The Jian family really did know how to wedge themselves into any gap. What play were they performing today?
Back when she had been in the Heavenly Demon Palace, she had used the Jian family to pit the Tang family's Zhēnzūn against them. Indirectly, she had also returned the Desert Yellow Sand Map. During the final battle in the Nether Valley, she had slipped into a spatial rift and vanished from sight. As far as anyone knew, Mo Yue had disappeared entirely. Now they came knocking at her door again. For what?
"Zūnshàng, do you want me to send a message to Jian Sheng and have him pull up the hidden clan Jian family's records so you can be prepared?"
"The sect has a department for gathering this sort of information?"
Jian Dan asked casually. She wasn't in any rush to go to the main hall at the main peak. She wasn't someone anyone could meet just because they wanted to.
"Hidden clans occasionally send disciples into the world to train, so we can collect bits of information. For the details, you'll need to ask Jian Sheng. He's in charge of the Information Hall now. His master has mostly retired from managing it."
As they were speaking, Jian Sheng stepped in from outside the hall and handed Jian Dan a jade slip.
"Zūnshàng, this is what I could find on short notice about the Jian family. I'll organize more complete information later."
"Your sources seem quick. Do you know what they want with me?"
"They have a Unity-stage Zūnshàng leading them, and the rest are all Divine Transformation and Divine Soul stage cultivators. Not a single Golden Core among them. I don't know their exact purpose. The main peak's message and the sect master's summons came almost at the same time. I went to pull the records first."
Jian Dan nodded. The Information Hall's grip on sect intelligence was clearly accurate and timely.
"Since they've come to see me, I might as well take a look. You two will come with me."
"Yes, Zūnshàng."
Jian Dan changed into the ceremonial robes of a Unity-stage Zūnshàng of the Heavenly Sword Sect, hung her violet jade sword pendant at her waist, tidied her appearance, and then rode a streak of light toward the main peak of the Heavenly Sword Summit.
The moment she stepped into the grand hall, she felt every gaze turn toward her. One unfriendly divine sense even swept across her.
Jian Dan's perfected Mahayana divine sense was no decoration. She sent it back, neither heavy nor light, and the probing cultivator's face paled.
Satisfied, Jian Dan kept a faint smile, nodded to Jian Chun Zūnzhě, and then swept her gaze over the Jian family contingent.
A Unity-stage cultivator sat to Sword Chun's left, with eight men and women standing behind, among them Jian Shangxi and Jian Fen, who had been to the Heavenly Demon Palace, and Jian Yue, whom she had rescued from the Ma family.
"Jian Chun Zongzhu, you called me here to meet these Daoyou?"
Jian Dan, flanked by her two followers, took the seat at Jian Chun's right, directly facing the Jian family.
"Hehe, I know Zūnshàng is busy with the Law Enforcement Hall, but these are cultivators from the hidden clan Jian family. They say they have urgent business and insist on meeting you."
As always, Jian Chun greeted her with a clasped fist before explaining the situation directly.
"Oh? The hidden clan Jian family. I have long heard of you. May I ask what business you have with Jian Lu?"
Jian Dan's expression did not change, her tone calm.
The Jian family's Ancestor looked at the elegant, otherworldly Jian Lu Zūnshàng, unease stirring in his chest. Those eyes were identical to the old ancestor of the Jian family's direct bloodline. In fact, if one looked closely, Jian Lu's features bore traces of that same bloodline.
Her question hung in the air unanswered. The hall went quiet. Jian Dan was in no hurry. She sipped the fresh spirit tea brewed by Jian Ning and nodded to him.
"Forgive the intrusion. We have only come to verify something with Jian Lu Zūnshàng."
Only then did the Unity-stage leader speak.
"Very well. Please speak."
Jian Dan set the cup down, the picture of polite attention.
"Is it true that you come from the mortal world, and that your father's family name is Jian?"
"I am from the mortal world, but whether my father's surname was Jian, I do not know. I never saw my father. I have always taken my mother's surname."
Jian Shangxi and Jian Yue exchanged a glance, a spark of excitement in their eyes.
"So you are here to confirm whether I am one of your Jian clan's bloodline?"
Jian Dan cut straight to the point. There was no point playing word games. They were all cultivators who had lived for millennia. Why bother with pretense?
"Yes." The Jian cultivator answered plainly.
"And if I am? If I am not?"
"Our Jian clan may not be a great noble house, but we will not leave one of our own to wander outside. Naturally, you must acknowledge your ancestors and return to the clan."
The reply was righteous in tone, as though it never occurred to him that she might not be of their blood.
Jian Dan almost laughed. Still, she kept her composure.
"And why are you so certain I am a member of your Jian family?"
"Your bloodline, the ancient cultivation method you practice, they belong to the Jian clan. And we also know your spiritual root."
The implication was clear: they knew she possessed the Chaos Spirit Root.
Her eyes cooled. So they had come here to threaten her. She tilted her head slightly and asked,
"Which cultivation method of the Jian family do you mean?"
Jian Shangxi stepped forward in haste, bowed, and said, "Jian Lu Zūnshàng, it is not convenient to speak of the technique here—"
Jian Dan waved him into silence.
"My name is Shan Yunzu. Before the age of thirty, I was a Loose Cultivator. At thirty, by chance, I entered the Heavenly Sword Sect. I have cultivated to this day, received the title Jian Lu from a Zhēnzūn, and now temporarily serve as head of the Law Enforcement Hall."
The nine from the Jian family did not understand her meaning. Only Jian Chun Zūnzhě, seated above, smiled faintly. He knew exactly what she was getting at.
"Before the age of thirty, you never came to find me. Now that I am a high-ranking cultivator, you appear. What can you give me? Whatever you offer, the Heavenly Sword Sect can match. Why should I place a patriarch's yoke on my own head?"
"You are an ungrateful descendant!"
The Unity-stage cultivator scowled, his brows knotting.
Jian Dan spread her hands unconcernedly, then pressed the knife deeper.
"Are you certain we share an ancestor? From what I can sense, none of you even cultivate the Jian family's orthodox method."
That jab struck home. Only the direct bloodline possessed the complete Primordial Chaos Art. The incomplete transmissions in their hands were why even Chaos Spirit Root members of the Jian family advanced so slowly.
Her words indirectly confirmed that she herself was of the true direct line.
She turned her gaze to the man whose face was the darkest—the same one who had probed her with his divine sense earlier. His cultivation was early Mahayana.
"You want me to acknowledge the clan so that you can righteously demand I hand over my cultivation method to return it to the family. That is the real reason you have come in force, is it not?"
The Mahayana Zhēnzūn behind them stayed silent, but Jian Dan's bluntness killed the conversation outright. She watched their faces shift through several colors.
Suddenly, it all felt dull. She had been right in her previous life not to return to the Jian family.
Clutching their broomstick treasures as if they were priceless, puffed up with their own importance, they assumed that simply extending their olive branch would make her grasp it eagerly. They had forgotten that the height at which Jian Dan now stood was far beyond their reach.