Beastmaster of the Ages

”They look like they’ve just been smacked in the face! Grandfather especially kept talking down on you and said that not finding a man means you won’t be able to reach the minor zenith. Every time he said that, he seemed so deathly certain. But now he’s completely flabbergasted,” Suishen Yao said, bending over as she laughed.

Suishen Zhao said, ”My dad looks incredibly awkward. The people around them are constantly congratulating them for what you did and they can only laugh along and praise you!”

”Hahaha...!” Eminent Jiguang laughed like a flower in full bloom, as if she had never been so happy before. She had kept all those feelings pent up for far too long, but today, she was finally able to release them all at once! It felt truly euphoric to be able to make her father and brother do a double-take like that.

Seeing how happy she was made Tianming feel that it was all worth it. He now knew why she hadn’t bothered going to them when she had succeeded. It was an attempt to spite them even further. But she could hardly be blamed, considering the extent of her achievement and the shit she’d had to take from them thus far. Even as she left, more and more people still came to congratulate Ranxing and the old patriarch.

”Tianming, I’ll spare you empty words of gratitude. From now on, Yaoyao and your matters are also Auntie’s matters. I’ll do anything for your sake, how about it?” Eminent Jiguang earnestly said.

”Auntie, that’s too much. I’ve already gotten a lot from you. This is the least I can do to repay you,” Tianming said.

”That’s right! In fact, you can use him however you like. Don’t even bother asking me,” Suishen Yao generously offered. She treated Tianming like a public carriage.

Now that I’ve done all this and have enough springwater and merit points, I should ask her if she can help me get order fragments from the Xenoabyss. Tianming decided to wait until later, though, since there were too many people around them.

The group returned home in a merry mood.

***

After some time, the reverends and eminents had mostly left the scene. Eminent Ranxing and his father both felt that their faces were rather stiff from all the smiling.

”Dad, I’m afraid that you can no longer boss her around ever again after this,” Eminent Ranxing said.

The old patriarch sighed, ”I was only hard on her because I was worried she wouldn’t be able to achieve the minor zenith. Now that she has, there’s no longer a need for that. While she isn’t the obedient type, she is capable. This bet lasted for more than a thousand years, and I ended up losing it.”

”She’s far too sentimental and can’t see the bigger picture. She still acts brashly like she did in her youth without contemplating the consequences. No doubt, this breakthrough’s boosted her ego even more. I think you should talk to her when you’re free,” Eminent Ranxing said.

”I’m afraid it’s easier to move mountains than to change a person’s nature. Fortunately, Yaoyao didn’t end up going the way she did.”

Hearing that, Eminent Ranxing froze for a moment. ”Dad, are you saying that Yaoyao and Li Tianming’s marriage is a settled thing?”

”More settled than you think.”

”Didn’t you say that we were just going to bring him back and would decide what to do about him later?”

”The way I saw it back then, the kid has a good reputation among the youth of our house and Myriadpath Valley as a whole. Coupled with the fact that he’s close to Yaoyao and Little Zhao, I still think there’s a seventy percent chance that we can use him to further our ends.”

”There’s still a thirty percent chance that he’ll turn on us.”

”Reward always comes with risk. Seventy percent is already good odds. If we’d chosen to act based on that thirty percent risk, it would’ve cost us our reputation, made Jiguang hate us more, and ruined Yaoyao’s happiness for good. At the very least, your daughter’s doing better than before, right?”

”Of course. However, I still have a feeling that Li Tianming is a traitor at his core. If we let him continue this way and climb all over our heads, I worry that it’ll be too late for the Three Exalted Houses to stop him. It might turn out even worse than House Qitian’s incident.” That incident had become the collective trauma of the Three Exalted Houses.

”Either way, I want you to stop ascribing ill intent to him all the time. Let me and Jiguang be the good guys. All you have to do is to stay neutral and do nothing. If we need someone for the role of the bad guy, let House Yumo do it.

”If they manage to kill the kid despite Jiguang’s protection, they’ll have earned it. But if they can’t, they’ll be the ones to bear the consequences for souring their relationship with him even further. If House Yumo applies pressure on you again, brush them off. We treat people the way they deserve to be treated, understand?” The old patriarch gave him a sharp glare.

”Alright!” Eminent Ranxing immediately thought about the young pixie from House Yumo and the promise he had made to her to deal with Tianming. But with Eminent Jiguang’s breakthrough, things had changed. He knew that his father was beginning to care more and more about his sister’s point of view.

”That kid’s at a critical juncture. The path he takes will affect how we treat him from now on,” the old patriarch suddenly said.

”What juncture?”

”The Foundation stage. Let’s see if he successfully makes it that far.”

”What do you mean?”

”So far, it seems like his talent is many times that of descendants of the Three Exalted Houses. It isn’t reasonable at all, almost too good to be true. The only way we can be certain of his talent is if he continues to the Foundation stage, at the very least. Even if he breaks through, he might run out of steam. What we need to do now is to see how he performs after reaching the Foundation stage, then reevaluate his worth to us and decide how to deal with him.”

The old patriarch turned to his son and continued, ”I believe you understand that with Jiguang’s breakthrough and House Yumo’s great loss, what House Yumo thinks of us is getting less important by the day. As the better-off side, we can afford to sit and watch things change instead of grasping a hot potato and being in a rush to throw it away in fear that others will think we’re planning to eat it.”

”So we should put the hot potato to the side and maybe taste a few bites from it before deciding to keep eating or not? Do we really not need to care what House Yumo and House Qitian think?” Eminent Ranxing asked.

”House Yumo’s still reeling from their loss and they’ll be occupied by that for at least fifty years. In fact, the ones we should pay more attention to are House Qitian and the valley lord. This time around, I made the decision to summon Li Tianming back before the valley lord had a chance, so we don’t know what he thinks about him.

”I believe that House Qitian is the true key to deciding Li Tianming’s fate! The valley lord is someone who rose to power after the previous valley lord, so what do you think he’s the most wary of?”

Eminent Ranxing nodded. ”I know what you mean. However, the Three Exalted Houses exist on a fine balance. Li Tianming’s a person that can tip the scales. We can test him out to see if he works out in our favor or toss him if he doesn’t. If we don’t take any proactive action, coupled with House Yumo’s current state, House Qitian will rise even higher than they already are.”