The Lian clan's ancestor-worship ceremony began amid a great clamor, its scale the grandest event Nanyao City had seen in years.
Though the ceremony was nominally dedicated to ancestor worship, it was in truth a proclamation of the unshakeable status of the Lian clan as a holy land of weapon-forging.
To the world, it declared that the Lian clan still possessed the ability to forge renowned weapons.
Lian Que, the forger of Changxiangsi, was the undeniable protagonist of the day.
From start to finish, he knelt upon the elevated platform like a clay puppet, dressed and adorned by others at their whim.
Jiang Wang, attending as a guest, observed the entire proceedings from a comfortable seat at a distance, silently appreciating the shifting expressions on Lian Que's ugly face.
From smug self-satisfaction to numb exhaustion—it took only a single morning.
The morning-long, elaborate rituals had only just completed their first phase.
Only then was Lian Que permitted to move.
As the forger of Changxiangsi, he personally wrapped the hilt and tied the tassels on the sword.
Once he had finished, a Lian clansman brought forward a sword scabbard custom-crafted for Changxiangsi.
Lian Que sheathed the blade. Changxiangsi sang out like a dragon swimming through a vast sea, its clear, resonant cry echoing far. A treasure sword put to rest, its edge hidden from the world.
Lian Zhuping then took Changxiangsi and personally placed it upon the offering rack.
After prayers to Heaven and Earth, the ancestor-worship proper finally began.
The details of those proceedings need not be mentioned. Another full set of rites consumed yet two more hours before Lian Que could finally rub his sore legs and rise, ready to retrieve Changxiangsi from the rack and return it to Jiang Wang, completing the final step.
At that moment, a proclamation rang out from the distance: "The Fourteenth Prince arrives!"
The crowd swiftly parted to form a path, and everyone bowed in greeting.
Lian Que's brow furrowed at the sound, and he quickened his pace.
But an elder stood without fanfare before the offering rack and spoke coolly: "The prince has arrived, and you hasten not to greet him? Where is your propriety?"
Lian Que shifted left and pressed forward: "If you want to greet him, go ahead. With a renowned weapon before us, I'd rather finish the ceremony first."
"Insolent!" the elder roared. "You forge one renowned weapon by sheer luck, and you dare be so rude! Have you forgotten your clan? Have you forgotten the court?"
Even Lian Que, dull as he was, could sense something was wrong. He did not bother arguing with the elder. Instead, he turned to look at Lian Zhuping: "Clan leader! Is this your doing?"
But Lian Zhuping did not speak. He was already bowing low: "We respectfully welcome the Fourteenth Prince!"
Down below the platform, Jiang Wang sensed something amiss and was about to come up to ask what was happening, when a palanquin had already arrived before the platform.
The ten bearers carrying the palanquin were each cultivators of the Heaven-Piercing realm.
The curtain parted, and out stepped a man in purple robes, his face powdered with gold.
This was presumably the fourteenth son of the current Emperor of Qi—Jiang Wuyong.
The people of Qi favored purple, considering it the most noble of colors. Those who wore it were mostly princes and high nobility.
He stepped from the palanquin without sparing a glance for anyone, walking straight up to the platform.
His great sleeves billowed, his stride measured, exuding an effortless imperial bearing.
Upon reaching the platform, his eyes fell immediately upon Changxiangsi on the offering rack, and his face lit up with delight: "What a fine weapon! My heart is much gratified!"
With that, he moved to advance.
Lian Que stepped forward to block his path, his tone neither servile nor arrogant: "Your Highness, this sword already has an owner."
Before the Fourteenth Prince could respond, the same elder from before grabbed Lian Que: "Is it your turn to speak? With the Fourteenth Prince before you, how dare you act so brazenly!"
Lian Que spun around and threw a punch. His Gate of Heaven and Earth flung wide open, a fierce wind surging outward as though a furnace fire blazed within his body.
"You old fossil Lian Luyue! Will you never stop?"
The Lian clan, as weapon-forgers, were not known for combat prowess, and the elder's cultivation had only reached the peak of the Soaring Dragon realm.
Their fist and claw collided—and to everyone's surprise, they were evenly matched.
Lian Luyue had not expected Lian Que to fight back. His face darkened with humiliation and fury: "A junior dares to be so disrespectful!"
"Elder, please calm yourself!" Lian Zhuping could not allow the situation to escalate further. He immediately intervened, placing himself between the two and separating Lian Que from Lian Luyue.
At the same time, he admonished Lian Que: "You, behave yourself!"
"Who's not behaving?" Lian Que's ugly face flushed red with anger. "This renowned weapon has nothing to do with any of you. That it was used for the ceremony at all was only thanks to Jiang Wang's goodwill. What right do any of you have to decide its ownership?"
"Are you not a member of the Lian clan? Is what you have learned not passed down through the Lian clan's secret traditions? Were the resources for your forging not supplied by the Lian clan? Was the furnace you used not an ancient furnace inherited through our Lian clan to this day?"
Lian Zhuping demanded sharply: "Now tell me—it has nothing to do with the Lian clan?"
"I was forging this sword for Jiang Wang from the very beginning! Jiang Wang was involved from start to finish. A renowned weapon is forged by Heaven's grace, and human effort alone cannot achieve it! This sword belongs to Jiang Wang—it always has! It doesn't belong to any of you, and it doesn't even belong to me!"
Lian Luyue spoke coldly from the side: "You did indeed promise to forge a weapon for him, but you never specified which one. Set Changxiangsi aside and pour your heart into forging another sword for him—no one could call that a breach of faith."
Lian Que stared at him in shock and fury: "Fine words, but can you actually do such a thing? Has the Lian clan lost all shame?"
Crack!
Clan leader Lian Zhuping slapped Lian Que to the ground: "Is that something you should be saying?"
"Enough." Jiang Wuyong smiled. "I merely came to see the new renowned weapon from our Qi's sacred land of weapon-forging. Why are you all so agitated? Step aside and let me take a closer look."
The elder Lian Luyue immediately moved aside: "Please, Your Highness, admire the weapon at your leisure."
Jiang Wuyong stepped forward with unhurried composure. Then a voice sounded from behind: "You'd best stop right there."
The voice was not loud, but hard as iron.
"And who might you be?" Jiang Wuyong turned, regarding Jiang Wang with an amused expression.
The Heaven's Secret mystic realm had not ended long ago, and he had come specifically for Changxiangsi. There was no way he did not know who Jiang Wang was.
The question was purely an expression of contempt.
Even a cultivator of the Inner Palace realm with supernatural power was no great figure to the Qi imperial family—let alone a mere seedling of that realm!
"You don't need to know who I am. All you need to know is—" Jiang Wang rose from his seat and pointed toward Changxiangsi on the offering rack. "That is my sword!"
Upon the offering rack, Changxiangsi suddenly hummed on its own!
Jiang Wuyong, far from angered, grew even more delighted, and could not help but praise it once more: "What a fine weapon!"
"Mine," Jiang Wang added.
"Yours? The ground beneath your feet is Qi's soil. You stand upon Qi's territory. Everything in Qi bears the surname Jiang!" Jiang Wuyong said coolly. "The Jiang of the imperial line descended from the ancient sages. Not some mixed-blood nobody from some forgotten corner... you don't even deserve the name Jiang."
"Everything in Qi does indeed bear the surname Jiang—unfortunately, it's not the Jiang of Jiang Wuyong." The speaker was an enormously fat man whose eyes had narrowed to mere slits as he entered the scene.
He seemed to have been in a great hurry; his clothes were slightly wrinkled.
His rotund figure made his words seem rather less imposing.
But as he walked forward, the crowd parted for him.
He regarded the Fourteenth Prince Jiang Wuyong with a beaming smile, without a trace of deference in his expression: "You want to represent all of Qi? Aren't you afraid your brothers and sisters will spank you?"
It was Chongxuan Sheng!
While handling affairs in the Qi capital of Linzi, he had heard that Jiang Wuyong was heading to Nanyao City. He immediately dropped everything and raced after him.
He arrived in Nanyao City just in time, personally coming to back Jiang Wang!
Before he had even spoken, he had quietly communicated with Jiang Wang.
So as soon as he finished, Jiang Wang cooperated by asking: "This is the Fourteenth Prince, after all. How dare you speak to him like that?"
Chongxuan Sheng deliberately cupped his hand by his mouth and leaned toward Jiang Wang, pretending to whisper: "The imperial family is indeed noble. But our ruler has nine daughters and seventeen sons. Apart from the Crown Prince, the most acclaimed being the Third Princess, the Ninth Prince, and the Eleventh Prince—there's no Fourteenth Prince among them."
"But I'm different! The entire Chongxuan clan is now mine and Chongxuan Zun's to contest. By rights, I have half the Chongxuan clan. He, Jiang Wuyong, has only his title as prince. The imperial family may be noble, but there is only one supreme ruler. This fellow doesn't even get a single hair of that, so why should I be afraid of him?"
He put on an act, pretending to whisper, yet his voice carried clearly to every corner of the gathering.
Jiang Wuyong's gold-powdered face alternated between green and white with fury.
But Chongxuan Sheng was stating facts—at least as far as Jiang Wuyong was concerned.
The battle for the throne was ruthlessly fierce. With his strength, how could Jiang Wuyong dare claim to represent Qi?
Fortunately, as a prince, he had no shortage of loyal servants to defend him.
"This is a weapon of our Lian clan," the elder Lian Luyue spoke up. "The Fourteenth Prince speaks merely of admiring it—let alone wishing to collect it. The Lian clan is unswervingly loyal to the imperial house. How could we possibly refuse?"
By now, Lian Que had risen from the ground. The anger in his eyes had never faded, and now the rage within was almost tangible, nearly scorching from his very eye sockets.
He drew his fingers across his palm, raising his bleeding left hand high, and declared in a ringing voice: "I swear on my honor as a weapon forger! This Changxiangsi is Jiang Wang's sword! It has nothing to do with me, Lian Que, let alone with the Lian clan! The Lian clan has no right to decide its ownership!"
Lian Luyue barked: "The clan leader is still present! The Lian clan is not for you to make declarations about! Get back where you belong!"
"Heh heh heh." Chongxuan Sheng let out a string of cold laughs.
When Jiang Wang had refused to maximize his advantage and insisted on returning the life tablet, Chongxuan Sheng had not said much. In the end, Lian Que forging a renowned weapon had been a happy outcome for all.
But now the Lian clan had stirred up all manner of trouble. They organized an ancestor-worship ceremony and then, with no sense or shame, staged this sword presentation.
These Lian fellows were becoming more contemptible by the day. Chongxuan Sheng had long lost patience with them.
Now he held nothing back: "Save your little act here. No matter how the Lian clan plays it, I ask only that everyone remember one thing: whoever dares snatch what belongs to Jiang Wang—I, Chongxuan Sheng, will stake everything to slap that person in the face!"
As one of the Chongxuan clan's heirs, Chongxuan Sheng's words carried undeniable weight.
"I am not acting with them!" Lian Que suddenly shouted, his expression filled with inexplicable grief and rage.
From the elevated platform, he looked all around.
He saw the incomprehension of the Lian clansmen. He saw the anger of the Lian elders. He saw the mockery of the outside observers. He saw the contempt of people like Chongxuan Sheng.
Of course. How could he not have known? That was what everyone would think. As the only weapon-forger in the Lian clan to forge a renowned weapon in nearly fifty years—the very man who had crafted Changxiangsi—how could Lian Que not have known about the plan to present it to Jiang Wuyong?
Everyone would think so.
Just as everyone had once thought he survived the Heaven's Secret mystic realm by wagging his tail and begging for mercy.
No one would listen to his explanation.
No one would believe him.
All the shamefulness, betrayal, and dishonor that should have fallen upon the Lian clan now fell upon him as well.
What passed through his mind at that moment, no outsider could ever know.
All people could see—eyes wide, watching—
Lian Que looked around the crowd with grief and fury etched upon his face, and at last fixed his gaze on Jiang Wang alone: "Brother Jiang, I cannot suffer this humiliation! Nor can I bear to see you humiliated!"
With a sudden, violent motion, he reversed his palm and struck his own crown!