The comments said I was deeply affectionate, I just added points by using an alternate account.

Yin Tianzheng pushed open the door, and a scent of sandalwood mixed with the smell of old wood wafted out.

The ancestral hall is much larger inside than it appears from the outside. In the center, rows of memorial tablets are placed, densely packed from near to far. The inscriptions on the wooden tablets in the farthest distance have been blurred by the passage of time.

Yin Tianzheng walked to the inside of the threshold, took an oil lamp from the iron rack by the wall, and lit it with a match.

"Come in."

Chen Guan stepped across the threshold, his gaze sweeping over the memorial tablets without lingering.

He was looking for something else.

Yin Tianzheng walked ahead carrying an oil lamp: "See? It's nothing special, it's just that the meaning is special, which makes it seem precious."

Chen Guan's gaze passed over the wooden frame and fell into the deepest part of the ancestral hall.

There stood a stone tablet, conspicuously visible among a group of memorial tablets.

Chen Guan walked over and stopped in front of the stone tablet.

The light from the oil lamp shone on the surface of the monument, and the patterns on it alternated between light and shadow in the flickering flame, giving them an eerie, almost lifelike quality.

Sure enough, it has the same pattern as the one in the forum pictures, and it's the same as the one in the North.

Chen Guan turned to look at Yin Tianzheng, who had followed him, and feigned curiosity: "Grandpa, why is there a stone tablet here?"

Yin Tianzheng carried the lantern to the monument and sighed, "It was passed down from our ancestors."

"This stele is older than the ancestral hall itself. How old it is is not recorded in the family genealogy and has long been unknown to people."

"What is inscribed on this stele?"

"have no idea."

Yin Tianzheng's answer was straightforward: he truly didn't know what the point of this incongruous thing was.

"When each new patriarch takes over, the previous one only gives one instruction: guard this monument for generations to come."

"Didn't they say why?"

"He didn't say."

There was no confusion in Yin Tianzheng's tone. At his age, he had long lost the curiosity of a child: "The rules of the Yin family are what our ancestors set out. Just follow them."

"However, there is a rumor about this stele. The rumor is that it belongs to Yin Li, an ancestor who is said to have ascended to become a god."

"Unfortunately, that history is too far removed from our generation. It's no different from the creation of the world by Pangu."

Yin Li.

Chen Guan recorded the name of this ancestor of the Yin family.

Perhaps he could ask Baal. Since he is rumored to have ascended to godhood, he must have been a very important figure back then. Baal should have heard of him.

"Yin Li? So this family are his descendants."

Before Chen Guan could even ask, Baal's voice rang out.

"Do you know him?"

"Of course I know him," Barr said smugly. "Speaking of which, you two have a bit of a connection."

"You may not know Yin Li, but you must have heard of his other name."

"Black Tortoise".

……

The lights in the ward were half off, with only the small, warm yellow lamp by the bedside remaining on.

Chen Guan lay flat on the bed, his right hand resting on his abdomen, his left arm outside the blanket, and a faint burning itch emanated from the skin under the bandage.

There wasn't much to see on the ceiling; a small piece of white paint had peeled off, revealing the gray cement underneath.

He couldn't ask too many questions earlier, but now he can have a good talk with Baal.

"Baal, who is this Yin Li you just mentioned?"

Baal boasted smugly, "Yin Li was already a renowned figure before the Lost Era."

"The world back then was different from what it is now. Humans and demons ruled the world together, and demons could also be the guardians of humans. Yin Li was a member of the Xuanwu clan and the patriarch of one of its branches at that time."

"Like Beidou, whom you know well, he is someone who survived from the Lost Era to the known civilization. Unfortunately, he is not an immortal like Beidou. As of now, I do not know whether he is alive or dead."

"They're probably dead. To achieve immortality, one must become a god. Unfortunately, for you humans, a godhood is nothing to be coveted."

"As for the Black Tortoise I mentioned, yes, the one you're thinking of, it should be the original Black Tortoise, probably named after its family."

"However, there were two Xuanwu at that time. One was him, and the other was a woman who was from another lineage of the Xuanwu family at that time."

Chen Guan became curious: "What was that woman's name?"

Barr replied matter-of-factly, "I don't remember."

Chen Guan rolled over, putting his right hand behind his head: "You, a dignified demon god, have such a bad memory?"

Do you know how many years have passed since the Lost Era?

"How many?"

"have no idea."

"Then what's the point of saying that?"

Sensing the disapproval, Baal immediately defended himself, saying, "If even Lord Baal can't remember something, it means it's really from a very long time ago."

"Besides, Lord Baal was just a child back then, you can't expect a child to remember too much."

"The reason Lord Baal can't remember is because that woman isn't very famous. She wasn't the patriarch of that lineage. She seemed to be a free-spirited female knight-errant. All I know is that her surname was Wu."

Fearing that Chen Guan would keep pressing the issue, Baal changed the subject: "But the interesting thing is that the code names chosen by the Guiyuan Group are not chosen randomly, such as Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise."

Chen Guan turned to lie on his side and patiently asked, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that there was a reason why the Guiyuan Group used these four code names back then. As for the specific reasons, Lord Baal doesn't know. Those people's thought processes have always been strange."

"Hearing your words is like hearing a lecture... but when it comes to the crucial part, I don't know what to do."

"Hey, Lord Baal isn't part of the Origin Group, how could he possibly know everything?"

This time, Barr readily admitted it, feigning nonchalance.

Then, taking advantage of Chen Guan's inattention, they made a lightning-fast escape and refused to come out no matter how Chen Guan asked them.

It seems we won't get any more information from them.

Chen Guan closed his eyes and went through the information from tonight in his mind.

Yin Li was the first Xuanwu, and the Yin family are his descendants. The pattern on the stone tablet in the ancestral hall is the same as that in the Northern Territory, and the Guiyuan Group's code name is also Xuanwu.

Considering what Baihu did before, it seems that I have taken over the position that originally belonged to Yin Chen?

Chen Guan's expression turned strange. If that's the case, Hong Yuan is probably another Xuanwu, and is related to that woman surnamed Wu.

After all, he had never asked Hong Yuan's real name.

Adding that tortoise prime minister, this is highly likely.

It was late at night, and the streetlights outside the ward window cast a crooked, slanted beam of light onto the floor.

Chen Guan narrowed his eyes and habitually opened the forum.

Type Yin Li's name into the search bar.

The result was empty.

Although I had expected it, I still can't help feeling a little sad.

Disappointed, Chen Guan closed the search results and returned to the main page.

The title of the pinned post caught my eye, highlighted in bold red, and ranked number one on the trending list.

[A comprehensive review and combat analysis of the Astaroth Incident (long article warning)]

The post was made two hours ago, and it has already received over 10,000 replies.