Author’s note: Early Regular chapter here. There’s three in queue, so I’ll finish two by tomorrow and post the last one the day after that. ^^

–Mochi

Host’s note: I’m not the author, but someone rehosting this story on RRL. Btw, technically Mochi isn’t the author but a friend of the author, somewhat of an editor/co-author. However, he’s the one who gave me permission to host here and the one who originally posted this story. Just wanted to clarify that. It can be confusing so I just refer to his notes as author notes and mine as host notes. It’s less confusing than a host note and editor/co-author note.

Lightly nodding his head, Jin Xia gave a smile of satisfaction before turning towards the crowd once again.

“With that settled, I will announce that from now on, I will be called the first young master of the Jin clan. Please do not address me as second young master anymore. Instead, my younger brother Jin Chen will now be the second young master, and my little sister Jin Ai will now be the young miss of our Jin clan. Once they come back from their training, please do address them accordingly!”, Jin Xia announced as he looked at the crowd.

While the current Jin Xia barely had any interactions with his siblings for the past two months, that was because the two had long been sent away to train in a martial arts school a year ago.

Both Jin Chen and Jin Ai had shown great talent on the path of cultivation, thus they were able to catch the eyes of the Xiandu Sect.

The Xiandu Sect was a powerful martial arts school in the Eastern Moon Continent. Its influence was greater than all six of the major cities in Great Azure Country combined, and wields large power over the masses.

The sect’s prerequisite for entrance was that the person must be no older than twenty, having at least reached Wudan 4th stage.

While this rule holds true for almost everyone, Jin Xia’s siblings were an exception.

“If I remember correctly, those two had a fortunate encounter with one of that Xiandu sect’s elder, who later tested their innate quality and decided to take them in as his disciples…”, Jin Xia thought in his mind.

Innate quality is basically the strength of one’s soul. The purer and stronger one’s soul is, the easier it is for one to cultivate. Thus, one’s innate quality can also be a representation of one’s talent in cultivation.

The innate quality can be set into ranks from 1 to 12, with one being the weakest.

A normal person would have an innate quality of around 1 and 2, a higher-than-average practitioner might have a quality of 3 to 4, and anyone who have been labeled a “genius” generally possesses an innate quality of around 5 to 7.

So far, there has been no one in the entire WuDang world who owns an innate quality greater than 8. And even that innate quality was said to have only appeared in the ancient eras.

The previous Jin branch families had initially wanted to send Feng Hao to the Xiandu Sect for training after the inter family competition. A sect’s resource and prestige are much higher than that of a small clan after all. But alas, things did not go as they had planned…

“And finally, I will put it boldly out there: I declare our Jin Clan to be the lord of Tian City. This entire city’s land will be our Jin territory.”, Jin Xia coolly said. The crowd instantly bursted out in voices of confusion and shock.

On the main family side of the Jin clan, every person had a surprised expression on their face as they looked at Jin Xia.

“T-this…the Jin Clan is going to take over Tian city? My god!”

“But isn’t this the logical outcome? After all, the other three major clans are done for and there’s no other organization within this city who can compete with the current Jin clan…”

As murmurs spread through the crowd, Jin Xia faintly smiled before he continued, “But..”

The people quickly quieted down when they heard Jin Xia speak. The current youth standing on stage was already placed on an extremely high position within everyone’s heart. They did not dare neglect his words.

“…if you are all willing to acknowledge our Jin Clan, I can guarantee that Tian City will experience a period of great prosperity! As long as you are loyal, we will not put any of you at a disadvantage. You may all continue your daily business in the city. We, the Jin Clan, just want the rights to control this city, in case any emergency arises.”

What Jin Xia had spoken was true. He did not want to manage every single business the city holds, but rather he wants to rule over the city so that the people would think twice before rashly provoking his clan.

In order to enter a higher stage, Jin Xia required complete control over the things in his homeland. This way, even if he were to leave one day, the Jin Clan would have a firm footing in Tian City.

He needed a safe space in which he can call his stronghold.

Listening the Jin Xia’s words, the people in the crowd began to contemplate the youth’s offer. Without any hatred or any enmity between them and the Jin Clan, they were sure that the Jin Clan would not unreasonably harm them.

After all, the enemies of the Jin Clan were only the other three major powers. Now that those three were gone, there is no one who would struggle against the Jin Clan anymore, not that there was a reason to for them anyway.

Thinking up to this point, the people sitting in the crowd began to nod as some voiced their approval.

“I accept! With the Jin Clan leading us, I am sure our city will begin to grow stronger!”

“We agree to follow the Jin Clan! All hail the Jin Clan!”

“Congratulations! The Jin Clan is now the sole ruler of our Tian City!”

Seeing that the people had accepted his offer, JIn Xia once again nodded his head in satisfaction. Everything was going as planned.

“All right, I thank everyone for their understanding! Now that I have finished what I wanted to say, I will now go clear up some unfinished business in the city. As for today’s event, I apologize for having everyone see such scenes. Now, I bid everyone farewell. Servants! Please escort the guests out!”, Jin Xia waved his sleeve as the few servants who stood near the crowd quickly sobered up and went to escort the departing crowd.

Jin Xia’s figure flashed as he leaped over the Jin mansion’s walls. Some of the people who had walked out of the Jin Clan’s yard only briefly saw a white-red blur streaking across the road. The fuzzy shadow quickly disappeared from everyone’s sight.

Although the crowd was not directly informed of where Jin Xia was heading towards, many of them could already guess: the three major clan’s mansions. It seems they had underestimated the ruthlessness of the young man whom they had saw. He was not even willing to spare any remnants of the three clans.

***

As the people went home, everyone in the Jin Clan began to clean up the bloody mess in the yard. All the servants who were not present in the yard, including Xie Mei, were called out from the other servant housing quarters within the Jin mansion.

“Hurry! Burn all the bodies so that they will not stink later on! Make sure to wash the blood on the floor! Also, get some people to quickly mend the broken walls! Clear away that fallen housing quarter as well!”, Liu Dan barked at the servants as everyone quickly got to work.

While Liu Dan held considerable power in the clan before, now that Liu Dan was patriarch of the Jin Clan, no one in the clan dared to neglect even a single word of his.

Some of the higher positioned servants, who were allowed to be present in the yard during the family competition remembered the horrifying youth who was the son of their current patriarch, had their face flushed pale. They passionately began to order the other servants to work faster as they themselves clean vigorously as well.

“Faster! Faster! Get everything cleaned up before night time, or you’re all not getting your meals!” One male servant with a crooked nose barked as he urged the lower servants. He was one of the higher servants, who supervised the other helpers.

“You! Why are you standing there being dazed? Go grab a pail of water and clean away the blood on the floor now!” Noticing that Xie Mei was frozen on the spot in the middle of the yard, the servant with the crooked nose shouted at her to work.

When Xie Mei was suddenly called from her housing quarter to the yard, she was confused as to what had happened. But when she saw the grisly scene before her, where bloods painted the ground and mutilated bodies laid around like waste, Xie Mei was petrified.

She had never seen such a gory scene in her entire life, having grown up since she was small in the Jin Clan. While she often hear about the harsh world outside, Xie Mei had not personally witness any murder or death. She was still innocently pure at the age of sixteen, which was quite rare in the chaotic world of WuDang.

Seeing that Xie Mei had completely ignored his order and was still standing in place, the crooked nose servant was about to angrily storm over when someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

“You fool! Do you want to die? Do you not recognize that’s Xie Mei, the personal maid of our first young master Jin Xia! Did you not hear how well the young master has been treating her for the past two months?!”

An elderly male servant with a gray beard sternly reprimanded the crooked nose servant as he pulled the man back.

“A-ah?! Sh-she’s that young master’s personal maid? My god! I heard that for some reason, the young master had been treating a maid named Xie Mei extremely well…so much, that she has practically been relieved of her duty. She just sits around all day doing nothing, so that’s her…but, but why is she out here now, Old Niu?”, the crooked nose servant cried out in fear as he looked at the elder servant named ‘Old Niu.’

The other servant was similarly a supervising servant like the crooked nose servant, except the Old Niu’s status was a bit higher than the other due to the extended time the old man had worked for the Jin Clan.

“How would I know?”, Old Niu grunted. “Some idiot might’ve accidentally called her, thinking she was a regular servant. Anyways, we’ll have to send her back. If young master Jin Xia finds out we had her to do such filthy work…you can be assure none of us will be able to rise from our bed tomorrow.”

The crooked nose servant’s face right away became pale.

“R-right, I’ll go over and tell her right now!” With a panicky expression, the crooked nose servant ran over to Xie Mei and began to politely motion her away.

“B-but, I am a servant of the Jin Clan as well. I have a duty to help..”, Xie Mei confusedly said as she was slowly being led away from the yard by the crooked nose servant.

“Oh no, no, how can miss Xie Mei be a mere servant? You are a great attendant of the first young master! Please just leave such dirty work to small servants like us. If you really feel bad, then please say a few good words for us servants in front of the young master. That is all we ask of you, miss Xie Mei.”, the crooked nose servant quickly said as he respectfully gestured Xie Mei to leave.

Seeing that the supervising servant was not going to let her work no matter what, Xie Mei could only reluctantly bite her lips as she nodded, “Okay…”

Then, she turned around and headed back towards her housing quarter. While Xie Mei was still unused to such flattering treatment from her fellow servants, she knew she would be unable to change their minds. Because deep in her heart, she understood it all because of her young master, Jin Xia…

“Was I truly unable to see through my young master’s facade all these years…” Xie Mei thought as she reminisced her past suffering at the hands of the ‘previous Jin Xia’. “But..young master was indeed once crippled…then how could all this be caused by him?”

But no matter how much she thought about, she could not come up with an answer. The change in Jin Xia’s personality had been too drastic. There was no way to link Jin Xia’s previous demeanor to the one at present.

Staring at Xie Mei’s departing figure, the servant with the crooked nose was able to finally breath out an air of relief.

Host’s note: Been a tad busy with things, so this has been posted late at 1am where I am. Let’s just count this as part of yesterday. RRL’s dating on chapters seem to disagree with me on the time specifics anyways. I might’ve set the time zone wrong on my profile or RRL uses server time for chapter updates. Too tired to look that up.