The prosperity of a lineage was no easy thing. It required generations of clansmen offering themselves up, one after another.
It required favorable timing and terrain, unity of purpose, luck, and the care of someone treading on thin ice.
But for a lineage to fall into decline was very easy.
It might lose its pillar, offend someone it should never have offended, or draw someone else's covetous gaze.
The Nangong Aristocratic Clan was now heading toward ruin.
Of course, the Nangong Aristocratic Clan had not established itself at Immortal-Descending Pass and developed steadily for so many years solely on the legacy of a Golden Core Realm cultivator.
Many suspected that the Nangong Aristocratic Clan had a Golden Core Realm cultivator presiding over it.
Nangong had simply never addressed the matter directly, leaving those with an interest to speculate.
In truth, the Nangong Aristocratic Clan did have a Golden Core Realm cultivator secretly presiding over it, but only one.
Moreover, this man was not actually a member of the Nangong clan. In fact, many years ago, he had merely been a servant of another surname in their household.
The Nangong clan head and the elders all knew about this cultivator of another surname.
Back then, he had been of humble birth and looked down upon. Yet the eldest Nangong daughter of several centuries ago had thought highly of him, believing that he would surely accomplish something in the future.
Although no romance between mistress and servant had unfolded, that young lady had given him considerable support.
Later, he had left Nangong and ventured alone through the Eastern Wilderness and the Central Region, after which nothing more was heard of him.
Then, one year, the Nangong Aristocratic Clan suffered a great calamity. At that desperate moment, he had intervened just slightly and