After 15 minutes seemed to have passed he was still nowhere to be seen, I wondered if something bad might have happened to him, even though the door to the inner area of the mansion was open to me, I still decided to wait for some time more .
Then another 10 minutes passed and the guard who went to ask for a permission for me to come inside hadn't made it back yet, there was another guard with me, but this guy was an outer area guard, if he were to be seen inside without a good excuse, then he might suffer some serious trouble .
Young Master Tian, you Should know that..... .
Seeing me looking at him, he become nervous and knelt down then started to say this, I figured that he might misunderstood my gaze just now, so I said :
" Don't worry, I won't ask you to do something like that, but how about you go back to check on the gate first ? .
Young Master please, I will.... .
" Don't worry, nothing will happen to you, I will make sure that you might get even more rewarded later .
I said this and tossed him 5 silver taels that landed perfectly in his hand, he was shocked at first, but soon his face brightened up and he directly thanked me then retreated, seeing him acting like this, I couldn't help but sigh and shook my head, those 5 silver coins are more than a month salary to a guard like him, but if you were to try and make use of them to practice Martial Arts, then you will find them to be completely useless .
Not enough to be exchanged for much, as I thought like this, I entered the inner area and happened to see that the guard had finally came back, his expression was ugly and he was even more so after he had seen me cross the gate he should have protected .
But he still didn't dare to make a scene, he just approached me silently and asked for the reason I had passed through the gate, I wondered about the results of me sending him to get someone to approve of my visit, his expression become livid as he said while bowing his head and cupping his fist in apologetic tone :
I'm sorry sir, but Elder Lu had refused to accept your visit at the moment and he told me to tell you to come back tomorrow in the morning, if you have anything to discuss, leave now or you will be trespassing .
The guard said this and already expected me to make him suffer for relaying everything he was tasked with relaying, figuring out that his words wasn't polite in the slightest for somone like me, but contrary to his expectations, another 5 silver taels had been passed to him, he looked bewildered at this .
He didn't understand at first but then he heard me say :
" The Elder you have spoken of should be an elder from Lu Chiang faction, right ? .
The guard was at loss of words after I asked such a question, he then nodded weakly, I passed another 5 silver taels to him and said :
" You should pick your Young Master's side, he would most like be the one to come out victorious, don't say anything about me being here, just point me out on where will the young master Lu is currently at .
The guard looked at the money in his hands reaching 10 silver taels and after hearing my words, he lowered his head and seem to be contemplating on whether should he do this or not, but after a few seconds, he seemed to have made up his mind and he pointed at main hall at the core area of the mansion and didn't say anything else .
I went to where he pointed me to, but a bit more discreet this time, there were too many guards patrolling at the moment, me being here was already bad enough, encountering any of those gurads might create quite the headache for me, if possible I currently didn't want to use my strength as much as possible, else I might kill someone unintentionally .
Reaching the core area where the residents of the clan elders and the main meeting hall was, I saw that the light was actually on, there seemed to be someone yelling loudly as well, what was going on exactly, Lu Jian should be there, then who might be with him and what they were arguing about .
There were two guards stationed in front of the hall and seem to be quite sleepy, the yelling voices from the heated discussion going on inside the hall behind them were what kept them unable to take a nap, but there was a way to take advantage of this .
I approached the hall discreetly and just as the guards seemed to be shutting their eyes, at least one of the two did, I appeared before the other, just for a slight moment, then I used Fluidity to imbued the essence of Thunderclap Fist and integrated it with Gliding Swallow and then with a swoosh sound, I directly entered the meeting hall while the guard was still rubbing his eyes .
Guard 1 :
What are you doing ? .
Guard 2 :
Did someone went in just now ? .
Guard 1 :
I know that you in dire need of sleep, but I didn't expect your state to be so dire, you are already starting to imagine things, it was just a gust of wind just now and you already imagined seeing a person, I will let you nap for a few seconds more but only for this turn .
The guard looked at the opend door behind him and nodded at his friends after accepting that he might have just imagined it just now, unaware of the fact that I was still listening to their conversation, I was currently eavesdropping on all kind of conversations going on .
Once I entered inside the hall, I found that I seem to have underestimated how spacious was the Main Family Hall, the place was spacious and was filled with all kind of decorations, it wasn't near the Main Hall at the Dojo in term of extravagant, but it wasn't that far off either .
Once I entered inside, I was still hearing people yelling at each other, but I was still not able to clearly understand what they were saying, Lu Chiang was absent that was what I was certain of, I wasn't about to eavesdrop on their conversation, at least that was my initial plan .
But coincidentally or not, I heard some of people talking mentioned the Chu brother and sister, then I instantly enhanced my ears and as a result I was able to hear the conversation between the two guards outside and what was happening in front of me in the hall .
We should have handed the two of them earlier when the City's Lord guards came asking for them, now we had brought a blight on ourselves, how would we be able to look at our ancestors in the eyes, if our family get destroyed by our hands .
An elder that I had seen before siding with Lu Chiang on the day his father was buried, his voice made me recall what he looked like instantly and his face and even movement while he was yelling those words out appeared in my mind, it was a weird feeling, seeing through hearing, what a bizarre thing .
From his words and the few nods that I sensed the people seated next to him seem to make, I understood that those guys want to hand the Chu brother and sister over to the City's Lord guards, as for Lu Jian own thoughts regarding this .
I saw that he was sitting at the head of this meeting, in the chair that his father should have sat in before, he let the people in here start squabble for some time, he didn't say much at first, only after the ruckus seemed to have finally calmed down did he say :
So what exactly would you have me do now, my respected uncles and elders ? .
After he said this, the same elder from before said :
I believe that there might be still a chance that we can reconcile with the City's Lord by giving Jim what he want, don't you all agree ? .
Again a ruckus started because of his suggestion, then afte everything settled down again, Lu Jian said :
Well, we will need to indeed try to solve this situation one way or another, but I'm interested to know how many of you do support handing over the guests of ours as uncle had suggested, for those of you who agree to this, I would like for you to raise your hand .
Instantly, I felt vibration in the room and sensed that at least 8 people seemed to have raised their hands, the people here was only 12, more than half of them already supported this idea, I wondered what will Lu Jian decide to do now .
Well, those of you who are in favor are quite plenty, but just a kind reminder to those who have raised their hands, I hope you remember who was the person who came here personally and asked us to accept them as guest, this person was none other but Solid Rock Fist Dojo Master and one of the Royal Academy branch masters and one of few prodigies, Master Chen Fan, do any of you dare to offend such a person .
As the name Chen Fan was spouted, instantly 3 hands were lowered and the people who lowered them earned disdainful glances from their peers, one of the other 5 people still holding to their opinion about handing the siblings said :
Master Chen Fan is indeed a Master among Masters and someone who our family dare not to offend easily, but Young Master should know that he already failed in his task two times already, once he fail for the third time, then he will be stripped of his position and titles and will only have himself to depend on, as for the City's Lord, we all know that the faction behind him is still more powerful .
Uncle's words are indeed correct, but I just hope that you also hadn't forgotten the identity of the two guests we have, the Green Sword Villa isn't an enemy we can deal with, even the City's Lord would be cautious with how he deal with the situation from here on out, so not to mention getting looked on favorably by the City's Lord, we might be inviting a disaster on all of our heads, would this make the ancestors of ours happy in the afterlife .
Lu Jian's words had made that uncle of his swallow his words, but his mind hadn't changed one bit, he was still pushing the idea of handing the two guys to the city lord, he even began to say that my Master was already injured quite severely when he went to the City Lord's mansion for an explanation .
Just as he was about to continue say anything more regarding the fate of Master, Lu Jian suddenly struck the handle of his chair strongly which made a buzz like sound that had the people who were currently at dispute of what to do go silent, then he said :
Our Lu Jian is already blessed to be supported by two great prodigies that came from our family, no matter how far they will go in the future and how they will fare, our Lu Family will share some of their luck, the person who gave us these opportunity is none other than Master Chen Fan, so my orders are final, we won't be handing them to the City's Lord Mansion .
Silent had reigned all over the Hall and the people in the Hall, the words had been just spoken, when suddenly an elder suddenly started to suspect whether I might be able to achieve great feats in Martial Arts like Lu Chiang, he was suspicious of this because he said that from what he heard, I was a person who lacked Blood Vitality, this should make my pursuit of Martial Arts almost impossible .
Whether he achieve grand feats in the future is something completely known by the heaven alone, we in this Lu Family would be content enough to get some fortune from their achievements, it also seem to me that some of you are all biased towards Lu Chiang instead of Tian Long, well I would like to tell all the people here that Lu Chiang is not even a thing in front of Tian Long's achievement .
You might not know this Elder, or you might have overlooked this accidentally, but Tian Long is rumored to be born with Innate Spiritual Power, which is quite strong and would make him a strong Spiritualist sooner or later, could Lu Chiang be compared to him .
Not to mention that Tian Long had already managed to kill a person in the Bone Forging Realm, let's forget about Master Chen coming to ask us for an explanation, do any of you have the confidence to take on someone who could kill a Bone Forging Realm experts like cats and dogs, if that is true he can come forward and I will give him the position of me as the head of the family and have him bear the blame this time .
After Lu Jian finished saying this, the silence reigned again, no one from the audience of this family meeting dared to say anything anymore, they seem to be weighting the words they heard now in their mind, a person who was supposedly at the Flesh Tempering Realm, being able to beat a Bone Forging Realm expert and even kill it, was indeed mind-blowing, having such a guy as an enemy, will be a terrible thing .
I thought that there shouldn't be any reason for me to stay hidden, so I started to walk up to them, just as I moved towards them, I heard the Elder who was just talking just now saying :
But I had heard that after he made such a fuss the other day,he still hadn't woken up yet and there are rumors about him not waking up any time soon .
Before I know it, I had happened to join them the second those words were said with unhurried steps, the echoes of my steps in the silent atmosphere forced all of them to look in my direction, seeing their expressions, I couldn't help but say :
" Why you all look like as if had seen a ghost ? .
That was how they looked at me currently, as if I rose from the dead, but it didn't surprised me much, the timing of my appearance made all of the people unnerved, not to mention that I shouldn't have been here in the first place, so no matter how I looked at it, their reaction was quite justified .
You, you, shouldn't you bedridden, how did you appear here ? .
" Oh, the Elder care about my news this much, I was recovering in the past few days indeed and now I had fully recovered, I'm here to pay the few friends of mine a visit, I heard that they are guests here in the Lu Family, I'm thankful for you taking care of them .
" Sorry, if I came here without a notice and at such a late hour of the day, but I had to make sure they were okay, surely you won't mind .
Of course, of course, brother Tian is very much welcome to visit, no need to be so formal with us, we too could be considered friends, come, come .
Lu Jian wasn't willing to let go of this chance to make me look favorably on him and he urged me to go and join him and even brought a chair and sat me next to him, the seat should be, seat reserved for a respected figure next to the head of the family, I saw not a few number of people seemingly to be unwilling to accept this .
But most of them didn't dare to show their dissatisfaction openly, all they can do was stare at this unfolding with disgruntled look on their faces, but it seem that there were still a few people who still had something to say, especially the Elder which I had such addressed so nonchalantly before .
He squinted his eyes at me and stood up and cupped his fist in greeting, I nodded at him and I saw that he winced slightly out of dissatisfaction, then he still said :
I'm glad that Young Master Tian Long had recovered and I dare to say that he might have indeed benefited a lot this time, acquiring a strongman inheritance at such a young age should allow the young master to ascend heaven in the future, but excuse me for my bluntness, shouldn't be a protocol to follow for such a visit to happen, you should have at least notified us before you appear here like this as to not create troubles for the guards .
I looked him up and down and the look on my face turned ugly as I understood that he was actually calling me out for doing something so shameless as sneaking into the mansion, which I indeed did but not from the start, so I said :
" Believe it or not elder, but I actually was well-mannered enough to ask a guard to come and declare my intention to visit your esteemed family, but the guards came back saying that an elder had interfered and actually said that whatever I came here for, it should be postponed to tomorrow morning, I don't know which Elder here was responsible for this, care to share your thoughts with me ? .
I said this and glanced at all the people who were now standing greeting me and soon I dare to say that I had indeed found him .