**Chapter 569: Lifting a Rock to Drop on One's Own Foot**
“Prince Huai, what is the meaning of this!” Yan Zijing stood up and bellowed.
“Is what this prince said not clear enough?” Huai Wang chuckled lightly and said freely, “Yun Che is merely an adopted son taken in by Yun Qinghong, not a true member of the Yun Clan. This is clear to everyone present. An adopted son, after all, is nothing more than an outsider. How could he have the qualifications to represent the Yun Clan in battle… especially here in the Yaohuang Great Hall, on such a momentous matter concerning the very fate of the Guardian Clans!”
“Yun Che’s strength is indeed astonishingly talented, as all present have witnessed with their own eyes. He ultimately defeated my son Hui Ran, though it involved a great deal of luck; a defeat is a defeat, and our Huai Wang Manor will not deny it. But the one who defeated my son Hui Ran and the last six from our side was Yun Che, not the Yun Clan! In the end, he never even had the qualification to intervene in this confrontation! The six matches he participated in were indeed wonderful sparring, but they were merely sparring, and have absolutely nothing to do with this confrontation that decides the fate of the Yun Clan!”
Huai Wang’s words were like buckets of cold water pouring down, chilling the members of the Western Seats to the bone and filling them with hidden resentment. When Yun Che first stepped onto the stage, the vast majority of people had already thought of this point. Even several elders of the Yun Clan used this reason to demand that Yun Qinghong replace Yun Che with the most outstanding young disciple of the Yun Clan. But due to Yun Qinghong’s insistence, Yun Che still went on stage, and no one on the Eastern Seats raised any objection… A person whose strength was only at the Heavenly Xuan Realm representing the Yun Clan in battle? They were too busy watching the joke to call out that he was not a Yun Clan disciple and had no qualification to fight.
Afterwards, in every match, everyone was fiercely shocked by Yun Che, and almost everyone subconsciously ignored this issue.
At this moment, Huai Wang suddenly brought it up, and the Western Seats, who were in extreme excitement and joy, especially the Yun Clan members, felt as if they had been struck in a vital point… Although it was clearly Huai Wang reneging, the reason he was reneging was solid to the point of being irrefutable. Yun Che’s surname was Yun, but he was not a Yun Clan disciple, much less Yun Qinghong’s biological son; he was merely a recently accepted “adopted son.” Indeed, he simply had no qualification to represent the Yun Clan in battle.
The Yaohuang Great Hall convenes once every hundred years, and each session sees the various Prince Manors and the Twelve Clans compete in displaying their skills. Conflicts and ideological disputes between families and manors are often resolved through such competitions… And these conflicts between Prince Manors and Guardian Clans naturally only allow members of the Prince Manors and Guardian Clans to participate, absolutely forbidding outsiders from interfering. Given the strength and status of these Prince Manors and Guardian Clans, outsiders simply have neither the ability nor the qualification to interfere.
Let alone such an unprecedented great matter as the fate of the Yun Clan.
Thus, Huai Wang’s words had truly struck a vital point.
“Prince Huai, you are clearly trying to renege!” Su Xiangnan shouted sternly. “Yun Che is Yun Qinghong’s adopted son. Since he is an adopted son, he counts as a member of the Yun Clan. Why can’t he represent the Yun Clan in battle!”
Su Xiangnan’s words were thunderous, but this argument of his sounded weak to anyone. Sure enough, Huai Wang chuckled lightly: “Heh, what a grand joke. According to Clan Head Su’s reasoning, in future conflicts that need to be resolved through profound force competition, could I, this prince, simply go find some peerless powerhouses, adopt them as sons, and have them represent my Huai Wang Manor in battle? Hah! Then what meaning would the rankings of our Prince Manors and Guardian Clans have? What meaning would our full efforts to cultivate the next generation have? Wouldn’t it just be about who has more adopted sons and who can find more powerful adopted sons?”
“Clan Head Su, you actually agree that an outsider can represent a Guardian Clan or Prince Manor in battle! Where do you place the dignity of our Prince Manors and Guardian Clans!”
“You…” Su Xiangnan’s face darkened, but he was left speechless.
“Prince Huai, since you say Yun Che is unqualified, why didn’t you say so when he entered the arena? Why didn’t you stop him!” Mu Yubai said coldly.
“Why would I, this prince, stop him?” Huai Wang countered. “Letting an outsider represent the Yun Clan in battle—how ridiculous and foolish an act. The Yun Clan made this decision; it is the Yun Clan’s stupidity, and they must bear the consequences themselves. I, this prince, have no obligation to remind or stop them.”
Mu Yubai’s face was black as charcoal, seething with resentment inside, yet utterly unable to refute. The people on the Western Seats were gnashing their teeth in anger. Today, they had experienced a descent from hell to heaven, and then a sudden plummet back to hell from heaven. Their hearts were filled only with sighs, hatred, and sorrow. In contrast, on the Eastern Seats, the previously unpleasant expressions had all vanished, and each person looked relaxed, their gazes contemptuous and even pitying.
“Clan Head…” Yun Waitian and Yun Duanshui turned around to look at Yun Qinghong, and the people on the Western Seats also looked at Yun Qinghong in unison.
Yun Qinghong had not spoken all this time. At this moment, after dozens of heavy breaths, Yun Che, whose blood energy had finally stabilized, put away his Heaven-Defying Sword and walked to the front, between Yun Waitian and Yun Duanshui who were protecting him. He faced Huai Wang directly and said without changing expression: “What Prince Huai says is indeed correct. Without the bloodline of the Yun Clan, relying solely on the status of an adopted son, one truly has no qualification to represent the entire prestigious Yun Clan in battle. But you, Prince Huai, on what basis do you determine that I am not a son of the Yun Clan!”
Yun Che’s words caused Huai Wang’s eyes to narrow, and then he burst into loud laughter. Many on the Eastern Seats also laughed out loud. As soon as Yun Che said this, they immediately guessed his intention… Clearly, at this point, he was shamelessly insisting that he was a member of the Yun Clan. Perhaps in a moment he would fabricate a story and produce some so-called “evidence.”
If it were any other clan, such a tactic might actually disgust them for a while, but this was the Yun Clan.
The Yun Clan possessed a unique method in this world to prove one’s bloodline… the Arcane Firmament!
The Arcane Firmament was a bloodline power. Only those with the bloodline of the Yun Clan possessed the power of Arcane Firmament—unmatched under heaven! Moreover, this bloodline power could only be passed down from males to the next generation, never through females. Therefore, every son of the Yun Clan must have the Arcane Firmament.
Conversely, anyone who could use the power of Arcane Firmament must be a member of the Yun Clan. This was common knowledge known to all in the Huan Yao Realm for ten thousand years.
Therefore, to determine whether a person was a member of the Yun Clan, one only needed to see if they could activate the power of Arcane Firmament. If they could use the Arcane Firmament power, then they were definitely a member of the Yun Clan—absolutely correct. If they could not, then they were certainly not a member of the Yun Clan—also absolutely correct.
Thus, in the eyes of Huai Wang and the others, if Yun Che wanted to stubbornly insist that he was a member of the Yun Clan, it was simply a joke.
“What? Are you trying to tell me that you are actually a member of the Yun Clan? Heh heh heh heh…” Huai Wang laughed with great amusement. “Then I wonder, which elder of the Yun Clan are you the son of? Could it be that you are Yun Qinghong’s illegitimate child left outside, and this so-called ‘adopted son’ is just a smokescreen? Hahahaha!”
After saying this, Huai Wang burst into loud laughter, and the clan heads on the Eastern Seats also wore mocking expressions.
Yun Che also laughed: “Prince Huai, you are actually correct. I am a son of the Yun Clan, with the purest Yun Clan bloodline! Yun Qinghong is my biological father!”
These words did not shock the entire hall, but they did cause many people to spurt out. Mu Yubai slapped his forehead and said ruefully, “Ah, this kid, he’s really going to make a fool of himself this time. In this world, the one thing you absolutely cannot fake is the bloodline of the Yun Clan.”
The one who reacted most intensely was Mu Yurou. Hearing Yun Che’s words, she suddenly grasped Yun Qinghong’s hand, and tears uncontrollably streamed from her eyes.
“Hahahaha…” Huai Wang laughed for a long time before finally stopping. His gaze, passing through his narrow eye slits, shot toward Yun Che, and a sense of delight suddenly rose in his heart… Both of his sons had been defeated by Yun Che, and his plans had been completely thwarted because of Yun Che, even producing a huge backlash. Not only had he failed to humiliate and trample the opponent, but he had instead allowed the opponent’s momentum to soar. He had had the urge to kill Yun Che, but Hui Ye, Yuan Que, and Hui Ran had all failed to kill him. His hatred for Yun Che was like a volcano that had been churning for a thousand years. And now, he had finally found an opportunity to thoroughly humiliate Yun Che, and it was the other party who had handed it to him.
“Very well, since you claim to be a son of the Yun Clan and the son of Yun Qinghong, then why don’t you show your Arcane Firmament to me and everyone present?”
“Arcane Firmament?” Yun Che’s brow twitched.
“What? Judging by your expression, you don’t even know what Arcane Firmament is? Arcane Firmament is a bloodline power unique to the Yun Clan in this world. Any son of the Yun Clan must have inherited the Arcane Firmament. If you can display the Arcane Firmament, then no one can deny your identity as a son of the Yun Clan, and your representing the Yun Clan in battle will be perfectly justified. Whether it is not expelling the Yun Clan or offering the Purple Vein Divine Crystals, I, this prince, will have absolutely no objection. But if you cannot use the Arcane Firmament…”
Huai Wang’s eyes narrowed into two even thinner slits, his gaze and voice turning exceptionally cold: “If you cannot use the Arcane Firmament, then, in front of Xiao Yaohou and before the assembled heroes of the world, to impersonate a member of a Guardian Clan, and moreover the son of a Guardian Clan’s clan head—do you know what a grave crime this is!”
“I have no interest in knowing that,” Yun Che said as he stepped forward, slowly extending his arm. “I only want to remind Prince Huai of one thing: do not forget the words you just said!”
Yun Che pulled up his sleeve, revealing his left arm. “That’s right, the Arcane Firmament is the best proof of one’s identity as a member of the Yun Clan. It cannot be faked, not even imitated! Prince Huai, you had better open your eyes wide… and watch closely!”
As Yun Che’s voice fell, under the watchful eyes of everyone, his “Purgatory” silently activated, and on his arm, a cyan sword-shaped mark suddenly flashed into being.
At the moment this mark appeared, all the members of the Yun Clan jolted violently: “That… that is…”
With a thought from Yun Che, a wisp of deep cyan light shot out from the mark, floating in front of him. Following his will, it quickly transformed into the shape of the Heaven-Defying Sword. A unique aura belonging solely to the Arcane Firmament rapidly spread out, permeating the entire Yaohuang Great Hall.
“Arc… Arcane Firmament!!” Yun Waitian and Yun Duanshui behind Yun Che both cried out in shock.
And Huai Wang’s expression, at the moment the Arcane Firmament appeared, became extremely rigid, his pupils constricting sharply as if suddenly pierced by needles.