Shen Yu looked at Wu Shan’s proud, self-satisfied chest puff with a soft, respectful smile, but inwardly, his contempt remained cold, absolute, and detached. He watched the City Lord greedily swallow the bait before smoothly weaving the next thread into his grand tapestry of lies.

"As many in this room are aware, I was born with shattered meridians, a crippled fate that no medicine in this province could touch. But fate changed during our alliance with the Jin Clan, when I finally obtained the Astral Soul-Mending Herb."

He paused for effect, the hall falling into a deathly silence. "By refining that herb myself, I was able to mend the broken paths of my foundation and step onto the path of cultivation." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The silence was broken by a soft, trembling voice.

He Lan, who had been hanging on his every word as if they were the dictates of the Heavenly Dao, leaned forward.

"B-but... Young Master Tang," she stammered, her brown eyes wide with wonder. "You were still a mortal then. Without Qi, how could you possibly control the refinement of such a high-grade spirit herb?"

Shen Yu turned his gaze to her, his eyes warming with a gentle, encouraging light. "An excellent question, Lady Lan. Your insight is as keen as your spirit."

He Lan’s breath hitched, a fresh wave of crimson flooding her cheeks as she nearly wilted under the praise.

"The truth is," Shen Yu continued, glancing toward Yilan, "while I possessed the knowledge to guide the medicinal essence and balance the elemental heat, I lacked the power."

"My Aunt was the one who acted as my hands, providing the precise flow of Qi needed to catalyze the process."

Under the table, she felt Shen Yu’s fingers give her thigh a sharp, communicative squeeze, a silent command to play along.

Yilan, knowing full well that no such event had ever transpired, didn’t miss a beat. She offered a graceful, supportive nod, her smile radiating the warmth of a proud guardian.

"And it was then, in the moment my meridians were restored, that he appeared," Shen Yu said, his voice dropping to a whisper of awe.

"My Master manifested out of thin air, right in the center of my chamber. I was terrified. He looked no older than myself, yet the spiritual pressure radiating from him was so terrifying it felt as though the heavens were collapsing into that single room."

He chuckled softly, a sound of nostalgic wonder. "He was quite eccentric. Without even an introduction, he looked me in the eye and demanded that I become his disciple. It seems he had been watching my ’guidance’ of the refinement and decided that my soul possessed the affinity he had sought for centuries."

Hearing the description of Shen Yu’s enigmatic master, Wu Shan fell into a deep, calculating silence.

He stared into his amber wine, his mind furiously cataloging everything he knew about the upper echelons of the cultivation world. He was well aware that certain mythical herbs and high-grade pills could halt aging entirely, preserving a person’s youth indefinitely.

However, there were also monstrous cultivators who retained their youthful countenances simply through the sheer, overwhelming density of their spiritual Qi or through profound body-tempering transformations.

’To modify the Peng Clan formula, a formula they specifically obtained from the Golden Cauldron Merchant Union, and purge its deep-seated impurities so effortlessly...’ Wu Shan reasoned, his eyes narrowing into sharp, calculating slits.

’That requires the finesse of a Tier-4 Alchemist at the very least. And an alchemist of that caliber must possess a cultivation base that matches: at least the Nascent Soul realm.’

As the weight of that realization settled into his mind, a strange, calculating glint passed through Wu Shan’s eyes.

While Wu Shan was sinking deeper into his cautious, calculating thoughts, Meng Yan was nearly vibrating with suppressed laughter. She knew the reality behind the curtains, she knew the entire "eccentric sage" routine was a masterpiece of fiction her man was cooking up on the spot.

Watching the old, cynical City Lord swallow the lie hook, line, and sinker was the most entertaining thing she had witnessed all year.

’Look at this old bastard,’ she thought, her hazel eyes glittering with a wicked amusement.

’How could any of them possibly guess that it was my honey who modified that formula himself? Hehe, he really is the best husband.’

As she watched Shen Yu manipulate the highest authority in the city with a few soft words, a sudden, scorching heat flared in her lower abdomen. The raw display of his intellect, combined with the intoxicating pull of his aura, hit her like a physical wave.

Her thighs pressed tightly together under her forest-green robes as her mind took a sharp, carnal turn.

’God, he’s incredible... I want to drag him away from this boring table right now and grind so hard on his dick until neither of us can breathe.’

She forced herself to take a slow sip of her wine to cool the rising fire, her gaze lingering heavily on the pristine white silk covering his thigh.

Unaware of the silent, predatory desires swirling to his left, Wu Shan remained trapped in his own political calculus. Before this revelation, the City Lord had viewed the Tang Clan as nothing more than a shooting star, a minor power that had flared up for a chaotic moment, only to be easily snuffed out or brought to heel once the dust settled.

In Thousand Waves City, a clan required a living, breathing Nascent Soul expert to maintain a permanent seat at the high table.

The Peng Clan had possessed one, though he had been mysteriously assassinated by them during the coup. The Jin Clan had their reclusive Ancestor.

But the Tang Clan? They had no one of that caliber in their ranks.

Wu Shan had secretly planned to treat them as a brilliant but easily controlled puppet. But now, learning that the Golden Paragon was backed by a shadow master who was at least his equal, if not entirely surpassing him, the trajectory of his statecraft shifted instantly.

He realized he could no longer push the Tang Clan around as he had originally intended.

Granted, as a proud descendant of the royal bloodline, Wu Shan didn’t truly fear this mysterious wanderer, the weight of the empire stood behind his throne.

Yet, if a political situation could be mastered through diplomacy rather than costly, destructive violence, statecraft dictated the peaceful path. He felt a sudden surge of relief that he had maintained his diplomatic mask and hadn’t disrespected the boy or his clan tonight.

Smoothing his expression into one of polite, weighted curiosity, the City Lord leaned forward. "A truly fascinating lineage, Young Master Tang. If I may ask... what precise realm has your esteemed Master achieved?"