Chapter 148: The Ritual is Complete!

Xu Nuo's injuries hadn't completely healed, her footsteps were still somewhat floating, but she walked very steadily, her waist and back straight.

Sunlight happened to pour down from the skylight courtyard, gently enveloping her whole person within it.

Motes of light danced around her body, plating her moon-white clothes with a layer of pale golden, almost holy halo.

That instant of visual impact made the breathing of many people in the ancestral hall stall—

As if a person from a painting, stepping on a century of time, coming draped in light.

When she completely walked into the ancestral hall and faced everyone squarely.

"Hiss..."

Who knows who drew in a breath of cold air, breaking that almost solidified silence.

Immediately after, an unsuppressible, rising and falling series of low-voiced exclamations spread out in the solemn ancestral hall.

"Too similar... this..."

"Simply... simply like the person in the painting came alive!"

"More than just similar... this is clearly the same person! A century of reincarnation!"

"It's her! Those eyes, that demeanor... exactly the same!"

The young girl in the portrait seemed to have been instantly awakened by time magic, standing vividly before them.

Xu Nuo also saw that huge portrait.

Her footsteps paused slightly.

The young girl in the painting... is clearly herself!

Although the face in the painting appeared more immature and green, looking about fifteen or sixteen years old, those brows and eyes, the curve of that nose bridge... it was simply like looking at a photo from a few years ago!

And what shook her mind even more was the handsome young man standing with his hands behind his back wearing a plain long gown beside the young girl in the painting.

That existence respectfully called "Second Great-Grandfather" by the Incense Gang.

Xu Nuo's pupils abruptly contracted!

Those brows and eyes, that demeanor carrying detachment amidst gentleness, that faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth seemingly able to see through everything...

"Teacher?"

She exclaimed involuntarily in her consciousness, her voice carrying an unbelievable tremor and some kind of suddenly enlightened shock:

"Teacher! That Second Great-Grandfather... is you! Right?"

Xu Yunzhou's illusory figure also fell into silence at this moment.

He floated beside Xu Nuo, raised his head, and quietly gazed at that figure on the portrait wearing an old-style long gown whose face was identical to his own.

The "Second Great-Grandfather" on the portrait had a gentle and distant gaze, a smile on his lips, as if penetrating a century of time dust and thin silk cloth, quietly meeting his eyes outside the screen at this moment.

Xu Yunzhou sighed with emotion. Future me, you really know how to play... Mhm, I know how now, I'll play like this in the future too.

Du Xinyuan gently raised his hand.

The ancestral hall immediately restored solemn silence, everyone's gaze refocusing on him.

Du Xinyuan's gaze slowly moved away from Xu Nuo's young face, casting again toward that huge portrait behind her, his eyes full of reminiscence and emotion.

He paused and nodded to the old servant beside him.

The old servant understood, walked to the offering table, and from a long wooden box wrapped in brocade, took out an item.

A glass storm lantern identical to the one on the portrait.

Du Xinyuan extended his trembling hands and solemnly took this lantern from the old servant.

His fingers brushed over the cold brass handle, his movements as gentle as touching a baby's cheek.

"This lantern,"

Du Xinyuan spoke, his voice carrying an obvious tremble,

"Since Aunt Lan passed away, has been enshrined in the secret room of the incense hall, carefully guarded and wiped day and night by successive gang leaders, not daring to slack off for a single moment."

His aged gaze swept over every face in the ancestral hall, saying slowly:

"We waited and waited... waited past WWII, waited past the immigration wave, waited past the Chinese Exclusion Act, waited past the great San Francisco fire, waited past the economic depression... waited past nearly a century."

"Many people of the older generation, until they closed their eyes, couldn't wait until the person in the painting came back carrying the lantern."

"Many people doubted whether the dying instructions were just a dream of Aunt Lan's, a beautiful fantasy."

"But we didn't dare to forget, couldn't forget. Because this is the final entrustment Aunt Lan left with her life, the token Second Great-Grandfather delivered across spacetime."

His voice abruptly raised, carrying an unyielding sonorousness:

"Now!"

He held that storm lantern that seemed to carry a century of time with both hands, his gaze kind and incomparably solemn looking at Xu Nuo, word by word, incomparably clear:

"Child, the person indicated by Aunt Lan's dying instructions, the person awaited by a century of waiting, is you."

"This lantern, waited for you for ninety years."

"Now, are you willing to..."

He paused, using all his strength, asking that question the Incense Gang had waited nearly a century for:

"Lift it?"

All gazes looked toward Xu Nuo.

Xu Nuo felt unprecedented pressure, even breathing was somewhat difficult.

She could feel the expectation, excitement, and scrutiny in those gazes.

She asked eagerly in her consciousness, her voice carrying panic:

"Teacher... why did you arrange for me to shoulder such a heavy responsibility? Do I... do I really have this ability?"

Xu Yunzhou looked at this solemn and shocking scene before his eyes, looked at that ancient lantern in Du Xinyuan's hand, looked at those faces written full of expectation in the ancestral hall, and his heart was also filled with myriad emotions.

He was silent for a moment, using an aged tone as if having seen through the long river of time, and slowly said in Xu Nuo's consciousness:

"Lift it, Xu Nuo."

"We Great Xia people believe in ancestors and revere ancestors, but this is not superstition. This is an inheritance, a bond, a spiritual totem that allows wanderers drifting outside, no matter how far they walk or how high they fly, to remember their roots and watch out for and help each other."

"You taking over this position, taking over this lantern, is the best response and explanation to the century-long waiting of everyone in the Incense Gang. You can make these sparks scattered overseas but yearning for their homeland gather into a torch again."

His voice gradually became firm,

"Nuo, from now on you will not be fighting alone."

"From the moment you lift this lantern, behind you is the entire Incense Gang. There are business giants like Zhou Zhiwei, professional elites like Li Weian and Zhao Hongyu, and networks and resources spread across the globe."

"They will assist you, support you, protect you. And what you need to do is not to handle everything personally, but to become that lantern—become that symbol, that spiritual core, that light guiding the direction in the fog."

"Believe in yourself, and also believe in the arrangement Teacher made for you."

Listening to Xu Yunzhou's words, the bewilderment and terror in Xu Nuo's eyes gradually settled.

Yeah, how could Teacher's arrangement be wrong?

She took a deep breath, took a step forward, and walked in front of Elder Du Xinyuan.

The ancestral hall was so quiet one could hear the subtle sound of her clothes rubbing.

She extended both hands, her fingers steady, without trembling, steadily and solemnly receiving that warm, ancient storm lantern.

The lantern entered her hands.

Lighter than she imagined, as if just the weight of ordinary glass and brass.

Yet also seeming as heavy as a thousand catties, because it carried a century of time, countless expectations, and the future of a massive organization.

Right at the instant her fingertips touched the brass handle.

Buzz...

The wick inside the lampshade suddenly lit up.

As if a sleeping soul was awakened by its true master, letting out a satisfied sigh.

Perhaps that was some ingenious chemical or physical device inside the lamp base triggered to self-ignite at a specific angle or pressure.

But at this moment, the precision of the timing and the magical effect made no one want to investigate the principles.

In everyone's heart, this was a miracle!

"It lit up! The lantern lit up!"

"It really is her! She really is the Lantern Bearer!"

Low exclamations could no longer be suppressed; many people were so excited their eyes filled with hot tears.

Elder Du Xinyuan looked at that storm lantern in Xu Nuo's hand that seemed to have been injected with vitality, old tears crisscrossing his face, muttering:

"Aunt Lan... Second Great-Grandfather... did you see it? The lantern... finally lit up..."

"The ritual is complete—!"

The master of ceremonies used all his strength to chant loudly. His voice was loud and clear, penetrating the roof tiles of the ancestral hall.

Outside the ancestral hall, the traditional Chinese band that had long been prepared instantly began playing!

Gongs and drums were deafening, shaking the ears! The suona was high-pitched, piercing straight to the clouds!

Sheng and Xiao(Armonica and Flute) played in harmony, resounding through the entire Chinatown, announcing the end of a century-long wait and the beginning of a new era.