[Wait, does this count as getting in trouble with the family or being forced onto a grand stage?]
=I don’t know, Spring Brawler. I don’t know.=
[Haha! Fuck all y’all!,] Razorstella began to boast, [I am the ki-wait...I am the queen of the kaijin! Bow to !]
[What were you checking?!,] Hurricroak shouted back, [I’m not even sure if we have anything down there!]
[Either way, fuck you that’s what!]
[Oi!,] Nepherage interjected,[all of you shut it! Our lord appears to having a ntal crisis right now and needs us to be supportive. So shove it so we can help.]
[Oh, shit, right.]
_____________________________________________
"I...as you wish, clan leader," Zhen Shi said with a bow, confused as all hell on just how this went from him looking to make ands to having to show off the capabilities of his grandkids.
Needless to say, all of Zhen Shi’s descendants were also confused as all hell on how this turn of events occurred.
Even Zhen Liu was caught off guard by this situation...sort of.
’On the one hand, I kind of expected our family get shanghaied into so crazy competition thing for the sake of familial honor and/or to shove it in the faces of the main branch that they weren’t the only ones able to train up heroes. On the other hand, I didn’t expect this to be brought up by the freaking clan chief and have them grab us almost fucking imdiately!’
Due to being a forr avid reader of light novels, web novels, and a fan of wuxia stuff general turned main character(?), Zhen Liu(Thomas Lee) was very familiar with the trope/plot hook that was the "grand tournant ran by a powerful sect and/or family and how they never go as planned...fucking ever".
As such, having the leader of his clan essentially say "feel free to join this sacred contest of ours because LOL", was...mildly worrying to say the least.
Perhaps she had an agenda, perhaps not.
Either way, Zhen Liu needed more information and more eyes in places they shouldn’t be.
Thankfully for him, the opportunity to set up those eyes was going to happen very soon.
"Wait, it’d be rude to just send you all back to whatever inn or hotel you’re staying in after you all went through the trouble of coming here in the first place," Zhen Xun Tian realized as she scratched the back of her head in thought, "oh and feel free to stop bowing and stand up by the way. Even I recall how uncomfortable that pose was once upon a ti."
"Uh...as you wish."
Unsure on how to handle the sheer casualness of soone who was technically their superior and possibly ancestor, the branch clan mbers all simply stood up straight and looked forward. The only ones who hadn’t made any moves yet were the four high elders that Zhen Xun Tian was addressing earlier.
"Tell you what, Zhen Bai?"
"Yes, clan leader?," a middle-aged man with white hair and an impeccable, dressed in blue replied.
’Okay, so he’s the Wisdom Elder...surprised he doesn’t have glasses,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself.
"Would you mind guiding them to the Alchemist Wing? I do believe most of the younger generation mbers are at cusp of breaking through and they just need a little...boost. Mind picking out so pills for them?"
"As you wish, clan leader," Zhen Bai bowed before beginning to move towards the exit door.
Picking up the vibes of the situation, Zhen Shi gestured to his sons, daughter-in-laws and grandchildren to follow Zhen Bai out the room, in the sa order in which they entered no less.
Evidently, this served to be a boon for Zhen Liu, because as he and his imdiate family made their exit to the door, he subtly dropped a single copper coin to the floor.
A very, special type of coin.
"Hope you all find what you need in there," Zhen Xun Tian said in a weirdly friendly manner as the branch clan made their exit.
With a majority of the eyes in the area focused on a single door closing, nobody seed to notice as a small copper coin, suddenly sprouted legs like a beetle.
_____________________________________________
As the Zhen branch clan left the Golden Reef room and made their way to the Blessed Willow Manor’s alchemist section, the clansn soon learned about another tidbit about their patriarch’s past that was never brought up until this mont.
"Well...as odd as these circumstances are, it is good to see you again, Zhen Shi."
"Likewise, Wisdom Elder."
That he was apparently friends with one of the high elders of the main clan, or to be more accurate, he was the direct disciple of the Wisdom Elder.
"What the fuck, father?,’ Zhen Long asked in response to this revelation, "why didn’t you ntion this before?"
"To be fair, it never ca up," Zhen Shi replied, "also, I technically have."
"Wha-when?"
"Rember when I told you that I picked up my knowledge of aether beast handling and butchering from an old ntor of mine?"
"He was that ntor?!"
"Hah! So you really did use the things I taught you to make a living with Princess Bai Hua! Brilliant!," Zhen Bai laughed at the revelation.
"Now tell sothing, Zhen Shi, by my calculations you should be looking much older in a physical sense. But it appears to that your cells have rejuvenated. How did that happen?"
"Its a...long story that is difficult to believe."
"Try ."
Several feet behind this heart-to-heart between forr master and student, Zhen Liu was busy trying to make himself appear as inconspicuous as possible.
He had a feeling that whatever fun alchemy things they were going to participate in, it was going to involve reading over each person’s individual formulas to try and determine what pill would be the most compatible with them.
Such an activity would be considered normal or even extraordinary for soone with a conventional aether formula, but in Zhen Liu’s case...this was going to be tricky.
’Okay, maybe if I’m quick enough I can get one of the kaijin to possess and I can use their formula to-’
"Hey, Zhen Liu, got a second?"
"Huh?"
But before Zhen Liu could co up with a solid plan, his cousin Zhen Tai decided to interrupt him...with a question.
"Hey...Zhen Liu...you know how last night you and Zhen Hai did that whole...impromptu surgery thing?"
"Yeah, I was there...what about it?"
"Well, I was talking to Zhen Hai just now and he ntioned how you were the one to bestow upon him the knowledge to do so through weird...trick of yours...can you do the sa thing to ?"
"I-wait, what?"
_____________________________________________
anwhile, back at the Golden Reef Room with the elders and Zhen Clan matriarch...
Zhen Xun Tian stood in the exact spot she had bid farewell to the branch clan mbers.
As she stood there though, she could feel the gazes of the Martial Elder, the Spirit Elder and her own son, the Heroes Elder, burning a hole in the back of her tattoos.
She knew she owed them an explaination for her decisions...but that didn’t an she really had one good enough to explain everything.
"Matriarch," the Martial Elder began to say, "I know that you are the leader and are free to make any decisions you want, but are you serious?! Why on Valresta did you let that....that mud stain! Off the hook so quickly?! For all intents and purposes, we should be sending his severed head to the Imperials as an apology to them for the trouble he caused."
In response to this rant though, Zhen Xun Tian simply let out a snort and clicked her tongue in disapproval.
"Once again, Zhen Fei, you fail to see the bigger picture."
"Huh?"
Zhen Xun Tian proceeded to hold up three fingers, signifying that she had three reasons to do what she had done.
"First, this gives us an opportunity to see just how well our own teaching thods stack up against a mber of the clan who had gone AWOL. To see if there are ways we could improve or to prove our superiority in the eyes of the others."
"Second," Zhen Xun Tian continued while folding down a finger, "this is a good chance to clean the slate and recruit another Aether Lord to our ranks. If all goes well, out Zhen Clan will have even more fighting power than before, centing our position as the penultimate Imperial force."
"And...the third reason?," Zhen Xun Po asked his mother.
Zhen Xun Tian began to smile.
"The third reason is about to knock right...now."
"Clan Leader, its Zhen Ba Yin, may I co in? I have sothing important discuss."
"Really? Important how?," Zhen Xun Tian asked in almost lodic, sarcastic way as though she already knew what was going to happen.
"It pertains to the fallen clans."
"There it is."
As soon as that term was used, the other three elders suddenly stiffened up.
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