By the pool in the villa district.
After enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, Li Wei got up and headed for home.
His computer was still running the time acceleration, and the clan was operating just fine. If anything important were to happen, the puppet he'd left in his room would transmit a message.
It was time to return to the clan.
Returning to his room and seeing his clan members displayed on the massive screen, Li Wei casually kicked the puppet aside, tapped the storage ring on his hand, and lay down on the bed, slipping on his headphones. His eyes turned white.
[Welcome back to the clan.]
[Congratulations! Your clan has become the 'First Aristocratic Clan of Eternal Sun Prefecture', gaining 2000 Family Will.]
[Do you wish to use a skill?]
[You are attempting to use the skill: 'Resurrect, My Descendants'. Conditions not met. Insufficient Family Will.]
[Conditions: A Fate Technique capable of entering the Underworld; a physical body compatible with the soul; the soul must not have been reincarnated...]
[...]
...
[You have entered the Ancestor Space.]
The moment he entered, the corners of the black-misted figure's mouth turned up slightly as message after message appeared on the interface before him.
[Your descendant, Li Dalong, is reporting to you.]
[Your descendants, Li Tianyi, Li Tianming, and Li Tianqi, while excavating the ancestral tombs of the Nangong family, discovered the remnant soul of a Divinity Transformation stage senior. As this soul was uncooperative and attempted to possess one of them, it was subsequently given a violent beating by the spirits of the many Azure Cloud seniors.]
[Your descendant, Li Xingchen, reports to you. He wishes to continue sailing the distant seas in search of the many oceanic treasures he once heard tales of from old sailors.]
[Your descendant...]
Suddenly busy once more, Li Wei took a deep breath. For a fleeting moment, he felt as if the real world were the game, and this place was his true home. Because here, there was always something to do, and here, his descendants were always by his side.
Even though he now possessed the means to simply coast through life in the real world, one could still grow tired of power and wealth. Only by being with the people he cared about, all striving together toward a shared dream, did life hold any real joy.
With a single thought.
Inside the Li family's Ancestral Hall in Merit City, the Old Ancestor's spirit tablet began to glow. Below it rested the spirit tablets of the Li family's children, row upon row.
"Old Ancestor, you've finally responded!"
Li Dalong was instantly summoned into the Ancestor Space. Overjoyed, he knelt and bowed before the familiar, black-misted figure of the Old Ancestor.
He slowly began to recount the predicament the Li family now faced.
He spoke of how, after the great battle with Tian Xing, he had accompanied the two powerful figures to an audience with the Human Emperor.
There, in the Human Emperor's great hall, he saw the Human Emperor for the very first time. Yet the man before him held none of the awe-inspiring majesty or daunting presence he had imagined. All he saw was an old man upon a sickbed.
On that day, the Human Emperor dismissed all his ministers, leaving only Li Dalong behind.
"The Human Emperor said that even the greatest power eventually becomes a thing of the past. In the days when his lifespan was still abundant," he told me, "there was no one under heaven who did not revere him. And because of that, he gradually forgot that people are ever-changing. Loyal ministers change... and he, too, would change."
"The Human Emperor has grown old; his fated lifespan is nearly at its end.
His vitality and the Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi he commands are also fading away; everything he is will return to Heaven and Earth.
The Imperial Dynasty is in turmoil.
If this were the past, he would never have simply surrendered the twelve border regions; he would have led a great army into the lands of the Wu Clan."
"But he gradually came to feel it. Those 'loyal' ministers, though they appeared utterly respectful on the surface, were in fact testing him at every turn, probing to see when his soul might finally return to the heavens.
He was walking on thin ice, feeling powerless in all he did. He wanted, before his passing, to leave behind a good Human Emperor, one most like himself, who could once again command the full authority of the Human Race and inspire awe in all directions."
Upon hearing this, Li Wei fell silent.
Back then, during the Wu Clan invasion, he had already sensed that something was amiss.
This was the great Human Emperor, after all. It was precisely because of him that the Azure Dynasty had enjoyed over one hundred thousand years of peace.
Forget over a hundred thousand years, in a cultivation world like this, a world where powerful sects and countless aristocratic families vied for dominance, even a ruler who could bring a mere thousand years of stability would be an exceptionally rare existence!
And yet, this very same Human Emperor, who had reigned for over a hundred thousand years, had acted like a coward, an incompetent monarch.
It wasn't that he was truly cowardly, nor was he truly incompetent; he had simply grown old.
Figures he once would have disdained to even notice could now stand as obstacles in his path, forcing him to compromise.
And yet, even with his fated lifespan nearing its end and only a thousand years left to him, the world had not descended into chaos.
Even the Wu Clan only dared to strike at the twelve border regions.
That alone was enough to show just how much the world still feared the Human Emperor.
"On that sickbed, this child saw only an old man in his twilight years."
Li Dalong sighed. "The Human Emperor told this child that his lingering authority would fade along with his lifespan.
The world falling into turmoil was something he had long anticipated; the calamity facing the Human Race was unavoidable.
Such are the affairs of the world, ever in flux, with seas turning into mulberry fields and dynasties rising and falling.
He said that at the end of his days, he wished to leave one final thing for the Human Race: a new Human Emperor, an Immortal Clan with true backbone.
That, he said, is the true hope for the Human Race!"
An aristocratic family with true backbone?
Li Wei was in a daze for a long time, his feelings complex.
He had never imagined the Li family would be held in such high esteem by the Human Emperor. But this honor had been earned through the blood and sweat of generations of his clansmen.
He realized then just how long a road he had walked with his family to receive such recognition.
"And now," Li Dalong said with a wry laugh, "the children want to... usurp the state."
Usurp the state?
Li Wei was startled. He didn't even have to think; this was surely instigated by those audacious fools from the Seven Ironclads!
"It was Yaowen's idea."
"..."
Li Wei's mouth twitched. Ahem. Actually, on second thought, the children's idea was quite good. It happened to coincide perfectly with his own thoughts as their Old Ancestor.
"The world is ever-changing, filled with too many unforeseen turns," Li Wei began. "This is something our family has slowly come to understand on our long journey."
Li Wei could see Li Dalong's anguish.
In truth, all Dalong had ever wanted was a simple, ordinary life, yet the affairs of the world had forced him, step by step, to become the Lord of an entire prefecture.
"Don't overthink it," Li Wei said gently. "This world is filled with countless great powers, and there is much we do not know. As for what the Human Emperor said, just keep it in your heart for now. Things will work out in the end."
"Yes, Old Ancestor!"
With the Old Ancestor's reassurance, Li Dalong's mood finally lifted somewhat.
Compared to the younger members of the clan, he held a greater respect for the Human Emperor, perhaps because he had actually met the man in person.
After Li Dalong departed the Ancestor Space, Li Wei saw him linger in the Ancestral Hall for a long, long time, his gaze fixed upon the spirit tablets of the fallen clan members.
He shouldered the heavy burden of his Prefecture Lord title simply because he never wanted the tragedies of the past to be repeated.
---
Donate on Ko-fi ➡️ [https://ko-fi.com/darktea] ⬅️
Get Early Access to 50 Chapters: Search for "Dark Tea" on Ko-fi (Explore tab) and join my membership to read ahead!