Cultivation begins with the Shen family

Chapter 28 ancestor worship
In the early morning, when the rising sun slowly rose from the east, the warm sunshine immediately sprinkled on the snow-covered Biyun Mountain, making this cold winter day a little more warm.

At this moment, outside the family ancestral hall on the top of Biyun Mountain, all members of the Shen clan have already gathered here.

The quaint main hall stands on the top of this mountain. The gray walls and slightly dilapidated black tiles seem to be telling the wind and rain of hundreds of years.

Looking at the solemn and solemn building in front of them, all the members of the Shen clan present were extremely devout, they lined up neatly and waited, not daring to make a sound.

In the slightly dim interior of the ancestral hall, hundreds of black-wood and white-word spirit tablets were neatly placed on layers of wooden shelves, and at the same time, there was an ever-burning lamp on each wooden shelf.

On the wall facing the gate hangs an ancient picture scroll, which depicts the image of an old man in apricot yellow Taoist robe, with white beard and hair, but hale and hearty, giving people the feeling of a generation of masters.

The person painted on this scroll is Shen Changyu, the ancestor of the Shen family, who created the century-old foundation of the Shen family.

In front of the portrait was an altar, which was already filled with various tributes, and a simple censer burning with incense, and the curling green smoke permeated the solemn hall.

I saw that Shen Xiangchi, Shen Xiangchu and others walked into the ancestral hall slowly, and then knelt directly in front of the ancestor's portrait.

At the same time, the solemn bell rang in everyone's ears, and all the clansmen in the square outside the ancestral hall immediately knelt down to worship.

After the solemn three worships and nine kowtows, Shen Xiangchi and others led the clansmen to recite the family motto of the Shen clan.

"Filial piety should do its best, loyalty and bravery should show sincerity;

Brothers help each other, compassion never crosses.

Read sage books diligently, respect teachers like relatives;
Don't be ignorant of etiquette and righteousness, be humble and be good-neighborly."

After two or three hours, the ancestor worship ceremony was successfully concluded, and everyone was led by Shen Xiangchi and others to Yuxiu Terrace.

At this time, it was located on a piece of open space on Yuxiu Terrace, and several temporary rings had already been built there.

According to the ancestral system, after the ancestor worship ceremony, the family will hold a competition among the clan members. It can be said that this is the second largest event in the Shen family after the ancestor worship.

And this family competition is a rule set by the ancestors of the Shen family at the beginning of the establishment of the clan. Its purpose is to inspire each generation of clansmen to continue to forge ahead, instead of becoming a generation who sits and reaps the rewards.

Now this custom has lasted in the Shen family for more than 200 years, and it seems to have become a talent selection system.

All clan members who perform well in the clan competition will not only be rewarded with rich clan rewards, but will also be cultivated by the clan, which is the key proof for competing for the position of patriarch or elder in the future.

Therefore, even if the family does not stipulate that every member of the clan must participate, as long as the clan members have some pursuits in their hearts, they will sign up to participate, and in order to get a good ranking in this competition, they will work hard in normal time to practice.

At this moment, on the high platform in front of the arena, except for the patriarch Shen Xiangchi and the second elder Shen Xianghuan, all the clan members in the late stage of Qi training were sitting there.

And among these late-stage qi training clansmen, the most eye-catching one is Shen Zhirui who is sitting on the far side.

After all, the people on this stage are basically the clan elders of Xiangzi's generation, and there are only two people of Daozi's generation.

But he sat on this high platform with his seniority and under the age of 20.

This seems to indicate that this junior of the ZigZag generation has the ability to sit on an equal footing with those elders.

However, many clansmen in the audience can also understand that Shen Zhirui has been famous for his precocious wisdom and talent since he was a child, and he himself has a late-stage Qi training, which is enough to become one of the top members of the family.

What's more, his performance in the family competitions in the past ten years has also won everyone's affirmation, and now there are still many clan members of the Zizi and even Daozi generations who regard him as a role model for their own progress.

Of course, according to Shen Zhirui's original intention, he definitely wouldn't be so high-profile, he didn't want to be the focus of the clansmen's eyes.

But the third elder, Shen Xiangchu, asked him to participate, and to sit on a high platform as a referee.

In the end, he had no choice but to sit on the high platform according to the request of the third elder, but he sat on the very edge.

After everything was ready, Shen Xiangchu in Tsing Yi stood up slowly, looked at the eagerly awaited crowd and said loudly:
"Today's family competition is held in accordance with the Shen family's ancestral system. The purpose is to learn from each other, sharpen skills, and inspire my Shen family to work hard and make the family more prosperous."

"That's why the battles in the Grand Competition are all done, and the use of external means such as talismans is prohibited."

"In addition, according to the request of the patriarch, the rewards of this year's Grand Competition will be increased compared to previous years. All the clansmen who enter the top three of the Grand Competition will get a bottle of [Yellow Bud Pill], and the No.1 can get another fifty spirit stones. "

As soon as this remark came out, the crowd in the audience immediately boiled up, obviously shocked by this reward.

According to the past practice, only No.1 can get a bottle of [Huang Ya Dan], and the second and No.3 can only be rewarded with spirit stones.

Now the top three can get a bottle of [Huang Ya Dan], and even the rewards for the top eight have increased a bit.

"Okay, the clansmen participating in the big competition will start to draw lots!"

Shen Xiangchi on the stage interrupted everyone's discussion, and solemnly announced the official start of the contest.

Then, under the arrangement of some clan elders, the clansmen who participated in the big competition were divided into two groups and walked to different rings.

Generally speaking, the big score is divided into two groups, one group at the early stage of Qi training, and the other group at the middle stage of Qi training.

And because the age of participating Dabi people is limited to between 60 and [-] years old, there are basically no old people from the Xiangzi generation, and all of them are the younger generation of the Taoist and Zigzag generations.

Most of the clan members of the ZigZag generation are in the early stage of Qi training, while those of the Dao Zi generation are mostly in the middle stage of Qi training, but there are some exceptions.

I saw that in a group arena in the mid-stage of Qi training, a young clansman in black robes confronted a middle-aged clansman, but both of them seemed to be at the fifth level of Qi training.

Shen Zhirui recognized the young clansman in black at a glance. It was his fourth elder brother, Shen Zhiling, who was the fourth eldest in the zigzag generation. At the same time, his grandfather was Shen Xianghuan, the second elder of the current family.

Since one of them is the grandson of the patriarch, and the other is the second elder of the family and also the grandson of the only first-rank alchemist in the family, the two of them often played together when they were young, and they had a good relationship in the family school.

But later, as Shen Zhirui's cultivation level gradually surpassed that of his peers, the radiance of genius on his body caused his peers to stay away from him, and the communication between the two parties gradually decreased.

"Uncle Fourteen, my nephew has offended me!"

As soon as the words fell, Shen Zhiling raised the magic weapon in his hand and rushed forward, and at the same time a fiery fireball appeared in the palm of his left hand, directly attacking the middle-aged clansman opposite.

And the middle-aged clansman on the opposite side obviously didn't expect him to be able to cast spells with one mind at a young age, and he was secretly surprised, but he was also an experienced person after all, so he responded immediately.

I saw that he first escaped the attack of the fireball with extremely dexterous body skills, and then shot a golden light from his hand, turned into a sharp arrow, and went straight to the attacking Shen Zhiling.

Facing the oncoming gold spell, Shen Zhiling didn't panic either, the magic weapon in his hand immediately swung a wave of spiritual power to resist it, and borrowed it to get around the middle-aged clansmen.

At the same time, several fireballs flew out of his hands and exploded instantly, flooding the entire arena with flames.

The scene of flames soaring into the sky also made the elders in the late stages of Qi training on the stage break out in sweat, and one of them had already swept off the high stage and headed straight for the ring that was already submerged in flames.

But soon the flames on the ring dissipated, the power didn't seem to be as great as imagined, more of a deceptive effect, the entire ring was still intact.

And the two on the field seemed to have already decided the winner, the middle-aged clansman left the ring with some embarrassment, leaving only Shen Zhiling standing on the ring alone.

. . . . . .

(End of this chapter)