Chapter 579: Wily Old Woman
“You mean to tell me that, despite knowing that there is going to be an attack tomorrow, by the Fallen Clans, your men have no idea how it’s going to happen?”
“Yes, Martial Elder. Unfortunately.”
“And not only that, but an Imperial Prince and Princess is coming over tonight?,” Zhen Lung added.
“Indeed.”
“And that prince…just so happens to be the same prince…that Zhen Shi screwed over…all those years ago?,” Zhen Xun Po asked in confirmation.
“I believe that is the case, yes.”
“By the scales, what is this day?!,” Zhen Fei growled while rubbing his temples out of stress.
Literally moments after Zhen Shi and his kin had left the room, Captain Zhen Ba Yin had entered to report to the matriarch about some disturbing findings, or rather, events stocking up one after the other that if they ever interact with one another would lead to an utter fucking disaster.
“Thank you for the report, Zhen Ba Yin. You can return to your regular duties.”
“Thank you, clan matriarch,” Zhen Ba Yin said with a bow.
With his duty now then, Zhen Ba Yin quickly left the room in as orderly a fashion as he could muster. After he left though, the elders began to discuss about how to deal with everything he had reported.
So far…it wasn’t going great.
“Godsdammit, all of this happening at once, it can’t be just a coincidence, right?,” Zhen Lung asked his fellow elders, only to receive dirty glares in response. “Well excuse me for hoping there was a quick and easy solution to it all.”
It was bad enough that the blackmark of the Zhen Clan had reappeared out of the blue like this, but to coincide with the arrival of the Imperial family members, one of whom had beef with the aforementioned blackmark was…distressing to say the least. If the Imperial Prince still held a grudge about what had happened all those years ago, it is very likely that the Zhen Clan as a whole might be affected as opposed to just the guy who did him wrong.
Then again…maybe he got over it?
“We could double the amount of guards tomorrow…but that might end up killing the atmosphere more so than provide comfort…,” Zhen Xun Po thought aloud as he tried to wrap his head around ways to deal with the possibility of an attack on tomorrow’s events.
Combined with the threat of a potential attack from the Fallen Clans on their sacred competition…that happened to have royalty attending this time…the high elders and the clan leader had a lot to worry about in the upcoming days.
“Hah! This might be the most interesting Zhen Clan Competition we’ve had in years!,” Zhen Xun Tian said with a laugh.
Well…this was something the high elders were going to be stressing about for the next few hours. The clan leader, Zhen Xun Tian, on the other hand just seemed to find the whole idea of these events colliding with one another into a cascading mess, absolutely hilarious.
Despite all of the obvious problems that would arise in the aftermath.
“What? Do I have something on my face? Did one of my tattoos migrate on my cheeks again?”
The nonchalance of their leader caused the Martial, Spirit and Hero Elders to pause their griping and thoughts to direct questioning looks at her, not that she seemed to mind or care about in the slightest.
“Clan leader…I know you find this whole chain of events to be amusing…but please stop laughing and help us come up with some solutions as to prevent the worst from happening,” Zhen Fei pleaded.
Zhen Xun Tian did eventually stop laughing, but only after doing so for more seconds than what would be considered appropriate in a social/professional setting. However, she did have a good reason for her laughter…well, what she considered a good reason.
“Why are you guys worrying so much? Don’t you see how this is going to resolve itself?”
“Uh…no,” Zhen Fei answered for the group.
“The way I see it is this: whatever attack is going to happen tomorrow by the Fallen Clans will probably entail something internal more so than external, due to them not having the manpower necessary to outright attack a city during peak traffic conditions, especially with so many foreign mercenaries in the area” Zhen Xun Tian began to explain, “meaning that they’re probably going to try and sneak into our family competition under the guise of a fake name, fake identity, whole stock and kit, and then either win the whole thing themselves or make sure there’s some mass casualty event that ensues among the participants. That way they can pin the blame on us being neglectful or some stupid nonsense like that. You all understand me so far?”
“Yeesss?,” Zhen Lung and Zhen Fei agreed at the same time. Zhen Xun Po for his part was surprisingly silent.
“So what you’re saying is…you want us to vet everyone tomorrow before the event?,” Zhen Lung asked.
“No, that might cause the Fallen Clans to try and do something desperate to salvage their plan, what I’m saying is…let it happen.”
“What?!”
“The branch clan members will be participating in our competition as well, remember? The worst case scenario is that they get caught up in the attack and Zhen Shi and his family become so distraught by the whole affair that they end up committing some rather violent actions that make things easier for our enforcers to do their usual thing.”
“Oh…I get it now.”
“But what about the best case scenario?”
Zhen Xun Tian grinned at this question.
“The best case is that they end up dealing with the fallen clan warriors themselves and we don’t have to expend any energy at all. That and depending on how things go, we’ll be able to add a Lord and a group of Grandmasters to our ranks.”
“What?!,” Zhen Fei exclaimed.
“Oooooh, that I can understand!,” Zhen Lung said in excitement, “Zhen Shi wants to make amends…and this is how he does it, fighting our enemies for us…and if it fails…we can blame it on him and punish him! Brilliant!”
“Precisely.”
“Worst case, he dies and we can erase him from our history…best case…hmmm.”
Zhen Xun Tian grinned like a canary as she saw how the high elders proceeded to accept her reasoning, hook, line and sinker.
There was a fourth, final reason why she had the descendants of Zhen Shi participate in tomorrow’s competition, but that was something she wasn’t going to share…well…unless somebody guessed it.
“Well then, now that we are in agreement. I suggest you lot to get back to business as usual and prepare for the arrival of the Imperial Prince and Princess. Go and do whatever that entails.”
“What? Oh, yes! As you wish, matriarch.”
“Lovely, now go.”
Zhen Lung and Zhen Fei proceeded to do as instructed and exit the Golden Reef Chamber, going off in opposite directions of one another due to their respective areas of work being on opposite ends of the complex. Being proper gentlemen though, they made sure to close the door on the way out.
The only ones remaining in the Golden Reef Chamber now were the Zhen Clan’s leader and the Hero Elder…or as they were also known as, Zhen Xun Tian and Zhen Xun Po…mother and son.
“Is something the matter, my darling son? Don’t you have work as the Hero Elder to attend to?”
“In just a moment,” Zhen Xun Po answered, “but before I do so, I think you owe me an answer.”
“Oh? Just one?,” Zhen Xun Tian retorted with a cheeky smile.
“What’s your final reason for wanting Zhen Shi’s descendants to participate tomorrow?”
“My final reason?”
“You gave the Martial and Spirit elders three very reasonable, very obvious answers that did little more than stroke their egos and ambitions. But I know you, mother, you were never one to make things obvious to understand,” Zhen Xun Po elaborated, “unless you wanted to hide something more complicated.”
“Ah! My son is so clever and observant! Good job!,” Zhen Xun Tian agreed with a smile and a pat on her son’s head.
“You know, there are days I miss when you shorter than me, it made it so much easier to fuss your hair back then.”
“Mother…”
“Aye, yes, yes. You want to know my last reason? The true reason I did all that?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well then…a very quick question, my son,” Zhen Xun Tian opened while dropping her smile, “do you recall the tattoo I have on my back? The one that never moves and seems to radiate an energy that you can’t seem to comprehend no matter how hard you tried?”
To emphasize her point, Zhen Xun Tian turned her back towards her son so that she could what tattoo she was referring to.
“Yes, you’ve had that tattoo on your back since I was a babe…what about it?”
“I made this tattoo years before you were born, with a special bottle of ink I had found in the clan’s treasury. It was the only one we had but I used it to create the tattoo upon my back…and secure my position as the clan leader with it.”
With that statement made, she turned he front back towards her son.
“Now what if I told you, that one of Zhen Shi’s descendants was radiating that exact same, unknown energy?”
“What?!”
Zhen Xun Tian smiled at him once more.
“I get the feeling that tomorrow’s competition is going to be very interesting…in more ways than one…”
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<=Oh fuck.=>
