The bridal sedan was on its way. Behind it, several rows of maids carrying large boxes of bride price followed. It was a spectacular sight if one ignored the dark face of the groom leading the entourage. Those who were able to get an invite made their way to the clan halls ahead of the bride so they could watch her marry.
When the bridal sedan made its way to the hall where guests were waiting, the groom winced in pain as he dismounted, kicked open the bridal sedan and carried his bride into the hall.
In the hall, the clan head and his wife sat and waited for their daughter to come in. Opposite him, was the clan head of the Vigron and his wife, who were all smiles. The bride and groom bowed to heaven and earth, bowed to the parents and bowed to each other, then the bride was led into the bridal room, leaving the guests to the feast.
The clan head frowned at his wife's cold face when he heard word of what happened at home.
"You let Gon lead his Hu'er to her bridal sedan instead of letting Jun?" he asked her.
"You allow that woman to sit on top of my head dear husband? You know how she is, do you think she would let her son carry Hu'er?" the Ostie clan madam asked.
"Ji will never do that," he glanced at his concubine in the corner.
At this, his wife poured him a cup of wine and smiled coldly, "I have been married to you for decades and never once have you doubted me. Even if you did not believe my words, you would at least give way to me. Yet, the moment my son dies, you look to that woman as if Gon is not also your son," she said.
"What are you trying to say?" he frowned. She glanced at him coldly as he took a drink and paused.
"What is in this?" he asked, "I favour you less and you dare to try to take my life? Do you think poison will work on me?" he sneered.
"Why would I use poison on you, you have to live and see what happens next, especially to your beloved concubine," she said casually and he froze.
"You can't hear it, can you?" she asked, "Oh, that's true; you drank from an earth cup," she said and he looked down at the cup in his hand and his eyes shrunk.
"The Vigron and Ligrel clans are killing off all those in your faction. If the earth cup did not seal your martial arts, you may be able to hear them dying right now," she said and he looked around. Even though he was slightly tipsy from all the drinking, he could see that no one in his faction where in the hall. He looked at his concubine and her son in the corner and then at the Vigron clan head in front of him and the old man sent him a toast.
"Ji, run!" he ordered and the concubine froze at her husband's words.
"What…." she started to say.
"Mother, come," Jun grabbed her and made for the exit, his body flashing through at speed beyond the normal human body. But those in the hall were also martial experts; they would not allow it to happen. They two found their way blocked and their body restrained.
"You still care for her life in such a situation?" the Ostie clan madam asked.
"Traitor! I treated you well, yet this is how you betray me?" he bellowed and made to grab her neck, but she only pinched the small of his back, and his joints seemed to lock in place.
"You forget that our marriage was so that the two factions could come together and stand on equal ground in the next generation through my son. So what if he died? I still have another one. Yet you think you can suppress us?" she asked coldly. The clan head looked towards the Vigron and his now son-in-law with red eyes.
"You, why? The Ostie have never been your enemy," he said.
"The Krains have asked the ancients to bend the knee," the Vigron clan head said and the Ostie clan head was shocked.
"That family has no pull except that of the favour of Lady Wickshire, who has said she will be travelling far!" he protested.
"Your faction has the clan treasure land key. You, a man such as yourself will never bend the knee because of that power you are hiding in your ancestral land. You think we did not know you have reached the transcendent stage? When your ancestral land opens, what did you intend to do with that power, Han'ie? You call that sincerity?" the Vigron clan head asked, taking a sip of his wine.
"You knew? How?" he asked, then glanced at his wife in realisation.
"You wish to take over Thriergor, but my goals are bigger than yours. For the ability to hold Thriergor in your hands you would not have bent the knee no matter the conditions offered us. My firstborn is dead, Gon will surpass his brother. If participating in the alignment battleground has taught us anything, it is that we are too weak," the Ostie clan madam said to her husband.
"You traded our clan, your husband, what kind of power is greater than the favour I have shown you all these years?" he asked and she pinned him a cold stare.
"One woman is dangerous enough, yet the ego of men sprouts a foolish bravery that makes you think you can keep more than one. No man with a harem has ever outlived his wives, take that advice to the Netherworld for all men to learn," her cold voice reverberated through his body.