Tianmu watched Ling Hua's steps until he descended the mountain, then turned around.
The same expression as before returned to her face, her eyes narrowing. "I must inform the elders at once!"
She grasped her talisman and sent her energy toward it.
It glowed with an emerald green light, and in that same instant, six talismans lit up in different locations, each in a different color.
Meanwhile, elsewhere—
Ling Hua carried a large bucket filled with water from the stream and headed with it toward the field.
He pulled a white jade box from his pocket, and from the other pocket, a jade vial. Inside the box was a yellow powder; he remembered the moment Elder Tianmu had handed it to him, and recalled her instructions.
"Here — this is the hundred-pest pesticide. It will destroy the insects before they turn into a disaster that ruins your harvest. But don't think it's all-powerful — it will only kill ninety-five percent of the eggs. You'll need to get rid of the rest yourself."
She'd pulled a transparent jade vial filled with green liquid from one of the shelves.
"And this is the liquid of life — it helps the spirit plants regain their vitality."
He emptied the powder into the water and mixed it thoroughly into the spirit water.
He carried the bucket and began sprinkling it over his entire harvest, and the moment the plants received the pesticide and the spirit liquid, absorbed through their roots into the soil, the emerald color began returning to them bit by bit, and the wilted state they'd been in moments before began to recede, as though they'd never been on the verge of dying.
He capped off the whole process with a giant cloud watering the plants growing in his field.
In the Elders' Hall...
"Bang!!"
A muscular man struck the long table with a powerful blow that rattled the cups from its force.
"Who is this scoundrel who dared lay a hand on the family?"
The eyes of the six figures turned toward the one who had disturbed their discussion.
"This isn't the time for anger, Ming Ying. You must understand that anger will do us no good — we're currently like a headless snake, we know nothing at all."
A man with a black beard hanging down his chin spoke, his features carrying a somewhat amused expression that hinted at flexibility in all his conduct.
"Ming Tong is right, Ming Ying. The enemy wants us to make the slightest mistake right now, so they can pounce on us."
A middle-aged, clean-shaven man spoke from the far end of the table with force, a powerful aura radiating from him, and he appeared to be the strongest among them.
Seeing their coldness only increased Ming Ying's anger. "And what exactly do you all think we should do?"
The muscles of his face tensed, and a sentence stayed on the tip of his tongue that he didn't dare say — but after all this coldness he'd received, he gritted his teeth and said it anyway, no longer caring:
"If we don't respond to this insult, we'll become a laughingstock among all the families, and this will be like an announcement: anyone who wants to wipe their feet on someone should head straight for the Sui family!"
Ming Tong's mood soured further, and that calm smile twisted into an expression of disapproval at Ming Ying's words. "And what exactly do you want us to do? Do you want us to attack another family when we don't even know who the culprit is? Is reputation all you care about?"
The blood boiled further in Ming Ying's veins. "And do you think we'll stay silent over this insult? Every family needs to know that the Sui family has power of its own, and that anyone who touches its interests will be flayed against the pillar of the Sui ancestors."
Ming Tong's brow furrowed further. "Don't you know the ancestor is in his final years? Don't you know we're facing the risk of extinction? Have you forgotten this, or shall I remind you? Have you forgotten that when an elder goes out to face some farmer, he either comes back as a corpse, or as a crippled invalid on the verge of death? Have you forgotten this, or shall I remind you, esteemed hunting elder?"
Ming Tong hadn't wanted to bring this matter up, but sooner or later that day would come, and he could only say it with grief and pain.
This silenced the hunting elder's mouth, because he knew that any words beyond what the trade elder had said would be like water poured onto sand — nothing to be hoped for from it.
"Ahhh."
This sigh came from the patriarch, under whose gaze all of this had unfolded, and who hadn't uttered a single word since the meeting began.
"Elders, we gathered today to find a solution, not to fight amongst ourselves."
The treasury elder exhaled, finally, after enduring this whole farce. "Enough!!"
The atmosphere in the place froze, and an unsettling silence fell over the hall. "I truly can no longer tell the difference between you and the grandchildren, you children. You need more discipline. It seems you gathered today not to find a solution to the family's problem, but to settle scores here. Aren't you ashamed of yourselves?"
They all bowed their heads to the ground at the elder's words, which had exposed their flimsy game. They all raised their hands and said in unison: "We apologize to you, Eldest Elder."
"Hmph."
The reins of the conversation returned to the patriarch, who cast his eyes over all the elders present, until he said calmly, "Who do you think would dare do this?"
Tianmu was the first to answer. "I think it's the Fang family, whom we sell spirit plants to. We raised the prices of spirit herbs on them this year, and this looks like a threat to us."
Ming Tong replied calmly, stroking his beard. "I don't think so. The Fang family couldn't afford to ruin their relations with us over a handful of stones — we're the ones supplying ninety percent of their stock. I think it's another family trying to shake the alliance between us. I think it's either the Sun family or the Beng family."
The law enforcement elder frowned. "Same opinion — the Fang family would lose more than they'd gain, and wouldn't benefit at all from this."
The treasury elder studied the patriarch with his gaze. "I think the scale tips more toward the Sun family — we've had problems with them over market share division, and relations between us and them are still complicated and carry resentment."
Ming Tong stopped stroking his beard and said with a note of doubt, "Yes, I also leaned toward this option more than the others — but don't you think, Eldest Elder, that someone might be trying to manipulate things between us and the Sun family?"
The elder's pupils widened, and the elders' heartbeats quickened. "You're right — this is a very plausible possibility!"
After a moment, the inheritance elder spoke, who had been silent since entering the hall, analyzing everything the other elders said. "Now we're left with only one family — the recently-risen one — the Beng family, allied with Sun."
The patriarch took a sip of water from the cup before him.
"Yes, since they discovered the red copper mine twenty years ago, they've been in an alliance."
The treasury elder nodded and raised his hand in objection. "But we mustn't forget that this alliance is unjust to the Beng family."
Ming Feng gripped his chin. "Yes, you're right. The mine agreement is deeply unfair to the Beng family — even though seventy percent of the metal vein lies within Beng family territory, the Sun family gets the lion's share, at over eighty percent."
Ming Tong glanced at the law elder. "Yes, you're right, but don't forget that in exchange for this, the Beng family enjoys protection from the Sun family."
The inheritance elder smiled and replied mockingly, "That was true of the Beng family twenty years ago. But now the time has come for it to emerge from its cocoon and become a free butterfly, breaking free of the Sun family's constraints. Now that its coffers have filled with the money from its mine share, the Beng family's strength has risen, and it now has its own forces. You should know that its ancestor is now at the eighth level of Qi Refining!"
Tianmu tilted her head and raised one eyebrow. "Could you mean that it now wants to weaken us, pressuring the Sun family to intervene in this matter, so as to shrink our influence in the market and take it for itself?"
The patriarch raised his hand in objection to the sixth elder's words. "No — the Beng family isn't foolish enough to make an enemy of a family with as solid a foundation as ours."
He exhaled calmly and furrowed his brow. "Rather, I think it means to set us and the Sun family against each other. When a clash erupts between us, the Sun family will turn its attention away from the Beng family, granting it greater freedom to break away and grow stronger. And likewise, the Sun family can't emerge from a confrontation with us unscathed — it will certainly weaken. And there, the Beng family will seize the opportunity and demand a larger share, and the Sun family, in a state of weakness, won't be able to refuse — not against a young, rising family like Beng, growing stronger by the day."
The treasury elder nodded in agreement. "Ming Chao is right — this is also what I was thinking. It seems the power that will benefit most from all this is the Beng family."
The hunting elder cursed them. "Damn it, those bastards. So what do we do now?"
"We do nothing."
The patriarch answered calmly, his eyes fixed and unyielding, allowing no objection to what he said.
Ming Ying looked at him in bewilderment. "What?"
The patriarch continued with confidence.
"Hmph. If their goal is to drag us into a conflict, then we'll give them exactly what they want... but not in the way they expect."