Chapter 685: Rising in Revolt
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
It was summer in Pingzhou. Hot air was sweeping the land and the sun was scorching every corner as if it was a huge fireball. Even the shadiest stretch of land was flooded with a sultry and irritable spirit.
Holding the Ancestor Wors.h.i.+p Ceremony on such a hot day was simply asking for suffering, wasn’t it?
Zhou Bao did not understand why the Li Family of Pingzhou insisted on it, yet the ceremony would still take place as scheduled, for the Li Family of Pingzhou had done this every year for several thousand years.
On the morning of June 21st, everyone in the Li Family of Pingzhou’s mansion was busy. Although careful preparation and the preliminary work had been taking place for half a month, the Ancestor Wors.h.i.+p Ceremony still did not start until noon.
The vast ancestral hall of the Li Family mansion was already packed with visitors, all family members from the many branches of the Li Family. The several thousand people attending were not all the members of the Li Family. The three generations of direct descendants living in Pingzhou were all present, but for the branches who were not living there, only their princ.i.p.als were qualified to partic.i.p.ate in the ceremony.
The rules and procedures for offering incense to ancestors in the Jin were highly c.u.mbersome. Furthermore, every year they would hold a small-sized wors.h.i.+p ceremony, every five years they would stage a medium-sized one, and every 10 years there would be a grand wors.h.i.+p ceremony. Hence, members of the Li Family were quite used to it. After suffering for about six hours, all the procedures were more or less carried out, and the only item left was the Family Head’s concluding speech. After that, the meeting would be dismissed. However, today’s Ancestor Wors.h.i.+p Ceremony was bound to be unusual.
Just as the Family Head of the Li Family, Li Xiu’s father, was about to boast the Li Family of Pingzhou’s great achievements over the last year, someone in front of the crowd suddenly let out a snarl.
“Hang on!”
“What?!”
The Family Head was taken aback by this disturbance. He looked up. “Ah, it’s Second Brother. Well, what’s the matter?”
“Big Brother, please forgive me!” Li Xian answered, cupping his hands toward the Family Head. “There is something that I originally did not want to disclose. However, considering that it is relevant to the good reputation of our Family, I have no choice but to report it to you!”
“Really? A serious matter that concerns the Li Family?” The Family Head was slightly stunned by this, and his heart suddenly pumped faster. He knew that Li Xian had broken into Li Xiu’s Fragrant b.u.t.terfly Manor but given that the two did not really confront each other, he had not taken the incident to heart.
This kind of thing had occurred several times in the past. It always ended with Li Xian being thoroughly suppressed by Li Xiu’s outrageous strength with no leeway for Li Xian to fight back. Thus, Li Xian had never had a chance to stir up trouble at the Ancestor Wors.h.i.+p Ceremony. But now, if Li Xian was daring to cause dispute, he must have somebody to back him up. Taking another glance at the men standing behind him, the Family Head noticed that they were not members of the Li Family even though they were wearing the Li Family uniforms. His face went slightly sullen.
“Second Brother, just tell me what you know. Don’t be concerned. But before you start, I want to ask you a question. Which branch do the group of men behind you belong to? Why have I never seen them before?”
“This gentleman is Mr. Long from the Tiandao Alliance, not a member of the Li Family. The reason he came here today is that he has something to discuss with me!”
“Second Brother, you’re growing increasingly audacious. Today is the day of our Ancestor Wors.h.i.+p Ceremony. It’s a family event. No matter what, you should not have brought an outsider.” The Family Head’s tone grew increasingly critical. Zhou Bao, who had been watching all this in the dark, could not help giving him the thumbs-up.
Smart, that was truly smart!
It was a strategy of reversing positions and gaining the initiative. Regardless of his true agenda, the Family Head simply pointed out the opponent’s wrongdoings to disrupt his actions. Well, sure enough, old birds were not to be caught with chaff.
“The Tiandao Alliance, what school is that? In which macro world is it located?”
Hearing the name Tiandao Alliance, Zhou Bao began to wonder.
What Zhou Bao did not know was that the Tiandao Alliance was a large school of the Tiankun World and enjoyed a high-ranked standing there. However, since there were too many influences creeping into the Heaven Realm World, many of which had a frightening background, the Tiandao Alliance did not dare to behave as they wanted despite their impressive strength. After researching thousands of families, they had handpicked the Li Family of Pingzhou, a famous family second to none in the Jin, as their partner to help them gain a foothold in the Heaven Realm World.
However, although they planned to gain their foothold with the a.s.sistance of the Li family, the Tiandao Alliance had also spotted a problem with this plan—the Family Head of the Li family and his son could control the entire family without relying on anyone else. Accordingly, the Tiandao Alliance had come up with another idea. After doing some secret investigating, they found that in his heart, Li Xian was unwilling to obey the Family Head and his son. So, the Tiandao Alliance was attempting to support Li Xian in overthrowing the Family Head and his son and then taking control of the entire Li family.
In the eyes of a large school like the Tiandao Alliance, the strength of the Li family was not even worth mentioning. They had only two Individual Immortals. If they hadn’t been totally unfamiliar with the place and the people, they could have sent a random guy to turn the Li family upside down, sparing them a lot of trouble.
Well, it turned out that Li Xian did not disappoint them. He was quite a talent, not a lame duck. Very quickly, Li Xian detected mistakes made by the Family Head and his son. Indeed, partly due to the fact that the Li family had had a few smooth years, the Family Head and his son had gotten somewhat carried away by their success. They never thought someone in the Li family would dare to start a rebellion. Accordingly, they always did everything in open, thereby letting Li Xian get some dirt on them. A few days ago, when Li Xian broke into the Fragrant b.u.t.terfly Manor, he had not actually expected to take away the woman, Die Yi. He had been aiming to lay the groundwork for today’s agenda. Since the story of Li Xian breaking into the manor had spread across the Li family within half a day, every relevant family member was well aware of it. If Li Xian brought the matter up today and pointed out Die Yi’s real ident.i.ty, he could frame a case against the Family Head and his son by claiming that they had colluded with an evildoer. Then, he would be able to cause the downfall of the Family Head and his son with the help of the Tiandao Alliance. If that happened, his goal would be realized.
That was the plan Li Xian had prepared. But to his surprise, the Family Head of the Li Family was a crafty old scoundrel. He gave the first blow and forced him to swallow everything he was going to say.
“Family Head, your words are not completely correct!”
Although Li Xian was defeated by his words, the man next to him from the Tiandao Alliance, Long, was not so easy to deal with. He stood out from the line, cupped his hands at the Family Head and announced, “Our Tiandao Alliance is a great school dating back to antiquity times. We have made it our mission to eliminate all evils and demons. We have come to Pingzhou just to hunt down an evildoer. According to our investigation, this evildoer is taking refuge in the Li family, and is being protected by your young master Li Xiu. That’s why we came straight to your place today to explain all this to you. I beg the young master, please leave the evildoer alone and do not interfere in this matter. Please let me take this evildoer back to give an acceptable account to the public!”
How beautiful this speech was! What a smart speaker!
He had even said, “give an acceptable account to the public”.
Of course, what mattered was not giving an acceptable account or anything of the sort to the public. What really mattered was the strong spirit that swept through the place when the man spoke. Even Li Xiu’s spirit was repressed by his, leaving him unable to move.
The whole Li family fell into silence.
“What’s going on? How come someone from the Tiandao Alliance has appeared in our territory?”
“Yeah, what on earth is the background of this Tiandao Alliance? How could a random guy of them have such a strong strength?”
“Yes, yes! This spirit and this Qi Power are much stronger than our First Young Master!”
“Rubbis.h.!.+ Of course, he is more powerful than our First Young Master! Didn’t you see that our First Young Master was repressed by him?”
“I wonder where Li Xian found these guys! How d.a.m.n stupid he is! Trying to usurp the control of our family by resorting to outside forces. Even if he succeeds, the control would fall into the hands of outsiders, wouldn’t it?”
“These people are so impressive. If they truly gained control of our family, how could the Li family remain the same?”
Although being subdued by the Qi Power of the man surnamed Long, the crowd was still actively communicating with each other through eye contact.
By virtue of a few looks, countless information poured out. Nevertheless, under the presence of such a strong power, they did not have the guts to speak their minds, even if they wanted to. After all, the men in the highest positions at the scene were not them, but Li Xiu and his father.
Li Xiu had narrowed his eyes. When Long spoke, his eyes were transfixed on Li Xiu, so 90 percent of his Qi Power actually landed on Li Xiu alone.
“Hee hee, a strength at the peak of the Individual Immortal. It’s truly impressive. If you guys had made a strike earlier, I would really find this a bit tricky. But now…” Thinking of Zhou Bao who was hiding in the dark and enjoying the show, Li Xiu’s lips curved into a smile.
“Evildoer? Hee hee, Second Uncle, you said the reason why you brought guys from the Tiandao Alliance in was that I had ganged up with an evildoer, correct?”
“Exactly! That’s what I said!” At the sight of Li Xiu’s composed look, Li Xian had a dim feeling that something was wrong. But taking the great strength of the Tiandao Alliance into account, his fl.u.s.tered mind turned unruffled again.
“That is to say it is you who courted these guys from the Tiandao Alliance, isn’t it?” Li Xian suddenly bolted up from under the immense pressure cast out by Long and fixed his eyes on Li Xian with determination. “Second Uncle, are you aware that bringing these strange guys here is the equivalent of courting a huge disaster to the Li Family of Pingzhou?!”
“What?!” Seeing Li Xiu’s chilling glare, Li Xian could not help but shudder inwardly.
“Li Xiu, don’t talk nonsense! It’s clear that it’s you who colluded with an evildoer first. And yet now you are claiming that it is me who courts disaster to our family. You, you are making an unfounded attack on me!”
“You will know soon whether I am making an unfounded attack on you!” Li Xiu sneered. He did not speak further. He strolled towards his father and whispered something into the ears of the Family Head.
After hearing the mysterious words Li Xiu said to him, the Family Head abruptly raised his head, and his originally kind gaze turned ferocious. Glaring at Li Xian, he stuck out a trembling finger and pointed it at Li Xiu, and then snarled, “Second Brother, you, you, you did what…”
“I, I, I did what?” Now, Li Xian felt guilty. However, after reviewing every procedure of his plot in his mind, Li Xian failed to find any flaws. He started wondering what was going on with the Family Head and his son, and why they behaved as if he was the one who should feel sorry for what he had done. What on earth was happening?
But before Li Xian could figure it out, Long, who was standing next to him suddenly altered his expression and yelled, “Who is it? Friend, you are already here, why not reveal yourself?”