On July 11, the village began preparing for the Clan Celebration.
The first part of the Clan Celebration was the Clan Ceremony. The Chen Clan's ancestor worship was held during the Ghost Festival, also known as the "Ghost Festival" ancestor worship.
By then, the height of summer had already passed and the first coolness of autumn had just begun. The Chen Clan believed their ancestors would also return home at this time to visit their descendants, so they needed to worship their ancestors.
The Chen Clan's ancestor worship was divided into three types: small, medium, and large.
The small-scale ancestor worship was held every year by each household in the village, worshiping the direct ancestors of each branch and lineage at home—including those of the followers' own families. This was called a family rite.
Once every five years, in every year ending in 1 or 6 of the Douluo Calendar, they held a unified worship ceremony. They worshiped the family ancestors in the Ancestral Hall, temple, or ancestral graves. Most clan members living outside would return, and sometimes relatives and friends would come to observe the ceremony. This was the Clan Ceremony.
Every twenty years, led by the Direct Lineage of the Chen Clan, representative figures from the Chen surname's Branch Families and Separate Lineages would hurry over from all across the continent. The Chen Clan would also widely invite allied families, their martial souls gathering together to take part in the grand occasion. This was called the Soul Ceremony.
The Chen Clan's set of Clan Ceremony customs was rather special, because the Chen Clan's Branch Families and Separate Lineages were scattered, which was different from the major clans on the continent today.
This time was the Clan Ceremony, and the clan members were all returning one after another.
The sacrificial rites included offering incense, reading prayers, presenting rice and soup, offering tea, offering silk, offering wine, presenting food boxes, presenting sacrificial meat, offering blessing words, bidding farewell to the ancestors with kowtows, and so on. All of these had to be prepared in advance, not to mention the banquet.
Chen Xiaojun also went to help, doing his part.
He went to the Breeding Farm in the northeast of the village. Soul Masters needed large amounts of meat containing Soul Power, so the village kept more than a dozen kinds of domesticable soul beasts with excellent flavor, such as Songhua Chickens, White Shirt Sheep, Gong Pigs, and Mud Armor Pigs. Of course, it was not limited to land beasts; there was also a Fishing Ground in the lake.
Chen Xiaojun went partly because he was interested in culinary skills and wanted to understand the ingredients, and partly to practice swordsmanship. When it came to the use of knives and swords, one still had to look at the Breeding Farm.
The manager of the Breeding Farm was Zhu Yanfeng, Little Fatty's second grand-uncle. After suffering serious injuries several decades ago, he had become the manager here.
Before their family became personal followers of Chen Yu's lineage, they had already been responsible for the Breeding Farm.
They were good at raising pigs, and even better at slaughtering pigs. It was a family craft. After all, their family's martial soul was the Stone Armor Porcupine, so they understood the structure of pigs extremely well.
If pigs could also accept the influence of Chen Clan culture, they would definitely recite a few lines of poetry like "boiling beans by burning bean stalks."
When he arrived at the slaughtering yard of the Breeding Farm, he found Zhu Yanfeng swiftly and skillfully handling the limbs of a Mud Armor Pig. He hardly used chopping techniques at all. After cutting once around the knee, he smoothly removed the entire lower leg.
Zhu Yanfeng's knife rose and fell almost in one motion as he quickly cut around all four legs. The force he used was perfectly measured, with almost no wasted movement at all.
From the parts close to the torso, he sliced off several jin of pure pork from every place that was all lean meat and immediately tossed them into the basket on his back.
Chen Xiaojun had originally thought that the lean meat cut off would give off a strong gamey smell. Unexpectedly, not only did it not, it even carried a rich meaty fragrance. It seemed there was good reason to raise Mud Armor Pigs.
Watching Zhu Yanfeng cut the pig legs, Chen Xiaojun was completely dumbfounded. This was pure skill. He had not used Soul Power at all.
He truly deserved to be called an expert pig butcher. There was no doubt about it.
Chen Xiaojun muttered under his breath, "This must be what they mean by Butcher Ding carving up an ox! It really is eye-opening!"
After quite a while, Zhu Yanfeng raised his head. There was a faint stubble on his face, and his skin was dark, likely worn by the passage of time. His fingertips were slightly black, as if smoked, and one could tell he had smoked for many years. His back was very straight, and sweat had soaked into the front of his shirt.
"Grandpa Zhu, I hope you've been well." Chen Xiaojun came over in a coarse hemp shirt, bringing Little Fatty with him.
"Second grand-uncle," Little Fatty called obediently.
"Ah." Zhu Yanfeng was clearly very happy to see the two children. As people grew older, they liked children, and affection skipped a generation.
This lineage of the Zhu Clan becoming personal followers of the Main Family had brought honor, status, and resources, but along with it had come tremendous casualties.
Of the three brothers, his eldest brother and third brother had sacrificed themselves one after another, and his own child had later died in battle as well. Only Zhu Tianhao and his third brother's daughter Zhu Tianqi remained. Although his Zhu Clan still had uncles and cousins, that was another matter.
Fortunately, their family was good at having children. Tianhao alone had three children, and Little Fatty Wuneng in particular reminded him of his third brother, who had grown up with him since childhood.
"Haha, Xiaojun boy, I don't have any long legs here," Zhu Yanfeng teased.
Ever since Chen Xiaojun had just awakened at the age of three, after seeing Zhu Tianhao and Ding Dang, he had blurted out, "The end of pig raising is a beautiful girl's long legs!"
The village was so small that, for a time, it spread far and wide, and everyone who heard it roared with laughter.
"Grandpa Zhu, I was young back then, and children say whatever comes to mind. Please forgive me, forgive me." Chen Xiaojun gave an embarrassed laugh.
"Is there anything we can help with?" Chen Xiaojun hurriedly changed the subject and explained why he had come.
"Then you two first go with them and drive over that herd of fat Mud Armor Pigs from the pig yard. Oh right, there'll be a herd of Gong Pigs later too."
"...Xiao Wuneng, people fear fame and pigs fear fattening, so you can't get too fat in the future."
"..."
July 14, nine in the morning, the Chen Clan main courtyard.
Over the past few days, Ye Xiuxin had taken Xiao Yi to the village Logistics Center managed by Grandma Hanxin and completed the adoption registration. She could be considered to have an official identity in the village now.
Unsurprisingly, and living up to everyone's hopes and her mission, Xiao Yi became the village's "village darling." There were already few girls in the village around her age, and not only did the village children have a very good impression of this pretty little cutie;
The many women in the village favored her even more. After learning about her physical condition and how she had forgotten her family, their maternal instincts overflowed. They were afraid she would fall if held in their hands, afraid she would melt if held in their mouths.
Xiao Yi found it rather strange. She felt like she had not done anything, yet these aunties and grandmothers stuffed a pile of things into her hands.
And now, when they learned today that Xiao Yi was going to awaken her martial soul, quite a few people flooded over.
Not only did children like Chen Jianzun, Chen Feng, and the three Zhu siblings come over, even adults such as Chen Cong, Mu Lingyun, Chen Hanxin, Chen Xiyuan, Ding Dang, Xia Lin, and others arrived one after another at Xiaojun's family courtyard. The Chen Clan opened Xiao Yi's awakening ceremony with the etiquette reserved for an important follower.
When a layer of hazy golden radiance was released from the six stones, it formed a pale golden light barrier that enveloped Xiao Yi within.
Xiao Yi cleared away the stray thoughts in her heart, closed her eyes, and felt her heart become calmer than ever before.
Countless tiny emerald-green motes of light emerged from her palm and gathered together.
Very quickly, a tender root sprouted and grew as if from soil sleeping through winter, showing an emerald-green color. It stretched out strong sinews and bones, and more and more jade-like leaves appeared. Its stems and leaves were covered in flowers, growing with extreme lushness.
The dense layers of branches and leaves blocked the sunlight completely.
Amid the hazy morning mist, it tenaciously and resolutely replicated a beautiful, poetic spiritual life. In the season of high summer, it shone with the colors of spring, containing vast Life Force and giving off a feeling of eternal youth that was utterly captivating.
Everywhere one looked was clear green, tender and dripping with color, even tinting Xiao Yi's clothes a faint green.
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