The History of Brown Dynasty

"Hey all!" He waved his hand, though because most were bowing, only a few actually saw him. Consequently, or maybe not consequently, the ones who weren't bowing were all in the Nascent Soul stage.

"Master, you're out!" Faith walked forward, excited. She had not been able to cultivate for decades; finally seeing him out was a relief, not only because she missed her master but also because her master may have finally calculated the Nascent Soul chapter of Heaven's Way.

"Faith, my dear disciple, call your junior sister Amber and Uncle Mike," he said. Amber was currently the leader of the former headquarters while Lucy and Mike were outside, doing sect missions; he only called Mike because Lucy was unavailable; her mission was too sensitive to be called back.

"There are so many new Nascent Soul cultivators; it makes me so happy!" Jack said.

A Nascent Soul cultivator with red eyes and hair, along with a ponytail, one of the barbarians hired by Faith back then, who had just a few months ago broken through the fourth stage of Nascent Soul, came forward and cupped his hand, saying, "Congratulations on your breakthrough to the second stage, fellow cultivator!"

Nearly everyone looked at him with wide eyes; calling the only supreme elder of the sect 'fellow cultivator' was extremely disrespectful.

Jack looked at the man with the ponytail before him and didn't even bother frowning; he simply said, "Cut off your right hand!"

The man with the ponytail looked at Jack coldly and said, "Master Jack, it's not like before anymore. Now, we are stronger than you! It's time to renegotiate over the sect properties!" He completely ignored what Jack just said.

"Then die!" Jack said with a smile and activated the concealment formation; the formation had been able to conceal his breakthrough, so it would definitely be able to conceal what he was about to do.

Fortunately, everyone had gathered here, so the formation could completely cover them.

Jack immediately cast the spell 'Shaking Heavens!'; the spell destabilizes the space, preventing those weaker than the Divine Soul stage from teleporting. To kill these Nascent Soul stage rebels, he had to prevent them from escaping.

Five Nascent Soul cultivators gathered around the man with the ponytail while most of the rest backed off, watching from afar.

Some were truly loyal to Jack and bravely came to his side to help; out of thousands, only 61 people, most in core formation, were brave enough to step in to protect him. After all, as the supreme elder, he was always very isolated from everyone; why should they endanger their lives to save him? They will just wait for the winner; whoever wins becomes their boss.

Out of the Nascent Soul cultivators, only six rebelled against him openly; the rest of the Nascent Souls just backed off, maybe thinking Jack had some trump card.

Rolling his eyes, Jack released his aura of peak Nascent Soul!

The man with the ponytail and his five companions felt a wall of pure, terrifying, and hot energy; it was so massive that the weakest one among them, at the first stage of Nascent Soul, fell to his knees, looking with hopeless eyes.

Noticing his massive miscalculation, the man with the ponytail didn't even bother wiping the cold sweat on his forehead; he simply swallowed, turned around, and used his escape spell. He could not teleport, but he could still run.

"Heavenly Ice," Jack cast using his heavenly element mastery.

The peak of Nascent Soul is much stronger than the fourth stage of Nascent Soul, not to mention Jack's soul was much more powerful than the average.

The cultivator with the ponytail froze before getting too far away;

Jack teleported beside the ice sculpture. He teleported using the 'As far as the heavens' spell, which was effective even in chaotic space. Because the distance was so short, Jack wasn't worried about a tribulation.

Tapping lightly on the ice sculpture, it broke apart into many pieces. Everything turned into small ice pieces. No trace of the man with the ponytail remained; not even his Nascent Soul survived.

"Please forgive us!" the five said, completely giving up on fighting and running; the difference in power between them was too big.

Smiling warmly, Jack said, "I will forgive you!"

The five looked up in surprise; they didn't expect it to be so easy.

But, before they could express their thanks, they felt a coldness.

That was the last thing they felt.

Looking at the five ice sculptures before him, Jack tapped on each, breaking them into ice pieces.

He indeed forgave them; actually, he was never upset with them. After all, it's natural to try to negotiate better deals for one's own cultivation practice; he killed them not out of revenge but because he could not allow those who rebel to survive. Otherwise, the sect would be ripped to pieces in no time.

A leader must be determined to punish treason; if treason is not punished severely, many will take it as a permission slip.

Looking at the thousands of cultivators who didn't step up to help him, Jack sighed and cast "Heavenly Ice!"

He consumed 60% of his mana in this one spell and froze every disciple who watched him being attacked and didn't step up to help. Then, he snapped, and every single one of the ice sculptures turned into small ice pieces.

They saw their master, their supreme elder, get attacked and didn't do anything; that is definitely treason, which Jack won't allow.

With just this, most of the sect's Nascent Soul cultivators died; Jack didn't care; he didn't want disloyal Nascent Soul cultivators anyway. Even more, the Nascent Soul realm is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Looking at Faith and the 61, dumbfounded, he smiled; these were the true loyal disciples he would support from now on.

Jack believes in quality, not quantity; in choosing subordinates, he most cares about their loyalty; these people stepped up to defend him even though he was, in their perspective, certain to lose.

One can only find one's true allies and friends in difficult times.

"Okay! Keep what happened here a secret; Faith, as you saw, the sect lost a large chunk of its cultivators, so please, make arrangements for accepting new disciples," Jack said calmly.

"Y-yes, master!" Faith said, stuttering; what had just happened was too unbelievable; in just a moment, most people she knew died at the hands of her master; honestly, this made her a bit afraid of him.

Not caring too deeply about Faith's inner thoughts, Jack sighed and teleported away; this time, he only used his normal Nascent Soul teleportation, as the space disturbance was gone.

...

John Brown, the viscount, has been very busy lately. He met a girl a while ago; her name is Lucy.

She has been a disciple of a small sect called Heaven's Way Sect; John met her by accident a while ago.

John's taste for women is 'strange'; the lady of the Icefall Sect he fell in love with was by no means simple.

When hearing the name 'Lady' of Icefall Sect, one may think of a genius, ice-like young woman who is focused on cultivation and doesn't care about worldly matters, but in fact, she is the opposite.

One must not judge things based on their cover, let alone judging based on name.

She was an extremely playful girl, messing around and sleeping with a different man daily; Master John Brown was just one of them. She was extremely talented in cultivation and had access to all resources, but even after over 1,000 years, she only reached the Divine Soul realm because she never focused on cultivation.

After the incident with John, her sect forced her to marry the young master of the Fire Wind Sect; she wouldn't have done it willingly; after all, marrying the young master of the Fire Wind Sect means her fun has to be cut back on a little.

The sect originally didn't force her to marry anyone; it was only after John's marriage proposal that they forced her to marry. They didn't want to let her marry John, but they didn't want to refuse him either, so they chose the best way possible: marrying her off to make her unavailable, making the marriage issue moot.

The main branch of the Brown family has a contentious relationship with the outer branch; the two sides have many conflicts. Marrying the young lady with John would signal that Icefall Sect is taking the side of the branch.

What are the main branch and outer branch of the dynasty?

It's complicated. There are two main factions in the Brown dynasty, which originated millions of years ago when Master Immortal Stonewall, the third supreme elder of the dynasty, married the supreme elder of the Skywide Sect, Lady Skyangle.

Lady Skyangle was the Soul Transformation supreme elder of the Skywide Sect.

Before that day, the dynasty had only one branch; after that day, the family split into two. Of course, older cultivators, including most Void Soul and all Soul Transformations, are ancient, basically walking fossils, so this division is only in lower realms, the 'youth' who are younger than 5 million years.

The children of Lady Skyangle went on to form a separate faction, which became known as the side branch. There had been many intermarriages before that, but none of those resulted in a branch family until Lady Skyangle.

The Skywide Sect was about to get its second Soul Transformation cultivator, so the two forces decided to marry to have a closer relationship. They created the branch family to merge their luck and eventually become one.

As it turned out, the elder of Skywide Sect failed to break through to Soul Transformation; Lady Skyangle divorced Master Stonewall and returned to her sect, and the merging plan was canceled.

But, the side branch of the Brown dynasty remained.

From then on, the side branch and the main family have been fighting in secret; Lady Skyangle had secretly helped her descendants a bit, so they are not much weaker than the main branch; the emperor position is currently held by the main family, but it's not impossible for the side branch to inherit the throne.

The current emperor is very close to breaking through to the peak of the Void Soul realm; once he does, he has to resign from his position and go with the supreme elders, who help him, hoping he succeeds in Soul Transformation.

Once the current emperor leaves, the position becomes vacant. The current emperor has already picked his successor, but he has no way to enforce his decision; the position can be obtained if the side branch gathers enough supporters.

The dynasty prohibits killing one's blood, so these conflicts would be fought using proxies; for example, the main family backs sect X and attacks sect Y, which is supported by the branch family. The Icefall Sect is too big to be used as a proxy, but it's still best to play it safe; therefore, at the moment when the two sides are fighting for the throne, no force wants to marry anyone in the main family or branch family.

Lucy's personality was very similar to that of the young lady of the Icefall Sect; she also loved having fun with many different men, was not bound by any moral code, took life simply, was free-spirited, etc.

It was exactly what John loved.

John himself is very abnormal for a man. Most men do not like to see their girlfriend sleep with another man, but John Brown was the opposite; he loved to see it.

Lucy was exactly as he liked as if the pair was made in the heavens.