The Clan
Edrick’s mother was a woman of no facial expressions and few words. She merely led the way through winding roads, passing by many places that looked like other residences and the like...
The Elt domain was vast, and they soon took paths through many natural wonders, moving by several magnificent sights before finally arriving at a large clearing of flatland.
“Your father will certainly want to talk to you soon enough. Be ready to answer many questions” and just like that, she left. Or rather, she disappeared into thin air.
Edrick frankly had no clue whether she was just moving very fast, or if she was actually vanishing... Nonetheless, it was quite off-putting to see someone pop out of existence before your very eyes.
‘Well, let’s get to it…’ bringing the cube out, Anoteros did what Haoyu had told him to do. In the blink of an eye, his residence now proudly stood in the center of the clearing. Everything was exactly as it had been left.
The cube fell apart into dust in Edrick’s hand.
Then, he directed everyone to get into the residence and take their marks with the new surroundings before sending the carriage drivers away. The poor guys were frightened out of their wits by merely being within the Elt territory.
The next thing Anoteros did was finally place down the other side of the Lodestone–The tool leading into the secret realm. Having been uncertain if such an item could be carried alongside the residence, he had waited until now to finally make use of it... Thus, he had now granted himself unlimited access to the secret realm and its resources.
He rubbed his palms together. It was time to make money, and now that he was back within the family territory, any good thing he did would also go toward enhancing his standing within the family.
Though Edrick had to admit that his mother was nicer than he had expected. This was a great clan after all, and Zixuan had been a useless burden most of his life. Therefore, a cultivation clan as big as this one shouldn’t give him much thought... Yet, his mother actually personally appeared to greet him and even offered him to settle down.
His actions ever since he had taken over this body must have lifted Zixuan in their eyes.
“Alright, everyone, I don’t think that I need to repeat myself, but this is no longer the Myriad-Arm Sect. Although a scion, I am far from being the highest authority within this territory. So, everyone needs to behave themselves and be in their best attitude… For now, don’t leave the residence” he reminded everyone that things were no longer the same.
Edrick was now but one of many very talented scions. He was uncertain how many siblings he had, but he knew that he had quite a few, and if they were within the territory, then it meant that they were worth something in the eyes of the clan.
Hopefully, his few achievements would be good enough to land him within the graces of the clan’s current leader and patriarch–Namely, his own father.
Naturally, there were also older generations present, and they were presumably stronger the older they were. He would have to pay attention to them as well. From what he knew, whoever was the current strongest member of the clan was probably not going to appear in public for no particular reason.
As he was thinking, Anoteros sensed the system printing out a handful of quests. Looking through them, he could only shake his head. There was no way he was completing any of those anytime soon.
In any case, whilst awaiting a summon from his father, Edrick decided to cultivate quietly. Surprisingly, the summon only showed up five days following his arrival.
He was called to the grand architecture he had first seen upon entering the territory. Once there, he spotted several clan members, most of whom gave him confused looks, as they probably didn’t have a clue who he even was…
Most notably, he ran into someone with dark hair and dark eyes who seemed younger than him by a few years. Although they didn’t exchange any words with one another, Edrick’s brow twitched as the system instantly reacted.
Major Scenario detected: He Who Does Not Wish To Follow The Tradition
Anoteros glanced at the back of whom he believed was a younger brother of his.
‘Not follow the tradition? What could this refer to?’ the Elt clan didn’t really have major traditions that were forced upon its members. Whatever you did depended on what sort of techniques you decided to delve into. As far as Edrick knew, the only thing that was traditional about the Elt clan was that its members were typically about the least frequentable of the great clans.
As in, they were considered the most evil by a long shot.
‘Mmh… Does he want to do good? That seems like a scenario that is rather easy to break…’
Anoteros didn’t focus on this matter for now. He instead headed directly to where he needed to be... Namely, a place that was akin to a throne room where the clan’s current leader was sitting.
Dressed in dark, refined robes, Edrick’s mother had been correct to say that his new look had made Zixuan look more like his father than his mother.
The man had long black hair and a serious face that seemed tougher than steel.
He wore a thin, cleanly-cut beard and looked ahead of him like nothing mattered. Anoteros thought that he would be similar to his mother, but as soon as Edrick entered the room, that regal demeanour vanished without a trace.
“Ah, Zixuan! It’s been a while! I honestly thought that you would remain a burden your entire life. You really proved me wrong there, didn’t you? You were able to rekindle a friendly relationship with the Myriad-Arm Sect, you performed tremendously well when given a task to gather materials in the secret realm, and I even hear that you’ve gathered yourself quite a harem! You make me proud!”
The patriarch was far less scary than the matriarch.
Both had the same dark eyes that seemed capable of seeing through souls, though... As to why a husband and wife had the exact same bloodline-inherited feature? The answer was simple: Great clan.
“I would love to meet your wives, so why don’t you bring them here tonight? We’ll have dinner together, and you can present them to us!” said his father, and somehow, his mother had also appeared on the throne next to his at one point.
“Certainly. That is a great idea, Father”