Time flew, and more than a month passed in the blink of an eye.
The Eastern old calendar's Spring Festival was approaching, and the Yin Clan City-State had become exceptionally lively. Except for those members who were shouldering secret, weighty responsibilities outside and truly could not get away, every other Yin Clan member, no matter what they had been doing elsewhere, hurried back at the fastest speed possible.
Tens of thousands of Blood Servants bustled inside and outside, sweeping the Yin Clan City-State until not a speck of dust remained. Red couplets picked out in gold were pasted over every doorway, while enormous scarlet lanterns were as numerous as the stars in the sky, hanging from every gate and beam throughout the city-state.
The gloomy, oppressive Yin Clan City-State had somehow gained several splashes of vivid color over the past few days. Yet under the scarlet blood-light of the Blood Mist Barrier, that bright red—the color that represented auspiciousness and celebration in the East—looked painfully glaring.
Yin Xuege had also ended his cultivation. With a brilliant smile, he joined in the various preparations and busy work to welcome the new year.
His status was vastly different from what it had been a month ago. All his authority and treatment were now equivalent to those of the Yin Clan Earth Generation Elders. Eight grand stewards from the four great halls of real power followed him at all times, accompanied by a large group of Yin Clan experts and warriors serving as guards. With only a single order from him, countless people would work themselves off their feet for the entire day!
In his eleven years, Yin Xuege had never experienced anything like this. Everyone treated him with reverence; in his presence, they all instinctively lowered their gazes and softened their voices. Whenever they saw him, they warmly offered him greetings and blessings.
This unfamiliar warmth brought many things to Yin Xuege's mind. Though only eleven years old, a trace of vicissitude and maturity had already faintly settled in his eyes. His state of mind changed greatly within just a few days, and the swelling sensation brought by absorbing twenty drops of the Duke's Essence Blood was gradually worn away by that thread of vicissitude and heaviness.
With his heart clear and round as jade, Yin Xuege deeply understood the reason behind these clan members' changing attitudes from arrogance to obsequiousness: strength was everything!
On the bell tower east of the Yin Clan ancestral temple, the bronze ancient bell weighing twelve thousand jin rang out with a thunderous boom. Its deep, sonorous chime traveled hundreds of miles. Within the Yin Clan City-State, every clan member put on formal ceremonial robes and, according to generation and rank, formed orderly lines and headed toward the ancestral temple.
After one hundred and eight peals of the bell, more than one hundred thousand Yin Clan members stood in perfect formation on the plaza before the ancestral temple.
Several dozen elder-level figures from the Yin Clan Heaven Generation stood in a line before the ancestral temple gate. They wore dark-gold and red ceremonial robes and high purple-gold crowns binding their hair. Their attire followed the ancient ceremonial traditions of the East in every respect—even the tiny pendant on their belts was an ancient Eastern jade ornament with thousands of years of history.
At the very center of these Yin Clan elders, smiling amiably, Yin Tianjue stood with his hands tucked into his sleeves, looking down at his clan members, who were arranged in neat rows stretching several miles below. The enormous plaza was as silent as a grave. Not a single Yin Clan member dared make the slightest sound.
Time passed second by second. Suddenly, on the drum tower west of the ancestral temple, two burly men wielding enormous beast-bone mallets struck a colossal drum twelve meters in diameter. A muffled, resonant beat that seemed to pierce the heart slowly rang out. Yin Tianjue straightened his expression, turned around without a word, placed both hands against the temple doors, and forcefully pushed open the black-ebony doors, each two chi thick.
The auspicious hour had arrived. The Yin Clan's annual grand ancestral worship ceremony officially began!
Amid a long, creaking groan, the two ancestral temple doors, twenty meters high and twelve meters wide, swung wide open. A bone-chilling air surged out from the pitch-black temple. It swept across the entire plaza in an instant, and countless members of the Yin Clan standing solemnly shivered all at once.
The sound of whooshing never ceased as countless torches and braziers lit up one after another within the dark ancestral temple. Dark-red firelight illuminated the Yin Clan ancestral temple, which covered several miles, while faint, low wooden fish beats and chanting drifted out from its deepest reaches.
Led by Yin Tianjue, the group of Yin Clan Heaven Generation Elders entered the ancestral temple in solemn formation. Yin Tianjue's younger brother by blood, the Yin Clan's Second Grand Elder, Yin Tianmie, stood tall before the temple gate and majestically unfurled a blood-colored scroll in his hands.
"Yin Difeng!"
A young man standing among the Yin Clan Earth Generation Elders bowed to Yin Tianmie. With an utterly solemn expression, he took several careful steps forward in a steady, measured gait, climbed the steps before the ancestral temple, and slowly entered through the temple gate.
"Yin Dizhou!"
A Yin Clan man with three wisps of willow-like whiskers and an ancient, weathered countenance gave a reserved smile. He likewise bowed to Yin Tianmie before quickly entering the ancestral temple.
One Yin Clan member's name after another was announced by Yin Tianmie, and one Yin Clan member after another entered through the temple gate. They were all clan members qualified to enter the ancestral temple, offer incense to the ancestors of the Yin Clan, and participate in the ancestral worship ceremony. Taking part in the annual ceremony could not bring the Yin Clan members any tangible benefits, but it represented their status within the Yin Clan!
If you could enter the ancestral temple to participate in the New Year's ancestor worship, you were a core member of the Yin Clan. Even if you came from a branch family, so long as you could enter the ancestral temple for the ceremony every year, no one would dare look down on you!
Conversely, even if you came from the direct line of a clan, even if you were Yin Tianjue's own son, should you suddenly be stripped of your right to enter the ancestral temple and worship the ancestors one year, there was no doubt that life within the Yin Clan would become extremely difficult! The other clan members would look at you strangely, while the followers who had once gathered around you might immediately switch allegiance!
The Blood Demon Clan was the race that valued tangible interests most of all! Every year's ancestral worship ceremony contained far, far too much beneath the surface!
There were more than five thousand Yin Clan members of the Earth Generation, but only two hundred and fifty-eight were qualified to enter the ancestral temple and participate in the ceremony!
Every Yin Clan member knew the list by heart. They had a general idea of who was qualified to enter the ancestral temple that day. They also knew which people who had previously been unqualified would receive that honor, and which people who had been qualified in past years had made mistakes this year and would be stripped of their right to participate in the ancestor worship.
The only thing that left the Yin Clan members present horrified was that after the last Earth Generation Elder had been called by Yin Tianmie and entered the ancestral temple, Yin Tianmie calmly announced a name that had surpassed everyone's expectations—"Yin Xuege!"
Standing at the very back of the plaza, mixed in with the Juvenile ranks, Yin Xuege froze. Countless clan members on the plaza turned toward him at the same time, their eyes all filled with a tangled mixture of shock, fear, and disbelief. Yin Xuege was only a Juvenile—how could he be qualified to enter the ancestral temple that day?
Even if he was a Sunwalker and possessed boundless potential, even if he was qualified to enter the ancestral temple, he should not have been listed after all those Earth Generation Elders, entering the ancestral temple ahead of so many elders!
The Yin Clan members in front of Yin Xuege instinctively shifted aside, making way for a broad avenue leading straight to the ancestral temple.
Yin Xuege took a deep breath. His heart was clear and open, and an enlightened smile appeared on his face. With his chin slightly raised, he took one measured step after another, unhurriedly making his way toward the ancestral temple gate.
"Yin Xuege, this is what you deserve!" Yin Xuege stared resolutely at the main gate of the ancestral temple. He did not even spare Yin Tianmie a glance as he calmly walked past him and stepped through the temple gate.
A tiny voice, faint as the buzz of a mosquito, suddenly sounded beside Yin Xuege's ear. "Yin Xuege! Your mother, Yin Huangwu, is my direct descendant. In other words, you are a direct-line descendant of my branch, Yin Tianmie. Work hard. If you need anything, just go to Xuan Yin Palace. All of Xuan Yin Palace is your backer!"
Yin Xuege's face twitched slightly. He turned to look at Yin Tianmie and gave a small nod before striding into the ancestral temple.
All along, Yin Xuege had known only that he possessed the status of a direct-line heir of the Yin Clan and that Yin Huangwu was his mother. Beyond that, he knew nothing about his origins or identity. Only today did he learn that Yin Huangwu had originally come from Yin Tianmie's branch and was Yin Tianmie's direct descendant.
The Yin Clan had nine Heaven Generation Elders, and the direct bloodline of the Yin Clan was therefore divided into nine branches. Each bloodline possessed a palace within the Yin Clan City-State. Xuan Yin Palace was the core stronghold of Yin Tianmie's branch of the clan; "Xuan Yin Palace" also broadly referred to all the people and power belonging to Yin Tianmie's branch.
If Yin Tianjue's rewards and promises to Yin Xuege more than a month ago represented recognition from the Yin Clan as a whole, then Yin Tianmie's discreet transmission today represented the support of the Yin Clan members belonging to the Xuan Yin Palace branch for Yin Xuege!
From that moment onward, Yin Xuege truly possessed a force within the Yin Clan that he could call upon—a faction capable of sheltering him while he was still weak.
Following a passage paved with black stone slabs, Yin Xuege walked step by step in his measured gait toward the ancestral temple's main hall a hundred meters away. Yin Tianjue and the other Yin Clan elders and Earth Generation Elders stood in perfect rows before the main hall, each with drooping eyelids, their mouths closed and their noses observed in silent meditation.
Yin Xuege chose a position at the far edge behind the many elders and stood there. Then, imitating those elders, he narrowed his eyes and said nothing. The atmosphere within the ancestral temple was exceptionally oppressive. Even Yin Xuege's mind went blank, leaving no room for any other thought.
Behind him came Yin Tianmie's high, resonant roll call. One after another, the core Yin Clan members of the Nameless Generation slowly entered. Only a scant one hundred and twenty-seven Nameless Generation members were qualified to enter the ancestral temple. These Nameless Generation clan members held no actual responsibilities within the clan. Most of them were in the golden period of improving their strength, and ordinarily, they remained in seclusion, bitterly cultivating!
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