Li Shen as well as Fu Wei was taken aback upon hearing this but remained silent as their father continue to speak.
“A Great Ancestral Clan is a clan from the era before this, the Primordial Era.”
‘Huh?!!’
Li Shen’s eyes widen in surprise.
‘What Primordial Era? I’ve never heard of such an era, just what the hell.’
This piece of news short circuit Li Shen’s brain for a moment, he barely heard his father continue to speak.
“The Primordial Era was a time where powerful Legendary beast roamed free, and cultivators of that time held powers that made them known as Gods.”
‘Ugh.’
Li Shen groaned in his heart.
‘Is he talking about the God Era or a different one? I can’t tell, I’m definitely missing something here. Everything is just too confusing!’
As Li Shen yelled that internally his father turned to him and said.
“Shen’er, I suppose you knew about this Era already.”
“Huh? I do?” Li Shen asked even more dumbfounded than before.
Nodding, Li Shu said.
“Information about the Primordial Era was within the restricted Archive you love to sneak into so much, but it wasn’t a lot since we were only able to collect a few remnant scrolls just mentioning it.”
This sent Li Shen’s mind into a whirlwind of thoughts until...
‘Fuck.’
He came to a conclusion he hadn’t expected.
The scrolls he read had him thinking that they were talking about the God Era when in actuality they were talking about this Primordial Era.
He read cultivators with godlike power so he assumed they were describing the God Era.
Despite his blunder, this now confirmed one of Li Shen’s questions. The God Era he reincarnated from was way further back than a simple Era or two ago.
But exactly how far back?
Li Shen can’t exactly grasp the time period his own era was in. Now he was hearing about this Primordial Era that was supposed to have Gods, he doubt they were as powerful as the cultivators in his past life though.
Well, maybe.
They might be ancient cultivators who had reached a high level in the Qi Cultivation System. But he wasn’t sure if reaching such a high realm would give birth to beings on the same level of cultivators in his past life.
These thoughts past through Li Shen’s mind in a fraction of a second before he went back to listening to his father.
“We call them the Seven Great Ancestral Clans but in truth those are just the number that was found on this planet. You see, the founder of our Li Clan discovered an Ancient Tomb. It was in this tomb that he acquired the bloodline from one of those powerful ancient clans of the past, the Golden Lotus Bloodline. He discovered the Golden Lotus Clan’s Legacy Technique as well, the Celestial Divine Star Diagram.”
Li Shu paused there and allowed his sons to process the information and ask questions.
‘Hm? Was I mistaken? I thought the Li Clan's awaken ability resembled a plum blossom, was it a lotus and has no relation to my seven sins plum blossom? But even that witch Fu Wei’s mother called it a plum blossom. Perhaps she didn’t know of the Li Clan’s origins? And how come I can't awaken this powerful bloodline?”
“Ugh, I have so many questions that I feel like my mind is going to burst open, but I’ll just listen for now. I can’t ask about it since for some reason father hasn't discovered my plum blossom and neither did brother tell him. If so then I’m not planning on telling.’
Li Shen then heard Fu Wei spoke.
“Father, are we the only clan on this or on other Continents nearby that possess an Ancient Clan’s bloodline?”
Li Shu shook his head and said.
“The first is the Lu Clan of the Star Bound Continent who has the Supreme Ying and Supreme Yang Bloodline. The other one is the Ming Clan, they had the Blade God's Bloodline.”
Fu Wei’s eyes narrowed upon hearing that before he mumbled.
“It’s as I thought.”
Li Shu then continued to “The Ming Clan had their bloodline stripped away from them by us in the past, hence their hatred for us. Their schemes until now, like developing a new cultivation method are just one of the many ways to regained their bloodline once again to go against us.”
“Bah! Stop beating around the bush and just get to the point!”
Fulong suddenly yelled from behind.
Li Shu smile wearily before he said.
“Inside the Ancient Tomb our Li Clan founder discovered the existence of its true nature. It was an inheritance site used to spread the bloodline of the original Golden Lotus Clan.”
“Wait, then does that mean somewhere out there a Clan from the Primordial Era exists?!”
Fu Wei said shocked, though Li Shen was only mildly surprised.
Li Shu nodded.
“All the inheritance sites are for the purpose of spreading a specific bloodline. The past Emperors and other talents of our Li Clan have all left in search of this ancient behemoth. They left to find out the origins of our bloodline.”
“Father, are the ancient clans somewhere on this planet? Did our ancestors cross the Spatial Barrier in search of them on the Central Continent?”
‘Hm?’
The mentioned of a Central Continent and Spatial Barrier piqued Li Shen’s interest.
Li Shu laughed a bit at Fu Wei’s question before he said.
“The Spatial Barrier separating us from the other side of the world can be bypassed if one has a Nascent Soul Realm Cultivation. The members that left have all or were close to reaching the Pseudo Heavenly Palace Realm.”
“Then-”
Fu Wei was cut off by his father who said.
“Think bigger son, do you think a Clan from Primordial times would be confined to a single planet?”
Fu Wei’s eyes go wide and he stuttered out.
“They-they left the planet?”
Fu Wei was shocked. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about life on other planets, but having the power to leave was just something that was out of his scope of imagination.
Would there be other worlds beside his own? How were the people on those planets? Will they have sects and clans? Would they even be human?
The planet was already big at it is Fu Wei thinking about leaving scared him quite a bit. He wouldn’t know what to do in a place so unfamiliar, heck he hadn’t even seen this world fully much less thinking about other planets.
While his brother was having his mind blown, Li Shen was just casually off to the side in his thoughts as he rubbed the head of Little Snow, who had transformed back into her cat form on his shoulders.
After a while he asked.
“Father, I understand everything you just told us, but what I don’t understand is why keep the secret of our clan origins from us at all?”
Li Shu smiled bitterly and said.
“I wanted you both to grow up without having that burden weighing you down. This world is already big enough to explore, thinking about leaving this planet to find some larger than life existence is too much. Even until now, none of our Clan members who left had returned.”
“Fool, that’s just you trying to shelter them. Wanting to raise them without them knowing such information has backfired. Your Eldest son has become obsessed over becoming Emperor because he thought gaining it was everything he should strive for, and your youngest son has become hesitant to even trust his own family to reveal his secrets.”
“The goal of our position here on this Continent is to groom them into powerful experts and send them off into the world. No one had ever returned after leaving but we have receive information from what they discovered.”
Fulong then started to recite something from memory.
“Leaving this planet and traveling across the vast stars, one would reach a region where the powerful congregate. Somewhere in this region is our Golden Lotus Clan, who for the past several thousand years have been looking for an Heir!”
Fulong's expression was serious as he said.
“That is why they’ve sent out these inheritance sites, and that is why no one had return. They all have been trying to gain the real inheritance, the Inheritance of the Golden Lotus Clan! We are not the only ones that have discovered their inheritance tombs, we speculate that others on different planets have left to seek out the desired Golden Lotus Clan's Inheritance as well. If our branch were the ones to gain the title of Heir and receive-”
“ENOUGH!!”
Li Shu who couldn’t listen to this anymore yelled angrily.
“That message was sent to us by fourth great grandfather, Li Fung. Do you know how long ago that was? Who’s to say that Inheritance hasn’t gone to someone else? Why pressure my sons to go and get something that might not be fated for them? Them living on this planet is plenty fine and if they choose to stay here then I will not force them to go to their deaths.”
Fulong and the other Elders frowned but seeing Li Shu's adamant expression they couldn’t help but sigh in their hearts.
Chuckling, Fulong said.
“Maybe this old man has been alive for too long. Fine, you are the current Emperor and if your wish is to break this tradition then you have all right to.”
“No, I do not wish to stop future generations from learning about our Li Clan’s history and wishing to seek out the Golden Lotus Clan granduncle. I only wish to have my sons have a choice I myself did not have. Make my journey the last talented Li Clan member we forced to seek out our origins off of this planet.”
Hearing that Li Shen’s heart shook.
“Wait, father, are you leaving us?”
Fu Wei asked his father as a complicated expression played on his face.
Li Shu turned around and looked at his two sons with a sad expression.
“Shen’er, Wei’er, I’m not on this planet anymore. This version of me is a Clone I left behind to protect our Li Clan.”
Li Shen and Fu Wei stared at their father speechless upon hearing that.
Li Shu walked up to the both of them and wrapped his arms around them.
“You-father you didn’t even say anything to us before leaving.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell the both of you and that I wasn’t there as much when you two were growing up. I was able to step halfway into the Heavenly Palace Realm to the point I was able to create a Clone. However, this Clone only has a mid-stage Soul Transformation Realm cultivation. To avoid letting my departure be discovered by our enemies like the Ming Clan, I had this clone stayed in seclusion. But that deprived you two of a father and I’m sorry.”
Fu Wei’s eyes began to water and he clenched the back of his father’s robes before burying his head in his chest.
Li Shen, despite feeling quite emotional as well, it wasn't to the point of tears like his brother.
He only patted his father on his back and said casually.
“It’s fine you’re forgiven.”
After a moment of this father son moment Li Shu released his hug but left his hand on their shoulders.
He then said.
“I couldn’t ask for better sons, both you two and Ling’er are my everything. As your father, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for the both of you.”
Fu Wei sniffled and used his forearm to wipe away his tears while Li Shen scratch his cheek embarrassingly with his index finger.
“Hm?”
Li Shu suddenly made a sound of surprise while looking at Li Shen.
Li Shen as well had his expression turned dark.
Li Shu instantly latched onto Fu Wei and Little Snow before teleporting away.
Li Shen at the same time dashed backwards from the group.
This all happened in a split second, and as soon as Li Shen dash backward his Sea Qi projection burst out from his Sea of Consciousness to appear behind him.
In the sky, thunderclouds immediately began to form signally the start of a tribulation.
Li Shen’s face twisted into an ugly expression when he saw his Sea Qi rotating violently while absorbing Time Qi from the void.
It was like it was saying, “Miss me? I dare you to stop me this time!”
It came back completely intending to finish what it started.