Chapter 111: Family Secret Vault

A bronze-colored door, a metal portal about three meters high and only two meters wide. Under the bright light from the pearls embedded in the corridor, the bronze door emitted a cold, lonely glow. Thick, icy, and emotionless—that was the full impression this door gave.

A pattern of a roaring tiger looking up at the sky was carved on the door. Anyone who knew a little about the Black Tiger Family would recognize this as the family’s totem emblem. Clearly, behind this door was one of the true core areas of the Black Tiger Family. Lin Qi held his breath, staring blankly at the door, but he felt a bit nervous inside.

Blackbeard looked at the door and laughed with some pride. “So, this door is very sturdy. It was forged from a type of metal that can’t be made now. Well, this door has a long history. It has lasted through at least the entire Rejuvenation Calendar and the Dark Calendar. It’s said to have been passed down from the time of the Destruction Calendar.”

Lin Qi was speechless. The Rejuvenation Calendar was only over a thousand years, but how many years was the Dark Calendar? No one knew exactly how long the Dark Calendar lasted because endless wars and terrible natural disasters caused the records from the Dark Calendar to break more than ten times. However, it was certain that the last era of the Dark Calendar, for which there was clear documented evidence, lasted five hundred years alone.

Not to mention the Destruction Calendar—that was just a legend. Everything from the Destruction Calendar and before was only legend. The Primordial Era—who knew what happened back then? A metal door passed down from the Destruction Calendar? Lin Qi had some doubts about that claim.

But after all, this was what the family ancestors had said. Lin Qi kept his opinion to himself and did not comment on it.

Blackbeard gave a dry laugh. He rubbed his nose and muttered softly, “I also think those old folks were trying to make our ancestors look good. Although the material of this door is a bit strange, it looks so smooth and clean without even a spot of rust. I think its history is no more than five hundred years!”

He coughed dryly, walked up to the door, and gently pressed a few times on the mouth of the roaring tiger. Lin Qi saw Blackbeard press several of the tiger’s teeth inside its mouth. But the door did not move at all. Blackbeard took a few steps back, pulling Lin Qi with him, then pressed on a small, inconspicuous magic array on the wall and channeled a strand of combat qi from the Mysterious Tiger Force into the array.

Thirteen small gems on the magic array lit up. Blackbeard bit his index finger and smeared a drop of blood onto the core of the array. A strange light shone in the array, and the drop of blood instantly evaporated. A faint mist of blood spread out, covering the entire array. The bronze door silently slid upward, and Blackbeard quickly pulled Lin Qi inside.

“Remember the steps I just used to open the door,” Blackbeard said seriously to Lin Qi after they entered. “Make one mistake, and this corridor—even the entire Black Beech Mountain—would go ‘boom’ and blow up into the sky! Below here is a huge self-destruct magic array, powerful enough to destroy half of Dun Er Ke. You must not make a mistake.”

Large beads of cold sweat broke out on Lin Qi’s forehead. A magic array powerful enough to destroy half of Dun Er Ke? The Black Tiger Family’s ancestral residence had always been sitting on top of such a terrifying thing? If the array suddenly went out of control, wouldn’t everyone in Dun Er Ke be buried along with the Black Tiger Family?

Lin Qi grinned heavily and let out a deep breath. He said seriously, “I won’t forget.”

Blackbeard looked at Lin Qi seriously and nodded. “Remember the family’s first ancestral rule: Men of the Black Tiger Family can only marry pure-blooded Eastern women. Remember this well. If you have a child with a woman from the Western Continent, that child absolutely must not enter this corridor.”

Lin Qi stared at Blackbeard in shock. The first ancestral rule of the Black Tiger Family was that all male members could only marry women of pure Eastern bloodline. This rule had been followed for countless years. But it seemed this rule existed because of this corridor?

“Why?” Lin Qi asked Blackbeard curiously.

Blackbeard frowned. Clearly, he was also puzzled. He thought for a moment and shook his head. “I’m not very clear about the reason either, but if our family mixes blood with people from the Western Continent, the mixed-blood descendants’ blood cannot activate that magic array, and this door cannot be opened. It’s not just this door—all eighteen of the family’s secret corridors use this kind of blood-verification magic array.”

“Mixed blood means losing the right to inherit the family’s core areas!” Blackbeard said seriously to Lin Qi. “It’s okay to have fun and enjoy yourself, but you must not have children with those women from the Western Continent. Only children born to pure-blooded Eastern women are qualified to inherit the Black Tiger Family. Those mixed-blood descendants would only mess up the family terribly. There have been bloody lessons from the past. You must remember this!”

Lin Qi remembered the two extremely terrible internal conflicts in the family’s history that Blackbeard had told him about when he was young. Originally, the Black Tiger Family had many members, but those two internal conflicts severely weakened them. As a result, now, after the devastation of the Hundred-Year Land-Island War, the Black Tiger Family had only two direct male descendants left!

Back then, Blackbeard had not explained the cause of the internal conflicts to Lin Qi. Now it seemed the conflicts probably broke out between mixed-blood and pure-blood descendants. Lin Qi nodded solemnly and said in a deep voice, “I understand. But finding pure-blooded Eastern women in the Western Continent…”

Lin Qi suddenly felt great worry about his future married life.

Blackbeard thoughtfully rubbed his chin. He said in a low voice, “If you’re lucky, you can snatch one at sea like I did. If you’re unlucky, you might end up like your several uncles who died in battle. Well, ah, you could pay a high price to buy a few from the East.”

He gave a dry laugh and said helplessly, “Of course, bought women might not have good looks, temperament, upbringing, or education. After all, which major family in the East would marry their daughters to the Western Continent tens of thousands of miles away? Kid, this will depend on your luck in the future. Hey, haven’t you made friends with that Long Cheng?”

Lin Qi’s eyes suddenly lit up. He grinned and said, “Yeah, that guy seems to be a big noble in the East!”

Touching the command token of Long Cheng tied to his wrist, Lin Qi suddenly felt assured. Lin Qi was not very interested in women; he preferred shiny gold coins. But for the sake of the family’s bloodline, he would have to find a way to bring back several beauties from the East in the future.

Blackbeard heavily patted Lin Qi’s shoulder and said meaningfully, “The family’s reproduction and growth all rest on your shoulders. Your old man isn’t up to it anymore. I promised your mother that after she died, I wouldn’t get you a stepmother who might bully you. So, your old man can’t help with this!”

Lin Qi’s heart stirred slightly, but Blackbeard had already burst out laughing.

“Look, this is the family’s most important secret vault. Pick out some things carefully. As long as they can help you, choose more good items.”