Chapter 246: The Ancestor Emerges
"The honor of the family is something you must uphold yourselves. The honor of Commander Song, of course, must be maintained by you, the Song family. Besides, you're under the impression that it shames you to be gathered under my command as the Northern Liao King?"
Ye Ling's gaze swept over the few men as he spoke indifferently.
With a touch of indifference in his eyes, how could any of the Family Heads even utter the word 'shame'?
However, their unwillingness to submit to Ye Ling was indeed genuine.
Now that this towering figure, Ye Ling, had entered their domain and their ancestors had not shown themselves, who dared to contradict him?
The atmosphere had become tense: the hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and over a hundred blades and spears were secretly aimed at Ye Ling and his two companions.
But those who followed Ye Ling were not cowards; not one of them changed expression.
Chen Dao even sat down and closed his eyes to rest, for he had touched upon the threshold of a breakthrough.
Just then, Ye Ling's keen ears picked up the sound of someone approaching.
Two minutes later, several hurried footsteps entered the hall, and upon seeing the newcomers, the Family Head of the Song's and others immediately perked up, standing one after another.
"The old ancestor has emerged from seclusion!"
"How did the old ancestor come to the Song family!"
Three elders walked into the hall side by side, taking their places at the seat of honor, their chins raised arrogantly amidst the surrounding Song family members.
One elder with a white beard said, "I have finally broken through to the late stage of the War King after three years of seclusion. Now I am one of the top fighters in the north of the Yangtze, hahaha!" Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire
"Indeed, Brother Song has broken through to the late stage of the War King, and I have reached the middle stage. Moving forward, our four great families, here in the north of the Yangtze and even in Jinling, who can compete with us?"
"I too share this sentiment. Both Brother Song and Brother Zhang have made progress, and I have also reaped a great harvest. I have finally broken through to the early stage of the War King. Given the chance, it should not be a problem to reach the middle stage in this lifetime!"
The three elders all laughed heartily, and upon hearing of their strength, the members of the Song family were overjoyed, filling the room with voices of congratulations.
Ye Ling raised an eyebrow. This elder of the Song family, by his age, should be either the younger brother or perhaps the nephew of Commander Song from those years. However, it was unclear whether he was Song Chunsheng or Song Changnian.
Seeing their ancestor emerge, the younger members of the Song family, such as Song Shao, immediately felt they had a backbone and no longer played dead outside. They ran to the three elders and started to cry bitterly.
"Elder ancestor, please stand up for us!"
"Yes, ancestor! While you were in seclusion, someone bullied us. You must seek revenge for us!"
Upon seeing the face of Lu Shao, the Lu family's elder was instantly furious: "What? Who dared to bully our descendants? What happened to your face, who did this?!"
The Family Head of the Song and others also snapped out of their joy, their eyes lighting up. If not now, then when?
With the old ancestors out of seclusion, their four great families now boasted three War King-level powerhouses, one of whom was even at the late stage of War King, only a step away from the Emperor Path realm. With such strength, there was no reason they couldn't deal with the Northern Liao King and his young counterparts!
"Him!"
Lu Shao turned around with a resentful face, pointing at Ye Ling.
His face was now wrapped in gauze because Ye Ling had knocked out several of his teeth, one side of his face was completely caved in, and the other swollen. For the next month at least, he would be restricted to a liquid diet.
More than the physical pain, it was the humiliation that pierced his soul, sparking a burning desire to kill Ye Ling himself!
The three old ancestors looked at the young appearance of the three men, Ye Ling and his companions, and felt a moment of surprise.
Following that, the weakest elder of the Lü family slammed the table and stood up angrily, "Grandson, step aside; watch your grandfather avenge you!"
In the eyes of the Lü family's elder, the trio of Ye Ling and his companions was nothing to fear.
He couldn't gauge Ye Ling's strength, but such a young lad likely hadn't broken through to the level of a war king yet.
As for Ye Jiu and Chen Dao's strength, he could see it clearly—one was at the Grandmaster peak and the other a half-step war king; he could easily crush them with one hand!
Ye Ling smiled faintly, "Have you all thought this through? If any one of you dares to lay a hand on us three today, that means making an enemy out of me, Ye Ling. Even if I were to completely eradicate you, it wouldn't be too much!"
"Hmph! Quite the Ye Ling, quite the Northern Liao King! You couldn't stay put in Northern Liao, you actually had the nerve to come here to our Jiangbei to show off your might!"
"Since you're courting death, then you can't blame anyone else when you die—who knows that the Northern Liao King has come to our Jiangbei?!"
Family Head Song looked at Ye Ling with a venomous glare, feeling the deepest humiliation!
As a descendant of Chief Song, the Song family in Jiangbei was said to be highly respected.
Even though the Song family's actions had deviated greatly from those during Chief Song's time in the recent years, because of the great contributions of the Song Jiang Army, they were still the most respected among the four major families in Jiangbei.
They had always taken pride in their ancestor having been Chief Song!
Yet today, they were humiliated by Ye Ling. How could they swallow this grievance?
"What? You're the Northern Liao King?"
All three elders were taken aback, standing up in unison.
They had not expected Ye Ling to have such a significant background!
Seeing their astonishment, the Lü family head hurriedly said, "Esteemed elders have been in seclusion for several years and may not be aware, but the old Northern Liao King passed away a few years ago, and now the title has been passed on to Ye Ling!"
"But instead of properly staying in his Northern Liao to protect his home and country, he has come to our Jiangbei to flaunt his power, not only beating my son but also directly destroying our business in Jinling!"
"Just now, he even said he wanted to bring the four great families of Jiangbei under his command, and if we refused to submit to him, he even threatened to 'take care of' us!"
"Elders, this is not the behavior of a prince who protects his home and country; this is clearly the behavior of a bandit! Please, elders, take action, cripple him, and give us justice!"
The heads of the families whined pitifully, like children tattling to their parents!
In their eyes, Ye Ling and his companions would definitely not be a match for their three ancestors, and naturally, they no longer concealed their murderous intent.
Though killing Ye Ling might bring some troubles, merely crippling him would leave no room for others to criticize.
After all, it was Ye Ling who had come knocking on their door in Jiangbei; if he got crippled, it would only prove that he was no match and unworthy of the position of the Northern Liao King!
Ye Ling raised an eyebrow, and both Chen Dao and Ye Jiu were engulfed in rage.
However, cold smiles soon appeared on their lips. Good, since the enemy harbored intent to kill them, they would have no reason to hold back when they struck.
After hearing the words of the heads of the families, the three ancestors became infuriated, their eyes filled with the intent to kill when they looked at Ye Ling.
If it were the old Northern Liao King here, they would have had some reservations, but it was just a brash youngster, why would they fear him?
These men had not heard of Ye Ling's reputation; if they knew that Ye Ling had slain a dragon of the royal path realm, Dragon Valley Qianzhi, they probably wouldn't dare to utter a harsh word against Ye Ling even if they had ten times the courage!