This punishment was to keep him as far away from the greedy patriarch whom he banished to the northern branch family.
He then tried to placate Ji Rou by gifting her many treasures, but when he realized that the innocent lady was too long gone, the emperor raged bitterly and issued his harshest verdict ever.
He ordered Ji Ling; the patriarch's only son to be castrated publicly and completely revoked the eligibility of the patriarch's entire descendants from the seat of patriarchy.
The patriarch's younger brother was the next strongest person in the clan and though he wasn't like his elder brother, they were still related by blood anyways, and it didn't take long for the new patriarch to begin oppressing Ji Tang and the Southern Ji Family altogether.
Now that two of the three clan founder bloodlines had now banded together against the third, everyone from the third bloodline had now been schemed against one way or the other and sent to the Southern Ji Family.
Ji Tang took in his people and provided for them the best he could; and with his strength of Bridge Qi Sea – Core Formation and his two sworn brothers being at the Peak Qi Sea stages respectively, no one within the Ji Clan dared to openly trouble the Southern Ji Family.
Thus, the only way the Ji Clan tried to trouble the Southern Ji Family was to increase the amount of tax they paid whilst handing them the most difficult missions that the clan had, and after noticing the tyranny, many of the Ji Clan members who were not happy with the situation began to move over to the Southern Ji Family.
The Ji Clan was the least populated amongst the twelve guardian clans, but they were also the strongest due to their cultivation techniques and family heirlooms.
They had about six thousand members in total, with the main clan housing two thousand members whilst the four branch families housed a thousand each.
But whilst the Northern Family was allied with the main clan bringing up their numbers to about two and half thousand members, the Southern Family only numbered around one and half thousand members.
The Eastern and Western Ji family also housed about a thousand members each, but both had decided to stay out of the massive exodus and remain neutral.
They knew the Southern Family won't sit back and watch the Northern or Main Clan force them into battle; after all, that wouldn't bode well for the Southern Family.
The Main Clan and the Northern Family also realized that being located in the south meant that the Southern Family can easily move their members to support either the Western or Eastern Family, and that would only make the cost of their exodus much greater than its rewards.
As a result of this, the Ji Clan and all its branch families found themselves at a stalemate and were all preparing and striving to obtain or create something that would tip the stalemate in their favor and give them the advantage in the upcoming Clan Shedding, which was what people of this world called a smaller scaled coup.
The Royal Xiao Family, who had begun to worry about the self-destruction of one of their strongest war pieces, reported the situation to the emperor who realized that the situation was simply a repeat of what happened between his ancestor and the Yun Empire back then.
'Perhaps, this would purify the Ji Clan and make it stronger than ever before.'
The emperor thought to himself as he sent out his imperial edict which stated that; the Royal Xiao Family and the surrounding guardian clans must not interfere with the infighting and were to simply send back regular reports on its progression.
It was about five months later when Ji Rou's belly began to bulge that Ji Tang realized that she was pregnant.
He had to hire all the help he could get to help his daughter so that she could at least eat well and stay healthy enough to give birth to the baby and stay alive to take care of it.
He didn't care who the father of the kid was, he only saw the child as the grandchild his daughter was about to give him; with his almost nonexistent bloodline, this was the only hope he had, and he would be stupid to reject it.
Thus, after receiving several help, Ji Rou managed to birth the child, and on that day everyone within the Southern Ji Family witnessed a smile return to Ji Tang's face for the first time in a very long time, and it refreshed all of them with renewed hope.
But before that renewed hope could last long, Ji Rou eventually committed suicide a month after Ji Min's birth and Ji Tang was suddenly plunged back into the pits of hopelessness.
He had felt like the heavens were all having a blast watching him struggle towards the light at the end of his tunnel, before snuffing it out and then repeating the cycle.
He felt like a part of his soul had died and he became lost in sorrow, turning into a shadow of his former glorious self, and resorted to a solitary life where he drank himself to a stupor every single day.
For five years, no one saw him, and he aggressively chased away anyone who visited him bar his two sworn brothers.
It even got to a point when several members who came to support Ji Tang's rule felt like moving to the Eastern or Western Families to begin a new life, as it was looking like Ji Tang was never going to recover from his shattered state.
However, Ji Tang's two sworn brothers did their best to keep the family together, and on the fifth month of that same year, Ji Tang finally emerged from his solitary drunkard life as it was the same day that Ji Min's meridians will be revealed.
Everyone within the family was nervous because they knew that Ji Tang seemed to be waiting to know what level of potential his grandchild will possess.