Spirit Spring City.
Zhang Xue and Zhang Liu weren’t invited to the discussion that the elders were having so instead they were sitting in one of the rooms at their estate. The two were direct descendants of the previous Patriarch and now were the disciples of the current one. Their living expenses were covered by the clan and they had many servants along with a large mansion.
The siblings weren’t alone though, people like Huo Kong, Feng Nuana were also here. Besides those two there were some other male and female cultivators of the younger generation around. Some from the Huo Clan while others from the Feng Clan that were accompanying their respective young lords.
Zhang Xue had invited them to over to stay in their guest house. The two other clans were placed in various locations of the main clan estate, but some had gathered here while they waited for word to arrive from their elders. Nuana and Kong, in particular, were people that these two Zhang clan members had gotten to know during the testing period. Liu was a bit hesitant about inviting the Feng Clan girl, but the small sister of the Feng Matriarch was slowly growing on him.
“When do you think that the elders will come to a conclusion? They still treat us like little kids!”
Huo Kong said out while leaning up against a wall with his hands crossed.
“Don’t think they can come to a conclusion without Masters approval…”
Zhang Xue gave an answer while offering some tea to Feng Nuana and some of her friends. The group of girls was sitting around a table, tea in white porcelain cups was spread out on it. The short girl had braided her hair into twintails as they were looking light pink as always.
“This is quite fine tea… and this honey goes well with it…”
Nuana proclaimed while sipping on the drink, the tea back home wasn’t as good as this, she wanted to ask how they managed to get it to taste like this but the timing was a bit off.
“Your master… are you really the disciples of that honorable person?”
Everyone looked at Zhang Xue that just smiled and nodded, the person in question was, of course, Zhang Dong that made a good impression on the juniors in this room.
“He was so admirable, how he delivered swift justice to that Yang Kai!”
The boys from the side perked up and joined in at the conversation. They all were there and managed to wake up just in time to behold Yang Kai’s demise. They saw that dastardly Dark Palm Sect member vanish into fine particles. The image of the white-haired cultivator that had saved them was etched into their mind, they would never forget his gallant figure till they died.
The conversation shifted to the Zhang Patriarch, the kids started wondering about just how strong he was in reality. The young cultivators started asking Xue and Liu about their master. They were barraged by many questions ranging from how tough their training was all the way to what sort of boots the Zhang Patriarch liked to wear.
“Do you think your master could give me some pointers…”
Huo Kong asked Liu, the animosity from his voice that he used to have long gone. The red-haired youth had seen how righteous this man was while protecting Feng Nuana and was now seeing him in a new light. That he was the older brother of the woman that he had a thing for also was a big factor.
“Master giving pointers? I’m not sure he is versed in fire techniques that much. But he is a master of hand to hand combat!”
Zhang Liu stifled a laugh while trying to think about what his master would do. He was feeling quite proud about being his pupil, everyone in the room was looking at him with sparkles in their eyes. Having a mentor that was at the nascent soul level was something that these youths had been dreaming every day.
This peaceful atmosphere didn’t last for long as it was interrupted. While they were chatting, they heard a loud thud and the sound of pottery being broken. The loud noise was preceded by a flash of light coming from a large side closet. This was also the place that Zhang Xue stashed most of her tableware and her tea sets.
This closet was to the side and there was no entrance to it from anywhere besides the room it was in. The people in the room looked at each other, wondering why there was a flash of light and a shift in spiritual energy coming from there.
“Is it a mouse or a rat?”
The girls backed away slightly, the most logical conclusion was that some kind of spirit beast sneaked into the closet and was kicking up a racket. It also could be some kind of intruder that was hiding in there before they entered the room. Due to this suspicion Huo Kong and Zhang Liu reacted in unison while nodding at each other.
The two youths slowly shuffled their feet towards the sliding door, the people behind them quieting down. Kong placed his hand on the door ready to slide it open, Liu was on the other side his hand raised and ready to deliver a devastating blow to anyone that might have been spying on them. The people behind them gulped as Liu nodded, this prompted Kong to slide the door open his fist also raised the tension in the air high.
The moment they slid the door open cracked and broken teacups and saucers poured out. Inside was no assassin or demonic mouse beast whatsoever. There was a peculiar person that the people here were already familiar with. The man was wearing a characteristic white robe that had armor parts like metallic gauntlets and shoulder pauldrons. Yes this was the Zhang Patriarch, Zhang Dong had used the system’s teleportation method to appear here where his disciple Zhang Xue was.
‘Blasted thing teleported me into a closet.’
There he was, stuck in a small space barely large enough to support his height and width. He had a large white pot on his head that was slightly cracked. Shattered pieces of what looked to have been expensive tea sets were riddled all over the floor and were falling out from the broken shelves behind him.
The people in the room were stunned, Huo Kong and Zhang Liu were shocked and stopped mid-movement their fists raised in the air. Matt looked at the two youths that were standing in front of him with one of his eyes. The other was covered with the pot on his head, he slowly removed it and placed it to the side only to see it tumble down into the rest of the broken pottery.
“M-master?”
Zhang Liu spoke out while lowering his fist, Zhang Dong moved his hand upwards just showing his palm in a way that indicated that he didn’t want the youth to speak.
“You see… your Master placed many teleportation arrays around the Zhang Clan to have a way of escape… but I was in the middle of a dire battle with five nascent soul cultivators. While activating it the spiritual energy from the fight must have interfered with my technique and I ended up here…”
So he said, the people in the room just stared while his deep voice filled their ears.
‘Did it work? Why are they being so quiet… should I just leave?’
Matt’s palms became sweaty and his introverted personality started acting up due to being gawked at by a group of people. This felt a lot more intimate than speaking out to a large crowd that looked more like a big blob from the distance. In this situation he was starting to feel nervous as people that he knew were staring him down.
“Ah, well then…I’ll just…”
“Master!”
“It’s really the Zhang Patriarch!”
“How stunning, he is even more handsome in person!”
“Teleportation? That’s a nascent soul for you, how fearsome!”
The kids in the room quickly moved forward all in awe about this man. They were just discussing this frightening master and he was fighting five nascent soul cultivators at once. He didn’t look like he was injured so he must have made his escape, or even managed to slay some enemies in their eyes.
Zhang Xue moved over to where Zhang Dong was standing and together with her brother gave her master a bow.
“Disciple Zhang Xue greets Master!”
“Disciple Zhang Liu greets Master!”
Matt had the urge to scratch his neck after the two acted so formally. Before he could react the siblings looked behind them, glaring slightly at the people in the room. The youths picked up on the ques almost instantly and quickly bowed to the senior member.
“We greet you honorable Senior!”
Everyone started bowing and showing their respect before him, this show of honor only made Matt want to get out of this room sooner. Even during these two years he didn’t really get used to this respect that these people showed him. He had what you might call a case of imposter syndrome, feeling like he didn’t deserve all of this due to how he gained this power of his.
“It’s fine, you can relax.”
Matt wanted to sigh, but before that, he looked at his two disciples his voice sounding solemn.
“How is your grandfather doing? Did you arrive without any problems?”
Xue’s and Liu’s smiles quickly turned upsidedown after they heard the question. Xue lowered her head down while Liu stepped forward to give his master the bad news.
“Grandfather hasn’t awoken, the physician said that he is in a coma and when he will awake is unknown.”
“Is that so…”
Zhang Dong nodded slightly and then looked to the side.
“Could you guide me to where he is now?”
Xue nodded and moved in front of her Master.
“Follow me, Master. Uncle is resting in his own residence, other members from the family are tending to his needs.”
Xue in front, Zhang Dong in the middle, and Zhang Liu in the back. The three white-haired cultivators went out, the other people in the room were silent and had enough tact to know what this was a family matter. They somehow knew who they were talking about, the man in the black suit of armor was also seen at Jade Grass City.
Though after the door closed, the people that were left inside became quite chatty. Huo Kong and Feng Nuana decided to report this to their family members, the man that everyone was waiting for to arrive has finally shown up. He would probably be the answer to this predicament they were facing and the only person that could realistically protect them.
After leaving the room, Matt continued walking after his female disciple. Grandpa Jin was resting in the same mansion that Xue and Liu were living in, it was quite large and housed a lot of the core family members from the main branch. Their arrival didn’t go unnoticed, Zhang Dong’s appearance was widely known and soon enough the whole place was abuzz.
“The Patriarch has returned!”
“Quickly send the information to the elders, the leader is back!”
Word of the glorious leaders return quickly echoed through the entire main clan base. The first ones to be alerted were the people that were holding the meeting of the elders. Almost instantly all of them stormed out, not even waiting for their Patriarch to arrive. Everyone was far too stressed, they needed answers about what they were going to do. They needed to know if Zhang Dong, the man that had already shown that he could work wonders was confident in achieving a new one.
On the other hand, while people were storming towards him Zhang Dong was standing before the large mansion that supposedly his grandfather was resting. The area he was in was a large outside garden, the problem wasn’t in that though. For some reason there was a massive gathering of people here and even though they came in various shapes and sizes, they all seemed familiar in some way.
“These are direct family members that had come to pay their respects to Grandfather.”
Zhang Xue spoke out while alerting them to the Patriarch’s arrival. The people moved to the side, knowing that this was the clan leader as well as their family member.
“Greetings Senior Uncle dong!”
“Greetings Patriarch!”
Matt moved his head over to Liu slightly as he asked.
“Why are they all here and why do they feel so familiar…”
Zhang Liu looked to the side with a solemn expression at the question but answered promptly with a slight sigh.
“They are all related to us and have a similar upbringing as you Master has, they…they are all related to Grandfather…”
Matt looked between Liu and the crowd, there were well over a thousand people there. And quite a lot of them had similar facial features to Zhang Jin’s. He put two and two together, his mouth gaping wide at the realization.
‘How many kids did this old bastard have!’