Jiang Zongwang's kinship with Emperor Qin was already exceedingly distant. His great-great-grandfather had been the Prince of Zhongliang, who had fathered over a hundred children in his lifetime. These children had received virtually no titles or rewards, yet they too had been prolific. By Jiang Zongwang's generation, the prince's descendants numbered in the thousands. Most had been reduced to commoners, without even the designation of imperial relatives, and could not be entered in the clan genealogy.
Jiang Zongwang, however, had exceptional talent. Naturally, he had no access to the Jiang Clan's ancestral martial arts, but a chance encounter had brought him into the Way of the Yellow Heaven. From there, he had advanced by leaps and bounds, becoming a formidable Grandmaster Realm expert before forty, one of the Jiang Clan's Four Great Masters. Even so, he could not be entered in the Jiang Clan genealogy and was merely ordered about like a servant.
After learning of Jiang Zongwang's background, Wang Chong hesitated slightly. He still wanted to slaughter the man, but it seemed that sparing him would do as well. He set the matter aside for now, hauled Sima Yunshan up, and asked, "You old cur, why do you have a grudge against me?"
Qiguan Sui sighed and said, "I overlooked it."
"He's known as the Nine-Manifestation Divine Dragon, the Beggar King Sima. How could he not be one of the Sima Family's Eight Dragons?"
Wang Chong let out an "Oh," and immediately understood Sima Yunshan. He had killed two of the Sima Family's dragons: Sima Li had died on the point of his spear, and after Sima Feng was captured alive, Wang Chong had subsequently cut off his head without even bothering to recruit him. It would have been downright uncanny if Sima Yunshan had submitted.
Seen in that