Mountain Sea Academy, the eastern side courtyard.
The door opened, and a figure slowly walked out.
After the vernal equinox, the snow had melted, and new buds were sprouting on the surrounding plants.
Shen Ye stepped forward two steps, his gaze falling on the buds before him.
Behind him, two bird chirps rang out from the top of the tree.
Upon hearing it, Shen Ye reached out and pinched off the new bud on the branch, leaving others to wonder what was on his mind.
At the courtyard gate, the somewhat distracted scholar noticed Shen Ye coming out and quickly bent over and ran towards him.
This time in the meditation retreat, it was initially expected to finish by the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month.
But as things dragged on, it was already the end of the second lunar month.
"Young Master Ye..."
The scholar walked to Shen Ye’s side, bowed, and paid respects.
Shen Ye just nodded, then turned around and sat on the rattan chair in the courtyard.
"This time the retreat was somewhat long, but the gains were considerable.
This Fifth Grade Half-Step Realm has finally been breached."
The scholar at his side, upon hearing this, showed no expression of surprise:
"After Mr. Luo came to visit you last month, he spread the word everywhere, saying you had advanced again.
It seems many people in the Capital City already know..."
Hearing this, Shen Ye shook his head and smiled wryly.
"Mr. Luo really can’t keep anything to himself..."
After saying that, Shen Ye turned to the scholar beside him: "During this time, is there any important news? Tell me about it one by one."
Hearing this, the scholar quickly took out a stack of small notes from his waist, densely recorded with many things.
Before the Thousand-Autumn Grand Gathering began, Shen Ye entered meditation retreat.
During that period, he had a sound transmission exchange with the Patriarch Shen Qingshan and was visited by Mr. Luo to check on his retreat results.
But since it was during the retreat, Shen Ye was presumably not interested in affairs outside of cultivation.
After some thought, the scholar began mentioning matters from the Thousand-Autumn Grand Gathering.
"At the end of last Winter Month’s Thousand-Autumn Grand Gathering, Miss Jinyu’s results were quite close to your expectations.
Miss Jinyu still lacked some perseverance and only reached the seventy-sixth step of the Thousand-Autumn Steps..."
Shen Ye’s gaze was on the new buds in the flowerbed around, and hearing these, he merely nodded.
"Although the seventy-sixth step is a good result, this year, Shen Han reached the eightieth step and took first place..."
"Who?"
"Shen Han, your cousin, Young Master Ye..."
Hearing this, Shen Ye couldn’t help but frown and looked at the scholar beside him.
"He reached the eightieth step of the Thousand-Autumn Steps?"
The scholar nodded. Hearing Shen Ye speak in such a tone, he became a bit nervous unconsciously.
"I have learned from the Shen Family that Shen Han has been concealing his abilities; he’s actually quite skilled..."
Shen Ye waved his hand, indicating no need to say more.
Whether Shen Han was hiding his abilities, whatever skills he had, Shen Ye didn’t care at all since it was impossible for him to be more skilled than Shen Ye.
Shen Ye wasn’t interested in knowing how Shen Han was doing.
"So how was this engagement annulled in the end? Did Old Duke come to the Capital City to seek annulment from His Holiness?"
The scholar shook his head: "It was the former Patriarch of the Su Family who entered the palace to plead for the annulment..."
Shen Ye pondered for a while and then nodded: "When Old Duke communicated with me through sound transmission, he didn’t mention it at all; the Su Family must hold some resentment towards our Shen Family."
"Old Duke should have been afraid of disturbing your cultivation, so he only talked about minor matters."
The scholar said, then began to flip through his stack of small notes again.
"There were some rumors about Miss Jinyu circulating in the alleys...
Saying during Stepping into the Thousand Autumns, Miss Jinyu protected Shen Han a bit too...
The scholar didn’t continue, but the implied meaning was clear.
Hearing these, Shen Ye’s brow naturally furrowed again.
He didn’t believe Su Jinyu had any interest in Shen Han; if she truly had, why go through the trouble of annulling the engagement?
But these rumors made him somewhat uncomfortable.
A feeling of his personal belongings being touched by others.