Today's third update: Chapter 3255! 3/4!
These six Lion Ancestors held special statuses.
The reverent and dependent title "Grandfather" had not originally come from the lion race at large, but from the mouths of these six lions.
Back then, Nine Spirits Primordial Saint had traveled throughout the lion race. Seeing that all six of them were orphaned lion children with no one to rely on, he had taken pity on them and brought them back to Bamboo Joint Mountain, personally raising and teaching them as if they were his own children.
Their growth, their accomplishments, and even their ability to break through their limits and attain the esteemed rank of Lion Ancestor had all been the result of Nine Spirits Primordial Saint's painstaking and meticulous cultivation.
If there was anyone in the vast Royal Lion Race whom Nine Spirits Primordial Saint could be said to have taught personally, pouring into them his wholehearted devotion without reservation, it was only these six lions.
Although Nine Spirits Primordial Saint had never formally acknowledged a master-disciple relationship—just as, in his previous life serving Taiyi Saves from Suffering Celestial Venerable, the Celestial Venerable had been his master but had never treated him as a mount, instead regarding him as a friend and disciple.
He had inherited that same state of mind. Toward these six lions, he had been both father and teacher, his feelings buried deep in his heart and rarely spoken aloud.
At this moment, facing these six "children" whom he had raised with his own hands and sensing their heartfelt grief and attachment, would Nine Spirits Primordial Saint's heart, which had only just hardened like iron, waver even slightly?
How would he choose between the newly forged alliance with the human race and the centuries of nurturing grace and master-disciple affection?