Chapter 231: Gotta love aftermath logistics
In the span of a single night, the power dynamics of Stone Claw City had changed in a very dramatic fashion.
The Wolfe Family was no more!
The family that had been in Stone Claw for generations, helped establish its roots and became one of its pillars had been thoroughly run out of town.
Their Grand Elder had been rendered an ice pillar, their patriarch had been horribly crippled, and a majority of their Aether Masters were either dead or horribly injured.
And what was the reason for all this?
Well, there were about a billion rumors or so floating around these events because people got bored easily, but there were some key truths.
For starters, the Wolfe Family wanted to go from immovable pillar of the community to overlord of the city, a decision that pissed off at least two of the other three pillars in the city, leading to them joining hands and kicking their ass. The third power, the Corrada Family, didn’t participate…which was weird.
While the Wolfe and Corradas families weren’t exactly chummy with one another, they had joined hands now and again over the years to suppress other families and factions.
Perhaps the hubris of the Wolfe Grand Elder was too much for the Corradas? No one knew for sure.
Regardless, many who were privy to the events of that night had assumed that the Wolfe Family would have succeeded, afterall, power is power, and the Wolfe Family was being led by an Aether Lord, arguably the strongest power in all of the frontier. Nobody, literally no one, had expected that the Zhen Clan’s elderly patriarch would somehow not only breakthrough that evening and hand Harold his ass on a silver platter, but also somehow turn back his own aging. Breakthroughs in battle we’re weird, sudden de-aging was weirder.
People knew the Zhen Clan and Zhen Shi for years at this point, how the latter established the former in the city alongside his wife, their explosive growth by economically and martially filling in an unknown niche, and how the latter ended up becoming stagnant in terms of growth after his wife died.
Many had assumed that Zhen Shi would just stay an Aether Grandmaster, full stop. It wasn’t uncommon, and aether cultivation was a path full of pain, tribulation and annoyance. Many a prodigy hit a wall at some point, a majority of them stopping at that point. It would not be too much of a stretch to assume the guy who was a widower would stop cultivating due to his heart being irreversibly damaged.
But now with everything that had gone down, and Zhen Shi now looking and acting significantly younger, a lot of people started re-evaluating their relationship with the Zhen Clan, especially since the clan by right of big ass fist, could take over the Wolfe Family’s former territory, resources and businesses and become the undisputed rulers of the city.
However, throwing everyone for a loop, the Zhen Clan didn’t really make any moves to do so. In fact, they handed over sixty percent of their recent acquisitions to the public, the Diggers Union and, surprisingly, the Corradas.
When asked why they did so, a representative of the Clan said in an magnanimous tone:
“The patriarch came here with his family years ago in the search for freedom. Who gives him the right to impose his will on others who came here to do the same?”
Whatever the case, the people were overjoyed at the Zhen Clan’s generosity, causing their reputation skyrockets regardless.
That being said, of the stuff the Zhen Clan did take from the Wolfe Family, there were still some…logistics to iron out.
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“Alright, so of the assets we decided to keep…,” Zhen Long began, “We have…several high grade aether beast corpses, the titles to three different mines producing three different types of aether crystals, the entirety of the Wolfe Family estate to comb through, but I think I found a fucking medicine vault somewhere and at least two hidden treasuries, and the entrance to that one set of wandering ruins that is somehow still active…father, I understand that this stuff is technically the most valuable of the lot, but they’re also gonna be a massive pain in the ass to redistribute.”
“Understandable, but that’s why I put you in charge to make sure everything’s fair.”
“…fair enough.”
As of this moment, Zhen Shi and his sons were in the middle of a meeting, in the former Wolfe Estate’s meeting hall, to decide what they were going to do with this sudden influx of wealth. They had been at this for about two hours, and that was just making sure they tracked everything.
“Alright, for starters, I would like to distribute rewards to our younger generation, namely Zhen Yue, Zhen Hai and Zhen Liu for showing exemplary behavior during this…melee.”
“Dispute.”
“Battle.”
“War.”
“Pain in the ass.”
Agreed?,” Zhen Long asked his brothers.
“Aye.”
“Great…now who gets what?”
Silence fell upon the brothers and patriarch as they tried to figure out what to do about that particular question.
All three young prodigies had equally contributed and fought bravely during this debacle, and had each taken down an enemy Aether Master by themselves, but the question was whether or not some deserved more than the others.
“I propose that Zhen Yue be-”
“Xiao Hou, a moment,” patriarch Zhen Shi had unexpectedly interjected, “I can already tell this will probably lead to us arguing about favoritism, or who’s child deserves the greater reward, so I’m going to nip this in the bud and suggest this: why don’t we just ask the children what they want from where. Sound good?”
The elders of the Zhen Clan felt mildly deflated after their father made an entirely reasonable middle ground for them to work off of. They wanted to at least argue for thirty minutes over this matter, but since the patriarch made his decision, they had no choice but to accept.
“Alright, cool. For the youngins sake and make this decision easier for them, we’re gonna go and raid the Wolfe vaults and make sure those assholes didn’t leave any traps behind. Now, let’s go.”
As the meeting adjourned and the Zhen Clan elders made their way to the vaults, Zhen Shi initiated secret conversations with Zhen Long, Zhen Hou and Zhen Yan via aether.
“Alright, before we go any further, do any of you have any ideas what your kids would want out of this? Or at least, something they would need?”
Zhen Hou and Zhen Long both gave answers that indicated they didn’t have a clue, with Zhen Yan’s answer being different.
“Well…I did hear him complain about needing to find a Diabolic Dragon Whisker of all things…”
“Seriously? Why would…hmmm…”
As the Zhen Clan elders were figuring things out on a macro scale, a certain young master was handling something a tad more…personal.
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Dribble, dribble, clank.
Dribble,dribble, clank.
Dribble, dribble, clank.
Telana Corrada sat in silence as she watched the rocking bamboo fountain do its thing in her personal garden.
She had been given it as a gift from the Zhen Clan ages ago, a birthday celebration type of deal.
While she was confused when it was first given to her, she soon found it to be a relaxing feature to her otherwise poisonous garden. She had found that it took a full minute for it to fill and pour out as easily as it did, so she made it a habit of using it as a timer for her teas and medicine.
As she sat upon her garden table, waiting for her tea to finish brewing, an unexpected presence entered her senses, sitting at the chair opposite of her own.
“Fascinating. I always thought the Zhen Clan we’re all the straightforward types,” Telana calmly stated.
“Yes, well…,” Zhen Liu replied while setting up a second cup of tea for himself, “One must deceive their family first, before being able to deceive others.”
A strange air formed between the two of them as those words left Zhen Liu’s mouth.
Something was going to happen tonight, but the outcome was… unclear.
