Before he could walk the rest of the distance the group of adults in elaborate and refined robes ran over to him and crowded around, forming a giant group hug. They jostled around with each other trying to get closer to the center of the big pile. These were of course eight of his ten children along with a dozen of their own children and grandchildren. The twenty of them crowded him from every direction and kept at this competitive group hug for a few minutes before Sage finally cried out, “Okay, okay, enough already!”

This happened every time there was a family gathering and it had become something of a tradition. It would be fine if it was just a big group hug, but just like this time it always turned into a competition very quickly. For some reason they just couldn’t help themselves from making it into a rugby scrum and they always put the eldest family member in the center. This meant he and his wives were always getting trapped in the middle. He’d also heard that his grandchildren did the same thing to his children, but he never got to see the stifled looks on their faces because if he dared to be in the room when it happened he’d be the one getting targeted.

With a bit more shoving the tight crowd dispersed and he was standing across from a semi-circle of all these descendants of his. His wives, Jiao and Ling, as well as two of his children were not present. He found out that his first son, Juxing, was at war. He’d become one of the leaders of the Jade Horde, which was hired to take part in a war between provinces in the neighboring Tianren Kingdom. Funny enough his first daughter, Yaling, was also gone. She was out doing almost exactly the same thing as Sage had been doing, but at a lower level. As an insect tamer she was out in the wilderness hunting for exotic bugs and creatures. All the wild life on the Inner World were captured or purchased by Sage in the past, or the result of combinations of those things he brought in. When Yaling learned of the almost infinite variety of the outside world she took off and only returned to the Clan to resupply and offload all her findings. Unfortunately she was very far away at this time and it was easier for her to just listen in to the meeting than to spend years returning back to the clan. Juxing was on a battlefield so he didn’t have the free time to attend the meeting, even at a distance, he could only review notes from it afterwards when he found a calm moment.

Since they had a few minutes before the meeting started he filled it by telling them some of the stories from time in the Depths. With all the information he gathered for the Clan they would have a lot more confidence in sending their people there for training. He wanted to save the gifts and improvements from the Inner World for the meeting and there were also too many of them for him to ask for each of their stories at this time. As the time counted down, more and more of the clan started to show up and soon there were too many of the higher level members that he could no longer keep starting the current story over again to include everyone. Instead they put a halt to the stories and went to their seats.

When they moved over to the main part of the Great Hall he was suddenly surprised by the unusual furniture in front of him. In his absence they’d decided to change up the table and it was utterly stunning. From afar it looked like a gigantic mantis had burst out of the floor. Its forelimbs were spread out across the floor and just the top of its head was peeking out of the hole in the ground like it was trying to pull itself into the room from this small gap. A closer look showed that the hole in the ground was actually where the roots of this tree had sunk into the ground and the two huge forearms and blades of the mantis were two of its huge branches. They were indoors here so he had no idea how this ‘table’ was getting the sunlight it needed, but he found it interesting they went with a living tree as a table rather than simply having one built out of wood.

As for the arrangement of the table, the two large limbs formed two large arcing tables, one to the left and one to the right. In the center, the ‘head’ of the mantis was at a higher level and had just a few seats behind a small table that was little more than a railing. Once everyone started to take their seats this higher position reminded Sage of a judge’s bench. He was also surprised to find that all of Ling’s descendants sat on one side and all of Jiao’s descendants sat on the other. At the raised portion only his second son and the current Clan Head, Yating, was sitting with a few of his assistants standing behind him. There was a single seat to Yating’s left and right, and Sage actually caught sight of a few personal items that his wives favored and realized these must be where they sat to preside over their sets of children to either side.

Since they’d set this all up while he was gone, Sage had no idea where he was supposed to sit or if they’d even saved him a spot. Some of his children were grinning widely at him from the sides and he didn’t realize what it was about until one of Yating’s assistants came over to him and led him to a lone chair and podium in the middle of the two ‘arms’ of the mantis, directly in front of the ‘head’. He suddenly felt like he was on the witness stand and every eye in the place was on him.

“You have the seat of honor, Grand Elder.”

The attendant seemed to realize all the eyes looking in their direction and quickly explained. Sage suddenly felt like these kids were having too much fun pranking him, “Which one of these kids of mine had this great idea to put me at the center of attention?”

The man’s eyes widened and he shook his head, “Please don’t misunderstand, Grand Elder. This is the place of honor. The center of attention would be just up there.”

Sage looked to where the man was pointing. It was at the direct center of the two sides and would make the person there feel surrounded and forced to lift their chin to look up at the Clan Head. If his current position was like a stage, then that spot was where someone received a sentence for their crimes. Either way he was a little annoyed that he had just a regular chair and small podium rather than the elaborate living table formed of twisted tree branches. Those wooden limbs twisted and weaved into each other with the unbound constraints of nature then suddenly grew together to form a perfectly flat table. Those same branches also extended outwards to form chairs and Sage even watched as some used their Qi to help the tree grow more chairs to perfectly match the number attending this meeting.

While deciding on whether or not he wanted to punish these naughty children for not saving a good seat for him the meeting commenced. They started with the boring logistics of being a large Clan and discussed all the current events regarding their resources, where they were being expended and also being supplied. Then they moved onto the more important issues regarding their relationship with other groups and that’s when they dropped a bombshell on him.

“The plan for the destruction of the Yi-Yang Group is complete and the necessary supplies will be prepared and organized for deployment in a few days.”

Destruction of a group? That’s a big deal! What have I missed?