“The patriarch died!” Ming Ren wept in sorrow.
Cultivators often lost ties to mundane problems and relations after growing old and weary, only using their clan to gather resources. So what if a few juniors died? So what if the clan disappeared? As long as the old cultivator lived he could create it all again.
Yet the bright patriarch was different. When his son died, his grandson led in his stead. When his grandson died, none of his great-grandsons were ready. None of the older generations could bring them to further glory. He assumed responsibility again and bet everything on Ming Ren’s generation.
The Bright Clan survived for so long because of the patriarch. He had an upright moral character and cared about tradition and family.
Yun Lin Xue knew neither the White Clan nor the Cloud Clan took in part in the ambush. They wanted the scripture but were not willing to ambush the juniors and the bright clan’s patriarch.
Yun Jie and the white clan’s patriarch respected him and the history of his clan. Distancing themselves from him was one thing. Taking his life? A different matter. The Bright Clan was already done for, the other clans could take what they wanted with little cost.
Cultivators who lived a long time built friendship in many places. Old clans had marriage connections and favors to collect. Wiping out an entire clan in the open could bring as much unwanted trouble as leaving their roots.
Yun Jie mentioned to Yun Lin Xue he suspected at least three Spirit Gate cultivators took part in the ambush as they wouldn’t be able to prevent the bright patriarch from running away otherwise.
“Two should be from the Silver Clan. The last one, either the Sunflower Pavilion or…” Ming Ren burned with anger. He would not forget this enmity.
After the patriarch’s death, the Silver Clan attacked under the pretext of rebellion. Yun Shufen came back from the Royal Academy during the attack.
Lin Xue didn’t know how his sister learned about it in advance and made her way back in time. His father was furious. As soon as he heard Shufen went to the Bright Clan, he mustered their forces and followed, calling even their two Spirit Gate cultivators to help.
Shufen made trouble straight away, killing Silver Clan members left and right. In the junior generation, even most seniors, who could be her match?
by that time, at the third layer of the Spirit Sea Realm, she fought with anyone below Spirit Gate Realm as long as they weren’t Heaven’s Chosen talents.
And she didn’t come alone. The Royal Academy would not leave such talent unprotected. The Spirit Gate cultivators didn’t interfere with her for fear of drawing a sect destroying disaster.
Yun Shuqing told Ming Ren before that Shufen saved him then. Not only him but everyone remaining in the Bright Clan. If not for her, the clan would be wiped out instead of expelled.
The conflict almost didn’t end there as people from the Sunflower Pavilion meddled and wanted to continue the purge. Bai Xun also returned and brought the White Clan with him, so there was no way the fight could go on without all-out hostilities.
The surviving members of the Bright Clan fled but without most of the elders and the patriarch, could it even be called a clan anymore?
They never found the Bright Scripture, which didn’t surprise Min Ren. It was almost impossible to discern from a common scripture. Only the patriarch knew the activation chant and some of its secrets. A fake scripture would look just as real as the original.
Ming Ren sighed in relief since Shufen and Bai Xun stopped them in time and his mother wasn’t there. After that, the elders of the Cloud Clan objected to bringing him here but Shufen didn’t care. They didn’t have the power to change her mind.
“Did the Cloud Clan find anything about the surviving members of my clan?” They wouldn’t have given up on the scripture, and someone from the clan carried or knew where it was.
Shufen’s appearance messed up the plans from the Cloud and White clans. It would be easier to find the treasure with the Bright Clan destroyed.
Yun Lin Xue hesitated, “Someone put a bounty on them…”
Lin Xue hesitated because the Cloud Clan also put a bounty. He couldn’t lie in the Mind Breaking Purple Could art. They were inside his mind after all.
“You bastards… Good, good!” Ming Ren’s fury reached its peak. Expelling my Clan from the country? Trying to wipe them out? Hunting my family members? How brave of you all!
“Wait, wait, we didn’t kill anyone, we only wanted information on the treasure!” Lin Xue saw Ming Ren’s expression and feared for his mind.
Yun Lin Xue’s mouth stitched together as soon as he finished talking, the same happening to his eyes. There was no pain, but it frightened him completely.
‘I need to search for them, protect anyone who survived. Brother Ming Qiu, Little Lan, elders, mother… I need power! Power to find them, to kill all those bastards from the Silver Clan!’
Ming Ren thought about the demon in his dreams, and his anger subsided. Something warned him not to lose himself at all costs.
‘Father didn’t come back. Did something happen to him? Is that why Mother left? …Wait, Mother could be at the Jade Clan!’
His mother descended from the Jade Clan of the River Province. They never talked about her status, life experiences, or how she came to marry into the Bright Clan, yet even the patriarch treated her with respect. That would be the best place to start without better clues.
Ming Ren once went to the Jade Clan as a four-year-old, but couldn’t remember much. The River Province was far from the Cloud Province and the journey full of perils.
For now, he had to escape from the Cloud Clan. His right hand rested at the chin as he thought about the possibilities.
His true body was still bound. He could get out activating the [Divine Light Dragon Body] but not without a lot of noise. He should be able to avoid everyone and make it out of the clan using spiritual sense unless he was unlucky enough to meet one of the two Spirit Gate Cultivators.
Brute force was not an option. The other option…
When Shufen taught him the [Mind Breaking Purple Cloud] art, he also learned the [Mind Controlling Purple Cloud] art. Ming Ren could temporarily take control of Lin Xue’s body, but what after?
A thought hit his mind: the mind enhancing formation in the room.
Ming Ren smiled widely. Lin Xue needed hand seals to activate his mind techniques, but Ming Ren only needed thought inside this illusory space. Lin Xue’s mind was already open to him, so he took control with ease.
Back to reality, a dazed Lin Xue took down Ming Ren’s shackles, his eyes pure white as if clouded. Down on the ground, Ming Ren extended his spiritual sense and analyzed the mind enhancing formation. It was only a middle-grade earth rank Spirit Sea formation, so he discovered its mysteries with ease.
This somewhat simple formation drew strength from the main formation in the Cloud Clan, the [Purple Clouds Defensive Array]. The defensive array surprised him because it was an earth rank Spirit Gate formation!
The Cloud Clan had a bigger background than he thought. This formation could resist middle stage Spirit Gate cultivators. The Bright Clan defensive formation only resisted up to the Spirit Sea Realm peak.
And it wasn’t the only formation inside the clan, as they also arranged other formations such as spirit gathering, to improve the quality of cultivation.
Ming Ren found something else, a peak Spirit Sea Realm formation called [Purple Cloud Dreamland]. A powerful illusionary array technique that sent enemy attackers into a state of constant dreaming, unable to differentiate between reality and illusion. It could affect cultivators at the peak of the Spirit Sea Realm.
Most people saw formations as incomprehensible but they had rules. Good formation masters hid and protected their mechanisms. The master decided the activation method, range, effect, power, and control before choosing the formation and where to arrange it.
Ming Ren probed the formation with care so as not to set off any hidden traps. At this level, few of them could give him trouble. The [Purple Cloud Dreamland] activation method had long changed to the Cloud Clan’s direct lineage. Only the patriarch, ancestors, highest elders, and top talents had access to it. Fortunately for Ming Ren, Yun Lin Xue was one of them.
It might seem stupid to let anyone other than the patriarch activate such a powerful formation, considered the last line of defense of the clan. But if the attackers made it that far, and only the patriarch could activate it, perhaps they wouldn’t have the chance to activate it at all.
Lin Xue could activate the formation but his cultivation was only at the fourth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm, far from capable of displaying its true might. The range of the formation encompassed the entire Cloud Clan. It could affect everyone, but spreading the effects might not be enough to handle someone half-step into the Spirit Gate Realm such as Yun Jie.
Ming Ren bypassed the restrictions and changed the target from attackers to the entire Cloud Clan.
The ones at the Spirit Gate should be in secluded cultivation in their own rooms or caves. As long as Ming Ren avoided affecting them directly it would take time for them to notice. The formation needed no control after activation, but the Cloud Clan specialized in formations and mind attacks, so it would take them less time to break free.
That’s where the mind enhancing formation came in. Unlike the other formations already connected to the Cloud Clan’s bloodline, they set up the mind enhancing formation recently to work as an interrogation room. The creator didn’t care enough about restrictions, protections, or traps.
Ming Ren controlled Yun Lin Xue and activated the mind enhancing formation at full power, borrowing strength from the Purple Clouds Defensive Array to overcharge it.
It wasn’t safe, but why would Ming Ren care?
He didn’t wish to destroy the Cloud Clan because of Shufen, the same reason he didn’t cripple Lin Xue’s mind. But without other choices, he could only use this method. Lin Xue could only blame himself if something happened.
“Still not enough…” Ming Ren frowned as the formation didn’t reach the power needed to overcome Yun Jie and the others.
Yun Lin Xue’s bloodline ignited with some life essence as fuel, and he activated the Purple Cloud Dreamland, focusing on Yun Jie first. With perfect activation, only those around him could feel the formation’s power. He aimed at Yun Jie first because…
…he knew his weakness!
A cultivator’s weakness exposed to a mind attack was his doom.
*
Yun Jie walked around the Cloud Clan with a smug grin on his face. He recently surpassed his genius daughter and became the first peak Spirit Gate cultivator of the Cloud Clan, opening all gates, each one extremely terrifying. His Cloud Clan became the overlord of the Cloud Province and ruled the Soaring Country from behind the scenes.
Incomparable glory!
Even his ancestors would acknowledge he was the greatest.
As he rejoiced, one servant announced his talented daughters. The number of proposals each year reached the Heavens!
Of course, he rejected them all.
“Esteemed Father!” Both daughters graciously kowtowed.
“Hahaha, my daughters, have you been well?” Happiness engulfed Yun Jie.
Shufen smiled, “Yes, father!”
She had the brightest smile in the world. Yun Jie thought this was true happiness…
…Until his face twisted as he saw that young man come over.
“Father, this is our lover, Ming Ren!” Shufen said while grabbing him by the arm, while Shuqing immediately did the same.
Yun Jie nearly died on the spot. Lover? …Not even their husband? Could they be concubines, not wives? Both of them?
NO!
NEVER!
OVER HIS DEAD BODY!
Yun Jie wanted to protest. His face twisted in the worst way but he suddenly felt so small and powerless and no sound came out. Ming Ren enjoyed each day being taken care of and taking care of his daughters inside his own Cloud Clan, like an emperor.
It was hell!