Top-tier Unruly Master

Chapter 2293: Chapter 2328: Truly an Impostor

"This still doesn’t prove anything..."

The Second Elder, Ding Lianhe, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, said, "I think everyone knows, decades ago our family produced two traitors. What if those two traitors leaked the secret to someone else? Besides, Ding Fan only has the first section, but after that there are still five more sections."

The several elders all nodded and carefully examined Ding Fan’s eyes, as if trying to see through Ding Fan’s Soul, to see whether he was truly a disciple of the Ding Family or an undercover agent sent by another clan.

Seeing that the Seventh Elder was no longer speaking, Ding Fan clenched his teeth and said, "Elders, I am a disciple of Ding Aohuang. There’s no need to question that anymore. Call out my Ancestral Master. I want to see him; he should be able to confirm my identity."

The faces of the crowd all changed, a trace of Cold Qi appearing in their eyes. In the eyes of the Second Elder and the Third Elder, a hint of killing intent flashed past.

The Seventh Elder tried to speak, but the Second Elder, Ding Lianhe, said coldly, "The clan head has been in closed-door cultivation for many years. He doesn’t come out himself, and no one dares disturb him."

"Closed-door cultivation?"

Ding Fan was a bit surprised, then secretly suspicious. If it really was closed-door cultivation, why was everyone’s reaction so strong?

Ding Fan fell silent, his heart somewhat puzzled. What did he come back to the Ding Family to do? Wasn’t it precisely to have the Ding Family send experts to Frostbite Cliff to investigate Ding Aohuang’s whereabouts?

Originally, he should now immediately tell the people before him about Ding Aohuang’s possible whereabouts, and then have the Ding Family dispatch experts to rescue him. That way his identity could be immediately verified.

But—

At this moment Ding Fan felt a bit uneasy, because he sensed that some elders of the Ding Family had a very good attitude toward him, while others harbored a vague hostility toward him. Although they didn’t show it, everything appearing perfectly normal, he still felt deeply uncomfortable inside.

So... he was considering whether he should simply not mention this matter. If his Ancestral Master were here, he would have no scruples at all; the problem was that he couldn’t see this Ancestral Master.

Seeing Ding Fan remain silent, the lips of several elders moved slightly; they seemed to be transmitting their voices to one another. After a while, the Third Elder, Ding Jingxiu, spoke to Ding Fan: "Ding Fan, you can talk about your master, tell us everything you know. We can determine the truth from that."

"Yes!"

The Seventh Elder nodded and said, "Ding Fan, tell us everything, and we will be able to confirm your identity."

Ding Fan still kept silent. Ding Jingxiu speaking to him in this way only made him even more vigilant.

Ding Aohuang had gone far to the Northern Wastelands and was pursued by experts; he had even created the Sirius Ancient Tomb in order to protect himself. For over a hundred years, the Ding Family had never sent anyone to search for him, and now he had only just come back to the Ding Family, able to prove his Ancestral Master—yet at this very moment the Ancestral Master just happened to be in closed-door cultivation? All of this instinctively made him keep his guard up. He had always had a cautious mind and did not dare take risks.

"Ding Fan, if you don’t say anything, how can we prove your identity?" The Seventh Elder was somewhat angry at this point.

"I don’t really know where he is!"

After a moment of meditation, Ding Fan decided to conceal some information first. He said, "I only know that after my master passed some inheritance to me, he disappeared. Where he went, I’m not too sure either. However, I have a senior martial sister who knows more than I do, but she was abducted by experts from Jade Goshawk Palace in Tongzhou. If you can send people to Tongzhou to rescue her, perhaps everything will become clear."

The group fell silent again. What Ding Fan said was no different from saying nothing. They couldn’t obtain any useful information from it. Naturally, they also couldn’t prove Ding Fan’s identity.

"I have a way!"

The Seventh Elder suddenly opened his mouth and said, "We can throw Ding Fan into the Heritage Blood Pool. All of our Ding Family’s Inheritance Disciples have undergone the Sirius inheritance’s cleansing of marrow and cutting of bones; every disciple’s bloodline becomes unique. If Ding Fan can absorb the Energy within that Heritage Blood Pool, then he is an Inheritance Disciple of our Ding Family. If he cannot absorb anything, then he is not a child of our Ding Family."

The Heritage Blood Pool the Seventh Elder spoke of was not unique to their Ding Family; all eleven Royal Families in the Central Plains possessed one.

This was precisely one of the powerful trump cards held by the eleven Great Royals. It was exactly because of such Heritage Blood Pools that each Royal Family could cultivate experts at great speed. One could say that it was precisely because of such Heritage Blood Pools that each Royal Family produced so many experts.

The Seventh Elder’s proposal immediately received the approval of all the elders. Every Royal Family’s heritage pool was different, but one thing was beyond doubt: only the clan’s own children and heirs would gain Energy from the Blood Pool. This was a secret known among all the Royal Families. Whether Ding Fan was truly an Inheritance Disciple of the Ding Family of the Sirius Clan would become perfectly clear as soon as he jumped into the Blood Pool.

After listening to the Seventh Elder’s explanation, Ding Fan immediately agreed as well. He was originally a heritage disciple of Ding Aohuang, so he felt no guilt in his heart.

Thus, this group of elders accompanied Ding Fan and walked out. After leaving the Elders’ Council Hall, they did not go very far before they saw a black castle. The entire castle didn’t have a single window, and it appeared gloomy on all sides. All the lighting within the entire Stone Castle came from candles.

"Creak~"

After entering the castle, the Second Elder, Ding Lianhe, pressed on a spot on the seemingly very smooth wall in front. A flash of light swept past, and a large door suddenly appeared on the huge wall ahead. The elders went in one after another, and Ding Fan, led by the Seventh Elder, also entered the door.

It turned out that the Ding Family’s Heritage Blood Pool was actually underground. After entering the door, the passage behind it spiraled continuously downward.

The group moved quickly, yet they walked for a full half hour. In terms of distance, they had now descended nearly a thousand li beneath the earth.

At last, those walking in front, including the Second Elder, all stopped, standing before a black Great Stone Gate towering ahead. The Second Elder pressed a mechanism and opened the gate, and everyone entered a vast hall.

This hall also spanned over a thousand meters in radius and appeared extremely spacious. Although it was underground, the interior was very bright. Ding Fan glanced inside, and his gaze paused on a huge pool at the center of the hall, filled with a massive quantity of Blood Red liquid.

The entire pool was piled up with a kind of red Crystal Stone, stretching to nearly forty meters across, and by eye it was over two meters deep. On those crystals were carved some mysterious talismans, and faintly one could even make out one twisted face after another upon them, making a chill rise from the depths of one’s heart, so that no one dared approach.

"No, this Cold Qi isn’t coming from inside my heart!"

Ding Fan felt Cold Qi assaulting the outside of his body as well. Following the direction the chill was coming from, he saw yet another stone gate appear ahead. The entire gate was already covered in icicles; one could clearly feel that the Cold Qi was emanating from behind that stone gate.

"This is probably the Heritage Blood Pool the elders mentioned!"

Ding Fan took one look at that ice‑sealed stone gate and thought to himself: "There are actually more than a dozen such gates here. Looks like each one must be a treasure ground like the Blood Pool. The Ding Family of the Sirius Clan truly has deep foundations."

"Go in."

The Seventh Elder spoke to Ding Fan and took the lead, walking toward the Blood Pool with him. The Second Elder, Third Elder and the others had already been waiting near the Blood Pool.

Ding Fan nodded and followed along. When he reached the edge of the Blood Pool and glanced inside, he couldn’t help being utterly shocked at the sight before him.

The liquid in the Blood Pool was like thick fresh blood, and it even seemed alive, constantly rolling in tiny waves within the pool. From that surging liquid emanated strands of unnerving Energy, making one feel that what lay within was not blood, but some kind of Poison instead.

Moreover, when this blood started to ripple, it also formed one strange face after another, all seemingly bearing expressions of fury, looking especially ferocious. It felt as if anyone who jumped in would be devoured by those wrathful faces.

"Ding Fan, go down. As long as you’re an Inheritance Disciple of the Ding Family, nothing will happen to you." The Seventh Elder appeared very kind, like a good old man.

The other elders surrounded the Blood Pool, watching Ding Fan. Ding Fan thought for a moment, then clenched his teeth and took Sirius out from his sleeve. Sirius was sleeping soundly. Ding Fan gently handed Sirius to the Seventh Elder, then slowly walked to the edge of the Blood Pool.

The Seventh Elder glanced at Sirius, but didn’t care at all. He assumed it was Ding Fan’s pet. Seeing that Ding Fan was about to jump in, he said to him, "Ding Fan, take off your clothes."

Ding Fan did not take off his clothes, because the Sirius Pattern might still remain on his back. He shook his head and jumped straight into the Blood Pool.

"Wah~"

The blood in the pool splashed up, yet, strangely, not a single drop splattered outside. The Blood Pool was two meters high; Ding Fan sank into it, as if swallowed by those furious faces.

All the elders widened their eyes, watching for any reaction from the Blood Pool, yet none of them extended their Divine Sense from within their bodies, because the blood in the pool was extremely powerful Divine Origin Blood, and Divine Sense simply could not probe it.

"No reaction?"

Within just a few breaths, the Blood Pool gradually returned to calm. The blood on the surface rippled slightly and shifted, once more gathering into a furious face. Aside from that, there was no other response.

"So he really is a fake!"

The Second Elder’s expression turned cold, and True Yuan flashed in the Third Elder’s hand as he prepared to kill Ding Fan. Any Ding Family disciple who carried Sirius inheritance could not possibly enter the Blood Pool and fail to absorb even a trace of its Energy. There was only one explanation now: Ding Fan’s identity as an Heir was false.

The Seventh Elder frowned and said, "Don’t rush. Wait a bit longer."

The glow of True Yuan in the Third Elder’s hand dimmed, and the elders continued to wait patiently. Time passed little by little, yet there was still no movement in the Blood Pool. The faces of many elders grew dark.

Within the Blood Pool, Ding Fan’s heart was sinking as well. At this moment his whole body was immersed in the liquid of the pool, but he felt no change within it.

A thought flashed through his mind: this time he was really in trouble. Had he actually not received the inheritance of the Sirius elder Ding Aohuang? Or had something gone wrong with the Blood Pool itself?

Another ten‑plus minutes went by, and there was still no movement within the Blood Pool. The Second Elder and Third Elder finally lost patience. The Second Elder waved his hand and said, "There’s no need to wait any longer. Ao Sheng, fish Ding Fan out."

This time, even the Seventh Elder had no objections. The Ninth Elder took out a whip from his Space Ring and suddenly lashed it toward Ding Fan, intending to wrap him up and drag him ashore.

"Buzz buzz~"

At that moment, the Sirius mark on Ding Fan’s back flared into view. The wolf pattern shifted rapidly, and then... the entire Blood Pool erupted into turmoil, all of the blood surging outward.

"What’s going on? Why is the reaction so intense? Ao Sheng, stop at once."

The Seventh Elder shouted immediately. The Ninth Elder finally drew back the whip, and all the elders fixed their gaze on the Blood Pool, watching the dark Blood Red liquid churn inside, brows furrowed.

Why had it taken so long for Ding Fan to show any reaction after entering? Nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Gulu~"

The blood in the pool boiled like water. The Seventh Elder let out a slight breath of relief, a faint smile appearing on his face. Only Inheritance Disciples of the Ding Family could absorb the blood source within the Heritage Blood Pool. Ding Fan was now absorbing the Energy inside, which meant that without a doubt, Ding Fan was an Inheritance Disciple of the Ding Family.

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