The blazing torches in the Ancestral Temple shone over the hall, but the dozens of Connate Cultivators were sitting there without saying a word.
Qin Luo also looked at Chen Fan in shock.
"Great Grandpa, what do you mean? How could my brother be the wanted criminal, Chen Beixuan?" Xiao Mang said anxiously.
The name Chen Beixuan wasn't widely spread across the Yan State. After all, it was a few hundred thousand miles away from Zhuyan City. But still, many Chinese had heard about it.
Qin Luo and the others remained silent.
Before Xie Changying asked, they had never thought about that since the rumors said that Chen Beixuan had died, but many questionable things about Chen Fan came to everyone's mind immediately.
Nobody knew where Chen Fan had come from. He had claimed that he was from the Sui State and that his parents were dead.
Chen Fan was so powerful that he could kill Perfected Cultivators with ease, but no one had ever heard of him.
His last name was Chen, the same as that of the legendary Chen Beixuan…
Piecing all the evidence together, the truth had spoken for itself.
Xiao Mang looked up with anticipation.
She saw Chen Fan nod calmly. "Yes, I'm Chen Beixuan!"
After that, everyone in the hall instantly found it difficult to breathe. Chen Fan was a wanted criminal and someone Sword King wanted to kill. The Barbaric Dragons and the Arctic Sect were too different from the Zhao family.
Xie Changying said after a while, "Don't worry. Perfected Cultivator Chen is powerful, not even the royal family would provoke a heavy hitter. Besides, we're the only ones who know about this. The royal family might not know.
"No matter what, thank you for saving the Chinese." Xie Changying bowed.
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
Right!
Not even the royal family would offend a powerful Perfected Cultivator just for a descendant! Meanwhile, only Xiao Mang was still worrying.
Then, all of them started chatting.
"I heard that you found the treasures of Perfected Cultivator Juehan, but were killed by the guards from the royal city. Are these rumors fake?" an elder asked.
"I was in the Juehan Grotto-heaven that day, so I've never seen those guards." Chen Fan shook his head.
"Where did you come from? Are you really someone from the Sui State? How did you complete a Golden Core with the limitations of our blood? Why haven't we heard about you before?" Qin Luo asked.
Everyone immediately went silent and turned to Chen Fan, waiting for his answer.
As Connate Cultivators, the thing they were concerned the most was how Chen Fan had entered the Golden Core Level and become a Perfected Cultivator! There had been countless elites among the Chinese in the last thousands of years, but none of them could go higher than the Core Formation level.
Chen Fan picked up his glass of wine and said slowly after a while, "I don't have any limitations in my blood."
"How is that possible?"
Everyone in the Ancestral Temple was startled.
They couldn't believe it and even Xie Changying was confused. The cultivation limit was embedded in the blood of the Chinese. They would be restricted as long as Chinese blood ran through their veins, no matter which generation they were in and what aliens they married to.
"Perhaps he's not Chinese?" Some elders wondered. Thinking of the rumors, they looked at Chen Fan with a hint of fear.
"Yes, brother. All Chinese on Planet Tianhuang have limitations in their blood. We encounter more barriers when we cultivate and we can't even sense a hint of Spirit Qi. We can't escape this no matter how far we go and where we are," Xiao Mang also said.
She had been with the Chinese since birth, so their blood limitations had become a fact for her.
"All Chinese on Planet Tianhuang have limitations in their blood, but what if… I'm not from Planet Tianhuang?" Chen Fan put down the glass and cracked a smile.
"Not from Planet Tianhuang?"
Everyone was shocked.
What was that supposed to mean? Planet Tianhuang was everything in their understanding. This piece of land was even more vast than the universe and many of them had never left the Beihan Region, let alone Planet Tianhuang. The Chinese had been born and raised on Planet Tianhuang; they had never heard of any other members outside the planet.
Only Xie Changying stared at Chen Fan with shaking hands, as if he were looking at an alien.
"The Grand Elder understands."
Chen Fan smiled.
Everyone else then looked at Xie Changying with a confused face.
The Grand Elder stared at Chen Fan emotionally, then got up and said, "Are… Are you from Planet East?"
"Right."
Chen Fan nodded.
"What's Planet East?"
Everyone was confused, while the Grand Elder's face was covered with tears. "Someone from our homeland is finally here! The Heavenly Lords didn't sacrifice themselves for nothing…"
He quickly moved closer and said as he held Chen Fan's hands, "Are you from the Mixed-Essence Sect, the Azure Mystic Sect, Fentian Valley or the Yuntian Palace? How are Master Artifact Spirit and Perfected Cultivator Yunxiao?"
"I came from neither of those sects! I'm from the mortal world." Chen Fan shook his head.
"The mortal world? The books said it's already turned into a place with no Spirit Qi. Why can anyone still enter the Golden Core Level?" Xie Changying then continued with a wry smile.
"I can't believe the one who saved us thousands of years later would be a descendant of our homeland."
A few oldest elders in the Ancestral Temple seemed to have thought of something and they immediately looked stunned.
"Grand Elder, what's this about?" Qin Luo asked.
Many of the Chinese Connate Cultivators present were also wondering.
"All right, there's something you need to know," Xie Changying heaved a sigh and said, "The Chinese… didn't come from Planet Tianhuang, but somewhere far in the universe, a place called 'Planet East.' However, Planet East underwent great changes thousands of years ago and it wasn't suitable for cultivating anymore. The Perfected Cultivators then led our people and traveled across the universe until they reached Planet Tianhuang."
"What?"
What he said caused a commotion in the Ancestral Temple.
This time, they weren't just surprised. They were astonished.
Many elders were startled. Xiao Mang's eyes popped out and her jaw dropped.
"That's impossible. How could we be from another planet?" Many were unable to accept it. The Chinese had stayed in the Yan State for thousands of years; then they were suddenly told that they came from another planet. Some stubborn Connate Cultivators couldn't understand it at all.
"Wait, Grand Elder. If we could travel across the universe back then, does that mean we used to have more than one Perfected Cultivator?" Qin Luo suddenly yelled.
Everyone was shocked.
"Not only Perfected Cultivators. During the heyday of the Chinese, we even had a Nascent Soul Heavenly Lord. Heaven's Equal blocked the Path of Heaven back then and the Sword Qi has yet to dissipate after so many years. He even killed the Nascent Soul enemies from the other planets," Chen Fan said.
The Connate Cultivators felt so thrilled that they started to shake.
That was a Heavenly Lord! There wasn't even one in the entire Beihan Region. Only the first Lord Beihan in the legends might be able to reach that level. A Nascent Soul Heavenly Lord would be at the top even on Planet Tianhuang and the Chinese used to have one?
"We used to have a Heavenly Lord?"
Even Qin Luo got up excitedly.
They had been severely tarnished as a low-grade race by the other races in the Beihan Region. They thought their ancestors had been too weak to fight back, but after knowing the truth, they knew they could stand proud.
They looked at Chen Fan gently.
As if he was part of their family.
"Our ancestors are even stronger than the royal family of the Beihan Region, but why can't we cultivate, and why don't we have even one Golden Core Cultivator?" an elder wondered.
Even Chen Fan was confused.
"Is it truly because of the curse from the first Lord Beihan? But even if he's a Nascent Soul Cultivator, he should be no match for Heaven's Equal. How would he be capable of casting such a powerful curse on us?"
The Grand Elder remained silent for a while, then shook his head.
"I'm not sure if it's the curse cast on us by the first Lord Beihan. The information about it in our books isn't very clear.
"I only know that we were thriving when we first arrived on Planet Tianhuang, and the entire Beihan Region was our territory; it didn't belong to the Zhao family. The Beihan Region was called "Heaven's Equal Region" back then, and races like the Red Dragons and the Violent Apes were all under our command.
"But one day, the world collapsed and an immortal billions of feet tall showed up, destroying our city in the end. Thousands of people died that day. After that, all Chinese Perfected Cultivators, including Heaven's Equal, disappeared. We lost our cultivation talents and were exiled to the southmost area of the Yan State," the Grand Elder said as he became more serious.
"That was a really difficult time for us. Without our Perfected Cultivators, we were besieged by many strong races and sects. Half of our people died and only the remaining ones stayed in Old China Town. Over the last thousands of years, we have slowly expanded our territory, finally building thirty two cities…"
Everyone went silent after hearing what the Grand Elder said.
Chen Fan also narrowed his eyes.
Xiao Mang even started crying, while holding Chen Fan's hands tightly.
From ruling a region to being exiled to a remote city, how difficult had it been for the ancestors of the Chinese? No one could even imagine that. Chen Fan knew the Top Ten, including many sects and families, had probably been covered in the blood of the Chinese back then.
Especially the royal family of the Beihan Region.
They took the place of the Chinese and they must have something to do with the curse, even if it wasn't set on the Chinese by the first Lord Beihan. They should know something about it.
Chen Fan held Xiao Mang's hands and said, "Grand Elder, don't worry. I'll settle the scores with them."
"Thank you, Perfected Cultivator."
The Grand Elder knelt on the ground and bowed. All the other Connate Cultivators behind him, including Qin Luo, also knelt and kowtowed to Chen Fan.
The atmosphere in the hall became solemn.
Chen Fan stood there with fierce and cold eyes.