Chapter 165 – Secret Discussion
“Bai Pan?” Liu Ming looked at the elder who did not have a single expression on his face. Immediately, he nodded and without further words, he walked through the doorway.
With Liu Ming’s current cultivation, he was able to see that the elder in front of him was a practitioner that was quite powerful. However, with Liu Ming’s cultivation, he need not pay any heed to the other person’s power.
Bai Pan quickly walked in front to show the way. At the same time, he respectfully said in a hurried manner, “Old Master and Young Miss are outside of the city and talking about a couple of things. However, I have already had people leave through the back door to notify them of the news of the young master’s return. I believe that Old Master and Young Miss will be back by tomorrow. For now, I’ll first have young master living at his old residence.”
“Not within the city! Then who is in charge of things at the Bai Clan right now?” Liu Ming asked.
“Young master, right now, it’s the second Old Master that is within the clan. The third Old Master has been in secluded cultivation for the past few days.” Bai Pan responded honestly.
“Okay, no matter who is in charge in the clan, I hope that I can meet someone that can truly take care of things around here. Or else… Hmph, looking at you, you seem to know my true identity, so I won’t have to talk more useless words.” Liu Ming gaze coldly swept over the elder, and with a slight grunt, he talked to Bai Pan.
“Young master must be joking, how could I know anything. However, be at ease young master, I believe that Old Master and Young Miss will be here personally to meet young master Congtian tomorrow.” The elder’s face slightly changed after hearing his words, but he immediately gave a smile as he responded.
Liu Ming’s face did not reveal any emotions as he followed the elder around. Soon after, he arrived at an exceptionally quiet courtyard.
At this moment, before the courtyard were two beautiful maids that were wearing yellow and red clothing. They both seemed to be about fifteen to sixteen and as soon as they saw the elder come over, they immediately came over and gave their respects, “Greetings to the great butler!”
“Mei Zhu, Mei Lan, quickly come and meet young master Congtian. In the future, you two will be in charge of young master’s clothing, food, residence, and travel. If there are any slights to young master, you both will be punished! Young master Congtian, are you satisfied with these two? If they aren’t to your satisfaction, I can immediately change them to two new people.” Bai Pan first let the two of them stand up before asking Liu Ming with a face full of smiles.
“They are fine!” Liu Ming’s gaze swept across the two and responded without emotion.
“Okay, then young master can go in and rest. I will first take my leave. If you need anything, feel free to order the two of them to get it.” Bai Pan respectfully said.
Liu Ming nodded and bluntly walked into the courtyard. Under the directions of the elder, the two girls immediately followed behind Liu Ming.
Bai Pan watched as the door of the courtyard closed and his smile slowly faded. With knit eyebrows, he paused where he was before turning around and leaving.
However, before he walked a decent distance, a shadow flashed behind a large tree in a nearby road. A middle-aged man that seemed quite shrewd appeared and after a few steps, he respectfully said, “Great Butler, I have already set up all of the people. As long as this person leaves the courtyard, we will immediately know.”
“What do you mean by this person. He’s young master Congtain. Before Old Master and Young Miss personally change their pronunciations, he is our Bai Clan’s true young master without a doubt. In addition, tell your people to retreat. Who do you think young master Congtian is? A couple of normal people would not be able to hide in front of him. Although you are also a butler within the clan and luckily know of this matter, you definitely can not decide on what to do on your own.” Bai Pan looked at the middle-aged man and coldly chastised.
“Yes, I’ll immediately have them retreat.” Hearing this, the middle-aged man gave a shiver and quickly bowed as he walked away.
The elder then gave a few words of instruction before walking away with his two hands behind his back.
The middle-aged man then straightened himself and used a gaze that had some envy to look at the elder’s back. With a hmph, he walked to a small path.
Moments later, the elder passed through a couple of courtyards and lines of guards before arriving at a seemingly ordinary room. Walking forward, he gave a slight knock on the door.
“Bai Pan, is that you? Come in.” A male’s voice suddenly sounded from within the room.
“Yes, Old Master.” The elder gave a reply before slowly pushing the door open to enter.
In the small space, there were already two males and a woman waiting inside.
The two men’s faces were quite similar, but one had a face that emitted a sense of books and papers and was about fifty years old. The other male was only about forty years old and had a savage aura about him. In addition, he kept a long blade that was three feet in length at his waist. The women was quite old and seemed over sixty years old with a face full of wrinkles. However, she held a bronze walking stick and had the appearance of being quite alert and attentive.
“Greetings to Old Elder, Old Master and second Old Master!” Bai Pan walked up a couple of steps and gave the three a respectful bow.
“Butler Bai, you aren’t an outsider. At this point, why take so many courtesies, Has that person already been situated? What did he tell you?” The man with an aura of books waved his hand and quickly asked.
“Old Master, that person has already been situated in young master Bai’s original residence and I have already directed Mei Zhu and Mei Lan over to take care of him. As for the words, besides saying that Old Master and Young Miss needed to meet him tomorrow, he did not say anything else.” Bai Pan respectfully replied.
The man with the aura of books was obviously the current clan head of Bai Clan, “Bai Xinliu.”
“Did he only mention these things and not talk about the marriage between Mu Clan?” The other man with a savage aura had his eyes flash.
“Second Old Master, no.” The elder replied without any thought.
The savage aura man was the second Old Master of the Bai Clan.
“Then how is his expression and the like, are there any abnormal signs.” The old woman slowly asked.
“Old Elder, the person seemed quite calm and I couldn’t see what he was thinking.” Bai Pan replied with a bitter smile.
“Oh, if that’s the case, then we can say that this young man has a strong temperament at such a young age. He won’t be easy to fool.” When the man with the aura of books heard this, his brows creased.
“This person was able to use one of our Bai Clan’s places to enter the Barbarian Ghost Sect as an inner disciple. Now, he has even become one of the top ten Core Disciples. There is no way he is someone ordinary. I just don’t know if our original conditions will be enough to persuade him.” The savage man let out a small breath as he spoke.
“If we can’t persuade him with that then we’ll just have to add a couple extra things. Our Bai Clan has waited so many years to finally grab ahold of this opportunity. We definitely cannot allow ourselves to be reduced to our original state.” The old woman gave a ‘hmph’ as she replied.
“Mother, this person is a Spirit Apostle with sizable status within one of the top sects in the country. Under this absolute strength, we practitioners would have trouble talking to him directly. Thus, I decided to not meet him and instead told people to notify Yan Er. Although Yan Er is only a normal disciple within the Heavenly Moon Sect, the influence that the Heavenly Moon Sect has is much greater than the Barbarian Ghost Sect. Thus, with Yan Er, we can start discussions with that person.” Bai Xinliu slowly explained.
“Did Yan Er go to meet people! It is merely a messenger from the Mu Clan, why did we need Yan Er to personally go meet him?” The savage man asked with some dissatisfaction.
“Second Brother, you don’t understand. This time, the messenger from the Mu Clan was no ordinary practitioner. Rather, he’s a Spirit Apostle that is under the Nine Enchantment Sect. Thus, our Bai Clan could not slight him and had to have Yan Er personally go meet him.” The old woman gave the savage man a glance before calmly replying.
“That’s why. I don’t know. Can Yan Er hurry back by tomorrow?” The man with a savage aura showed a face of understanding as he quickly asked another question.
“Relax, I heard from Yan Er yesterday. She was accompanying the messenger from Mu Clan to explore the surroundings with flying cranes. As long as she gets the message from us, I believe that she will be able to quickly come back.” Bai Xinliu said with confidence.
“That’s the best. However, at that time, won’t the messenger from Mu Clan also come to the Bai Clan? If he meets that person, wouldn’t that cause some problems?” The man with a savage aura still had doubt in his heart.
“There is nothing to be worried about. Although we did not predict that the messenger would reach the Bai Clan so soon, just keeping the messenger at bay for a couple of days can be easily done. After all, the alliance marriage between the Bai and Mu Clan is something that benefits both parties. Otherwise, the Mu Clan would not send a Spirit Apostle. Even without the marriage, this alliance would not crumble easily. However, the most important thing right now is that our Bai Clan only has a single Spirit Apostle, Yan Er, holding up everything. Although we have the heart, we don’t have the means to expand. Thus, no matter what we do, we must be able to use the name of one of the top ten Core Disciples of the Barbarian Ghost Sect to be able to maintain our current status.” The old woman said with a serious tone.
“If that’s the case, then the rise or fall of the Bai Clan will reside with our discussions with that person tomorrow.” Hearing this, the man with the savage aura couldn’t help but start bitterly smiling.
“There’s no way around that. If Congtain was able to become one of the top ten Core Disciples of the Barbarian Ghost Sect, that would be great. At least, he would be able to ensure our prosperity for at least a hundred years.” The old woman said slowly with an expression of extreme regret on her face.
“Hmph, don’t talk of that useless cripple. He actually died to some thief as a practitioner. Even if he participated in the Opening Spirit Ceremony, he probably would have died within in it.” Bai Xinliu said with some anger.
“However, if we want that person to become one with the Bai Clan, that isn’t impossible.” The man with the savage aura stroked his chin as he suddenly popped up with those words.
“Second brother, you mean…” When Bai Xinliu heard this, he could not help but still.
“If it were not for the fact that our Bai Clan needed Yan Er’s status as a Spirit Apostle to maintain our status, keeping her from marrying, she should have been married to someone by now at her age.” The man with the savage aura said with a smile.
“What? Second Brother, you want to use Yan Er to win over that person. No way!” Hearing this, Bai Xinliu roared with anger as he declined the suggestion.