Jiang Chen smiled faintly at the bickering between new and old leadership. “Embittered Bamboo, haven’t you been the master of the ancestral temple for a long time? It isn’t necessarily bad to give up your seat to someone new like the virile King Gunuo. Plus, maybe he’ll do better than you did.” Naturally, he was only being polite.

Forefather Bamboo sighed dejectedly. “Never mind. There’s not much I can’t get over at this point. But was what you said earlier true?”

The young lord’s tantalizing words weighed heavily on his mind.

“What, that I can help you get through mid empyrean to great empyrean?” Jiang Chen retorted with a half-smile.

“Yes. If you can really do that, then it’s not a bad thing for me to lay down my mantle of the ancestral temple’s leadership. King Gunuo, you should feel lucky. If I didn’t willingly transfer my scepter into your hands, heaven may very well punish your attempt at forcefully offering sacrifice.”

King Gunuo felt cold sweat trickle down his back.

Was the forefather’s direct...