"Please speak, Fellow Daoist Xu."
"Become a vassal of my Xu family!"
Xu Chuan smiled, looking at Zhao Qingyan as he said, "Just like the Zhou, Qin, Wang, and Li families, separate a branch lineage and have them enter my Dongxi.
Although our Xu family cannot protect the entire Zhao family, we can guarantee that the Zhao family's inheritance will not be severed.
We have at least some confidence in achieving this."
Zhao Qingyan's pupils shrank.
However, the beastly eyes of the Black Cloud Spirit Leopard lit up.
"Of course, if the Zhao family is confident in preserving itself, then there is no need to consider this one's suggestion."
Zhao Qingyan's mind was in turmoil.
Regarding the Thousand-Year Tribulation, I must return to the clan and discuss it in detail with the elders.
I will take my leave now."
"Wait a moment, Fellow Daoist Zhao," Xu Chuan said with a faint smile. "Since you are already here, why be in such a hurry? You might as well stay a little longer.
Perhaps you will be able to witness a rather pleasant sight."
"A pleasant sight?"
Zhao Qingyan felt suspicious, not understanding what kind of sight Xu Chuan was referring to.
But since the other party urged him to stay, he did not mind lingering for a little while.
The two of them drank tea and chatted, no longer continuing their heavy topic.
About an incense stick's time later.
Centered around a certain location in Dongxi, the spiritual energy within a radius of thirty to sixty miles was drawn in, frantically gathering together.
At first, it was like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea, gradually forming a five-colored spirit qi tide visible to the naked eye.
Like a resplendent ribbon stretching across the sky, it surged mightily, pouring toward a specific direction within Dongxi!
In Clear River City and its surroundings.
This massive celestial phenomenon instantly alarmed everyone!
"Look! It's another core formation phenomenon!"
"Looking at the direction, it's Dongxi again! Is someone else from the Xu family undergoing core formation?!"
"Is it Ancestor Xu Chuan? His son, Perfected Person Xu Mingwei, has already formed his core. It should finally be his turn this time, right?"
"With people undergoing core formation one after another, the Xu family's heritage is truly unfathomable. Is this really something that can be accumulated in less than a century?"
Above the city walls and within the marketplaces, countless cultivators and mortals raised their heads to gaze upward.
Discussions and exclamations of awe boiled over, echoing to the heavens.
Sensing the spirit qi tide, Zhao Qingyan walked outside alongside Xu Chuan and the black leopard.
Looking up at the magnificent and majestic spirit qi tide sweeping across the sky, his eyes widened, and he stood completely dumbfounded.
Watching the spirit qi tide surge towards a certain spot in Dongxi, Zhao Qingyan looked at Xu Chuan with a sigh. "Fellow Daoist Xu, is this the sight you invited me to admire?"
"What do you think of it, Fellow Daoist Zhao?"
Standing with his hands behind his back, Xu Chuan gazed up at the sky phenomenon. His expression was calm, the corners of his lips slightly raised as he chuckled. "One never tires of seeing this core formation phenomenon!"
Wasn't that obvious!
Any family would be dying to have as many Golden Core stage cultivators in their clan as possible!
How could anyone ever get tired of seeing it?
A moment later.
Xu Chuan looked at Zhao Qingyan. "Aren't you in a hurry to return to your clan, Fellow Daoist Zhao? Then I won't keep you any longer."
'He is just showing off, isn't he?!'
Zhao Qingyan's mouth twitched slightly. Cupping his hands, he said, "Then we shall take our leave."
"Take care, Fellow Daoist Zhao."
Zhao Qingyan rode the Black Cloud Spirit Leopard away from Dongxi.
After flying for over a dozen miles, he still could not help but stop and turn back to look.
"Black Cloud, what do you think of Xu Chuan's suggestion?" he asked, looking toward the core formation phenomenon.
"It is worth considering."
The Black Cloud Spirit Leopard was itching to tag along with the Xu family; it had harbored this thought for years.
Now that the Xu family had brought it up on their own initiative, why wouldn't it rush to join them and cling to this powerful backer!
"But if the Thousand-Year Tribulation is truly as he described, even two newly advanced Golden Core stage cultivators of the Xu family would find it difficult to survive, right?
As for the Cao clan, the Sima family, and the Liu family, no one has ever known exactly how deep their heritage runs.
Perhaps they have been hiding their strength precisely to combat this Thousand-Year Tribulation that Xu Chuan spoke of!"
Pausing for a moment, he asked again, "Who do you think is the one undergoing core formation in the Xu family this time?"
The Black Cloud Spirit Leopard shook its head. "Dongxi is filled with formations everywhere, and many of them isolate spiritual sense probing. But you must have noticed it too, the spiritual energy over there..."
"The spiritual energy is absurdly dense!"
Zhao Qingyan's expression turned serious. "Did the Xu family obtain a spirit vein from somewhere? Could it be related to Xu Chuan and the others remaining in seclusion all these years?
Perhaps they weren't actually in seclusion at all, but rather out searching for spirit veins.
Spirit veins are the foundation of any faction!
The reason the Cao clan, Sima family, and Liu family have remained powerful to this day is not only because they have Golden Core cultivators holding the fort, but also because they each possess a spirit vein."
"I don't understand all that. Anyway, if you want me to choose, I pick the Xu family!"
"Why?"
"The Xu family has Boss Moyue. We will definitely be safe!"
This remark hit the nail on the head by pure coincidence. Moyue becoming a shapeshifting great demon was indeed the Xu family's biggest trump card at the moment!
"Uh..."
Zhao Qingyan didn't know what to say. After a short while, he finally declared, "Let's go. Back to Great Liang!"
Several hours later.
Upon returning to the Zhao Clan Estate, Zhao Qingyan immediately convened a clan council with all the Foundation Establishment cultivators.
"Qingyan, why have you called a clan council so urgently? What is the matter?"
"The Thousand-Year Tribulation..." Zhao Qingyan's gaze swept over all the Foundation Establishment members of the Zhao family present, and he spoke slowly, "...and the matter of our Zhao family's future inheritance."
Immediately after.
He informed everyone about the Thousand-Year Tribulation he had heard from Xu Chuan.
However, he concealed the fact that Xu Chuan wanted to take the Zhao family as a vassal.
Although he was slightly inclined towards the idea in his heart, he knew that if he brought it up now, it would inevitably be rejected.
Because the timing was wrong.
Although the Xu family was strong, the Zhao family felt they weren't much weaker, and they even hoped to catch up in the future. How could they willingly become vassals?
If they were willing to do that, they probably would have already attached themselves to the Great Liang imperial family.
The development of a family lay in step-by-step accumulation and expansion.
Rise and fall, success and failure, these were destined by the heavens.
Unless forced into a desperate corner, not many aristocratic clans would choose to become a vassal!
The vassal families the Xu family had taken in during their early years were all either relatives by marriage or former servant households.
Hearing this, Family Head Zhao Qingran sighed softly. "To think there is such a great secret behind the Thousand-Year Tribulation. Elder Qingyan, are you certain?"
Zhao Qingyan shook his head. "Xu Chuan once said that no one is clearer about this matter than those three families. We could go and seek guidance from His Majesty."
"Tomorrow, I shall take a trip to the Imperial City," Zhao Qingran said.
The clan meeting concluded there.
The numerous elders of the Zhao family were fraught with worry, especially the dozen or so younger members who had reached Foundation Establishment in the last twenty or thirty years.
In truth, an observant person would have definitely noticed that more and more cultivators across all factions were reaching Foundation Establishment. Many with true spiritual roots had a one-in-three chance of succeeding just by relying on thousand-year spirit medicines to break through.
This was the counterattack of providence.
A form of self-salvation.
Unfortunately, such a counterattack was like a cup of water on a burning cart.
Even if some individuals with decent aptitudes were born, they would ultimately either die in this great tribulation or be taken away by certain factions in the Heavenly South or Black Water regions.
As for the Xu family, they were nothing more than a variable.
Following a normal trajectory, the only person in the Xu family qualified for immortal cultivation would have been Xu Mingxian with his miscellaneous spiritual root aptitude.
And given the Xu family's circumstances back then, by the time they came into contact with immortal cultivation, Xu Mingxian would have likely reached middle age.
Afterward, the Xu family would have set their sights on becoming an immortal Dao family, developing their martial Dao while simultaneously searching for the immortal path.
Developing generation after generation, fraught with hardships, who knows how many generations it would have taken to produce a few immortal cultivators.
Then they would have embarked on the growth path of a minor Qi condensation clan.
But alas.
With the arrival of the great tribulation, the dream of becoming a Qi condensation clan would be shattered right then and there.
This was the true path for ninety-nine percent of the immortal cultivation families in the Land of Imprisonment.
Meanwhile, clans like the Cao clan, Sima family, Liu family, Zhao family, and the Jiang, Lei, and Lin families all had distinct origins, or had received a fortuitous opportunity and inherited legacy, allowing them to stand tall in the world.
The next day.
Zhao Qingran traveled to the Great Liang Imperial Palace to request an audience with the Emperor of Great Liang, Liu Qiankun.
"Esteemed Minister Zhao, what business brings you to see this Emperor?"
Zhao Qingran suddenly sent a sound transmission to Liu Qiankun.
Liu Qiankun's pupils constricted. He immediately dismissed his attendants, leaving only the head of the Zhao family alone in the study.
"From where did you hear about the Thousand-Year Tribulation, Esteemed Minister Zhao?"
"Your Majesty, is this matter true?" Zhao Qingran solemnly cupped his hands. "This matter is of utmost importance to my Zhao family. I beseech Your Majesty to tell me the truth."
Liu Qiankun's gaze flickered uncertainly. After a short while, he sighed and said, "Forget it. Although I do not know where your Zhao family heard this, I imagine you are still half in doubt.
Since you already know, there is no harm in telling you.
The matter is true."
Pausing for a moment, he spoke in a distant tone, "The factions that survived from a thousand years ago all swore an oath not to disclose this to any uninformed individuals of other factions.
Across a long, leisurely thousand years.
No one alive today knows just how tragic the great tribulation a thousand years ago truly was.
It was only after my core formation that I caught a glimpse of it through a strand of divine sense imagery passed down by my ancestors.
A thousand years of accumulation, all for this present moment!"
Zhao Qingran could sense the heaviness in Liu Qiankun's words. Cupping his hands, he asked, "Then, Your Majesty, how confident are you in surviving this Thousand-Year Tribulation?"
"The great tribulation has not yet arrived, so there is no way to guess," Liu Qiankun replied. "Perhaps ten percent, perhaps thirty percent... or perhaps not even ten percent.
However, if the Zhao family is willing to relocate to the Imperial City and share it as our joint foundation, our chances might increase slightly."
Only when an imperial aristocratic family resided within the Imperial City could Liu Qiankun absorb their providence to the maximum extent.
Outside the Imperial City, the providence he could absorb was extremely limited.
He could only gather it little by little to form a whole.
"This old minister understands. Thank you, Your Majesty, for the information. However, relocating to the Imperial City is no small matter. I must return to the clan and discuss it thoroughly with the elders."
"Naturally."
This was not something that could be forced; it had to rely on their own willingness.
Immediately after, Zhao Qingran left the palace and returned to the Zhao Clan Estate.
Knowing that Zhao Qingran had returned, Zhao Qingyan went to look for him.
"Family Head, how was the trip? Did His Majesty tell you the truth?"
Zhao Qingran looked at Zhao Qingyan and let out a soft sigh. "He did. The Thousand-Year Tribulation is indeed real. Moreover, they all swore an oath forbidding them from informing uninformed individuals of other factions."
"There is such a rule?" Zhao Qingyan was taken aback. "Then how did the Xu family find out?"
"Could it be that their Xu family has also been passing down their inheritance for a thousand years?"
Zhao Qingran ignored his wild speculations, his brows clouded with gloom. "What is the point of dwelling on that? The crucial point is the Thousand-Year Tribulation. Even if the Liu family leverages the power of the entire Imperial City, they don't have much confidence."
"How much?"
"In the best-case scenario, thirty percent. It might be ten percent, or perhaps..."
Zhao Qingyan was horrified. The grand Great Liang Imperial City lacked the confidence to survive this tribulation, yet Xu Chuan had told him that as long as the Zhao family was willing to become a vassal of the Xu family...
...and separate a branch lineage to enter Dongxi, he was confident that this branch of the Zhao family bloodline would be passed down.
What right did he have to make such a claim?
Because of the Arrow Demon, Xu Mingwei?
Because of the Xu family's newly advanced Golden Core stage cultivator?
Right at that moment.
Zhao Qingran received a transmission message. The contents shockingly stated that someone in the Xu family had undergone core formation yesterday.
He looked at Zhao Qingyan in surprise and asked, "Elder Qingyan, you went to Dongxi yesterday. Did anything else happen?"
Zhao Qingyan stared blankly for a second before realization dawned on him. "Has the news of someone in the Xu family undergoing core formation arrived?"
"You knew?"
"Not only did I know, but Xu Chuan personally invited me to stay and watch. Otherwise, I would have missed it."
"What was his intention?"
Zhao Qingran was entirely perplexed by Xu Chuan's maneuver.
"Family Head, there is no need for me to hide it anymore. In truth, Xu Chuan told me one other thing. However, if I had spoken of it earlier, it would have undoubtedly incited the fury of the clan elders.
But now, it seems the time is right."
"What is it?"
Zhao Qingyan replied, "He wants to take our Zhao family as a vassal!"
"What?!" Zhao Qingran's eyes widened in disbelief. "Even the Liu family wouldn't dare spout such arrogant nonsense!"
"I was afraid the other elders would react exactly like this, which is why I simply didn't mention it," Zhao Qingyan said helplessly.
A short while later.
Zhao Qingran regained his composure.
Having dealt with Xu Chuan in the past, he knew the man was not someone who lacked a sense of proportion.
In the past, if he had said such a thing, the alliance between their two families would have definitely ruptured.
Bringing it up now... was he trying to take advantage of their predicament?
But under the great tribulation, where all living beings would suffer, what right did his Xu family have to preserve themselves?
Spouting such words out of nowhere would only make people laugh their heads off, dismissing it as unreasonable nonsense!
"If he suggests making our Zhao family a vassal, what can he offer in return?"
"Just like the Zhou, Li, Qin, and Wang families, we would separate a branch lineage and have them enter Dongxi," Zhao Qingyan said in a deep voice. "He stated that as long as we are willing, he can guarantee that this branch of the Zhao family bloodline will not be severed!"
"He is actually that confident? Moreover, do the Zhou, Li, Qin, and Wang families really trust his Xu family that much? They shouldn't know the true situation of the great tribulation, right?" Zhao Qingran's frown deepened.
"Sometimes, knowing too much isn't necessarily a blessing. Given the accumulation of those families, even if it were an ordinary demon tribulation, there is a high probability they wouldn't survive."
Zhao Qingyan sighed emotionally. "As for the Xu family's confidence... the Xu family's Xu Mingxian is already a Tier 3 array master."
"A Tier 3 array master just over a hundred years old? His talent in formations is actually that high? If he undergoes core formation, wouldn't his future be limitless?"
Pondering for a moment, Zhao Qingran asked again, "Is there anything else? Just these alone are not enough for my Zhao family to become a vassal."
"The Xu family might have other foundations, but I don't... Wait, there are many rumors in the Immortal Martial Alliance saying that Xu Chuan might have already secretly undergone core formation."
"What is your opinion?"
"It's hard to say. If his aura were unfathomably deep, then it would be highly probable he reached the Golden Core stage. But his aura is that of Foundation Establishment perfection, so I can't easily judge.
In the Immortal Martial Alliance and Great Wei, these are mostly just rumors, with no one verifying them.
After all, ever since Xu Chuan came out of seclusion, he hasn't taken a single step out of Dongxi.
And Dongxi's defenses are the best in the world right now.
If there is news they don't want leaked, the outside world won't learn the slightest bit of it."
"That is true." Zhao Qingran was also filled with emotion. "Much of what they do is often incomprehensible to others.
They clearly created a colossus like the Immortal Martial Alliance.
Yet, just a dozen or so years later, they gradually retreated behind the scenes, handing over more than half of their authority.
If it were anyone else, they would be dying to hold it firmly in their grasp, further expand the Immortal Martial Alliance, and then use it to strengthen their own family!"
Zhao Qingyan nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Doing this gives off the impression that the Xu family no longer cares for the benefits brought by the Immortal Martial Alliance.
But although the Immortal Martial Alliance only occupies half of Great Wei's territory...
...its rapid development over the years makes it number one in the current era.
And now, it implicitly rivals the entire foundation of Great Jin, Great Liang, and Great Wei, which possesses two Golden Core aristocratic families."
The room suddenly fell silent.
But never mind external factions like them, even the vassal families of the Xu family and the majority of the Xu family's own clan members were unclear on the truth.
The only ones who knew were the core members of the Xu family.
And it was precisely because of this that the Xu family was so mysterious.
When they even kept their own people in the dark, fooling outsiders was naturally a breeze.