Green Radiance Realm, Great Spirit Dynasty, Western Region, Southeastern Territory, Green Jade County.
Bordered south by the Ten Thousand Mountains Tribes and east by the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range, this territory has long been given up by the Great Spirit Dynasty.
Instead, the forced that ruled here only had to listen to orders but not follow them, they didn't have to pay tax, but the dynasty would still reward all their achievements of conquering wasteland.
Baited by this generosity, many clans and sects left one after another, even some rogue cultivators rushed to this territory with the plan to create their own force.
Unfortunately, all of them failed, becoming meat shields for the dynasty.
Now, after countless years of "exploration", only a few forces remained.
The Xu clan wasn't one of them.
Instead, they were a relatively new force that rushed to explore this region, not out of naivety, but out of desperation.
They continued for five generations, with each generation having less and less people, and more people dying in battle than from old age.
…
Xu clan, main hall.
A young woman around twenty was sitting on a raised chair, below her, several rows of people bowed, calling out "Female Patriarch! Female Patriarch! Female Patriarch!"
In this moment, it had only been two days since Xu Lianyu reincarnated into the world.
She was still dazed, not having digested her memories nor understanding her situation.
When she heard 'Female Patriarch', she suddenly woke up from her dazed state and scolded "Who's a female patriarch? It's called Matriarch! Matriarch! Remember this! Hasn't anyone taught you?!"
The people below were stunned for a moment and the next second, they all bowed deeper and said "Matriarch! Greetings to the new matriarch of the Xu family!"
Suddenly, many sighs of relief sounded in the hall.
God knows how difficult it was for the Xu family to choose their next patriarch – half of them didn't want to take the burden of being forced to do clan head matters, which might delay their cultivation.
The other half simply wasn't qualified no matter how much they wanted to be patriarch.
After all, when looking at a leader, you look at the whole strength of a clan.
Even though it usually delays the cultivation of the leader, the leader still has to be strong and mighty.
Just when the elders were in trouble, a younger elder who didn't have the strictness of the older elders simply suggested Xu Lianyu to take over the role of patriarch!
She was smart from a young age and was among the best in the clan school, she had double roots, one of the only three people in the clan, and more importantly, she was already in the seventh stage of cultivation!
And the reason they were sure Lianyu would accept the proposal… it was a bit of a selfish move.
Five years ago, when the clan was lacking in strength, Lianyu suddenly came from outside and married a foundation building rogue cultivator as her husband, saving the situation.
No one knew how this happened, especially since Lianyu wasn't even in the late stage of qi refining at that time, but it seemed the relationship between them wasn't forced, and the rogue cultivator was fully fine marrying into the family.
He fought for the family for five years and gave Lianyu twins, both of whom were now four years old.
It spoke volumes of their love and great relationship.
But, just two days ago, there was a sudden attack from one of the southern tribes!
This wasn't unusual in warm seasons, but who would attack in peak winter?
Cultivators are still below the law of nature, in winter everything rests, especially in the low south and high north, the coldness is very difficult to endure.
But most of the time, such things aren't difficult to endure in the regions away from those two poles.
Still, for cultivators, it might be just an inconvenience, but all tribes, clans and sects rely on mortals for continuation!
So, they usually went down the mountains in winter and put various regulations in place, to ensure the mortals were fine.
Which tribe would leave the mountains in winter and attack enemies outside?
On top of this, just a day after the tribes came and looted, suddenly, there was a beast wave!
This is also weird – although mortal beasts starving in winter would come down to attack mortal cities, spiritual beasts would have enough food and follow their instinct to enter winter sleep.
So, with several unexpected situations combined, there was loss in the Xu family.
The foundation building mong married to Lianyu sacrificed himself, the ancestor of the Xu family is seriously injured, and over half of other members died too.
The Xu family instantly shrunk for a well doing foundation building family to a family that was on the brink of falling to qi refining!
…
On the other side, Lianyu seemed to have suddenly regained her spirit after saying this.
One family member next to her, older and wiser, seemed to see her fall into contemplation, so he told the family members to walk away and stop disturbing the family head.
'This… being a matriarch, why does it sound like a trap?' Lianyu asked herself.
Although she was dazed the past two days, she still understood a few things.
Initially, she just thought it was an ancient world where she was suddenly raised to the position of a matriarch – in fact, although it was hard work, as a modern person, she knew how precious power and authority was in such times.
In modern times, if you are weak and powerless, you can still somehow go through life.
But in ancient times, if you have no power and no authority, no matter what you think and want, you will just be a pawn in the hands of others!
Only… after just saying she was the matriarch, her last few memories cleared up and she knew – this was a cultivation world!
On top of this, her own qualifications are extremely high! Dual roots of water and wood!