Five days after the aptitude testing, an old man arrived at the main entrance to the southern end of Sanglu Valley with a child.
He held a letter in his hand, bearing a command seal marked with the character "Qing."
"Ancestor, is this where we'll be living from now on?"
The little boy, who had just turned ten, stood on tiptoe to look at the valley before him, his eyes revealing a sharp, clever glint.
"Yes. From now on, our Lü Family will enter this place and live under the Main Family's protection."
The old man was advanced in years, his face covered in the marks left by time.
His eye sockets were sunken, and the heavy exhaustion in his gaze could not be dispelled.
Yet at this moment, as he clutched the letter and looked into the valley, there was an added trace of relief and comfort in his eyes.
At least the Lü Family will have someone to rely on from now on, the old man thought.
His name was Lü Lianshun, the ancestor of the Lü Family of Qinghe.
He was at the Fourth Layer of Qi Gathering and was eighty-seven years old this year.
The Lü Family had originally been an independent family with three cultivators, possessing considerable strength in Qinghe.
But afterward, Lü Lianshun's younger brother, Lü Lianping, had been drafted by the Dynasty to suppress the unrest in the Eastern Region. He had yet to return, and whether he was alive or dead remained unknown.
Then, during Feng Ling's expedition, his younger nephew Lü Liang had perished while exploring an ancient tomb.
Under such circumstances, the Lü Family had been left with only him, an old man, struggling to hold everything together.
When the yin ghosts ran rampant, Tian Yu had once come to