Chapter 618: Wandering Through the Great Void (I)
Li Xuanfeng stepped out of the ancestral hall. The rain outside had lessened, but droplets still fell rhythmically onto the stone steps. His black-gold boots splashed through a shallow puddle of water collected at the threshold.
He glanced into the water, where his reflection gazed back—a face marked by age. His temples had turned white, his eyebrows thinned, and the lines of his face had blurred. His lips had grown thinner, and his deep-set eyes betrayed neither triumph nor joy but rather the weariness of one who had endured the pain of parting with life and death.
Li Xuanfeng was startled to realize how aged he had become. In that instant, he became aware of the toll taken by eighty years of struggle and hardship. Like most cultivators of the world, though his life expectancy placed him in his prime, the battles he had endured had left him prematurely weathered, unrecognizable from his youth.
He stepped into the main hall, where the threshold now seemed far higher than it had been in his younger years, rising all the way to his calves.
The juniors stood in rows along the sides. His elder brother, Li Xuanxuan, now a frail shadow of his former self, trembled as he stood at the highest position. Behind him stood a youth dressed in mourning robes, who was likely Li Ximing.
Further down stood Li Qinghong of the second branch, flanked by Li Xijun and Li Xicheng. Behind them, a scattered group of younger descendants waited. Li Yuexiang stood in a corner, accompanied by a hunched man dressed in black. A faint aura of demonic qi surrounded him, and he remained silent.
Li Xuanfeng immediately recognized the figure as a Hooked Serpent demon but refrained from commenting. Li Xuanxuan, his eyes brimming with tears, approached him and simply took his hand, saying, "Come, come."
In his youth, Li Xuanxuan had always ceded the spotlight to his younger brother whenever Li Xuanfeng was present, subtly stepping aside to give way to the more gifted sibling. Even now, he deferred, guiding his brother to the seat of honor.
The rest of the family bowed deeply and called out in unison, "Greetings to the Ancestor! Welcome home!"