of the Righteous Society, he and Wei Fei had always been the closest, the tightest bond.
And they were fellow villagers too.
Before long, with Wei Tu's mana infusion, Wei Fei's blood and vitality surged. His complexion brightened and his speech became more fluid.
"Third Brother, your cultivation realm…?"
Feeling the change in his body, Wei Fei looked both surprised and unsure.
After getting that cold injury, even Golden Core cultivators like Zhao Jiangwu had checked on him, but none of them had a solution. His body was just too far gone. A strong medicine might've killed him on the spot.
But Wei Tu was different. With just a bit of mana, he'd restored Wei Fei's condition almost to what it was more than ten years ago.
"Nascent Soul."
Wei Tu gave a straightforward answer.
He and Wei Fei had risked their lives for each other. He had no reason to hide his true cultivation.
"Nascent Soul?"
Wei Fei's face instantly filled with shock and disbelief.
He had always known the Zhao Clan of Qiyue Mountain and the Zhao Clan of Shengya valued Wei Tu highly because he had the potential to reach Nascent Soul. But potential was one thing—actually achieving it was a gap of more than ten thousand miles.
"Never thought… I, Wei Fei, would end up with a Nascent Soul sworn brother. I can die with no regrets."
"No regrets at all!"
Wei Fei chuckled.
"Third Brother, when they write your biography someday, I wonder… could I get a mention?"
He joked.
At the Nascent Soul level, one was practically a sovereign. Far more prestigious than civil or military officials, or any talented noble. In the cultivation world, it was common to have entire books written about such a figure.
"You'll be in it."
"No one else might get in, but Second Brother of the Righteous Society? You're a must."
Wei Tu raised his hand as if making an oath.
"Good, good. Once you're in the history books, even if I'm dead, my name will live for ten thousand generations."
Wei Fei burst into hearty laughter, sounding more cheerful than he had in years.
Hearing that, Wei Tu was momentarily dazed. The man before him no longer seemed like an aging invalid, but rather… that noble Lord Wei, dressed in gold and silk, the same man who had parted ways with him in the Danqiu Mountains all those years ago.
Back then.
One went up the mountain. The other went down.
From that moment on, their fates diverged.
"Third Brother, in these more than ten years lying in bed, aside from seeing you… I may have seen Fourth Brother too."
Wei Fei suddenly said.
"Fourth Brother?" Wei Tu's brows furrowed slightly. He recalled the time outside Mount Qiyue when he had severed ties with Fu Zhizhou.
Now, he had mostly let go of those old grudges. But things could never go back to how they were.
"How would Fourth Brother know you're here?"
Wei Tu asked.
Although the relocation of the Zhao Clan of Qiyue wasn't exactly secret, it still wasn't easy to learn about it across nations without power or connections.
"Could he have reached Golden Core?"
Wei Tu speculated.
Among the Righteous Society brothers, aside from himself, the one with the strongest Dao heart had always been Fu Zhizhou.
It wouldn't be strange if, after more than two hundred years, Fu Zhizhou had broken through from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core.
"I don't know either," Wei Fei shook his head and said. "I've been bedridden, barely able to sense the cultivators around me…"
"Five years ago, I heard someone at my bedside call me Second Brother. The voice was hoarse and didn't quite sound like Fourth Brother, but… other than you and him, who else in this world would call me that?"
Wei Fei sighed.
"Fourth Brother…"
Wei Tu fell silent.
Given Wei Fei's cultivation level, even with the cold injury and being bedridden, it was unlikely he was hallucinating.
Which meant it was almost certain—five years ago, Fu Zhizhou had come to see Wei Fei.
Only, unlike Wei Tu, he didn't come openly. He came in secret.
"That's why I believe, when the Righteous Society fell apart over two hundred years ago, Fourth Brother didn't change because his heart turned cold… but because something else happened."
Wei Fei said quietly.