A Wealthy Family

"Yes!"

Old Woman looked into Hu Ma's eyes and sighed softly. "Your grandfather didn't have time to tell me any of this, because the Meng Family somehow brought in an Ancestor from who knows where. He was simply too powerful."

"Your grandfather, along with one of your uncles and your aunt, couldn't stand against him. Your grandfather never got the chance to tell me before he died. And your father—I asked him countless times, but he never denied it."

"Later, I witnessed your birth, and I saw people from the Great Luo Dharma Sect appear in Old Yin Mountain."

"I began to believe what the Meng Family had said. The Hu Family really had traded you for something."

"..."

Hu Ma already knew what came afterward, and much of what Old Woman said was familiar to him.

Yet now his heart was still surging with endless waves.

Had the Hu Family also yearned to become immortal?

He seemed to grow solemn, too, but slowly raised his head and looked at the black clouds filling the sky. He saw the ancestral shrines of the Ten Surnames shrouded in eerie ghostly energy.

He looked toward the old shrine keeper sitting quietly on a cushion not far away, as if he hadn't heard a word of the conversation between him and Old Woman. At last, his gaze shifted beyond them, to the shadowy figures of the Noble Lords in Imperial Capital City.

Old Woman gently patted Hu Ma's hand, making him turn back to her. Then she said softly, "Back then, I married into the Hu Family because I admired the way they conducted themselves. After the Hu Family learned magic from the village communities, they never forgot their roots."

"Your grandfather and I met out in the countryside, while dealing with Evil