Inside the ancestral hall of the Changling Kong Family.
A deafening crash gave way to an unprecedented uproar.
The spirit tablet enshrined at the highest point of the hall, a pillar of reassurance for them all...
Had exploded!
Yes, exploded!
It was Kong Chunqiu's life-bound spirit tablet.
According to the rules of the Kong Family ancestral hall, passed down over countless years, this meant their Heaven-Holding Old Ancestor had fallen!!
"That's impossible!"
A square-faced, middle-aged man in brocade robes slammed the table and sprang to his feet.
He was Kong Chong, the Kong Family's current grand elder.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the shattered tablet on the table, his breathing ragged:
"Granduncle only left a moment ago."
"With his heaven-defying cultivation in the Heaven-Grasping Realm, who could harm a hair on his head within a million miles of [Lu Hai Changling], or beyond?!"
"If you ask me, something must have gone wrong with the ancestral hall's restrictions!"
"Grand Elder... you shouldn't speak in such absolutes."
A composed male voice rang out just then.
The speaker was a fair-faced, beardless young man named Kong Shen.
He came from a collateral branch of the Kong Family and had always been known for his meticulous thinking. Now, however, his brows were tightly knitted, his voice full of unease:
"The life-bound spirit tablet was linked to Granduncle's aura. How could it explode for no reason?"
"I'm afraid... our Kong Family may have provoked something we never should have!"
"Bullshit!"
Before he could finish, a burly man with a thick, curly beard glared at him and snapped:
"You spineless rat! What the hell do you know about Second Granduncle?!"
"Take a good look at yourself! Do you have any idea what kind of being he was?"
"How many people in the entire