The Rise of a Family: Starting from Daily Intelligence - Chapter 387 (Patreon)

Chapter 387: Karma, City Building, Intelligence

The inner door of the secret chamber rumbled open.

A woman in a rose-red palace gown stepped out. Not a wisp of spiritual pressure leaked from her—she seemed almost mortal—yet every movement carried the effortless authority of one long accustomed to high seat.

She had barely crossed the threshold when Liu Meizhen bent her knee in salute.

The Princess Consort glanced up, and two of her three souls seemed to fly from her body. She collapsed prone to the floor, shuddering like a sieve.

“Your daughter-in-law… greets Your Highness!”

She had calculated every step.

But she had never imagined the Princess Royal would learn in advance that the Commandery Prince lay critically ill.

If so, then everything she had done earlier could hardly be hidden from the Princess Royal’s eyes. After all, the Commandery Prince had not yet breathed his last—he remained the first witness at the scene. In a flash, the excuses at the Princess Consort’s lips died in her throat.

Victory crowns the king; defeat makes the captive.

Any explanation now was pointless.

However—

There was one person who must not be dragged down with her.

“Your Highness, all that happened today was this daughter-in-law’s fault alone. The heir knew nothing of the Prince’s critical condition. I am willing to bear every crime, but the heir is clean and innocent. Please judge clearly!”

As she spoke, she knocked her head to the floor again and again.

Before long, blood was everywhere.

The Princess Royal was unmoved. With a flick of her sleeve, spiritual energy surged and shaped itself into a chair carved with dragons and phoenixes. She sat, gazing at the Princess Consort who knelt at her feet pleading for mercy. Her voice was neither loud nor soft, as if speaking of household trifles.

“You have not been married into this princely household for just a day or two. ‘One prospers, all prosper; one loses, all lose’—must I still explain such a simple truth to you?”

At those words, the Princess Consort raised her head in terror. Blood from her brow soaked her hair and face, a gruesome sight, but she had no mind for such things. If the Princess Royal truly intended to assign all blame, then wouldn’t her son’s position as heir be forfeit?

She had endured in this residence for over a hundred years.

Her only hope was for her son to inherit the title of Commandery Prince.

To see a wish of decades shattered in a day—this was harder to bear than death.

The Princess Consort’s eyes flicked toward the chamber. The Prince sat inside with eyes closed, sensing nothing of the world outside. A pang of bleakness struck her. A marriage of a hundred years, and still she could not win a single word from him.

A clear tear slid down.

“One should bear what one has done. This concubine hopes the Prince will, for the sake of how diligently the heir has conducted himself these years without a single misstep, show leniency. He is your own flesh and blood.”

When she finished, the Princess Consort’s palm flashed up and struck her crown.

Boom.

In the next instant, the life within her body snapped. She toppled like a felled log, eyes round and unblinking—locked upon the Prince.

The Princess Royal did not so much as lift an eyelid.

She stepped over the Princess Consort’s corpse.

“Your family matters, I will not interfere.”

Clearly, this was addressed to the Seventh Commandery Prince.

Yet if she truly meant not to interfere, she would not have waited to rise until after witnessing the Princess Consort take her own life.

At the instant of that suicide, the Seventh Commandery Prince’s body swayed.

But he did not speak to stop it.

The Princess Royal came to stand before Liu Meizhen. She pinched a seal with thumb and forefinger of her right hand; lines traced themselves in the air, forming a profound sigil. With a hum, the sigil turned into a phoenix seal that sank into Liu Meizhen’s brow.

A red light flashed at Liu Meizhen’s glabella.

It quickly condensed into a fingernail-sized mark.

The mark quivered once, then vanished.

“This seal contains one of my treasured Techniques. Below late-stage Nascent Soul, none can block it.

“With this, the karma between you and me is settled.”

When she finished, the air before Liu Meizhen seemed to ripple.

In the next heartbeat, the Princess Royal was gone. Liu Meizhen bowed in the direction of the imperial capital to show her thanks.

With the Princess Royal’s Technique upon her, as long as she did not meet some Divine Transformation old monster, her life would be safe.

Inside the inner chamber, the wooden-statue-still Seventh Commandery Prince finally spoke.

“Madam Fu, for saving my life, I shall repay you tenfold in the future. But I have private matters to handle in the residence today, so I will not keep you.”

It was an order to withdraw.

After all, the Princess Consort’s death could not be concealed.

Liu Meizhen saluted, but did not leave.

“Your Highness, I have one more matter to confirm. People from our clan came earlier wishing to see Ningning, but the Princess Consort blocked them at the door. Rumor outside says Ningning already left Jingzhou via a teleportation array. Yet after leaving the princely residence, she did not leave even a word with our Fu clan. I ask that Your Highness thoroughly investigate this.”

“Mmm.”

The Prince gave a grunt of assent.

Seeing that he still had no intention of keeping her, Liu Meizhen cupped her hands and departed.

Once she was gone—

Not long after, two Golden Core auras shot up from the rear mountain of the residence and arrived in the secret chamber in a flash. The left and right Protectors took in the Prince’s injuries, and their faces changed.

“Your Highness, this…”

When the Prince journeyed to the Eastern Wastes, the two brothers happened to be in seclusion. They had never imagined he would nearly lose his life.

Though the Prince seemed healed, all his magic power was gone; he would never advance another inch.

Moreover, within him, a faint trace of dragon breath was slowly eroding what little vitality remained.

The Prince—

At most, he could hold out thirty years.

“We failed to guard you and keep you safe, Your Highness. Your subordinates deserve death!”

The two knelt on one knee, faces full of guilt and self-blame.

They had once been mere disaster refugees, nearly corpses by the roadside. The Seventh Commandery Prince had taken them in, allowed them to study as his companions, to cultivate at his side. He had shared resources with them and never treated them like servants. Though not blood brothers, their bond was firmer than kin. In their hearts, the Prince’s life was worth more than their own.

“Your Highness, be at ease.

“Even if we must climb blades or plunge into hell, we brothers will find a way for you to reforge your Golden Core.”

The Prince gave a bitter smile.

If even his mother, the Princess Royal, could not do it, how could two little Golden Core Protectors defy fate?

He drew a deep breath, calmed his thoughts, and quickly sent a few sound transmissions to them both.

Their bodies jolted; they looked at each other in disbelief.

“Your Highness, you mustn’t! Your body still bears up. Besides, with us here—and with the Seven-Rank Clans’ secret realm soon to open—we can surely find—”

“I know my condition. Do as I said.”

“…Yes, Your Highness!”

Grief flickered in their eyes. They cupped fists and went their separate ways.

Before long, the Left Protector returned.

He saluted, frowning slightly.

“Reporting, Your Highness: the matter of Kang’er’s mother—the Seventh Young Madam—committing adultery is proven beyond doubt. But the guardsman involved was introduced into the residence by the Princess Consort, and it was she who arranged for him to approach the Seventh Young Madam. In addition, the Madam has indeed—just as rumored—run off with that guardsman.”

He paused, then hesitated.

“Your Highness, shall we send men to seize her and bring her back?”

The Prince did have that intention.

After all, if the next master of the residence had a mother with a ruined reputation, the very first check by the court would fail.

Only the dead can be clean of all stain.

But—

His life had been prolonged by Liu Meizhen. As she left, she urged him again and again to investigate the matter of Kang’er’s mother. If he silenced the woman now, how could he face the Fu clan? She was his benefactor.

Besides, in the future Kang’er would have only this one maternal family to rely upon; it would not do to sour the relationship.

Thinking thus, the Prince waved a hand.

“Pass the order: Kang’er’s mother, Madam Fu, died at the Princess Consort’s hand. The slanders attached to her in life were likewise imposed by the Princess Consort. If the Fu clan inquires, tell the truth to Liu Meizhen only, and have her swear a heart-demon oath not to reveal it to others.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

A few days after Liu Meizhen returned to the Mulberry Garden, news spread of the Princess Consort’s sudden death. Soon after came word that the heir, upon hearing of it, suffered qi deviation in cultivation and was no longer fit to be heir.

However, whether the princely residence had petitioned the court to appoint a new heir—and whom they intended to appoint—there was no news at all.

Liu Meizhen personally went to the residence once more.

The news she received was that Ningning had indeed eloped and fled far away from Jingzhou with someone.

Before her marriage, Ningning had run away from home; after marrying into the residence, she had escaped once as well. With confirmation in hand, Liu Meizhen sent people to the Teleportation Hall to investigate—but by then everyone had changed their tune and claimed they had never seen Ningning.

Because—

All Jingzhou now whispered that Ningning had died at the Princess Consort’s hands.

“Enough. When my husband emerges from seclusion, we’ll see how he wishes to handle this.”

Liu Meizhen secretly dispatched people to the imperial capital to seek any clue.

She herself could not go in person. The clan was presently racing to develop the fief in Huizhou Prefecture; her husband was in seclusion. If Golden Core cultivators from the Extreme West sects attacked, only the treasured Technique sealed at her brow by the Princess Royal could repel them.

Yunshan Commandery, on the clan fief.

In the blink of an eye, Fu Changsheng had been in seclusion for nine years. Having cultivated the Sword Canon to its current limit, he found it hard to advance an inch further.

“It’s time to go out.”

He withdrew the Technique, pushed open the thatched door, and stepped out.

In the spirit-herb garden, the Heavenly Silkworm Fruit seed had sprouted and now stood as tall as a child, though it still needed many years to mature.

“Hissss~”

At his appearance, the azure flood dragon that had been coiling lazily in midair leapt down in delight, shrinking to an inch long and dropping into Fu Changsheng’s palm. After being confined in the Five Elements Space for a full ten years in total, the little fellow was clearly stir-crazy and itching to go out.

Fu Changsheng stroked the little dragon’s head to soothe it. Even after ten years, the two bulges on its brow still showed no change; its cultivation remained stalled at late third rank. Yet with the true dragon in the Ten Thousand Dragons Abyss, he dared not release Xiaoqing.

“Xiaoqing, bear with it a while longer.”

According to the intelligence, the Tianyin Tribe would soon break the barrier over Gloomcloud Valley.

Then the White Tiger Tribe would be annihilated without his side moving a single soldier.

He could seize that chance to obtain Hundred-Bell Flowers from the White Tiger Tribe’s burial grounds. Refined into Drunken Dragon Pills, they would resolve the hidden danger of the Yellow Dragon’s soul lodged within the little flood dragon.

Moreover, the Tianyin Tribe would suffer the backlash of its bloodline.

Their strength would take a heavy blow.

“If this drags in Tianyang or the Real Person of Tianshan, so much the better.”

Once those two Golden Cores fell, he could send troops to conquer the Tianyin Tribe.

And on Tianyin Mountain stood a teleportation array leading to the South Sea.

Fu Changsheng glanced over the space. Qiuniang was meditating in the stone cave halfway up the mountain; her aura faintly hinted at a breakthrough to mid-stage Purple Mansion. He strolled to the spirit-herb garden, where archaic characters had appeared upon a leaf of the Message Tree.

“This is…”

Clearly, the Upper Realm had sent new tidings.

After being burned by the Sword Canon once, he was no longer so excited by such messages.

He leaned closer to read.

Lines of text surfaced.

“The one who last sent you word is now a soul beneath my sword. If you can find for me the sword genius Shangguan Jin, I will tell you the method to ascend to the Upper Realm.”

Shangguan Jin again!

Just who was this person that everyone wanted to find her?

But when he read the final few characters, his body trembled.

“The method of ascension?!”

Men spent their lives for that one goal—to ascend to the Upper Realm and seek the Dao.

Fu Changsheng’s breath grew heavy.

Soon, however, he calmed.

Even if he knew the method, with his current Purple Mansion cultivation he could not withstand the force between realms. It was far too distant. And the other party’s promise was nothing but pie in the sky; he would not be foolish enough to risk his life chasing Shangguan Jin.

He quickly cast the Message Tree’s words from his mind.

“The clans’ grand contest should be coming soon.”

His gaze fell on the panel. He intended to exchange for a batch of intelligence—after nine years cut off from the world, perhaps he could glean different information. Just as he was about to redeem, his brow twitched.

His intent stirred.

His figure blurred—and vanished.

He reappeared in the Heavenly Dragon Temple of the Underworld.

At this moment, yin energy surged through the temple like stormwinds, gathering into a whirling vortex in a side hall. In a short while it had become a maelstrom of yin-spirit force. Gales howled on all sides, and mournful weeping rose from the Yellow Springs before the temple.

“What…”

Fu Changsheng sent his spiritual sense into the side hall.

There, Qiu Chan formed seals with both hands as yin power poured into her. Her aura climbed step by step.

After a while—

Boom.

A faint outline of a yin core formed within her—and then shattered with a bang. Her cultivation settled at the peak of third rank. The gathered yin power exploded outward and dissipated; in a blink, the Heavenly Dragon Temple returned to calm.

“Qiu Chan’s speed!”

He had never imagined that in just nine years Qiu Chan would leap from late third rank to its peak—and that she had even tried to strike at Golden Core, only to fall short at the final step.

Qiu Chan was a ghost-cultivator.

How to condense a yin core, he did not know.

Still, her reaching peak third rank would greatly aid him in the upcoming grand contest among the clans.

“Master!”

Sensing Fu Changsheng, Qiu Chan was about to emerge when he stopped her.

“Stabilize your realm first.”

He strode into the Heavenly Dragon Temple.

It had been a long time since he was last here. Now, he saw the Heavenly Dragon’s divine power had grown far richer than before. Yet to set up a temple for it in the daylight world and invite it to descend—he still lacked a little more.

“Another ten years or so, and I should be able to reshape a Heavenly Dragon.”

He lifted incense in both hands and bowed to the Heavenly Dragon.

In the rear courtyard, the Yin-Spirit Fields were planted entirely with Profound Yin Grass.

“Oh?”

He had been away for long.

The Profound Yin Grass here was nearly mature.

“The energy in these fields…”

Normally, Profound Yin Grass required centuries to ripen.

But it had been only a few decades since this plot was sown. Once this crop matured, many of the Fu clan could open their Niwan Palaces. Combined with the Soul-Summoning Pill’s main herb in the Water Curtain Cave, they could surely cultivate a batch of Purple Mansion experts.

“Did Qiu Chan use some secret method?”

To shave off hundreds of years—even with rich field energy, that should have been impossible.

But Qiu Chan was in seclusion now, so Fu Changsheng let the question rest for the moment.

“If we join the grand contest, and I want Qiu Chan’s help, I’ll need a vessel for her to possess—something to hide her identity.”

He couldn’t simply summon her out of the Underworld before everyone.

Leaving the back courtyard, he watched the Yellow Springs surge. His desire to establish an underworld court here grew even stronger.

With an underworld court established, and a road of Yin and Yang laid down, the clan’s dead could be guided there.

In a sense, death would become another form of rebirth. But how to realize it in practice, he had no idea yet.

Reason one: his cultivation was too low to access intelligence at that level.

“I wonder where that old ghost the Heavenly Dragon struck into the Yellow Springs has gone by now?”

Nearly a century had passed.

The old ghost had never reappeared.

But as long as he did not erase that foe completely, Fu Changsheng could not rest easy.

With a thought, he left the Underworld and returned to the secret room on the Yunshan fief.

Outside the chamber, transmission talismans hovered in the air, piled like a small mountain.

Fu Changsheng flicked his finger, reading them one by one. Only after half an hour did he finish.

Nine years had passed.

With the revival of the Hundred-Thousand Mountains, Fu Yongshang had rallied the other clans to establish a marketplace before the range. Given the Fu clan’s status today, one call brought countless answers; nearly every clan in Huainan Prefecture had joined.

Seeing that hearts were aligned, Gan Muwan proposed gathering the strength of a hundred clans across Huainan Prefecture to build a Great Wall to guard against beast tides.

In the past, the many clans had different agendas and no cohesion—such a grand project would have been impossible.

But now the Fu clan was a Seven-Rank clan—a core to rally around. Everyone threw themselves into it. When the beast tides came, the Fu clan might weather the storm without grave harm, but the others could be wiped out by a single misstep. Recent examples remained vivid in memory.

As this information poured in—

Hum.

A mechanical chime sounded in his mind.

“Ding.

“Your clansmen have gathered the strength of a hundred families to build a Great Wall to resist the beast tides—an achievement for the ages, a merit for ten thousand generations. You gain two thousand family contribution points.”

Immediately, the family contribution on his panel rose to three thousand eight hundred.

Clearly, had he personally overseen the matter, the reward would have been far higher.

Even so, to reap the benefit while sitting still—he was very satisfied.

“Gan Muwan truly is remarkable.”

That daughter-in-law had founded the Women’s Academy before, and now had spearheaded a Great Wall. Her thinking leapt ahead—she was a natural hand at running a household.

As he pondered, more chimes rang in succession.

“Ding. Your clansman Fu Qingshan has successfully broken through to Foundation Establishment—gain one hundred family contribution points.”

“Ding. Your clansman Fu Qingshui has successfully broken through to Foundation Establishment—gain one hundred family contribution points.”

…

When the chimes ended, the panel’s contribution had soared to five thousand.

This meant that over the past nine years, the clan’s development had accelerated.

Judging from the reports, more than half of the third-generation youths of the Qing-character branch had broken through to Foundation Establishment.

A smile touched Fu Changsheng’s lips.

At that moment, another transmission talisman streaked in.

He injected a seal, and Gan Muwan’s voice sounded.

“Father, my husband—Qiang ge’er—is missing!”

Fu Changsheng froze.

Ever since his abolishment, Qiang ge’er had been confined to a side courtyard. Earlier reports said he locked himself in his room and saw no one. Fu Changsheng hadn’t thought much of it. The man’s lifespan was nearly spent; he had ten years at most.

As for that son—he had given up on him completely.

“What trouble can a dying old man cause?”

Fu Changsheng frowned, body flickering. In the next instant he stood in the side courtyard where Qiang ge’er was held.

A Qi Refining clansman knelt trembling on the ground. Gan Muwan sat in a chair under the eaves. Nine years apart, perhaps from overwork, white touched both her temples.

“He needed help to take even a step—how could he vanish out of nowhere? Speak clearly. When did you last truly see him?”

As she questioned, Gan Muwan sensed something, looked up, and saw Fu Changsheng at the gate. She rose at once to salute.

“Greetings, Father!”

After years in seclusion, seeing him again, she found his aura wholly transformed.

Where once it had been gentle, now it was like a sharp blade ready to leap from its sheath. His cultivation realm had not changed, yet he felt far stronger than before.

The kneeling clansman heard that even the Patriarch had been alarmed; terror drained his face white and set him shaking.

“Greet… greetings, Patriarch!”

Fu Changsheng nodded slightly without speaking and strode inside.

A sweep of his spiritual sense told him no scent of long-term habitation remained.

Faintly, he caught a trace of something familiar.

But he could not place it.

Outside, Gan Muwan finished her questioning. A little guilty, she stepped forward to report.

“Father.

“The clansman guarding Qiang ge’er last truly saw him three years ago. Since then he only delivered food on schedule. Qiang ge’er forbade anyone from entering.”

Her voice dropped at the end.

However one looked at it, she had failed in her duty as a wife.

“Father, it was this daughter-in-law’s negligence that led to Qiang ge’er’s disappearance. Please punish me.”

“This is not your fault.”

Fu Changsheng helped her up.

The deed was done. Now they needed to find the man.

Qiang ge’er had once been led astray by Qiu Ya and nearly sold off his siblings. After years of confinement, with his spiritual root extracted and reduced to a mortal, his resentment had only deepened. If someone with ill intent used him, he would become a disaster.

“Muwan, issue a bounty immediately. No matter what, we must find Qiang ge’er.”

“Yes, Father.”

Gan Muwan took her orders and left.

Fu Changsheng returned to the Patriarch’s residence and, without delay, set his intent upon the panel in his sea of consciousness.

“Redeem intelligence.”

Hum.

The panel trembled.

Golden light surged.

Lines of text unfolded.

[1: Four of the Tianyin Tribe’s five elders have recently found a way to break the barrier over Gloomcloud Valley. In one month, the barrier will open.]

As expected.

Fu Changsheng eased a fraction.

Everything remained within his grasp.

[2: There has been a coup in the Seventh Commandery Prince’s residence. The old heir has already been deposed. Over the last ten years, the Prince has poured his strength into supporting your grandson Kang’er and hopes to establish him as the heir-grandson to the Prince. However, skipping a generation in succession requires Kang’er to complete each of the court’s assigned tasks. Only by meeting every metric will he qualify to inherit without a reduction in rank.]

The old heir deposed?!

Fu Changsheng was taken aback.

Earlier intelligence had mentioned that Ningning’s husband would inherit the Seventh Commandery Prince’s title.

But now the report said the Prince meant to set Kang’er as heir-grandson. Could it be that Kang’er ultimately failed the court’s tests, and so the title circled back to Ningning’s husband?

“If so,

“I must go to Jingzhou.”

Compared to Ningning’s husband inheriting, it was far more important for Ningning’s son, Kang’er, to inherit.

“When I was in seclusion, the reports said Ningning was being bullied by the Princess Consort. I wonder how Meizhen handled it?”

He planned to inquire through a Shadow Gate mask later.

Earlier he’d told Meizhen to bring Ningning home directly. With her abilities, it shouldn’t have been difficult.

[3: The contest for entry quotas to a secret realm—open only to Seven-Rank clans and above—will be announced soon. This time the rules will break with tradition; it will not be the usual grand competition. Separate formats will be set for each realm: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Purple Mansion, and Golden Core.]

What?

Even Qi Refining disciples had to compete!

This surprised him.

Normally, high-end battle strength decided everything. Now even Golden Core cultivators were to be involved, as well as the lowest realm.

“Is there some special treasure appearing in this secret realm?”

If so, he needed to order immediate selection among Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining disciples.

[4: Within the Misty Ghostwood on your Seven-Rank fief lies a treasure that can advance the Heavenly Dragon Temple of the Underworld.]

The Misty Ghostwood?!

While he’d been in seclusion, Fu Changlei had mentioned three forbidden grounds on the fief.

“So that ghostwood hides such a thing. Huizhou Prefecture truly is the site of an ancient sect.”

If he could one day find a legacy there, so much the better.

[5: The Widow Wang whom your wife Liu Meizhen brought back possesses a Hidden Yin Profound Body. She must be awakened by a medicinal bath brewed with Tianyin Grass. This physique is heaven-chosen for communing with ghosts and gods.]

A Hidden Yin Profound Body?

He had never heard the term.

Nor had he heard of Tianyin Grass.

With a pile of affairs before him, he had no interest in a widow he had never even met.

[6: Yongxuan, aided by Luo Haitang, has advanced by leaps and bounds and now shows the potential to break through to Golden Core.]

[7: Mo Lan has successfully infiltrated Autumn Moon Manor.]

[8: In the Cangling Realm, your father, hearing from Tenth Lady, has guessed that you may be the benefactor she spoke of. Using a secret art to follow the clue, he has gone to the Blood Saber Sect seeking to join them and trace your trail from within.]

“What?!”

Fu Changsheng’s expression changed at the eighth item.

The Blood Saber Sect did not value the lives of its disciples; they were sacrificial offerings walking on two legs. If his father joined them, he would be in peril!

“Father!”

He itched to send a message at once.

But in the Cangling Realm, he had no way to communicate.

“If I had known, I would have left a Shadow Gate mask with Tenth Lady.”

Anxious as he was, he knew that urgency could not help. He could only hope that a Shadow Gate mission to the Cangling Realm would appear later.

“Father, you must stay safe!”

[9: …]

The last two items were trivial.

Fu Changsheng ceased redeeming.

At the same time, his family contribution on the panel dropped to four thousand.

His consciousness returned. With a wave of his sleeve, a Shadow Gate mask floated into his palm. He injected a seal, and it hummed to life.

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