Chapter 164 Chips
Soon, things were packed away.

Zhong Haoran took the luggage out, and Zhong Sheng quickly took it and put it into the sedan chair. After a while of busy work, without taking a breath, he opened the curtain and invited Zhong Yuling in, and bowed to Zhong Haoran:
"Grandmaster, you haven't been back for a few years. The sect is fine, let's go back and take a look."

"Let him go, Chen Lang, the sooner he goes, the sooner he will come back." Zhong Haoran left indifferently.

After getting on the sedan chair, there was silence for a while.

"What do you want to recuperate for? Are you sick?" Chen Lang looked at Zhong Yuling.

Zhong Yuling didn't explain, she leaned on the luggage and squinted her eyes to sleep. Zhong Sheng hurriedly explained: "My aunt has been in poor health since she was a child. She has to go back for recuperation every few years. But she has almost recovered in recent years. This should be the last time."

Chen Lang nodded. He never realized that such a young man was suffering from a serious illness.

The disease that even Zhong Haoran couldn't solve must be quite troublesome. He certainly couldn't help much, so he simply didn't think about it and asked:
"that."

"About the magic weapon?" Zhong Sheng said, "Don't worry. My family is poor, but we can afford a few treasures. Brother Chen can go and pick one."

"By the way, I heard that Brother Chen is going to attend the ancestor worship ceremony? It's a good opportunity for us to go together."

"Are you a contestant too?" Chen Lang was surprised.

Zhong Sheng nodded, "I represent the Zhong family."

Chen Lang thought that something bad was going to happen. Should he inform them when the time comes? Don’t kill this guy. It would be bad.

"Who are they?" Chen Lang asked. If he had known about this relationship, he would not have gone to the Goddess Peak to inquire about information.

Zhong Sheng pondered for a moment, "There are more than a dozen or twenty elders in the Tianjian Sect, and more than half of them have families behind them, and each of them has people participating."

"Among them, there are the Goddess Peak Si Granny, Elder Zhou Tianzheng, Elder Qing, etc. The participants from their families are all strong masters. Then there are the Lu family, the Chen family, the Murong family, etc. Basically, they take up ten places every year."

"Ten positions on the Heavenly Ranking?"

"Exactly."

Chen Lang was silent for a moment. He felt that he had underestimated the difficulty of this mission. "What is the use of the Heaven-stealing Ranking?"

"Share the cultivation resources."

Zhong Sheng explained, "The so-called ancestor worship is actually a competition between various families. The Tianjian Sect is the Tianjian Sect of each family, so there must be an order.

The spiritual stone resources are fine, they are all low-level things, but some high-quality spiritual medicines are relatively scarce and can only be supplied to a very small number of people. Over the years, only ten places have been provided, which is what is called the Heavenly Ranking outside.

Only those who can make it onto the Heavenly Ranking will be eligible to share those resources, and these people will be trained as sect elders in the future."

He explained to Chen Lang that, for example, Goddess Peak Master Murong Jing and Elder Shi's subordinate Li Rui were all masters of the Heavenly Ranking in previous years. They had participated in ancestor worship and had left their surnames on the ancestral tablets.

After hearing this, Chen Lang understood. It was similar to the Pingtian Sect where people sat on large mahogany chairs according to their status.

A little bit high-end.

Suddenly, an idea came to him.

"I am also a disciple of Elder Zhong. Can I participate on behalf of the Zhong family?"

If that's the case, then getting into the top ten wouldn't be as easy as taking something out of a bag? Who wouldn't give face to the Zhong family when they showed up?

Zhong Sheng: ...

He smiled politely and said, "I admire Brother Chen very much, but the representative must be a descendant of the family. Brother Chen, do you want to marry into my Zhong family?"

"That's not impossible."

Zhong Shenglang laughed, "If you say that, the one at Goddess Peak might not be happy."

Chen Lang shrugged and said, "As long as I'm happy, why should I care about other people's business?"

Of course, he was just saying it casually. This "family representative" was related to the position of elder, so it would definitely not work.

The two monsters in front and behind were riding on the clouds and moving forward at a very fast speed. Chen Lang later learned that the beast was called "Niulong" and came from the ancient fairyland.

It had been more than half a day since they got off the sedan chair. Zhong Sheng took the gifts and went home to prepare, leaving Chen Lang and Zhong Yuling waiting.

"Don't give him a good face." Zhong Yuling opened her eyes and said suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Chen Lang felt that the other party was quite enthusiastic, so why were they, father and daughter, so cold?

"My dad said so."

"I never said that." Chen Lang said.

Zhong Yuling narrowed her eyes and smiled slyly, "Actually, I'm quite old."

"Fourteen years old." Chen Lang exposed her.

"Who told you that?"

Zhong Yuling said, "I am over 80 years old this year. If you don't believe me, just wait and see. They will all have to call me aunt."

Soon, several people came. A middle-aged man brought a few people and greeted Zhong Yuling immediately:

"Second aunt."

"Look." Zhong Yuling was very proud.

Chen Lang:?
No, seriously?

"The pool is ready, you can go take a medicinal bath." The middle-aged man said. "Wait a minute, didn't you see you just came down? You must be very tired." Zhong Yuling's face immediately turned cold.

"I didn't think it through." The middle-aged man apologized, "When will this nephew go to choose a magic weapon?"

When Zhong Yuling heard this, she pouted and stopped procrastinating. She patted Chen Lang's arm and said generously:

"Don't be afraid, take whatever you want, I'll protect you. If anyone dares to bully you, tell me."

"Second aunt is joking." The middle-aged man said, "You are a guest from afar, please rest assured."

Zhong Yuling snorted coldly and left under the escort of several people.

After she left, Chen Lang asked directly:
"I heard she's over 80 this year? What's going on?"

This is a very serious question. Could it be the Tianshan Child-Grandma? I went straight from being a father to being a grandson.

The middle-aged man looked ashamed and waved to Chen Lang, "Let me talk for a moment."

……

Dismissing his subordinates, the middle-aged man directed Chen Lang to another stone road and said:

"I am Zhong Shiji, from the Zhong family."

"No thanks, let's get down to business." Chen Lang said.

Zhong Shiji pondered for a moment, "When she was a baby, she was sealed for seventy years."

"Is it related to her illness?"

"Yes."

Zhong Shiji said, “When she was born, she was born with a natural body of Taoism, but after being sealed for decades, her divinity was lost and her foundation was damaged.

I came here to use the thing that sealed her back then to absorb her divinity back. I have been doing this for years, and this is the last time."

"How useful is it?"

"It will definitely be much stronger than ordinary people."

"No wonder." Chen Lang nodded, finally understanding.

He had long felt that Zhong Haoran must be quite old to have reached that level. How come his daughter is so old? A man who is hundreds of years old has a girl of ten years old. This is what is written in novels.

Zhong Haoran is still too kind. If it were him, he would have directly wiped out the Zhong family.

That's good too. I won't have any psychological burden when asking for the magic weapon today.

"Why seal it?" Chen Lang asked.

"It was a wrong decision made by our ancestors."

Zhong Shiji explained that Zhong Haoran was originally a descendant of the Zhong family's side branch. He wandered outside with his parents when he was young and suffered a lot.

After Zhong Haoran became famous, he was brought back into the family, but at this time his parents were gone, so the family allowed him to have a member of the family as compensation. He married Zhong Haoran and had a daughter.

After returning from a retreat, he heard that his wife and daughter had passed away, and he rarely interacted with his family. Zhong Haoran was indifferent to fame and fortune, and had no interest in worldly affairs. He was repeatedly invited to join the family as the head of the family, but was rejected.

Later, when the Zhong family was in trouble and sought help in vain, the former head of the family told them that their daughter was not dead, but was just sealed. Zhong Haoran then stepped in to help quell the disaster and took his daughter, Zhong Yuling, away.

Zhong Shiji explained simply: "At that time, Master Zhong was in seclusion, and the head of the family felt that Second Aunt had no one to take care of her. He was afraid that someone would use her to plot against the master, so he sealed her away. However, something unexpected happened, causing her foundation to collapse and her future to be cut short."

"What about your former head of the family?" Chen Lang asked.

"After informing Grandmaster Zhong of the news, he committed suicide. The position of the head of the family has been vacant ever since, and everyone hopes that Grandmaster Zhong will take charge."

Chen Lang nodded indifferently. He didn't expect that his master was also a beast of burden.

"I think her foundation was destroyed. It's not an accident, right?" Chen Lang said.

It doesn't make sense from beginning to end. Zhong Shiji is obviously hiding something. Since Zhong Yuling was gifted back then, shouldn't he have trained her as soon as possible to be an adult if he was worried about the conspiracy? Why did he seal her up and even abolish her?

These are not relatives at all, they are clearly bargaining chips.

“Young friend Chen Lang, don’t say that. The head of the family has admitted that it was his fault alone. I hope that Grandmaster Zhong will not implicate future generations.

As for Second Aunt, we will definitely provide for her well. As long as the Zhong family is still around, she will be able to live a healthy life."

After Zhong Shiji finished speaking, he continued:
"I heard that Chen Xiaoyou is a disciple of Grandmaster Zhong, and he is also my nephew. We are all family. If you have a chance, talk to Grandmaster Zhong and ask him to come back more often when he is free."

"Well, the chips are in good hands." Chen Lang nodded.

He understood why Zhong Haoran didn't help him deal with Lu Ming. It turned out that when a person is alive, his biggest weakness is his relatives.

"My friend, what you said is inappropriate." He was obviously very unhappy with Chen Lang's comments on the Zhong family, and reminded:
"We should just talk about these past events, but don't tell everyone about them, lest the ancestor be unhappy."

"What does that have to do with me?"

Chen Lang smiled and said, "I'm just here to pick out some magic tools. Why are you telling me so much?"

……

(End of this chapter)