243: Bloodline Hall! Xiao Clan, the stone statue of Xiaozu!

After Chen De had swayed the crowd, he didn't linger and immediately led his people to the Xiao Clan.

The Xiao Clan's sphere of influence was divided into inner and outer domains.

The outer domain was where people of other surnames, various forces, and the relatives of those who had married into the Xiao Clan lived.

The Xiao Clan would dispatch a portion of its own members to guard and manage the outer domain.

The inner domain, on the other hand, was inhabited by members of the Xiao Clan itself and their spouses of other surnames.

In fact, the more powerful a family, the less willing they generally were to intermarry with outsiders, in order to preserve the purity of their bloodline.

For example, among the Eight Clans, the Ming Clan would reclaim the bloodline and execute anyone found to have illicit relations with outsiders or to have leaked the family bloodline.

There was an important reason why such a phenomenon occurred.

On the Firmament Continent, if one's cultivation broke through to the Ancestor Realm, a bloodline mutation could occur, allowing those with similar bloodlines to gain powerful bloodline strength.

This point was slightly different from the Four Profound Heavens.

Because in the Four Profound Heavens, as long as one's cultivation broke through to the Myriad Transformation Realm, a transformation could occur, changing one's own bloodline, and it could be passed down.

But on this Firmament Continent, one needed to at least reach the Ancestor Realm, comparable to the Heavenly Imperial Realm, for such a change to happen.

However, the degree of transformation was by no means low, completely comparable to the bloodline changes brought about by breaking through the Heavenly Imperial Realm in the Four Profound Heavens.

Many families, in order to ensure the purity of their bloodline, or one could say, to ensure the family's continued prosperity,

often adopted extreme measures when dealing with bloodline issues.

This was also truly because bloodline was too important to the Eight Clans.

Take the Xiao Clan, for instance; their family's inherited cultivation method—the Purple Firmament Seven Stars Mixed Method.

The first condition for cultivating it was to possess the Xiao Clan bloodline and also have bloodline strength.

This cultivation method was almost tailor-made for the Xiao Clan bloodline.

Without the bloodline, or with depleted bloodline strength, one couldn't even get started.

And only the Xiao Clan's bloodline could achieve this; the bloodlines of the other Eight Clans were simply not effective.

The other seven clans were also like this; they all had an inherited cultivation method that required possessing their own clan's bloodline to cultivate.

Therefore, the people of the Xiao Clan had no need to worry about the leakage of their cultivation method.

Precisely because of this, apart from the family members themselves, ordinary people would not be interested in the inherited cultivation methods of the Eight Clans.

But as time went on, no matter how much the people of the Eight Clans tried to retain and protect it,

the dilution of the Eight Clans' bloodline strength was an inevitable trend.

This was not something that could be solved by simple internal marriages.

Of course, internal marriage did indeed reduce the loss of the Eight Clans' bloodline, greatly extending their period of inheritance.

Bloodline purity could be guaranteed, but bloodline strength would inevitably be continuously lost through generations of inheritance.

Therefore, whether it was the Xiao Clan or the other seven clans,

they didn't need to worry about these things when their Founding Ancestors were still alive.

But now that the Founding Ancestors were gone, the bloodlines were also diluting with each generation.

As the bloodline continuously diluted, unless another Ancestor Realm expert could be born among them, they would eventually become no different from ordinary people.

Therefore, they had to make changes; sticking to old ways was not advisable.

For example, the Xiao Clan's outer domain was one such change.

They would choose some family members whose bloodlines had already become diluted to intermarry with outsiders.

And under the influence of the Xiao Clan, they would try to choose strong individuals for intermarriage.

Those with powerful bloodlines, however, would still follow the traditional method of internal marriage.

Doing so both ensured acceptance of outsiders and maximized the preservation of the bloodline inheritance.

As long as the portion of the clan with strong bloodlines could continue their bloodline, the weakening of those with weaker bloodlines was actually of little consequence.

The core power within the family was always controlled by those with pure bloodlines.

One family, two classes, two separate reproduction systems, cultivating the upper and middle-lower strata respectively.

According to Chen De's knowledge, the Xiao Clan was the first among the Eight Clans to start experimenting.

The other clans, some were wavering, some were disdainful, some held a wait-and-see attitude, and some...

And Chen De arrived at just the right time; he had just come and happened to catch the Xiao Clan's Bloodline Grand Ceremony.

What was the Bloodline Grand Ceremony? Chen De knew quite a bit from Xiao Miao's memories.

This was a bloodline activation ceremony specially held for the children of the clan when they turned six.

Such a grand ceremony was held annually by each of the Eight Clans, as there were always children turning six each year.

Furthermore, the ceremony was held internally within the clan and was only for activating the bloodlines of six-year-old children, so the cost was extremely small.

However, due to its great significance, almost everyone in the family who was still in the inner domain would go to observe the ceremony.

The Xiao Clan's inner domain was not very large, roughly only about thirty million square kilometers in area.

However, this area was sufficient for the Xiao Clan members living in the inner domain.

After entering the Xiao Clan's inner domain, and moving forward a little further,

from a distance, one could visibly see a giant statue, towering a hundred thousand feet high.

The statue depicted a middle-aged man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, full of heroic spirit, with seven stars seemingly twinkling in his eyes.

This statue was the Xiao Ancestor, the Founding Ancestor of the Xiao Clan!

And the Bloodline Grand Ceremony was held at the location of the statue, at its base.

It's often said that 'looking at a mountain, a horse runs to its death,' but this distance, at Chen De's current Heaven Profound Realm speed, was quickly covered.

Standing at the base of the statue, Chen De looked up at this towering, cloud-piercing statue.

With Chen De's current soul strength and peak cultivation in three systems,

he vaguely sensed that this statue before him was not simple, as if something was hidden inside.

For example, a wisp of consciousness.

Chen De remembered that after the Eight Ancestors' Slaying of the Heavens, residual souls remained, which the people of the Eight Clans carefully preserved.

Could it be that this Xiao Ancestor's consciousness was hidden within the statue?

The more Chen De thought about it, the more he felt that this was a possibility.

After Chen De entered, he used his divine sense to thoroughly scan the entire Xiao Clan, inside and out.

The only thing that made Chen De feel a bit off was this statue.

Immediately, Chen De stopped thinking about it.

Since this was something left behind by an Ancestor Realm, or Heavenly Imperial Realm level expert, Chen De naturally wouldn't personally try to test it.

But it wasn't good to leave the thing inside, Chen De had to find a way to destroy it.

Gradually, Chen De already had some ideas in his mind.

Just then, a hand suddenly patted Chen De's shoulder.

Someone approaching him, Chen De naturally sensed it.

Not to mention the system map's notification, Chen De's own divine sense was no joke.

However, Chen De currently had a persona, so he pretended not to know.

Moreover, Chen De already knew who the person was.

A pleasant voice came from beside his ear.

"Hey, Big Brother!"

Upon hearing this, Chen De turned his face with a look of "helplessness."