I Shall Be Everlasting In the World of Immortals

Chapter 465: The Great Kun Clan, Great-Great-Granddaughter

I Shall Be Everlasting In the World of Immortals

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Three years later.

In the southern region of Great Kun, at the Xu Clan estate on Purple Thorn Mountain.

By the riverside of the Purple Bamboo Forest, the moonlight hung like gauze, mist drifted ethereally like an earthly paradise.

Soft zither music floated through the bamboo grove like a hidden spring among the mountains.

At first, the tune was serene and uplifting, calming to the soul. But by the second half, the melody grew mournful and sorrowful, as if northern winds howled through the woods and snowflakes began to fall.

Inside a pavilion in the bamboo grove.

Xu Qingge sat kneeling before a scorched-tail guqin. Her pale hands gently plucked the silver strings, her eyes closed. A faint tear-shaped beauty mark at the corner of her eye glimmered under the moonlight, adding an ethereal elegance to her features.

She wore a sky-blue wide-sleeved dress, with a moon-holding azure luan hairpin tucked diagonally in her dark hair, which was styled up to reveal the graceful curve of her neck, delicate as fresh snow.

“Who goes there?!”

Xu Qingge’s eyes suddenly snapped open. The music stopped. Her icy gaze swept toward the outskirts of the bamboo forest.

With a flick of her fingers across the strings, several arcs of musical light surged forward, slicing through the air toward a hill a hundred zhang away.

With a loud boom the rocks split apart, and from the rising dust leapt a flamboyantly dressed young man in brocade robes. He twirled his folding fan, and with swirling black-and-white light, absorbed and dispersed the incoming sound blasts.

“Fairy Qingge, please, no need for harm!”

The young man had pale, powdered skin, sharply arched brows, and faint dark shadows beneath his eyes. His thin lips curled into a playful grin.

“This piece, ‘Song of the Canglang’, seems to have been modified. It stirred this humble Cai’s heart into a drunken daze…”

He stowed away his fan and swaggered boldly toward the pavilion where Xu Qingge sat.

“You come uninvited, barging into my quiet cultivation grounds. Is this how a guest from the mighty Cai Clan, one of Kun Province’s seven great ancient families, conducts himself?”

Xu Qingge frowned, her tone cold with disapproval.

As the youngest and only Core Formation female cultivator in the Xu Clan, Xu Qingge usually secluded herself in the outer region of the clan estate, deep within this bamboo grove.

Without explicit permission, even inner clan cultivators dared not disturb Elder Qingge’s peace.

“Haha! Fairy Xu, your words are much too distant!”

“The Xu Clan’s patriarch and my Cai Clan have already reached a marriage agreement. You and I are destined to become family, what harm is there in visiting my future Dao companion in advance?”

Cai Lin plopped himself down inside the pavilion, eyes roving shamelessly up and down, admiring this famed zither prodigy of the surrounding regions.

“Marriage agreement?”

Xu Qingge’s beautiful face turned pale, stunned beyond words.

Clang!

Her finger trembled on the string, producing a jarring, out-of-tune note.

“Tsk tsk, Fairy Xu’s heart is perturbed! So eager to become my Dao companion…”

Watching her distressed expression, Cai Lin’s tone grew lewder, a warm flush rising to his face.

“This original ancient version of Phoenix Seeks the Phoenix, I acquired at great expense. Shall we enjoy it together today, Fairy?”

He leaned closer, one hand reaching out as if to embrace this Xu clan beauty and share the melody.

His arm froze in place.

Cai Lin gave an awkward chuckle: “Fairy Xu, you misunderstand!”

Shing!

A near-invisible thread of string had appeared at his neck, emanating a chilling sharpness as it wrapped around his throat.

Cai Lin stood frozen, cold sweat beading on his brow, terrified that a single twitch of her finger might separate his head from his shoulders.

“…My father and the ‘Ancestor Congfeng’ merely reached an initial agreement. The marriage still requires approval from your clan leader, it’s not finalized!”

...

After explaining the situation honestly, Xu Qingge gave a cold snort. With a sweep of her sleeve, she retracted the deadly string.

The so-called marriage agreement was nothing more than the young master of the Cai Clan blowing hot air.

Still, a flicker of concern lingered in Xu Qingge’s eyes.

The fact that Cai Lin could so easily reach her secluded cultivation grounds, this likely had tacit approval from certain elders within her clan.

The ancient Cai Clan held an exalted position in Great Kun. Thousands of years ago, they were once ranked first among the seven great families and had produced a Nascent Soul Great Cultivator!

Though now in decline, they still held a solid middle-ranking position among the seven.

Cai Lin, a direct blood descendant of the clan, had neither the talent nor temperament to inherit the role of clan heir.

Still, to a family like the Xu Clan, he was an elite young master of a prestigious bloodline.

A marriage alliance with him would be seen as highly beneficial by many clan elders and especially by that Ancestor Congfeng, who had left the Xu Clan several centuries ago, even though Cai Lin was notorious for his hedonism and debauchery, he was a typical scumbag.

There were even rumors he practiced dual cultivation techniques from the Hehuan Sect, and had harmed several beautiful female cultivators from other sects and clans.

Xu Qingge, the most promising Core Formation cultivator of her generation, had met him a few times and was thoroughly disgusted.

To marry such a man would be to doom her cultivation path to a turbulent, possibly tragic future.

“…Ancestor Congfeng?”

Suddenly, a man’s voice echoed through the Purple Bamboo Forest, tinged with confusion.

...

”Who goes there!”

Xu Qingge turned sharply, staring toward the bamboo grove behind her.

With her mastery of sounds reaching the realm of spiritual resonance, no rustle or breeze nearby could escape her senses.

Just moments earlier, even as Cai Lin merely approached the purple bamboo forest to eavesdrop, she had immediately sensed his presence.

But this mysterious man… it seemed he had been in the grove for quite some time and she hadn’t sensed a thing.

”Who’s hiding in the woods? Sneaking around like a thief!”

Cai Lin snapped open his folding fan, his gaze sharp as his spiritual sense swept toward the depths of the bamboo grove.

In his eyes, Xu Qingge was already a woman ”reserved” for him. The fact that another man might be lurking near her secluded cultivation ground was intolerable.

Both he and Xu Qingge sensed it simultaneously:

Deep within the grove, in front of the thickest ancient bamboo trunk, a man in a cyan robe stood there, his expression wistful, fingers lightly tracing the patterns etched into the millennia-old bamboo.

Upon realizing his presence, both Xu Qingge and Cai Linʼs expressions shifted, they dared not act rashly.

Because from this robed man… they couldn’t sense a trace of spiritual power.

Were it not for his visible form, he might as well have been part of the air itself.

To achieve such concealment, this cyan-robed man had to be at least at the late Core Formation stage.

”That’s the purple-spined bamboo once planted by the ‘Ancestor Xuan’!”

A flash of insight lit up in Xu Qingge’s heart. She fixed her gaze on the mysterious man in the grove.

He stood tall and elegant, exuding the warmth of jade. Strands of silver-white hair fluttered in the wind, and an ancient, transcendent aura surrounded him. His deep, timeless eyes seemed to have traversed a thousand lifetimes.

Xu Qinggeʼs heart trembled inexplicably.

Never in her life had she seen a man of such extraordinary bearing, he looked like an immortal stepping out from a painting.

Lan Changʼan’s gaze finally drifted away from the ancient bamboo.

That very stalk… he had planted it in his previous life for his first wife.

Later, other wives and concubines had lived in this area as well.

Who knew how much time had passed, at least several centuries until it grew into today’s vast purple bamboo forest.

“Dare I ask, senior-” Xu Qingge’s lips were dry as she began to speak, but the man cut her off.

“Xu family girl, allow me to ask you something first.”

Lan Changʼan turned his eyes toward Xu Qingge and asked plainly,

“That ‘Ancestor Congfeng’ you mentioned earlier, who is he? What is his full name?”

“Replying to senior! Ancestor Congfeng is Xu Congfeng, also known among cultivators as True Monarch Congfeng.”

“Xu Congfeng?” Lan Changʼan’s expression showed a flicker of surprise.

After his death, had the Xu family actually produced a Nascent Soul cultivator?

But from the spiritual energy around the Xu Clan’s territory, it didn’t seem any better than when he was still alive.

The name Xu Congfeng rang no bells in his memory.

Of course, it was possible that a descendant born later had turned out to be a once-in-a-century genius.

“If Xu Congfeng is an ancestor of the Xu family, why doesn’t he reside here in the clan grounds?”

Lan Changʼan frowned slightly.

The territory still held a third-rank top-grade spiritual vein, no improvement from when he governed the family himself.

Without a fourth-rank spiritual vein, no Nascent Soul cultivator would permanently reside here.

“That… Ancestor Congfeng’s situation is a bit… complicated.” Xu Qingge looked troubled.

This matter involved a dark scandal from the Xu Clan’s past, unfit to be shared with outsiders.

“Xu Congfeng… was his original name Xu Xiaofeng?”

A flash of memory lit up in Lan Changʼan’s mind, a name emerging from the dusty corners of his past.

Xu Xiaofeng.

Xu Qingge’s expression darkened, but she didn’t deny it.

Ancestor Congfeng had lived for several centuries. Very few people even knew his birth name.

Those who did dared not speak it, it was taboo in the cultivation world to refer to a Nascent Soul elder by their given name!

As a Core Formation elder, Xu Qingge had seen the original family records and thus knew his original name.

Lan Changʼan didn’t need to calculate anything. Her reaction gave him the answer.

So it really was that ungrateful wretch!

Lan Changʼan gave a cold inner laugh, then asked:

“Xu Xiaofeng was once a rare earth-spirit root genius of the Xu clan. Why did he sever ties with the family, only to later become its honored ancestor?”

He recalled the past.

The Xu clan had once gone to great lengths to support this gifted child, sparing no expense to send Xu Xiaofeng to one of the Ten Great Sects of Great Kun, Riding Wind Sect.

Once admitted, Xu Xiaofeng took the clan’s support for granted. He later formed his core and became a disciple of a Nascent Soul elder.

After that, however, the family could no longer support him meaningfully.

Xu Xiaofeng began distancing himself, eventually cutting all ties.

Even when the Xu clan faced a major crisis and begged him for aid, he remained in seclusion, refusing even to meet with his kin.

Such cold-hearted betrayal…

And now, this very man had somehow become the first Nascent Soul cultivator in the Xu clan’s history!

...

“Ancestor Congfeng has lived for several centuries. Presumably, it was out of sentiment that he reconnected with our clan and officially returned to the family line.”

“A few years ago, the Ancestor took action and resolved a crisis for the Xu family.”

Xu Qingge realized that this robed man knew a great deal about the Xu family of Purple Thorn Mountain. His status and cultivation were hard to gauge, so she could only answer respectfully and play by the book.

“May I ask your name, Senior? Could it be that you share some ancestral ties with our Xu family?”

Xu Qingge bowed gracefully and inquired with deference.

“I am surnamed Xiang. I was a friend of the Xu clan’s Core Formation Immortal from long ago. Now that I’ve returned from distant lands, everything has changed.”

Lan Changʼan sighed.

Upon returning to Great Kun in this life, he did not use his former identity as Xu Xuan, lest he be exposed.

“I see…”

Xu Qingge seemed thoughtful, then promptly shifted to treating him with the respect due an elder:

“Senior, please take a seat. I was rude earlier, please forgive me. In a moment, I shall escort you to meet the clan leader.”

She showed exceptional courtesy, serving tea and moving gracefully back and forth, a fragrant breeze lingering in the air.

As the Xu family’s youngest Core Formation cultivator and a famed musical prodigy in the region, Xu Qingge had always been aloof and proud, her music lofty and seldom understood.

For her to treat a strange man with such humility today would be shocking to any outsider.

Cai Lin watched this unfold and couldn’t help feeling sour.

As a legitimate heir of the ancient Cai clan, he had fallen for Xu Qingge at first sight. After pestering his father and negotiating with Ancestor Congfeng, he finally secured a chance at marriage talks.

But Xu Qingge had always treated him coldly, barely giving him the time of day.

Now, seeing her respectfully hosting the robed man, who was also cultured, elegant, and knowledgeable they conversed easily, a perfect match in talent and charm. Neither spared him a glance.

Cai Lin was caught in an awkward limbo, neither able to stand nor sit.

As a pampered young master of an ancient clan, he had never suffered such humiliation. Rage simmered in his heart.

But the robed man’s cultivation was unfathomable, at least late Core Formation.

A wise man avoids immediate losses. Cai Lin swallowed his anger and refrained from acting rashly.

“Miss Qingge, so you are Shangyi’s great-granddaughter…”

After a brief exchange, Lan Changʼan sorted out Xu Qingge’s lineage from her bloodline.

“Senior Xiang, you knew my great-grandfather?”

Xu Qingge’s eyes lit up.

In just a few minutes of conversation, she had been utterly charmed by the robed man’s bearing and eloquence.

Even in the Dao of music, the senior had profound insights. A few words from him had enlightened her, like a sudden spark of inspiration.

She felt as if she had met a kindred spirit for the first time in her life.

“Yes. Though Xu Shangyi was only at the Foundation Establishment stage back then, I had a fair impression of him.”

Lan Changʼan nodded.

Xu Shangyi was his great-grandson!

Hmm?

Suddenly, Lan Changʼan felt something was off.

During their chat, he noticed the way Xu Qingge’s beautiful eyes shimmered when she looked at him, there was a trace of admiration, even fondness.

Ahem. That won’t do!

ʼBy lineage, you would be this True Monarch’s great-great…great-granddaughter!ʼ

Realizing this young woman was a many-generations-removed descendant of his past life, Lan Changʼan’s demeanor turned stern, shedding his earlier warmth.

He glanced coldly at the foppish Cai Lin and scolded:

“As a descendant of the Xu clan, you must maintain your purity and avoid associating with those of questionable character.”

Though his words were directed at Xu Qingge, to Cai Lin they sounded deeply insulting. His face flushed with shame and embarrassment.

“Yes, Senior!”

Xu Qingge was a bit stunned, instinctively replying.

Just moments ago, the senior had been graceful and elegant, a rare kindred soul.

But in the blink of an eye, he’d become like a rigid elder from her clan.

...

“Surname Xiang, you flaunt yourself in public and play tricks, fine I didn’t take offense. But to slander the noble Cai clan? That is a big mistake-”

Cai Lin could no longer hold back and shouted furiously.

Xu Qingge’s face changed, a flicker of worry in her eyes.

Cai Lin had just escalated a personal argument into a matter of family honor.

With the backing of an ancient clan, even a Nascent Soul cultivator had to tread carefully.

“Scram.”

Lan Changʼan didn’t even look at him. He just gave a cold snort.

Boom!

It was like thunder in Cai Lin’s ears. His spirit quaked violently.

His blood and spiritual power surged chaotically, as if a cosmic hand had slammed him into the earth like a writhing eel.

“No… Senior, spare me…”

Terrified, he struggled to resist but his mind went cold and numb, falling into an abyss of darkness.

A visceral sense of death overwhelmed him!

“An ancient noble family on its last legs with only remnants of its former foundation left, sooner or later, it will be completely ruined by degenerates like you.”

The disdainful voice seemed to come from a distant dimension.

Time passed.

Cai Lin awoke from the dark void to find himself lying in a pavilion within the purple bamboo grove, blood leaking from all seven orifices.

Xu Qingge and the mysterious robed man were both gone.

Panicked, he reached for the protective jade pendant on his chest.

All three crystals embedded in the pendant were dim and shattered.

Cai Lin’s heart trembled, cold sweat pouring down his back.

That pendant was said to block three full attacks from a Nascent Soul cultivator.

And yet, that robed man hadn’t even lifted a finger and all three had been spent in an instant!

...

Above Purple Thorn Mountain.

Xu Qingge piloted a delicate, azure-colored flying boat, ferrying Lan Changʼan toward the family stronghold.

Lan Changʼan stood on the deck, gazing down at the terrain of the Xu clanʼs ancestral lands, their contours still familiar.

As they passed over various landmarks, he occasionally felt a sense of warmth and nostalgia. But after several hundred years, not a single familiar face remained.

“Senior, aren’t you afraid of offending the Cai Clan?”

Xu Qingge formed hand seals as she steered the vessel, her movements graceful and light.

Lan Changʼan chuckled silently to himself.

This great-great… great-granddaughter of his was clearly trying to probe his level of strength.

To be fair, the Cai Clan as one of the Seven Great Clans of Great Kun was indeed a colossus that most Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn’t dare provoke.

In Great Kun’s cultivation world, clans and sects coexisted.

The Seven Great Clans and Ten Major Sects made up the most powerful forces in Great Kun.

Among them, the Great Clans had the deepest legacies.

Their many branches spread throughout Kun Province, influencing sects large and small through strategic marriages and bloodline ties.

The most dominant among them could rival the Great Yu imperial family.

That said, Great Kun was much like Great Qing, a typical provincial region.

In eras without a ruling Nascent Soul Great Cultivator, countless sects competed like a forest of peaks, and demonic forces ran rampant.

“Don’t worry, little girl!”

“Since you called me ‘Senior,’ for the sake of old friendship, I’ll ensure your marriage remains your own choice free from external meddling.”

Lan Changʼan stood with his hands behind his back, speaking in a lofty, elder’s tone.

“Thank you for upholding justice, Senior.”

Xu Qingge smiled sweetly, bowing once more.

Her eyes glimmered as she probed further:

“I forgot to ask earlier, which ancestor of the Xu Clan was your friend, Senior Xiang?”

Lan Changʼan looked at her but gave no reply, only smiling faintly.

“It must be the Ancestor Xuan!”

Xu Qingge thought for a moment, then guessed aloud.

“Oh? Why Xuan?” Lan Changʼan asked.

In his previous life, Lan Changʼan had been known as Xu Xuan. After his death, the Xu Clan posthumously honored him as “Ancestor Xuan.”

Xu Qingge straightened up, her expression reverent.

“Ancestor Xuan was the most pivotal Core Formation cultivator in Xu family history. He blazed a trail through hardship, transforming our humble family into an unprecedented powerhouse, one we’ve yet to surpass. Among our past ancestors, his strength and talent were second to none. He made many friends, braved forbidden realms, and greatly expanded our bloodline.”

Lan Changʼan listened with great enjoyment. His distant generation descendant’s heartfelt flattery was deeply satisfying.

...

“Qingge, what brings you here at this late hour and with an outsider?”

Near the ancestral shrine, a hoarse, elderly voice rang out.

At the shrine’s entrance, an old man in plain robes with a three-inch white beard leaned on a staff as he emerged.

“You are…”

The Xu Clan’s old patriarch, Xu Zhendong, saw the cyan-robed man beside Xu Qingge.

His expression froze, his murky eyes widening slightly.

He rubbed his eyes and studied the stranger’s figure. Though he didn’t recognize the face, something about the man’s aura and bearing felt eerily familiar.

“What is your relation to Xu An’nan?”

Lan Changʼan also felt a sense of familiarity from the elder, who bore a resemblance to the great-grandson he had once entrusted with the clan’s leadership in his past life.

“Xu An’nan was my grandfather,” the old patriarch replied.

He exchanged a glance with Xu Qingge.

Though they hadn’t used any spiritual transmission, a lifetime of experience gave him a rough idea.

Facing this enigmatic cyan-robed man, the patriarch dared not show any disrespect.

“May I ask Senior’s name?”

“This is Senior Xiang,” Xu Qingge quickly introduced. “He has ties to our Xu clan’s ancestors…”

After identifying the old patriarch, Lan Changʼan silently sized him up, this was his direct great-great… grandson!

“Would it be possible for me to enter the ancestral shrine and offer a stick of incense to an old friend?”

Lan Changʼan didn’t waste words. His aim was to enter the shrine to observe the Xu Clan’s history over the past few centuries and divine its future fortunes.

The patriarch shook his head. “By family law, the ancestral shrine is sacred ground. Outsiders are strictly forbidden.”

Lan Changʼan was momentarily taken aback. That was a rule he himself had helped draft.

The shrine honored the spirits of ancestors past, the core of the clan’s heritage.

On major holidays, the clan held rituals there.

“Truly not allowed?”

Lan Changʼan narrowed his eyes, his tone cooling.

A faint pressure of Nascent Soul might swept over, making the old patriarch breathe heavily, his back hunching further.

He gritted his teeth and said, “Still not allowed.”

“…Very well.”

Lan Changʼan shook his head and withdrew the pressure.

Just as the words left his mouth-

Whoosh!

The figure in cyan disappeared before the shrine gates.

“Not good, Patriarch! He’s forced his way into the shrine!” Xu Qingge cried.

Clan rules strictly forbade outsiders from entering.

“Which eye of yours saw him enter the shrine?” the patriarch responded calmly, not even lifting his eyelids.

“I… Senior Xiang was too fast. I didn’t actually see him enter.”

Xu Qingge thought for a moment, then pursed her lips in a smile.

The old patriarch retrieved a clan genealogy scroll, which recorded not only lineages but also portraits of important ancestors.

His finger paused on a refined middle-aged man in cyan robes.

“Ancestor Xuan,” Xu Qingge said at once.

He was the ancestor she most admired.

“Wait… that Senior Xiang from earlier wore the same cyan robes as Ancestor Xuan. But… their appearances are completely different.”

...

Xu Clan Ancestral Shrine.

Lan Changʼan walked with steady steps, gradually making his way deep into the temple hall.

The further he went, the slower his pace became.

From time to time, he would spot familiar names, and the faces of descendants from his past life would surface in his mind.

Finally, he arrived at the deepest part of the ancestral shrine.

On the highest and foremost row of ancestral tablets:

Ancestral Tablet of Immortal Xu Xuan, Ancestor of the Xu Clan.

Lan Changʼan saw the tablet bearing the title of the “Ancestor.” Behind it, etched into the wall, was an abstract portrait of an elderly man with white beard.

In cultivation families, ancestral shrines distinguish between immortal and mortal status.

This shrine, belonging to the cultivation lineage of the Xu clan, recorded only cultivators.

The order of placement was based on a combination of seniority, cultivation level, and contributions to the clan.

Thus, although Xu Xuan’s generation wasn’t the most senior, he was still placed in the front row.

His position was second only to the founding ancestor of the Xu clan and Ancestor Congfeng, who had ascended to the Nascent Soul stage.

Before Ancestor Congfeng’s return, Xu Xuan had been placed equally beside the founding ancestor, occupying the central position.

By convention, those who were still alive shouldn’t have ancestral tablets in the shrine.

“This ungrateful wretch! Still alive and already hogging the first place in the ancestral shrine!”

Lan Changʼan was furious. With a swing of his palm,

Bang!

Ancestor Congfeng’s tablet shattered, sending wisps of green smoke into the air.

“You insolent scum! How dare you destroy this seat’s feng shui tablet-”

From the drifting green smoke came a surge of True Monarch pressure and an echoing roar of rage.

Lan Changʼan stood with his hands behind his back, brows furrowed and eyes cold.

By generational reckoning, this ungrateful Ancestor Xu Congfeng was his great-great-grandson in his past life.

...

At the same time.

Riding Wind Sect, True Monarch’s Cave Residence.

At the center of a ritual platform surrounded by sixteen oil lamps, Xu Congfeng, gaunt hollow-eyed and robed in a dark green patterned robe suddenly opened his eyes. In his sunken sockets, a ghostly fire seemed to flicker ominously.

“Descendant of the Xu clan, audacious!”

Ancestor Congfeng was enraged, veins bulging on his forehead. The surrounding oil lamps flickered violently.

In his youth, he had joined the Riding Wind Sect and gradually distanced himself from his family, cutting ties.

Only by doing so had the sect truly accepted him as a core disciple.

Later, he climbed the ranks by marrying the granddaughter of a Nascent Soul elder.

Now a seasoned Nascent Soul True Monarch, he no longer needed to tread carefully and had re-established ties with the clan.

Partially for old times’ sake but also because after his advancement to the Nascent Soul stage, he felt his progress stall, as if his luck had run out.

A feng shui and divination master once advised him that severing ties with his bloodline had disrupted his destiny’s feng shui.

If he could receive offerings from his descendants, it might improve his fortunes.

In the cultivation world, it wasn’t unheard of for still-living Nascent Soul elders to place feng shui tablets in ancestral shrines for this reason.

“The marriage alliance with the Cai clan must be finalized soon! I’ll take a trip back to the clan and find out exactly which little animal…”