Chapter 453: Paying Respects
Howling Heavens was incredibly affectionate toward Ye Guan, and it treated Ye Guan as if he were its master.
Qin Xizhi stared at the scene with disbelief. Howling Heavens was a pet of a Qin Clan ancestor. Howling Heavens then became the guardian of the Qin Clan upon that ancestor's departure. Howling Heavens' status in the Qin Clan was actually higher than the Clan Master of the Qin Clan.
Thus, Qin Xizhi could not believe that Howling Heavens would be so affectionate toward Ye Guan. Qin Xizhi was confused and shocked at the revelation.
Ye Guan crouched down to Howlong Heavens' eye level and caressed its head gently before asking, Do you know my mother?
Howling Heavens nodded, and it stared at Ye Guan with warm eyes devoid of any hostility. It could sense a familiar aura from Ye Guan. Howling Heavens was convinced that Ye Guan was a direct descendant of its master, unlike the Qin Clan.
Ye Guan asked again, Are you my mothers pet?
Howling Heavens nodded again.
Ye Guan was intrigued. He truly didn't expect to meet his mother's pet here.
Just then, Ye Guan sensed something and turned around to find a middle-aged man not too far away from him. The middle-aged man saw Ye Guan as well, and he froze when their gazes met in mid-air.
The middle-aged man was none other than the Master from the Future Clan, who had been relentlessly chasing after Ye Guan. Ye Guan was dumbfounded to see the middle-aged man here.
The middle-aged man reacted the same, but his eyes soon narrowed upon realizing that Ye Guan was emitting a formidable aura.
Ye Guan merely smiled while staring at the middle-aged man. He was not afraid of the latter at all, as his cultivation base was no longer sealed.
Elder Qin stepped up just then and saw the middle-aged man glaring at Ye Guan while emitting a domineering aura.
What's going on here, Master Mu? Elder Qin asked.
Master Mu glowered at Ye Guan and asked, Elder Qin, do you know him?
Elder Qin glanced at Ye Guan and answered. He's Mr. Ye. Is there some misunderstanding here?
"A misunderstanding?" Master Mu sneered, He killed several members of the Future Clan.
Elder Qin was taken aback. Ye Guan had killed members of the Future Clan? Elder Qin didn't expect that there was enmity between Ye Guan and the Future Clan.
Master Mu asked, Is he related to your Qin Clan?
Master Mu, are you sure there isnt a misunderstanding here? Elder Qin asked.
"There's no misunderstanding here," Master Mu said, shaking his head. "He killed several members of my Future Clan and has completely disrespected us. There's no reconciliation between my Future Clan and him. Either he lives or we die!"
The fact that Ye Guan was in the Qin Residence meant that he had some connections with the Qin Clan. Master Mu decided to make his stance clear with that fact in mind. He didn't want to give the Qin Clan an opportunity to support Ye Guan.
Ye Guan shook his head and wondered how Ying Qing ended up becoming the Vice Pavilion Master of the Immortal Treasures Pavilion. Why was she nurturing idiots?
Elder Qins expression turned grim, and he felt annoyed by Master Mu's stubbornness.
The Qin Clan and the Future Clan had a pretty good relationship. The ancestors of the Future Clan and Ying Qing, and the ancestors of the Qin Clan and Qin Guan, had an extraordinary relationship.
Their relationship ensured that the Qin Clan and the Future Clan's relationship with each other would remain solid for the generations to come.
Elder Qin initially wanted to mediate between the two, but Master Mu had already made his stance clear, putting the former in a dilemma.
Elder Qin's gaze turned cold as he asked, "Master Mu, are you sure there's not a misunderstanding here?"
Master Mu glared at Ye Guan and said, "There is really no misunderstanding here, and this matter has nothing to do with the Qin Clan. We, the Future Clan, will have to eliminate him!"
Elder Qin was quiet for a while before asking, "Master Mu, can you defeat him?"
Elder Qin had witnessed Ye Guan's strength back at the Xuanyuan Residence. The powerful elites of the Xuanyuan Clan members were powerless in front of that black-robed man. They acted like lambs ready to be slaughtered, even though there was a Grandmaster among them.
Ye Guan then killed the domineering black-robed man, and it was an instantaneous kill at that. In other words, even a Grandmaster was as insignificant as an ant in front of Ye Guan.
"Of course, I can," Master Mu sneered, "He's weak."
Elder Qin furrowed his brows in disbelief and muttered incredulously, Weak?
Master Mu explained, He's a bit powerful, but he's still weak in front of me.
Elder Qin was flabbergasted. When did Master Mu become so arrogant?
Ye Guan stared quietly at Master Mu. Just then, Master Mu took a step forward, and his domineering aura burst out, sweeping toward Ye Guan in order to suppress him.
Master Mu was quite formidable, even among Masters. His aura wasn't strong enough to make the surrounding spacetime tremble, but the ground beneath his feet had cracked open when he unleashed his aura. A series of crisp noises also echoed as the air itself was torn apart by Master Mu's aura.
The imposing aura reached Ye Guan, and Howling Heavens' eyes flashed in a fierce light as it took on a stance to pounce on the oncoming aura. However, Ye Guan raised a hand, halting it in its tracks.
Ye Guan waved his sleeve, and the overwhelming aura vanished without a trace, leaving Master Mu stunned. Ye Guan glanced at Master Mu before casually plucking a strand of Howling Heavens' fur and flicking it toward Master Mu.
Swoosh!
The strand of fur struck Master Mu, immobilizing him.
Huh? Master Mu was dumbfounded. What's going on?
Master Mu stared at Ye Guan in horror and stammered, "You How?
Ye Guan stared deeply at Master Mu and asked, "Can you communicate with Ying Qing?"
Enraged, Master Mu retorted, "How dare you address our ancestor by her name!"
Ye Guan replied, "Call her.
Master Mu went silent. He was both utterly shocked and confused about how the young man, who had been running away from him like a rat, suddenly became extremely powerful. He had employed a cheat code? It didn't make sense at all.
Ye Guan pressed down with his right hand, and a mysterious force suppressed Master Mu, forcing him to kneel with a loud thud.
Ye Guan then proceeded to ignore the terrified Master Mu and turned to Elder Qin, saying, "Elder Qin, let's talk somewhere else."
Elder Qin nodded. Sure, lets go.
Ye Guan nodded and followed Elder Qin's lead along with Qin Xizhi. Howling Heavens followed Ye Guan obediently, prompting Elder Qin to do a double take at Ye Guan.
Elder Qin led Ye Guan into a grand hall and gestured, Mr. Ye, please take a seat."
Ye Guan nodded and sat down. Qin Xizhi left and returned with a pot of tea. She poured Ye Guan a cup of tea first before doing the same for Elder Qin.
Ye Guan took a sip of the tea and smiled. "Elder Qin, you must be curious."
Elder Qin nodded. "Indeed, Mr. Ye, you mentioned that you had some kind of connection with my Qin Clan when we first met at the Xuanyuan Residence. Was it true?"
Ye Guan nodded without saying anything.
Elder Qin added, "Are you talking about one of your ancestors? If so, who are they?"
"Qin Guan," Ye Guan replied.
"What?!" Elder Qin jumped up from his seat and stared in disbelief at Ye Guan.
"W-w-what did you say?" Elder Qin stammered.
Qin Xizhi's eyes widened into saucers; Ye Guan's revelation had shocked her to the core.
Ye Guan remained calm and added, "My mother's name is Qin Guan."
Elder Qin shook his head vigorously to express his disbelief. "No, that's impossible. There's no way Mr. Ye, you can't make such jokes, you"
Qin Xizhi interrupted, "Grandfather, he's telling the truth."
Elder Qin cast a puzzled gaze at Qin Xizhi.
Qin Xizhi pointed at Howling Heavens by Ye Guan's feet.
Elder Qin followed Qin Xizhi's finger and was speechless to see Howling Heavens' demeanor and attitude toward Ye Guan. Indeed. If Ye Guan weren't Qin Guan's descendent, would Howling Heavens be so obedient and kind to him?
In other words, Howling Heavens' attitude and demeanor toward Ye Guan was concrete evidence of Ye Guan's relation to the Qin Clan.
Ye Guan wasn't just a relative of the Qin Clan members. In fact, he had the purest bloodline of the Qin Clan running through his veins!
Elder Qins expression turned complex as he stared at Ye Guan. "Mr. Ye..."
Ye Guan chuckled. "Just call me Little Guan."
Elder Qin nodded and said, "Our ancestor, is she"
Ye Guan interrupted, "Since you're asking that question, does that mean that it has been a long time since Mother returned to Blue Planet? When was her last visit, if you don't mind me asking?"
Elder Qin hesitated briefly before replying, "According to ancestral records, she returned a long time ago to pay respects to an ancestor..."
Ye Guan asked, My grandfather?
Elder Qin nodded. "Yes."
"Can you take me there?" Ye Guan asked.
Elder Qin hastily nodded. "Of course."
Elder Qin stood up and led both Ye Guan and Qin Xizhi to the Ancestral Hall of the Qin Clan. The three soon found themselves standing before a spirit tablet with the inscriptionQin Bufancarved on it.
Qin Xizhi lit three sticks of incense and presented them to Ye Guan. Ye Guan knelt before the spirit tablet, bowing thrice to pay respects. Qin Xizhi accepted the incense sticks from Ye Guan and placed them carefully into the censer.
"So, my mother has never come back since then?" Ye Guan asked upon walking out of the ancestral hall.
Elder Qin nodded and explained, "Yes. Her relatives of that generation had passed away, so even if she came back..."
Elder Qin trailed off, but Ye Guan understood what he was trying to say. The Qin Clan no longer had any familiar faces to Qin Guan, so there was no point in returning.
The Qin Clan Ye Guan fell silent at the thought. If he hadn't somehow gotten stuck on Blue Planet, the descendants of the Yang Family would have completely forgotten about the Qin Clan.
Qin Guan's plight was strikingly similar to cultivators with mortal families.
A round of secluded cultivation could easily last a few hundred years, so cultivators with mortal families would realize upon coming out of secluded meditation that their hometowns no longer had any familiar faces to them.
Ye Guan reckoned that a cultivator would become lonelier the stronger they became, and it had never really been an issue for most cultivators. After all, the majority of cultivators considered longevity far more important than friendship and familial ties.
Ye Guan sighed softly before turning to Elder Qin and Qin Xizhi. Eventually, his eyes settled on Qin Xizhi, and he asked, "Miss Xizhi, you'll eventually go to the Milky Way Clan, right?
Qin Xizhi nodded. "Yes."
Ye Guan pointed at Qin Xizhi's glabella with his finger, and a beam of white light rushed into Qin Xizhi's glabella. Qin Xizhi trembled as a stream of information flooded her mind.
Meanwhile, Elder Qin seemed to be hesitating about something. He wanted to say something, but he didn't say anything in the end.
After a while, Ye Guan retracted his hand and explained, "I just gave you a cultivation method, and it's one of the best cultivation methods in the vast expanse. You should use it to cultivate, and you'll achieve a lot with it."
Ye Guan took out a storage ring and handed it over to Qin Xizhi, saying, "There are spiritual cores inside of this ring, and those spiritual cores will help you cultivate for at least a hundred years.
Qin Xizhi was stunned. Then, she bent her knees to kneel down before Ye Guan, but the latter stopped her and said, "We're all one big family, so there's no need to stand on ceremony."
Qin Xizhi hesitated and then admitted, "Mr. Ye, I'm not a member of the Qin Clan."
Ye Guan was astonished.
Elder Qin hurriedly explained, "Mr. Ye, Xizhi is the granddaughter of an old friend of mine. Her family faced a great disaster, and my friend entrusted her to our Qin Clan as a part of his dying wish. I ended up accepting her as my granddaughter..."
Qin Xizhi hesitated briefly before extending the storage ring back to Ye Guan.
"Mr. Ye, please give these spiritual cores to the Qin Clan's younger generation. You can also extract the cultivation method that you gave me just now and hand it over to a deserving member of the Qin Clan," Qin Xizhi said.
Ye Guan shook his head and turned to Elder Qin. "Elder Qin, you've raised her to be a kind-hearted person."
Elder Qin immediately understood Ye Guan's intentions. Although reluctant, Elder Qin knew what to do, so he said, "Xizhi, you should accept Mr. Ye's gift."
Qin Xizhi nodded hesitantly. "Okay..."
Ye Guan smiled and was about to speak when more than a dozen powerful auras swept across them. Ye Guan looked up and saw figures on the distant horizon.
"Those daring enough to disrespect my Future Clan shall die!" a furious roar echoed, sweeping past the entire Qin Residence. It seemed that Master Mu had decided to summon reinforcements instead of backing down.
Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m fre𝒆webnov(e)l.com