Unlike the imposing elder in the original body's memories, Old Master Luo looked utterly haggard now.
His frame was still burly, but the muscles that should have brimmed with the strength of a horned dragon seemed to have shriveled somewhat beneath his loose gray robe.
His face was withered, his eyes sunken. Only his gaze remained as sharp as a hawk's, despite its unmistakable weariness and murkiness. Faint flashes of lightning flickered as his eyes opened and closed, revealing the ferocity of a man who had survived a hundred battles.
Yet Luo Yue could clearly sense a faint, heart-chilling gray-black aura clinging like maggots to bone around the old patriarch's brow and the acupoints throughout his body.
It was the curse and ill omen from the depths of the Ancient Mine. Even with the Jiang Family's divine physicians suppressing it, it continued to eat away at his essence and divine soul.
Luo Yue approached, and the power of her Divine King Body bloodline stirred faintly, seemingly repelled by the cursed aura on instinct.
Following the original body's memories, she bowed respectfully, her voice obedient and clear:
"Great-grandfather."
Luo Tiangang slowly opened his eyes, his piercing gaze lingering on Luo Yue for a moment.
An exceedingly complicated emotion flashed deep in his eyes-scrutiny, indignation-before finally dissolving into an almost inaudible sigh.
"Mm. It's good that you're back."
His voice was dry and hoarse, like sandpaper scraping.
Luo Yue did not know what to say either, so she simply stood with her hands at her sides, maintaining the original owner's quiet, taciturn manner.
Luo Tiangang's clouded gaze lingered on Luo Yue for a long time. Especially when he saw her ice-blue eyes and bright silver hair, he seemed to look through time and see another figure he held dear.
At last, he slowly raised his withered hand. A soft radiance suddenly blossomed in his palm, carrying a vast abundance of vital essence.
It was a fist-sized piece of divine source!
It was crystal clear throughout, as though a miniature river of stars had been sealed inside. Shimmering with iridescent light, it gave off the purest essence of heaven and earth.
Merely drawing close made Luo Yue feel every pore in her body open. Even the divine blood flowing through her seemed to grow more active!
This was the very thing that had brought a calamity crashing down upon the Luo Family half a year ago, leaving the old patriarch grievously wounded and unconscious.
"Take it."
Luo Tiangang's voice carried an unquestionable command. As his words fell, the heavy piece of divine source floated straight into Luo Yue's small hands.
The divine source felt cool to the touch and weighed far more than an ordinary stone. Its surging vital essence instantly invigorated Luo Yue.
"Great-grandfather, this..."
For the first time, unmistakable astonishment appeared in Luo Yue's ice-blue eyes.
"Take it. It's no longer of any use to me. Rather than let those useless wretches benefit from it, I'd sooner use it to help you bring your Divine Body to full fruition," the old patriarch said with a wave of his hand.
He looked as though he did not care in the slightest.
But his words sent a shock through Luo Yue!
Divine source was so precious that even figures at the Holy Lord level desperately coveted it, yet the old patriarch said it was now useless to him...
"So you've guessed already. You truly are Qing Peng's flesh and blood—clever ever since you were little." Seeing her expression change with shock, Old Master Luo gave a rasping chuckle.
"Didn't the Jiang Family's divine physicians say they had already..."
Before Luo Yue could finish, he interrupted her.
Old Master Luo sneered. "This curse carries the ill omen of the Primordial Era. How could it be resolved so easily? Those quacks the Jiang Family brought in never did a damned thing from beginning to end!"
"If I hadn't received a heaven-sent opportunity in my youth and bathed in the divine blood of a Primordial Golden Flood Dragon in a Flood Dragon Pool, I might not have survived."
"The Jiang Family Holy Lord and Jiang Yun, those two bastards! They must have thought I wasn't dying fast enough. Who knows where they found that pack of quacks?"
"The ill omen bound to that curse didn't kill me, but I nearly died at the hands of those quacks!"
At this point, his words dripped with contempt for the Jiang Family's divine physicians.
He also took the opportunity to thoroughly curse the Jiang Family Holy Lord and the man named Jiang Yun.
Luo Yue: "..."
She certainly did not dare join in.
It was one thing for the old patriarch to curse the Jiang Family Holy Lord.
But the Jiang Yun he spoke of was the owner of that cold, aged voice-the man living in seclusion by the waterfall behind the Jiang Family's Divine Island, who had directly changed her surname to Jiang that day. He was also her mother's grandfather, her maternal great-grandfather.
Clearly, Old Patriarch Jiang Yun of the Jiang Family and the Luo Family's old patriarch did not get along...
She wondered whether it was because Luo Yue's father had married the cherished pearl in that Jiang Family elder's palm.
Of course, Luo Yue did not particularly care about the older generation's affairs.
What truly concerned her now was how much longer the old patriarch could hold on in his present condition...
"Little girl, there's no need to overthink it."
"In my youth, I fought many battles and left too many hidden injuries behind. My allotted years were already drawing to an end before I entered that mine. I merely wanted to stake this battered body on one final gamble."
"But there's one thing I truly cannot accept!"
Luo Tiangang's voice suddenly rose, carrying a trace of his lingering authority. Then he began coughing violently, and the gray-black aura coiled around his brow seemed to churn with it.
"Jiang Yun, that bastard! Damn him!"
"What right did he have to change the surname of my Luo Family's Divine Body?!"
Luo Tiangang practically roared those words through gritted teeth, like an enraged old lion!
Luo Yue's heart tightened.
Clearly, her unreliable young aunt had guessed correctly. The old patriarch had been bottling up his anger over this all along!
She saw his gaunt hand suddenly clench, his knuckles whitening with the force. A wisp of gray aura even seeped between his fingers.
An indescribable mixture of humiliation, resentment, and fury seethed in his eyes. It was the agony of having a lifetime's pride brutally trampled by reality.
He hated the powers coveting the Luo Family, who had forced it to seek the Jiang Family's aid while he lay unconscious. Still more, he hated his own helplessness now, when even protecting his family's bloodline had become so difficult.
After a long while, those surging emotions were finally pressed down by a deeper exhaustion and a thread of clear-headed reason.
Old Master Luo let out a long, heavy breath, as though it had drained every ounce of his strength. His clenched hand slowly loosened, and his shoulders sagged slightly. In an instant, he seemed to have aged ten years.
"The wood has already been made into a boat..."
The old patriarch
closed his eyes, his voice low and hoarse as a murmur in a dream. "Yue'er, since the Jiang Family has acknowledged you, you are the Goddess of the Jiang Family. Consider this piece of divine source... my 'accounting' to you, and to the Jiang Family."
He opened his eyes. That piercing gaze had dimmed considerably.
Having said this, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength. He waved wearily, signaling for Luo Yue to leave. "Go. In a few days, return to the Jiang Family with Qing Luan."
"Luo City has become the vortex of the entire Northern Region. It isn't somewhere you should linger."
Luo Yue held the cool, radiant piece of divine source, yet it felt heavier than a thousand tons.
She opened her mouth, then stopped. She could feel the immense energy contained within it, as well as the weight of the complex emotions in his words-the resolve and the last vestige of a desire to shelter her.
She looked at the elder before her, a hero all his life, now crushed beneath a curse and reality.
For the first time, an indescribable stirring arose deep within Luo Yue's ice-blue eyes toward this unfamiliar world, toward this Luo Family.
She said nothing more. She merely bowed deeply once again to the elder sitting motionless beside the Cold Pool, his figure looking especially lonely and desolate amid the deep-blue chill.
A man nearing death, a hero's curtain falling...
She understood. The old patriarch intended to use the last of his life to secure a way out for the entire Luo Family.