Decision

The Yue family residence. Only after escorting Yaoguang back to Yuyuan did Yue Xingzhou return to the Yue family compound. When he arrived, three people were already waiting in the innermost conference room. Yue Nanxing, head of the Yue family. Yue Tianfeng, a top-tier Martial Master in charge of the External Affairs Hall. And the last... It was a completely unfamiliar face. However, the Tiannan High Procuratorate had a file on him. Huang Yan, a renowned powerhouse in the underworld. Not only was he a formidable Grandmaster in his own right, but he reportedly led an elite armed force of over a hundred men, having once participated in a military coup in a small nation on the East Continent. "You're back?" Seeing Yue Xingzhou enter, Yue Nanxing spoke. "We couldn't discuss this properly over the phone. What exactly is the situation?" "Should we get rid of that Xia Wuyuan?" Huang Yan was blunt. "Don't," Yue Xingzhou said at once. After a moment's reflection, he added, "Things... have become a bit different." "Different? How so?" Yue Tianfeng interjected, "Fourth Uncle, you rarely involve yourself in the family's affairs, so you naturally don't know what terrifying power hides behind the Rebirth Society. Setting aside the fact that Xia Wuyuan backed us into a corner and forced us to confront this behemoth, even if our family had already clashed with them, our priority should still be to make peace as quickly as possible." "Wei Kongming's methods are exceptionally sharp, and our days haven't been easy lately. If he seizes the opportunity Xia Wuyuan provides, our Yue family will be in an even tighter spot. So let's hear what Old Fourth has to say first." Yue Nanxing waved his hand. "What I mean by things being different... The key change isn't Xia Wuyuan, but the reinforcement he brought," Yue Xingzhou said grimly. "That helper wasn't Leng Jun, Su Chixin, or any mysterious powerhouse we anticipated. It was Su Yaoguang." "Su Yaoguang?" Yue Nanxing, Yue Tianfeng, and Huang Yan were all puzzled. That name... They had never heard of it. "The son of Su Huaifeng and Zhang Ya. He lived outside the provincial capital for the past dozen-plus years and was only recently recognized back into the Su family," Yue Xingzhou explained. "Recently recognized? Then the Su family really has had a stroke of good fortune." Yue Tianfeng remarked with a sigh, "Looks like another Zhang Tianji?" "It seems our strategy toward the Su family will have to change..." Yue Nanxing agreed. Yet halfway through his sentence, something clicked in his mind. "Wait... Su Huaifeng and Zhang Ya's son?!" He snapped his head toward Yue Xingzhou. "I recall Su Huaifeng's eldest daughter is only twenty-five?! Their son?!" "Yes!" Yue Xingzhou nodded heavily. "That Su Yaoguang is only nineteen years old this year!" "Nineteen?!" "A Grandmaster?!" "Fourth Brother, you aren't joking?" Yue Nanxing, Yue Tianfeng, and Huang Yan all blurted out almost at once. "How could I joke about something like this?" Yue Xingzhou replied. "It was precisely because I saw him that I completely abandoned my plan to borrow someone else's blade to kill Xia Wuyuan..." He paused, then added, "And I'm glad I made that decision." "The Su family produced a nineteen-year-old Grandmaster?! H-How is that possible?!" As a Grandmaster himself, Huang Yan found it difficult to accept. Yue Nanxing, on the other hand, realized the implications immediately. "A Grandmaster at nineteen... In the future, he may very well have a shot at reaching Martial Saint." "That's not even the heaviest chip on the scale. The most critical point is that he has already caught the eye of the Jishi Society," Yue Xingzhou said, letting out a long exhale. "Under those circumstances, I certainly didn't dare execute a scheme to borrow a knife to kill right in front of him. Besides... Xia Wuyuan was on high alert against me from the start. Even if I had the mind to do it, I couldn't find an opportunity." "The Jishi Society... the organization formed jointly by the martial arts worlds across Central Continent nations to counter Chixing?" "A nineteen-year-old Grandmaster being scouted by the Jishi Society isn't surprising. He's a genuine Martial Saint seed." "It was one thing for Zhang Tianji to become field personnel for the Jishi Society, but for someone from the Su family to be favored by them?! They're about to rise high." The three reacted differently. Among them, Yue Nanxing nodded in approval. "For Xia Wuyuan to enlist such a young Grandmaster gives him an unfathomable edge. Choosing to hold your ground and bide your time was a mature move." "That may be true, but since we failed to extricate ourselves immediately, I'm afraid we'll have to face the pressure of the Rebirth Society and the forces behind it," Yue Xingzhou said. "Isn't that precisely our secondary plan?" Yue Nanxing said in a low voice. "Wei Kongming and the officialdom of Tiannan have already been constantly targeting our Yue family. From here on out, we simply face greater pressure. But Xia Wuyuan is so decisive that he actually plans to submit the evidence directly to His Majesty... Some matters carried out in secret are one thing, but once exposed, they are another entirely. When the higher-ups react, Tiannan's political arena is bound to be shaken. If we secretly lend our strength at that moment, we might just topple Wei Kongming in one fell swoop and win enough breathing room for ourselves." Huang Yan nodded as well. "Fourth Brother, you don't need to worry too much. Soldiers to block, water to dam—our Yue family isn't some soft persimmon. Neither Wei Kongming nor the Rebirth Society can squash us just because they want to." "True enough, but the Rebirth Society we faced this time... seemed somewhat different." As Yue Xingzhou spoke, he manipulated a button on his clothes, produced a card the size of a coin, and slotted it into a device. Instantly, video footage began playing from the machine. It was none other than the partially demonized martial artist. "What is that?" "A monster! Is that even human?" "This... doesn't look like domestic handiwork." Shock and solemnity filled the eyes of everyone in the room. "Something is indeed wrong," Yue Xingzhou said, pausing for a moment. "In fact, things started going wrong as early as a century ago." "A century ago?" The expressions of Yue Nanxing, Huang Yan, and the others turned grim. A century ago! That was a painful memory that every nation and aristocratic family across the five continents was reluctant to bring up. During that tumultuous era, countless aristocratic families were swallowed by the river of history, and innumerable nations were reduced to ash amidst the chaos. From that point on, the mighty world hegemon Chixing gradually declined into its twilight years. Today, it was constantly challenged and pressed by the rising hegemon Xuelong, showing signs of bowing off the historical stage. Likewise... Cutting-edge technologies once monopolized solely by the Chixing royal family began leaking and spreading at an abnormal pace, pressing the fast-forward button on history. Other nations around the globe rapidly transitioned from the agrarian age into the industrial age, and then into the information age. One had to realize that a century ago, the entirety of Central Continent's civilizations couldn't even manufacture a single automobile. Yet in just a brief century, the world had been turned upside down. "The Dayu royal family must know something," Yue Tianfeng declared firmly. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have the audacity to break a tacit understanding that has lasted for hundreds of years." "Rumors in the underworld say... the unrest across the continents and nations is merely the aftershocks of the upheaval on that side," Huang Yan whispered. "Meaningless speculation," Yue Nanxing shook his head. "Just like whenever the price of gold fluctuates slightly, experts immediately jump out claiming full-scale war is about to erupt between Xuelong and Chixing, urging people to stockpile gold for safety. But whether it's Xuelong or Chixing, or even our nations across Dayu, we are essentially of the same family. A full-scale war? How could that ever happen?" "Then how do you explain the era of turmoil?" Huang Yan countered immediately. At that... Yue Nanxing fell silent. He stared at the images for a long while before turning back to Yue Xingzhou. "You were there. What is your take?" "For a hundred years, our Yue family has always chosen the path of self-preservation. But... over recent years, the Dayu royal family has repeatedly crossed the bottom line of ruling the realm jointly with aristocratic families. More and more families have perished. If this continues, our Yue family will inevitably follow in their footsteps. Now, the appearance of such an abnormal entity within the Rebirth Society undeniably proves that the world has undergone massive changes..." Yue Xingzhou took a deep breath. "The old rules have been broken, and the world is in the midst of changes unseen in a century. Yet our Yue family remains completely in the dark, adhering blindly to convention while waiting for our fate to arrive... Rather than that, we might as well take a gamble." "Crisis breeds change," Huang Yan agreed with the sentiment. Yue Nanxing did not express an opinion immediately, only looking at him. "How do you propose we gamble?" "Su Yaoguang," Yue Xingzhou said. "I believe we can place our bet on Su Yaoguang." "A nineteen-year-old Grandmaster..." Yue Nanxing pondered. He was indeed worthy of a heavy bet. However, this concerned the entire Yue family... "Su Yaoguang has the Su family behind him. Even if we bet heavily on him, our Yue family might not see significant returns in the future," Yue Tianfeng cautioned. "The Su family? You call that a family?" Huang Yan scoffed. "You think that highly of him?" Yue Nanxing looked at Yue Xingzhou. Meanwhile, Yue Xingzhou recalled his conversation with Xia Wuyuan... Monsters powerful enough to rival Grandmasters—Su Yaoguang had killed more than one. Coupled with the breathtaking strike he unleashed when saving Yue Xingzhou's life... Su Yaoguang's strength was definitely far beyond that of an ordinary Grandmaster. Furthermore... He seemed to possess a secret art capable of detecting those monsters. By this alone, he inherently carried the potential to become an unforeseen variable. Therefore... "Yes," Yue Xingzhou nodded. "I believe he not only has hope of attaining Martial Saint in the future, but... he might even seize that opportunity to leap through the dragon's gate." Leap through the dragon's gate. Those words shifted the expressions on both Yue Tianfeng's and Huang Yan's faces. Yue Nanxing was no exception. "Then do it," the Yue family head said after a long silence. "Someone reported to me earlier that the Su family purchased a batch of medicinal herbs. Our Yue family's storehouses have all of those, and of better quality. Furthermore, the Su family intends to purchase a 5A-grade combat suit manufactured in Chixing from the Wanfa Chamber of Commerce. Originally, I was somewhat surprised that the Su family was willing to spend so much. Now it seems that combat suit was being purchased for Su Yaoguang." He looked at Yue Xingzhou. "Select a batch of herbs, a bottle of Snow Ginseng Pills, and retrieve that 1S-grade combat suit from our vault. Deliver them to him in person. The reason: to thank him for saving your life."