Martial Peak

After listening to Yang Ying Hao’s words, the other seven Patriarchs suddenly fell into contemplation.

“We’ll take our leave now.” Yang Ying Hao said and he stood up, the other seven old men similarly getting up, each of them casting an intractable Yang Kai glance towards before collectively shaking their heads and sighing.

This brief meeting with Yang Kai had really left them dispirited.

“Great Uncle,” Yang Kai suddenly called out, “How are my parents?”

“You don’t have to worry about Fourth Brother and your mother, even if the Yang Family is destroyed, I won’t let any harm come to them.”

Yang Kai nodded slightly, his expression relaxing somewhat, “Many thanks, Great Uncle.”

“It’s what I should do.” Yang Ying Hao nodded back.

When the eight Patriarchs left the hall, they found Qiu Yi Meng and Huo Xing Chen waiting for them outside. It was obvious that this Young Lady and Young Lord were waiting for them.

“Greetings, uncles.” Qiu Yi Meng bowed elegant, displaying etiquette appropriate of her status.

On the other hand, Huo Xing Chen stood there snickering with his arms crossed, causing an annoyed light to flare up in Huo Zheng’s eyes.

Throughout the entire Central Capital, Huo Xing Chen was probably the only Young Lord from a great force who behaved so wantonly.

“Damn brat, come with me, father has something to say to you.” Huo Zheng shouted to Huo Xing Chen.

Hearing this, Huo Xing Chen grinned meaningfully and followed Huo Zheng aside.

On the other hand, Qiu Shou Cheng stared at Qiu Yi Meng arduously for a long time before sighing, “Meng’er, your vision is superior to mine!”

Before the start of the Inheritance War, Qiu Yi Meng had separated herself from the Qiu Family in order to become Yang Kai’s ally, while Qiu Shou Cheng and Qiu Zi Ruo chose to support the Yang Family’s Sixth Young Lord, Yang Shen.

In the end, it turned out that Qiu Yi Meng’s choice was the correct one.

During the Inheritance War, Yang Kai rose from having nothing to dominating above everyone else in short order.

In the waning hours of the Inheritance War, Qiu Shou Cheng had ordered Qiu Yi Meng and the Autumn Rain Hall to return to the family and told his daughter to cut off any relationship with Yang Kai she had.

But facts proved once more that standing firmly together with Yang Kai was more beneficial than joining forces with the Eight Great Families.

Nowadays, the Central Capital was suffering from both internal and external problems. Meanwhile, Qiu Yi Meng remaining in Yang Kai’s mansion and serving as his right arm not only didn’t provoke any complaints from Qiu Shou Cheng but instead caused him to secretly rejoice.

He felt it was a stroke of good fortune that Qiu Yi Meng had steadfastly followed Yang Kai, not even hesitating to disobey her own father’s orders to do so.

This daughter of his could indeed see farther and more clearly than he could; Qiu Shou Cheng couldn’t help suddenly feeling somewhat old and tired.

“Father!” Qiu Yi Meng eyes flashed a sparkling light, this was the first time she had heard Qiu Shou Cheng praise her so unreservedly.

From when she was a child until now, Qiu Shou Cheng had never praised her for her excellent performance and had instead focused all his attention on developing Qiu Zi Ruo into the successor of the Qiu Family.

There were even times when Qiu Yi Meng performed too well, causing Qiu Shou Cheng to show a pitiful expression.

Lamenting the fact that she was not a man.

Now though, she was hearing such unfiltered praise from Qiu Shou Cheng.

The bitterness buried deep in Qiu Yi Meng’s heart was suddenly replaced with feelings of elation.

“You father is getting old. From now on, I’ll have to bother you with taking care of the Qiu Family.” Qiu Shou Cheng sighed softly.

Qiu Yi Meng’s beautiful eyes became moist as she gently bit her lower lip, “Father is still young enough.”

“I am not young anymore.” Qiu Shou Cheng suddenly laughed and turned to look at his fellow Patriarchs, “They too, are no longer young anymore.”

Kang Rui, Meng Xi Ping, and the other Patriarchs’ faces all twitched violently at these words.

On the other hand, Huo Zheng and Huo Xing Chen both whispered for a while, no one able to hear what the two of them were discussing. After a long time, Huo Zheng simply sighed heavily.

“Old Man,” Huo Xing Chen suddenly put on a serious expression and patted Huo Zheng’s shoulders, “You should abdicate and enjoy retired life, no longer needing to bother with family politics and running around the battlefield fighting. Then you’ll have time and energy to find a few more madams and give me a younger brother. I already have so many sisters, when all of them start getting married, their dowry will become a serious burden on our Huo Family!”

“Scoundrel!” Huo Zheng smacked Huo Xing Chen across his head and yelled, “You dare speak such words to your father?”

Huo Xing Chen rubbed his head and chuckled, obviously not caring about this scolding and continuing, “I’m saying this for your own good. If you continue living on the battlefield, the Huo Family will really end up with only me as an heir. You’re still young and healthy, so your strength in bed shouldn’t be regressing yet. You need to take advantage of the time you have, do you want me to teach you some tricks?”

“Shut your mouth you damn unfilial son!” Huo Zheng roared furiously.

Huo Xing Chen suddenly restrained his rascal smile and solemnly said, “Old Man, perhaps I’m not suitable to take charge of the Huo Family, but I believe that with my friendship with Yang Kai, having me sit in the Patriarchs position won’t have any disadvantages to the future development of my Huo Family.”

Huo Zheng looked at him gloomily and coldly snorted, “On your own, there’s no way you could have seen through this situation so clearly. Who directed you?”

“Qiu Yi Meng.” Huo Xing Chen grinned, completely unashamed.

“Figures. That little girl is far brighter than the rest of you lot.” Huo Zheng glanced over at Qiu Yi Meng and couldn’t help feeling depressed. Why was it that among all his many daughters none of them could compare with Qiu Yi Meng?

That old fox Qiu Shou Cheng’s daughter was simply too frightening, she had obviously understood the current situation completely and anticipated this outcome.

Yang Kai was not willing to work with the Central Capital Eight Great Families because he didn’t want to let go of the power he had worked so hard to grasp. On the other hand, the Patriarchs of the Eight Great Families would naturally not be willing to submit to him.

If they were really to turn over all authority to a junior like Yang Kai, wouldn’t the Eight Great Families degenerate into a laughing stock? What’s more, their generation of Eight Great Families Patriarchs had also acted maliciously towards him.

However, if the Patriarch position was to change hands, everything would be fine, especially if the position was assumed by members of the younger generation as many of them had interacted with Yang Kai and were used to dealing with him.

For example, once the Huo Family and Qiu Family were inherited by Huo Xing Chen and Qiu Yi Meng respectively, they could justifiably cooperate with Yang Kai.

While the other Young Lords didn’t have much friendship with Yang Kai, all of them were members of the younger generation. Their own thoughts would be more straightforward and sincere. If they have any opposing thoughts, they would sit down and talk it through.

(Silavin: Basically, he is trying to say that they won’t plot against each other)

All of this seemed like nothing more than cosmetic changes, but now it had all but become inevitable. Unless, of course, the Eight Great Families decided to not seek help from Yang Kai’s mansion.

The Patriarchs of the Eight Great Families all departed with heavy expressions while Qiu Yi Meng and Huo Xing Chen saw them out of the mansion.

Everything was tranquil once more.

Ever since Yang Kai’s mansion flew across the sky and displayed it’s extraordinary might, the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land’s forces had become quite law abiding, while the Eight Great Families didn’t take the initiative to find trouble with them. Although Yang Kai wanted to find an opportunity to kill more Immortal Ascension Masters, such opportunities never arose, so he could only give up and peacefully dual cultivate with Su Yan inside the mansion.

Although the progress of his cultivation wasn’t as fast anymore, it was actually more stable, allowing him to better consolidate his foundation which would benefit him in the future.

The great forces who had sought refuge within Yang Kai’s mansion were also quite comfortable with the status quo. They came to the Central Capital to provide relief to the Eight Great Families, but none of them were eager to find trouble with the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land and were more than happy to quietly cultivate in this safe environment.

A few days later, the Eight Great Families’ Patriarchs visited Yang Kai once more and brought him news that greatly satisfied him.

Qiu Shou Cheng would officially pass the Patriarch’s position to the Qiu Family’s Eldest Daughter, Qiu Yi Meng, and ordered her to return to the Qiu Family’s temporary residence to prepare for the handover ceremony.

At the same time, Huo Zheng would also pass his Patriarch position to Huo Xing Chen.

Meng Xi Ping would pass his Patriarch position to Meng Shan Yi.

Liu Chu Quan would pass his position to Liu Qing Yao.

Kang Rui’s position would be handed down to Kang Jian.

Gao Mo would pass the Gao Family’s Patriarch position to Gao Rang Xian.

Ye Kuang Ren’s Patriarch position would fall to Ye Jing Li.

Severn Great Families’ Patriarch positions had all collectively changed.

Among these new Patriarchs, Meng Shan Yi and Liu Qing Yao were old acquaintances with Yang Kai.

On the other hand, Yang Kai wasn’t familiar with Kang Jian, Gao Rang Xian, and Ye Jing Li but he just assumed they were leaders among the younger generation of their respective families.

Although the chaos in the Central Capital had yet to be settled and the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land was still eyeing the southern lands covetously from their strongholds in the north, the succession of so many Patriarch positions was a big deal for the Eight Great Families, so they didn’t show any neglect when it came to the ceremony. Of course, it was impossible to hold too grand and event, but they still did whatever they could within an allowable limit.

Such a scene had never happened before in recorded history. The super forces were all going to collectively change leaders, and all the incoming Patriarchs were actually Juniors from the younger generation.

However, the situation forced them to do this so the Central Capital’s super families had no other choice but to proceed.

Once these Juniors took over the position of Patriarch, all the forces in the Central Capital would gather together with Yang Kai’s mansion and form a single solid piece of iron.

“What about the Yang Family? Who is going to be Patriarch?” Yang Kai listened to the words of the eight Patriarchs before suddenly asking Yang Ying Hao.

Yang Ying Hao showed a faint grin and asked, “Do you think anyone other than you has can sit in that position?”

The other seven old men also deeply agree with this sentiment and nodded.

All of them were forced to pass on their positions to their descendants simply so they could smoothly form an alliance with Yang Kai. If Yang Kai didn’t inherit the Yang Family’s Patriarch position, the relationship between them would become ambiguous again.

However, Yang Kai just slowly shook his head, “I won’t become the Patriarch of the Yang Family. Great Uncle, I should have told you this during the Inheritance War.”

“Are you saying that seriously?” Yang Ying Hao couldn’t help feeling surprised. He had indeed heard Yang Kai say he was participating in the Inheritance War simply to rectify his Sect’s name and didn’t have any interest in the Patriarch’s position. However, Yang Ying Hao had always thought he was just putting up a front and hadn’t expected he really didn’t want to become the head of the Yang Family.

Given Yang Kai’s current cultivation and the strength of the allies he had behind him, as long he nodded, no one in the Yang Family would raise any objection to him becoming Patriarch.

“Naturally I’m being serious,” Yang Kai said firmly. “Being Patriarch is too tedious, I have no interest in it.”

“But the strength you grasp right now is already stronger than that of the entire Yang Family. It would be awkward for you to not sit in the Patriarch’s position yet wield more power than the Patriarch.”

“When this crisis ends, my allies will disperse and go back to their own Sects and Families, but if I become Patriarch it means I will have to assume that position for the rest of my life. I’m not a fool, how could I be bound like that by the Yang Family?” Yang Kai thought about it for a moment before recommending, “I think it’s better if you let Big Brother or Second Brother become Patriarch, especially Second Brother. I think he’ll be more than happy to assume that role.”

“Yang Zhao really would be happy to become Patriarch, and he also has the appropriate aptitude and ability for the job, but your existence can’t be ignored!” Yang Ying Hao shook his head, “Your light is too strong. Since Yang Family has you, it’s impossible for anyone else to become Patriarch. As for Yang Zhao… it’s simply not fated to be.”

Yang Ying Hao also felt some regret for his son.

If Yang Kai wasn’t so awe inspiring, Yang Zhao would certainly be a good candidate for Patriarch, even more so than Yang Wei. Yang Wei was a solitary figure and was obsessed with cultivation, such a person was not suitable to become Patriarch.

“Don’t hurry to reject this position,” Yang Ying Hao smiled slightly, “Remember what I told you before?”

“Hm?”

“Becoming the Yang Family’s Patriarch also comes with its own advantages.”

The other seven Patriarchs immediately glanced towards Yang Ying Hao. It seems like they also had some faint idea about what he was speaking, each of them showing a slightly envious look.

Yang Kai carefully recalled and nodded, Yang Ying Hao had indeed said something about this to him before.