"Big Brother." A crisp female voice came from behind Lu Sheng. Someone seemed to be calling him.
"Big Brother."
Another voice came from behind him.
Lu Sheng turned around and saw two people walking briskly towards him from behind. One of them was a man about fifteen or sixteen years of age with delicate features. His eyes still contained traces of naivety and rebelliousness. He was dressed in a set of white warrior robes. Despite his young age, he had a heroic bearing.
The other was a girl. She was slightly younger, about fourteen years old. Her hair reached her waist, and her eyes were watery. She had a pitiful temperament.
"Little Quan and Zhenling." There were two people in Lu Sheng's memory — Lu Quan and Lu Zhenling. They were his closest biological siblings in name.
"Big Brother, you're here to see the ancestral hall again," Lu Quan said loudly. "What's so good about the ancestral hall? Our ancestor liked peace and quiet when he was alive. Do you want people to come and see it every day when he's dead? Why don't we go spar, Big Brother? "
"What are you talking about?" Lu Zhenling patted Lu Quan's head helplessly. "Big Brother hasn't recovered yet, and you're already asking to spar? You haven't lost enough, have you?"
"You can't say that …" Lu Sheng smiled. He displayed Lu Chong's usual gentle smile.
His two younger siblings were not of the same bloodline as him. They were all his biological parents.
"Maybe one day, he'll suddenly have the ability to beat me." Lu Sheng reached out and patted Lu Quan's head.
The two siblings began to ask him about the techniques of their family's martial arts.
The Lu Family of Purple Smoke Villa had always passed down a simple martial art called the Upper Forest Sword Style. Lu Chong, on the other hand, was extremely familiar with this sword technique. However, most of the moves in this sword technique were not meant for combat, but for ceremonial purposes.
After Lu Sheng answered all of them carefully, he watched his siblings leave happily. Someone approached him and reminded him in a low voice.
"Young Master, the master wants you to go to Liancao Hall."
"Got it." Lu Sheng nodded. His body had just recovered a little and he could stand up, but he was immediately faced with a series of things to deal with.
He waited until his younger brother and sister were far away before he moved. He walked along the winding corridors of the manor and soon stopped in front of a dark, damp, and strange house with a heavy atmosphere.
The door to the house was wide open, and a middle-aged man with a solemn expression and a serious temperament was standing quietly inside. The man was handsome, and it could be seen that he was a rare beauty when he was young. He was dressed in a light gray outfit that was simple and capable, yet did not lose its solemnity and exquisiteness.
As soon as Lu Sheng arrived, the man spoke in a deep voice.
"Zhong 'er? Come in. "
"Yes," replied Lu Sheng with his head lowered. He did exactly as Lu Chong did.
Before he had a clear understanding of his surroundings, he had no intention of breaking through Lu Chong's disguise.
The middle-aged man, Lu Dangfeng, was the current master of the Purple Smoke Manor. At this moment, he was also looking at this son in front of him with complicated emotions.
A while ago, during the ceremony, this eldest son of his was suddenly not accepted by the Protectors due to some special reasons. Instead, he was kicked out of the ceremony because he let his imagination run wild and was rude to the Protectors. He was also heavily injured because of that.
Now, it seemed that although his injuries had mostly healed, it was still very difficult for him to pass the ceremony and inherit the position of master.
"Does it still hurt?" Lu Dangfeng looked at the respectful eldest son in front of him, and his heart finally softened as he asked softly.
"Father, no," replied Lu Sheng in a low voice.
"Don't blame me. You will understand in the future. Our Purple Smoke Manor has always had this tradition. We communicate with the Protectors, perform sacrifices and ceremonies for them, and protect the powerful seal underground. This is what we must do. " Lu Dangfeng's lips moved slightly. His voice was a little low and unclear, as if he was talking to himself, but also as if he was just murmuring.
"Your younger brother and sister all have their own corresponding Protectors. If you can't be recognized by the Protectors, you might not be able to inherit the thousand-year tradition of the manor," Lu Dangfeng said helplessly.
"I understand." Lu Sheng also knew about the Protectors from Lu Chong's memories.
His father, Lu Dangfeng, would often say things that he didn't understand, such as Protectors, Protector spirits, evil seals, protection for a thousand years, and so on.
However, Lu Chong had heard all these things since he was young, but he had never seen anything special that was out of his imagination.
Thus, he had long since stopped caring.
"There's another ceremony in the afternoon. Come with me," Lu Dangfeng continued.
"Yes." Lu Sheng nodded. He was also quite curious about this strange ceremony, and what it was for.
"Alright, go and prepare." Lu Dangfeng waved his hand.
Only then did Lu Sheng slowly exit the dark and damp inner hall, and go back the way he came.
On his way back, he accidentally passed by a group of servants and soldiers who were training. Standing in the corridor, he could see a group of about twenty people running around the drill ground on his left.
"Blades!"
The leading family guard suddenly yelled.
"Swish!"
Instantly, all 20 of them slashed forward with their blades. Their movements were swift and murderous.
The silver blades reflected a bright light under the sunlight.
"Shields!"
The family guard yelled again.
Immediately, all the family guards sheathed their blades and turned around. They held their shields in front of them with their other arm, covering their heads and most of their upper bodies.
'Not bad.' Lu Sheng nodded in his mind. With this kind of speed, even in the Great Yin, they would be considered elite soldiers.
After looking away, Lu Sheng didn't stop, and went straight back to his own courtyard to rest.
After lunch, he drank some medicinal porridge to replenish his Qi and blood. Lu Sheng was arranged to take a bath, cleanse himself, and burn incense to calm his mind. Then, under the guidance of two cold-looking servants in red skirts, he returned to the Liancao Hall where he met his father, Lu Dangfeng.
This time, Lu Dangfeng wasn't the only one standing in the Liancao Hall. There were also five old, gloomy, and lifeless elders.
The five elders sat in a fan shape in the hall, with Lu Dangfeng sitting in the middle. The floor of the room was covered in a large circle of messy symbols and patterns. It looked like a child's random graffiti. It also seemed like there was some sort of pattern or distortion hidden within.
The patterns were blood-colored, deeply carved into the floor, and emanated a mysterious and cold aura.
Lu Sheng was led to a black stone seat. Like everyone else, he sat at the edge of the patterns on the floor.
Then, the two girls in red skirts who led him in slowly walked to the center of the formation.
"Ah!!!"
In an instant, there was a scream. One of the girls suddenly screamed with an indescribable fanaticism in her expression, while the other girl started to spread her arms and perform some sort of mysterious dance.
Her dance was a bit like a puppet's, but her eyes were fanatical, and her mouth occasionally emitted hissing noises that sounded like insects and snakes.
The screams continuously fluctuated in pitch, and even seemed to have some sort of indescribable rhythm.
The door to the Liancao Hall slowly closed.
Lu Dangfeng stood up and placed a white candle as thick as a fist at the very front of the formation. This became the only source of light in the entire Liancao Hall.
He began to chant something to the candle in a low voice.
The five elders at the side grabbed handfuls of what looked like paper money and threw them at the two girls.
Lu Sheng wasn't asked to do anything. He just sat there quietly.
Eerie screams, eerie dances, mysterious murmurs, dim candlelight, and five eccentric elders with half a foot in the coffin.
This scene didn't seem right no matter how he looked at it.
As time passed, Lu Sheng gradually felt that something wasn't right.
Inside the Liancao Hall, an indescribable aura gradually appeared in the air. It was very cold, but very ordinary.
He calmly scanned his surroundings, and to his surprise, he found that at the edge of the formation, in the darkness, a few blurry shadows had appeared out of nowhere.
These shadows were like passersby, surrounding the periphery and quietly watching the two girls dance and scream.
Time passed slowly. The surrounding shadows grew denser and denser.
The shadows stood in the darkness, at the outermost edge of the candlelight's illumination. Normal people wouldn't be able to see them, but Lu Sheng was different.
He didn't sense them through Lu Chong's body, but through his own senses. This way, these shadows were clearly visible.
Lu Sheng took a deep breath, and an inexplicable sense of worry welled up in his heart.
He looked at the Manor Lord Lu Dangfeng, who was chanting something. The worry in his heart was because of him.
'Every Manor Lord dies young. Father is getting older and older … Please don't let anything happen to him …' A thought emerged from the depths of his heart.
'Huh?'
Lu Sheng was stunned. Then, he quickly realized that this was probably Lu Chong's will that he had absorbed.
He closed his eyes and pondered, carefully sensing the situation in his spirit. This sliver of will was like a white line on a blackboard. It stood out clearly, and was extremely solid and eye-catching.
He tried to dispel this inexplicable thought, but it was useless. It was as if this thought had become an obsession.
He had a strange feeling that if he could complete this karma, he would be able to completely end everything here. He would obtain a clue to return to the Great Yin.
This intuition came from the depths of his spirit. The structure of the spirit was too mysterious. Even in the current Great Yin, no one could fully understand it. At this moment, he wasn't sure if he should trust this intuition or not.
'If I'm not wrong, I should be born from Lu Chong's Devil Will, and disguised as his Heavenly Devil. Heavenly Devil, Heavenly Devil. Perhaps I'm here because of Lu Chong's Heart Devil. According to the traditional way, to complete this fusion, I should have to complete Lu Chong's wish to obtain this portion of spirit power. '
His thoughts spun, and he quickly decided to follow his intuition. He didn't have any other clues, anyway, so he might as well do it first.
When he came back to his senses, the ritual had already begun to change.
A small bowl appeared in Lu Dangfeng's hand out of nowhere. It was filled with a black, viscous liquid that reeked of blood.
A black toad with green eyes appeared in front of the candlestick in front of him.
Lu Dangfeng muttered something as he scooped up the black liquid, and sprinkled it on the toad's head.
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