Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 722 I, Yang Zhengshan, am your great-uncle!
For the next three days, Yang Zhengshan cultivated with Yu Qingyi on Lingquan Mountain Plain while waiting for Lü Hua and Chen Zhongshu to gather information in the courtyard of Zuixianlou.

In the courtyard of Zuixianlou, Yang Zhengshan looked at the map of the Lingxiu Sea, while Lü Huajing stood beside him, holding several booklets in her hands.

This map is much more detailed than the previous one. It not only marks the territories of the three sects and twelve families around the Lingxiu Sea, but also marks the territories of many small families in detail.

Lingxiu Sea is bordered by the Yunxiao Mountains to the north and the Wanlin Mountains to the south.

The Yunxiao Mountains have many steep peaks that pierce the clouds, with cliffs as steep as if cleaved by an axe. Thick clouds and mist conceal the mountain peaks, making them appear as if they are floating in the clouds.

The Wanlin Mountain Range resembles a surging green wave, layer upon layer, stretching endlessly. Each hill has a rounded top and a gentle slope, outlining a smooth and beautiful curve between heaven and earth. When viewed from afar, it looks like layers of scales stacked together.

The Lingxiu Sea is formed by the confluence of numerous rivers from the north and south, and the entire Lingxiu Sea is like a blue jade belt inlaid between the peaks.

The three major sects are: the Xuanqing Sect, perched atop numerous mountain peaks, its headquarters resembling a celestial palace in the clouds; the Wuxiang Sect, occupying the tail end of the Lingxiu Sea, nestled at the foot of the mountains; and the Huanyue Sect, residing in Huanyue Valley, which contains a lake known as Huanyue Lake.

The other twelve families are scattered around the three major sects, clinging to a small edge of the Sea of ​​Spiritual Beauty, unwilling to defend it.

Numerous smaller sects and families are scattered around the three major sects and twelve families, filling the area within three hundred miles of the Lingxiu Sea like pieces of a puzzle.

The more peripheral a sect or family is, the weaker it is; the closer a sect or family is to the Sea of ​​Spiritual Beauty, the stronger it is.

Although Shanggu County is also near the Lingxiu Sea, it only occupies a small part of it, with most of its area being more than 200 miles away from the Lingxiu Sea.

Yang Zhengshan was eyeing the northeastern part of Shanggu County. The southeastern part was too close to Tianque City, and the central part was where the county seat was located. The county seat was surrounded by powerful and influential people from the Great Zhao Dynasty. They were local bullies, and Yang Zhengshan was new to the area, so it was not advisable for him to fight with them.

Moreover, this county town is already Lu's territory, and Yang Zhengshan doesn't want to have a conflict with the Lu family now.

The northeastern part of Shanggu County was the most suitable place for him to settle down.

Yang Zhengshan took the booklet from Lü Hua and asked as he flipped through it, "Are there any suitable targets for us?"

Lu Hua said in a clear, cold voice, "Yes, those are all small families, not particularly powerful. If we need to seize a place to stay, a few of them should be suitable!"

Small families are just small families. Don't assume they are powerful just because of the existence of the Three Sects and Twelve Families.

Some of these small, insignificant households may have connections with forces in other places. For example, some powerful clans and families from the Great Zhao Dynasty would come here to occupy a piece of land as a springboard for their connections with various forces in the Lingxiu Sea.

Others have connections with the Three Sects and Twelve Families. For example, the disciples of the Three Sects may have their families able to establish themselves on the outskirts of the Sea of ​​Spiritual Beauty by relying on their relationships with the Three Sects.

The Yang family has neither background nor connections here, so establishing themselves here will not be an easy task.

It's not that you can't just steal, but if it leads to a lot of trouble, then it's not a good idea.

Yang Zhengshan carefully examined the information that Lü Hua had collected. The time was too short, and the information that Lü Hua had collected was not very comprehensive, but he still had a general understanding of the situation of several small families in the northeast of Shanggu County.

Yang Zhengshan was not very satisfied with any of the smaller families he visited.

Until he read to the end, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"The Yang family of Lingxi Mountain! Yang Zhenghai?"

"What's the deal with this Yang family?"

Lu Hua glanced at the information in the book and said, "The Yang family of Lingxi Mountain has declined. It is said that a hundred years ago, the Yang family of Lingxi Mountain had a master of the Heavenly Gang stage. However, since the death of this master, the Yang family of Lingxi Mountain has become worse with each generation."

"Three years ago, the old patriarch of the Yang family of Lingxi Mountain passed away. The descendants of the Yang family were unable to protect the family's property and could only give it up again and again. In three years, the Yang family of Lingxi Mountain lost a market town and three sacred mountains. In the end, they could only guard their ancestral land, which is Lingxi Mountain!"

"Although Lingxi Mountain is the ancestral land of the Yang family, it is actually just a very barren spiritual mountain with not much spiritual land."

"By now, the Yang family of Lingxi Mountain is not only small in number, but also has very few resources left!"

After listening, Yang Zhengshan put on a strange smile.

The so-called spiritual mountain refers to a mountain with spiritual land. Spiritual land represents resources. Only by possessing spiritual land can one cultivate spiritual plants and harvest spiritual rice, spiritual medicine, and spiritual fruit.

In fact, the Three Valleys outside the capital city of Da'an are also a sacred place. Yang Zhengshan used to call it a blessed land, and it is also called a sacred place in the Lingxiu Sea.

The cultivation methods here require far more elixirs than those in the area east of the Stormy Sea. Most of their cultivation methods are so advanced that they cannot be practiced without elixirs.

This has led to a situation where once a family loses its spiritual land and stops producing spiritual items, the family will soon decline.

For a small family like the Yang family of Lingxi, decline is likely to happen in just twenty or thirty years.

"The old patriarch of the Yang family in Lingxi was named Yang Zhenghai?" Yang Zhengshan seemed very interested in this.

"That's right!"

"How many people are left in the Yang family of Lingxi now?"

Lu Hua thought for a moment and said, "Yang Zhenghai only had one son, who passed away forty years ago. Now, the Yang family in Lingxi is managed by his grandson, Yang Xiangheng. Yang Xiangheng has no brothers or sisters, only one son and one daughter!"

"How old is this Yang Xiangheng?"

"Over forty years old! Possessing the cultivation of a half-step innate realm!"

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard, a satisfied smile on his face.

"Excellent, excellent, this is the place. Let's pack up and set off tomorrow for the Yang family in Lingxi Mountain!"

……

Nothing happened that night, and the next morning, Yang Zhengshan and his party left Shanggu County.

The journey from Shanggu County to Lingxi Mountain is about 400 li (approximately 200 kilometers). The road is not difficult to travel; it is a flat official road all the way.

Lingxi Mountain also belongs to the Yunxiao Mountain Range, but this is already the end of the Yunxiao Mountain Range.

The Yunxiao Mountains run east-west, stretching from the Lingxiu Sea in the west to thousands of miles away in the east, covering an extremely vast area and containing abundant resources.

It's not just around the Lingxiu Sea that there are spiritual lands; there are also some spiritual lands in the Yunxiao Mountains, the Wanlin Mountains to the south, and the Dazhao Mountains to the west.

However, those spiritual lands are more scattered, unlike the Sea of ​​Spiritual Beauty which has such a large area, much like the Three Valleys and Emerald Valley of Da'an.

Of course, the number of spiritual lands in these places far exceeds that in Da'an. The Three Valleys and Emerald Cloud Valley in Da'an together only have a dozen or so acres of spiritual land.

The journey of over 400 li is not far; if you travel on horseback, you can arrive in less than two days.

Lingxi Mountain is just a small hill about a hundred feet high. Compared to those mountains that are thousands of feet high, it is like a child nestled next to an adult.

The hillside is relatively gentle. Standing at the foot of the mountain, you can see many terraced fields on the hillside. However, now that it is winter, only a withered yellow landscape remains on the mountain.

At the mountaintop, buildings with green tiles and white walls are half-hidden among withered grass and trees.

That was the ancestral home of the Yang family of Lingxi.

Yang Zhengshan and his group of six climbed Lingxi Mountain without any hindrance and reached the summit.

This is actually a village, also known as Yangjia Village. The people living here are all from the Yang family of Lingxi, but most of them are from the collateral branches of the Yang family, and there are only about thirty households.

The Yang family of Lingxi has declined beyond recognition. It began to decline a hundred years ago, and by the time the old patriarch passed away, the Yang family of Lingxi was left with only this small piece of land on Lingxi Mountain.

Over the past century, many branches of the Yang family have either migrated away or changed their identities to become subjects of other families. Today, the Yang family of Lingxi has only a hundred or so members left, which is not even as many as the Yang family village in Anning County back then.

However, their strength is far greater than that of Yangjia Village in Anning County back then.

As the saying goes, even a starved camel is bigger than a horse. Although the Yang family of Lingxi has less than a hundred people left, eighty percent of them are martial artists, and half of them are acquired martial artists.

Even if Lingxi Yang is terrible, he is still a martial arts family from the vicinity of the Sea of ​​Spiritual Beauty.

"Who are you?"

Yang Zhengshan and the other six had reached the top of the mountain when a man in his thirties spotted them.

Yang Zhengshan did not answer him, but simply scanned the Yangjia Village.

As you walk up the bluestone path, the first thing you see is an ancient and majestic archway with four pillars supporting the main structure. Under the eaves are the four large characters "Lingxi Yang Family". On the front and back of the crossbeam are two pairs of fierce tigers in relief, which are exceptionally heroic.

Behind the archway are rows of quaint and unique courtyards. The central courtyard is quite large, with its blue tiles and white walls almost completely enclosing the mountaintop. A stream flows from the left side of the archway through the courtyard, following a constructed irrigation canal across the terraced fields and down the mountain.

There must be a spring on Lingxi Mountain, so it could be called Lingquan Mountain!
Yang Zhengshan was very satisfied with this place; at least the scenery was quite nice.

"Who are you?"

Seeing that they didn't speak, the man nervously demanded again.

"Where is Yang Xiangheng?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"What do you want with the head of the family?" the man asked.

Yang Zhengshan grinned and said, "Taking me to see him is definitely not a bad thing! If you don't want to, I can just break in. Don't blame me if I hurt anyone!"

His words were extremely unreasonable, and to the man's ears, they sounded incredibly arrogant.

The man's eyes were filled with anger, his face was flushed, and his hand gripping the knife hilt was pale from the force he was using.

"You are from the Xiang family of Nanqingshan!"

Seeing his appearance, Yang Zhengshan knew that this was a misunderstanding. He took a step forward and instantly arrived in front of the man, reaching out to press the hilt of the knife at the man's waist.

"I am not a member of the Xiang family, I am a member of the Yang family. Take me to see Yang Xiangheng!"

Yang Zhengshan stared directly into the man's eyes, and the man's pupils suddenly contracted, but he then surprisingly calmed down.

"Okay, I'll take you there!"

Yang Zhengshan smiled and let go of his hand. The man didn't say anything more and turned to walk towards the ancient gate behind him.

Although the man was flustered, he did not lose his composure.

Pushing open the door and entering the courtyard, they found two young men in their twenties. They looked at Yang Zhengshan and his companions with wary expressions, and the man shook his head at them.

"Please wait a moment, I'll go and call the head of the family over right away!" the man said after leading Yang Zhengshan to the hall.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly and casually looked around at the decorations in the hall.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a middle-aged man in a blue robe with a solemn expression walked in.

"Yang Xiangheng of the Yang family of Lingxi greets you, senior. May I ask who you are?"

Yang Xiangheng's eyes also showed a hint of wariness.

Yang Zhengshan's lips curled up slightly as he said, "I am Yang Zhengshan, your great-uncle!"

Yang Xiangheng was stunned.

granduncle?

I have a great-uncle?

I do not know how?
"Was your grandfather named Yang Zhenghai?"

"Yes!"

"My name is Yang Zhengshan. Am I your great-uncle?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Yang Xiangheng stared at him blankly.

“My grandfather never said he had any brothers!”

“It didn’t exist before, but it will be in the future.” Yang Zhengshan blinked at him.

Yang Xiangheng didn't quite grasp the situation; instead, he started to imagine things in his mind.

Did my grandfather have any brothers?

Maybe!

Since the passing of our ancestor, the family has driven away many members over the past century.

Could these be members of the tribe who were previously driven away?

Perhaps he wasn't my grandfather's biological brother, but rather his cousin?
If that's the case, it's not impossible!

Thinking about this, Yang Xiangheng began to believe that Yang Zhengshan was his great-uncle.

"Please wait a moment, senior!"

"Go and summon my third great-uncle!"

He spoke to the man behind him, seemingly trying to confirm Yang Zhengshan's identity.

Yang Zhengshan looked embarrassed and coughed lightly, but did not stop him from calling the elders over.

His claim of being a great-uncle is definitely false; there's no need to verify it at all.

But the fake can become the real.

When it comes to survival, what does it matter if you have relatives or friends?

To put it bluntly, the Yang family of Lingxi is now at their wits' end. Yang Zhengshan's coming to claim kinship is like handing them a lifeline.

If they are smart enough, they should cling to this lifeline.

If they're not smart enough, then they shouldn't blame Yang Zhengshan for being ruthless.

Anyway, today Yang Zhengshan is going to become the head of the Yang family in Lingxi!

A moment later, an elderly man with white hair came over, leaning on a cane.

Yang Xiangheng stepped forward and whispered a few words to the old man, who kept looking Yang Zhengshan up and down.

"I am Yang Zhenghe, which branch do you belong to?"

"They're from the same branch as Yang Zhenghai!"

Yang Zhenghe was also very confused.

Do I have other brothers?

"Are you perhaps playing a trick on this old man?"

However, he quickly realized what was happening and asked angrily.

Doesn't he know how many brothers he has?

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard. "Alright, let's be frank. I am Yang Zhengshan. You don't need to worry about my background. All you need to know is that my name is Yang Zhengshan, and from now on I am Yang Zhenghai's brother, which means I am your great-uncle!"

"I need a place to settle down, and Lingxi Mountain is just right!"

"If you are willing, then we will be family from now on, and I can guarantee that you can live here peacefully."

"If you are unwilling, well, then this old man will have no choice but to take your place!"

"Hmm, we can change the name. From now on, it will be Yang Zhenghe!"

Yang Zhengshan looked at Yang Zhenghe with a smile, and Yang Zhenghe immediately understood what he meant.

The cuckoo has taken over the magpie's nest!

(End of this chapter)