“Huh, what is he doing?”
One Elder in the group asked while he and the other wore strange expressions.
Li Shen was proudly puffing out his chest with hands on his hips, showing what his mama gave him as if to say.
“If you’re going to stare then stare!”
His father who saw this didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his behavior. Fu Wei, on the other hand, was halfway from bursting out into hysterical laughter but he somehow managed to keep it in.
“What a strange child.”
The old man at the front of the group said before he made a hand seal and pointed at the blob of water.
It was then lowered before entering the podium below.
Li Shen was left standing there looking down at the podium where the life essence water had seeped into.
He saw a massive carving of a plum blossom on it.
Seeing this Li Shen thought.
‘That’s right, I could have asked that demoness what relation the Li Clan plum blossom has with her six sins plum blossom. Since I was young I found it extremely hard to believe I was born into a family that has the potential to unlock a plum blossom after awaking their bloodline. It can’t be a coincidence, can it? There has to be some kind of connection here that I’m missing.’
“Grandnephew.”
Li Shen was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard someone address him.
He looked up at the old man in front and said.
“Huh? Old man, what do you want with me?”
With a small leap, Li Shen jumped from the podium to land in front of the group.
Hearing his son’s words, his father frowned and said.
“Shen’er be respectful, this is your third great grand uncle Li Fulong, as well as the Elders of our side branch families, introduce yourself to them.”
His father motioned to the old man in front and the eight others behind him.
“Oh!”
Li Shen said a little taken aback by that, especially this old man’s identity.
‘So he’s like…’
Doing a small calculation in his mind, Li Shen then concluded.
‘The fourth Emperor’s brother? He’s actually still alive?!!’
As this thought past through his mind, Li Shen cupped his fist and bowed towards Fulong and the Elders before saying.
“Greetings great granduncle Fulong and branch Elders.”
Fulong rubbed his long white beard before he said.
“That’s alright, no need for such formalities. You’re young, and younglings aren’t afraid of anything dangerous in front of them simply because they don’t know it is so.”
“Huh? Well, I suppose that's the case.”
Li Shen scratched his cheek before he took the storage ring Fu Wei was handing to him.
He’ll ignore the fact that this old man just indirectly insulted him by calling him an immature child.
Li Shen slipped on his storage ring and quickly pulled out clothes to change on the spot.
However, while pulling up his pants which felt rather short for some reason, he shot Fu Wei a look. He realized that someone had gone into his storage ring. The sealed pill furnace was still in there.
Fu Wei met his little brother’s gaze and only smiled slightly.
‘He’s changed.’
Li Shen thought before he focused on putting on his upper robes, but a voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
‘Master, you’re alive!!’
Little Snow in her human form then appeared out of nowhere and crashed into his chest.
Despite revealing herself to so many people, she couldn’t contain her relief and joy after Li Shen had exited the blob of water.
She thought he was dead at first but after their link was connected once again she was happy, though she couldn’t feel relieved for long before she had to watch him almost die again.
She hugged Li Shen tightly and cried.
Li Shen was taken aback for a moment but he smiled and patted her head before saying reassuringly.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine Little Snow.”
While patting Little Snow’s head, Fulong took his curious gaze off Little Snow and said to Li Shen.
“Grand nephew, could we perhaps ask you a few questions about the current state of your body?”
Li Shen turn to look at him, and even though it sounded like he was asking he wasn’t exactly planning on giving him any other option.
But as he stared at Fulong though, Li Shen couldn't help but think that it was strange after all. He felt that this kind of ability was completely bizarre.
Ever since he exited the blob of water and set his eyes on everyone, he felt something strange well up in his heart and a tingling sensation between his eyebrows.
It was a strange feeling, and it's like he could sense the emotions hiding deep within their hearts.
His eyes were peering past their outer layer into the deepest and darkest part of their heart to see their hidden emotions and desires.
What he saw in Fulong’s heart was that he was simply curious about his Dao Foundation, he didn’t have any malicious intentions. However, those branch Elders were completely different, their heart was filled with a familiar emotion, greed.
Li Shen smiled and said.
“I created it, but if you ask me to create more then forget it, I can’t.”
Li Shen thought he would just come out and say it. They already have their suspicions so it was useless to try and hide it now. If he had said something like the tools from before that were used to test his innate talents weren't able to sense such a foundation, then that could easily be disproven.
“How is that possible?!!”
One Elder in the back blurted out and looked at Li Shen like he was a monster.
“How can you create something like a foundation?!! It has the properties of the Laws of time as well, you mean to say you created a Foundation to cultivate Time Qi?”
All the branch Elders had various looks on their faces, even though it was speculation they came to, hearing it now was just too shocking.
This type of foundation had never before appeared in the cultivation world, not to mention someone cultivating Time. Even high-level experts aren’t able to set foot on the path of comprehending such an abstruse Law.
Li Shen saw the branch Elders glancing at each other before they turned to him with shining eyes.
However, it was strange.
The greed that was once in their hearts was completely gone, the looks they were giving him were instead one of excitement.
This baffled Li Shen as he wasn’t expecting such a drastic change.
'Was it because they couldn't force me to create more? Or is it something else?'
Fulong let out a hearty laugh, and his eyes shine intensely as well as he looked at Li Shen.
“Good good good, someone from our Li Clan is this much of a monster. When your father told us you were blessed by the heavens we were skeptical about believing it after finding out you have no foundation, but now we see that you’re talents lie in your intelligence.”
“You monstrous brat actually created a foundation like this, your future potential is beyond anything I have ever seen before.”
Fulong patted Li Shen’s should hard making him frown.
“Fulong you must be glad you’re brother's bloodline produced such a genius, there's even the older one that had unlock the Golden Lotus, you old fart.” One Elder said rather jealously.
Fulong rubbed his beard and with a wide grin on his face said.
“Ho-ho, who wouldn’t? This grandnephew of mine is going to take our Li Clan to new heights!”
Fu Wei who was off to the side lowered his head and clenched his fists. But after a moment he loosen them before he released a sigh in his heart.
Li Shen upon hearing Fulong’s words shifted his shoulder from his hand and he looked at everyone before saying with a serious expression.
“If you lot are planning to have me become Emperor then forget about it. I won’t be forced into something I don’t want.”
Everyone was taken aback by his words and his resolute expression.
A deep frown appeared on Fulong’s face before he turned to Li Shu and asked.
“Little Shu, you haven’t told him yet? Has he not reached the age of celebrating his Coming of Age?”
Fulong turned back to look at Li Shen, particularly his height, he look old enough to have reached that age already.
“No granduncle, today is actually the start of his Coming of Age Celebration. I was planning on telling him and his brother tomorrow.”
“Hm? You haven’t told your eldest son either? What are you thinking Little Shu, this is a tradition of our Li Clan and something you should have fulfilled as the Emperor!”
Upon hearing Li Shu’s words, Fulong started to scold Li Shu harshly.
This scene baffled Li Shen and he couldn’t make heads or tails about what was going on.
Everything was confusing, but he wanted to know what his father was supposed to tell him and Fu Wei.
Li Shu accepted Fulong’s scolding's before he said.
“It’s my error of judgment. I initially wanted them to grow up not knowing before I decide to tell them later in life.”
“Harrumph! Does that mean if this incident had never occurred and you hadn’t disturbed our meditation you would have kept them in the dark further?!”
“Look how that turned out, didn’t you say resentment had developed between the both of them?! If past Emperors saw the state of this generation of the main bloodline then they would have died from anger!”
After reprimanding Li Shu Fulong sighed and said.
“As a father, I can understand why you didn’t want to burden them with such responsibilities at such a young age but what’s necessary is necessary. You should be the one to tell them since you’ve kept it from them all this time.”
Li Shen, and even Fu Wei, began to wonder what was being talked about.
Tell them what?
Fu Wei step forward and stood next to Li Shen, they both then looked towards their father for answers.
Li Shu looked at both of his sons and he sighed.
After, he then said.
“Shen’er, Wei’er, our Li Clan origins are mysterious. We are Inherit Descendants of one of the Seven Great Ancestral Clans.”
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