Unsheathed

As the mountain lord of the Lion Garden, the old woman didn't follow Chen Ping'an and the others into Liu Qingqing's residence. Her reasoning was that since Esteemed Immortal Chen was there to manage the situation, Liu Qingqing definitely wouldn't face any dangers in the short term. Thus, she needed to head over to protect Assistant Minister Liu and the many other descendants of the Liu Clan.

Inside the ancestral hall of the Liu Clan, the old woman was filled with spirit and energy after being freed from the restrictions of the fox demon's black ropes.

From past to present, all clan leaders of the Liu Clan recognized Lady Liu Shu, the mountain lord who was even older than the Lion Garden.[1] When it came time for the Liu Clan to burn incense and give offerings to their ancestors each year, Lady Liu Shu would definitely receive a huge portion thanks to her position as the guardian deity of the Liu Clan.

The ancestral hall of the Liu Clan was packed to the brim with people right now, and many servants who didn't actually have the right to enter the ancestral hall had been shooed inside by Old Steward Zhao at the behest of Assistant Minister Liu as well. If news of this traveled out, it was inevitable that Assistant Minister Liu would be accused of bringing disgrace to etiquette and desecrating his ancestors’ memory.

Assistant Minister Liu and twenty or so members of the Liu Clan were gathered in a relatively quiet area of the ancestral hall at this moment. This was the first time that many of them had seen Lady Liu Shu in person.

Apart from them, there were also two people who weren't descendants of the Liu Clan but had lived in the Lion Garden for many years. They stood on the fringes of the group, of course, and they wouldn't boss the Liu Clan higher-ups around and tell them how to run their own clan.

There was a private school in the Lion Garden, and after a highly respected Confucian scholar resigned thirty years ago, the Lion Garden had hired another teacher who was completely unknown in comparison.

This was an interesting matter, and at the time, both the imperial court and the scholarly world were curious about who would win the favor of Assistant Minister Liu and become the new teacher who educated the younger generations of the Liu Clan.

Afterward, however, Assistant Minister Liu's eldest son did well in the imperial examinations but not actually impressive. He was a so-called advanced graduate and made it to the highest imperial examination, yet his ranking in this exam was rather low. His essays and poems couldn't be regarded as outstanding, and they were a far cry from what his father, Assistant Minister Liu, could produce. It could be said that the son didn't live up to his father's name.

As a result, people lost interest in speculating about the identity of the Lion Garden's new teacher. The student whom he had spent so much time and effort teaching was mediocre, so as their teacher, just how impressive could he possibly be?

As for Liu Qingshan, he had also been a widely renowned child prodigy during his youth, much like his father. He had possessed outstanding literary talent. However, this was his own ability, and it had little to do with his teacher.