Chapter 194 Mortal Body
A glittering golden light suddenly leaped from Lu Yao's fingertips, which were bound by blood-red chains.
The sinister smile on Zhong Zhengming's face suddenly froze.
“You really think…” she casually stroked the chains, her movements as gentle as if she were teasing a pet, “that I would walk right into your flawed scheme without any defenses?”
The golden light suddenly surged, transforming into countless fine golden runes that flowed upstream along the chains.
Wherever the runes passed, the blood-red array patterns on the ground began to crack inch by inch, and the entire ancestral hall trembled violently!
"No...this is impossible!" Zhong Zhengming staggered backward, watching in horror as the backlash of spiritual energy surged towards him like a tidal wave.
Lu Yao sneered and pulled out a yellowed talisman from her sleeve.
The patterns drawn with cinnabar on the talisman paper clearly share the same origin as the ancient incantations on the beams and pillars of the ancestral hall.
She flicked her fingertip, and the talisman ignited without wind, its ashes falling as if imbued with life between the brows of the four elders.
"You wretched creature!" The First Elder was the first to regain his senses.
The other three elders also regained consciousness one after another, their eyes flashing like lightning as they turned to Zhong Zhengming.
"Unfilial descendants!"
Several streams of spiritual energy were unleashed simultaneously. Zhong Zhengming hastily parried, but was sent flying backward, his back slamming heavily against the wall of the ancestral hall.
He struggled to his feet and reached out his hand to his father, who stood frozen to the side: "Father, save me..."
But then a glimmer of clarity flashed in the eyes of the old man who had been staring blankly, and his hand gripped his throat tightly.
"You unfilial son," Zhong's father's voice was terribly hoarse, "when you used forbidden magic on me... did you ever think of this day?"
The four elders simultaneously formed hand seals, and the ancestral Soul-Suppressing Lock coiled around them like a silver snake.
Zhong Zhengming's veins bulged from being bound by the Soul-Suppressing Lock, yet he still stubbornly roared, "From childhood to adulthood, what have you been good at besides beating, scolding, and forcing people to kneel?!"
"You worthless brat!" Father Zhong roared. "If it weren't for my strict discipline, would you have broken through to the Golden Core stage at twenty-five? Would you have become the head of the Special Affairs Department at thirty?"
"That's because I'm exceptionally gifted!" Zhong Zhengming's lips curled into a mocking smile. "Everyone in the Zhong family knows that I have the best aptitude of this generation!"
"Bullshit!" Father Zhong's cloudy eyes were bloodshot. "You couldn't even pass the most basic spiritual root test when you were born!"
The four elders stared wide-eyed, never expecting that Zhong's father would reveal such a secret at this moment.
"Trying to fabricate stories to manipulate me?" Zhong Zhengming interrupted with a sneer. "Old man, save your breath! What else have you been doing all these years besides suppressing and controlling me?"
Mr. Zhong cursed, "If I had known you were such a heartless ingrate, how could I have given you Ah Xuan's genes?"
The elder wanted to stop him from revealing more secrets, but it was too late.
"Ah Xuan?" Zhong Zhengming's struggling movements suddenly stopped.
He does have an older sister, Zhong Zhengxuan, who is an ordinary person who can't even do the most basic thing like drawing qi into the body.
But this "useless" older sister has always been someone else's child since she was a child.
He won numerous gold medals in various competitions during his student years and went directly to the National Development and Reform Commission after graduating from university.
Now she is a bureau-level cadre, whose rank is higher than his, the director of the special affairs department.
His smooth rise to the position of section chief was largely due to his sister's influence at the higher levels.
But every time there was a family gathering, looking at his older sister who couldn't even draw a complete talisman, Zhong Zhengming would feel a secret sense of pleasure.
What good is being outstanding?
Ultimately, he was just a mortal who couldn't even sense spiritual energy.
And now, his father actually says that his genes come from Zhong Zhengxuan?
Is he supposed to be the useless person who couldn't cultivate?
Zhong Zhengming's face turned from green to white, and then from white to red.
Suddenly, he threw his head back and burst into a maniacal laugh: "So what!"
He jerked the chains away, blood dripping from his wounds onto the ground. "Now I am the one who has achieved the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage! I am the one who has mastered the secret techniques of the Xuanmen!"
A sickly light gleamed in his eyes. "What does this mean? It means that even God believes her genes were meant for me!"
He is the most talented cultivation genius in the Zhong family in the past hundred years!
“Father is getting senile.” Zhong Zhengming tilted his head, revealing a twisted smile.
Mr. Zhong trembled all over, his regret like a venomous snake gnawing at his heart, causing bitterness to seep into his internal organs.
That year, Zhong Zhengming was born.
The birth of their son should have been a joyous occasion that the Zhong family had been eagerly anticipating, but it became a laughing stock for the entire family during the spirit-testing ceremony.
This only son of the direct lineage was actually a mortal with absolutely no aptitude for cultivation!
His eldest daughter, at the age of seven, was found to have extremely pure spiritual roots, a rare talent unseen in the Zhong family for a century.
Mr. Zhong was certain that if his daughter was so extraordinary, his son must be even more so.
But reality slapped him hard in the face.
How can such an ordinary person inherit the legacy of the Zhong family's Xuanmen lineage?
During the spirit-testing ceremony, Zhong's father's hand holding the wine glass trembled uncontrollably, and the guests' insincere congratulations pierced his eardrums.
"Not even as good as a maid..."
The elders' shaking heads and sighs were etched into his mind like a branding iron.
He spent his days at drinking parties, but even the strongest liquor couldn't extinguish the pent-up anger in his heart.
One late night, a drinking buddy leaned in mysteriously and whispered, "Old Zhong, I heard Zhang Daozhen has a Star-Shifting and Dipper-Changing Disc..."
Three months later, young Zhong Zhengming suddenly developed a high fever and remained in a coma for three days before waking up.
No one knew that in a dilapidated Taoist temple in the suburbs, his seven-year-old sister, Zhong Zhengxuan, was chained to a bronze plate engraved with strange runes, her innocent cries completely blocked by the formation.
In the dim candlelight, Zhang Daozhen's withered fingers gripped the white bone knife, dipped in the blood that Zhong's father had taken from his daughter's palm, and carved scarlet runes on the backs of the two children.
Blood flowed along the patterns on the bronze plate, staining the entire magic circle a glaring red.
"With blood as the catalyst, with spirits as the sacrifice..."
Zhang Daozhen's hoarse incantation echoed in the sealed stone chamber.
After the job was done, Zhang Daozhen counted the payment and said to him with satisfaction, "Don't worry, your daughter won't remember anything."
Mr. Zhong's gaze shifted between the two unconscious children.
The daughter's face was as pale as paper, and her thin chest barely rose and fell.
However, a faint blue aura emanated from the son's body.
Mr. Zhong's eyes suddenly welled up with tears.
It wasn't guilt over her daughter's stolen life that moved her, but rather the awakening of her son's spiritual root.
He reached out with trembling hands and stroked his son's radiant forehead, letting out a satisfied sigh.
The Zhong family finally has a successor.
Now, the stolen spiritual root is glowing brightly within Zhong Zhengming's body, and spiritual energy is flowing through his meridians.
Amidst the tense standoff between father and son, Lu Yao let out a contemptuous sneer.
"Now, you should believe me, right?"
She nodded casually towards the window.
A slender figure slowly stepped in.
Zhong Zhengxuan was dressed in a sharp suit, his pale face devoid of color, yet exuding a chilling and murderous aura.
“Every word she said is true.” Her gaze swept coldly between her father and brother, her voice eerily calm, “including the parts you least want to admit.”
Her tone was not one of questioning or doubt, but rather a cold statement.
Mr. Zhong staggered back half a step: "Ah Xuan, it's not what you think..."
“Do you know?” Zhong Zhengxuan interrupted him, a cold smile curving her lips. “What I regret most is that I once endorsed the Zhong family at an official meeting, guaranteeing the Zhong family’s century-long reputation and that the Zhong family’s actions were in accordance with the orthodox path of Xuanmen.”
"Now that you can even betray your own flesh and blood, what other filthy things are you incapable of doing?" Her voice suddenly choked, and when she spoke again, it was tinged with blood. "Every word I've endorsed for you over the years makes me want to vomit."
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