The Luo Family's Ancestor?

"Excuse me, are you hiring?"

"No, we're not. Get lost, get lost!" Luo Zongqi waved impatiently without looking up.

He was examining a fine specimen of spirit medicine he had just acquired. It had reached the grade of great medicine. If he sent it back to the main family to be auctioned off, he could earn at least a hundred thousand source!

"Dad, you... look at him..."

"Look at what? What are you so shocked about, you little brat?"

Luo Zongqi raised his head impatiently.

The man looked somewhat familiar, as though he had seen him somewhere before...

He remembered a portrait hanging in the family's ancestral hall. The man in that painting seemed to bear some resemblance to this person.

Luo Zongqi put down the divine medicine in his hands and approached, studying him carefully.

It was not just a resemblance. They looked almost exactly alike. Anyone who did not know better would have thought they were twin brothers!

Hmm... wait a moment?

Thud!

"What are you doing? Trying to scam me? I'm warning you, I have no money. If you're trying to fake an injury and extort me, you've picked the wrong guy!" Luo Yan looked wary. They had injury scammers in fantasy worlds too?

"Ancestor! Thank heavens you're alive! Our Luo Family is saved!" Tears streamed down Luo Zongqi's aged face as he clutched Luo Yan's Daoist robe.

"Who are you calling Ancestor? I don't even know you! I don't even have a wife. Keep slandering me like that and I'll beat you!" Luo Yan kicked him away, his face full of disgust.

Luo Zongqi felt no shame whatsoever. He threw himself at Luo Yan's feet again, hugging his leg as he wailed, "Ancestor, while you were gone, those bastards kept bullying our Luo Family..."

"I..."

He had walked into a shop looking for work, only to be saddled with a whole brood of descendants. Luo Yan was utterly exasperated. Who could he possibly appeal to over this?

Luo Yan guessed that this so-called Luo Family was descended from the original owner of his body. They must have had a portrait hanging somewhere in the family, or they could not have recognized him at a glance.

Moreover, these people really did share his bloodline. When he first entered, he had assumed it was a coincidence, but apparently it was not.

"Isn't that Elder Luo Zongqi from the Luo Family, one of the Southern Region's foremost clans? He's calling this young man Ancestor? The Luo Family still has an ancestor?"

"I remember the Luo Family having an ancestor in the Saint realm, don't they? Wasn't he rumored to have passed away in meditation? Why has he appeared again?"

"Wait, if the Luo Family's Saint ancestor is still alive, then what about the pressure the Yaoguang Holy Land put on them earlier...?"

The cultivators in the medicine shop all looked shocked.

A living Saint!

That news alone was enough to shake the entire Southern Region.

In this era, Saint-level experts had all but vanished. Even the strongest cultivators were merely top-tier Great Powers.

"Are you really my descendants?"

"Strictly speaking, we aren't your direct descendants! Ancestor, you never married or had children in your entire life. Our forefather was your elder brother!"

Luo Yan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness!

Luo Yan preferred the process to the result.

"What did you mean when you said the Luo Family was in danger?"

"Ancestor, not long ago, an elder of the Yaoguang Holy Land took a fancy to a girl from our Luo Family's direct line. She is the most gifted member of our family's current generation and possesses the legendary Primordial Chaos Divine Physique. Our Luo Family refused, so that elder used the Yaoguang Holy Land to pressure us!

"The Yaoguang Holy Land is a top-tier sect whose legacy dates back to Desolate Antiquity. It has countless Dragon Transformation cultivators, Immortal Platform Realm experts, and even Half-Saints! Though our Luo Family was once incomparably glorious, apart from you, we have no Saints-not even a single family member in the Immortal Platform Realm. We have only managed to cling to life until now through the lingering shelter of your legacy!

"Even counting me, our family currently has only three Dragon Transformation cultivators. Now you have not only survived but returned to us! Heaven truly favors the Luo Family!"

Luo Yan remembered the Yaoguang Holy Land. The Ruthless One Lineage had taken an interest in the Yaoguang Holy Son when he was young. He originally possessed only a mortal physique, but through the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art, he had gained the ability to devour other physiques.

He appeared gentle, refined, and approachable, but beneath that exterior lay a deeply calculating mind.

Most likely, it was not some elder of the Yaoguang Holy Land who had taken an interest in the Primordial Chaos Divine Physique. Rather, the Ruthless One Lineage had selected her as "source essence" for the Yaoguang Holy Son!

"How did you know I was dead? And if the family only has three Dragon Transformation cultivators, why are you stationed here alone?"

This Luo Family member before him was precisely the sole Dragon Transformation cultivator hidden in Mo City!

"Ancestor, before your last seclusion, you left a Soul Lamp with the family. If the Soul Lamp went out, it meant you had... passed on!

"Actually, Mo City was founded by our Luo Family. A thousand years ago, you entered seclusion here. To remain here and protect you, we built a city to conceal our purpose! Every hundred years, the Luo Family would send an influential family member here to await you!

"A hundred years ago, your Soul Lamp suddenly went out... Everyone in the family believed you had ultimately failed to survive that tribulation. Who could have imagined that your extraordinary gifts would allow you to live another life!" Luo Zongqi grew immensely excited as he spoke. As long as their ancestor lived, what did a mere Holy Land elder amount to? Even if the entire Yaoguang Holy Land came against them, their Luo Family would have nothing to fear!

Others might not know, but they knew their ancestor had entered the Saint realm thousands of years ago. No one could say how far he had advanced since then.

"All of this was arranged according to your instructions, Ancestor. You also said that if you did not appear within a hundred years after your Soul Lamp went out, it would mean you had truly fallen!

"By my reckoning, this is already the one hundred and twenty-first year since your Soul Lamp went out!" Luo Zongqi said. He had been preparing to leave, yet to his surprise, his vigil had truly brought him their ancestor's return! After all, as one of the Luo Family's few Dragon Transformation cultivators, he naturally had to stand with the family in life and death now that it faced a crisis!

Luo Yan nodded slightly. So that was how it was!

It seemed the original owner of his body had cared deeply about his elder brother's descendants!

"I haven't lived a second life!" Luo Yan shook his head, cutting short Luo Zongqi's joy.

"Strictly speaking, I really am someone who has died once. If I don't break through to the next realm or find and consume a whole Immortal Medicine within three hundred years, I will certainly die when those three hundred years are up.

"In short, I'm in terrible condition right now. I've even lost almost all my memories!" Luo Yan said, releasing the deathly aura around him. In an instant, he became a decrepit old man with one foot in the grave.

A moment later, he returned to his original appearance.

He had nowhere to stay for now anyway, so returning to the Luo Family would be fine. He could feel at ease relying on his own people!

Although he knew which places held Immortal Medicine, they were all exceedingly dangerous. Those medicines had once followed Great Emperors, so he could not simply seize them by force!

Besides, wandering was wandering, wherever he went!

Hearing Luo Yan describe his condition, Luo Zongqi froze. "Ancestor, you... of course! No wonder you looked so wary earlier! So you, too, have reached your ultimate limit..."

He felt a pang of sorrow. Even someone as supremely gifted and seemingly omnipotent as their ancestor would one day exhaust his lifespan!

His son beside him, however, asked quietly, "Dad, what is Immortal Medicine?"

Luo Zongqi turned an angry glare on his good-for-nothing son. "I told you to study properly and broaden your horizons, but you wouldn't listen! You insisted on loafing around and being a cowherd instead. You don't even know what Immortal Medicine is! You've made a complete fool of yourself in front of our ancestor. Just see how I deal with you when we get home!"

"Forgive this embarrassing display, Ancestor!" Luo Zongqi kicked his son aside and addressed Luo Yan again.