First Chapter of the Week! Enjoy! Chapter 14 – The conflict begins

Hai Duan sat in his room quietly cultivating on the floor as was his usual habit. Immersed in a world of dark greens and blue the qi of heaven and earth circulated through his profound veins near his bones before all meeting at the top of his head in his natal palace. In the midst of this swirling mass of blue and green a scroll which extended for what appeared to be hundreds of li danced in the waves of qi.

This scroll was his natal artifact, which was housed in his natal palace. Each person can only make a contract with a single natal artifact, and as that artifact evolves, the owner would gain many benefits. For example, this scroll was an ancient manual of a divine art. By basking in his qi, the scroll had slowly opened, allowing him access to the martial skills inscribed within.

However, all natal artifacts are not limited to being scrolls. They come in all varieties, with equaly various abilities. Hai Yun’s father, Hai Cang Qiong’s natal artifact is the scale of a deceased flood dragon. Whenever he activates it, his body would be covered in an energy shield which people nearly 5 ranks above him could not break. This was why, despite being at the 2nd realm of spirit aura, he could face the Hai Clan patriarch, Hai Duan, who was a practitioner of the 7th realm in the spirit aura stage.

“Patriarch Hai! The Qin and Qing clan are outside demanding justice. They claim we attempted to assassinate Qing Xue” a servant from outside the room hollered.

Just then, Hai Cang Qiong burst through the door. “Father, those people are making preposterous claims! Why would our Hai clan possibly do something like this? First they target my son, now they want to spell it out with our Hai Clan, then so be it, let us greet them with a clenched fist!”

Hai Duan’s eyes shot open. “Those people have gone to far this time! I did not reveal that my grandson was missing, nor did I make any accusations for his poisoning, yet these people disregard all of our Hai family’s face and dare to make such blatantly false accusation!” he growled before standing up.

On his way out he quickly ggrabbed his sword off the wall as he headed towards the front door.

“Hai Duan! We treated you like a brother, willing to submit to your Hai family and all join together into a single clan in this region. Yet, now you have attacked Qing Xue? Why, because her daughter will no longer marry your grandson!” the Qing clan patriarch, Qing Zhong hollered.

“Indeed! I can understand your frustration about Hai Yun’s disappearance but what does that hove to do with my daughter-in-law?” Qin Wu’s voice boomed from the front door as he released his spirit aura of the 7th realm, causing the bodyguards at the front door to fall to their knees under the strain.

AS Hai Duan witnessed this scene he immediately became furious. “You dare!” his eyes brimmed with rage as he released his own aura, this time shielding his bodyguards while pushing the pressure towards the Qin clan.

“The Patriarch is here!”

“Long live the patriarch!”

The body guards began to cheer as they forced themselves to stand up, with new found fighting spirit in their eyes. The expert of the 7th realm in the Spirit Aura stage who could force them down to their knees by simply revealing his cultivation was pushed back by their clan’s patriarch. It is natural for this to boost their morale.

Where the two aura’s collided air itself seemed to be twisting. This wall of distorted air was slowly pushed back with each step Hai Duan took forward. However, before the pressure fell onto the Qin clan, the Qing clan’s patriarch released his own aura, instantly reversing the situation.

However, despite them combining their auras when Hai Duan stood at the forefront of the gate they could not push it onto the people behind him.

On Hai Duan’s right hand side, Hai Cang Qiong stood with a faint blue aura surrounding him and next to him was Yun Dong Qing. Qin Wentian was likewise next to Qin Wu. However no one stood next to the Qing clan patriarch, since there was no one from the younger generation who had broken through to the spirit aura realm.

The party whose assassination was in question, Qing Xue was also in the crowd.

From the sideline, this confrontation seemed to be going nowhere, anytime soon.

AS these primary experts all met face to face the crowd quieted.

“When you wanted to take out your rage with your abusive words due to your grandsons absence, did we utter a single word of discontent? We quietly let you rage and fume, even though we are innocent!” Qin Wu’s voice echoed throughout the silent street.

“However, today you attempted to assassinate my daughter-in-law! This time, if my Qin clan still sits on such an insult you will only grow bolder! Just because your Hai clan would control the region in the future, does not mean you are the only power today!”

Hai Duan narrowed his eyes before sneering. “You claim I falsely accused you! Yet here you are falsely accusing me? What evidence do you even have before coming to my doorstep, slandering the reputation of my clan and lecturing me about who is the real power in this region!”

Qing Zhong snickered. “Qing Wu was attacked by a servant from your mansion who had come into the manor claiming he had a message for Qin Cheng. If Wentian hadn’t walked around the corner in the middle of the attack, she might have already died by now!” Qing Zhong turned to face Qin Wu. “Brother Qin, please bring out that servant and let him let him tell everyone, why he attacked my daughter!”

Qin Wu waved his hand and shortly afterward a man wearing a barely recognizable Hai clan servant uniform was dragged to the front. Blood covered his face and the indents on his mouth proved multiple teeth had been recently knocked out.

As Hai Cang Qiong saw the servants face his eyes widened in alarm. Although he quickly altered his expression, it was noticed by Qin Wu.

Hai Duan frowned. “Qiong’er, isn’t that one of your servants?” Hai Duan whispered.

Hai Cang Qiong’s expression became puzzled. “Indeed, earlier today I had told him to go to the market to purchase some sound transmission talismans”.

“Come all of you in the crowd. Listen closely,” Qing Zhong called before squatting in front of the servant. “This is the personal servant of Hai Cang Qiong, earlier today he came to the Qin clan mansion, claiming he needed to deliver a personal message to Qin Cheng. However, because my daughter Qing Xue, asked for the message to be delivered to her and that he would not get to see Qin Cheng, this servant revealed his true intentions and tried to murder my daughter since he couldn’t get to my granddaughter!”

At this time, Qing Zhong grabbed the servants hair and lifted his head up before continuing, “And who ordered you to come assassinate them?” he spat in the servants face.

“The… patriarch…” the servant croaked.

“Speak Up man! Let all of these folks hear you!” Qing Zhong slapped the servants back incredibly hard causing another mouthful of blood to be vomited.

“Hai clan Patriarch!” The servant screamed as loud as he could in his hoarse voice.

This cry immediately silenced the entire Hai Clan. Hai Duan suddenly found himself in a huge fix. If he denied it, then he would be called shameless for denying evidence that was in his face and these two families would not let them off. Yet if he said nothing, then too there would be a fight as they would take it as an admittance.

“I will make myself very clear. I did not order an assassination on your daughter. My Hai clan is being framed for this and when I find out who it is, I will certainly give an explanation to everyone here,” Hai Duan said in voice as apathetic as he could manage. Denial, was evidently the better of the two methods.

“An Explanation! That’s it!” Qing Zhong roared, “My daughter nearly died, and all the evidence points to you! Hai Duan you truly set my sights straight. I was a complete fool for trying to unite my clan under you! Know this, from today forth, my nephew Qing Li will inherit the Qing clan. We shall no longer partake in this stupid deal of unity!”

Hai Duan clenched his teeth. This was exactly what he had been afraid of happening. He had wanted to avoid destroying the alliance under any circumstance what so ever, however the worst situation had just occurred.

“Qing Clan, lets teach these shameless dogs what happens when someone tries to harm our family!” Qing Zhong roared as he stepped forward to attack Hai Duan.

“Qin clan! Today the Hai clan has destroyed all of our trust. For attempting to assassinate my granddaughter and daughter-in-law, let’s show them the consequences of raising a hand against the members of our Qin Clan!” Qin Wu thundered.

Instantly, the square broke out in war, with Qin Wu facing off against Hai Duan with Qin Wentian supporting him as Hai Cang Qiong and Yun Dong Qing fought with Qing Zhong.

These clans which had remained at peace with each other till 8 days ago suddenly broke out in an all-out war in front of the Hai clan’s manor.

…

Meanwhile a few streets down, inside an equally large manor, Yun Long the patriarch of the Yun clan sat at a desk reading reports.

Outside of the door, Yun Duo stood quietly. So far, he had killed 3 of his uncle’s informers. Today, he could not make any mistakes.

For today the Hai clan needed to fall. So long as that happened, there would be no way that his uncle, Yun Long would give up his family’s name and dignity to be integrated into a pathetic and weak Hai clan.

However, if his uncle got news of the fight before the Hai clan was on the verge of collapse, then he would probably madly rush to their aid. If that happened, the Hai clan would certainly crush both the the Qin and Qing clan. Thus he needed to prevent it at any cost!