Returning Home

"I killed a fool who had just reached Foundation Establishment and couldn't even use Sword Control Technique. He was slow-witted and chased me for over a thousand miles before I killed him," Wang Daoyuan replied.

"Daoyuan, you're amazing! Killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator at Qi Refining Layer Seven is unheard of. Quickly, bring out some jars of wine to celebrate!"

"Your goal is the wine?" Wang Daoyuan sneered.

Wang Jize, with a face full of smiles, asked, "Shouye was so good at hiding. Daoyuan, how did you find him?"

Wang Daoyuan had anticipated this question and immediately replied, "When I killed that Foundation Establishment cultivator, I obtained a secret method for finding people. However, this method is related to the Myriad Spirit Sect. If it were to be leaked, I fear the Wang Family would face utter destruction. Therefore, I cannot hand it over to the family for now. I hope Grandfather will forgive me.

Additionally, there is a Foundation Establishment Cultivation Method and a spell that are not direct inheritances of the Myriad Spirit Sect. These can be handed over to the family."

With that, Wang Daoyuan took out the jade slips for the Earth Origin Art and the Earthquake Art and handed them to Wang Jize.

Wang Jize took the jade slips and scanned them with his spiritual sense, immediately recognizing the cultivation method's quality. Apart from water-attribute cultivation methods, the Wang Family's other elemental cultivation methods were not very good. The Earth Origin Art was even more profound than the earth-attribute cultivation method collected by the family.

Thus, he handed the two jade slips to the Grand Elder and instructed, "This cultivation method is indeed excellent. It can be cultivated to the peak of Foundation Establishment and is much stronger than the same-attribute cultivation methods collected by the family. Zhiren, give Daoyuan two thousand contribution points."

Wang Zhiren accepted the jade slips and placed them in the Hall of Bestowing Techniques.

"Grandfather," Wang Daoyuan cupped his hands, "my secret method has no usage limit, does not harm me, and I can continue to search for others.

As long as I have an item with their scent, I can find the person."

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 of his uncles. He bid farewell to everyone and left Jade Spring Peak, heading northwest.

Wang Zhian was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. If he were being pursued, after such a long time, he would have already run far away. With Wang Daoyuan's speed, it would take ages to find him. Therefore, Wang Daoyuan decided to search for the other uncles first, and the Patriarch last.

Among the remaining seven, according to their importance to the family, the Twelfth Uncle was the first to be searched for.

After releasing the Soul Chasing Bees and searching for half a day, they finally discovered the Twelfth Uncle's corpse at the bottom of a cliff. He had been dead for two to three days.

Seeing his body covered in wounds, it seemed he had been besieged by a group of Qi Refining cultivators. Unable to resist, he jumped off the cliff and eventually died from blood loss.

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

More than half of the spirit pills sold by the family came from him. In the past few years, when the family was suppressed from all sides and its finances were insufficient, it was all thanks to the Twelfth Uncle and Ninth Uncle who desperately refined pills and crafted talismans to earn spirit stones, barely maintaining the unity of the family...

His lifelong wish was to become a third-rank alchemist and leave behind an alchemy legacy for the family. Unfortunately, due to the family's financial situation, he never had the time to improve his alchemy skills.

Since the family's situation improved four years ago, with considerable surplus each year, the family had the financial resources to support his advancement. Unfortunately, after only four years of good times, he met with this misfortune.

In the wilderness, there were no conditions for a proper burial. He could only take out a few talisman papers to cover the face, temporarily store the body in the Spirit Pearl Space, and place it in the thatched cottage. Once he returned to Jade Spring Peak, he would arrange for a proper burial.

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

The demise of the Twelfth Uncle made Wang Daoyuan feel uneasy. An alchemist who was not skilled in combat was still ambushed by several Qi Refining cultivators. The other six uncles were older and weaker, so the hope of their survival was extremely slim.

Wang Daoyuan spent ten days finding all six uncles, but unfortunately, none of them survived.

He also tried to have the Soul Chasing Bees search for traces of the Patriarch, but the Patriarch was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. When fleeing, he would use sword flight, and any scent left behind would be in the air, vanishing with the wind.

Carrying the bodies of the seven uncles, he went to a mortal town within the family's territory and bought seven coffins to temporarily house the bodies.

This town was called Linhe Town, located by the Qingli River, only a few dozen miles from Jade Spring Peak. Most of the mortals in the town were also members of the Wang Family, descendants of Wang Chengzhu. Seeing that cultivators from their clan had passed away, many people helped to clean the bodies, set up mourning halls, and pay respects to the seven uncles.

There were family cultivators stationed in the town. These individuals usually had poor cultivation talent, like the six uncles, and no special skills. They were placed in various mortal settlements of the family to protect the clan members and resist demonic beasts.

Wang Daoyuan entrusted the stationed cultivators to look after the bodies of the seven uncles and then rushed back to Jade Spring Peak to report the news.

According to family rules, if a clan member dies in battle outside and their body can be recovered, the Patriarch and all the Elders will personally escort them home and bury them in the ancestral graves behind Jade Spring Peak.

Wang Daoyuan, wearing a white cloth on his head, mourned for the seven uncles. As soon as he arrived at Jade Spring Peak, clan members came forward to ask which uncle had passed away. Wang Daoyuan did not reply and went straight to the Executive Hall.

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

Wang Daoyuan could no longer suppress his emotions and cried out, "The Patriarch was not found. The bodies of the other seven uncles are all in Linhe Town."

Wang Zhiren also began to cry. Wang Jize tilted his head back and closed his eyes, unable to stop the tears from flowing down. Wang Jize had watched all seven uncles grow up. Wang Jize was over 150 years old and had never married or had children. In his eyes, the "Zhi" generation were all his children. With seven of them gone at once, it was like an elder sending off his juniors...

Wang Jize wiped away his tears and ordered, "Notify all clan members to come down the mountain and escort them home together."

The descendants of the seven uncles, wearing hemp mourning clothes, walked at the forefront. The Seventh Uncle, Wang Shouhong, although not a descendant of the Twelfth Uncle, had learned alchemy from him. "A teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime," he also wore mourning clothes like the Twelfth Uncle's son, holding a wailing stick and carrying a soul summoning banner.

Wang Jize, along with the Elders, followed behind the mourners. Wang Daoyuan and the other juniors carried various items, following at the very end.

In general immortal cultivation families, when a clan member dies, unless it is the Patriarch or an Elder, there is no mourning ceremony for the entire clan. However, the Wang Family inherited the rules left by Wang Chengzhu and, like secular mortals, the entire clan mourned their deceased relatives together.

It was precisely because of this that the Wang Family had extremely strong cohesion, and very few clan disciples had betrayed them over the centuries.

When the Wang Family cultivators arrived at Linhe Town, there were already many mortals who had spontaneously come to pay their respects at the mourning hall.

Whether mortals or cultivators, the mourners returned the courtesies one by one. A day later, the number of people paying respects gradually decreased.

Wang Jize caressed each of the seven coffins and softly called out, "Children, you're going home..."

The mourners led the way, and Wang Daoyuan, along with the cultivators of the "Dao" and "Shou" generations, carried the coffins back to Jade Spring Peak.

Upon returning to Jade Spring Peak, the seven coffins were placed in the ancestral hall, and mourning rites were held for seven days. The entire Jade Spring Peak, all buildings and cave dwellings, were draped in mourning for three months.

Seven days later, the Patriarch or an Elder would cremate the bodies of the deceased and bury them in the ancestral graves on the back mountain.

The reason for cremation was to prevent evil cultivators from stealing the corpses of immortal cultivators to use as materials for corpse refining. Evil cultivators would force them to kill their blood relatives to enhance the malevolent energy of the refined corpses. Not only would the deceased not rest in peace, but it would also endanger the clan members.