Sage’s wondered if he’d suddenly stepped into a reality show. Four young men and four young women, they were chatting and mingling like a dating show, yet to the side the four chaperones were also paired up and chatting. The only thing missing was a narrator. Will these four pairs of youngsters find love? Will their Elders be able to choose matches and negotiate marriages? Is that a spark among the Elders? Is it time for their second spring? Love triangles, circles, and every other shape are bound to arise in this season of Cricket meets Spider.

His own amusement was only a temporary distraction as their approach attracted the attention of those gathered. Sage could tell that Xiezi was fuming, but her vicious words were held back by the fact they were the guests of the Zhu Clan. Such internal strife shouldn’t be shown off in front of strangers. Sage on the other hand, was not as concerned with propriety in this case, especially after being snubbed by the Zhu Clan in the past.

“Ahh, here you are! Are the negotiations going well? Are you matchmaking? Such a great batch of youngsters. Tell me about them as well, I’m not close with any of them so I’ll be able to make a more neutral judgement.”

Neither party looked happy to see their new group of three, and Sage’s request didn’t make it any better. He also didn’t stand on ceremony, pulling a chair out of the Universe Ring and directly taking a seat between the two groups of Elders. Sitting between the two old men and women, facing towards the table of young people, “Come on, give me the details. Tell me about these eight. They are certainly dragons among men and phoenixes among women, right?”

The faces of the two old men from the Jinxi faction soured further, but the two old women of the Zhu Clan were surprised, but then they immediately mellowed. Sage felt like they knew there was more to this whole thing than they had imagined. As a clan that used marriage to build their power and influence, the Zhu Clan was likely no slouch when it came to games of intrigue. Two groups coming from the Chong Clan, wearing similar outfits yet with drastically different coloring. If these two old women couldn’t figure out that this was some sort of dispute between internal factions, they would never have survived so long in their clan. In fact they actually seemed pleased. Internal disputes like this usually meant that their clan could fish up more benefits for themselves.

The most famous members of the Zhu Clan were actually those that had negotiated amazing alliances and arrangements. In the Zhu Clan, a woman was judged based on the deals she could make. The most legendary of them were those that had acted as a mediator, extracting benefits from both sides while also increasing the reputation of their clan at the same time. The women of the Zhu Clan competed harshly with each other, for only the most skilled were allowed to stay within the Clan and lead the next generation. The higher they ranked among the other women the more choice they were given over their future husbands.

Sage had no idea how very harshly this clan full of beautiful flowers treated their own members, he only knew that they had snubbed him and so he was happy to disrupt the Jinxi’s dealing with them. Xiezi was here to recruit them to their cause, but now that the Jinxi were already here, he found another path. While it may not be as good as gaining their support, stopping them from supporting the Jinxi was nearly as valuable. It was also likely to be much easier.

Since both sides of this dispute were technically from the Chong Clan, he could use their shared origin to make the Chong Clan look bad. Even if they knew this was a split between two factions, they still had the same source, and to the outside world they were one and the same. He just had to be careful not to be too obnoxious, or they might ignore how it made them look and help out the Jinxi merely to spite him.

The old woman sitting next to Sage laughed, her voice still sweet and soft despite her wrinkled skin and grey hair, “Welcome! It’s so very kind of you to offer, but we weren’t actually worried about matchmaking at the moment. We were just catching up about old times and giving the youngsters some time to interact,” then she winked and added with a lowered voice, “We can always discuss matches later after we see which ones are compatible.”

“Haha, you’re right! I was just a little too hasty. The Zhu Clan is famous for their ability to match people up, so I was eager to join in the fun. You know, I’ve always wondered, does the Zhu Clan ever break up one of their matches? Are you always confident of your choices?”

Sage let only a sliver of his hostility show, not wanting to directly oppose them, but if these two women knew him then they would understand what he was implying. On the other hand, if they were unfamiliar, then it would just seem to be a question spoken with an unusual conviction. The woman speaking to him didn’t seem phased, but the other, a seat over, narrowed her eyes. She didn’t comment, but Sage could see the calculation in her gaze.

“We pride ourselves on setting up marriages that will last for all time. There have been cases of a pairing being cancelled, but that is always before the marriage and always initiated by the other party. We Zhu do not break our promises.”

Sage nodded, directing his gaze to the silent women as he did. With his interjection into their conversation, whatever they might have been talking about previously was pushed aside and it turned into an examination of the good qualities of the eight young folk. Sage brought out another seat for Xiezi and Tujiu, and then directed them to sit with the youngsters. Xiezi’s eyes flashed with rage and then she took the chair and sat down. She was not yet forty, an age which was still quite young among Cultivators. Especially considering that the four old people Sage was sitting with were many hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.

A Core Formation Cultivator, like the four old folks, could have a maximum lifespan of 5,000 years. Of course, that was if they reached that stage at a young age. If someone spent half their lifespan before they broke through, then they would die of old age when they reached 2,500. With how many ranks there were, this became a complicated calculation, but from how old these people looked they either took a very long time to reach their current rank, or they were absurdly old and experienced.

Usually it was a combination of both, but because of their role in this meeting, he assumed they were all old foxes. In fact, Sage only dared to sit between them and start talking about the younger generation because he was a Nascent Soul. His own age was somewhere around a single century, but because he had surpassed them in strength, he declared himself as at least equals to them in seniority and they didn’t dare to refute him. Xiezi was also forced to concede this point. She was very highly ranked among the Xie faction, and she was near the peak of the fifth rank just like these four old folks. Her strength being near equal to them should have given her enough clout to negotiate, but Sage butted in and sent her to sit with the younger folk. She could then choose to fight back, but doing so would reduce Sage’s standing.

Sage chuckled inwardly, Xiezi chose to put the mission first and accepted his direction. Funny enough, Tujiu was of a similar age to Sage because of the Inner World, but because he was a Demonic Beast he matured far more slowly and fit in quite well with the youngsters. Demonic Beasts matured very quickly physically, but their mental and emotional maturity was extremely slow in comparison. Tujiu was very singular in his desires, immediately asking to duel with the men and also boasting about his capabilities to the women. Xiezi on the other hand, stayed quiet and observed the group, like she was studying them. Of course, she also spent half her attention on trying to hear what was going on at the other table.

The Jinxi old men continued to send glares at Sage, but they played along and offered praise for the young men they brought. They hadn’t got the chance to pull the Zhu Clan over to their side, and they certainly didn’t want Sage there to disrupt their negotiation, so they could only engage in small talk and join the conversation about matchmaking.

Elsewhere in Plum Lantern City.

A sliding door was thrown from its tracks, a man ran into the room in such a hurry that he’d broken the door. The sudden noise and bustle caused a powerful pressure to erupt in the room and the man in a hurry was forced to his knees. In front of him, a middle aged man was sitting cross legged in front of a bronze statue. The statue depicted an imposingly large and heavily muscled shirtless man throwing a punch. Upon the chest of the statue was the character for ‘Violent’, and it was being studied by the seated middle aged man.

The powerful aura came from this man and completely restrained the new arrival. He didn’t bother to rise or turn around when he spoke, “You broke my door.”

The man in a rush didn’t fight the power weighing down upon him, immediately falling to his knees and kowtowing to the seated man, “Forgive me, Sect Leader! There is important news!”