Coming Home

"I killed an idiot who had just reached Foundation Establishment. He couldn't even use the Sword Control Technique, and he wasn't very bright either. He chased me for over a thousand li, only to be killed by me instead," Wang Daoyuan replied.

"Daoyuan, you're incredible! A Qi Refining Layer Seven cultivator killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator—unheard of! Hurry and bring out a few jars of wine so we can celebrate properly."

"Your real purpose is the wine, isn't it?" Wang Daoyuan said disdainfully.

Wang Jize beamed as he asked, "Shouye hid himself so well. Daoyuan, how did you find him?"

Wang Daoyuan had expected this question and immediately answered, "After killing that Foundation Establishment cultivator, I obtained a Secret Method for Finding People. However, this method is connected to the Myriad Spirit Sect. If word of it leaks, the Wang Clan may face a calamity that topples the heavens and crushes the earth. Therefore, I cannot hand it over to the Lineage for now. I hope Great-Grandfather will forgive me.

"Besides that, there is also a Foundation Establishment Cultivation Method and a spell. They are not direct inheritances of the Myriad Spirit Sect, so they can be handed over to the Lineage."

With that, Wang Daoyuan took out the Jade Slips containing the Earth Origin Art and the Earthquake Art and handed them to Wang Jize.

Wang Jize accepted the Jade Slips and swept them with his divine sense. He immediately knew that this cultivation method was quite impressive. Other than its Water Attribute Cultivation Method, the Wang Clan's other cultivation methods were all mediocre. The Earth Origin Art was even more profound than the Earth Attribute cultivation methods kept by the Lineage.

He then handed the two Jade Slips to the Great Elder and instructed, "This cultivation method is indeed excellent. It can be cultivated to the peak of Foundation Establishment and is far superior to the Lineage's stored methods of the same attribute. Zhiren, give Daoyuan two thousand Contribution Points."

Wang Zhiren accepted the Jade Slips and placed them in the Scripture Transmission Tower.

"Great-Grandfather." Wang Daoyuan cupped his hands. "There is no limit to the number of times I can use this secret method, and it does not harm me. I can continue using it to search for others.

"As long as there is an item carrying their scent, I can find the person himself."

Wang Jize was overjoyed and immediately ordered, "Quickly send someone to bring the personal belongings of Zhian, Zhiming, and the others."

Before long, Wang Daoyuan received the personal belongings of eight uncles. After bidding everyone farewell, he left Jade Spring Peak and headed northwest.

Wang Zhian was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. If he had been pursued for so long, he could have fled who knew how far away. With Wang Daoyuan's speed, it would take until the Year of the Monkey and the Month of the Horse to find him. Thus, Wang Daoyuan searched for the other uncles first and left the clan head for last.

Of the remaining seven, he searched for Twelfth Uncle first, based on their importance to the Lineage.

After releasing the Soul Chasing Bee and searching for half a day, he finally found Twelfth Uncle's body beneath a cliff. He had already been dead for two or three days.

His body was covered in wounds. He had likely been besieged by a group of Qi Refining cultivators, then leapt from the cliff after being unable to withstand them, ultimately bleeding to death.

Twelfth Uncle had been obsessed with alchemy and was not skilled in combat. Apart from several poisons he had refined himself, he had no other means to fight enemies.

More than half of the Lineage's medicinal pills for sale had come from his hands. In past years, the Lineage had suffered pressure from many sides, and its finances could not make ends meet. Twelfth Uncle and Ninth Uncle had relied on desperately refining pills and making talismans to earn Spirit Stones, barely keeping the Lineage from falling apart...

His lifelong wish had been to become a third-rank alchemist and leave behind an alchemy inheritance for the Lineage. Unfortunately, the Lineage's financial condition had weighed him down, leaving him no time to improve his alchemy skills.

Four years ago, the Lineage's circumstances had improved, and it had begun to enjoy considerable yearly surpluses. It finally had the means to support his advancement. Yet after only four years of good days, this disaster had befallen him.

In these wild mountains and remote ridges, there were no conditions for preparing the body for burial. Wang Daoyuan could only cover Twelfth Uncle's face with several sheets of Talisman Paper and temporarily store him in the Spirit Pearl Space, placing him in the thatched hut. Once he returned to Jade Spring Peak, he would give him a proper burial.

Wang Daoyuan had no time to grieve. He could only suppress his emotions and continue searching for the other six uncles.

Twelfth Uncle's death gave Wang Daoyuan an ominous feeling. Even an alchemist unskilled in combat had been besieged by several Qi Refining cultivators. The other six uncles were older and weaker, and their hopes of survival were exceedingly slim.

Wang Daoyuan spent ten days finding all six uncles. Unfortunately, not a single one had survived.

He also tried to have the Soul Chasing Bee search for traces of the clan head, but the clan head was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He had fled by Sword Flight, and even if he had left behind a scent, it would have been in the air. One gust of wind would leave nothing behind.

With the bodies of the seven uncles, Wang Daoyuan went to a mortal town within the Lineage's territory and bought seven coffins to temporarily house their remains.

This town was called Linhe Town. It lay beside the Qingli River, only several dozen li from Jade Spring Peak. Most of its mortals were also members of the Wang Clan, descendants of Wang Chengzhu. Upon seeing that cultivators of their clan had died, many people helped clean the bodies, set up a mourning hall, and offer sacrifices to the seven uncles.

A Lineage cultivator was stationed in the town. Like the six uncles, such people generally had poor cultivation talent and no particular skill, so they were stationed at the Lineage's various mortal settlements to protect the clansmen and defend against Demon Beasts.

Wang Daoyuan asked the stationed cultivator to guard the bodies of the seven uncles, while he himself rushed back to Jade Spring Peak to report the news.

According to the Lineage's rules, if a clansman died in battle outside, then so long as the body could be recovered, the clan head and elders would personally bring them home and bury them in the ancestral graves behind Jade Spring Peak.

Wang Daoyuan tied white cloth around his head and wore mourning for the seven uncles. As soon as he arrived at Jade Spring Peak, clansmen stepped forward to ask which uncle had died. Wang Daoyuan did not answer and headed straight for the Executive Hall.

Wang Jize and Wang Zhiren were both there. Seeing Wang Daoyuan in mourning clothes, Wang Jize asked, "Whose?"

Wang Daoyuan could no longer restrain himself and burst into loud sobs. "The clan head hasn't been found. The bodies of the other seven uncles are all in Linhe Town."

Wang Zhiren began crying as well. Wang Jize tilted his head back and closed his eyes without saying a word, yet he still could not stop two streams of clear tears from rolling down his face. The seven uncles had all grown up under Wang Jize's watch. Wang Jize was over one hundred and fifty years old and had never married or had children. In his eyes, the Zhi generation were all his children. Seven had been taken at once—the white-haired sending off the black-haired...

Wang Jize wiped away his tears and ordered, "Notify every clansman. All of them are to descend the mountain and bring them home together."

The descendants of the seven uncles wore hemp mourning clothes and white headbands as they walked at the very front. Seventh Uncle Wang Shouhong was not Twelfth Uncle's descendant, but he had studied alchemy under Twelfth Uncle. "A teacher for one day, a father for life." He wore mourning clothes just like Twelfth Uncle's son, carrying a wailing stick and bearing a Soul Summoning Banner on his shoulder.

Wang Jize led the elders behind the mourning sons. Wang Daoyuan and the other juniors carried various items and followed at the very end.

In most cultivation lineages, when a clansman died, the entire clan would not hold funeral rites unless the deceased was the clan head or an elder. Yet the Wang Clan had inherited the rules left behind by Wang Chengzhu. Like ordinary mortal families, the entire clan mourned their deceased relatives together.

It was precisely because of this that the Wang Clan possessed such powerful cohesion. Over the centuries, there had been very few clan disciples who betrayed the Lineage.

When the Wang Clan's cultivators arrived at Linhe Town, many mortals had already come voluntarily to offer sacrifices in the mourning hall.

Whether mortal or cultivator, all who came to pay their respects received a return salute from the mourning sons. After a day, the number of mourners gradually dwindled.

Wang Jize stroked each of the seven coffins in turn and softly called, "Children, it's time to come home..."

The mourning sons led the way in front. Wang Daoyuan, along with cultivators of the Dao generation and Shou generation, carried the coffins back to Jade Spring Peak.

After returning to Jade Spring Peak, they placed the seven coffins in the ancestral hall and kept vigil over them for seven days. Across all of Jade Spring Peak, every building and cave dwelling displayed mourning decorations for three months.

Seven days later, the clan head or elders would cremate the bodies of the deceased and bury them in the ancestral graves behind the mountain.

The reason for cremation was to prevent Evil Cultivators from stealing cultivators' corpses to use as materials for corpse refinement. To strengthen the baleful aura of a refined corpse, Evil Cultivators would make it kill its blood relatives. Not only would the deceased be unable to rest in peace, but the calamity would also spread to their clansmen.