Chapter 62: The Guan Family Ancestral Residence

Seeing this, Hu Ba niang stammered out an apology: "Well... honored one, it was truly just my ignorant little underling who didn't know any better. Why don't you, in all your magnanimity, spare this little fox?"

Her voice carried an unusual, bewitching charm that made one's heart itch, as if a little fox were playfully scratching at it from within.

"Spare you? That can be arranged!"

Meng Fan paid no mind to this seductive display. After all, he was still young and lacked the capability for such matters, so he simply rubbed his fingers together. "Shouldn't you show a little sincerity then?"

A clear twitch appeared at the corner of "Gao Linghua's" mouth. "Name your price, then. Even if it bankrupts me, Ba niang here will scrape it together for you."

Meng Fan had no idea what kind of genuine treasures the other party might pull out, but the price the Gao family had previously used to trade for the white elephant with Anything-Goes Communications consisted of millennium-old and century-old ginseng.

However, Meng Fan well understood the principle of quoting sky-high prices and haggling down to earth.

Thus, he waved a hand and made an eight-shaped gesture with his fingers. "Since you rank eighth, I won't ask for too much. How about eight stalks of ginseng aged over eight hundred years?"

"Eight stalks?!"

"You might as well just take my life!" Hu Ba niang shrieked.

"No?"

"Well, that's just fine. Someone just asked me to perform the three-kneeling and nine-kowtowing ritual earlier, and I'm still eight bows short. You can wait until I finish kowtowing, and besides, I happen to be in need of a fur coat."

With that, Meng Fan made a motion to bend down.

Frightened out of her wits, Hu Ba niang hurried over to steady him, dropping to her knees with tear-filled eyes as she pleaded, "You really can't bow, little ancestor! If you bow, this little fox's life will be finished!"

"Then this ginseng of mine..."

Hu Ba niang gritted her teeth. "I simply don't have that much ginseng. Even as a granddaughter of the Grandmother, I might not be granted a single stalk from the ginseng mountain kiln, not even after fifty years of cultivation."

"In my own little private stash, the absolute limit is one stalk aged over three hundred years. I planted it myself right when I first gained spiritual awareness and became an immortal sprite."

"I've never been able to bear eating it, just saving it up..."

"Wait, are you really this poor?" Meng Fan scratched his head.

Gao Dazhuang chuckled dryly from the side, offering an explanation: "Tiantian, she is already wealthy enough. I never would have imagined she'd possess such a treasure."

Meng Fan curled his lips. "Fine, then. How about you make up the difference with some other items to settle the account?"

Hu Ba niang let out a long breath of relief. "What items does the honored one desire?"

Pointing at the silver dollar hanging around his neck, Meng Fan opened his mouth wide like a lion demanding an exorbitant sum: "I want the methods you use to cultivate and attain spiritual awareness, as well as the key to becoming an immortal family..."

Before Meng Fan could finish, the other party bristled like an agitated cat. "No way! You might as well just bow me to death. If I were to leak that out, Grandmother would skin me alive first!"

Meng Fan could see quite clearly that the other party genuinely lacked the authority to make this decision.

In truth, such secrets were akin to the hereditary inheritances of human anomaly lineages—strictly forbidden from being passed on to outsiders. Sprite entities held their cultivation methods in equally high regard, and each of the Five Great Immortal Families even had their own distinct focal points.

Because these sprites lived long enough to accumulate thousands of years of tradition, and despite their spiritual intelligence being inferior to that of humans, the core secrets of their techniques had been refined and explored generation after generation, costing countless amounts of painstaking effort.

This was the very foundation upon which the immortal families established themselves. The reason the Five Great Immortal Families held their status was precisely because their lineages were complete, whereas other lesser entities like the Breeze and Smoke Spirits were completely out of the running.

For Meng Fan to open his mouth and demand such knowledge with nothing but empty words was nothing short of a pipe dream.

Once these inheritances leaked out, who could guarantee that another immortal sect wouldn't pop up elsewhere? Where would that leave the Five Great Immortal Families then?

This was equivalent to the eagle flying away, the bear fleeing, and the tiger departing; having finally managed to secure the position of top dogs, how could the remaining five tolerate the emergence of another unstable factor?

No one in their position would ever agree to it.

"Fine, fine. Looking at how stingy you are, I won't ask for too much. Just give me eight stalks of ginseng over a century old, and besides that, you must introduce Hu San Tai nai to me."

Hu Ba niang hesitated for a moment before nodding. Faced with this scorching hot potato of a little ancestor, she had no other choice; she might as well let the Grandmother handle the headache.

A classic case of running to tell an adult after causing trouble.

Seeing that Hu Ba niang had agreed, Meng Fan stopped pressing her.

A wisp of dark *qi* twisted away from Gao Linghua's body and plunged straight back into the divine idol.

Meanwhile, in some nameless cave, a red fox over three meters long opened its eyes. Glaring at the cluster of little cubs cowering before her, she bared her teeth and roared in a fury: "Which little fox cub went and caused this trouble?! Speak!!!"

"If this great-aunt doesn't skin you alive, this old lady won't share the surname Hu!"

Leaving behind only a huddled mass of little foxes trembling together in terror.

—————

After Hu Ba niang departed, Gao Linghua regained clarity of consciousness. The way she looked at Meng Fan was as if staring at a monster, filled with a complex mixture of emotions.

Seeing that such an event had transpired, Gao Dazhuang could only steer the conversation elsewhere. "Linghua, where is my fourth aunt?"

"My mom went to my great-grandmother's place. She won't be back for a couple of days."

Having stirred up such a colossal disaster this time, there was no telling how her mother would punish her upon her return. Just thinking about it felt like descending into hell.

"Her great-grandmother is?"

"The ancestor of the Guan family, Guan Shihua," Gao Dazhuang said solemnly.

Meng Fan nodded. "Isn't this a coincidence? Just have her lead the way, and we can go straight there, can't we?"

Gao Linghua desperately wanted to say, *I don't want to go, I don't want to face that predictable bleak future and dripping blood head-on.*

However, met with Gao Dazhuang's glare, she caved: "Such a huge matter happened, do you still expect to keep it hidden?"

"Alright!" Gao Linghua nodded weakly.

Driving for three hours, they arrived at a relatively remote village.

Despite its secluded location, the structures built there were exceptionally fine, mostly constructed from timber and carrying a natural, antique charm.

The Guan Family Ancestral Residence.

As the three of them stepped through the door and passed through a much larger and more opulent ceremonial hall, they were guided into a reception parlor where more a dozen people of all ages—men and women—were already seated.

Meng Fan cast a glance around the room and saw a family of three seated at the very front. Among them, a rather pretty young girl was being held down and forced to her knees on the floor. She appeared somewhat deranged, alternating between talking to herself, laughing out loud, and occasionally crying out in wails.

In the center, a middle-aged woman held a drum, performing a bizarre dance akin to that of a shaman while chanting in a strange cadence.

"The sun sets in the west and darkness falls, households everywhere bolt their doors. Travelers on the road hurry to the inn, birds fly to the mountain forest and tigers return to the hills. Atop the head rests a seven-star glazed tile, beneath the feet tread eight-sided purple gold bricks."

"Feet step on the earth while the head supports the sky, taking broad strides in a continuous circle. Both feet planted firmly against the encampment, incense altars are set up to invite the immortals. First invite the fox, then invite the yellow weasel, followed by the long python, spirit marten, and sorrowful king..."

"The fox family acts as commander-in-chief, the yellow weasel family as vanguard, the long python holds the ground, and the sorrowful king guards the ceremonial hall!"

"Immortals above, hear my words; the disciple today inquires into a matter. The visitor stands before the hall, the trouble in their heart cannot be concealed. Immortal eyes pierce the boundaries of yin and yang, seeing both past and present lives. Every event has a cause and effect tracing back to its root, may the immortals kindly point the way..."