The friendship between the Jinshan dukedom and the Jiang Han dukedom spanned more than two generations. The duke of Jinshan was also vaguely surprised to see Jiang Chen attend. Strange and bizarre happenings had been occurring in the capital during this time, like that of fleeting clouds and ripples. The duke of Jinshan had also heard a few rumors about Jiang Chen, and after the events at the Soaring Dragon manor last time, the duke of Jinshan had personally observed with his eyes Jiang Chen’s performance.
Therefore, the duke of Jinshan felt rather complicated feelings towards Jiang Chen. He had originally felt that his son was more or less doing nothing useful by hanging around Jiang Chen.
But given the friendship between the two families, he hadn’t said much.
However, Jiang Chen’s successive string of changes somewhat befuddled the duke of Jinshan. He too wondered if Jiang Chen was purposefully concealing his true strength?
He had tried to solicit the truth from fatty Xuan a few times, yet, although fatty Xuan was adept at nothing else, he was first in class at playing dumb. No matter how his old man tried, he played dumb until the end, and never spoke a serious word.
After making his greetings, the gravity of the duke of Jinshan’s expressions didn’t lessen. “Xuan’er, this Xuan Yuan has suddenly shot to six meridians true qi and some of the elders within the family have indistinctly grown close with the people of Soaring Dragon. Your father suspects that a few traitors helping others have secretly already appeared in our Jinshan clan.”
The duke of Jinshan’s words were shocking. There were no outsiders present here, and thus he decided he might as well convey the seriousness of the situation to fatty Xuan.
Fatty Xuan chuckled. “Don’t worry, no matter what devious plots they have, today your son will subdue ten with the power of one, and suppress them all!”
“Xuan’er, although Xuan Yuan might not have trained to six meridians true qi through standard means, that doesn’t mean you can think less of your opponent. Don’t linger in battle if you are unable to handle your opponent, we can slowly craft another strategy.”
“I say father, can you have a bit more confidence in your son?” Fatty Xuan protested.
At this moment, an elder within the family clan hurried over with a trace of an odd smile. “Your Lordship, Xuan Yuan has already arrived at the demonstration stage. The conclave of the elders has sent me to invite the young duke to meet his opponent.”
“Huh, in quite a hurry are we!” The duke of Jinshan was a bit displeased.
Fatty Xuan however, bounced up like a rubber ball as his eyes sent out a wild light like that of someone about to torture another. “Has he finally arrived? I can’t wait.”
Fatty Xuan bounced away with surprisingly speed and hurtled towards the demonstration stage, leaving behind a chubby afterimage.
The duke of Jinshan was a bit dumbfounded and felt that it was a bit strange. Why was his son, who usually dispiritedly avoided battle, suddenly brimming with battle intent? This didn’t seem his style.
Clustered in pairs or groups of three, many of the people within the manor had already gathered around the demonstration stage. The Jinshan household was different from the Jiang Han household.
Numbers were thin in the Jiang Han household – Jiang Feng basically decided everything within the Jiang family.
But with the Jinshan household – because of numerous family members – multiple factions and cliques had developed. Many hills stood in great numbers within the entire Jinshan household.
Although the duke of Jinshan held the power, many other powers held him back by the elbow and often caused him to be in a bind.
And the Xuan Yuan who had appeared this time was something that had been drummed up by the conclave of elders.
The duke of Jinshan could have absolutely just refused. After all, it was an unquestionably moral truth that a father would pass a dukedom down to a son. However, the conclave of elders had thrown out the banner of a righteous cause, and called for the dukedom to be passed on to the strongest youth in the family. This was why such a farce had happened.
If the duke of Jinshan were to refuse, then it would undoubtedly cause great create harm to fatty Xuan’s reputation. It would be more difficult for fatty Xuan to successively inherit and control the situation in the future.
Therefore, the duke of Jinshan had wanted to make use of this opportunity to compel his unambitious son.
“Look, the young duke has arrived.”
“What young duke. If he loses the demonstration stage today, then he’s no longer the young duke, and at most a noble son.”
“Hmph, what do you mean by that? Are you in cahoots with Xuan Yuan? How dare a mere descendent from a collateral branch covet the vaunted seat of a duke?”
One indeed had to say, many camps had formed within Jinshan regarding the issue of the dukedom’s succession.