Most likely, Chief Elder Baishen had guessed something about Cao Yun's origin, but it wasn't very important. First of all, it wouldn't be very long before all of the Hongchen Kingdom learned of it. More importantly, he was the Young Sect Master of the Wubei Sect, so she would never betray him, no matter what.

Anyway, she immediately started talking about her discussion with his great-grandfather.

"It was by pure chance that I met Cao Beiwen while I was visiting the Huang family for our Wubei Sect. When he saw me, he was extremely interested in discussing his most recent martial art, 'Three Storms'. You see, Cao Beiwen wasn't an incredibly proficient martial artist, but he was still a very good cultivator, to the point that he did make a name for himself and truly founded the unfortunate Cao family. Honestly, my interest was piqued when he mentioned that he had created a sword art and wanted my opinion on it.

"You probably know the story, but he had survived a terrifying tempest. Within the storm, he had found some insights that he tried to put on paper. 'The Wind rises in the East. The Thunder rumbles in the West. The Ice hails in the South. The Three Storms unite in the North. All is gone in the world.' was the gist of his martial art. At the time, he truly had only mastered the first three verses and had a hard time with the last two. To be honest, he really only had a hard time with the penultimate verse while the last verse was completely out of his reach. The first two verses were under the Wood element, the third one under the Water element, but the fourth had to unite both of them.

"Although Water is soothing and calm, it nourishes Wood and can make it violent and uncontrollable. That was his main problem, as is yours. As a matter of fact, the verses already contain the solution. The cardinal points are the key to mastering this martial art. I do think that with your knowledge of alchemy and array formations, you should be able to understand by yourself. No martial art only relies on one or even two elements. Just like nature, all five elements are always present. But their ratio and their interactions vary greatly. More than that, the elements must be understood philosophically not physically. Fire is not always made of flames or even heat, just like Water is not always about a liquid. After all, the Wood element manifests as the concepts of Wind and Thunder. I am confident you will find the solution that suits you best."

Cao Yun intently listened to Chief Elder Baishen. Finally, he understood something. Indeed, he had never really paid attention to the cardinal points mentioned in the verses. Honestly, he had just thought they were there for poetic reasons. But there were five verses just like there were five elements. Maybe he could find out some deeper truth by analyzing it like that.

Before Cao Yun could ask any questions, Chief Elder Baishen took out a small jade slip. She injected her Qi into it and carved it. Then, she gave it to Cao Yun and left.

"I sincerely hope we can spar again after you've mastered all my pointers and some more. Train well, Young Sect Master Chen."

Injecting his spiritual senses within the jade slip, Cao Yun realized that this was a detailed account of their fight. Chief Elder Baishen had put in all the pointers she had thought of during the fight. Even weaknesses, flaws, and mistakes Cao Yun had not imagined. Just by reading it, it was as if he was reliving the fight. But it was a bit shameful as all of his flaws were exposed. He felt as though he were an amateur who had tried to impress a true master. When it came to analyzing martial arts, Chief Elder Baishen was absolutely peerless indeed. Even if someday Cao Yun became stronger and more proficient than her, he was certain that her eyes would still perceive flaws he had no idea were in him.

After studying the jade slip for some time, Cao Yun left the arena. Following his brother's advice, he decided to walk toward the Heavenly Swallow Faction. On the way though, he thought about the 'Three Storms' verses.

'The Wind rises in the East. The Thunder rumbles in the West. The Ice hails in the South. The Three Storms unite in the North. All is gone in the world.'

Wind was Wood, just like East, but Thunder was Wood while West was Metal. Of course, Cao Yun immediately saw the relationship between Metal and Thunder, most likely this Metal element was related to the Heaven concept since Metal had two concepts that were Heaven and Lake. But then, while 'Ice' clearly referred to the concept of Water, South was related to Fire. Maybe it was something about balancing the Water element with the Fire element in order to keep the storm under control. After that, North was related to Water, but it couldn't possibly mean to pour more Water element to control the three storms together... Finally, the last verse had no direct cardinal point so it probably talked about the Earth element. In fact, the reference to 'all in the world' made Cao Yun quite convinced it was the case.

Cao Yun pondered over this matter quite a lot. While he was walking, his mind was imagining many things. With his Rune of Fire, he had great control of the Fire element. What he imagined was to use Water and Fire together to balance each other out and reduce the violence of the storm, but it would not work that well. Besides, simply thinking about it wouldn't be very helpful, he had to practice it. While he was on the Divine Blood Ocean, Cao Yun had gone through storms so he tried to remember all his sensations there. In the ocean, the Water element was rich all around him. But it didn't mean that all other elements were gone.

Without realizing it, Cao Yun had reached the Heavenly Swallow Faction in the outer yard. At first, he simply didn't recognize it. Indeed, it was ten, twenty times bigger than what he remembered. The faction had expanded a lot since his days there. Many disciples were coming and going. Since Cao Yun was only slightly using his stealth art, the disciples didn't really recognize his face but they saw that he was an inner disciple, and a Spirit Warrior. As such, they all bowed in deference before him each time they either entered or left the residence.

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In less than a few breaths, an elegant man wearing the emblem of the Heavenly Swallow Faction, accompanied by two beauties with the same emblem, came out to greet Cao Yun.

"Senior, may those poor juniors help you?"

"You may, junior brother. I wanted to meet with your current Faction Leader."

"Senior, it is unfortunate. Faction Leader Yue is currently outside of the Wubei Sect. He was called on a mission against dangerous demonic beasts in the south. However, I am acting Faction Leader in his absence."

"Good, good. Then, I will meet with you. Lead the way, I'll follow."

"Of course, Senior."

Clearly, Cao Yun could see that he was disturbing them, but he sincerely wanted to see how this Heavenly Swallow Faction was doing. Zhi Yin had asked him to let it flourish as a way for unaffiliated disciples to still be able to endure this faction system. Hopefully, it had not derailed from its original purpose too much.

As the young man was leading Cao Yun, he observed the grounds. What surprised him first were the array formations. Most likely, his brother Sun Liao had either set them up himself or had the array formation pavilion do so. Indeed, they were very impressive. Of course, they were not on the same level as the array formations protecting the Wubei Sect. But they would not pale in comparison with a few large cities of the Hongchen Kingdom. At the very least, it meant that Sun Liao trusted this Heavenly Swallow Faction. Moreover, Cao Yun was certain that his brothers and sister wouldn't have tolerated for their faction to turn into bullies.

In a courtyard, he recognized the trio he had seen in the Lunar Marsh. The young man with silver hair, Gua Yinzu, was still complaining even though they were training. No matter what, he seemed to care more about his appearance than the training itself. But Cao Yun's perception was good enough to assure him it wasn't the case. Despite his apparent nonchalance, he was very earnest. By his side were the two young women, including Yun Hua.

Around them were other disciples, but they were all receiving great attention and valuable pointers from a couple of fifth-years. Listening to them, Cao Yun was impressed by the quality of their pointers and guidance. Of course, they were nothing exceptional, and inferior to the best instructors of the Wubei Sect. But they were clearly doing their very best to help their juniors and it pleased Cao Yun. Besides, he could also smell a few pills of great quality. Indeed, the trio had each received a pill for their previous mission in the Lunar Marsh. Apparently, his Heavenly Swallow Faction was doing well and wasn't abusing its younger members.

In fact, Cao Yun was surprised to see a disciple without the emblem of any faction. She was a very young girl who couldn't be anything other than a first-year. Since the year was almost finished, she had probably spent the whole year without a faction. However, she was treated well by the Heavenly Swallow Faction. Apparently, she was trying to buy something, or maybe to exchange something. At first, he thought she was trying to buy a pill with her merit points, but he realized that she was trying to exchange her time in a training array formation against this pill. This showed Cao Yun that the faction wasn't abusing the training array formations.

When he had been unaffiliated, the factions had put pressure on Cao Yun by booking the training facilities right when he wanted to go. This had been so annoying he had more or less been forced into the Heavenly Swallow Faction. From what he could see, it wasn't happening here. Indeed, the faction had absolutely no reason to accept such a deal from this first-year if they planned on using their privilege over those training facilities to crush other students.

Finally, the young man and his two beauties had led Cao Yun into the main building of the faction. He immediately recognized it. It used to be the only building in the faction and they had almost changed nothing, only repaired a few things here and there.

Once inside, they led Cao Yun to a room where they could have some tea and talk. On the wall, he saw the portraits of Zhi Yin, himself. After that, he saw Liu Ang, older than Cao Yun remembered him. Surely, this portrait had been painted when Liu Ang was a fourth-year or maybe even fifth-year. After his portrait, Cao Yun recognized Mei Ying's face, although she was also older, this was clearly her as she looked a lot like her sister. Finally, he saw the portraits of a few other cultivators he couldn't remember since he had never met them. Clearly, those were all the faction leaders and the last one had to be Faction Leader Yue. As it turned out, he looked a lot like the young man in front of him, maybe his brother.

Now that he looked closely, he could also tell that the older sister by his side had almost the same eyes. But the second beauty had absolutely nothing in common with the two other disciples. Besides, she was staying a bit behind them as though to observe. In a few moments, Cao Yun had roughly guessed that this younger girl was to be the future faction leader, maybe not next year, but in the years to come. The other two were trying to teach her.

"Senior, let us treat you to some tea."

"Thank you, but I don't want to disturb your activities too long. My visit was a bit impromptu, I admit. But I did desire to see how my Heavenly Swallow Faction had evolved over the years."

His words shocked the three of them.

"Oh?! Senior, my apologies, I had not recognized you as a previous member of our Heavenly Swallow Faction."

"Well, it was a few years ago, you weren't even in the Wubei Sect at the time. To be honest, it was a time when factions tended to bully the younger disciples into joining them. And our Heavenly Swallow Faction was trying to prevent that. I'll soon leave for some time, so I got a bit sentimental. And I wanted to make sure that the faction I remembered still existed. I have to say that I am quite pleased with what I see."

The three of them were honestly a bit skeptical. They were trying to form a timeline in their minds. What their senior was saying didn't seem possible from what they knew of the history of the Heavenly Swallow Faction, given his cultivation. When he was a Mortal Warrior, the faction couldn't even have existed. Maybe he was just misremembering or he was trying not to divulge some things. The three outer disciples were not in any position to question him though. Not only was he an inner disciple, he was actually a middle Spirit Warrior. That was an existence far above them.

"Well, I am glad that our small faction did not disappoint Senior."

"Indeed, it did not... I won't impose on you much longer. Here, take this."

Cao Yun gave them a spatial pouch. This was a form of array formation plate similar to spatial rings, but much less convenient. Of course, the gift wasn't the spatial pouch but what was inside. Just by using his spiritual senses, Cao Yun had selected a few items and had put them in this spatial pouch. By activating it, the disciples would take all the items out. Of course, they waited for their senior to leave.

Without waiting much longer, Cao Yun left. Soon after, the three disciples couldn't stand straight and fell to the ground. The content of the spatial pouch was simply too much for them...

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