The Descendants Join Forces to Find Their Founding Ancestor's Father
Early the next morning, in the new residence at Perching Swan Academy.
Qin Zhaoye packed the short blade and dry rations he would need to hunt for a Soul Ring outside the city, putting them into his pack one by one. Only then did he casually open the bronze scroll on the table.
The public chat had been bustling for some time. The three descendants were enthusiastically piling up posts, joining forces to find the father of Tang San, who was already on the road. After all, helping their founding ancestor find his father wasn't something that happened every day.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Don't worry, Founding Ancestor! I've pulled up the historical and modern geographical records of the mountains around Holy Soul Village!]
After sending that message, Lan Xuanyu still wasn't satisfied and immediately added another.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Nine-grid comparison maps sent! Look at the river valleys on the third and seventh maps!]
The moment he sent it, a set of nine maps popped up in the middle of the public chat. Several secluded valleys had been circled in red, though it wasn't yet clear which one was the right place.
After that, Huo Yuhao, who usually spoke the least, unexpectedly dropped a black-and-white defense-zone map into the chat without a word.
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: These were the old defense zones of the Spirit Hall Branch back then. I ran some projections.]
That was always how Huo Yuhao spoke. Without further explanation, he went straight to marking the important points.
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: The three passes marked with red crosses are patrol blind spots. To avoid being seen, you'd have to take the western cliff.]
Seeing that both of them had contributed, Tang Wulin naturally couldn't sit still either.
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Me too! I recited every clue about our ancestral home from the appendix to the Tang Sect's ancestral precepts!]
As he sent the message, he used his special-thread privileges to pin a post titled "The ancestral-home clues I provided."
The list was extremely detailed. It included the design of the bellows Tang Hao used for smithing and his preference for settling near waterfalls. They were all old details from the ancestral precepts' appendix.
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Check the pinned post! The ancestral-home clues I provided are genuine, useful family knowledge!]
Lan Xuanyu opened the pinned post and glanced through it. He couldn't resist a word of praise.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Nice one, Old Tang! Those thirty thousand characters of ancestral precepts didn't go to waste. You're yyds this time!]
At that moment, on a rugged mountain road outside Nuoding City, Tang San was hurrying along with a pack on his back.
As he compared the terrain with the nine-grid maps, he also stared for some time at the strange string of letters in the public chat. His steps faltered slightly, because he genuinely couldn't understand those four letters.
[Tang San: I've matched the maps and the patrol blind spots. But what sort of code is "yyds"?]
Not long after he sent the message, the Group Hub's built-in "Historian's Annotation" function lit up with a ding.
A small golden annotation automatically appeared beneath Lan Xuanyu's message.
"Historian's Annotation: The Fourth Era colloquialism 'forever a god,' rendered in First Era vernacular, is praise for one who stands supreme through eternity."
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Hahahaha! The Historian's Annotation even translated that into classical language!]
Tang Wulin could barely stop laughing, and Lan Xuanyu joined in the teasing.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Stands supreme through eternity? Seriously?! Founding Ancestor, from now on, when you want to praise someone, just type those four letters!]
On the mountain road, Tang San looked at the historian's solemn translation, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
He didn't say much, though. After stepping across a mountain stream, he casually typed a line in the public chat.
[Tang San: Thank you for the lesson. Your research skills are also yyds.]
Lan Xuanyu froze for half a second, then was the first to cry out.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Holy shit! Founding Ancestor just learned it and used it! Putting it into practice right away—I've got to take a screenshot to remember this!]
Huo Yuhao didn't join in the teasing. He was still focused on the matter at hand.
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: Follow the defense-zone map west and you'll reach the entrance to the western cliff. Founding Ancestor, you can check the clues against the area. There might be traces.]
Tang San said no more. Following the blind-spot trail Huo Yuhao had pointed out, he slowly made his way into the valley.
In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he found a half-collapsed old stone forge in a recess in the rock wall beneath a waterfall.
On the side of the forge was a mark left by a hammer handle, over an inch deep. It matched the hidden mark described in the pinned post down to the smallest detail!
Tang San reached out and slowly ran his hand over the hammer mark, then clicked "hard evidence verified" beneath the research thread.
With a boom, the geographical records, the defense-zone map, and the ancestral-home clues converged into a single line on the public chat. Just like that, the key physical evidence for the location of the secluded dwelling was definitively confirmed.
[Golden announcement: Research thread on the father-seeking route confirmed. The group owner and posters receive a split of 150 Talking Capital!]
Looking at the golden words "research confirmed" that had appeared in the public chat, Tang San stood before the old stone forge, rooted to the spot.
He knew that following the stone forge's hidden mark deeper into the mountains would take him along the final stretch of his journey to find his father.
Tang San took a deep breath, pulled out the leather scroll he carried, copied down the final coordinates, and put it in his pack. Then, head down, he walked step by step toward the depths of the mountains.
The three descendants in the group looked at the stone forge's coordinates frozen on the public chat, each of them even more excited than if he had dug up treasure himself.
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: We did it! Three clues combined to pin down the coordinates! My pinned ancestral-home clues made a huge contribution!]
As soon as Tang Wulin posted that, Lan Xuanyu brought up the nine-grid map again.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Posting the nine-grid comparison maps again to celebrate opening the box! Our mission to find Founding Ancestor's father is a great success!]
[Group Owner: Research proceeds distributed in full. The dedicated father-seeking thread has been archived.]
Qin Zhaoye casually put away the Talking Capital from his share and was about to switch back to the historical records page when the group announcement board suddenly chimed.
A new preview post edged with dark-gold patterns was automatically pinned by the Group Hub in the very center of the announcement board.
"Special event preview: Second Era special event · A person involved in Peerless Tang Sect is about to join the group. The countdown to recruiting a new member has officially begun."
Below the preview post, a row of crimson countdown digits began ticking down with each breath.
The public chat instantly erupted.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Holy shit?! A Second Era special?! Someone involved in Peerless Tang Sect is joining the group?!]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Well, well! We spent a whole volume digging into the First Era, and now Second Era history is finally coming to the table!]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: @The Bystander Sees Clearly, Old Huo! Wasn't the Second Era your generation? You've got your dark history ready, right?]
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: ...The Group Hub hasn't picked anyone yet. What's the rush?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Hahahaha, Old Huo's panicking! You're always so ruthless with the finishing blows. Now it's finally someone else's turn to dig into your past!]
In the new residence, Qin Zhaoye watched the group's teasing and couldn't help laughing too.
After all, the subject of their digging was about to change generations. The next field of leeks for a big harvest of Talking Capital was already on its way.
But before that, he had to get his fourth Soul Ring.
Qin Zhaoye closed the public chat, opened the Group Hub's historical-records exchange tab, and personally spent 1,000 Talking Capital.
"Exchange for escort intelligence on the Ten-Thousand-Year Ancient Forest."
As the 1,000 Talking Capital was deducted, a terrain map of the ancient forest and the distribution of beast herds were immediately imprinted on the scroll.
The exact time of the window at the hunting spot was clearly marked as well. His first layer of insurance was securely in hand.
Qin Zhaoye closed the scroll, shouldered his pack, and pushed open the door. A figure in a plain dress stood beside the stone path through the bamboo grove outside the courtyard.
Hearing the door open, Luo Tan turned around and looked in every direction, making sure no eyes from the Spirit Hall Branch had followed her.
Only after checking did she hurry up the stone steps. She drew a neatly folded sheet of plain paper from her sleeve and personally handed it to Qin Zhaoye.
"What's this?"
Qin Zhaoye took the sheet and unfolded it. It was covered with the locations of the Spirit Hall's sentry posts on the outskirts of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ancient Forest and their shift-change times.
"Three hidden sentry posts were just added to the forest's outskirts yesterday. This is a timetable of patrol gaps for the next three days."
Luo Tan looked at the pack on his shoulder and lowered her voice. "If you're going deep into the ancient forest, avoid these times."
Qin Zhaoye held the handwritten patrol-gap timetable and raised an eyebrow at her. "You're even handing over your patrols' trump card?"
"Cut the nonsense."
Luo Tan looked away and pressed the sheet of paper against his chest.
"I just don't want the Pope's number-one order to fall through halfway. I've delivered it, so I'm leaving."
As her words fell, she pushed off with the tip of her foot, and her figure swiftly disappeared around a bend in the bamboo grove.
Qin Zhaoye tucked the patrol-gap timetable securely against his body. Both layers of insurance were now in place.
Over the past few days, his Soul Power had naturally risen to level thirty-nine as he refined it with the Ever-Bright Bamboo Slip Art.
He was only one final step away from the major threshold of level forty.
Qin Zhaoye tightened the straps of the pack on his shoulders and walked out through the courtyard gate, checking the target coordinates deep in the ancient forest one last time before leaving.
The Eye of Historical Observation swept across the target point on the scroll, but only a few cold words surfaced on the history page:
Details unrecorded.