Chapter Eighty-One: The Power of the Ancestors

At the same time, disciples from the surrounding alchemy chambers and nearby Jade Pool flocked over at the sound. Upon seeing the chaos—the upturned floor tiles and churned earth—they all wore looks of shock.

“How could this happen?”

“Was there some great battle here?”

“This is outrageous! I was just about to finish refining a batch of pills when a loud noise outside startled me. I lost control of the flame and my furnace exploded!”

A female disciple, her face blackened with soot and her clothes in tatters, stormed out, furious, determined to find whoever was responsible right away. Yet, despite the crowd, confusion reigned—no one knew what had actually happened.

When they arrived, they saw only two people: one was Liu Lanxu, beneath whose facade hid Xu Zhe, and the other, a frightened junior disciple still in the early stages of cultivation.

Xu Zhe wore an indignant expression, muttering repeatedly, “This is simply intolerable.”

“Senior Sister Liu, do you know what happened? Why did the ground collapse like this?” someone promptly asked Xu Zhe.

“Sigh, sisters, forgive me. In the end, this should all be blamed on me. Just consider me responsible,” Xu Zhe sighed softly, voice tinged with grievance and helplessness—exactly the tone of Liu Lanxu herself.

The crowd was momentarily stunned. What did she mean, “just consider me responsible”?

“Senior Sister Liu, why do you say so?” someone pressed.

Xu Zhe’s eyes moistened slightly, and with a mournful sigh, she said, “Please, don’t ask any further. I don’t want to make things difficult for the Holy Master or the elders. Let me shoulder this alone.”

An unspoken realization swept through the disciples—there was clearly more to this story! Word had it that Young Master Mo had recently come with a betrothal gift, with the elders’ support, but Senior Sister Liu seemed unwilling. Could there have been a quarrel?

“Senior Sister Liu, if you tell the truth, the Holy Master and the elders will surely stand up for you.”

“Right, since when has Jade Pool ever bowed to outside pressure? You can tell us.”

“That’s right—don’t let yourself suffer injustice.”

“It’s fine if you don’t wish to speak, Senior Sister—we all understand. This must be Mo Shaowen’s doing, isn’t it?”

“Outrageous! If you don’t wish to marry him, that’s your right. For him to abuse the Mo family’s power and wreak havoc here is unforgivable!”

As they spoke, all blame shifted squarely onto Mo Shaowen.

Xu Zhe was dumbfounded, lips parted, at a loss for words.

Who said the Jade Pool’s female disciples lacked wit? They were formidable! They’d already guessed he meant to frame Mo Shaowen, even supplying the lines he’d intended to say next.

“Please, sisters, say no more,” Xu Zhe hurried to continue the act, choked with silent sobs, appearing pitiful and forlorn, as if her tears could only be swallowed, never shed.

“If only I’d agreed to his proposal, perhaps he wouldn’t have flown into such a rage and ruined this place, causing even a fellow disciple’s furnace to explode. All of this… it’s my fault. I was silent when I shouldn’t have been, weak when I should have been brave.”

“Senior Sister Liu, don’t say that! It’s just a ruined batch of pills for me, but if you agree to him, you’ll lose your entire future happiness!” cried the disciple whose body was now barely draped in scraps, indignation blazing. “Mo Shaowen is so domineering—just like his sister… Ahem, Senior Sister, you were right to refuse him. He’s not worth entrusting your life to.”

As her anger mounted, the few remaining rags slipped further, but the other women paid it no mind—having spent years together, they’d seen it all. It was nothing.

Xu Zhe, though less experienced, had only ever seen Lin Keyi’s, but he remained composed, unaffected.

As the saying goes, beauty is but a skeleton clad in rotting flesh.

He glanced repeatedly without a change of expression, his heart unruffled.

His resolve was firmer than ever.

“You are all right, sisters. Your words have enlightened me. Please wait here—I will go and resolve this with him. Whatever happens, he cannot be allowed to do as he pleases in our Jade Pool.”

With that, Xu Zhe turned and left. The elaborate performance had merely been to buy time to block off the underground tunnels. Now that his task was done, it was best to leave before he found himself trapped instead.

The Jade Pool’s strength was not to be underestimated; he’d just sensed a divine consciousness stronger than the Nascent Soul stage sweep over the area. Fortunately, his transformation spell was powerful enough to alter even his aura; otherwise, he would have been discovered long ago.

Xu Zhe made his way out unimpeded.

The exit was easy to find: by recalling where the disciples of Jade Pool emerged at the mountain’s base and aligning that with where his tunnel ended, he simply moved in a straight line toward the other point.

“Eh, Senior Sister Liu, what are you doing here? Just now—” a disciple hurried past and, upon seeing Xu Zhe, exclaimed in surprise.

“I have urgent matters and must go out for a while,” Xu Zhe replied calmly, cutting her off to avoid raising suspicion—after all, every disciple here was a stranger to him.

“Then I won’t keep you. This is the betrothal gift from the Mo family—do you want to send it back?” The disciple produced a storage ring.

“Give it to me. I’ll return it on my way.”

Xu Zhe nodded, took the ring, and flew directly through the sect’s protective array.

The disciple watched him go, her face a mix of envy and jealousy. She snorted coldly. “What’s she got to be proud of? Just because she’s prettier than us, she acts aloof, turning her nose up at the Mo family. If it were me, I’d have married there long ago.”

Before long, Xu Zhe had left Jade Pool’s territory. He did not pause, hurrying toward Heaven’s Pride Valley, changing his appearance, aura, and identity several times along the way.

Only upon reaching the border did he take out the Myriad Manifestations Jade Talisman to contact Qu Hongxiu.

Chu Xiaotong, having left to avoid the Four Continents Council, was now leading her army deep into the demon realm’s borderlands and could not be reached for some time. Before she left, she had secured two Primordial Spirit Veins and entrusted them to Qu Hongxiu.

Following his plan, Xu Zhe, having found the Primordial Gold Spirit Vein, intended to meet Qu Hongxiu at Heaven’s Pride Valley to obtain the other two spirit veins and then enter seclusion there.

Once he refined and sublimated the remaining three spirit roots—condensing gold, water, and fire auras into pills—he would unite all five and break through to the Golden Core stage.

“Uncle Xu, there’s a bit of trouble in the Southern Sky Continent. I have to help Master handle it. I’ve hidden your things very well—no one will find them, and even if they do, they can’t break the seal.”

Upon opening the jade talisman, Xu Zhe received this message from Qu Hongxiu, leaving him bewildered.

But where did you hide them? he wondered, replying immediately.

Soon, a second message arrived. “(*^__^*) Hehe, Uncle Xu, here’s the map and the way to break the seal.”

Attached was a map and a series of hand seals.

Xu Zhe glanced at them, then hurried into Heaven’s Pride Valley toward the indicated spot.

By the next day, he had reached his destination and obtained the two Primordial Spirit Veins. On the spot, he set up dozens of arrays and barriers, sat cross-legged, and began to absorb the spirit veins, elevating his gold, water, and fire roots.

Meanwhile, in Jade Pool Holy Land, Liu Lanxu sat in the Hall of Law, bewildered before several elders.

Hadn’t Mo Shaowen left long ago? Wasn’t he out dealing with the mute? How could he have reappeared at Jade Pool and destroyed the ground outside the alchemy chambers?

And why… was it said to be her doing?

After some questioning, the truth began to emerge. Liu Lanxu realized something was amiss and quickly reported everything to the elders, including how Mo Shaowen had gone to kill the mute idiot—who was actually Xu Zhe in disguise.

That very day, the Mo family received word from Jade Pool and promptly checked Mo Shaowen’s life tablet in their ancestral shrine.

It was shattered.

This meant Shaowen was dead.

Liu Lanxu, as the prime suspect, was immediately detained for questioning at the Mo family’s behest. Jade Pool, unwilling to antagonize the Mo family, and with Liu Lanxu’s statements not adding up, cooperated with the investigation.

When Mo Xiaolian heard the news, she erupted in fury.

Of all the younger generation, she was closest to Mo Shaowen—they had bathed and played together as children, slept side by side as they grew, confiding all their secrets. They were more like sisters than siblings.

Now Shaowen was dead. First her fiancé died, and now, all too soon after, her dearest brother.

It was unbearable.

In her rage, she nearly lost her mind, vowing to kill Liu Lanxu—but this time, her elders stopped her.

Liu Lanxu was Jade Pool’s brightest disciple, and with the facts unclear, rash action would only offend Jade Pool. The Mo family would not risk it.

So Mo Xiaolian turned to her father, the Mo family patriarch, Mo Shanhai.

“Father, are we just to let my brother die so inexplicably? That wretched Liu Lanxu is definitely involved.”

Sitting before her was a refined, scholarly-looking middle-aged man, so unlike a father and daughter that they could be mistaken for strangers.

Mo Shanhai sipped his tea and sighed, “Xiaolian, don’t be hasty. I’ve already sent people to investigate Shaowen’s death. If we kill Liu Lanxu before the truth is known, Jade Pool will never accept it. Besides, you are considered half a disciple of Jade Pool yourself. We must consider this carefully.”

“We can’t kill her without proof? And if we never find the truth? Should we let that wretch walk free?” Mo Xiaolian’s face darkened. “Even if Shaowen was adopted and not of our bloodline, this cannot rest. I demand we open the ancestral shrine and invoke the power of the ancestor tablets for a retrospective search!”

Crash! Mo Shanhai’s teacup fell, spilling its contents.

“Invoke the ancestors’ power? For this… No, Xiaolian, that force isn’t to be trifled with. I’ve told you many times—our family has survived a hundred thousand years by the ancestors’ blessing. Unless the family faces extinction, we must not lightly use their power.”

Mo Xiaolian’s gaze was icy. “If you won’t invoke the ancestors, I’ll go to Jade Pool and kill Liu Lanxu myself, then kill myself in front of you. You know I mean what I say.”

“You…” Mo Shanhai’s eyes widened, but he was helpless. He knew his daughter’s temperament—extreme and unhinged. Years ago, when she first said she’d kill, he’d tried to stop her, but she said she’d rather die herself. He’d thought it childish talk, but she actually cut her own throat, only to be saved in time. Since then, she’d used this threat again and again, and, doting on his only child, Mo Shanhai could only yield.

So, once more, he acquiesced.

As patriarch, he had the authority to open the ancestral shrine and invoke their power, but to avoid intervention from the elders, he secretly took Mo Xiaolian with him.

Inside the shrine, ancestral tablets lined the walls, but only the one at the very center—the first patriarch’s tablet—could be used to summon their power.

The tablet was ancient yet unweathered, with just three characters: “Mo Junchen.”

Entering, Mo Shanhai bowed reverently to the tablets, then sliced his finger, letting his blood drip onto the floor.

“Unfilial descendant of the Mo family begs the ancestor to descend with divine power. Grant me the means to peer into the past and find my son Mo Shaowen’s true killer!”

He cried out with fervent devotion, channeling spiritual power into hundreds of intricate seals. The blood on the floor seethed, flowing toward the tablet.

Soon, the tablet quivered softly. An overwhelming, formless, invisible might descended, as if a pair of eyes peered from the heavens through the shrine’s roof.

With a thunderous boom, a flash of brilliance shot from the tablet, rippling across the white wall like water, forming a blurred image.

In the vision, Mo Shaowen was fleeing through the air, someone behind him throwing a punch. Yet, just as the punch was about to land, the scene abruptly flickered and dissolved into nothing.

The tablet on the altar began to shake violently, as if shocked to its core.

Mo Shanhai spat a mouthful of blood, his face instantly ashen, terror-stricken.

What was happening? Why had the ancestor’s power suddenly withdrawn? And was that a trace of awe in its aura? Was the ancestor hinting at something?

Left in a daze, Mo Shanhai could not fathom what had occurred.

Mo Xiaolian, meanwhile, paid no heed to his injuries. Her gaze remained fixed on the blank wall, burning with hatred.

“Xu Zhe!”

She ground out the name between clenched teeth.

Even without seeing the strike connect, she recognized the stance and aura—throughout the Azure Gift Continent, only Xu Zhe could throw that punch. The posture, the momentum, matched exactly what she’d seen in recordings on the spirit net.