Chapter 49: No Regret Medicine
Hearing this, Ying Nanxi couldn’t help but step forward. “Ancestor, we did this for you, for the entire Ying family.”
“Silence!”
Seeing the look on Ying Nanxi’s face, completely unaware of any wrongdoing, Ying Tianxin couldn’t help but shout in fury.
At that moment, he knew that the trouble these people had caused was no small matter.
Moreover, Ying Tong’s earlier words still echoed in his ears.
Ying Tianxin didn’t even dare to think deeply about why he had been told they “weren’t qualified.” He had a sinking feeling that the truth of this matter might be too much for him to bear.
After the shout, Ying Nanxi’s mask shattered, revealing a face twisted like that of a demon.
Compared to before, the curse on Ying Nanxi’s face had deepened considerably. Where half of her face had once appeared normal, now only a quarter of it had untainted skin; the rest was covered by black lines of the curse.
Ying Nanxi collapsed onto the ground, quickly picking up her broken mask and putting it back on.
Ying Tianxin ignored her and turned his gaze to the family head and the elders beside him.
After being hidden away for a hundred years, nearly all of the Ying family’s leadership had changed.
Due to the curse, the Ying family members, no matter how diligently they cultivated, had much shorter lifespans compared to other cultivators. Many also became obsessed with having children, leaving little time for cultivation.
This was why, when Ying Tianxin opened his eyes again, he found that he didn’t recognize a single member of the current Ying family leadership.
Pointing to the family head kneeling at the front, he asked in a deep voice, “Speak. What exactly has been going on? What have you been doing for the past hundred years?”
The family head knew there was no way to hide the truth anymore, so he recounted everything in full detail.
“Bang!!!”
Ying Tianxin suddenly stood up, his eyes wide with anger, like a bull’s, his chest heaving, and the table beside him shattered into pieces from his fury.
Before hearing the truth, he had imagined every possible outcome and prepared himself for the worst.
But once he learned the truth, he realized that all his prior plans were utterly useless.
He had thought that the mistakes they made back then were severe enough, but now he saw that their descendants had surpassed them in recklessness.
Now he finally understood why Her Excellency had said that Ying Nanxi and the others didn’t deserve to kneel before her.
However, the family head and the others still hadn’t grasped the gravity of the situation.
“Ancestor, we may have acted a bit rashly, but we compensated that girl’s parents and her siblings. They’re living very well now,” the family head said, confidently defending his actions.
“Isn’t it worth it to sacrifice one person for the happiness of the entire family?”
The family head spoke with righteousness, as though his actions were beyond reproach.
But he had forgotten that, when Ying Xuejian was chosen, he had awarded her parents publicly to cover his tracks, while secretly suppressing them in every way possible.
He even found excuses to deny the ritual to remove the curse from the other children they had later.
Ironically, his actions inadvertently protected their bloodline, sparing them and even saving their lives.
The family head was convinced he’d done no wrong; everything he had done was for the family’s sake. If it weren’t for him, the Ying family would have been devoured by the other three families over a decade ago.
Yet he failed to notice that Ying Tianxin’s gaze was like a blazing fire, as if he were seconds away from tearing him to pieces.
Of course, Ying Tianxin wouldn’t actually do that.
He kicked the family head, sending him flying dozens of meters away.
The family head fell heavily to the ground, like a kite with a broken string.
“Fools! You bunch of absolute idiots, standing here all proud of yourselves! Do you have any idea what your actions mean?” Ying Tianxin yelled, spittle flying as he berated them.
“Our curse is a bloodline curse tied to our family. As long as that curse remains, you’re still part of the Ying family. Once you achieve ascension through your own efforts and opportunities, you can reclaim the Ying family name, and the curse on others will naturally be lifted. But what did you do? You came up with the foolish idea of transferring the curse! Don’t you understand? By transferring the curse, you also transferred the Ying bloodline within you!”
Their branch of the bloodline had already been diluted over generations of intermarriage with other families, weakening their lineage without undergoing the purification ritual unique to the Ying family. This was the reason the curse in their veins had become progressively weaker.
Now, they had abandoned the last traces of that bloodline.
This was equivalent to severing all ties with the Ying family.
“Do you think our Ying family, outsiders here, managed to gain a foothold in Shifang City purely on our own? Though we’ve been weak all these years, the other three families have only issued verbal threats, never daring to act against us. Did you really think that was because of us? What they feared, from beginning to end, was the Ying family, not the Ying family’s remnants!”
After Ying Tianxin finished speaking, silence fell over the crowd once again, broken only by the pained groans of the family head in the distance.
But unlike before, this silence was filled with a deep sense of panic as everyone finally grasped the gravity of their actions.
At that moment, Ying Nanyang summoned the courage to ask, “Ancestor, we admit that our past actions were wrong. But now that the curse has returned to us, doesn’t that mean our bloodline has also come back?”
Ying Tianxin let out a cold laugh. “You wish. Do you think the Ying bloodline is something you can cast off and reclaim whenever you please?”
Ying Tianxin’s mocking expression was so severe that it stirred regret within Ying Nanyang. In fact, by their generation, the curse had weakened so much that it barely affected their cultivation. Yet, they had still chosen to transfer it.
Had they known the consequences, they certainly wouldn’t have made that choice.
But, unfortunately, there’s no medicine for regret in this world.
Then, one elder spoke up, “Ancestor, if we can find the escaped vessel, could we reclaim our bloodline from her?”
Given the situation, there was no use in saying more. Their only path forward was to somehow reclaim their bloodline—it was their last hope.
Hearing the elder’s suggestion, Ying Tianxin fell into thought.
Finding that young girl who had served as the vessel and retrieving the bloodline from her… in theory, it was possible.
Looking at the people kneeling before him, Ying Tianxin sighed inwardly. In the end, they were still his kin.
