Those on the side of the Xie Faction were already prepared for something unusual happening during this meeting. Since nothing had happened yet, they were all waiting patiently. On the other hand, the opposition was not so forewarned and only now that they heard Sage’s outburst did they realize they were jumping the gun. The Elder that had risen to his feet promptly sat back down while the others that were walking away quickly returned. They tried to cover up their embarrassment by sending annoyed looks in Sage’s direction.

The Jinxi young master realized his mistake and just as Sage did, he cleared his throat to restore some of his authority and sent a hostile glance as Sage. Then he turned his eyes to glare at the Elder that had stood, “You seem quite eager to leave. Is there somewhere else you need to be Elder Wu Gou?”

Elder Wu Gou’s eyes flashed with annoyance at being called out, but he maintained an otherwise calm and placid face. He held up his hands and saluted Jinxi Po, “Forgive me, I’m getting a little absent minded in my old age. I was just eager to rest after that heated debate earlier.”

One of the Xie Elders opened her mouth to hurl an insult, but the Great Elder placed a hand upon her arm and the Elder closed her mouth. After insulting Elder Wu Gou, Jinxi Po seemed much less upset about being called out for his mistake.

Ahh, the ways of the bully. Whenever you feel inadequate, sad, or abused, just take it out on someone else.

Even so, Jinxi Po was not satisfied by just venting upon Elder Wu Gou. He also remembered who had called him out for his oversight and now his attention returned to Lang Sheng. A small sneer crept onto his lips and he made sure to send a jab towards him, “Are there any more issues that the illustrious Elders need to bring up? If not, we can move on to hearing from the branch heads.”

He wanted to make sure that Sage knew he was on a different level and would have to wait his turn. Even if none of the other Elders said anything, Jinxi Po let the silence draw out for a while. During this time he was silently staring at Sage, trying to annoy him by denying him the chance to speak.

As for the person in question? He was just waiting patiently. Standing there with the other branch heads and waiting for his chance to speak. For him this sort of thing was nothing at all. Even on Earth he’d had to hold his hand up in class to ask a question. This sort of wait was basically nothing. As cultivator’s they were able to endure long periods of lonely cultivation and solitude, but for some reason when their pride was on the line they got impatient. It was his guess that it had something to do with being forced to wait versus choosing to be patient. He could only imagine how infuriated these people would be to wait in line at the DMV. These people could lock themselves alone in a cave for years to train, but just sitting here forced to wait for the meeting to end was already annoying them.

Jinxi Po was hoping to see Sage bothered, but unfortunately the Elders in the room started to look at him far before Sage did. He finally caved, “Since there are no more issues from the Elders, do the branch heads have anything to bring forward?”

He looked at the other branch heads first, hoping one of them would step forward but they were not foolish enough to cause any waves. On the contrary, Sage was. He finally gained the floor and smiled at Jinxi Po, “I have something to say, a question for the Jinxi. Do you like horse racing?”

Sage had only pointed out a mistake earlier, so nobody thought much of it, but now it seemed like he was setting out to directly antagonize the young master of the Jinxi. Was he a fool? Patriarch Jinxi was silent, but his lip twitched slightly. Jinxi Po on the other hand was furious. He was venting his annoyance, and now this little branch head dared to talk nonsense with him?

While the man was fuming, Sage held up his hands, “Oh, my apologies. Given that we are the Chong Clan, horse racing is a little inappropriate. How about cricket fighting? That is a little more fitting for gambling on, right?”

“What are you talking about? This is the Chong Clan Council meeting, not a village tavern. This is not the place to conduct small talk and talk about gambling.”

“Is that so? I can’t talk about gambling here? What about all the lives that you are using to compete with the Xie Faction? You’re pitting people against each other to make your decisions. How many more lives will be lost due to you inflating the conflict? Wouldn’t it be far simpler to just raise crickets and fight them directly? Or is it that you care less about human lives than the lives of crickets? I, for one, don’t think a cricket could ever compare to even the lowliest man.”

Only now did the Elders in the room realize that Sage was criticizing their ‘tradition’ of using proxy wars to decide upon difficult issues. He was also directly insulting the Jinxi, the faction that was famous for their crickets. At this moment, even Patriarch Jinxi’s wife was startled, let alone everyone else in the room. She changed almost instantly from a kind matron to a vicious hellcat. It was like her hackles were raised and her fingers curled into a claw shape. Her large nails stabbed into the arms of her chair like the hardwood was made of warm butter. The Patriarch himself had seemed detached from these proceedings, but at this insult he finally focused his gaze upon Sage. The power suddenly radiated from him just like earlier when he’d acted to maintain order.

Jinxi Po was still the only person talking back to him, “You dare to insult the Jinxi? Are you tired of living? You’ve only been a branch head for a short while and yet you’ve grown so bold? It seems we may no longer need a Lang Branch after all.”

“You don’t need a Lang Branch? That’s an interesting opinion. I think the Chong Clan no longer needs to be led by a bunch of scared weaklings. What a great Clan, using human lives as game pieces, because they’re too scared of solving their own issues directly.”

Jinxi Po was furious and he didn’t even bother retorting with words. When he opened his mouth an ear piercing screech was released. The majority of those in the room were not Nascent Souls and their faces scrunched up in pain from the sudden assault. Sound based attacks were very difficult to completely focus and so when the level 63 Jinxi Po released his attack they all suffered from it. On the other hand, the target of the attack was far less affected.

Sage was standing there with a smile still on his face. Once he sensed an attack approaching he already set up a Windscreen. It was intended as a technique for lower level cultivators to avoid eavesdropping, and something from the How to be a Little Birdy manual. It created a double layered bubble of Qi, making a sort of vacuum zone that stopped sound transferral. It wasn’t intended to be used as a defense against sound based techniques, but that didn’t mean it was worthless. Especially since Sage had already known he’d face the Jinxi long ago.

The look of confusion on Jinxi Po’s face was priceless. Especially when combined with the piercing gaze of Patriarch Jinxi and the look of surprise on Great Elder Xie’s face. She knew he was up to something, but not something this bold!