Page 128

"Still not awake?"

Chen Qing frowned deeply as he looked at Ali and the little white-haired girl, Zi Yue, sealed deep within the barrier.

The two beings were unclear whether they were feigning sleep or not, which made him wary of leaving rashly, and he even hesitated to allow Murong Yunji, who was standing guard outside, to come too close.

"If I’m not mistaken, the two of them have probably fallen into hibernation."

"Hibernation?" Chen Qing looked at the sky silently. Even if they had animal characteristics, it wasn’t the season suitable for hibernation.

"It should be a deep sleep," Murong Yunji explained. "When I was very young, before I had mastered my power, I often fell into this kind of coma. That white-haired girl’s current mental state is just like I was back then: a child in control of a power that shouldn’t belong to her."

"It shouldn’t be..." Chen Qing curiously said, "Didn’t Wang Ye mention that Zi Yue is a well-known figure?"

"I also think it’s odd..." Murong Yunji stroked her chin. "I’ve heard of Zi Yue’s reputation too. Even the Old Ancestor Shen would be wary of her, it can’t be that she would end up like this just because of one of your tricks."

"Right?" Chen Qing hesitated for a moment.

"And that infant, don’t you think she’s growing somewhat quickly?" Murong Yunji looked toward the toddler crawling around haphazardly nearby.

In just one day, the little girl had grown to the size of an average one-year-old child, and she was crawling around with much enthusiasm.

Chen Qing frowned in the face of this bizarre child. The Mirror Demon could only tell that her fate was extraordinary and that she carried the Golden Crow Bloodline and the Thousand-Faced Fox Bloodline, but it was not yet determined whether she would inherit one or eventually both of these.

As for whether she was like the King of Qin...

Chen Qing had tried by reciting pi to her, after the first 3.14, one hundred additional digits, and the little girl just looked silly as if she could not understand...

"I can’t stay here forever, I need to step out for a bit," Chen Qing said, looking at her. "I’ll have to trouble you to look after things here."

"You sure trust me quite a bit," Murong Yunji said, her smile bordering on a sneer. "Don’t forget, your people are still holding my two sons in prison."

"Do you care about them much?" Chen Qing was curious.

"What a thing to ask..." Murong Yunji said lazily as she sat down. "No matter what, they are my own flesh and blood."

Chen Qing curled his lips: "You’ve already paid the ransom, and you didn’t come to collect them, what does that have to do with me?"

"With all that chaos outside, better let them stay in prison," Murong Yunji laughed. "So they won’t come out and spoil mother’s plans."

Chen Qing rolled his eyes skyward. What plans could she mean—searching all over for that grown-up Ghost Doll? Or enticing Xuu Hu, that man? Lately, Xuu Hu’s wife hadn’t stopped complaining to him.

"I trust you because I understand what you want."

"Oh?" Murong Yunji said amusingly. "What do you think I want, my lord?"

"You want to break away from the Shen Family!"

Murong Yunji: "...."

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"On the first day you rushed into Lyuzhou, you should have felt it.

.. The thing I control is far from a mere technique!

" Chen Qing said with a smile to Murong Yunji.

"You, with demon blood running through your veins, are the most likely to see through it. So why didn’t you tell Second Elder Shen?

Why did you let him believe all this time that what I have is a kind of magic technique? "

"You’ve already drifted apart from the Shen Family, haven’t you?" Chen Qing smiled. "I guess I’m not wrong, the Shen Family’s eldest... his death wasn’t natural, was it?"

Murong Yunji abruptly stood up, staring intently at Chen Qing, who met her gaze without wavering, with a smile.

"You seem to know quite a bit. What more do you know?" Murong Yunji sneered.

"I also know..." Chen Qing lowered his voice. "That so-called Old Ancestor Shen is actually among the twelve rooms of the Shen Family... No, he is actually one of the twelve!"

Murong Yunji: "....."

---------------------------------

"The Dragon Transformation Technique?"

Meanwhile, Wang Ye’s boat arrived at Nanyang City on the second day!

At that moment, aboard the boat, Wang Ye was pondering over the information provided by Chen Qing.

Truth be told, he was shocked the first time he heard about the so-called Dragon Transformation Technique.

In the Yin Yang Academy, he had come across many strange cases of sorcerers pursuing immortal life, but like what Chen Qing mentioned, it was his first encounter.

And not long ago, he had it confirmed from Shen Yinian’s own mouth!

The so-called Dragon Transformation Technique... in fact, is a technique that uses a relative’s bloodline to achieve rebirth as a dragon!

Dragons have nine offspring, each different, but all have the chance to transform into a dragon!

The successful one will merge with the Old Ancestor Shen, extending his life by three hundred years!

What does this mean?

It means that with each generation of the Shen Family, one child will transform into a dragon, thereby extending the life of the Old Ancestor Shen by three hundred years!

Yes, the Shen Family... it’s not only this generation.

Many people should find this peculiar. The Old Ancestor Shen is said to be a thousand years old, a rare monster in the world. So why is his oldest child only three hundred years old?

In ancient times, people got married around the age of twenty; it’s impossible to suggest that the Old Ancestor Shen only started thinking about having children three hundred years ago.

The Old Ancestor of the Shen Family founded the Shen Family a thousand years ago. What about his previous descendants? Why are they unknown?

The limit of a magician is three hundred, which is a universally accepted constant in the Sorcerers’ Realm; few can defy it, but could Old Ancestor Shen actually break this law?

Why is this?

This point, not even detailed in the intelligence files of the Yin Yang Academy, because no one knows how Old Ancestor Shen managed it.

If they did, the various families would have emulated it long ago, after all, that’s a means to extend one’s lifespan—what power player in the world wouldn’t want it?

But the intelligence unknown to the Yin Yang Academy was known to Chen Qing, and through Chen Qing’s intelligence, Wang Ye learned the secret of this so-called Dragon Transformation of the Shen Family!

First, Chen Qing said that the direct lineage of the Shen Family didn’t start from now but should have existed a thousand years ago, meaning that before the generation of Shen Yinian, the direct lineage of the Shen Family should have spanned three generations already!

This was confirmed by Shen Yinian...

According to Shen Yinian, it was true that the Shen Family had a concept of a direct house a thousand years ago.

Recalling some of the elders’ memories, the Shen Family once, like now, picked excellent descendants of techniques to establish the direct house, nine houses per generation, with each child growing up to master different techniques, and ultimately one of them would achieve Dragon Transformation and merge with Old Ancestor Shen, extending the lifespan of the Shen Family totem by three hundred years.

Thereafter, the remaining houses would be stripped of the title of direct lineage, and the leading family head would vanish without a trace.

Then, Old Ancestor Shen would remarry into another powerful family, produce more talented magician descendants, and select the most capable to become the new direct house...

Old Ancestor Shen lived a thousand years by such means!

And this method also persisted in the Shen Family for three generations...

This statement sounded absurdly ridiculous, and Wang Ye once curiously asked Chen Qing, "Could it be that Old Ancestor Shen consumed this so-called dragon-transformed child?"

Chen Qing’s answer was body swapping, a changing of the old and new.

Whether the person who underwent Dragon Transformation became the new Old Ancestor Shen or if the one from the very beginning had always been Old Ancestor Shen was uncertain.

However, one thing was for sure—as long as the fusion was successful, this method could prolong life by three hundred years!

As for who ultimately was Old Ancestor Shen, and whether there was any switch along the way, it was something outsiders could never know!

So... according to Chen Qing’s intelligence, the title of Old Ancestor Shen within the Shen Family was just a code name; it might indeed represent an ancestor who lived for a thousand years, or it may have been replaced several times.

But this wasn’t important—the key was that as long as the Shen Family’s totem survived, no one would dare to provocation the Shen Family!

Why is this matter related to the murders in Lyuzhou?

This also involves the secret of Dragon Transformation.

This generation, an accident occurred in the Shen Family; no one achieved Dragon Transformation yet. The head of the leading house died mysteriously, and the addition of a third house to the direct lineage broke the Shen Family’s nine-house rule!

Chen Qing thought this was abnormal, signifying an unexpected event in the normal Dragon Transformation.

He speculated that the death of the head of the leading house was highly abnormal and even suspected that the current Old Ancestor Shen was hidden among the younger generation!

This speculation also gave Wang Ye a sense of eeriness and peculiarity—did it mean that the legendary Old Ancestor Shen was hiding among this generation of the Shen Family’s descendants?

According to the latest conjectures, Ninth Elder Shen had a significant likelihood of being involved.

And if that were the case, the possibility of someone capable of killing Second Elder Shen would present itself...

Firstly, Ninth Elder Shen could lower Second Elder Shen’s guard, and secondly... if Ninth Elder Shen was Old Ancestor Shen, then he would have the capability to instantly kill Second Elder Shen—it wouldn’t be surprising....

Nevertheless, there were still doubts.

Ninth Elder Shen’s previous behavior was too unlike that of a significant figure, and moreover, if he was the ancestor, why would he intentionally allow himself to be bitten, to contract that corpse poison?

There were rumors that Old Ancestor Shen had earlier traveled to the West Sea—could the monster in this recent fog have been led there by that ancestor?

Are these matters related?

All this was something Chen Qing couldn’t explain at this time, which is why he asked Wang Ye to investigate some matters in the Shen Family...

"Truly interesting indeed..." Holding Shen Yinian’s token, Wang Ye felt this trip would be fascinating.

His master was right—there really are countless intriguing things in this world...

Chen Qing’s information is interesting, and so is that of Chief of Staff, the Shen Family’s Fifth Master: Shen Yinian!

When faced with Chen Qing’s conjectures, Shen Yinian outright denied them!

He agreed that the idea of Old Ancestor Shen hiding among the younger generation was plausible, as the death of the eldest brother had made them aware of such matters. Hence, for years, each house head of the Shen Family harbored their own schemes, calculating against each other in the shadows.

After all, everyone wanted to be the one to undergo Dragon Transformation, everyone... wanted to live an extra three hundred years!

And to achieve this, one not only had to undergo Dragon Transformation but also be able to kill the previous generation’s ancestor who might at any time plot to seize their bodies!

According to Shen Yinian, Ninth Elder Shen absolutely couldn’t be Old Ancestor Shen!

Old Ancestor Shen was someone else!

As for who that might be, he was unsure, but he agreed to Wang Ye’s investigation in the Shen Family, with the caveat that everyone except the clan leader, Old Liu, was not to be trusted!

This made Wang Ye find the matter even more interesting.

Chen Qing had hidden things from him, and so had Shen Yinian.

Whose words could be trusted?

Was there a connection between the West Sea fog incident and the Shen Family’s Dragon Transformation event?

If Ninth Elder Shen was not Old Ancestor Shen, on what basis could he have killed Second Elder Shen?

What is the true nature of it all?

Wang Ye felt that this trip to the Shen Family would likely be even more interesting than the last investigation of the Thousand-Faced Fox....