The Rise of a Family: Starting from Daily Intelligence - Chapter 379 (Patreon)

Chapter 379: Kindling the Fire, Laying the Dead to Rest, Making Amends

[6: A strange flame is hidden within the secret realm, ranked fifty-sixth.]

[7: In the Spirit-Nurturing Stone vein near the White Tiger Tribe, within Gloomcloud Valley, an altar has been set. This altar connects directly to the White Tiger Tribe. Once triggered, every living creature in the entire mountain will be sacrificed. The one who activates it will bear the altar’s curse, and calamity will then befall his bloodline and clan. Your daughter Yao Yao will soon break the barrier and trigger the altar.]

“What?”

Fu Changsheng read the seventh piece of intelligence.

His body jolted.

Who was so vicious as to lay such an altar?

And one that could pull one thread and shake the whole tapestry.

Such a method…

Was not something an ordinary person could deploy.

Fu Changsheng had no mood to analyze the implications. Without a second thought he stopped redeeming further intelligence, urged the Azure Flood Dragon to wing toward a dense forest, and landed. At his side, Yu Qingru saw him turn tense all at once, baffled:

“Husband, is a powerful enemy upon us?”

Fu Changsheng shook his head.

Upon reaching the woods, he opened a cave abode outright. After having Yu Qingru set a formation, he said quickly:

“Qingru, guard the cave.”

“Yes.”

Yu Qingru had never seen Fu Changsheng so rattled; she felt a little uneasy in turn.

Fu Changsheng entered a stone chamber and shut the door. He immediately took out a Shadow Gate mask, sent a hand seal into it, and—hum—his consciousness sank within. Finding Yao Yao’s mask number, he keyed in a message at once:

“Yao Yao, no matter what you found in Gloomcloud Valley, stop immediately. Withdraw from the valley at once, and pass my clan order: no one in our clan is to set foot within ten li of Gloomcloud Valley.”

Gloomcloud Valley.

Having recovered her magic power, Yao Yao learned there was a barrier in the Crimson Flame Wolf’s cavern. Interest flared. With a flicker of her figure she appeared in the cave. Fu Changlei guarded the barrier; upon seeing Yao Yao, he opened the simple array.

Yao Yao’s gaze fell on the black stone wall.

“Uncle Changlei, have you found anything?”

Even as she spoke,

the detection array plate already flew into her hand.

Fu Changlei hesitated.

“This barrier looks… odd, but I can’t say exactly how.”

This wisp of Fu Changlei was a strand of Fu Changsheng’s spiritual sense.

Though he did not have Fu Changsheng’s system,

his senses were keener than anyone’s.

Yao Yao grew even more excited.

“Since Brother Shitou found a vein inside, this might well be an entrance to a secret realm.”

Saying so,

she slapped her storage pouch.

Jade slips recording barriers from secret realms she had explored before whooshed out and lined up in a row.

Her spiritual sense skimmed swiftly.

Yao Yao focused on a black jade slip, delight lighting her face.

“Found it!”

She tapped the black jade slip.

At once, intricate sigils howled out one by one. Gathering in the air, they quivered lightly and condensed into a barrier screen.

Yao Yao’s hands did not stop.

Hand seals shot into the stone wall ahead.

Hum!

The stone wall trembled lightly.

Similar sigils surfaced in turn, surging and flowing.

They echoed the barrier Yao Yao had formed in midair.

Fu Changlei glanced over and hesitated.

“Yao Yao, this is…”

“Uncle Changlei, this barrier is similar to an ancient one I cracked before. Judging by the arrangement on this wall, although it’s very old, it’s faintly clear it isn’t from ancient cultivators—but it also doesn’t look like a legacy of our Great Zhou’s formation path.”

Yao Yao reined in her thoughts.

“Perhaps this is an old cultivator’s cave abode.”

“No matter what it is, we’ll know once we open it. Uncle Changlei, lend me a hand!”

Fu Changlei wavered.

Whatever was inside, the three of them alone might not be able to hold it. And if it truly was a secret realm, once opened, the secrets of heaven would leak; it wouldn’t remain theirs, and another would claim it. All their work might prove for nothing.

“Yao Yao, why don’t we report to the patriarch first?”

“No need. We have a peak third-rank Skull Demon Vine. Even if there’s a beast inside the barrier, the Skull Demon Vine should hold it. And Father has already turned back to Great Zhou; a round trip will take months. Gloomcloud Valley is under the White Tiger Tribe’s eyelids—we need to act fast.”

Yao Yao was already itching to try.

They couldn’t open the secret realm that trapped Brother Rong back in the fief.

This one—they didn’t even know what lay within. It was just a barrier. Opening it should be harmless.

Fu Changlei shook his head.

“When the situation is unclear, we mustn’t move rashly. Treasures are small; our lives are great. Wait. I’ll send word to the patriarch.”

“All right.”

Yao Yao did not press.

After all,

waiting for a reply wouldn’t take long.

Fu Changlei flicked his sleeve. A Shadow Gate mask appeared in his hand. Just as he was about to send a hand seal—

Hum!

The Shadow Gate mask in Yao Yao’s pouch trembled first. She patted the pouch and floated the mask before her. Sweeping it with her sense, she smiled.

“It’s a message from Father!”

She was just thinking how she and Uncle Changlei must be in sync.

The next instant,

after reading Fu Changsheng’s message,

her face changed.

Fu Changlei tensed at once.

“Yao Yao, what’s happened?”

Yao Yao shook her head.

She steadied herself and stared at the barrier she had just begun to open in the stone wall, biting her lip.

“Father wants us to withdraw from Gloomcloud Valley immediately. Also, from now on, clan members are not to step within ten li of the valley. But… he didn’t say why.”

Clearly,

Yao Yao was unwilling.

They had worked hard to find this barrier.

And they had already judged there was a vein inside.

However,

Fu Changlei felt differently.

His life and death lay in Fu Changsheng’s hand. His instinct was to execute Fu Changsheng’s words with almost no hesitation. With a sleeve flick—hum—the array they had set before the barrier withdrew at once. He pulled Yao Yao onto the Crimson Flame Wolf and rushed out of the cave.

Not far away, Fu Yongyi, who had been examining the earth veins, saw their haste and blinked.

“Uncle Changlei, Yao Yao—did you break the barrier?”

Fu Changlei shook his head.

Fu Yongyi froze.

Fu Changlei sent a voice transmission.

“This is the patriarch’s order. We’ll talk after we leave.”

Father’s order?

Fu Yongyi was even more surprised. Hadn’t Father already turned back to Great Zhou? And before leaving, Father had told him to lead two third-rank corpses around near the White Tiger Tribe’s mountain gate. Why this sudden command?

Mystified as he was,

Fu Changsheng was like a second father to him.

He obeyed without question.

“Then… do we take down this Wind-Slaughter Array?”

If they were leaving at once,

by rights they shouldn’t. But this mid-grade defensive array was worth a lot.

Yao Yao gritted her teeth and sent, “Father wants us to leave as if nothing happened. Also, we’re not to collect the Wind-Slaughter Array.”

Why?

Even Fu Changlei couldn’t fathom what medicine Fu Changsheng had in his gourd.

But he didn’t hesitate in the least.

“In that case—good. Yao Yao, open the array!”

The reluctance and heartache on Yao Yao’s face flashed and vanished, returning to normal.

She sent a seal into the array pedestal.

Hum!

The withdrawn array light surged into ripples, then opened a gap.

The three rose on the Four-Winged Red Python, shot through the opening, soared into the sky, and sped away from Gloomcloud Valley.

Once they left,

a black shadow slipped in while the formation was closing,

flickering through the gap.

The shadow found a hidden spot and vanished from sight. At his feet, a faint yellow glow pulsed, and a Rock-Armored insect burst from the ground, twisting its body toward him as if transmitting a message.

“Crimson Flame Cave?”

The shadow looked back at the sealed Wind-Slaughter Array,

stirred his lips quickly at the Rock-Armor. The creature fluttered its wings and flew to the valley’s northern side. It seemed unbothered by the mists, reaching the Crimson Flame Cave entrance without hindrance. It wagged its body toward the inside.

Within, sun-yang vines hung down,

blocking the fog outside.

The shadow swept the cave with his spiritual sense. No traps or restrictions lay within. He flickered inside, and at the end of the tunnel stopped before a black stone wall. He waved a sleeve; an array plate appeared—he was a formation master as well.

He sent a seal into the disk.

An Eight-Trigram mark rose.

Boom!

It struck the wall. The wall quivered slightly, unharmed.

“A barrier?”

The shadow’s eyes lit.

He was itching to try, but held back. He drew out a spirit mirror and sent a seal into it. A hazy outline surfaced. The shadow cupped his fists.

“Chieftain, the Fu Clan found a barrier in Gloomcloud Valley, but for some reason they suddenly withdrew to a man. However, they didn’t take down the Wind-Slaughter Array.”

“Also…”

“If I’m not mistaken, this barrier is similar to the ancient secret-realm barriers in our tribe’s records.”

At that,

the breathing of the figure in the mirror quickened.

“Are you sure?”

“Eighty, ninety percent. I reckon the Fu Clan has gone to fetch reinforcements.”

“Good—very good. Old Fifth, you’ve done a great service for the tribe! Seize control of the Wind-Slaughter Array at once. I’ll report to the Supreme Elder.”

The mirror quivered,

its light withdrawing.

Delight crossed the shadow’s face. If this was truly a secret realm, it would be a chance not just for him, but for their entire tribe to rise.

…

Great Zhou.

When Fu Changsheng received Yao Yao’s reply that everyone had fallen back to Yinan Mountain, only then did he breathe out.

“Wonder who set this snare for the White Tiger Tribe…”

Judging from the intelligence,

the White Tiger Tribe had already been made the sacrificial offering.

Still—

whoever it was, this was a good thing for the Fu Clan. Remove the White Tiger Tribe, and the threats they faced in the Eastern Wilds would be one fewer.

If he could turn their bait to hook a big fish, killing two birds with one stone, so much the better.

Also,

once the White Tiger Tribe was sacrificed,

the Hundred-Bell Flowers in their graveyard would be his, perfect for refining Drunken Dragon Pills to solve the urgent problem at hand.

He stepped out of the stone room.

Seeing his brows ease, Yu Qingru finally relaxed a little and hesitated.

“Husband, if you have urgent matters to handle, you needn’t come with me back to the Yu Clan.”

Having endured the pain of several farewells, Yu Qingru could not truly be free of grief, but she had learned to see through some of it.

Fu Changsheng shook his head.

“It’s fine. Come—we’ll see Old Fifth first.”

“All right.”

Yu Qingru did not ask why he had been so flustered just now. After years together, the two had a tacit understanding.

They left the forest.

The Azure Flood Dragon’s speed surged.

On this return trip,

Fu Changsheng didn’t want curious eyes on them, so when they were far from the Yu Clan’s mountain gate, he concealed his presence.

An’an had received word early that Yu Qingru was returning from the Eastern Wilds. Though already the patriarch of an eighth-rank clan, he waited by the archway at dawn—this was Yu Qingru’s first homecoming since breaking through to the Purple Mansion.

Behind An’an, the elders followed. Seeing Yu Qingru, emotion ran high.

She was the Yu Clan’s first Purple Mansion.

The crowd cupped fists and saluted in unison.

“Congratulations to the Ancestor on stepping into the Purple Mansion!”

Among the Yu Clan,

the elder generation had passed.

Yu Qingru was the first generation to establish Foundation; naturally, she was the clan’s Ancestor.

For the Yu Clan to produce a Purple Mansion was a blessing of the ancestors. The clan had planned a grand celebration, but Old Fifth, Yu Kun, had suffered an accident. As a mortal, they need not avoid too much taboo, but his identity was special—Yu Qingru’s son. Though overjoyed, none dared show it too openly.

Yu Qingru waved a hand.

“See to your business.”

She did not slow, heading straight for the patriarch’s residence.

When Old Fifth, Yu Kun, was six, he had been found to have no spiritual root and was placed in a secular city to be raised, returning to the clan only for the annual grand rites. When An’an learned his younger brother’s days were numbered, he personally brought him to the patriarch’s residence to settle him.

“Mother, please accept my condolences.”

An’an attended her closely.

Stepping into the residence, with the formation closed, the firmness Yu Qingru had been forcing herself to hold at once crumbled, and her eyes reddened.

At the same time,

Fu Changsheng, who had come with her, lifted the concealing robe.

An’an was stunned.

“Greetings, Father!”

He hadn’t expected Father, amidst all his busyness, to make time to return as well.

Fu Changsheng nodded slightly.

Now was not the time to reminisce.

They entered the guest room one after the other.

Night was deep.

Candles flickered; the air smelled of bitter herbs.

On the bed, Old Fifth, Yu Kun—well into his sixties—lay still, face paper pale, breath thin as silk.

Fu Changsheng’s impressions of this son were still of a child. Seeing those temples gray now, he couldn’t accept it for a moment.

“Kun boy…”

A pang seized Fu Changsheng’s heart.

Just then,

Yu Kun, motionless on the bed, seemed to sense them. His eyelids fluttered; he strained to wake, but didn’t even have the strength to open his eyes.

An’an whispered,

“Fifth Brother’s body was emptied long ago. This illness finally felled him. Medicine is useless. He’s held on only because he yearns to see Father and Mother one last time.”

Yu Qingru’s eyes reddened further.

Sorrow struck Fu Changsheng as well, tinged with faint guilt.

Back then, to keep Old Fifth from following in Qiang boy’s footsteps, he had shown this son almost no affection. He hadn’t even known the boy had been overdrawing his body. If—if he had known earlier and stopped him, then used spirit medicine to heal him, Old Fifth might at least have lived to a natural end.

Fu Changsheng sighed to himself.

He stepped forward, sat by the bed, and propped Old Fifth up. He set his palms on the man’s back; his fingertips trembled slightly as he guided a thread of faint spiritual power, slowly feeding it into Yu Kun.

After a while,

Old Fifth slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze fell on Yu Qingru’s face, and a trace of relief touched his smile.

“Mother… you’re here.”

His voice was barely a whisper.

Yu Qingru nodded; her tears drew back. She gently held his hand—ice-cold and thin, as if it might slip from her grasp at any moment.

“Kun boy, your father has returned too.”

Fu Changsheng came around to the bedside.

No matter how he fed spiritual power, it was useless now. Old Fifth had reached the moment of a final gleam before darkness.

Hearing it,

Yu Kun lifted a hand toward the air. Though Fu Changsheng stood before him, he could not reach him. His eyes had gone completely unfocused, and he sagged softly into Yu Qingru’s arms.

Yu Qingru’s sobs finally broke free.

Fu Changsheng hurried to clasp that skeletal hand reaching into emptiness.

“Kun boy, Father is here. If you have any last wish, tell me.”

Yu Kun’s lips moved; his voice grew fainter still.

“Father, I was… useless. I couldn’t cultivate, and even the sons I sired have no spiritual roots. I wanted to win you some face, but… I’ve always… always wanted to see you once. I know you… but I have never regretted being your son…”

By the end,

the words were inaudible.

Fu Changsheng was about to speak—then realized that Old Fifth had already breathed his last.

Plainly,

he had held on to that one last breath only to see them again.

“Kun boy…”

A tremor passed through Fu Changsheng.

Yu Qingru was weeping aloud now.

An’an, too, wiped tears, but he knew this was not the time to wallow in grief.

“Father, Mother, please restrain your sorrow. Fifth Brother saw you both at the end—his last wish is fulfilled.”

As Fu Changsheng stroked Old Fifth’s cooling body, sorrow gave way to a sense of life’s fragility and ruthlessness. A human lives a lifetime; close your eyes once, and all the splendor of life becomes the past. You bring nothing at birth and take nothing at death.

For a moment,

a trace of withering crept over him.

Yu Qingru grieved, but she had long expected this day. She had already witnessed several kin pass. She sensed the change in Fu Changsheng keenly. After waving for An’an to withdraw,

she took Fu Changsheng’s hand.

“Husband.”

“We are not the same as Kun boy. He was mortal and had but a hundred years. We Purple Mansion have five hundred years of life—that means more possibilities. With your aptitude, the Great Dao awaits. Don’t lose heart over this.”

As she spoke,

she threaded in the power of a calming chant.

Fu Changsheng returned from that listless brink at once.

At the same time, a chill pricked his heart.

A scene from his first life—his father’s death—had just awakened in him. With Old Fifth dying in his arms, he had almost fallen into a heart-devil’s snare.

That was close!

And the Heart-Devil Tribulation he would face to break through to the Golden Core realm now loomed more fearsome.

Without preparation, a single misstep could lure forth heart devils, ignite karmic fire, and end in death and the scattering of the soul.

“Qingru!”

Fu Changsheng turned his hand to clasp hers.

Looking at Old Fifth’s lifeless body, he made a silent decision.

He would cultivate the Five Elements Space as soon as possible. At the very least, the temple could one day receive his kin and ferry them to the Yellow Springs where the temple stood. That way, even after death, they could live on in another form.

At the same time,

his urgency to nurture the Primordial Mystic Vine for the Five Elements Space grew stronger.

Before,

he had thought his own life long,

so he had let the Primordial Mystic Vine grow at its own pace, never considering to hasten it. Old Fifth’s death made him feel that death was closer than he had imagined.

He closed his eyes,

pressed down the surge of tangled emotion.

After Yu Kun’s funeral,

Fu Changsheng summoned An’an.

“Have Old Fifth’s sons and daughters been settled?”

“Mm. I’ve set aside a small town as Fifth Brother’s fief, to be inherited by his eldest legitimate son. He has six other children not yet of the age for spiritual-root testing. I’ve kept them all in the clan for now.”

“If any test out with spiritual roots, I will tell you first.”

Yu Kun’s wish in life had been to have a child able to cultivate.

Fu Changsheng paused.

“Do any of Old Fifth’s wives or concubines carry a posthumous child?”

An’an shook his head,

then amended,

“None diagnosed so far. But the four handmaids who lay with Fifth Brother before he fell ill have been confined in the rear courtyard. Father, your instructions?”

“Bring them here.”

An’an thought Fu Changsheng meant to punish the four.

After all, Fifth Brother’s death was linked to them in some measure.

Night as black as ink. In a side courtyard of the Yu residence, weak candlelight showed four women’s pale, haggard faces. They were quadruplet sisters, born to a hungry farm family. In a year of famine, ten taels of silver sent them into this deep residence as Yu Kun’s handmaids.

After Yu Kun fell gravely ill in their bed, the four had been confined here.

These days,

they had faintly heard the mournful suona of a funeral outside.

Which meant

Yu Kun was very likely gone.

“Wuu… Eldest Sister, Husband—Husband is most likely gone… I fear… I fear the masters won’t spare us, they— they might even take it out on our kin back in the village… wuu… Eldest Sister, what do we do… wuu…”

Soft sobs filled the room.

Second Sister Xia He had slumped over the Eight Immortals table, crying.

Third Sister Qiu Ju’s hairpin had come loose; a few strands framed her face, making her look even more fragile. The youngest, Dong Mei, looked only terrified and desperate, tears slipping down without a sound.

Only Eldest Sister Chun Lan kept her back straight.

Just past her eighteenth year, perhaps because the eldest is like a mother, there was more steel between her brows than in her sisters’. As if having made up her mind, she rose, took four white sashes cut from their bedding, and looked over her three sisters—Xia He, Qiu Ju, and Dong Mei.

“At this point,”

“we have but one path left.”

“We take our own lives to apologize. Then, no matter how great their anger, the masters will likely let it go. At least our family back home can be safe.”

She handed the sashes to her sisters.

Xia He shrank back on instinct, her voice shaking. “Eldest Sister, do we… do we really…”

She couldn’t finish.

Her sobs took her.

She had only just escaped that hungry home and tasted a few days of ease. She didn’t want to die yet—she was still so young.

Wuu wuu!

Chun Lan pulled Xia He into her arms and drew the other two close, swallowing her own grief as she stroked their cheeks to soothe them.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here. We’ll go together. We won’t be lonely on the road to the Yellow Springs.”

“Think of Mother.”

“Think of our fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth brothers and our tenth sister who are still children.”

“They’ve only just begun to eat their fill and wear warm clothes. You don’t want them to die because of our mistake, do you?”

At that,

Second Sister Xia He cried even harder.

Their gambler father had sold them to the Fu household for those ten taels of silver. If not for him, their days would have been bitter, yes, and they might have married farmers—but at least they could have gone on living.

Those ten taels—

they had repaid birth and raising both.

She owed no one anything. From three years old she had done housework, rising earlier than the chickens, sleeping later than the dogs, eating worse than pigs. She had never had a day of ease in that house.

Why should she sell her life again?

Once she saw it clearly,

Xia He stopped crying.

Hands shaking, she took the sash, stood, and went under the beam to tie it. Chun Lan helped each sister onto a stool in turn, then stepped up herself last.

“Sisters, close your eyes. Don’t be afraid.” Chun Lan’s voice was soft, with a thread of choke.

Qiu Ju and Dong Mei obeyed, tears sliding down.

Only Xia He did not cry now. She could hear nothing but her own heartbeat, thudding, telling her—she didn’t want to die. She couldn’t.

At the instant Chun Lan, Qiu Ju, and Dong Mei kicked away their stools, Xia He suddenly jumped down. The sash slipped from her neck. She collapsed on the floor, gasping. Tears finally burst free. She watched her three sisters’ bodies sway faintly in the air; a knife turned in her heart, but she could do nothing.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Xia He whispered, full of pain and despair.

She just wanted to live!

No matter what hardship lay ahead, she wanted to keep living.

On hands and knees, Xia He crawled out of the room.

The night wind struck her,

and she shivered violently with cold.

Looking back at the three bodies swaying in the draft, she dropped to the ground, limp with fright.

At dawn,

An’an came personally to the side courtyard. A simple array had been set in the yard; Mammy An guarded the gate. Seeing the patriarch in person, she hurried to salute.

“Patriarch.”

“Mm. How have they been these days inside?”

“Reporting to Patriarch, the four An sisters came out for their meals as usual. Though a bit haggard, nothing major.”

Their weeping and wailing, to her, was normal.

Except

last night they had cried much harder than before. Likely, knowing they would be held to account, they had become afraid.

“Open the door.”

“Yes, Patriarch.”

Mammy An undid the formation and led the way in.

But

as they entered, the side room’s door stood open, and three hanging bodies swayed in the wind.

“Heavens—this is…”

Mammy An jumped in fright.

An’an swept them with his spiritual sense. Corpse spots already mottled the three; they were long dead. Only the middle sash looked as if it had snapped halfway. One of the four lay on the floor, a head wound from falling, apparently sunk in a faint.

Thank you for reading—this was a heavy chapter, and I appreciate you sticking with it. If you’re able, please consider supporting me on Patreon; even a little help keeps the translations coming and really means a lot. Also, if you have a moment, dropping a rating or review on NovelUpdates helps new readers find the story—thank you so much!

Next Chapter >