Lighting the Ancestral Shrine!!

This older girl was already an adult, a little taller than Qi Lin, with a graceful figure.

Under the gaze of her beautiful eyes, Qi Lin thought for a moment before saying, "I only remember that he had a huge nose!"

"A huge nose?"

Su Lianxi fell into thought, searching her memories for someone with that feature.

"Sister Su." Qi Lin interrupted her thoughts and asked, "These Xiao clansmen seized our land and tore down our homes and ancestral shrine. They deserve to die, don't they?"

"They do deserve to die... The Xiao Clan's evil deeds have already violated the laws of the Great Cang Kingdom!"

Su Lianxi came back to herself and addressed the crowd. "Everyone, please rest assured. My father will go to the Divine Capital to report this matter. You need only wait at home for good news."

"Also, the city guards will remain in Pingyang District to protect everyone."

Hearing Su Lianxi's words, the commoners wept tears of joy.

Those were the very words they had been waiting for!

Qi Lin could save people, but he was ultimately just a child on his own. Only the city lord's manor could truly safeguard the people's land.

"We thank you on our knees, Fairy Su!"

The commoners dropped to their knees, weeping.

"Please, get up..."

Su Lianxi comforted them again and again.

Only after soothing the people did she walk over to a corner.

"Su Cheng."

She summoned the commander of the city guards and asked in a low voice, "Have you found Xiao Tianyang?"

"No, young lady," Su Cheng said.

"He probably went after that evil man," Su Lianxi said.

Su Cheng nodded, then asked in puzzlement, "Young lady, why would that evil man help these poor parasites?"

Su Lianxi's face was cold. "Qi Lin's grandfather was a reclusive expert when he was alive. He even taught my father a lesson once."

"You mean that old thing is still alive?" Su Cheng asked in surprise.

"He's been in the ground for years. It was probably a friend or successor of that old thing." Su Lianxi paused. "Check the recent records of people entering and leaving Mystic City. See if there were any odd characters with huge noses."

"Yes." Su Cheng nodded.

"Young lady, there's something I don't understand."

A maid in green stood to Su Lianxi's right.

Having heard all this, she hesitantly asked, "Are we on the same side as the Xiao Clan?"

Su Lianxi looked at her. "You haven't even realized that much?"

The maid lowered her head and pinched the corner of her clothes. "But you just promised the people you'd stand up for them, and then you told them to stay at home..."

"If I didn't say that, they'd be running all over the place. So many Xiao clansmen have died now. If we don't leave these tens of thousands of paupers for the Xiao Clan to vent their anger on, our Su Family will be finished." Su Lianxi sneered. "These frogs at the bottom of a well have no idea what a great clan at the height of its power the Xiao Clan of the Divine Capital is, yet they expect my Su Family to stand up for them? I sold the whole of Pingyang District to the Xiao Clan for a single place to cultivate at the Divine Strategy Manor. What am I supposed to stand up for?"

"Oh..."

As the maid listened, she felt terrible, though she didn't know why.

An entire Pingyang District, the blood and sweat of tens of thousands of people, had been traded to the Xiao Clan for a single place at the Divine Strategy Manor.

That was the truth behind the Xiao Clan's destruction today!

The people who had survived the disaster were still waiting hopefully for Su Lianxi to bring them good news...

Who knew that what awaited them was a merciless slaughter?

A mass grave?

"Young lady, it's wrong to betray the trust of people who have suffered so much."

The maid suddenly spoke in a fit of passion, her voice choked with grief.

Su Lianxi froze and looked at the maid for a long while.

Then she shook her head and laughed sweetly. "Qianqian, oh Qianqian, the divine dynasty is falling apart, the great clans are rising, and an age of chaos has arrived. Human lives are as cheap as insects... Do you know who dies first in an age of chaos? I usually play the saint to earn a good reputation, but you really are one!"

The moment she finished speaking, Su Cheng drew his sword behind her.

The maid's face changed, and she cried, "Young lady, I've served you for six years..."

Without sparing the maid a glance, Su Lianxi said to Su Cheng, "She's still a virgin. Before you kill her, drag her away and let the brothers have some fun with her."

Su Cheng's cold eyes lit up slightly. "Then they can line up."

Night fell, and a person's anguished sobs mingled with the chirping of insects on the summer night.

It was impossible to tell them apart.

At night.

Qi Lin changed into a set of night clothes, stepped onto a rooftop, and looked in the direction of the city lord's manor.

"Su Lianxi, you'd better be as good as your word."

His gaze icy, Qi Lin prepared to set off at speed.

"Where are you going?"

The instant he leaped forward, someone seized him by the back of the neck and forcibly "picked" him back up.

"Who?"

Qi Lin hurriedly turned to look!

The person who had grabbed him was an old man with white hair and a white beard, bearing the air of an immortal sage. He held a white banner bearing four characters: "Heavenly Secrets, Divine Divination."

"Holy crap, a ghost!!"

Qi Lin's scream suddenly ripped through the night sky.

"What the hell are you screaming for?"

The white-robed elder hauled Qi Lin back into the ancestral shrine and curled his lip. "Look closely. I'm alive and kicking, full of life!"

"Grandpa!" Qi Lin hugged the elder's leg. It really was solid. Stunned, he said, "Didn't you kick the bucket? I buried you with my own hands when I was ten."

Qi Tianji coughed, then said, "Don't concern yourself with that. All you need to know is that your grandpa isn't dead."

The surprise was so great that Qi Lin felt as if he were dreaming. He had spent three years as an orphan, lonely and miserable, only to find that his grandfather was still alive and kicking?

But after the initial joy, he immediately glared at the white-robed elder. "You didn't want to guard the ancestral shrine, so you faked your death and tricked me into keeping vigil while you went out to enjoy yourself?"

"Not important, not important."

Looking guilty, Qi Tianji changed the subject. "Well, it's been three years. You've grown a lot taller, haven't you? Got hair yet? You're thirteen. It's time you got married, isn't it?"

Qi Lin: "..."

He was speechless!

"Let's get down to business!"

Qi Tianji suddenly turned serious. "I know all about what happened during the day. Tell me, what were you going to do?"

"Something feels off about Su Lianxi. Her city guards don't look like they're protecting us. It's more like they're holding us prisoner. I need to grab someone and force the truth out of them," Qi Lin said bluntly.

"Don't go." Qi Tianji looked out at the darkness blanketing the world beyond the ancestral shrine. "What could you do even if you got the truth? Could you fight your way out with tens of thousands of commoners? Without their land and homes, they'd find nothing outside the city but natural disasters and vicious villains. They'd have no way to survive. How many could you save?"

Qi Lin fell silent.

"All right." Qi Tianji patted his shoulder and said calmly, "Now that Grandpa's home, saving people isn't your concern. You have your own fate."

Indeed, with his grandfather there, Qi Lin finally felt a little more at ease.

He asked, "Grandpa, what is my fate?"

Qi Tianji looked at the black wooden sword in his hand and said nothing for a long time.

He didn't answer Qi Lin's question. Instead, he said, "Give me the sword made from the ancestors' spirit tablets."

"How did you know?" Qi Lin asked.

"The clan records say that when the spirit tablets of the ten ancestors become a sword, the Qitian Clan Flame will burn the heavens."

"Then do you know what's inside the sword?" Qi Lin asked again.

"The Clan Flame!" Qi Tianji said.

Hearing this, Qi Lin roughly understood that his grandfather probably didn't know those ancient gods were sealed inside the sword!

"Here, Grandpa." Qi Lin said no more and handed him the sword.

Qi Tianji took the black wooden sword, walked outside the ancestral shrine, and planted it hilt-first in the ground.

Its tip pointed at the heavens!

Then Qi Tianji dripped blood onto the tip of the sword and knelt, prostrating himself on the ground.

"Ancestors above! Please bring forth the Clan Flame!"

At Qi Tianji's words, golden tomb inscriptions emerged on the black wooden sword and gathered into a flame, which soared into the sky and flew above the dark clouds!

At that moment, tears welled up in Qi Tianji's eyes.

"Ten thousand years! The Qitian clansmen who have wandered far and wide can finally return home!"

With that, he looked in the direction of the Divine Capital, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "The Xiao Clan? A great clan at the height of its power?"

Ten thousand years!

After that battle, the last member of the Qitian Clan, burdened with regret, had concealed his name and identity and quietly carried on the clan, passing down several bloodlines, all while waiting for this day!

They had each established a foundation and taken on new identities to survive. No one knew who they truly were. Only in the deepest part of the ancestral shrine were the three characters "Qitian Clan" engraved.

"Grandpa, what are you muttering to yourself about?" Qi Lin stepped forward and asked.

"Nothing." Qi Tianji pulled out the black wooden sword and tossed it to Qi Lin.

Meanwhile, that wisp of golden Clan Flame had already vanished into the sky.

"Xiao Lin, in the days ahead, our family may have 'guests' arriving one after another. They'll be all kinds of people."

"So?"

"You're no longer an orphan."

The Divine Ash Ruins.

"The Clan Flame, the Qitian Clan Flame!"

That night, when the wisp of golden flame landed in the ancestral shrine, shadowy figures wept tears of joy.

"The Clan Flame is still rather weak, and Gods and Devils surround us. We still can't make a great show of moving the whole clan back, so who should we send back first to protect the Clan Flame?"

The crowd looked at one another.

"Let Xiao Long go first!"

Someone suddenly shouted, and everyone agreed on the spot.

"Quick, send the great devil king of the Divine Ash Ruins away!"

Meanwhile,

Divine Firmament Cloud City...

The Sin Tribulation Abyss...

The Six Nether Thunder Pool...

The Dao Annihilation Furnace...

Streaks of Clan Flame crossed time and space, lighting the ancestral shrines!