Qing Ling flicked his sleeve, and thirteen clansmen appeared before him.
Their faces paled in alarm, but upon recognizing who stood before them, they bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Old Ancestor."
"Rise. A thousand years have passed, and you must be impatient. Today, I shall grant you an opportunity." As Qing Ling spoke, he raised his left palm, and the Ten Thousand Snakes Primordial Seal slowly radiated a black light that enveloped the thirteen Heaven-rank clansmen.
The thirteen Heaven-rank experts all prostrated themselves on the ground. After their bodies flickered with black light, they gradually transformed from foot to head into enormous pythons of various colors—purple, gold, green, and black—truly a spectacle of dancing snakes.
Qing Ling's palm emitted a black radiance. A summoning from their ancestors, ancient and ancestral, echoed in their ears, and the ancestral blood flowing in their veins boiled uncontrollably.
This was Ancestral Return!
Since Qing Ling had become a pseudo-great cultivator, the Ten Thousand Snakes Primordial Seal, which had been dormant within him, finally awakened. Driven by his divine soul, comparable to that of a great cultivator, the Primordial Seal could catalyze the ancestral blood within the snake clan's lineage, thereby achieving Ancestral Return and awakening their innate divine abilities and bloodline enhancements.
However, Ancestral Return was not guaranteed for everyone. Qing Ling merely offered them a chance; whether they succeeded depended on their own fortune.
Thirteen colossal snakes writhed and coiled on the ground, gradually curling into balls. Among them, the red python, transformed from Chi Li, was the first to be enveloped by a red light and turned into a giant snake egg.
She was the closest in blood relation to Venerable Chi Zun, and thus the one with the closest bloodline.
Several other snakes also gradually transformed into giant eggs, though four or five remained unchanged.
Ancestral Return depended on fortune. Even if they did not achieve Ancestral Return, they could still break through to Golden Immortal. However, for snake clans who achieved Ancestral Return, their strength and potential after breaking through to Golden Immortal far surpassed ordinary snake clans.
Qing Ling sat quietly beside his clansmen, guarding them as they underwent their transformation.
This was the duty of an elder.
He had lived for millions of years, and among the Xishan Snake Clan, he was among the most senior, surpassed only by Chi Li, Xi, and Granny Hua Geng.
While Qing Ling and Xishan were not bound by life and death, their destinies were intrinsically linked—one prospered, all prospered; one declined, all declined.
He wished for Xishan to continue developing, to remain one of the three sole snake lineages in the Primordial World.
He did not want the snake race to perish and disappear in the Primordial World.
Nor did he wish to be alone, with all other beings being foreign races.
In the future, the Teng Snake lineage in Fengqi Mountain, where the empress Nuwa would reside, would not perish. However, the Teng Snake lineage would eventually become an independent race, the Teng Snake Clan, not the Snake Clan, and would only serve the sage.
Furthermore, if the Xishan Snake Clan were to perish, then all snakes in the world thereafter would be descendants of the Sea Snakes. The Sea Snakes were a branch of the Dragon Clan, subject to the bloodline suppression of powerful divine beasts like the dragons. Thus, in later generations, they could only be called minor snake demons.
Whether in the Investiture of the Gods or Journey to the West, apart from the Teng Snake that existed only in legends, no great snake demon appeared.
But the Xishan Snake Clan was different. Possessing the bloodline of Tai Geng, one of the ten supreme ancient existences, the Xishan Snake Clan, though a subordinate of the Dragon Clan, had no Dragon Clan bloodline. Their bloodline inherited from the primordial ancestor Tai Geng, and in terms of noble bloodline, they were not inferior to the Dragons, Phoenixes, or Qilins. The only difference was the disparity in the strength of their races.
Therefore, Qing Ling wanted to protect the Xishan Snake Clan and its most pure lineage.
Although inferring from the Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West, it seemed the Xishan lineage had perished.
However, with Qing Ling, a variable, present now, everything was uncertain.
Qing Ling stood guard for a hundred years. Nine massive snake eggs were in slumber, while the remaining four juniors had awakened.
They were the failures of Ancestral Return, but Qing Ling did not underestimate them.
Instead, he expounded the Dao to them for a hundred years, assisting the four in stepping into the realm of Golden Immortal.
Those designated by the Xishan elders to come to the Dug Guange were all top-tier existences among tens of thousands of Heaven-rank clansmen. Their innate aptitude and strength were already at the level of Golden Immortals. With Qing Ling's guidance, they naturally ascended to a higher level.
After a hundred years, the nine giant snake eggs shattered, releasing powerful snake pressure. Nine Golden Immortals simultaneously received heavenly phenomena in Dug Guange, achieving Golden Immortal status.
Amidst the radiant celestial phenomena, Qing Ling watched his descendants of Xishan grow, a look of relief and satisfaction on his face.
The thirteen Golden Immortal Venerables bowed respectfully. "Thank you, Old Ancestor, for your grace of rebirth!"
Having undergone Ancestral Return, they had indeed been reborn, truly deserving of the term rebirth.
Qing Ling smiled. "Excellent. All of you have entered the Golden Immortal realm this time. Previously, three little ones failed to break through.
You have ascended from Heaven-rank beasts to Golden Immortal Venerables, becoming cultivators in the world. I have no grand expectations for you, only that you live well and survive for Xishan.
Now, you may return to the clan."
Qing Ling watched them with a gentle smile, filled with the tender affection of an elder for his juniors.
Chi Li and the others bowed their heads again. It turned out the Old Ancestor's wish was not for them to achieve earth-shattering accomplishments in the future, but simply to live well.
They recalled their origins, when their snake parents only wished for them to grow up safely.
In this Old Ancestor, with whom they had not spent much time, they felt a hint of familial warmth.
Although they did not understand the meaning of 'family,' they had already developed familial affection, and a trace of warmth tinged their cold-blooded nature.
Qing Ling watched them leave Dug Guange. He remained there, alone.
Loneliness was the most enduring companion in cultivation.
The hearts of many great cultivators were not initially so cold and emotionless. It was merely that through the long passage of time, filled only with solitude, their hearts had forgotten the feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
Qing Ling shook his head and chuckled. He had been in Dug Guange for too long; his heart was showing signs of aging.
He slowly rose and ambled through the flower fields. The golden bells on his ankles jingled softly as he wandered among the blossoms.
With a flick of Qing Ling's sleeve, the body of a Grand Unity cultivator was buried within a square area of ten feet.
He gently tossed his hand, and the earth covered it, burying the Grand Unity cultivator.
However, the Grand Unity cultivator's primordial spirit had already been sealed, and he had fallen into a slumber. A scarlet flower bud had grown on his heart, its roots connected to his heart, constantly devouring his vitality, spirit, and essence.
Qing Ling walked another ten feet, and another Golden Immortal was buried beneath his feet, another flower seed planted.
He walked for a hundred feet, planting a hundred flower seeds.
One square of ten feet, one flower born every ten feet, one Golden Immortal per flower, one Dao principle per flower. The flowers' Dao principles evolved into worlds. Although one flower did not form a world, a hundred flowers eventually formed a world.
This was a world of scarlet flower fields.
One hundred and sixty-seven red flowers, one Jian Mu (a mythical pillar connecting heaven and earth), and one flower planter.
This was the center of Dug Guange.
The flow of time circulated within Qing Ling's brow, and a silver waterfall descended, falling into the hundred flowers. He then clapped his hands together. His left hand released one hundred and sixty-seven clouds, each three feet in size, and his right hand released one hundred and sixty-seven wisps of pale mist. The clouds and mist merged, and three feet above each flower, a cluster of clouds and mist hovered. There was wind and light, and rain fell.
The hundred flowers bloomed in an instant. The Dao principles of the one hundred and sixty-seven Golden Immortals and Grand Unity cultivators intertwined as one, and the hundred flowers burst into bloom.
Their vibrant crimson and dazzling splendor were captivating.
At that very moment, the Dao bodies of over a hundred Golden Immortals and Grand Unity cultivators vanished completely.
The beauty of the hundred flowers blooming was the vibrant light of life blooming on death, just as "After my flowers bloom, a hundred flowers wither; the soaring Dao intent pierces the sky, and the entire Dug Guange is stained with Golden Immortal blood."