"It is the same with me.." said Zhang Qingge.

"Some of the cultivation arts I practice like the seismic quaker fist...I know it is not something the Order created based on the spiritual imprint contained within it. The fist art was created by a sect called the Hidden Waves Sect, but other than its name I know next to nothing about it, and when I tried to dig for information about it, I found nothing, i even went to the extent of asking the Instructors, but none of them had anything to say about it and just told me to focus on mastering the art, not its history.

Based on their attitude, they seemed to know something.." she added.

"Dai, have you ever gotten any memories of the past from your Hou bloodline?" asked Yang Qing.

For spirit beasts when they reach the domain realm, they can ingrain their insights and accumulations in their bloodline which can be passed down to their offspring. One could consider this one of the ways they pass down their inheritance and legacies.

The more powerful spirit beast can even pass down memories of their timeline going back hundreds of thousands of years, which its progeny as long as they have high enough talent and a high concentration of its bloodline, can access. Yang Qing thought if normal spirit beasts could achieve that, then it should be a simple matter for mythical creatures.

Dai Chen had the Hou bloodline. The Hou could be considered a dragon of some sort, a dragon that was touted to control the mandate of the heavens. He hoped that maybe Dai Chen had gained access to some memories of a bygone era from his Hou bloodline.

Dai Chen smiling wryly, answered,

"You know very well how thin my bloodline is, even thin is an overstatement. The Hou abilities I'm able to draw out, it's only because of the four cardinal star gates cultivation art that was fashioned after its abilities. Without it, I doubt I'd be able to use the Hou bloodline techniques, and even then it's not the real thing.I don't think my abilities are inferior to the real thing but ultimately the results I have is because of my comprehension rather than the bloodline itself. With how thin it is, I'm no different than not having it.

I'm sorry Qing, my Hou bloodline would not be able to help us here.."

"I know.." Yang Qing said with a sigh as he had expected as much and was just grasping at straws for the unlikely chance.

"Well, it's not like we will remain in the dark forever, the traces of the past are still embedded on this continent, we just have to stumble on them bit by bit and piece them together and if that proves difficult, we can always ask the Order for answers, we just have to reach the peak stage of the palace realm first.

I can wait till then.." Zhang Qingge said as she took a bite out of a steamy hot dumpling.

"Besides, we still have troubles of the present era to contend with, like the owner of that red abyssal thorn tree.." she added with slightly clenched fists.

At the mention of the tree, Yang Qing's and Dai Chen's looks turned grim. If it wasn't for the power Green Cocoon left in Yang Qing, they would have all died that day the moment the red thorn tree appeared. That was as close to death as Yang Qing had ever gotten.

Deciding to lighten the mood, Yang Qing unpacked several of the dishes and uncorked the jar of wine as he poured both he, Zhang Qingge, and Dai Chen a cup.

"By the way, has Huifeng headed to the mountain?" asked Yang Qing as he was pouring.

"She went about a week ago.."

It was Zhang Qingge who answered. Dai Chen's mind looked completely gone the moment Yang Qing started pouring the wine. He had a fanatical enchanted look on his face that grew with every pour Yang Qing made.

Yang Qing couldn't help but chuckle as he expected such a reaction from the renowned wine fanatic, especially considering the wine he was pouring was the one he had gotten from the mysterious figure, diluted of course, but even then its heavenly quality remained.

Once he was done pouring, Dai Chen solemnly took his cup with both hands, lips quivering, eyes shining, as he gulped over and over with anticipation, his gaze growing wider the closer he brought the wine cup to his face, and when he finally took the sip, it was like a heavenly tribulation had exploded in his mind.

"Yang Qing! Where did you find this?!!" he said with a crazed look of a starving predator that had just spotted a prey.

Ignoring his crazy look, Yang Qing smugly recounted the tale of when he got acquainted with the mysterious figure along with Meifeng. He didn't dare to bring the empyreal jade wine gourd. With the crazy look Dai Chen was giving him, he had no doubt in his mind that Dai Chen would rush him, pry it off his hands, and escape to parts unknown. In his shoes, Yang Qing would probably do the same, in fact, he had done the same one or seven times.

Hiding the fact that he had another more potent version of the wine they were drinking, Yang Qing promised to give Dai Chen a jar of the diluted version, along with Zhang Qingge who though was not a wine person, could not resist its captivating allure.

The rest of the night was spent with them trading tales of what they had been up to over the past month over wine and drink, with Ma Yuan and Ma Ling joining them after. Once it was close to dawn, Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge left for their abodes, while Ma Yuan took Ma Ling back to the Medical Valley for her treatment with Tang Jue.

Though there was still a line between them, Ma Ling seemed less averse to him than she was before, and Ma Yuan was less impatient than he had been before. By focusing on enjoying the present with her, it had reduced the tenseness and the urgency he had on him to try and make Ma Ling regain her memories of him as fast as she could. Throughout their interaction, not once did he bring up their past, and kept the conversation casual and restricted to things that would not trigger her.

Once he was alone, Yang Qing stretched his back as he went to survey his dummy treasure vaults for traces of tampering by the Celestial Nesting Weaver. Of the twelve vaults, he found two had been tampered with, obvious clues showing, more than likely intentionally left there by the weaver to throw him off. Then he found three more had been sneakily broken through, but it was covered up efficiently with nothing being taken, as for the rest, it showed it had not been broken through, but Yang Qing could not be sure.

With the windfall he had made, he was thinking of improving the protection on all of them, and possibly adding another fake vault and packing it full of the most complex arrays that would draw the celestial nesting weaver's focus. If he offered up a few of the treasures from his ceremony that he still had on hand, he was sure he could get the formation hall to layer seven or eight blue-grade arrays together. That should keep the celestial nesting weaver occupied for a while, and his true vault safe from its greedy talons.

Once he had confirmed everything was okay he made his way to the nest to find a slightly infuriated weaver, no doubt disappointed from not finding the true vault. The infuriating turned into a bickering that turned into a short fight and after the two roommates to their different corners to sleep, each satisfied with annoying each other, and planning several schemes against one another.

With no responsibilities hanging over his head because of his month-long vacation, Yang Qing slept till midday, washing away the month-long fatigue in the process.

Well-rested and in a chipper mood, Yang Qing left for the administration hall to meet with a liaison of the Shadow Hawks. He had some things he needed their assistance with, one of which was the investigation of Jiang Xiang, the eclipsed spirit weave fox who had helped the fire adler in his project of letting the obsidian serpent couple's daughter inherit the treasure bone of the flood dragon.

The agendas of the mysterious figure aside, the daughter of the couple was killed and it was no doubt because of the treasure bone. Someone knew she had it, and the list of suspects was small, with Jiang Xiang being one of them. He needed to find out as much as he could about him and there was no one better for the job than the Shadow Hawks, which was one of the reasons he was looking for them, the other being he wanted to get started on his intelligence network.