The Sun Household of Jiangnan was a prominent and powerful clan even within Great Rui, with a long history. It was said that the source of their lineage could be traced back to ancient times, and that one of their ancestors had once been an Ancestral Dragon in his own right.
But as time passed and the world changed, their former glory and wealth had faded. Their bloodline, however, had never been severed. Passed down to this day, it had formed no small power in Jiangnan, making them one of the region's great households.
Sun Jie was a direct descendant of the Sun Household. When the ship carrying Qiu Yan passed through the Sun Household's main seat in Jiangnan, the head of the Sun Household warmly invited him in and even sent out a direct son of the family to entertain him properly.
It was at the Sun Household's banquet that Sun Jie stepped forward on his own initiative and said he wished to become Qiu Yan's disciple. Qiu Yan did not agree, but Sun Jie showed neither annoyance nor embarrassment, merely laughing it off.
Yet by the next day, there was one more young master of the Sun Household among the carriages and horses.
Though he had been born a scion of a great clan, Sun Jie was willing to serve as the one who led Qiu Yan's horse. He carried none of a young master's airs and treated others with easy warmth, utterly unlike another direct descendant of the Sun Household whom Qiu Yan remembered.
Indeed, this was not Qiu Yan's first encounter with a direct descendant of the Sun Household. After entering the Scholar Forest, he had met a member of the Sun Household named Sun Yong. Sun Yong had laid out some schemes in the Scholar