Chapter 632: Ancestors of the Fear Family

Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng looked back at Yan Jing in trembling fear.

"Seventh Brother... how long have you been standing there?"

Shi Sanchuan managed a laugh, though his smile was uglier than crying.

Yan Jing blinked.

"Probably around the time you said, 'Old Seven isn't here, let's take this chance to bump off that old thing.'"

Shi Sanchuan glanced at Shi Yicheng's ashen face and felt a faint surge of secret delight.

It seemed the fire hadn't burned its way to him yet.

Faced with Yan Jing's teasing, Shi Yicheng stayed silent, simply looking up at him.

Yan Jing held his silence as well, staring back down at Shi Yicheng.

For a moment, the atmosphere grew stagnant.

Shi Yicheng's firm gaze gradually gave way, and he silently withdrew his hand from the coffin.

"That was just a joke."

Shi Yicheng spoke stiffly. Coming from him, this was as good as conceding defeat.

Yan Jing smiled.

"I've always known my two older brothers like to joke."

"I came because there's a matter I was hoping you could help me with."

Saying this, he brought out the Wrath Emperor's corpse.

The man, who looked no different from a young boy, floated quietly in midair, completely devoid of his former tyrannical fury. Shi Yicheng and Shi Sanchuan stood to the side, regarding the Wrath Emperor's corpse with complex expressions.

They had both watched the Wrath Emperor die.

This emperor of Sin City, who had spent the latter half of his life fueled by rage, had finally collapsed in their family's courtyard, murmuring empty, romantic nonsense.

He was so incredibly old that those romantic words didn't even seem all that romantic.

But those sentiments were real—at least to him.

They both knew this very well.

If one searched this world for the single person who best understood memories, they might not belong to the Fear Intent family. But if one picked ten random people out of the hundred who understood memories best, at least one of them would definitely be from Fear Intent.

No matter what kind of fear this family dealt in, it would always eventually settle into memories.

"All the fear in this world will eventually remain in memories."

This was the first line of the Fear Intent family's ancestral teachings.

"You want us to crack the Wrath Emperor's memories?"

Shi Yicheng looked at Yan Jing.

Yan Jing nodded with a smile.

"Second Brother is a smart man indeed."

Shi Yicheng shook his head.

"He was at the Tenth Tier. With our tiers, it's impossible for us to obtain all his memories."

"I don't need all of them." Yan Jing's gaze was deep.

"I just need to see certain things within them."

Shi Yicheng still shook his head.

"If even you can't do it, it's even more impossible for us. Forcibly prying into the mind of a dead man—and a Tenth Tier existence at that—is highly likely to cause a backlash."

Yan Jing smiled.

"To be honest, if I could do it myself, I definitely wouldn't trouble my two brothers."

His identity as Yi Ji already had a sufficient understanding of the path of fear, but it still lacked a certain feeling. This left Yi Ji, just like Luo Sheng, as an existence who hadn't found his own path.

Wen Xu, Xue Mo, and Mao Si had all already found their own paths, elevating their tiers to match his true body's. Luo Sheng was still far off, and this Yi Ji identity's understanding of fear was always just a hair away.

Hearing Yan Jing's words, Shi Yicheng frowned, assuming it was just a random excuse he had made up.

"No matter what you say, Eldest Brother and I are very limited in how much of his memory we can extract."

"Even if he were alive, sitting there without resisting, it would be impossible for us to extract it entirely, let alone now that he's dead."

Yan Jing smiled and shook his head.

"You have a way."

As he spoke, Yan Jing looked at the two coffins resting nearby.

Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng's pupils contracted simultaneously.

"That's impossible!"

Shi Yicheng was the first to object, his tone exceptionally firm.

Shi Sanchuan, who was usually unwilling to clash head-on with Yan Jing, also stepped forward this time. He looked at Yan Jing and shook his head.

"Xiao Yi, it's impossible. Our ancestors are inside."

"I know."

Yan Jing smiled and nodded.

"But I'm also a child of the Fear Intent family."

"They are my ancestors too."

"When we run into difficulties, it's only normal for our ancestors to help."

Help... they were specifically carried out here just to beat you up.

Shi Yicheng's lips twitched, but in the end, he kept the thought to himself. He stepped forward, still wanting to dissuade Yan Jing, but Shi Sanchuan spoke first. "Xiao Yi, don't say your two brothers are making things difficult for you. The ancestors are right here. If you want their help, ask them yourself."

Listening to Shi Sanchuan's words, Shi Yicheng frowned. He was just about to speak when Shi Sanchuan grabbed his arm.

"But whether the ancestors are willing to help will depend on your own methods, Xiao Yi."

"You know as well as anyone that we juniors can't make decisions for the ancestors."

Hearing this, Yan Jing nodded.

"That's fair. Thank you, Brother."

After saying that, Yan Jing bypassed the two of them and walked toward the coffins.

"What are you doing?!"

Shi Yicheng frowned and hissed viciously into Shi Sanchuan's ear.

"How could you let this lunatic get near the ancestors! If something happens to them, how are you going to explain it when we get back?!"

"Didn't you say yourself that you were going to go back and slaughter Father?! What are you so afraid of?!"

Shi Sanchuan's lips moved as he continued.

"Besides, what are you so anxious about? The two ancestors brought here this time are both people who reached the very end of the Tenth Tier."

"Xiao Yi can't use force, so he can only rely on kowtowing to open the coffins. He might be strong, but he hasn't walked far enough on the path of fear. Those ancestors value bloodline above all else—why would they possibly respond to him?"

"As long as the ancestors don't relent, what can Xiao Yi possibly do?"

"It's not like he'd actually kill us right in front of the ancestors."

Just as his voice fell, Yan Jing turned his head to look at them.

"Brothers, how does this coffin open?"

"Kowtow, and then silently state your request in your heart. The outcome will depend on your sincerity and your understanding of fear,"

Shi Sanchuan said coldly.

"The greater your sincerity, the lower the requirement for your understanding of the path of fear. The lower your sincerity, the higher the requirement."

Yan Jing blinked.

"Sincerity... you mean the number of kowtows?"

"Pretty much."

Shi Sanchuan smiled.

"Xiao Yi, you've never kowtowed to the ancestors before, have you?"

"Perfect timing. You can take this opportunity to kowtow a few extra times."

Yan Jing smiled.

"Not necessarily. Maybe the ancestors will see that I haven't been back for a long time, and a casual bow will be enough."

"Heh heh."

Shi Sanchuan chuckled and said no more.

To him, this was pure fantasy. Yan Jing had walked far too short a distance on this path, and his understanding of fear was too shallow. It would be a blessing if the two ancestors didn't force him to kowtow seventeen or eighteen times.

Under the watchful eyes of the two men, Yan Jing stepped forward and squatted down slightly.

And then...

He reached out his hand and curled two fingers.

He knocked lightly on the coffin.

Knock, knock, knock.

Then he stood up, his gaze tranquil.

Watching Yan Jing make absolutely no further moves, Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng's expressions gradually stiffened.

That was it?

That was really it?!

Their mouths fell open slightly, utter shock written plainly across their faces.

"Wait, how can that be it?!"

Shi Sanchuan shot Shi Yicheng a look.

Shi Yicheng's lips peeled back into a cold sneer.

Even for them, it took at least two kowtows to open a coffin. Now that Yan Jing had merely reached out and knocked on it, he would be lucky if the ancestors didn't climb out to string him up and beat him.

As if to confirm their thoughts, the coffin in front of them began to shake violently in the very next second. Streams of weird energy, as pitch-black as ink, seeped out from the cracks in the wood.

Rattle, creak! Rattle, creak!!!

Looking at the shaking coffin, Shi Sanchuan couldn't help but gasp.

Such an anomaly had never occurred before.

The ancestors were truly going to crawl out of their coffins this time!!!

"Isn't he just asking for death?!"

Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng stepped backward simultaneously.

Although these were their ancestors, to be honest, neither of them had seen them since the day they were born, and they had absolutely no desire to look upon those old monsters now.

Rattle, creak! Rattle, creak!!!

The coffin shook even more violently, cracking the ground beneath it. Fissures spread out, branching wildly like roots. That ink-like weird energy carried a scent of extreme decay, turning everything it touched into grayish-white dust.

Shocked, Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng backed up several more steps in unison.

But Yan Jing stood there with a calm expression, even bearing a faint smile as he turned to look back at them.

"Is this the part where I should demonstrate my understanding of weird energy?"

This is the part where we should run!

Shi Sanchuan stared at the weird energy gradually creeping toward them and swallowed hard several times.

Finally, he suppressed the urge to flee and nodded at Yan Jing.

"Reveal your fear!!!"

Yan Jing nodded. Understood.

Gazing at the pitch-black weird energy already clustering around him, he knew that today he would have to bring out the real deal.

And then...

Rip.

Under the shocked gazes of Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng, a pitch-black branch broke through the skin of Yan Jing's palm and sprouted out.

The curled branch gradually extended. Leaves unfurled at its tips, only to rapidly wither in the wind, finally leaving nothing but bare twigs and sharp thorns. At the forks of the branches, flowers symbolizing decay blossomed one after another.

"This is..."

Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng gasped in unison.

They couldn't possibly be mistaken—what had appeared before them was the Fear Tree!

It was an Ancient Relic passed down through the Fear Intent family for generations. Every generation, the Fear Tree and the Fear Bird were passed on to the next family head.

And this generation's Fear Tree seed and Fear Bird were clearly in San Shan's hands. According to Yan Jing, they had been lost following San Shan's death. Yet now...

Now they were actually in Yi Ji's hands?!

The two exchanged a glance, a thousand thoughts racing through their minds. Ultimately, their gazes fell back onto the Fear Tree.

Staring at those pitch-black, withered flowers, Shi Sanchuan truly couldn't hold back his disbelief.

"Does the Fear Tree... have flowers?"

"I've never seen them..."

The usually calm Shi Yicheng was also bewildered at this moment.

He truly had never seen the Fear Tree bloom before.

Across so many generations, such a thing was unheard of.

But the absurdity wasn't over yet.

After the mist saw the Fear Tree, it reined itself in somewhat, but its surging didn't stop.

Clearly, although the Fear Tree proved Yan Jing was this generation's family head, the ancestor was still extremely dissatisfied with his method of merely tapping the coffin instead of kowtowing.

But Yan Jing chuckled softly, and the weird energy around his entire body surged to its limit.

Those branches began to grow madly. Every passing second brought a completely new appearance. In just a few fleeting moments, it had already transformed into a towering tree.

Every branch of that massive tree was thicker than a skyscraper, and a single withered flower was as large as a room.

Terrifying weird energy poured down like a deluge, and the will of fear spread frantically.

Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng were shocked speechless.

Was this still the Fear Tree?!

Was this the Fear Tree of their understanding?!

San Yan had once displayed his own Fear Tree in battle, but... wasn't the difference way too huge?!!

How was this a tree? That lush canopy clearly looked like a massive suspended landmass, and the towering trunk was no different from a mountain peak. Rattle, creak—

The coffin's vibrations completely stopped. The weird energy froze in midair, as if it, too, was shocked by the scene before it.

After quite a while, a pitch-black, withered branch finally extended from the coffin. It reached out to touch a branch of the Fear Tree that Yan Jing had manifested, seemingly trying to confirm whether this was truly the Fear Tree from its memories.

It stroked the branch for a long while, with no intention of letting go.

It was as if it had become addicted to touching it.

That was until a massive branch reached over and pinned the withered branch down.

Yan Jing spoke slowly:

"Your descendant, Yi Ji, replaces a kowtow with his hand, begging the ancestor to lend a hand and help resolve your descendant's doubts!"

Yan Jing gave a slight bow.

The withered branch shrank back a bit.

It didn't seem very willing.

For some unknown reason, from the slightly trembling tip of that withered branch, Yan Jing read a hint of a tsundere attitude.

What did tsundere mean anymore?

He remembered clearly that the tsundere trope had already fallen out of the meta.

Or could it be...

That it was very popular back in their era?

Regardless, Yan Jing bowed slightly again and repeated his previous words.

But...

The effect was still poor. The withered branch shrank back even further. If Yan Jing hadn't controlled the Fear Tree to hold onto it tightly, it would likely have already withdrawn completely into the coffin. Yan Jing's eyes flickered slightly, and he suddenly removed the branch holding it in place.

Without the branch's suppression, the withered branch instantly snapped back several meters due to momentum.

And then...

It froze in midair, seemingly not expecting Yan Jing to suddenly let go.

"Since the ancestor doesn't approve, I won't force the issue. I'll just withdraw from the family after this—"

Yan Jing looked at the withered branch. Before his words had even finished, the withered branch silently extended right back in front of him.

Yan Jing blinked, then spoke again.

"There's no need for you to wrong yourself; I'll just withdraw. This descendant has been unfilial, so let's just part on good terms—"

Smack, smack, smack!!!

Before he finished, the withered branch voluntarily rested itself on Yan Jing's hand, slapping the back of his hand with loud smacks.

"You mean you're willing?"

Yan Jing probed.

Smack, smack, smack!!!

The withered branch slapped him eagerly. The weird energy that had originally carried a scent of decay was now as hot as a hot spring, causing even the coffin on the ground to bounce slightly. This scene completely dumbfounded Shi Sanchuan and Shi Yicheng in the distance.

This...

Was this really still their ancestor?!