The Cheng Family

Within the ancestral hall, incense smoke curled endlessly.

Yun Jiang's consciousness drifted among the densely packed memorial tablets.

His heart surged with far greater turbulence than in ordinary days.

Yun Hu's strange dream.

And that Qingcheng Mountain Card capable of manifesting itself.

Both matters carried an indescribable air of strangeness.

Character Inheritance Cards actually concealed a development method akin to branching storylines?

The Qingcheng Swordsman Card was like this.

Then did the Shaolin Monk Card in Yun Long's possession, and Yun He's Wudang Daoist Doctor Card, also hide similar secret keys?

Waiting for some particular opportunity to trigger them?

As for how they could be triggered...

Yun Jiang could not figure it out for the moment.

Forget it.

He would leave these tangled matters for Yun Long and the others to ponder slowly themselves.

The most pressing matter now was dealing with that good-for-nothing thing on the ancestral hall floor.

Yun Ji.

He was kowtowing and wailing, tears and snot streaming down his face.

His voice was astonishingly piercing, shaking loose accumulated incense ash from the memorial tablets.

How had Yun Jiang never realized before that old Yun Ji was such an unyielding rascal at heart?

Yun Jiang's consciousness was filled with deep helplessness.

Everything he knew about cultivation techniques and insights came from the experiences accumulated through generations of Yun Clan members' cultivation.

Unfortunately, not a single member of the Yun Clan had ever truly crossed that heavenly chasm and reached the longed-for Qi Refining Stage.

Yun He had fused with the Wudang Daoist Doctor Card.

Her understanding of the Wudang Xiantian Gong had already become sufficiently profound.

What she lacked was merely the day-and-night accumulation of true qi.

He had previously passed these precious insights to Yun Ji once through the power of incense offerings.

Yet in the end, they had been transmitted through that intangible, illusory medium of incense offerings.

The effect was far less thorough and clear than directly fusing with a card.

Yun Ji needed to comprehend it himself, to work through it himself.

But this old fellow truly lived up to the old saying: stubborn beyond remedy.

At his age, once he started acting up, not even ten oxen could drag him back.

From dawn until dusk.

The ancestral hall had never been free of his pig-slaughtering cries.

"Ancestor! Show yourself!"

"Please, have mercy on this useless, unfilial descendant!"

"If you refuse to help me, I'll kneel here forever! I'm begging you, Ancestor!"

Yun Jiang was so disturbed by him that his mind was thrown into turmoil.

His consciousness nearly became unstable because of it.

Forget it, forget it!

He simply gritted his teeth and gathered every bit of his understanding of the Wudang Xiantian Gong, along with the more refined essence of the technique he had indirectly "observed" from Yun He and the others, into a vast torrent of information.

Then he forcefully poured it into Yun Ji's mind!

Yun Ji, who had been crying and howling without pause on the floor, suddenly stiffened.

That earthshaking wail came to an abrupt stop.

He remained kneeling, his eyes wide and his expression vacant.

As though he had turned into a clay statue or wooden carving in an instant, utterly motionless.

After a moment, the confusion in his eyes gradually faded.

It was replaced by a profound look of contemplation.

He simply knelt there quietly upon the cold bluestone floor.

His entire being sank into a deep state of enlightenment.

No one knew when he would awaken.

Wanfang Lake's waters appeared calm, but the undercurrents had already surged to the point of nearly breaking the banks.

News that the Yun Clan had refined Qi Nourishing Pills crashed into the already crowded pond like a massive boulder. The ripples spread outward in widening circles, stirring the sensitive nerves of every faction.

This seemingly tranquil lake region had long been a place where dragons and snakes mingled, with the various powers interlocking like dogs' teeth.

Now, a single tiny pill had become the fuse that would ignite everything.

The lake was only so large, and its resources were only so plentiful.

Three Qi Refining Stage cultivator families were already the limit this place could sustain.

The Ning Family had entered Wanfang Lake more than forty years ago, yet had somehow coexisted peacefully with the other three local powers until now without any major bloody conflict. That alone was an unfathomable matter.

And now, there was an additional Yun Clan whose background was unknown.

That old fox Ning Yongrui's thoughts ran as deep as the sea. To this day, he had not leaked even the slightest bit of the Yun Clan's true trump cards.

That was no surprise. When the Yun Clan had first arrived, they had conducted themselves far too discreetly.

So discreetly that nearly everyone had subconsciously overlooked the possibility that they possessed a Qi Refining Stage cultivator.

Even now, the true decision-makers of Wanfang Lake's three great families probably had not truly placed this newly arrived Yun Clan on equal footing with themselves.

So what if they could produce Qi Nourishing Pills?

In their eyes, if the Yun Clan truly possessed formidable strength, why would they remain cooped up in hiding, not even daring to let a Qi Refining Stage cultivator show their face easily?

If they were truly strong, why would they have left their homeland and migrated to this remote corner of Wanfang Lake?

This was nothing more than a weakling's way of protecting itself.

Little did they know that this apparent "weakness" was invisibly plucking at everyone's heartstrings, causing the stagnant pool that was Wanfang Lake to boil completely.

The killing intent beneath the lake's surface had already grown so thick it could not dissolve.

Inside the Cheng residence's inner hall, the atmosphere was suffocatingly oppressive.

Slap!

A crisp slap suddenly rang out.

Cheng Ningcui watched helplessly as her father, Cheng Mingyue, slapped her mother to the floor, blood seeping from the corner of Madam Cheng's lips.

More than a decade of innocent naivety came crashing down in that instant, shattering into dust.

She had never seen her father wear such a furious, savage expression.

Cheng Mingyue's chest heaved violently. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at his wife sprawled on the floor.

"You foolish woman! If you hadn't spoiled her so shamelessly all these years, how could she have become so ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth?"

He roared, his voice hoarse with extreme fury.

Of course Cheng Mingyue understood his daughter's thoughts, and he had calculated that she would throw the embroidered ball to Yun Hu.

Yet he had clearly arranged for only two people to assist from the sidelines, intending merely to probe them a little, not truly to take Yun Hu's life.

But whose men were those other three Xiantian martial artists who had suddenly appeared?

Had the main household already lost patience, believing he had not acted ruthlessly or thoroughly enough?

At that thought, Cheng Mingyue's heart turned ice-cold.

His Cheng Family had changed their name and identity, lurking in Donghu City for decades, yet they were merely one bloodline the Mo Family had planted here.

Now, this chess piece had evidently reached the time to be discarded.

Madam Cheng clutched her face as tears burst through the dam. Choking with sobs, she said, "Mingyue, how could you let Cui'er take such a risk? She is our own flesh and blood!"

"Our own flesh and blood?" Cheng Mingyue let out a shrill, miserable laugh, like a wounded lone wolf.

He abruptly seized his wife by the collar, dragged her from the floor, and roared, "You think I'm heartless? You hate me for sending Cui'er to her death?"

"Is Cheng Ningcui's life a life, while the lives of more than two hundred members of my Cheng Family are not lives?!"

"You think today was merely an embroidered-ball marriage selection? The Mo Family used our Cheng Family to fill a pit! To test the Yun Clan, to muddy the waters of Wanfang Lake!"

Cheng Mingyue's eyes were webbed with blood, despair and madness intertwined within them.

"Our branch has been separated from the main household for so long that people's hearts have scattered long ago! How many people still truly care about that so-called 'main household' now?"

He asked and answered himself, his voice carrying boundless sorrow.

"I don't know, and there's no need for me to know anymore. Whether we want to return or not, as discarded pawns, our Cheng Family will not meet a good end!"

Cheng Mingyue released his grip, and his wife slid limply back to the floor.

He looked at his daughter, her face streaked with tears like rain on pear blossoms, and a bitter smile appeared on his face.

"Since that is so, tomorrow, you will accompany me to the Yun Clan to propose marriage."

At his words, Madam Cheng's delicate body trembled violently. She looked at him in disbelief.

Propose marriage? At a time like this, go to the Yun Clan to propose marriage?

Cheng Mingyue seemed not to see his wife's horror. His gaze passed over her and fell upon a corner behind the hall's folding screen.

There, Cheng Ningcui's figure cowered, her face already drenched in tears.

He had noticed long ago that his daughter was hiding nearby.

"Cui'er." Cheng Mingyue's voice was hoarse, yet it carried a trace of fatigue and tenderness that was difficult to detect.

"You are fortunate. That Yun Hu does not seem to have any interest in you."

"For the next few days, stay at home peacefully. Do not go anywhere."

He paused, lowered his voice, and said each word distinctly, "If danger truly comes, hide in the secret passage beneath the bed in your room. Only the three of us know about it. Remember, do not let anyone discover it. And never, ever leave with them through the Household tunnel."

At those words, Cheng Ningcui's entire body went cold, as though she had fallen into an icy abyss.