The Lian clan's Ancestral Worship Grand Ceremony commenced amid a cacophony of noise, its scale marking the grandest event Nanyao City had seen in years.
Though named an ancestral worship, the ceremony's true purpose was to declare the unshakable status of the Lian clan as a holy land of weaponsmiths.
It proclaimed to the world that the Lian clan still possessed the ability to forge legendary weapons.
Lian Que, as the smith who had forged Everlasting Longing, was today's undisputed protagonist.
From beginning to end, he knelt upon the elevated platform like a clay figurine, allowing others to worship and adorn him as they pleased.
Jiang Wang, observing as a guest throughout, naturally sat comfortably in his chair, silently studying the expressions on Lian Que's ugly face.
From smug self-satisfaction to numb exhaustion—all within a single morning.
The elaborate ceremony, which consumed the entire morning, had only just completed its first phase.
Only then was Lian Que permitted to move.
As the forger of Everlasting Longing, he personally wrapped the sword's hilt and attached its tassel.
Once finished, a Lian clansman presented the scabbard crafted specifically for Everlasting Longing.
Lian Que sheathed the sword. Everlasting Longing sang out like a dragon traversing the sea, letting out a clear, resonant cry. The treasure sword was stowed away, its brilliance hidden.
Then Lian Zhuping took Everlasting Longing and personally placed it upon the offering stand.
After offering prayers to Heaven and Earth, the ceremony of ancestral worship truly began.
Without detailing the bustling activities, another set of rites consumed two full hours. Only then did Lian Que rub his legs, rise, and prepare to retrieve Everlasting Longing and return it to Jiang Wang for the final step.
Just then, a voice approached from the distance: "The Fourteenth Prince arrives!"
The crowd quickly parted, bowing as they did.
Lian Que's brow furrowed at the sound, and his steps quickened.
But a clan elder silently blocked the path before the offering stand, reprimanding coolly: "The Prince arrives, and you rush to greet him? Where are your manners?"
Lian Que sidestepped left and pushed forward: "Greet him yourself. With a legendary weapon before me, I'll finish the ceremony first."
"Insolent!" the elder roared. "For forging a single legendary weapon, you dare be so rude? Do you have no regard for the clan? No regard for the imperial court?"
Even Lian Que, however obtuse, sensed something was wrong. He didn't argue with the elder. Instead, he turned to Lian Zhuping: "Clan Leader! Is this your doing?"
But Lian Zhuping didn't answer. He was already bowing: "Your Highness the Fourteenth Prince is most welcome!"
Jiang Wang, watching from afar below the platform, sensed something amiss and was about to approach to inquire, when a palanquin had already arrived before the stage.
The bearers numbered ten in all, and every one of them possessed Tongtian Realm cultivation.
The curtain parted, and a man in purple robes with gold-dusted face descended.
This was presumably the current Qi Emperor's fourteenth son, Jiang Wuyong.
The people of Qi revered purple, considering it the most noble color—purple was worn mostly by princes and nobility.
The man stepped down from the palanquin, ignored everyone, and walked straight toward the elevated platform.
His voluminous sleeves billowed, his stride unhurried, exuding a natural imperial bearing.
Ascending the platform, he spotted Everlasting Longing on the offering stand at a glance, his expression delighted: "What a fine blade! I am most pleased!"
As he spoke, he moved to step forward.
Lian Que blocked his path with a single step, neither servile nor arrogant: "Your Highness, this sword already has an owner."
Before the Fourteenth Prince could speak, the same clan elder seized at Lian Que: "Who are you to speak? In the presence of the Fourteenth Prince, how dare you be insolent!"
Lian Que swung back with a fist. The Gates of Heaven and Earth burst wide open, surging winds erupting, as if a furnace fire blazed and leaped within his body.
"You old fossil Lian Luyue! Don't you ever stop?"
The Lian clan of weaponsmiths was not renowned for combat prowess. The elder Lian Luyue was only at the peak of the Tenglong Realm.
The clash of fist and claw was, surprisingly, evenly matched.
Lian Luyue certainly hadn't expected Lian Que to fight back. His face reddened with fury: "A junior dares be so impudent!"
"Calm yourself, Elder!" Lian Zhuping could not allow the situation to escalate further. He intervened immediately, placing himself between Lian Que and Lian Luyue.
He simultaneously berated Lian Que: "Behave yourself!"
"Who's misbehaving?" Lian Que's ugly face flushed red with rage. "This legendary weapon has nothing to do with you. Using it in the ceremony was already Jiang Wang's goodwill. What right do you have to decide its ownership?"
"Are you not a member of the Lian clan? Is everything you know not from the Lian clan's secret teachings? Were your forging resources not provided by the Lian clan? Was the sword furnace you used not the Lian clan's ancient furnace, passed down through generations?"
Lian Zhuping demanded harshly: "And now you say it has nothing to do with us?"
"I forged this sword for Jiang Wang from the very beginning! Jiang Wang was involved from start to finish. A legendary weapon is forged by heaven—human effort has its limits! This sword belongs to Jiang Wang, it always has! It doesn't belong to you, and it doesn't even belong to me!"
Lian Luyue said coldly from the side: "You did promise to forge him a weapon, but you never specified which one. Set Everlasting Longing aside, and forge him another sword with your whole heart. That wouldn't break your promise."
Lian Que stared at him in shocked fury: "Words can be twisted that way, but can actions follow? Do you have no shame left for the Lian clan?"
Slap!
Clan Leader Lian Zhuping struck Lian Que to the ground with a single slap: "Is that something you should be saying?"
"Enough." Jiang Wuyong smiled. "I merely came to see the new legendary weapon from our Qi Kingdom's holy land of forging. Why are you all so worked up? Step aside and let me take a closer look."
Elder Lian Luyue immediately stepped aside: "Please, Your Highness, admire the weapon."
Jiang Wuyong strode forward. Then a voice rang out from behind: "You'd best stop."
The voice was quiet, but as hard as steel.
"And who are you?" Jiang Wuyong turned around, regarding Jiang Wang with an amused expression.
The Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm had only recently concluded, and he had come specifically for Everlasting Longing—he could not possibly be unaware of Jiang Wang.
The question was purely an expression of contempt.
Even a cultivator of the inner mansion of divine abilities was no great figure to the Qi royal family, let alone merely a seed of that realm!
"You don't need to know who I am. You only need to know—" Jiang Wang rose from his seat and pointed at Everlasting Longing on the offering stand from a distance: "That is my sword!"
Upon the offering stand, Everlasting Longing hummed of its own accord!
Rather than anger, Jiang Wuyong showed delight, and couldn't help but praise again: "What a fine blade!"
"Mine." Jiang Wang added.
"Yours? The ground beneath your feet is Qi's soil. The place where you stand is the Qi Kingdom. Everything in the Qi Kingdom bears the surname Jiang!" Jiang Wuyong said lightly. "The Jiang surname inherited from the ancient sages, of the Qi imperial house. Not some stray bloodline from who knows where... You think you deserve the name Jiang?"
"Everything in Qi indeed bears the surname Jiang. A pity it's not your Jiang, Jiang Wuyong." With these words, a massive man whose eyes were nearly squeezed shut by his fat walked into the scene.
He seemed to have rushed here in great haste, his clothes slightly wrinkled.
His rotund physique lent his words little intimidation.
But as he walked forward, the crowd parted before him.
He smiled at the Fourteenth Prince Jiang Wuyong with no trace of deference whatsoever: "You want to represent Qi? Aren't you afraid your brothers and sisters will spank you?"
It was none other than Chongxuan Sheng!
While handling affairs in Linzi, the Qi capital, he had heard news of Jiang Wuyong heading toward Nanyao City. He had immediately set down everything and rushed here in person.
He had arrived at Nanyao City just in time to back Jiang Wang!
Before he had even spoken, he had quietly coordinated with Jiang Wang.
Thus, as soon as he finished, Jiang Wang helpfully asked: "This is the Fourteenth Prince—how dare you speak to him like that?"
Chongxuan Sheng deliberately placed a hand near his mouth and leaned toward Jiang Wang, pretending to whisper: "The imperial family is certainly noble. But our monarch has nine daughters and seventeen sons. Apart from the Crown Prince, the most distinguished are the Third Princess, the Ninth Prince, and the Eleventh Prince—there's no Fourteenth Prince among them."
"And I'm different! The entire Chongxuan clan is now just me and Chongxuan Zun vying for it. I have half the Chongxuan clan at least, while Jiang Wuyong has nothing but his title of Prince. The imperial family may be noble, but only one sits supreme. This fellow won't even get a hair of it—why would I be afraid?"
He pretended to whisper, yet his voice carried clearly across the entire venue.
Jiang Wuyong's gold-dusted face alternated between green and white with rage.
But Chongxuan Sheng spoke the truth—particularly regarding Jiang Wuyong's part.
The battle for the throne was ruthlessly fierce. With his level of power, how could he dare claim to represent Qi?
Fortunately for him, as a prince, he naturally had loyal servants to defend him.
"This is a weapon of the Lian clan," said Elder Lian Luyue. "The Fourteenth Prince speaks not merely of admiration—if he wishes to collect it, how could the Lian clan, loyal to the imperial house, refuse?"
By now Lian Que had risen from the ground. The fury in his eyes had never subsided, and the blaze within had grown almost tangible, nearly scorching its way out of his sockets.
He pressed his fingers together and sliced open his palm, raising his bleeding left hand high: "I swear on my honor as a weaponsmith! This Everlasting Longing belongs to Jiang Wang! It has nothing to do with me, and even less with the Lian clan! The Lian clan has no right to decide its ownership!"
Lian Luyue shouted: "The Clan Leader is still present! The Lian clan doesn't need you making declarations! Get back at once!"
"Heh heh heh." Chongxuan Sheng sneered without end.
Back then, Jiang Wang had refused to listen to advice, declining to maximize his interests, insisting on returning the Life Token. Chongxuan Sheng had said nothing. In the end, Lian Que had forged a legendary weapon, which was a happy outcome for all.
But then the Lian clan had stirred up all manner of trouble. They organized an ancestral worship ceremony and then, out of nowhere, produced a presentation of the sword.
Those Lian fellows were truly going backward. Chongxuan Sheng had long found them unbearable.
Now he showed no mercy whatsoever, saying coldly: "Enough with the double act. No matter what the Lian clan performs, I ask everyone to remember one thing: anyone who dares take what belongs to Jiang Wang—I, Chongxuan Sheng, will risk everything to slap them in the face!"
As one of the Chongxuan clan's heirs, Chongxuan Sheng's words carried undeniable weight.
"I wasn't performing any double act!" Lian Que suddenly cried out, his expression one of incomprehensible grief and fury.
From the elevated platform, he looked around in every direction.
He saw the incomprehension of his fellow Lians. He saw the anger of his Lian elders. He saw the amusement of the outside spectators. He saw the contempt of men like Chongxuan Sheng.
Yes—how could he not have known? That was what everyone would think. As the only weaponsmith in the Lian clan in nearly fifty years to forge a legendary weapon, as the very man who had forged Everlasting Longing—who could believe he didn't know about the clan's plan to present it to Jiang Wuyong?
Everyone would think so.
Just as everyone had thought he survived the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm by groveling and begging.
No one would listen to his explanation.
No one would believe him.
All the villainy, betrayal, and shamelessness that should have belonged to the Lian clan—all of it fell upon him as well.
What thoughts passed through his mind in that moment, no outsider could know.
People could only watch, staring wide-eyed—
Lian Que looked around with grief and fury, and finally fixed his gaze on Jiang Wang alone: "Brother Jiang, I cannot endure this humiliation! Nor can I bear to see you humiliated!"
And with a backhand palm strike, he slammed his own crown!