The Sun in Sun Bo'an Is Also the Sun in the Sun Clan!

Three days later, at midnight.

The Sun Clan's ancestral hall was ablaze with light.

Sun Hangchun sat upright in the seat of honor, account books laid out before him, discussing the allocation of next month's spirit fields with several clan elders from the first and second branches.

"Ancestor, the third branch seems to have been restless lately." Sun Bochang of the second branch lowered his voice. "That fellow Sun Bo'an has been going in and out of the back mountain frequently these past few days. I'm afraid..."

"Afraid of what?" Sun Hangchun lifted his eyelids, his cloudy gaze sweeping over the others. "So what if he goes to the back mountain? If Fellow Daoist Shi truly intended to support the third branch, he would have spoken up long ago."

"What do you think the third branch could possibly offer to sway that bear demon?"

"Besides, Fellow Daoist Shi is no ordinary Demon Beast. His intelligence is no less than that of us humans. What ordinary Foundation Establishment Demon Beast has wisdom like Shi Jian's?"

"Besides..." A cold smile curled the old man's lips. "Even if those good-for-nothings in the third branch were given a chance, they couldn't stir up any waves."

Before his words had faded.

The doors of the ancestral hall exploded open.

Sun Bo'an charged in with six cultivators from the third branch, Law Artifacts in hand and killing intent blazing. Their arrival came without warning.

"Sun Bo'an! Have you gone mad?!"

Shocked and furious, Sun Bochang instinctively moved to form a Method Formula.

But the next second, a dark figure drifted in from outside the ancestral hall.

Shi Jian's enormous bear body blocked the doorway, completely blotting out the moonlight and plunging the entire ancestral hall into shadow. A terrifying pressure swept through the hall in an instant!

"Fellow Daoist Shi?"

Sun Hangchun shot to his feet, his face turning deathly pale. "What is the meaning of this?"

"The meaning?" Shi Jian asked in return, an amused smile on his bear face. "Old Sun, haven't you always wanted to know why I agreed to join the Sun Clan so readily?"

"Because from the very beginning, I never intended to live peacefully with you."

Sun Hangchun trembled all over. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, finally settling on a terrifying guess.

"Could it be that you intend to break your heart demon oath?"

"Break it?" Shi Jian burst out laughing. "I swore to keep the Sun Clan safe for two hundred years and never slaughter its descendants, but I never said I would keep your line, Sun Hangchun, safe for two hundred years."

"Sun Bo'an's surname is Sun too, and the third branch is part of the Sun Clan."

"As long as the Sun Clan still exists, my oath hasn't been broken!"

Those words struck like an exploding thunderclap.

The blood drained from Sun Hangchun's face. He finally understood that from the very beginning, this bear demon had never intended to be an obedient clan guardian spirit beast.

What he wanted was a puppet Lineage that obeyed his every command!

This fellow intended to drive the magpie from its nest and take it for himself!

"Sun Bo'an, hurry up and make your move."

At those words, a flicker of struggle passed through Sun Bo'an's eyes, but madness soon replaced it.

He struck the nearest second-branch clan elder with his palm. Spiritual power erupted, shattering the other's protective spiritual light. Their cultivation levels were not far apart.

But with Shi Jian holding the hall in check, Sun Bochang could not bring even half his cultivation to bear.

"Sun Bo'an! You beast!" Sun Bochang roared and charged forward, but the seven members of the third branch had already formed a battle formation, surrounding the people in the ancestral hall.

Inside the ancestral hall, the spiritual light of Law Techniques intertwined, and screams rose one after another.

Sun Hangchun had just started forward to fight for his life when Shi Jian sent him flying with a slap. In that single blow, both his protective spiritual light and his life-bound talisman shattered!

A dignified Foundation Establishment cultivator had been beaten to the brink of death by a single close-range slap.

It was an overwhelming attack from a higher dimension!

With Sun Hangchun, the Foundation Establishment cultivator, out of the way, Shi Jian's presence as a great Foundation Establishment demon erupted in full, weighing down every Qi Refining cultivator present until their movements slowed and even circulating their spiritual power became difficult...

"Fellow Daoist Shi..." Sun Hangchun's lips trembled. "You can't do this... Heaven will punish you..."

"Heaven's punishment?" Shi Jian yawned. "I'm a bear. What business does Lord Heaven have with me? Whatever you've got to say, old thing, go tell Lord Heaven."

"Besides, I'm not the one killing you."

He tilted his head and looked at Sun Bo'an, who was fighting in a frenzy. "This is your Sun Clan's own family affair. What does it have to do with me?"

Sun Hangchun closed his eyes in despair.

He had lost.

Lost completely and utterly.

From the beginning, he had thought he was playing chess, when in truth he was merely a piece on the board. Only half an hour later, silence settled over the ancestral hall.

Sun Bochang and the older cultivators of the first and second branches lay in the hall.

As for the remaining juniors with low cultivation, every last one would be wiped out tonight, leaving only their third branch from then on!

Sun Bo'an was bathed in blood, and the Law Artifact in his hand was still dripping with it. He knelt before Shi Jian, his voice hoarse. "Ancestor... the Sun Clan's third branch... will obey only your commands from this day forward..."

Shi Jian glanced at him, then looked at Sun Hangchun, the only one still alive in the corner.

The old man leaned against the wall, his chest crushed by Shi Jian's slap, barely breathing.

"Old thing, any last words?"

Sun Hangchun gave a bitter laugh and used the last of his strength to say, "I only want to know... when did you start... laying this trap..."

"From the first time you came to Mingqiu Mountain," Shi Jian said unhurriedly. "From start to finish, you were nothing more than the big fish I chose..."

"Because you were weak, because you were greedy."

"So I chose you and led you on, using you to bring me into this Human Race territory. Rest easy as you go, old thing."

"Your clan, I shall raise as my own. Worry not."

Sun Hangchun's pupils contracted violently, and his Qi and Blood nearly surged to his heart.

"As for the third branch..." Shi Jian looked at Sun Bo'an. "I merely gave him a choice. He chose this path himself."

"You... you... beast..."

"Beast?" Shi Jian grinned, baring a mouthful of fangs. "I was a Demon Beast to begin with. Only just realized that, old thing?"

Sun Hangchun gave a bitter laugh. In the end, Sun Bo'an cut off his head with a single stroke of his sword, personally putting an end to this granduncle of his.

Shi Jian rose to his feet and shook the dust from his bear paw.

"Clean this up. First thing tomorrow morning, make an announcement to the whole city."

"Say that the Sun Clan's second branch colluded with outside enemies and plotted to murder Ancestor Sun Hangchun. The third branch discovered it in time and asked Ancestor Shi Jian to slay the outside enemies."

"However, though the outside enemies were destroyed..."

"The ancestor fell, and the Sun Clan suffered heavy casualties. Fortunately, with Ancestor Shi Jian holding the fort for the Sun Clan, Hongtian City can be protected from harm for centuries."

"From this day forward, the Sun Clan has only one branch."

Sun Bo'an trembled all over and kowtowed again in excitement:

"Yes, Ancestor!"

Shi Jian walked out of the ancestral hall, and moonlight fell upon him once more. He looked up at the night sky, a slight smile curling his lips.

Hongtian City was only the beginning.

Once he had raised enough bear cubs, once his rat demon intelligence network covered the entire Great Wei Immortal Dynasty, then...

Who said the Demon Race couldn't establish a dynasty?

He, Shi Jian, would build a dynasty belonging solely to Demon Beasts, and those Human Race cultivators and Dao lineages would become his finest hosts.

And the finest nourishment!