The Zhang Clan's Ancient Ancestor: From the Start, I Found a Qilin Cub

Zhang Yan, the founding ancestor of the Zhang family, breaks free from his seal with no memories, yet gives all his affection to the family's sole Qilin child. At their first meeting, he takes hold of the boy's bleeding wrist. A pale golden stream of energy instantly seals the fresh wound on his shoulder. Zhang Yan wraps his cold fingertips in his dark robes, and his words, “Kid, I'll protect you from now on,” make the Zhang family patriarch, who has been silent for nearly a century, blush at the tips of his ears for the first time. When debris comes crashing down from the fallen Cloud Top Heavenly Palace, Zhang Yan is always the first to shield him. When the Queen Mother of the West's kingdom is swarmed by poisonous insects, a barrier woven from energy always keeps him in the warmest spot. Even when Wu Xie brings over hot cocoa, the ancestor checks its temperature before putting it in Zhang Qiling's hands. On the Iron Triangle's adventures, they gain a fiercely partial guardian: against the Wang family, he is ruthless, shattering bones with a long whip of energy; toward Zhang Qiling, he is tender, ruffling his hair, warming his hands, and shielding him from wind and snow. When the Wang family uses bloodline corruption to strike at the bronze seal, and the Queen Mother of the West opens her eyes inside her crystal coffin, Zhang Yan even risks exhausting his remnant soul, pouring all his pale golden energy into Zhang Qiling. “Your fate is yours to bear, but your ancestor will shoulder half of it.” In the light of the Black Gold Ancient Blade resonating with the energy whip, the bond between their thousand-year-old bloodlines finally pierces the gloom. This time, the man who always stood alone before the bronze gates will forever have his ancestor behind him, protecting him from harm.