The public announcements basically came to an end, but that was really only the beginning of this meeting. The non-members of the Chong Clan were busy trying to gather more information and also ingratiate themselves to the Chong Clan leadership. These locals were eager to get on the good side of their new rulers, but they felt somewhat assured as it seemed they were invited here to spread the news. In that case, didn’t that mean they were safe?

Since the Chong Clan were taking control of the province it was only natural that they would want to replace much of the old guard and put those loyal to them in power. The people who had been invited to this gathering might be something of a big deal in Good Fortune City, but that wasn’t much in the scope of things. They didn’t even control any of their own villages, let alone cities or counties. They were especially eager to figure out who the Chong Clan would appoint as City Lord, since that would be their direct link to the Chong Clan. They didn’t dare to wonder about the Governor, since they were only small-time city dwellers and didn’t want to get in over their heads.

At the same time as this was going on for the Chong Clan’s guests from the city, there were also similar discussions being held over the fate of 10,000 Wave Province. If the Lang Clan was taking over, then the Lang Patriarch would be nominating a new Provincial Governor. As the capital of the province, wouldn’t they also need to choose a new City Lord for Golden Cricket Cove? Or would the Chong Clan be leaving their own people in charge of the city to influence the Lang Clan? Would the County Prefects or City Lords in 10,000 Wave be getting changed as well?

When these discussions started to break out, Sage did the same thing he’d done earlier to examine what people were saying. A powerful Cultivator could easily eavesdrop on conversations from a distance using their Spirit Sense, but unless one was drastically more powerful than someone else, they would be able to notice the foreign Spirit Sense. With this room full of powerhouses, nobody was foolish enough to release their Spirit Sense to such an extent as they would be instantly noticed. Sage had heard of their being certain techniques that dealt with sound which could probably be used to great effect here. In fact, he had a little taste of such moves with the Little Birdy Manual, but he wasn’t bold enough to just fill the room with birds that he could use to eavesdrop, it would certainly be too obvious here.

On the other hand, the Windscreen technique was far more useful. Using Qi to create bubbles of air had given him some insight into manipulating sound with Qi techniques and had acted as something of a base for him and the Inner World researchers to create the tools he was using to pick out the conversations from the noise. Especially since he was not a local from this world and knew that sound was the vibration of air molecules. As usual, he knew the basic truth of a thing and let them then work out the specifics of it and how it could be put into use in combination with what they already knew. It was especially important that he did things this way because the fundamental rules of things didn’t not always match up to those that he knew back on Earth. Many basic chemical reactions did not work the same. Since he was no chemist he abandoned this whole field of research quite quickly for himself, but it was also something that had been quite annoying when he tried to use electricity.

After coming into contact with Laws, he realized that they were somewhat responsible for these changes. He had long hypothesized that the Law governing electricity was different than the one on Earth so the scientific knowledge and application were also completely different here. Back on Earth he was only a computer scientist after all, so his understanding of complex sciences was far from complete. He merely brought the scientific method and basic concepts to the research teams and then let them take over. While he was endlessly curious about how this world was different from his old one, he had to focus on increasing his own strength so he simply outsourced these questions.

Sage kept at the fringe of the crowd, trying not to catch any attention. He was the butt of a few jokes, and he certainly didn’t want to speak to any of those people directly. After some time to mingle, a group of semi-important people approached the Lang Clan. They had already received a full round of empty praise, so it seemed that the real business was about to start. Four individuals approached Yating and tactfully pulled him aside for a private conversation. These four people were no strangers to Sage, as they were the heads of the four Chong Branch Clans. A beautiful woman in yellow, the Ci Clan Head. A stocky woman that looked like she came straight from a rice field after putting on a clean clan uniform, the Yi Clan Matriarch. Then the Ji Clan Head, a man that was even more imposing than the Yi Clan Matriarch, he wasn’t plump or overweight, it was more that he was just extremely wide in every dimension, even the features of his face were set well apart. Lastly, there was the Min Clan Head, a very pampered looking man that despite his average looks, every last detail of his clothing and grooming were perfectly placed.

These four brought Yating aside, and Sage took a few steps to get closer to the little circle they formed. They carefully controlled the volume of their voices, and they’d brought along some of their own clansmen that formed a sort of outer perimeter to keep the sound from spreading too far.

“Congratulations on becoming the new leaders of 10,000 Wave! The whole of the Chong Clan is moving out and we’re all moving in. We will of course defer to you in all decisions, but when will you be holding the first council meeting? We can finally get out from under all the oppressive rules of the Chong Clan and make new ones.”

The Ci Clan Head was the one that broke the ice and she treated Yating as a close friend which she seemed very familiar with, even though Sage was pretty sure the two of them had only met once or twice before this day. Yating merely smiled and shook his head, “Forgive me, friends. As much as I idolize you all, I can’t share any clan secrets with you.”

“Oh, you’re right. We’ll have to make things official before any of the details are discussed. When is the ceremony planned for?”

“Ceremony, what ceremony might you be referring to, Madam Yi?”

“The ceremony to unite us into a great Clan. They always looked down on us branches, now we can be the main family!”

It was at this point that the other three branch heads had an expectant look on their faces, but Yating took on a look of pity in return. He shook his head, “There must have been a misunderstanding. The Lang Clan are no longer a branch of the Chong Clan and will be the sole ruler of Ten Thousand Wave Province. Aren’t the Ci, Yi, Jie and Min still branches of the Chong Clan? You’re all free to stay in Ten Thousand Wave as before, but since you’re still affiliated with the Chong, I recommend you move along with them. Otherwise, it might draw criticism from others that we are being too heavily influenced by outsiders.”

The Ci Clan Head’s face was very well controlled and she maintained a placid smile throughout the whole conversation. Only, at this moment Sage caught a subtle twitch at the corners of her eyes.