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"Father, Uncle..."

In an old mansion in Lyuzhou, the entire Liu Family awaited the return of the protagonist, young and old alike, including many young descendants who had already become decadent.

Liu Xie was also very excited at this moment, a tremendous surprise that he needed to share with those whom he most desired recognition from.

"Very good, very good!"

Before anything else could be said, the middle-aged man sitting in the hall could not contain himself and stood up, moving forward to support the child who had once been driven out.

"Well done... well done..."

"Father..." Liu Xie’s eyes brimmed with tears, the words he had prepared to say suddenly stuck in his throat.

"It’s all right, I know everything, I know..." The middle-aged man, seeing his excited son, did not chide him for lacking manliness or for crying so easily this time. Crying tears of joy in such a moment was something anyone might do.

"Ahem..." The family head, his elder uncle, cleared his throat and said with happiness, "This time, Liu Xie has brought glory to our family’s name. You must not slack off. Remember, the teachings you received were not in vain, the years we’ve toiled over our studies were not useless. As long as you work hard and diligently, opportunities abound in today’s Jiangnan, and there will always come a day when you will rise. "

A group of young people who had given up on themselves suddenly blushed with shame and paid their respects, "Elder Uncle is right, we were the ones who were mistaken..."

The group of elders nodded in satisfaction.

Most of them were well-versed in literature, but it was clear that these old fellows could no longer keep up with the times in Jiangnan.

However, their children still had chances.

Liu Xie had made a great start; even if one’s talent in science and engineering wasn’t outstanding, one could still carve out a niche as Liu Xie had done, taking a different path to success.

Of course, what came next was key.

"Child... which underworld bureau are you in charge of now?" asked an uncle from the family, unable to contain his curiosity.

"It’s Lumings County," Liu Xie quickly replied.

"Because my political achievements are all in Lumings County, after today’s promotion, my reputation as an official there will be excellent.

Mr. Wei Gongcheng has given me ten days to take care of family matters.

After ten days, your nephew will be taking charge of the city god of Lumings County. "

"Is that so..." A few clan uncles looked at each other, seemingly uncertain about how to broach a certain subject. Liu Xie noticed it, and with the skill he had developed over the years in reading people’s expressions, immediately understood what the uncles were thinking, and said, "Mr. Wei said that the lord of an underworld bureau can recruit five civil and martial judges and a number of clerks for the six departments, structured to manage state affairs similar to those in the county.

The uncles have studied the classics of governance and will surely be able to help your nephew manage the underworld. .."

"This..." Several elders of the Wei Family suddenly flushed with excitement upon hearing this.

The leading elder uncle spoke up, "It’s not that we do not want to help you, nephew, but taking up a position in the underworld.

.. would that require us... to give up our physical bodies in the world of the living? "

"Not at all..." Liu Xie hurriedly explained, "When serving in the position, you simply need to keep your body safely at home, and your spirit will go to the underworld to work.

Serving in the underworld allows one to accumulate Virtue Power in advance, extend Yin-life longevity, and secure a better reincarnation for the next life. .."

One by one, the conditions were spoken, making the group of elders even more flushed with excitement.

At their age, they had mainly given up hope, but the system of the underworld gave them a renewed determination...

The cycle of reincarnation is beyond one’s control, but it is said that the deeper the Virtue Power, the better the fate in reincarnation, and the better the foundation for the next life.

Since their current lives had already reached a low point, an opportunity to accumulate for the next life was naturally exciting!

"In that case... we will depart with you tomorrow. We’ll start by getting settled in Lumings County and familiarize ourselves with the state affairs," they decided.

"Thank you, uncles..."

"You child, it’s clearly you who are seeking benefits for us, so why be so modest?" Liu Xie’s father finally spoke up.

The other uncles quickly laughed and said, "We owe it to Wenlong’s capable child. Otherwise, we old men would really just be wasting our lives away."

Upon hearing this, Liu Wenlong’s countenance finally improved.

The younger generation sat to the side, unable to join the conversation, and for a time, they grew anxious.

Noticing the expressions of his cousins, Liu Xie took the initiative to speak up, "As the younger cousins are still of tender age, I suggest it would be best for them to remain in Lyuzhou to pursue their studies. Lyuzhou’s academies are far superior to those in Lumings County.

If you cousins can seize the opportunity to enter academia, strive to do so.

If you are able to become a respected Magician, that would naturally be the best. If not, you could join the newly established School of Political and Legal Studies, capitalizing on our family’s previously arduous study of classics and law.

In the future, if you become officials, there is a chance to become a local City God, blessing three generations. .."

Hearing this, a group of young cousins looked at one another, all seemingly hesitant for a moment.

They were indeed tempted to follow Liu Xie back to Lumings County to serve, as it was said that clerks in the underworld could earn a hundred or two hundred years of life in the underworld, and their status was extremely high.

Several elder scholars in Lyuzhou were involved in this work, and they were respected both inside and out.

But as the other party had said, they were still young. If they were to serve in the underworld now, they would have practically reached the pinnacle of their lives...

Seeing everyone’s silence, it was Liu Wenlong who spoke, "This way, we won’t make decisions for you now.

How you want to proceed in the future is entirely up to you to choose.

If you wish to continue trying in Lyuzhou, the family will support you wholeheartedly, selling off all of our Lyuzhou family assets to fund your education.

If you want to follow Liu Xie back to Lumings County to serve in the underworld, that is also up to you.

We will embark on our journey tomorrow, and now, we shall give you the time it takes an incense stick to burn to consider. .."

The youngsters looked at each other, their breathing quickened, and a look of struggle appeared on their faces for a moment.

Liu Wenlong looked towards Liu Xie’s eldest uncle, "Big brother, are our daughters coming with us to Lumings County or staying in Lyuzhou?"

"We’ll take them with us," the eldest uncle said. "Our Liu Family has fallen. Even if we stayed in Lyuzhou, we can never form advantageous marital alliances..."

Liu Wenlong lowered his head upon hearing this.

Lyuzhou’s new elites were the families of the Warrior Army and the academia’s Sorcerer Families.

Whether it was one or the other, neither would look too highly upon their Liu Family.

Liu Xie, serving as the City God in Lumings County, might find the local Warrior Army more willing to form marriage alliances with the Liu family since the Warrior Army enjoyed exceedingly good benefits after death; and if there’s care from various City Gods as relations, it would be even more effective.

As to why there was a preference for daughters to marry into the Warrior Army, it was due to the current situation.

The Warrior Army had extremely high familial benefits, and even if they died in battle, the daughters would be entitled to lifelong preferential treatment, which was much more beneficial than the traditional Scholarly Families.

As for the Sorcerer Families... they were too few in number, and the Liu Family did not harbor excessive hopes.

After making their decisions, they each returned to inform their families. When dinner time came and the family gathered again, the younger members also made their choices.

Most chose to stay, a decision that pleased both Liu Wenlong and the Liu Family’s eldest uncle. Youth should possess the pride of youth. Was it proper for them to consider lying low in some insignificant place so young in age?

If Liu Xie could succeed, why couldn’t they?

Naturally, they hoped to see several outstanding members emerge from their family.

But what the family could not see was that outside their home, there were already four or five spirits standing, pondering something...

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The Festival of the Against-Spirits lasted only one day, and by the second day’s chen hour, all spirits must return to the underworld and were not permitted to flee on their own, or they would face severe punishment.

For some people who had just arrived in this world, this one day was their window of opportunity to choose.

Yes... Chen Qing had granted everyone the right to choose their birth families. Of course, one couldn’t choose families deeply entwined with their own powers, like the Shen Family. They could only select from relatively favorable family environments, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Choosing a family with better conditions meant a smaller blessing of Virtue Power from Chen Qing, which implied a lesser fortune and inborn talent after birth.

If one chose a less fortunate family background, then Chen Qing would bestow more Virtue Power, allowing them to have better talent and fortune post-birth. The choice was laid out from the start, causing many newcomers from the Federation to rush about all night, choosing.

Among them, those most in a dilemma were the players who had descended from the Western Camp.

Because once reincarnated, they would lose the white skin color they took pride in and their perceived noble Western lineage, and could only become a member of the Yellow Race with Central Plains features.

This was something that many found unbearable...

Faced with these conflicted individuals, Chen Qing offered them two choices!!