"Exhaust all of the Ye family's resources, spare no expense-we must bring Chu Chen back!"

Ancestor Ye Shanhe's voice boomed like a great bell. Even across countless layers of space and time, his resolute, decisive tone echoed throughout the Ye family's main hall, leaving everyone, including Patriarch Ye Ding, utterly speechless with shock.

A long time passed.

Only after the Ye family Ancestor's voice had completely faded.

Only after that terrifying Saint King realm pressure had vanished.

Did the Ye family members finally come to their senses, snapping out of their shock and letting out long sighs of relief.

"What has gotten into the Ancestor today? Why is he so furious?"

Ye Ding furrowed his brow, returning to his seat as Patriarch, still trembling with lingering fear.

Although he was the Ye family Patriarch, this position had only been bestowed upon him by Ancestor Ye Shanhe because of Chu Chen's past contributions to the family.

Otherwise, whether in terms of strength, seniority, or contributions to the clan, he, Ye Ding, could never have sat in the Patriarch's seat.

As for his Great Saint cultivation...

In the eyes of Saint King realm experts, especially peak Saint King realm experts like the Ye family Ancestor, a Great Saint was merely a slightly larger ant.

But an ant was still an ant-one finger could crush a whole swarm of them!

So for Ye Ding, offending Ancestor Ye Shanhe was absolutely, utterly out of the question.

"This is the first time the Ancestor has been so harsh with me. I only asked if he had succeeded in his secluded cultivation and stepped into the Quasi-Emperor realm, and the Ancestor actually..."

"Actually used a great divine ability to banish me into the boundless void. Fortunately, just as I was about to be lost forever, the Ancestor pulled me back at the last moment."

Speaking of this, Ye Ding was still shaken.

"By the way, Lingyue, what is this Chaos Blood Pill the Ancestor mentioned?"

The flustered Ye Ding looked doubtfully at his eldest daughter, Ye Lingyue, and kept asking:

"And why does the Ancestor want us to spare no expense to bring that waste Chu Chen back? Could it be that this brat offended the Ancestor?!"

"Damn it all, I shouldn't have just expelled that unfilial son from the family back then-I should have struck him dead with a single palm!!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Ye Lingyue, who had been about to speak, was so frightened she took several steps back. Meanwhile, Ye Qingqing, Ye Ling'er, and the others nodded vigorously in agreement with Ye Ding.

"Father, this pill was refined by that waste Chu Chen using his own blood. The Ancestor calls it the Chaos Blood Pill. Over the years, Chu Chen has been stuffing them into our hands, forcing us to eat them, and lying to us that they're good for cultivation."

Seeing that Ye Lingyue wasn't speaking, Ye Ling'er immediately chattered away, eagerly opening her mouth:

"I couldn't stand that waste constantly bothering me, so I did try eating one. But as soon as it entered my mouth, a bloody taste spread out. I dry-heaved a few times and spat it out."

Ye Qingqing and Ye Han also nodded in agreement. As soon as they heard it was refined from Chu Chen's own blood, goosebumps rose all over their bodies, and they felt nauseous enough to vomit. There was no way they could swallow it.

"Later, Xiao Xuan said he liked these pills, so we basically gave all our Chaos Blood Pills to him. We only kept a tiny bit with us, and just now we handed them all over to the Ancestor..."

As soon as these words fell, everyone turned to look at Ye Xuan, who had been silent all along.

Ye Xuan scratched his head, smiled sheepishly, and then whispered awkwardly:

"Father, elder sisters, those Chaos Blood Pills you gave me... I... I also found them disgusting, so I fed them all to the dogs~"

Fed them to the dogs???

Ye Xuan sneered inwardly. Over the years, if it hadn't been for the Chaos Blood Pills Chu Chen had refined, how could he, Ye Xuan, have broken through to the Sea Cleaving Realm so quickly??

It was just a pity that the Chaos Blood Pills he had tricked out of his sisters were almost entirely consumed by him.

Now that Chu Chen had severed ties with the Ye family, not only had the Ye family's providence been scattered, but this ox brimming with Chaos Blood had also disappeared. His, Ye Xuan's, future cultivation path...

Would be full of obstacles!!

No, he had to bring Chu Chen back. He had to!!

"Father, never mind these trivial matters. Didn't the Ancestor give his orders? He told you to spare no expense to bring Brother Chu Chen back to the Ye family before he emerges from secluded cultivation."

To divert everyone's attention from the Chaos Blood Pills, and also to bring Chu Chen back to the Ye family, Ye Xuan trotted over to Ye Ding with small steps, opened his innocent big eyes, and said worriedly:

"Father, since the Ancestor has spoken, you should go to the Sacred Flame Imperial Palace and bring Brother Chu Chen back quickly."

"I'm worried... I'm worried that Brother Chu Chen is suffering in the Sacred Flame Imperial Palace~"

As soon as these words were spoken, Ye Ding was so moved that tears streamed down his aged face.

He pulled Ye Xuan into his arms, overflowing with fatherly love:

"Xiao Xuan, I know you're saying this because you're worried about me, worried that if that waste doesn't return to the Ye family, the Ancestor will punish your father."

"If that waste had even one-tenth or one-hundredth of your filial piety, how could things have escalated to this point? How could he have thrown my Ye family into such chaos?"

"Hmph, to get this waste back to the Ye family, why would we need to make the trip ourselves? Let your father write a letter and have someone deliver it. Once this brat sees it, he'll definitely be moved to tears, feel as if he's received a grand pardon, and come scurrying back."

Saying this, Ye Ding stood up, took out paper and brush, and began writing a long letter with a flourish:

"Chu Chen, you unfilial son, since you've already recovered your cultivation, why haven't you come crawling back to the Ye family to serve us? Could it be that after being expelled from the Ye family, you know you have no face to see the ancestors and are too ashamed to return?!"

"Since you already know you've done wrong, I, as Patriarch, am not unwilling to give you a chance. I order you to crawl back to the Ye family within three days of receiving this letter, to serve as a slave and servant in my Ye family for ten years. If your performance during these ten years is acceptable, I will consider restoring your status as a Ye family disciple. If not..."

Ye Ding thought it over, deleted and revised, and the letter ended up being over a thousand words long. It balanced kindness with authority, displaying the dignity of a father and Patriarch to the fullest.

It both gave Chu Chen hope of regaining his Ye family disciple status and appropriately warned him, preventing this brat from becoming spoiled by favor.

"Father, this..."

Ye Lingyue furrowed her brow. She felt her father was... a bit too confident.

"Say no more. I've personally written him a letter-what more does he want?"

Ye Ding waved his hand, then handed the completed letter to the steward, ordering it to be sent to the Sacred Flame Imperial Palace with all speed.

Ye Lingyue sighed softly, then cupped her hands in a salute, turned, and left the main hall.

Ye Qingqing, Ye Ling'er, and the others, seeing this, also found excuses to leave the Ye family's main hall and return to their own cultivation dwellings.

After everyone had left, Ye Ding furtively dismissed everyone, including the steward and maidservants. Then he entered a secret chamber alone, closed the stone door, and activated a formation to conceal all auras.

After doing all this, Ye Ding began rummaging through his Storage Ring, searching high and low. After a long time, he finally found a few small pill bottles.

He eagerly uncorked the bottles. Looking at the Chaos Blood Pills lying inside, Ye Ding was overjoyed. He opened his mouth and directly poured the Chaos Blood Pills from the bottle into it, chewing them up.

"Even the Ancestor values these Chaos Blood Pills so highly-they must be a treasure!!"

As soon as the Chaos Blood Pills entered his mouth, the rich bloody scent spread, then transformed into streams of warmth that flowed through his limbs and bones, rushing straight toward his Sea of Consciousness:

"I need to eat all these Chaos Blood Pills quickly, before the Ancestor comes looking for them and there's none left for me!"

Boom!!

As the Chaos Blood Pills were gradually refined, strands of Chaos Qi gathered within Ye Ding's body. His stagnant cultivation, which had been stuck for so long, now encountered an opportunity for a breakthrough.

"Damn it! It really is a treasure! It really is a treasure!"

"I was such a fool before, thinking these pills had a bloody smell and were disgusting, so I never ate them. I was... blind!!"

Ye Ding uncorked all the bottles in one breath and swallowed every Chaos Blood Pill. In an instant, he broke through a minor realm, his aura surging:

"That waste possesses the Chaos God Physique. Even if his divine body was shattered in battle with the Empress, the Chaos Qi has long since merged into his flesh and blood, his bones-he's a living treasure trove!"

"And I actually expelled him from the Ye family. I truly..."

"This time, when I trick this brat back to the Ye family, I'll definitely lock him in the stable and drain his blood day and night to refine Chaos Blood Pills, to aid my cultivation!!"

...

Meanwhile.

Ye Han.

Ye Qingqing.

Ye Ling'er.

...

Everyone in the Ye family except Ye Lingyue, after returning to their own cultivation dwellings, rushed into their secret chambers, closed the doors, and began frantically searching for Chaos Blood Pills.

Once found, without a word, they stuffed them into their mouths, chewing and refining, afraid that if they fell behind, these Chaos Blood Pills would be gone.

The expressions on their faces shifted from disgust and aversion, to shock, to delight, and finally to full regret and unwillingness.

Until they stared at the empty pill bottles, consumed by remorse...

Birds of a feather flock together.

The Ye family, from Ye Ding the father down to Ye Ling'er the youngest sister.

All thought exactly alike. Their expressions when secretly eating the Chaos Blood Pills were identical.

Truly, birds of a feather flock together.

...

"Xiao Xuan, do you know where Chu Chen's cultivation dwelling is?"

After leaving the Ye family's main hall, Ye Lingyue did not return to her own dwelling. Instead, she looked at Ye Xuan beside her and spoke:

"Can you take me to see Chu Chen's cultivation dwelling? I want..."

"I want to see how Chu Chen has been living all these years in my Ye family."

Ye Xuan was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then scratched his head and said reluctantly:

"Alright... alright, Eldest Sister."

...