Chapter 250: Secrets of the Witch Clan

When Ye Feng saw the leader of the Witch Clan, he was truly surprised. It was an elderly man lying in a hospital bed, with gray hair and beard that reached the ground. His face was covered with the marks of time, emphasizing his old age. His spirit was extremely weak, as if he hadn’t slept for days. Only his dark eyes remained clear and innocent like those of a newborn baby, standing in sharp contrast to his aged appearance.

When he saw several elders bringing Ye Feng back, he struggled to turn his head and gave Ye Feng a faint smile. The wrinkles on his face were as bright as chrysanthemums blooming in late autumn. Ye Feng also politely nodded back at him with a smile.

The old man moved his fingers, and a young woman beside him brought her ear close to his mouth. Ye Feng listened carefully to his slurred words, trying to figure out what he was saying, but to no avail. After he finished speaking, the young woman raised her head and said to Ye Feng, “The clan leader says welcome to your arrival. We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time!”

“Thank you. But if you could predict my arrival, surely you can also predict when Dil will arrive?” Ye Feng asked anxiously.

After hearing Ye Feng’s question, the leader of the Witch Clan spoke to the woman beside him again.

“The clan leader says the last prediction was about you. No more predictions have been made since then,” the woman said, shaking her head.

“Then can another prediction be made?” Ye Feng asked hesitantly, considering how much effort it took the old man to move his fingers even now.

“Sorry, the last prediction was the clan leader’s final one,” the young woman replied directly, without consulting the old man. “He no longer has the strength to make predictions. Each use of the great prophecy spell consumes a great deal of energy and effort.”

“Oh, I’m sorry…” This result was within Ye Feng’s expectations. Yet he still felt puzzled—how could the clan leader still predict his arrival in such a state?

At that moment, the elder who had brought him there spoke up with a smile, “The clan leader’s prediction about you was made over twenty years ago. To be precise, it was about twenty-one years ago. Since then, the clan leader has become like this.”

“How do you know that…” Ye Feng was slightly stunned. The other person could even know what he was thinking.

“This is also a secret technique of the Witch Clan, called Mind Reading!” the elder said with a slightly embarrassed smile. “But don’t worry—this technique can only detect what you’re thinking now; it can’t uncover your past or secrets. Also, this spell can be blocked.”
“If you find it inconvenient, I can help you block this detection!”
“Block it. I certainly don’t want some unpleasant thoughts of mine to be detected by you!” Ye Feng without hesitation chose to block this detection—such a secret technique left no privacy at all.
Ye Feng saw the other person form a hand seal, and a transparent sphere surrounded him before disappearing in an instant.
“Alright, it’s done now!” the elder said with a smile.
“You said earlier that prophecy existed twenty-one years ago?” Ye Feng then raised the question on his mind. He had been in the cultivation world for nearly a year, and the time mentioned by the elder was roughly the year he was abandoned by his parents.
“That’s right, it was the year you were born!” the elder nodded. “To be exact, it was the day before you appeared at the orphanage door that the clan leader predicted today.”
After hearing this, Ye Feng hesitated for a moment before looking at the elder. “Elder, could you tell me why my parents abandoned me?”
Only after hearing the elder’s explanation did the woman slowly look at Ye Feng. “The elder says you weren’t abandoned—you were chosen!”
“What does that mean?” Ye Feng pressed further.
“The secrets of fate cannot be revealed!” the young woman shook her head.
“Then can you tell me who my real parents are? Are they still alive? Where do they live now?” Ye Feng posed several questions in a row.
The woman bowed her head again, listened to the elder muttering for a while, then raised her head. “The elder says he didn’t see who your parents were. By the time he saw you, you were already left at the orphanage door. He also said he tried to investigate your background but found nothing.”
After hearing this, Ye Feng felt even more frustrated. If no one had brought this up, he might have forgotten long ago and never thought of searching for his real parents. But since they mentioned the orphanage, they told him he couldn’t find any information about his parents.
“If they can’t be found, does that mean they’ve passed away?” Ye Feng asked, still not giving up.

“No, logically speaking, the Great Prophecy Art should be able to predict everything—even if your parents die, it should still reveal who they are. But since the clan leader can’t detect anything, there are only two possibilities: either someone with extraordinary powers has concealed the truth, or your parents are beings of such a high level that the Great Prophecy Art can’t reach them. Of course, the first possibility is more likely.”
“Why do you say that?” Ye Feng asked curiously.
“It’s simple. Children born from immortals already possess immortal energy from birth. Once they reach adulthood, they don’t even need to practice—they’re naturally at the immortal level. If your parents reached a high level of cultivation, logically, you would inherit a great deal of energy as well, and it’s impossible for you to be an ordinary person.” The young woman’s analysis made perfect sense.
“So, it means someone powerful deliberately hid my background?” Ye Feng frowned, unable to understand why this would happen.
“You don’t need to overthink it. Since they’ve concealed it, with your current strength, it’s impossible for you to find any clues,” the woman reassured him. “The truth will eventually come to light. There’s no need to rush—things will be clarified sooner or later.”
Ye Feng nodded dejectedly. “Since you’ve predicted my arrival, you must know why I’m here, right?”
“We do. You’re here to kill Dil, to prevent him from obtaining our witch clan’s secret scriptures,” the elder nodded. “We’re very aware of that!”
“If that’s the case, could you lend me those scriptures to browse? I also have some things I need to check. It might only take a few minutes! I’ll return them right here after reading!” Although Ye Feng knew the chances of them agreeing were low, he still couldn’t help asking.
“That’s not possible.” The expressions of those around him darkened when they heard his request.
“The secret scriptures you want to borrow are only accessible to the clan leaders through the ages,” the young woman beside the clan leader frowned. “Moreover, they’re passed down from generation to generation—there’s no way we can lend them to you.”

“Mr. Ye Feng, you might not fully understand the uniqueness of this secret tome. It’s not that we refuse to lend it, but we simply can’t give it to you to read,” added an elder beside Ye Feng. “That tome has a special contract with past clan leaders; it has no physical form and is stored within the clan leader’s mind, not as a tangible object. When a new clan leader takes over, the previous leader passes it on to them. The tome then transitions from one mind to another, but the moment it leaves a mind, it means the previous leader has died. And only those who inherit the tome can read it.”
“So, it can only be passed from one person to another, and if the tome leaves the body, the owner dies?” Ye Feng finally understood why everyone around him had looked so upset when he brought up this matter. His suggestion was essentially equivalent to plotting to kill their clan leader. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know this. I thought it was just a book that could be borrowed freely.”
After Ye Feng apologized, the expressions of those around him eased slightly. After all, as an outsider, he didn’t know many of the rules and could be a bit reckless, which they could understand. Moreover, the Witch Clan members were naturally kind and easy to get along with.
“If that’s the case, could the clan leader tell me if there’s any way to break the Death Substitute?” Ye Feng settled for less, hoping to get an answer from them.
“The method of creating a Death Substitute has been lost for many years. As for a way to break it, we really don’t know!” the elder beside him shook his head helplessly. “There might be a solution in the secret tome, but reading it also requires enormous energy. The clan leader can no longer answer such questions for you.”
The clan leader also shook his head regretfully at Ye Feng.
“Well then,” Ye Feng shrugged helplessly. “If I don’t know, it’s fine. I’ll stay here for a while until that guy Dil shows up! Once I take him out, I won’t have any worries anymore.”
“Sigh, with the clan leader in this condition, no one in the clan is qualified to become the next leader. Our Witch Clan might decline from now on…” the elder sighed and shook his head.
“Why is there no next leader?” Ye Feng couldn’t help asking.

“To inherit that secret scripture, one must at least be at the level of an immortal, but no one with such cultivation has appeared in our clan over the years.” The elder said helplessly, “Our Witch Clan has moved from the cultivation realm of the mortal world to that of the celestial realm, but there is a particularly difficult hurdle to overcome… In the past, when the clan leader was in good health, he could still refine the necessary pills to help us cross this hurdle. But now, the existing stock of those pills has been stolen, leaving us unable to make any progress over these years…”