Chapter 1249: Contract (2/2)

“It seems like you all don’t even know what you have lost.” Li Qiye shook his head and said: “After abandoning your union and contract, even the ancestors have been forgotten. It’s no wonder why the valley looks down on your lake. It has thrown away all of its ancestors’ prestige and even the most precious inheritance they left behind. Why would the valley care about you?”

“You think that the Hundred-Saints Hall is storing treasures, right?” Li Qiye coldly stared at Hong Tianzhu.

Hong Tianzhu became quite embarra.s.sed. Some of their ancestors did think that the hall stored treasures. Some of them had even tried to open it to no avail.

Li Qiye felt a bit helpless at these descendants and told Hong Tianzhu: “Then let me ask you, has your lake been wors.h.i.+ping the souls of the ancestors and the lake itself?”

“Well…” Hong Tianzhu coughed awkwardly and couldn’t say anything for a long time.

The frustrated Li Qiye shook his head and said: “I don’t know what to say regarding your stupidity. If I was your ancestor, I would surely strangle you group of fools with only power in your eyes!”

“Do you actually think that you have been able to defend Dongting Lake because it has a superb defensive terrain with your insignificant strength? Don’t you know how important this treasure ground is? Your ancestors expended countless efforts in order to obtain it. In the Dragon Demon Sea, all of the great lineages like the Seven Martial Pavilion, the Roaring Conch, and the Dream Empyrean could easily destroy the lake whenever they want!”

He went on to say: “Do you think defending the lake is to your group’s credit? To put it bluntly, the Dream Empyrean’s Meng Zhentian can easily annihilate you all by himself, so why is it that none of them have maneuvered against the lake? Is it because of your few contemporary ancestors? Haha, in the eyes of others, these ancestors are no different from insects.

“The real reason why your lake has survived till now is due to the souls of your ancestors protecting everyone. Because of them, your enemies do not dare to act recklessly! Without their protection, within this Dragon Demon Sea where the sea demons reign supreme, you ants would have been treated like fat pieces of meat and torn asunder by a group of bloodthirsty sharks!”

He snorted sarcastically as he finished his monologue: “But today, you have forgotten about their souls! To actually not be performing the lake ceremony as well as wors.h.i.+pping your ancestors… how ridiculous!”

Hong Tianzhu stood there murmuring to himself: “The souls of the ancestors…?”

Li Qiye gently shook his head again with frustration: “You can’t be thinking that their souls are just an intangible concept?”

Hong Tianzhu smiled wryly and had no response again. Hong Yujiao, sitting to the side, couldn’t comment either because she didn’t know about the souls of the ancestors. As for the teachings and contract, she wasn’t privy to them either. Many of the current elders in the lake didn’t want to mention them.

Of course, it was their direct ancestors who chose to abandon these rules in favor of power; they naturally wouldn’t want to bring it up again.

Hong Tianzhu mustered up his courage and asked after some musing: “Young n.o.ble, if we were to let the souls of the ancestors make the decision, how do we go about it?”

“Do you really have the determination?” Li Qiye looked at him and said: “Right now, your Hong Clan has a lot of power at the lake and the Xu also have several docks, right? The poorest among the clans is the Zhang, they don’t even have a place to stay despite the lake being so large.”

Hong Tianzhu didn’t know too much about the power struggle back then either, but he had heard a few things about it. Even though the Zhang ancestors lost, they still had one dock remaining out of the eighteen. However, these ancestors were furious at that time and chose to leave Dongting Lake. The rest of them then divided the Zhang Clan's a.s.sets; this wasn’t a proud event at all.

Li Qiye nonchalantly looked at him and said: “Will your Hong Clan be willing to give up your power and resources?”

Hong Tianzhu eventually answered: “I don’t know what the ancestors will say, but you are right, our lake is indeed in disarray due to the power struggles. We only do what we want, so many of our covenants and pacts with others can’t be implemented. If this keeps up, the lake will be even more fragmented and become weaker.”

“I understand after listening to you today.” He gently sighed: “We must be the ones to reshape the order of the lake. Otherwise, no one will respect us.”

As the master of the lake, he understood that many of their current agreements couldn’t be carried out at all.