Ordinary People: Starting with the Chen Clan

Withered vines, old trees, and crows at dusk; a dark and windy night for ancestral worship. An old man, pulling a middle-aged man with a pale face, arrives at an old house.

"Xuanzhou, kneel down immediately! This is an auspicious day I prayed to the old sage for. Now I'm begging our ancestors; they will surely help you get ashore. Back in the day, our ancestors were quite wealthy..."

"What kind of old sage? I think he's a charlatan. I'm speechless at the thought of him choosing an auspicious day in the middle of the night. Are you sure you've found a respectable person?"

As Chen Xuanzhou spoke, his body betrayed him as he knelt on the dusty prayer mat, kowtowing twice to the ground as a token gesture. It was unclear whether he was too sincere or not.

The offering table, just a hair's breadth away from him, was badly damaged, its corners gnawed by insects or rats. Chen Xuanzhou noticed this only when he looked up after his third kowtow.

"It seems like getting ashore this time is going to be difficult again. Look at the state of this offering table."

"They haven't cared about us for so many years, and now they're just hoping their ancestors will bless them. It's already a sign of their magnanimity that my long-time ancestor hasn't punished us unfilial descendants."

Thinking about this, I suddenly felt a pain in the back of my head, and then I seemed to hear the old man shouting.

Before collapsing, Chen Xuanzhou caught a glimpse of a three-legged incense burner rolling on the ground, with a trace of crimson that wasn't originally there.

"Isn't this the one on the altar?"

Ancestor, even if you look down on me, you don't have to be so cruel!

"At least I'm one of your last remaining bloodlines in this world. Even if you can't bless me to safety, you should at least let me carry on the family line before you take me in. Whom have I been chaste for all my life...?"

This was Chen Xuanzhou's last thought before he lost consciousness.

It seems that the Ghost Lantern truly exists; its body, which cooled down in just a few breaths, still possessed such rich mental activity.

In the northern part of Yue Kingdom, near the Taiyue Mountains, lies a place shrouded in white mist year-round, the ancestral home of the Chen family, one of the three great families of Huangfeng Valley.

Although it is called the ancestral land, it is actually just a gathering place for a branch of the Chen family. The core members of the Chen family naturally cultivate in Huangfeng Valley.

At this moment, in a courtyard near the outer edge of the mountain range, three figures were sitting cross-legged in a circle, with a man and a woman looking at a child in the middle with concern.

The child looked to be six or seven years old. Although young, he had a handsome air about him. His eyes were closed and his brows were slightly furrowed.

Although the men and women on both sides were nervous, they did not dare to disturb them in the slightest and did not make a sound. They only exchanged glances. After an unknown amount of time, a faint vortex suddenly appeared in the room.

A hint of joy flashed in their eyes. Although this was only the first step in their cultivation, how could parents not be nervous?

"I always said my son was exceptionally talented. He entered the Qi Refining stage in just one month and is sure to achieve Foundation Establishment in the future."

"That's because they don't even know whose son he is."

"Yes, yes, it's all thanks to my wife, hehehe..."

The woman rolled her eyes at her husband's dazed expression.

The two were talking without a sound from the outside world, clearly to avoid disturbing the boy, and were communicating through telepathy.

Before the child crossed the Qi Refining stage, the two didn't even dare to communicate telepathically, only feeling apprehensive and expectant.

The boy quickly opened his eyes, looked at the two people beside him and smiled, "Father, Mother, there's no need for this. It's just a small step into the Qi Refining stage."

"Alright, alright, your mother and I know you're the most composed person, but everything has its limits. You should also try to be more childlike; it will be good for your future mental well-being..."

Although Chen's father was not highly educated, he still had a solid foundation in family learning. He wanted to say more, but was immediately interrupted by Chen's mother.

"Alright, Xuanzhou has just finished his cultivation and must be a little tired, so let's not disturb him too much. This is a gift for you."

A small gray cloth bag, about the size of a palm, was placed in front of Chen Xuanzhou.

"Thank you, Mother!"

Looking at the steady young man, the two only gave him a few words of advice on cultivation precautions before leaving the room to let him properly understand what Qi cultivation is.

After all, no matter how much you talk about it, only your own personal experience is the most authentic.

However, as soon as the two left, the joy on Chen Xuanzhou's face disappeared, replaced by a mix of confusion, excitement, and a little regret. Such complex emotions were certainly not because of someone who had entered the Qi Refining stage.

As for the reason, it comes from what he has in his hands.

Suddenly, a three-legged, two-eared brass cauldron, about a foot in size, appeared in his hand.

If Chen Xuanzhou's parents saw this, they would definitely think that their precious son had been possessed by a Core Formation or even Nascent Soul expert, because this bronze cauldron was not taken out of a storage bag.

This item was not found in the storage bag they provided.

This seemingly ordinary brass cauldron flew directly from his body to his palm, and only the natal magic treasure of a cultivator at the Core Formation stage or above could do this.

This cauldron is certainly not a magic weapon, but rather the incense burner that hit him on the back of the head in his previous life. It is also his cheat code in this life, but for now it can only be considered a trial version.

In fact, ever since he fully awakened his past life memories a year ago, he had tried to find a cheat code.

However, after trying various methods without success, he finally resigned himself to the fact that he was just an ordinary transmigrator with ordinary fire, earth, and metal elemental roots and an ordinary family background.

Although he had a fairly good understanding of the general trajectory of the mortal realm, after all, as a die-hard fan of the mortal realm, he had read at least seven or eight episodes, if not ten. In fact, as he broke through to the Qi Refining stage, his memories of his previous life became more detailed.

In this human realm where resources are extremely scarce, he doesn't have enough confidence to break through to the Core Formation stage, let alone the Nascent Soul, Deity Transformation, and ascension to the Spirit Realm, relying solely on a slight information gap.

After all, they will soon face an invasion by demonic forces. Being able to save their own lives and bring their parents to live would already be a victory.

Fortunately, now that he has broken through to the Qi Refining stage, his cheat ability has finally arrived.

Hmm... I'd say half of it, referring to the unremarkable incense burner in his hand, which looked like it was cast from a single piece of brass.

This incense burner is the one passed down in his Chen family. It seems his grandfather was right; his ancestors were indeed wealthy.

The thing that could bring him across realms must be a primordial treasure. Could it be that the Chen family produced a Great Luo Golden Immortal? Chen Xuanzhou couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.

However, this treasure encountered a problem after it traveled through time. It seems that it wasn't bound to his soul, but rather to his Chen family bloodline.

This is a treasure that absorbs the power of the family's incense offerings, and the branch that Chen Xuanzhou belongs to is just a branch within the Chen family.

His parents' branch was the sixth house of the Chen family in Xizhou. There were very few cultivators there, let alone Foundation Establishment cultivators, even those in the late Qi Refining stage.

The condition for binding this unknown incense burner is that his branch must become one of the main branches within ten years, or upgrade this ancestral land.