Hearing this, Yun Qing let a fitting trace of gratitude show on his face and once more clasped his fist. "My thanks, Young Lord." He lowered his eyes, and deep in his Double Pupils a faint glimmer of a plan gone right quietly withdrew.
The man the Second Elder had called steady as they came was, inwardly, a little figure busily scribbling away: 《A Handbook for Winning Over My Immortal Emperor Little Brother》, Step One — success ✔.
On the dais, Grand Elder Yun Che slowly let out a turbid breath and said in a low voice, "Heaven blesses the Yun Clan." Second Elder Yun Yuan, too, could hold back no longer and burst into hearty, unrestrained laughter.
The other elders' expressions eased somewhat as well. The last thing the clan wished to see was these two prodigies at each other's throats.
Among the many concubine-born children below, hope kindled unbidden in their eyes. Since Yun Huang had taken power, the days of the clan's baseborn had been hard indeed. Only Yun Li wore a complicated look, the taste in his heart hard to name.
Yun Huang watched that figure below, steady as an ancient pine, and the faint ripples that the man's disregard for convention had stirred in him gradually smoothed back to calm.
He rose slowly and, amid a chorus of awed murmurs — "We respectfully see off the Young Lord" — swept his sleeve and left the field.
"Chaos Dao Embryo, Ancient Double Pupils... how interesting." Yun Huang murmured inwardly. "It seems you are far more diverting than This Lord had foreseen. Heh — the Grand Elder and the rest hid it deep. Afraid This Lord would move against you?"
"Sparing you the kneeling was only because your talent is passable and your bearing decent enough. Loyal or treacherous, uncut jade or stubborn stone — that still needs the polishing of years. This Lord shall watch and wait."
Though Yun Huang himself loathed the baseborn to the extreme, he did appreciate true genius. And by the look of it, the only one of this generation who could even stand shoulder to shoulder with him was this "elder brother."
On his first return to the clan, Yun Qing had, in this earth-shattering fashion, boldly announced his arrival — and ground every trace of defiance and doubt utterly to dust. Whether this ripple cast upon the lake of fate would in the end settle back to stillness, or gather into a towering wave, only time could answer.
The sovereign of the dark-jade throne had departed, yet the aftershocks of the Spirit-Testing Rite detonated in full among the Yun Clan's younger generation.
"Chaos Dao Embryo and Ancient Double Pupils — Ancestors above, you really do play favorites! Are these two things supposed to grow on one single person?!"
"We've been frogs at the bottom of a well, all of us..."
"Ancestors of every generation, protect me — my wife's with child. I don't ask for one like the Eldest Young Master; half of it would do. Bless us, bless us."
Astonishment, worship, and even a few who dropped then and there into prayer — emotions of every kind swirled and coiled about Yun Qing's upright frame.
He stood where he was, his black robe stirring though there was no wind, his face still as an ancient well. Deep in his Double Pupils, chaos origin-energy flowed like drifting star-clouds, reflecting in full every faint ripple of feeling and every eddy of spiritual power around him — as clear as reading the lines of his own palm, yet without rousing the slightest wave upon the lake of his heart.
"Big Brother!"
An irrepressibly joyful cry broke the silence. A small child, like a pup slipping its cage, darted swiftly to stand before him, eyes startlingly bright. "Big Brother! Everyone outside is talking about you — you're amazing!"
The young maiden beside him, Yun Yao, a concubine-born daughter of the Yun Clan's Third Branch, came trotting over as well and dipped a slight bow to Yun Qing. "Elder Brother Yun Qing."
Yun Qing gave Yun Yao a slight nod, then lowered his gaze to this little brother born of the same mother, Yun Shuo. The cringing little shadow of his memory now, at last, carried in his brow the liveliness a boy his age ought to have. His own return could make Yun Shuo's days in the clan a good deal easier.
Yun Qing raised a hand, his fingertips brushing over the soft crown of Yun Shuo's hair, and spoke gently: "Empty fame, nothing more. On the path of cultivation, what matters is oneself. You must be diligent, and not be swayed by outside things." His Double Pupils swept at the same time toward the girl at the side — clearly this was meant for her as well.
"I know, Big Brother." Yun Shuo nodded hard.
"Yes, Elder Brother Yun Qing." Yun Yao's voice dropped very low, her eyes reddening, a trace of lingering fear in them. "But Big Brother — the Young Lord, toward the baseborn... a while ago Brother Yun Li was only a moment slow in answering, and the Young Lord... Brother Yun Li's dantian was wounded, and it still hasn't healed."
"Guard your words." Yun Qing cut her off, his gaze lifting abruptly, cast once more toward the direction in which Yun Huang had gone. Deep in his Double Pupils flickered a very profound wariness. "The Young Lord's will is the heaven-law of the Yun Clan."
Yun Shuo and Yun Yao were startled still by the sternness in his words and hastily fell silent.
Just then, Second Elder Yun Yuan came strolling over, his face full of undisguised gratification and praise. His gaze swept over the whole of Yun Qing, and he nodded. "A heart-nature deep and settled, hard to shake as a mountain; a response fitting and proper, like still water running deep. Good, good. Qing, my boy — very good." His words seemed to appraise the day's showing, yet his gaze met, for an instant, that of Grand Elder Yun Che, who stood not far off with his hands clasped behind him.
The two elders' eyes were full of an unspoken understanding — as expected of a soul selected by the "Soul-Tracing Secret Rite." Together with this Chaos Dao Embryo and these Ancient Double Pupils, it was truly a match made by heaven, a perfect vessel to carry the ancient glory of their Yun Clan.
"The Second Elder overpraises. Qing is unworthy of it." Yun Qing bowed, his manner humble and respectful.
"Hmph, you play-acting little rascal. Come with me — your 'Qingyu Hall' has long been prepared." Yun Yuan gave a snort of a laugh, flicked his sleeve, turned, and led the way ahead.
Yun Qing took his leave of Yun Yao and, tugging Yun Shuo along, followed the Second Elder through hall after hall. Wherever they passed, whether patrolling guards or clan children met by chance, every one of them at once bowed in salute, their eyes full of awe.
Stepping into "Qingyu Hall," he found the space within broad and open, its beams carved and its rafters painted, archaic and lavish in the extreme. Rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth curled and rose, nearly congealing into substance — scarcely inferior to the Chaos Ancient Cave where he had toiled for more than ten years.
Taking his leave of the Second Elder and dismissing the attending disciples, he kept only Yun Shuo, who was brimming with curiosity about the hall.
Yun Qing stood alone before the window, gazing out at the drifting spirit-mist. This world was utterly unlike the homeland of the past life he so missed.
The Yun Clan of the Eastern Domain carried a heritage from time immemorial, its foundations unfathomably deep. That ancient method of empowerment known as the "Soul-Tracing Secret Rite" was one of its core hidden secrets.
This method could, for the family's most exalted bloodline, draw and match from the endless long river of time and space the single most compatible soul of all — in common terms, a transmigrator!
Neither he nor Yun Huang was a soul native to this world.
Yun Huang aside for the moment — Yun Qing's soul-mark came from a blue-hued planet. Chosen by the Soul-Tracing Secret Rite, he had been womb-born into this vast world where the strong were revered.
At the very moment of his birth, the Chaos Dao Embryo and the Ancient Double Pupils had awakened together, triggering a portent of heaven and earth that shook the whole family. Second Elder Yun Yuan had personally received him into the Chaos Ancient Cave, sealed away from the mortal world to cultivate in single-minded devotion.
More than ten years of grueling cultivation in a secret realm had lifted Yun Qing's cultivation far beyond others his age. Yet in today's brief clash with Yun Huang, the gap between them was still like a chasm across the heavens.
Sensing that "destiny" coiled about Yun Huang's fate — brilliant as a galaxy of stars, and just as unshakable — Yun Qing gazed off at the distant ranges beyond the window, his Double Pupils deep and unfathomable: 'He truly is no simple child of destiny, but rather... the reincarnation of an immortal's origin!'