Eternal Life by Dual Cultivation

Chapter 448 - 257: Mu Yunxiu: Lure Them Out One by One, Knock Them Unconscious, and Take Them Away...

Mu Yunxiu felt she had made the right decision by volunteering for the battlefield.

According to her original plan, if they won this battle, she would earn a share of the credit. Combined with her past contributions to the family, she could then exchange it all for a complete set of Nascent Soul Resources and prepare to break through to the Nascent Soul True Monarch Realm.

Unfortunately, the Saint Yu Immortal Dynasty proved to be far stronger than the leadership had anticipated. As the war dragged on, both the Mu Family and the Cui Family suffered considerable losses.

Of course, from Mu Yunxiu’s perspective, she no longer cared much about the leadership’s plans. Her own path of cultivation was what mattered most.

Now that a fortunate turn of events led to Ling Changqing saving her, she saw it as the will of heaven. The young lady of the Mu Family had therefore made up her mind to follow him and never return.

At the bottom of the nameless cave, the women had already set up a temporary residence.

There was no shortage of items like beds, carpets, a dressing table, desks, chairs, an incense burner, and a folding screen.

After all, with Storage Magical Artifacts, they could carry these luxury items with them and take them out whenever needed.

Not far away, three enormous Jade Furnaces were lined up in a row. Orange Spirit Flames blazed beneath them, and the broth inside was already at a rolling boil, emitting a rich, meaty aroma as faint, five-colored lights flickered over the surface.

A Third-Rank Spirit Beast was stewing in each Jade Furnace, along with many precious Spirit Medicines and mountain delicacies. The tantalizing aroma was enough to make one’s mouth water. Zhao Wanyi and her sister were carefully tending to them nearby.

Ling Changqing had a taste for fine wine, gourmet food, and beautiful women. The women of his retinue all understood his habits by now, so high-end ingredients like these were always kept in stock, ready to be prepared whenever he pleased.

"...There’s something I don’t quite understand,"

Ling Changqing asked pensively from the side of the Beautiful Jade Embroidery Bed, "What exactly happened within the Mu Family that forced you all to fight this war against the Saint Yu Immortal Dynasty? The outside world is full of rumors..."

Mu Yunxiu sighed, not intending to hide anything. "Your guess is correct. The previous Patriarch who met with misfortune was from my second grand-uncle’s branch of the family. Not long after that disgraceful incident came to light, he performed the Scattering Technique and passed away."

"The cause of his death was indeed suspicious, but I don’t know what those Supreme Elders discovered. They all chose to remain silent. We of the younger generation have no way of knowing the real story..."

After the previous Patriarch perished, the new Patriarch was the designated heir. He took the position as was expected, and no one raised any objections.

But this Patriarch served for less than ten years before he inexplicably decided to travel the world. He then disappeared into some mysterious Extreme Forbidden Realm, and was never heard from again.

The current Patriarch of the Mu Family was appointed by the unanimous recommendation of the Supreme Elders. Even the Core Elders were only informed after the decision had been made; they never had a chance to voice their opinions.

This man, Mu Wuji, is actually the illegitimate son of a Supreme Elder. He was fostered from a young age by a Divinity Transformation Level power in Yaozhou. He grew up there, and the Dao Companion he married is even the Vice Sect Leader of that same power.

Mu Wuji lived his entire life in Yaozhou, only returning to the Mu Clan to acknowledge his ancestry after he turned five hundred. His father treated him as the heir of his lineage, which caused immense displeasure for the Patriarch at the time.

The man’s Spirit Root Talent was quite decent; he reached the Divinity Transformation Realm before he was seven hundred years old, surpassing the vast majority of his peers.

However, he had no sense of belonging to the clan whatsoever. He never considered himself one of the Mu Clan Members and had no notable achievements to his name for the family.

The Mu Family’s leadership felt the same way about him. From top to bottom, everyone considered him nothing more than an outsider, a bastard.

Yet, it was this very bastard who was pushed into the position of Patriarch. One can only imagine how deep the conspiracy behind this runs.

On the day of the succession ceremony, groups of high-ranking Elders voiced their dissent and objected on the spot, but they were all forcefully suppressed by the Supreme Elders.

From then on, Cultivators of unknown origin began to appear on Mu Family territory from time to time. They could move freely in and out of the clan’s main headquarters and other restricted areas as they pleased.

Over the years, Mu Wuji used various pretexts to secretly hand over many of the Mu Family’s important industries and interests to outsiders, offering no explanation to the Core Elder Council afterward.

His many actions all seemed bizarre and unnatural. It was as if... his goal was to bring this ten-thousand-year-old Noble Family to ruin.

It wasn’t that no Supreme Elders publicly questioned or opposed him. The arguments between the two sides were quite heated, at one point escalating to the verge of violence.

However, not long after, all the Supreme Elders and Core Elders who dared to speak out vanished without a trace. No one knew where they went.

The number of outside Cultivators on the clan’s territory grew, and the new Patriarch even appointed them to key posts, allowing them to gradually seize control of many important positions within the family.

The remaining high-level family members who were still alive were furious but dared not speak out. Some had already begun to secretly arrange escape routes for their own Direct Lineage descendants, hoping to preserve the family’s last bit of Primordial Qi.

"...My parents have already made a plan. Once I advance to the rank of Nascent Soul True Monarch, they intend to sneak me away from the family. We’ll flee to a distant land and leave the conflicts and grudges here behind."

Mu Yunxiu’s expression was grim as she spoke in a low voice.

There was no longer any hope of saving the Mu Family. Her cultivation and that of her elders was limited; all they could do was ensure their own survival.

After this war, the Mu Family and the Cui Family would be branded the main culprits for colluding with an external enemy and deliberately destabilizing the Yuzhou Cultivation Realm. They would surely be punished by the combined top powers of Yuzhou, and the clan’s foundation and legacy would most likely not survive.