There were some things one either didn't do at all.

Or, if done.

They must be done with absolute finality!

Leaving no path of retreat.

For others.

Or for oneself.

Since he had chosen to sever ties with the Ye clan and face expulsion, Ye Chu Chen felt not a shred of regret.

He would grit his teeth and walk this path of death to its very end, forcing that man to seek out the Ye family's Ancestor.

To strike his name, Ye Chu Chen, from the ancestral registry, severing their karmic threads and rending their linked Providence.

From this day forth, he was simply himself!

And the Ye family was nothing more than the Ye family!

Staggering out of the grand hall, Ye Chu Chen wiped the blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. Without a backward glance, he rushed toward his dilapidated courtyard.

He was certain that before long, Ye Ding would "convince" the Ancestor to strike his name from the registry and banish him.

Before leaving, Ye Chu Chen needed to return to his room. He had to retrieve the sole keepsake his mother had left behind...

Shortly after Ye Chu Chen departed, Butler Fu Bo slipped out of the hall. Swallowing a heavy sigh, he hurried after the youth.

A mere servant could not speak out of turn before the Patriarch and the young misses. Yet, as long as Ye Chu Chen had not been officially cast out...

In Fu Bo's heart, the boy would always be the Holy Son of the Ye family.

"Rest assured, Holy Son. This old servant will lay down his life to see you safe!!"

......

Deep within the Ye family's ancestral grounds.

Terrifying killing Formations layered over one another, suffocating the boundless void with lethal intent.

Ye Ding tore through space, his boots touching solid ground. Gazing at the secluded, deathly silent courtyard before him, he rigidly straightened his posture. He clasped his hands and bowed deeply, multiple times, before whispering:

"Ancestor, Patriarch Ye Ding requests an audience!"

Ye Ding was a terrifying Saint-level powerhouse, capable of rending space and traversing the void with a mere wave of his hand.

Yet, standing before this unassuming courtyard, he dared not breathe too loudly. Every micro-expression was laced with absolute reverence and dread.

For the absolute zenith of this Eternal Aristocratic Family-Ancestor Ye Shanhe-dwelled within, undergoing a death-seclusion retreat.

Ye Shanhe was the true pillar, the spine, and the ultimate arbiter of the Ye family. To shatter his shackles and assault the Great Emperor realm, he had surrendered the Patriarch's seat to Ye Ding, severing worldly karma to wholly comprehend the Heavenly Dao.

"Enter."

An ancient voice vibrated against Ye Ding's eardrums. Before he could react, the space before him shattered. A majestic tide of Spiritual Qi swallowed him whole, dragging him into the courtyard's depths.

By the time Ye Ding regained his bearings, he stood within a stone chamber. Before him stood an old man with bark-like skin and a hunched spine.

"An... Ancestor!"

Ye Ding shuddered, immediately throwing himself into another series of desperate bows.

"Do you truly intend to strike Ye Chu Chen from the ancestral registry and banish him?"

The old man opened his murky eyes. A terrifying light pierced the boundless void, locking directly onto Ye Chu Chen, who was currently arguing with a servant in the outer courtyards. His voice rumbled:

"Do not forget, Ye Chu Chen has rendered unparalleled merit to our Ye family!"

"Without him, we would have needed centuries of blood and sweat to ascend to an Eternal Aristocratic Family, let alone dominate the ninety-nine spiritual veins."

The Ancestor was a peak Saint King Tenth Layer entity, a mere half-step from the legendary Emperor realm.

He had long since grasped the threads of Heavenly secrets, peering through the veils of past and future.

No leaf could fall within the Ye clan without his knowledge.

So even though Patriarch Ye Ding hadn't spoken a single word of explanation, Ye Shanhe already knew every detail of the farce that had unfolded in the grand hall.

"An... Ancestor is absolutely correct."

Ye Ding shrank his neck, terror flickering in his eyes. Yet, he still offered a low, sullen defense:

"But Ancestor, this rebellious son wields his past merits like a weapon. He... he recklessly tramples over my authority and challenges the Ye family's absolute bottom line!"

"I followed your decree, Ancestor. I had Ye Ling'er find a pretext to accuse that wretched boy of a grave sin, aiming to force him to willingly yield the Holy Son title to Xiao Xuan. But..."

"But that ungrateful beast not only refused to yield the seat, he threatened to sever our blood ties and abandon the family! He dared to threaten me!!"

"He is a crippled waste blind to his own standing! His arrogance knows no bounds. If I, as the Patriarch, do not crush him, how will I ever command respect within these walls?"

It had all been a meticulously crafted trap. The Ancestor commanded Ye Ding, and Ye Ding manipulated Ye Ling'er. All of it designed to force Ye Chu Chen to hand the Holy Son position over to Ye Xuan on a silver platter.

Upon receiving her orders, Ye Ling'er had been too thrilled to sleep. Coincidentally, the Millennium Fire Ganoderma that Ye Chu Chen had nurtured on his windowsill vanished, providing the perfect excuse for the grand hall tribunal.

They assumed the crippled waste would obediently surrender his title. They expected him to grovel, consumed by guilt, continuing to fawn over his sisters and Ye Xuan while weeping tears of gratitude toward the Patriarch, the Ancestor, and the clan.

But who could have predicted...

"I truly do not know what madness has possessed this trash!!"

Ye Ding's frustration bled through, his complaints echoing softly in the stone chamber:

"Does he still think he is the youngest, most dazzling Great Saint of the Desolate Ancient Continent? Does he still believe he is the Chosen One, dripping with heaven-defying Providence?!?"

Ye Shanhe frowned at the Patriarch's petulance. Yet, his withered, bloodless face remained a mask of icy calculation:

"According to the divinations of the Heaven-Reaching Mirror, Ye Xuan possesses a Supreme Divine Body. He holds the potential of a Great Emperor. He is the absolute bedrock of our Ye family's future!"

The Heaven-Reaching Mirror was an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon forged by the Ye family's primordial founders. Though fractured, it could still pierce the veil of time and glimpse a corner of the future. It was the true, supreme foundation of their Eternal Aristocratic Family.

Three years ago, when Ye Chu Chen's Divine Body shattered and his cultivation collapsed into ruin, Ye Shanhe roused the Heaven-Reaching Mirror. Burning secret bloodline arts, he sought a new Chosen One within the clan-someone to inherit Ye Chu Chen's mantle and bear the weight of their destiny.

They had feared that with Ye Chu Chen ruined, the younger generation would be devoid of true dragons. They feared the Ye family would be trampled beneath the boots of rival ancient families and Holy Lands. But who could have imagined...

The divination shook the very core of the Ye family.

Ye Chu Chen's eldest sister, Ye Lingyue, not only possessed the latent talent of a Quasi-Emperor, but the destiny to become a supreme Talisman Grandmaster.

His third sister, Ye Qingqing, wielded the potential of a Quasi-Emperor and the fate of an Artifact Refining Grandmaster.

His fifth sister, Ye Han, held Quasi-Emperor potential and the mandate of a Formation Grandmaster.

And his youngest sister, Ye Ling'er, mirrored them with Quasi-Emperor talent and the path of an Alchemy Grandmaster.

........

All seven of Ye Chu Chen's siblings, without a single exception, harbored Quasi-Emperor potential. The future promised them absolute dominion over alchemy, artifact refining, talismans, and array formations.

But the most terrifying anomaly of all was the adopted son, Ye Xuan. Within the churning illusions of the Heaven-Reaching Mirror, Ye Xuan radiated the aura of a terrifying Divine Body. He held the Heaven-ordained destiny of a Great Emperor.

A talent to shatter the past and dazzle the present. His future was a boundless ocean.

The Ye family had lost one Ye Chu Chen, only to miraculously birth ten more to replace him!!

Even Ye Chu Chen's father, Ye Ding-a man of painfully mediocre aptitude-suddenly revealed the potential to shatter his bottlenecks and ascend to the Saint King realm under the omen of the Heaven-Reaching Mirror.

As for Ancestor Ye Shanhe himself, within that fragmented glimpse of the future, his withered frame erupted with the cataclysmic Pressure of the Great Emperor realm!!

It was a divine decree! He would breach the Quasi-Emperor threshold, seize another thousand years of lifespan, shed his mortal coil, and attain supreme creation!!

From that day forward, the Ye family overflowed with peerless geniuses. Their Providence blazed like a roaring inferno.

Aside from the crippled Ye Chu Chen, every single member of the main bloodline was a dragon or phoenix among mortals. A clan of absolute heaven-defiers!

Ye Shanhe could not fathom why their Providence had mutated so violently in a mere three years, but the Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon could not lie.

Bathed in the blinding halo of their newfound potential, the sisters found the crippled Ye Chu Chen increasingly repulsive. Meanwhile, Ye Xuan, cloaked in the majesty of a future Great Emperor, usurped Ye Chu Chen entirely. He became the sole pillar and shining hope of the clan.

To pave Ye Xuan's path with the finest cultivation resources and blessed environments, everything that had once belonged to Ye Chu Chen was mercilessly stripped away.

The crown of the Holy Son was no exception.

"Enough. My Ye family is a den of ascending dragons and soaring phoenixes. Without this piece of trash, we will still crush the zenith and dominate the heavens!"

The Ancestor flicked his sleeve. A terrifying blast of Saint King True Essence violently ejected Ye Ding from the courtyard. Simultaneously, a cold, merciless decree slammed into Ye Ding's ears:

"Your words hold true. My Ye family bows to no threats, least of all from a crippled whelp!"

"Proclaim it to the world! Strike Ye Chu Chen from the registry and strip him of the Ye surname!"

"Sever all blood ties, cast him into the dirt, and bar his soul from the ancestral hall for all eternity!!"

He was Ye Shanhe! The supreme Ancestor! A peak Saint King preparing to assault the legendary Quasi-Emperor realm! Why would he ever compromise for a shattered mortal?

Yet, how could the Patriarch and the Ancestor ever comprehend the true source of this miracle? They remained entirely oblivious to the reason their clan's Providence had violently surged immediately after Ye Chu Chen was crippled-blazing like a Heaven-piercing beacon, prosperous and inexhaustible!!

Little did they know.

It was never the Ye family sheltering Ye Chu Chen. It was Ye Chu Chen alone who birthed the entire Ye family's Providence!!

......