Inside the council hall halfway up Hundred Herbs Peak in the Azure Cloud Mountain Range.
Six figures sat around a long bluestone table, discussing something in low voices. Words such as "core formation" and "clansmen" occasionally drifted through the spacious hall.
At the head of the bluestone table sat a refined man in a long white robe. He was Xu Xingzhou, the grand elder of the Heavenly Thunder Sect's Xu Household.
He was also the strongest cultivator in the Xu Household, having already reached the core formation late stage.
This meeting, attended by the Xu Household's five core formation elders and its current patriarch, had been convened at his suggestion not long ago.
And just now, a piece of news he had delivered had set the other four core formation cultivators talking and left the Xu Household's patriarch, who was at the foundation establishment late stage, deep in thought.
"Grand elder, you are the oldest living cultivator in our lineage. Can you confirm that man's identity?" a young core formation cultivator in yellow robes suddenly asked.
The others immediately fell silent, waiting for Xu Xingzhou's answer.
Xu Xingzhou swept his gaze over everyone present, then shook his head slightly. "That man was expelled from the household several hundred years ago. I was still a small child then. I only heard about the matter and never had any dealings with him."
After a moment's consideration, Xu Xingzhou added, "But I can confirm that his Heavenly Thunder Token is genuine. I also secretly used a bloodline secret art to sense him and found that we do indeed share a bloodline. And judging by the portrait I found in the lineage's Secret Arts Pavilion, although he has aged considerably, the contours of his face do bear some resemblance to Xu Zhuochen."
Hearing Xu