Chapter 505: I Walk My Own Path
By the riverside stood a grand estate—an opulent sprawl of over a thousand mu[1] in size.
This was the residence of the Gongsun Family.
Few knew that the Gongsun Family was split into inner and outer branches.
The outer branch consisted of ordinary mortals, while the inner branch belonged to the true Gongsun bloodline—cultivators attached to Shaohua Mountain, entrusted with overseeing this region on its behalf.
The Gongsun Family's strength was modest. The current patriarch, Gongsun Li, was two hundred and fifty-three years old. His cultivation had only reached the middle stage of the Foundation Building Realm.
Today, mourning white draped the entire estate.
Gongsun Li wore burial robes and sat motionless in a grand preceptor's chair, awaiting the end of his lifespan.
Kneeling before him was a young man dressed in white.
They were the only two in the room.
Gongsun Li's expression was inscrutable as he stared blankly out at the clear blue sky beyond the doorway, murmuring to himself.
"I once had the potential to form a Golden Core, but in my youth, I indulged too deeply in the pleasures of the mundane world. I wasted those precious years in idle enjoyment and only managed to reach the Foundation Building Realm at the age of fifty-eight."
"In the hundred years that followed, I continued to live licentiously, surrounded by wives, concubines, rare delicacies, and fine wine. By the time I turned one hundred and fifty, my cultivation had barely progressed."