PAH!

The sound of a door slamming with force startled a woman that was sitting on the bed, signaling that a person had entered the room. However, she didn't lose her cool or say anything. Actually, she was a bit worried instead, since she knew that person was not a brute or one of those types of people.

That woman was not young anymore. She was clearly past her prime, but her figure and appearance were just like any woman on her late forties would be. However, her age was greater than that for sure, but since she was a Profound Mana initial-stage cultivator, she retained her youth for longer.

Her hair was discoloring slowly as time passed, but there were still many signs of violet color on it. She slowly turned to look at the man that just entered the room. He was the person she trusted the most, the person she chose to be with her forever; her husband.

He, just like her, was getting old. Even though his face was already showing the signs that he was aging, his black hair refused to. His aura was strong and that was why he was still retaining his early forties looks, despite being way older than his wife. His real age should be around five hundred years old and he was certainly one of the oldest Profound Mana late-stage cultivators residing on the continent of Alteria.

"What happened, Chuanli? Why are you acting like this? Did anything happen at the meeting?

"

"Argh! I'm feeling humiliated... I still can't believe what your son had done after the meeting today...

"

"My son? He is your son as well. Are you trying to not be responsible for generating him?

"

"Actually, I am almost disowning him after what he had said today. I don't believe his words, no, it is not real... Why did he need to say that in front of everyone?

"

"What did he say? Stop doing all that suspense...

"

"Dongmei... I've been trying so hard in order to arrange a decent marriage for him with one of the daughters of the elders, and just now that I was able to seal the deal with the Fourth Elder's daughter, he says it... It pisses me off.

" The man was walking back and forth with impatience, trying to tell himself that the words his son told in public were just a lie, a bad joke. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be.

"You need to calm down Chuanli. How am is supposed to help you with this, if you can't even properly tell me what have happened?

"

"Your son just told me to cancel the marriage, because he won't be marrying a woman.

" Chuanli said everything, ending the suspense he was unconsciously doing.

"He won't be marrying a woman?

" Dongmei wasn't able to understand It properly at the first time.

"Yeah! He told me he is not interested in marrying a woman... He told me he wanted to have a relationship with man! He said that in front of everyone that was attending to the meeting! Everyone!

"

Boom!

A bomb exploded, making Dongmei shake just like Chuanli was shaking. One thing was to tell them a bomb like that when they were inside four walls; however, he did it in the middle of everyone.

"How's that possible?

"

"I don't know Dongmei. I don't know.

"

"Something is strange with that story...

" The woman, instead of accepting the facts, started to have some doubts about it.

"You know... He is the most talented individual of our bloodline, but after declaring this publicly, he is rapidly losing his standings and support. He is done for now... He had the chance to become the next Sanctuary Master, but even though I'm the Grand Elder, I won't be able to help him out.

"

"No, it is not right... Even if he didn't want to marry a woman, there was no need for him to announce that he didn't like women in the first place. Actually, is that even real?

" The woman asked suspiciously. She knew her son and there seemed to be something off with that.

"It's real! I saw him saying it. He told it right before the Sanctuary Master. Now everyone is mocking him at his back. I even lost my face before every single one of the other elders.

"

Dongmei tried to get something logic out of the actions her son was taking, but she was not able to find anything. However, something was telling her that there was more to it than it appeared to be.

"When was it?

"

"Some moments ago. Right after the emergency meeting all the elders were obliged to attend.

"

"Emergency meeting? I thought it was just a normal meeting. Did something happen?

"

Chuanli stopped after his wife asked him that question. His countenance changed and he casted a barrier around their room. He didn't spare any efforts while infusing his mana on it. That barrier was able to seal any sound from escaping the room. What he was about to say, was of utmost importance.

After that, he turned towards his wife and said:

"The Sanctuary Master just received some news from inside the Ethereal Illusive Trial. There seems to be one more person allowed to participate. Another candidate is qualified.

"

"One more?! Who is it? Who was the one that had awakened?

"

"That is the problem... No one had awakened.

" Chuanli said in a serious semblance.

"What?! How's that possible?

"

"There is only one possibility... If no one here has awakened, it can only be outside. Someone leaked our bloodline.

"

Dongmei looked like she had been spooked by a ghost. The customs inside the Illusive Ethereal Sanctuary were very old and rigid. Leaking the bloodline was a very heavy crime. The individual would be severely punished by life imprisonment, while his descendants would be hunted down. There was no good ending out of this.

This is something that only happened once or twice throughout the whole story of the Illusive Ethereal Sanctuary and the last records of it, were from at least two thousand years ago; however, the old tradition was kept, not changing even a tiny bit.

Nothing changed and the Sanctuary Master didn't plan to change it. If there was a bloodline leakage, they would need to stanch it.

He ordered for all the elders to gather in a meeting in a few days. They were going to decide what was going to be the next step.

"We don't know who did it, so the Sect Master is preparing the bloodline test. Every elder is supposed to do it next week and there is a heavy feeling of tension in the air already. So, our son predicament is something everyone is commenting about, since it is an easy to spread gossip. They were even using that topic in order to distract of the real problems. However, it is a shame and a disgrace for us.

"

"Oh my god... I would never have thought something like that had happened. There was no way that people wouldn't talk about him at these times. Everyone is anxious because of the bloodline test and depending on the results, their families could pretty much end.

"

"I know, but this timing is too much for me to handle...

" Chuanli couldn't accept it until now.

Dongmei felt all of this was too much of a coincidence and a certain thought couldn't help but appear inside her mind. However, she discarded it immediately afterwards.

"Let our son with me, I will go talk with him later. There is something that isn't right in this story.

" Dongmei remembered how her son kept saying the name of a person that seemed to be a woman after he came back from that incident many years ago.

Dongmei and Chuanli's son was called Donghai. He was once in charge of a secret mission, but ended up taking part on a conflict and was severely injured. At that time, his parents thought he had died, because he vanished for at least three long years before he came back.

After he came back, he trained hard to ascend in position and power, almost reaching his mother realm of strength. Everyone thought he was vying for the Sanctuary Master position, however, he screwed up everything today.

Dongmei still remembered that every single night after his training session had ended, he would go rest early. It seemed to be a habit he had acquired when he was living on the world outside.

Occasionally, she would go check on him to see if anything was alright. She was a caring mother and those years apart from him, brought her a deep sense of longing. At those times, his body was tired and his guard was down, since he was sleeping. But at that time, his mind would often dream with the figure of a beautiful woman and a newborn.

Dongmei wasn't able to hear the complete name, but she was sure she heard him blurting out the name of a woman. It seemed to start with Mei....