The words, the declaration, the identification, hit the crowd below. The citizens, the cultivators, the officials, the emperor, the sect disciples, all of them, heard. The purple-haired woman, the woman on the ship, the woman beside the emperor of the Long Dynasty, was claiming the Purple Astral Province as her home.
Their eyes widened. Their faces, already pale, went white.
"Ancestor," an elder, a Purple Astral Province official, whispered. His voice was trembling. "She's here. Like... she's the ancestor. The one who ascended three thousand years ago. She's returned."
"The ancestor has arrived!" another official said. His voice cracked. "She has finally descended! Three thousand years! She has returned to us!"
