A few days later, the time for the Shen Family’s ancestral rites—a ceremony held only once a century—had arrived.

Before the first light of dawn, the sky above the Shen Family’s grand estate was already a vortex of roiling spiritual energy.

Eighteen gilded spirit vessels hovered in the clouds. Their hulls, carved from thousand-year-old mystical wood, radiated an aura of profound grandeur. From each side of every vessel, thirty-six crimson banners, embroidered with the Shen family crest, snapped fiercely in the wind. Woven from heavenly silkworm silk, they remained untouched by the gales that tore through the skies.

“Set sail!”

At the command of the family patriarch, Shen Xiong, all eighteen spirit vessels erupted in a blinding spiritual light. The formations beneath them flared to life, casting a ten-thousand-zhang radiance that stained the sea of clouds a brilliant crimson-gold.

Down in Qingzhou City, countless cultivators gazed up in awe, watching the fleet cut through the sky like a great dragon, parting the clouds and leaving a shimmering trail of spiritual energy that lingered long after they had passed.

“It’s no wonder they’re the foremost clan in Qingzhou,” murmured one wandering cultivator, his voice filled with admiration.

Shen Xian stood on the deck of the lead vessel, his dark ceremonial robes whipping about him in the fierce wind.

The vessels were arranged according to the clan’s hierarchy—from the eldest to the youngest, the direct line to the collateral branches. Dozens of Shen Family descendants lined the rails of each ship.

According to Shen Lingyue, over five hundred descendants had gathered for this ancestral rite. Historically, however, only a third of them would ever earn the formation’s recognition, and less than one percent would receive the founding ancestor’s blessing.

Beside him stood Ye Qingxian, her presence as ethereal as it was graceful.

She was dressed in a gown of pure white, her long black hair held in place by a simple jade hairpin. The morning sun cast a golden halo around her, illuminating her profile. Her crystalline eyes mirrored the sea of clouds below, and the faint silver embroidery on her gown shimmered. She seemed immaculate, radiating an otherworldly aura that warned others to keep their distance.

With her cultivation no longer concealed, she looked like a goddess descended from the heavens, drawing the gazes of countless members of the younger generation.

These young clan members had long heard of Ye Qingxian’s reputation as the most beautiful woman in Qingzhou. They had been heartbroken when she lost her cultivation to demonic possession, crying out against the injustice of it all.

Now, seeing her restored to her former glory, her aura even more transcendent and otherworldly than before, their hearts were stirred once more.

Yet when their gazes shifted to Shen Xian beside her, a flicker of resentment inevitably surfaced, their eyes filled with envy and jealousy.

Back when Ye Qingxian had lost her cultivation, pairing her with a failure like Shen Xian might have seemed fitting.

But now, they were worlds apart.

Even though Shen Xian was a legitimate heir of the Shen Family with a noble status, it didn’t change the fact that his spiritual root was a mere ninth-grade, and his cultivation was only at the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm.

Among these young clan members, he was nothing but a complete waste.

How could such a failure possibly be worthy of Qingzhou’s peerless beauty, a woman of such extraordinary talent?

The thought that this icy goddess, who could only be admired from afar, had chosen such a loser as her Dao Companion filled many of them with a deep, burning indignation.

In their eyes, someone like Ye Qingxian deserved the eldest legitimate heir of the Shen Family, and no one less.

As for you, Shen Xian… what are you even?

“Why?” a collateral descendant at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage muttered from a rear vessel, his teeth clenched as he glared at her ethereal figure. “A failure with a ninth-grade spiritual root… What right does he have to stand beside Lady Ye?”

“I heard they haven’t even consummated the marriage,” sneered another. “A peerless talent like Lady Ye would never deign to look at such a loser. She’s only with him for the sake of the family’s honor!”

“That’s right,” chimed in a third, his face twisted with envy. “And Shen Xian is completely shameless. If I were him, seeing my Dao Companion restored to such glory, I’d have the decency to quietly cancel the engagement and disappear, not cling to her like this.”

Among them, a young man in white sighed softly. “Some people are just born lucky. He’s an absolute failure, yet he was born into the main line and even has a peerless beauty for a Dao Companion. It’s a blessing others can only dream of.”

This young man was Shen Cong, a member of the main branch. Though his status wasn’t as high as Shen Xian’s, he was well-known among the younger generation. More importantly, he was one of Shen Li’s most trusted confidants.

As a future heir, Shen Li naturally needed his own followers, and Shen Cong was a key figure among them.

His words were the spark that ignited the smoldering resentment in the crowd.

The secret mental transmissions among them grew even more brazen.

“Just you wait. He’ll get what’s coming to him inside the ancestral grounds.”

“A loser who hides behind a woman—what right does he have to even attend the ancestral rites?”

“Lady Ye will eventually see who is truly worthy of her…”

After roughly half a day, the eighteen spirit vessels arrived before a sprawling mountain range veiled in mist.

This was the site of the Shen Family’s ancestral grounds.

The vessels slowly descended, landing on a massive platform at the entrance. It was an ancient stone platform, a thousand zhang in diameter, paved entirely with grayish-black Xuanming stone and intricately engraved with complex runes.

Around the platform stood twelve towering stone pillars, each adorned with lifelike dragon carvings that corresponded perfectly to the Shen Family’s Heavenly Cycle God-Slaying Array. At the center of the platform stood a nine-tiered altar, with each step engraved with images of different ancient, ferocious beasts.

At the very top rested a three-zhang-tall bronze cauldron. Its body was entwined with nine vivid, sculpted dragons, their mouths agape as if ready to devour anyone who dared to approach.

Along the platform’s edge, thirty-six stone warrior statues were arranged in a circle. Dressed in full armor and wielding various weapons, they remained spotless despite enduring millennia of wind and rain.

Most striking of all was the hundred-zhang-tall bronze gate standing directly before the platform. The gate was covered in the carvings of countless ferocious beast heads, each with a gaping maw that revealed razor-sharp fangs.

This gate was the sole entrance to the ancestral grounds, and it also served as the gateway to a seventh-level magical formation—the Shen Family’s final trump card.

Aboard the spirit vessel, Shen Xian felt the imposing presence of the place, a flicker of something stirring in his heart. Though he was used to a life of ease, his yearning for true power had never faded.

Just then, he sensed a gaze and turned his head slightly.

He caught Shen Li looking at him.

Shen Li’s slender fingers were gently caressing the Heart-Eroding Blade at his waist, a cold, cryptic smile playing on his lips.

When their eyes met, Shen Li’s emerald-green pupils constricted for a moment. He then elegantly raised his right hand and drew a line across his own throat. The motion was excruciatingly slow, as if he were savoring a masterpiece. As his fingertips brushed past his skin, they left a faint, lingering wisp of dark green, poisonous mist.

It was an unmistakable threat.

Shen Xian, however, remained perfectly calm, his expression unchanged.

After all, once these ancestral rites began, it was far from certain who would be the hunter and who would be the prey.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

At that moment, several deep, resonant bell tolls echoed through the heavens. Shen Xiong, patriarch of the Shen Family, ascended into the air. He was wreathed in a radiant light that revealed the faint, swirling patterns of the Shen Family’s secret arts, obscuring the very sky.

Boom!

The bronze cauldron atop the altar suddenly erupted, sending wild, fierce flames licking at the air. At the same moment, the twelve towering stone pillars lit up. Their dragon carvings seemed to spring to life as golden light burst from their eyes.

“I, Shen Xiong, twentieth-generation patriarch of the Shen Family, together with the descendants of our clan… pay homage to our ancestors!” Shen Xiong’s voice boomed, shaking the heavens and the earth. In an instant, all present bowed as one.