He wore a black robe, his hair was red like blood, his face was that of a handsome young man. His children were all seated in the hall, gathered together.
Under their gazes, Shang Yan Fei took out a stack of beast skins.
Each beast skin had markings on it, vividly drawing a certain dragon-like beast. At the corner of the skin, there was text written in ink, giving off the dense aura of primitive civilization.
“These are the nine children dragon drawings[1], I had obtained them from a Gu Immortal’s corpse in my younger days by chance. It is a pity this immortal opportunity is not suitable for me, even after asking Shang clan’s supreme elders, I could not unravel it. Now, I will pass these nine children dragon drawings to all of you, I hope you can unravel the mystery and gain your own immortal opportunities.”
Saying this, Shang Yan Fei diverted his gaze from the beast skin, looking at Shang Qiu Niu.
“Qiu Niu, come here.” He called.
“Father.” Shang Qiu Niu left his seat, walking towards Shang Yan Fei.
Shang Yan Fei passed him the first beast skin: “This is the Qiu Niu drawing, I gave you this name because of it as well. You are the eldest son, you have a dependable nature, I am very assured. This revival is the greatest opportunity in your life, don’t let me down.”
Shang Qiu Niu stretched out both hands and received the beast skin: “Father, I will do my best and not disappoint you.”
“Ya Zi, come over as well.” Shang Yan Fei waved his hand and called his son: “From today onwards, broaden your horizon and don’t dwell on petty matters, it will benefit you.”
“Yes, I will remember father’s teachings.” Shang Ya Zi took the beast skin and returned to his seat.
Shang Yan Fei called for his children one by one, distributing the nine children dragon drawings while saying words of encouragement.
Shang Xin Ci remained seated, she was not called.
She observed carefully, realizing that the nine children dragon drawings had varying beast drawings. For example, the Chao Feng drawing had a divine beast with a noble aura that could not be sullied. The Pu Lao drawing resembled a coiling dragon. The Bi Xi drawing looked like a giant tortoise that could carry mountains and rivers. There was also the Bi An drawing, it was like a fierce tiger with ferocious aura.
There were only nine beast skin drawings, they were soon distributed, but he had more than nine children.
Shang Yan Fei called for Shang Tuo Hai as well: “You have been managing the merchant caravan well. I will give you this entire caravan then. Other than that, I have a water path inheritance, it is the inheritance of a water path immortal. Even though it is largely incomplete, the contents are still worth a lot, I hope you can still continue to work hard in the future.”
After that, he called for Shang Yi Fan: “This is a rank five Gu Master inheritance but it has clues to an immortal inheritance. It will be up to you in the future if you try to find it.”
And finally, Shang Yan Fei called for Shang Xin Ci.
“Father.” Shang Xin Ci walked towards her father.
Shang Yan Fei sighed: “I’ve already distributed all my wealth, only this house is left. Oh Xin Ci, among my children, you are the one who most surpassed my expectations. If you do not mind it, take this house.”
Once he said that, the hall went into a commotion.
His other children looked at Shang Yan Fei and Shang Xin Ci, they wanted to speak but found that they could not.
It was clearly Shang Yan Fei’s doing.
Under everyone’s gazes, Shang Xin Ci replied with a calm expression: “I will thank father for this gift.”
After the gathering ended, most of Shang Yan Fei’s children came together secretly.
“Sigh, father actually gave the house to Shang Xin Ci.”
“He did not even let us voice our objections!”
“It seems that father really wants Shang Xin Ci to be the clan leader. What should we do?”
“This is too unfair! What did we all get? Some absurd things or broken inheritances. As for that Shang Xin Ci? She is going to become the clan leader, she will definitely be nurtured by the clan and become a Gu Immortal seed!”
Initially, Shang Yan Fei was still a young master, he was suppressed by an alliance of other young masters. He took a step back and abandoned the position of young master of his own accord, becoming an ordinary clansman. During that fallen period, he stayed in this house.
Afterwards, when he became the clan leader, he maintained this place as a reminder to himself and later generations. The clan banquets were always held here as a result.
Afterwards, when Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing left Qing Mao Mountain to roam the world, when they escorted Shang Xin Ci to Shang Liang Mountain, they were also attended to in this house.
Shang Yan Fei gave this house to Shang Xin Ci, there was deep meaning behind it, it meant that he was giving the position of clan leader to her.
Even though Shang Xin Ci was already the clan leader for some time, according to rules and customs, she had to be appointed by the previous clan leader, that would leave no flaws for others to criticize.
“Father is too biased!”
“That’s right, he loves Shang Xin Ci the most, what can we do?”
“Everyone, are we going to watch this happen? She is merely an illegitimate daughter!”
“Hmph, after I died, all of you are so useless, you actually let her become the clan leader.”
“I did not decide the clan leader, there were instructions from the higher-ups, what can we do?”
“In my opinion, our Shang clan’s supreme elders are too muddle-headed.”
“Shang Xin Ci and Fang Yuan have a mysterious relationship, I’m afraid the higher-ups are thinking about that too.”
Everyone’s discussions came to a halt.
After a moment of silence, Shang Yi Fan said: “Fang Yuan lived on Shang Liang Mountain for some time in the past, but what sort of person is he? He is someone who can influence the entire world, why would he care about ants like us? Shang clan’s supreme elders are overthinking it, can’t they see that even after so many years, Fang Yuan has not helped Shang Xin Ci even once?”
These words injected life into the stale discussion.
The remaining children brightened up again.
They agreed in unison that Fang Yuan had already forgotten about Shang Liang Mountain and everything that happened here, they were simply unwilling to give up on the position of clan leader.
Shang Yi Fan continued to speak: “Shang Xin Ci has a huge force, but it is not impossible to fight her. We need to work together to win, we can go ahead and split her forces.”
Shang Ya Zi snickered: “We need to use a multi-pronged approach so Shang Xin Ci cannot deal with everything at once. I met with an expert some time ago, if we can get his help, Shang Xin Ci will definitely face a lot of problems, her reputation will fall.”
Days later.
The study room’s atmosphere was tense.
Shang Xin Ci frowned as she listened to Shang Bu Li’s report, sighing deeply: “To think that the situation is so severe, in just a few days, those budding issues have already swept through the entire market of Shang Liang Mountain.”
A few days ago, counterfeit goods started to appear in Shang Liang Mountain’s Gu worm market. These fake Gu were identical to the real ones, even if they were used, the effects would be the same. But after some time, they would expose themselves and self-detonate, the buyer would suffer huge losses.
These fake Gu appeared in Shang clan’s market, it greatly affected their prestige.
The situation was very severe, Xiao Die stood beside Shang Xin Ci as she said to Shang Bu Li in displeasure: “Lord Shang Bu Li, you are in charge of the market. There has to be some time that passed for the situation to develop like this, why did you hold back the information and not report it?”
Shang Bu Li snorted coldly in anger: “I was too useless, I disappointed you, clan leader. The situation is too severe now, I cannot make any amendments, I will resign now, please don’t stop me.”
“You!” Xiao Die was dazed from shock, she said: “Who are you trying to scare?”
Shang Bu Li looked at Xiao Die coldly: “You are just a servant, I am magnanimous and will not blame you. But clan leader, I am resigning now, please approve of it.”
Shang Xin Ci looked at Shang Bu Li deeply before replying calmly: “In that case, I will approve your resignation.”
“Goodbye!” Shang Bu Li chuckled as he left.
“Is he really leaving things as it is?” Xiao Die was stunned.
“Clan leader, Lord Shang Tuo Hai seeks your audience.” At this time, Xiao Lan reported.
Shang Xin Ci’s gaze flickered for a moment before answering: “Let him in.”
Shang Tuo Hai came into the study room and saw Shang Xin Ci’s expression, nodding: “So you realized it.”
Shang Xin Ci asked: “Because of the clan leader position?”
Shang Tuo Hai: “Precisely. Shang Bu Li had control of the slave market and had great business, but after your rise, because you did not like such cruelty, you banned the slave trade, causing Shang Bu Li to manage Shang Liang Mountain’s Gu worm market instead. He has already been convinced by them, he is involved in this fake Gu conspiracy.”
“This old fiend!” Xiao Die gritted her teeth in anger.
Shang Tuo Hai added: “This is not everything, Shang Bu Li is just the first to defect, more will appear soon.”
Shang Xin Ci nodded: “And what do you want from this?”
Shang Tuo Hai replied plainly: “We are both illegitimate children. Even if you fall, I will not become the clan leader. I will rarely return in the future, I will lead the merchant caravan and explore the world, I want to become immortal too! But I cannot rely on the clan, if you become immortal in the future, I hope my act of kindness now will be repaid.”
“I’ll remember this.”
“Goodbye.”
Seeing Shang Tuo Hai leave, Shang Xin Ci had a complex emotion.
After leading Shang clan for so many years, Shang Xin Ci had developed many abilities and broadened her horizons. From her perspective, among Shang Yan Fei’s children, Shang Tuo Hai definitely was top three in terms of ability, he was a prime choice in both talent and personality. It was a pity that he lacked opportunities, he did not receive the favor of greater existences.
“Fate has been destroyed, the great era is here. Countless people are competing and fighting for that chance of immortality.” Shang Xin Ci sighed to herself internally.
Afterwards, like what Shang Tuo Hai reminded her about.
Zhu Ba and Wan Qian Shan resigned of their own accord. Xiao Yan got the news that some fire path Gu materials he needed were far away, so he went to search for them.
Xiong Tu, Xiong Huo, and Xiong Feng also received some information on how to save their ancestor Xiong Yan Po.
Zhou Quan and Wei De Xin also became ‘coincidentally ill’, they were bedridden.
At once, Shang Xin Ci was without her capable subordinates, she was alone without external help.
Those Gu Masters who bought fake Gu gathered together and started to create problems.
Shang Xin Ci had to bring Xiao Lan and Xiao Die to the scene and take control of the situation.
“These Gu worms are all fake, is Shang clan selling fake goods now?”
“Since Shang clan’s leader is here, tell us, what will you do!”
“I spent most of my assets to buy a rank four Gu worm from you, but it turned out to be a fake Gu!”
“Shang clan’s Auspicious Festival is held annually but there are actually fake goods sold to harm us buyers, this is simply unacceptable!”
“And more despicably, even though there are sales going on, the prices were actually adjusted upwards, it ended up being the same price as the market rate.”
Facing all of the intense rage, Shang Xin Ci was still calm as ice: “Shang clan will pay all of you back twice the amount of your losses.”
Just one sentence made the surroundings silent.
Shang Ya Zi and the rest who were watching from the dark became anxious, they started to give instructions.
From among the people, someone suddenly shouted: “Compensation, we demand compensation on the spot!”
“That’s right, you give us open promises but use dirty tricks in the dark, this is all Shang clan’s ploy!”
“Shang clan is selling fake goods, can we really trust your words?’
“I don’t care, your shop cheated us of our hard earned money, I want to destroy it!”
The lurking experts within the crowd took action and attacked Shang Xin Ci.
Shang Xin Ci stretched out her hand, using a killer move to protect the shop behind her, she managed to block all of the attacks.
Xiao Lan and Xiao Die were ready to strike but Shang Xin Ci stopped them.
Light flickered in her eyes as her aura erupted, she activated a battlefield killer move.
The killer move pushed outwards, trapping all of the people who caused trouble, the noisy street instantly became silent all of a sudden.
“So powerful!”
“To think that Shang Xin Ci has such hidden strength!”
Shang Ya Zi and the rest watched with intense shock.
At that moment, they felt like they were looking at their father Shang Yan Fei, she had the air of a peak rank five expert!
[1] Search up nine sons of the dragon for their in-depth descriptions. The names of some Shang children are also from there.
