Chapter 212: Life 73, Age 32, Martial Grandmaster Peak
After leaving the Su Clan, I found the nicest hotel in the immediate area and booked a room.
There were two distinct centers of influence within Dragon Gate City. The first was the area surrounding the Su Clan’s compound. The second was the area around the Blue Wind Pavilion. I considered booking a room within the Pavilion's area of influence, but that would have signaled that I truly intended to break off contact with the Su Clan. While I had threatened to work with other clans, that was, of course, not going to happen. No other clan could offer me what I needed.
My time at this inn lasted for two whole days. I hadn’t expected it to take so long, but it seemed that the Patriarch had decided to investigate me thoroughly before making another move. Since they couldn’t travel to the Proud Mountain Kingdom in anything less than a couple of weeks, I couldn’t imagine what they expected their investigation to reveal, but they would hopefully talk to the carriage driver who had brought me here. That would give them more than enough information to make the right choice.
When an envoy from the clan arrived and I opened the door to see who they had sent to treat with me, I wasn’t entirely surprised. I had shown favoritism toward the Grand Elder, but sending someone in his position out to negotiate with a junior would have been lowering his status. So instead, they sent the younger Grandmaster 6 man who had deferred to the Grand Elder in the previous meeting.
I nodded to him and opened the door fully, allowing easy entry.
“Please, come in.”
He gave a short bow and stepped inside. “Thank you, Prince Fang.”
I studied him as I guided him to the room’s sitting area. He looked to be in his mid-forties, so since he was a Grandmaster, I placed his age at somewhere around 120, but that was only a very rough estimate. He wore the same brown robes as the Grand Elder, but this man’s were much simpler and lacked any sort of embroidery. In a way, he almost looked more like a high-class servant than a noble.
Once we were seated, my guest took the initiative to introduce himself.