The moon hung high in the sky.
Qi Yan dared not run into Anding City, instead following the road toward a neighboring city.
He had not gone far when he suddenly stopped short.
Beneath the moonlight, a woman stood quietly ahead.
She was very young, dressed in fitted martial attire, her hair in a ponytail and leather-and-bronze clasps around her wrists. She looked dashing and valiant. As she regarded Qi Yan now, her eyes held an appraising hint of amusement. "Young Master Qi, I trust you've been well."
Qi Yan sighed. "When did you return to Anding City, Miss Luo? Don't tell me you were waiting here especially for me?"
Luo Chaoge was the legitimate daughter of the Luo Household, another lineage in Anding City. The Luo Household and the Qi Clan were roughly equal in size, and their estates stood close together. Luo Chaoge was about Qi Yan's age, only a few months older, and they had been childhood playmates.
But when Luo Chaoge was seven or eight, she had been accepted into the Resounding Sword Sect, one of Tianliang Continent's strongest sects. After that, they had little contact and were no longer close. After all, Luo Chaoge spent most of her time at her sect and rarely returned home; even when she did, she never went to see Qi Yan. Fortunately, their households were close, and they still saw each other on certain occasions. Otherwise, they might not even have recognized each other anymore.
As children, they had called each other "Chaoge" and "A-Yan." Look at them now: "Young Master Qi" and "Miss Luo." In any case, they had only known each other from the age when they first became aware of things until they were seven or eight. All told, they had only been playmates for two or three years-not enough to claim they were childhood sweethearts just to lean on an old connection.
At Qi Yan's question, Luo Chaoge's smile faded. "You wouldn't be wrong to say I was waiting for you... You caused quite a commotion at home, Young Master Qi. Our households have been close for generations, so naturally, we took notice."
Qi Yan smiled. "With such drastic upheaval in the Qi Clan, the Luo Household must have some ideas. After all, some of the Qi Clan's mines and shops are still valuable, and its cultivation methods and treasures would make useful additions and references for the Luo Household. We're so close that expanding your estate a little might join the two together."
Luo Chaoge narrowed her eyes at him. "The way you're speaking... you don't care?"
"None of that belongs to me. There are still a few elders in the clan. I'd be lucky just to survive their pursuit-what could I possibly do? Besides, you're already preparing to act. Am I supposed to beg you not to?"
For a moment, Luo Chaoge said nothing.
"As for you waiting here, Miss Luo..." Qi Yan smiled. "If the Luo Household is worried that taking advantage of the situation to swallow the Qi Clan will provoke a backlash from the other factions, and you need to prop me up as a front to call it 'merely an internal clan dispute,' using me as a puppet to bridge the legal transition... shall we discuss terms?"
Luo Chaoge sighed. "No wonder you managed to turn the Qi Clan upside down."
Qi Yan shook his head. "I had no choice. It was self-preservation."
Luo Chaoge asked bluntly, "What do you want?"
"First, once those last few elders are eliminated, the Qi Clan's main lineage will be all but gone. The other members of the Qi bloodline are weak, and they've always been oppressed by the main lineage. I hope the Luo Household won't make things difficult for them and will make proper arrangements for them."
Luo Chaoge nodded. "Agreed."
The Luo Household had never intended a massacre. Aside from their various other concerns, the immortal path had moral restraints of its own. Luo Chaoge simply had not expected this to be the first condition raised by Qi Yan, who seemed willing to turn on even his closest kin.
Qi Yan continued, "Second, make the transition quick. Don't keep me as a puppet for a year or half a year. I leave within three days. You can announce that I'm recovering from my injuries or something."
Luo Chaoge frowned. "Even as a puppet, you'd be cultivating as the head of the Qi Clan. You'd have more resources than before, which would benefit you greatly. Why be in such a hurry?"
"A puppet is still a puppet. Who wants to live under someone else's roof? I wouldn't want to stay a single extra day."
"Since you know we can use your recovery as an excuse to make you disappear... aren't you afraid we might simply kill you when the time comes? Yet here you are, negotiating without so much as a change in expression."
Qi Yan smiled. "I don't have a choice. You're already standing here waiting for me. Surely you didn't really come to reminisce."
Luo Chaoge fell silent for a moment. "Is there a third?"
"Third, what I did earlier was only to protect myself, not to forget my roots and ancestors. The ancestral tombs are already destroyed, and I can't stop you from taking the burial goods. But I hope you'll repair the tombs afterward and restore the restrictions so the ancestors can rest in peace. Also, my parents' graves are out in the remote countryside. It probably hasn't occurred to them to touch those yet. I want to move my parents into the ancestral tombs. That was their dying wish."
Luo Chaoge nodded inwardly. When she first heard of the upheaval in the Qi Clan, she had thought him no different from someone on the demonic path. Yet these three conditions brought him back into the human world, one by one.
"Oh, right." Qi Yan clapped his hands. "If you're willing to let me leave, I hope you can arrange to send me out of Tianliang. I want to go to Heavenly Prefecture Continent."
Heavenly Prefecture Continent was the foremost of the Six Continents of Tiannan. The distance was roughly equivalent to traveling from Oceania to Asia in the modern world. Without help, who knew how long it would take Qi Yan to get there on his own?
Luo Chaoge asked in surprise, "It's a long journey, across mountains and seas. What are you going there for?"
"The Heavenly Evolution Sect is there." Qi Yan blinked. "I hear its sect master, Perfected Mu, is a Nine Tribulations powerhouse and a peerless beauty. I want to become her disciple."
Luo Chaoge looked somewhat annoyed. "Why joke about this?"
Qi Yan only smiled.
Anyone would think he was joking, bringing that up during negotiations, but it was true.
Since he had transmigrated into a world of immortal cultivation, of course he wanted to pursue the mighty powers of immortals and eternal life. But the Qi Clan's meager inheritance clearly would not suffice. He had to aim higher.
He probably would not have an easy time getting by here in Tianliang Continent anymore. Blowing up his own ancestral tombs and wiping out his own main lineage-once word spread, everyone would likely be baying for his blood, leaving him nowhere to set foot. He could only seek the Dao elsewhere.
Since he was leaving, he naturally had considerations of his own. Given the alternatives, how could a modern soul not want a cold, proud, powerful beauty as his master? He had even heard she had white hair and a youthful face... Of course, even if he went, he might not get into the sect, and even if he did, the sect master was unlikely to take him as a disciple. It was only a lovely vision for the future.
A person had to have some aspirations, didn't they?
Clearly, Luo Chaoge could not understand such aspirations. What did being a peerless beauty have to do with choosing a master? Did he want her as a dao companion or something... He was at Qi Refining First Layer, while she was at Nine Tribulations... Luo Chaoge could only assume Qi Yan was unwilling to reveal his true intentions and was hiding them behind a joke.
She did not particularly mind whether Qi Yan told her or not. After a moment's consideration, she finally said, "I can agree to all your conditions. But I can't make an absolute promise about leaving within three days. We can't be certain how many days the transition will take. I can promise we won't deliberately hold you here."
Qi Yan broke into a smile. "Deal."
Luo Chaoge studied him for a long while. In the end, she could not help asking, "Have you been possessed? Why are you completely different from before?"
Qi Yan smiled. "I just woke up."
The Luo Household reacted to the upheaval in the Qi Clan faster than any other faction in the city-even faster than the city lord.
Before even half the night had passed, while the other households were only just learning what had happened and reeling at the ruthlessness of "the fiend Qi Yan," the fiend at the center of their discussions had already led the Luo Household's elites back to attack his own ancestral estate.
Only then did Qi Yan learn that Luo Chaoge had already reached Foundation Establishment Perfection and was preparing to break through to Golden Core. She had left the mountains this time for her final tempering...
Facepalm. My childhood playmate is almost on the same level as the patriarch...
She was only a few months older than him-not even nineteen yet, right... Who knew how many years it would take her to actually break through to Golden Core? However long she might get stuck afterward, her present achievements were already absurd. She had to be one of the world's rare geniuses. Her Luo Household was much like the Qi Clan; only by rising with Luo Chaoge's tide had it gained one or two cultivators at the fifth or sixth layer of Qi Refining. And look how far she had gone...
In short, with that strength behind them, they swept through like a gale through rotten wood, quelling the "internal rebellion" in less than half a cup of tea's time. Qi Yan ascended to the position of Qi Clan head, and his first act was to have everyone connected to the main lineage cut down, leaving not a single one.
"Qi Yan!" An old man forced to his knees in the hall roared, "You invited wolves into the house! Thousands of years of the Qi Clan's foundations, destroyed by your hand!"
"Oh, spare me." Qi Yan said coolly, "The Qi Clan was already finished the moment I triggered the Mutual Destruction Restriction. If someone wants to kill me, I'll take them down with me. I don't care who they are."
Seeing the old man open his mouth to argue, Qi Yan cut him off. "As for those foundations, they were already ruined the moment you began envying the worthy, resenting the capable, and slaughtering your own kin. As for whose fault it really was, I can send you to ask the ancestors what they think."
The old man tried to say more, but Qi Yan could not be bothered to listen. He simply cut him in two with one stroke of his sword.
The head rolled to the floor. The hall fell silent, and the pungent reek of blood turned the faces of many young members of the collateral branches deathly pale.
Qi Yan looked around. "Don't look at me like that. I have no interest in lording it over you. What you need to know is that, as of today, the Qi Clan is effectively gone. From now on, you'll have to rely on yourselves. If you really amount to something, there's nothing stopping you from going out and founding a new Qi Clan. I don't think Miss Luo would stop you either."
With that, he tossed the sword to the ground. "A few of you, come with me to repair the tombs."
Throughout, Luo Chaoge stood in the hall with her hand on her sword, her eyes narrowed as she backed Qi Yan up, watching his actions without a word.
She kept feeling that, given Qi Yan's decisiveness and ruthlessness, if he had even been at the higher layers of Qi Refinement, he could have brought everyone to heel and united the Qi Clan himself in the shortest possible time. Outsiders would never have had a chance to intervene.
Fortunately, he was too weak now, giving the Luo Household its opportunity.
The Qi Clan and the Luo Household were much alike. The Golden Core methods left by their ancestors had never been particularly advanced in the first place. On top of that, over the generations, certain talented members had died unexpectedly, while wastrel scions in other generations had failed to study properly. As time passed, with no one to interpret and explain them, their descendants could barely understand their ancestors' methods at all. Naturally, they achieved less and less through cultivation.
That did not mean their descendants truly lacked aptitude. Luo Chaoge herself clearly had excellent aptitude. Given the chance to receive instruction from a skilled master, they might soar into the heavens in a single flight.
Judging by the qualities Qi Yan had displayed, all he needed was an opportunity, and he would never remain a mere creature of the pond. She wondered whether her household would consequently consider eliminating him to prevent future trouble...
As these thoughts turned in her mind, Luo Chaoge kept walking, unconsciously following Qi Yan toward the burial hill. She would first see whether she could find anything useful for her breakthrough.
The group had only just reached the hill when Qi Yan stopped short in astonishment. "What happened?"
For some reason, on the hill that had been a field of ruins, the scattered stones and bricks had been stacked neatly to one side, piece by piece. A clearly defined area had been cleared around the central burial chamber, exposing the various restriction glyphs carved inside. The coffin was intact, and even the burial goods scattered nearby had been gathered back beside it.
Oh, and the group the Qi Clan had sent earlier to tidy up were lying unconscious beside the pit.
It looked as though whoever had come had no interest in robbing tombs or in the Qi Clan at all. They seemed to have come solely to study the tomb itself, then drifted away once they were done.
But although these events took a long time to recount, in reality, only half a night had passed! Who could possibly have silently put a field of rubble into this state in so little time, without even a single figure being seen?