His expression changed slightly, and suddenly he scooped Zhenyan Xue’s leg with his left hand and wrapped his right arm around her shoulder. With a leap, he soared in front of the flames, spinning several times, and landed on a piece of open ground closest to the bonfire, then carefully placed Zhenyan Xue down.

He knelt on one knee in front of Zhenyan Xue, looked up sincerely, and loudly proclaimed, "In the name of fire! I... only want you as the woman in my Zhenyan Yuan tent!"

His voice was loud, filled with an inexplicable sanctity.

And his figure glowed brilliantly under the firelight.

He knew a bit about certain rituals of the Zhenyan Clan, after all, having slept with Zhenyan Xue for so long, they naturally talked about such things.

"In the name of fire" was an important vow of the Zhenyan Clan, and indeed, there had been young men of the Zhenyan Clan who had declared their loyalty to a woman in such a manner.

Generally speaking, such a young man would not be of a high rank.

But Li Yuan was the Grand Elder.

His voice quieted the dancing clansmen around them.

Then, a greater wave of cheers surged up.

"Zhenyan Yuan!"

"Zhenyan Yuan!"

"Zhenyan Yuan!"

The people cheered Li Yuan’s name.

Li Yuan shouted, "Glory shared with my wife!"

He grasped Zhenyan Xue’s hand.

And Zhenyan Xue felt her entire body tremble, a flame of happiness sweeping through her.

Her heart completely melted, and she embraced the young man before her tightly.

She took a deep breath, cheered, and shouted, "I will belong to you forever!"

...

The bonfire party ended, and this also indicated that from now on, in the eyes of the Zhenyan Clan people, Li Yuan’s name would be Zhenyan Yuan.

And after returning to the tent, Li Yuan found Zhenyan Rong, Zhenyan Lan, and Zhenyan Hong, the three women.

"You are all beautiful, but I already have Xiao Xue, and I can’t have you too. I have already made a vow before the fire... so, I am willing to let you leave, to return to where you originally came from."

The three women were somewhat reluctant to leave; they genuinely wanted to be with Li Yuan.

Especially after Li Yuan proved his strength and became the Grand Elder, they contemplated having children for him even more.

But ultimately, Li Yuan was the Grand Elder. Having said so, the three women could no longer stay.

In an instant, the three women went to dismantle the tent.

And Zhenyan Xue also began to dismantle the tent.

Firelight from afar illuminated, casting shadows of tents on the ground, and there were always people constantly walking back and forth on the melting, snowy Frozen Soil.

Li Yuan glanced at Zhenyan Xue; he knew his wife was moving the tent closer to the fire.

He was already the Grand Elder; he was entitled to this.

Li Yuan bent his body to help, but was pushed away by Zhenyan Xue.

Zhenyan Xue even glared at him, saying, "What kind of Grand Elder are you, not letting you do any work."

Li Yuan suddenly thought of Yan Yu.

For many years, when he and Yan Yu lived in the village workshop, it was the same.

To speak of it, he and Yan Yu were nothing special, just ordinary people, but now they inexplicably reached this point...

"Grand Elder, you can go about your business; wait for me to finish setting up the tent before you come back," said the beautiful woman, looking at him with deep affection.

Li Yuan nodded, then went to the tribal leader’s main tent.

...

"Is our Grand Elder here to discuss with me the matter of conquering outside towns?"

The Clan Leader was drinking wine.

He swirled the wine and said, "These grapes were dug out of the Frozen Soil and brewed into three jars of wine, mixed with goat’s milk to make five jars. This is already the third jar; would you like a cup?"

"I’ll try it," Li Yuan said casually.

The Clan Leader had someone take a bone cup, filled it for Li Yuan, and then clapped his hands for someone to prepare food.

Soon, the food arrived.

It was sizzling, oil-roasted meat, but the color was somewhat peculiar.

Knowing the source of this meat, Li Yuan wasn’t too surprised.

This meat... was dug out of ice; who knows how many years it had been stored.

Hundreds of years, thousands of years?

If it weren’t for the special fire here, Li Yuan would doubt whether this meat was still edible.

As he thought about it, the Clan Leader had already started, tearing off a piece of meat, eating it with the wine.

Li Yuan, too, ate unceremoniously.

The two gorged themselves.

The Clan Leader ate while looking at the distant horizon, speaking in a chatty tone, "Before going outside, I thought all meat tasted like this.

But once outside, I saw those people kill the sheep we milked to make meat, turn various creatures into delicacies... my world was turned upside down.

Later, I carefully tested those people’s strengths.

Only to find... weak, unimaginably weak!

From that moment, I had a thought, I want to lead our people to the outside world.

But there are not many of us in the Zhenyan Clan, so I must unite all the tribes on the Frozen Soil."

Li Yuan said, "This meat, besides being cooked, truly is very ordinary."

The Clan Leader suddenly said, "How old do you think I am?"

Li Yuan looked up; the man before him was strong and robust, his eyes like Copper Bells, wearing a bone crown, very majestic, the "1710~1725" beside him further showcasing his strength.

"I don’t know; your strength and the outside world’s strength are different... if someone like you lived outside, you could live for four hundred years."

"Four hundred years?" The Clan Leader sighed, "I am already sixty-nine years old; no one on the Frozen Soil has lived past one hundred and twenty; the longest-lived person lived to one hundred and eighteen.

Why, though strong, must we dwell on this barren Frozen Soil?

Please tell me why?"

In his voice lay hidden coldness, violence, and anger.

Li Yuan wiped the oil from his mouth, raised the bone cup, drank it in one go, then looked calmly at the man before him, clenched his fist, and said, "Our Zhenyan Clan will surely walk out."