7. Ancestor goes on walk!

Lan woke up to the irritating sunlight barging in on his face again, making him more determined to promote the learning of Spirit Arts. I must make someone proficient enough to remove this thing from my roof, he thought. It wasn't like he hadn't tried using brute force—he had—but without destroying the roof, he couldn't remove the Spirit Diagram.

That's the thing about these Spirit Arts, Lan mused. They take centuries to put in place but are firm like Mount Tai unless you use the proper decoding. And since the one who drew this diagram was likely in a coffin by now, Lan was forced to wake up early.

Lan didn't let this small inconvenience trouble him. Today was the day he would go incognito to search for information. He named this operation "Hidden Great Ancestor Going to the City to Search for Information."

That name sounds good, he thought, as expected of me.

Outside, he beckoned his already waiting gang member, Rin, and started walking toward the compound's main gate.

"Lad Rin, today this Ancestor will allow you to help me navigate the city. We will try to stroll through some suspicious areas and discover some truths. This glorious adventure will be written in historical records as GAGSI. You will be mentioned as second in command. So, prepare yourself and put this on; we need to be as inconspicuous as possible."

He handed a newly bought hooded brown cloak to Rin and put one on himself.

Rin hurriedly pulled her head out of her phone. Yesterday, she had discovered a few other features of this artifact. As her predecessor said, 'You have a new world just waiting to be discovered,' Rin couldn't disagree. The phone was simply a new world. She had studied all night and was still barely using a few functions.

But diligent Rin did not forget to attend to the Ancestor. She mentally promised herself to guide the Ancestor to the most suspicious places. She put on the brown-colored cloak, which barely hid her face and instead made them more eye-catching. But she chalked it up to a generation thing. She took out her phone and got beside the Ancestor.

"Ancestor, to commemorate this historical event, we will take a selfie."

With that, she didn't wait for Lan and quickly took a few pictures.

Lan mentally face-palmed. Sure enough, this thing ruins people, but he noticed Rin was not as afraid of him now. But I don't care; I'll slap a few people to death in front of her. She'll get back her bearings. For now, I need this gang member. He also noticed that even without filters, he looked awesome.

At the front gate, the guards easily recognized Great Ancestor Lan. After the previous blunder, everybody had memorized the entire ancestry—never knowing when someone might crawl out of a tomb. They hurriedly shouted a greeting,

"Great Ancestor Lan!" and kneeled.

Lan was very pleased with this gesture. He mentally praised these guards for recognizing his awesome aura even with him hiding himself. But he just snorted,

"Humph! This Ancestor is going incognito. You'd better not reveal me; otherwise, humph!"

He ended with a powerful snort and walked away. Rin didn't manage to catch the timing of all that, so she missed the excellent snorting moment. She made a quick note to practice snorting and followed Lan, looking proud with her chin raised high. Still, it was difficult to type while raising her chin.

"One more thing to practice," she muttered.

Lan strolled through the city for half a day. He visited many suspicious places, such as one suspected of selling rotten fruits, and a bathhouse that didn't replace its water regularly. After all, his sources of suspicious things were gossips from old housewives told to him by his gang member Rin. Overall, he summarized this city as 'poor as fuck.'

A four-lane road was surrounded by small shops and big houses. Occasionally, a beast-drawn luxury carriage would pass by, and most people would bow their heads. Sometimes, a bigshot would stroll with his entourage, scolding people on the streets to keep their distance. In short, this was a place where cultivators with powerful backgrounds ruled with an iron fist, and common people barely survived by doing small businesses, which were heavily taxed, leaving them barely enough to eat. Mortals were fully dependent on powerful families. Cultivators born from common families would slave away for the big ones, and so on. From the information he got, this was 'Dog eat cat, and cat eat mouse world.'

Still, as the one heralded as Great Ancestor, nobody can touch me. But for safety purposes, I should stick with the current family and command them. It's always better to be king than a soldier, right? Lan once again confirmed his decision to reform the Situ family. He followed after Rin.

"Ancestor, the one we are heading toward is the most suspicious place of all. I kept it for last. This vendor is suspected of using seawater fish in his 'freshwater fish skewers.' Many people are suspicious of him. He's around the next corner."

Situ Rin enthusiastically led the way. She was so proud of herself for having all this knowledge that could help the Great Ancestor, especially the last one; she had eavesdropped on Aunt Chen for that. Aunt Chen was still known for her discerning eye in the whole village.

Lan followed after the girl, who was literally skipping. They got many weird glances since they arrived, but nobody disturbed them. Lan was sure that the camouflage was working nicely.