Sage was bombarded with questions, of which he had few answers for. He told them the whole story of what had just happened and added his guess about Bingqing taking a fancy to this fellow but being too attached to her image to ever say anything outright.

“If we do nothing then this romance will likely take a few decades to play out. Or, we can take matters into our own hands and I can get her a hefty dowry.”

“Okay, you start a dialogue with the Kang Clan, I’ll meet with Bingqing.”

Just like that the two of them cut him out of the conversation. They discussed the details for a few minutes before Jiao’s voice stopped, “Are you still here?”

“Goodbye for now, beautiful flowers. Please return to the Clan soon, as I have gifts for you.”

Sage severed the connection between the Messaging Jades before he got in more trouble. Of course, they were just too eager to talk to him, but he had other children that he needed to catch up with. After deluding himself a little more he called in the next of his children and shared stories with them from the last few years. The rest of the meetings were quite pleasant with the exception of one other. The same person who had been terrorizing Bingqing, Jiao’s second daughter, Yujie. What was more absurd was that she was completely oblivious to the trouble she’d been causing for Bingqing.

Yujie was actually here to argue on behalf of a political issue. She had been constantly politicking for the Clan to build training grounds for each of the different Qi natures. She didn’t outright say it, but Sage could tell it was definitely related to herself. As a fire natured Cultivator being in the middle of what was essentially a huge forest was not beneficial to the Cultivation of her descents or her study of Law. How could she study fire laws when there wasn’t any fire?

Most of the Clan focused on using their physical bodies or their poisons. In fact outside of Bingqing and Yujie, only those specializing in the Banyan Building techniques used natured Qi. Worse yet, these two groups who should have been on Yujie’s side didn’t care all that much. Since the Clan was in a giant forest flowing with water it meant their Wood and Water techniques were quite at home. Sage had seen her trying to champion this cause at the meeting earlier, but the amount of support was not even a minority. She was asking for the Clan to spend quite a bit on a bunch of training grounds for a very small minority of the younger Cultivators.

“Daddy! You have to make them listen! I’ve tried to beat some sense into Yating, but his guards always stop me! Can you believe that he is so paranoid he won’t even let his own sister touch him? You really should have just made Mom into the new Clan Head. Can you demote Yating and put Mom in charge?”

“After all she’s done to raise you and now you want to put her to work? Poor Jiao. I’ll just have to call your mom and get her to give up on all her plans for the future. You just can’t handle anything without her at all.”

Yujie couldn’t help herself. She slipped right back into her childhood when she spoke to him alone, wanting Sage to solve all her problems for her.

“Alright, enough pouting. You know if you just spoke your true thoughts at the council you’d get a much better result. Instead of pushing for every type of training ground for the juniors, why don’t you just tell the truth? You just need an area for the youngsters following your path.”

Yujie’s face scrunched up, switching looks between angry, confused, and contemplative. Then she finally let out a loud breath, “Pshhh, fiiine.”

“Alright, I can tell you’re about to storm out of here, but wait a moment. Hold off on pestering everyone to vote your way in the next meeting. Once the Yi Yang Group is solved you’ll be seeing some surprises. There’s no need to be attached to your prior training ground plan.”

Yujie leaned closer to him and stared into his eyes, “You have better training areas? Show them to me now!”

Sage chuckled and shook his head, “Can’t do that, you were at the meeting. Whoever performs the best on the mission will get to see it first. No sneak peeks.”

“Fine, meany,” Yujie stared at him and he saw a fire in her eyes. Then she lifted her hand and made a fist. As her hand closed there was a loud pop and a shockwave ruffled their clothing, “I have preparations to make. See you later, Daddy!”

She rushed out just as rapidly as Bingqing had. The girl always had a nose for sniffing out treasures and treats, but Sage wasn’t going to humor her this time. While he wanted to show them all the new advancements, a few days wasn’t going to make a big difference. He also felt a little worried about this coming battle. If he could make them all stronger before they went, shouldn’t he? If they were more powerful wouldn’t they have a better chance of survival?

He quickly put those thoughts aside. If he allowed himself to think that way wouldn’t he keep pushing back things more and more? Every day they waited there were years of advancement in the Inner World. Would he be worried enough to put them all back into the Inner World for their own safety? It was something he wrestled with long ago, before he’d brought them out from the Inner World. Of course, they were all hundreds of years old and so he’d long forgotten about that level of worry, confident in their skills and capabilities. It was only when faced with an eminent war that he felt that little tinge of worry again. Especially when he had many weapons and techniques ready to give to them.

Sage had seen the look in Yating’s eyes and he knew that he wanted the Lang Clan to prove themselves capable without his help or interference. They’d shown what they could do when they fought against the Fu Clan with the Chong Clan, but Sage had been backing them up and acting as the main force that time. They wanted to do this without him and Sage didn’t want to take that away from them. So, he could only agree to make all these advancements into the rewards for the war and let them handle things on their own.

“As the Clan Head, I thank you for standing down, Grand Elder. As your son, I’m happy you’re allowing us to try this on our own. I promise we won’t disappoint you.”

Sage met with Yating last, and he confirmed what Sage had assumed. He nodded, “It makes me uneasy, but you’ve already got the Elders of the Purple Mist Sect keeping watch. I promise I won’t step in unless there’s no other option.”

Yating narrowed his eyes and gave him an accusatory look.

“Fine, neither I nor any of those from the Inner World will step in unless there is no other option.”

The Lang Clan Head nodded, “Thank you.”

While Yating was leaving, Sage let out a little mutter, “So grown up he doesn’t need his Dad’s help any more.”

Yating could hear him quite easily and of course knew his dad was teasing him, but he didn’t let himself get baited, keeping the stately demeanor of the Clan Head and walking out with his head high even as Sage was chuckling softly.