Feng Nuana was a peculiar person. She was still hung up about the 'ancient texts' of her clan. Her older sister had come back with a claim that they weren't accurate and that the clan women should follow their own hearts. She on the other hand was a firm believer that this was untrue and the texts were holy scriptures.
This was also why she was clinging to Zhang Dong's disciple so much. Through the texts, she had deemed him worthy of being her partner.
She was looking at her sister blushing slightly while covering the lower half of her face with a fan. She looked to the reason why she was doing this and saw Zhang Dong standing there. The man was quite handsome but she still preferred the more youthful looks of Zhang Liu's.
She narrowed her eyes while looking at her sister moving over towards this white-haired man. That the two were growing their bond was an obvious thing, which would mean that this person in front of her would become her elder brother. Due to the secret texts not presenting any boundaries between others, she thought it would be natural to greet him. She would do it in quite the overblown way though.
Feng Nuana stopped clinging to Liu's arm and skipped forward. She appeared next to her sister that was busy hiding her bashfulness. Zhang Dong had noticed her approach but not like he would stop the little sister of his love interest. He also just thought that she would do the usual bow of appreciation.
To his bafflement, the girl just quickly jumped out and gave him a big hug. He was on the taller side at 190 cm of height so she had her face planted in his abs. He was quite surprised by the sudden act of affection by the girl he only knew as 'that girl that always clings to Zhang Liu'
"Elder brother, little Nuana is happy to see you~"
"Uh…"
He stared at the girl that was wiggling up against him and then looked to her older sister. He could see a vein appearing on her forehead while her eyebrows inclined.
The junior members that were standing behind the whole scene were dumbfounded by the act of affection. Was the sect leader already this close to the Feng Matriarch and her younger sister that they were okay with hugging each other?
No one knew what to do, was the girl going out of line and offending the new sect leader? Normally people in such high positions were quite pedantic about their face. What if he decided to punish her and the good relationship built with the Feng Clan would cease to exist.
The first one to break the silence was Feng Liena. The fan was used to block out her rage but she was quite angry about what her little sister did. Not because he was being rude towards the sect leader or that it could cause some misunderstandings. No, she was mad that her sibling had managed to hug the person she admired before she could. She was even rubbing her face all over his belly, this was something that she was supposed to do!
"Nuana, get away from Senior Brother Dong this instance! What do you think you are doing?"
"No, I don't wanna! Save me elder brother, big sis is being a meany!"
What ensued was a scene of the nascent soul elder trying to peel away her younger sister from the sect leader. The smaller girl was clinging to him hard though, just as Zhang Liu had feared she did indeed have some dastardly clinging technique. Feng Liena even started pulling her by the legs which caused Nuana's lower body to move up in the air. She continued clinging while her sister kept pulling, the other sect members just looked without doing anything as the sect leader was involved.
Zhang Dong didn't know what to do either, it felt odd having one cute girl clinging to you, while another beautiful one was trying to pry her off you. Even if he liked the attention he knew that this couldn't go on any further.
"You have quite the interesting little sister there, Junior Sister Liena…"
He finally spoke out and poked Nuana's forehead with his index finger. The girl felt a strange force rushing through her body before going limp and losing all of her strength in her body. She was pulled backward by her older sister but the two were enveloped in a gentle golden aura. Feng Nuana was spun around and placed onto her feet, the moment of weakness subsided rapidly.
Zhang Dong moved over and gave the troublemaker a pat on the head before moving next to Feng Liena. She looked kind of angry at the whole predicament but he didn't really want to cause a further scene. He also noticed that for some reason her Qi went into disarray when he gave the little sister a head pat. He could only think that she was mad that he dared to touch her little sister without consent.
"Ah, think we should head inside… the sect members are working diligently, I'll be your guide."
He laughed a bit to himself. The younger sister pouted a bit before moving back to clinging to Zhang Liu's arm. The youth's expression switched from confusion to defeat in a span of a few seconds as the small busty girl was back.
Everyone just nodded while Zhang Dong walked forward, they couldn't decline the leader if he was going to show them around the new sect ground. Feng Liena remained half a step behind him while the rest followed in the back. Everyone was still thinking about their status so everyone lined up accordingly.
Zhang Dong peeked behind him, everyone was keeping their distance even Liena was lagging slightly behind. He noticed that she and Qiang kept doing this, they always remained half a step behind him. This was just a show of respect to their leader but he wanted to move past that. Have wished the two accept him as an equal and not like someone above them.
This prompted him to stop in his tracks while peeking behind himself. He made a little controlled maneuver and placed himself at the right next to the tanned beauty with the pink hair.
Feng Liena stopped momentarily as she found a certain white-haired man right next to her. He just smiled while nodding as he tried to indicate that it was okay to walk with him as an equal. The junior members in the back looked in with awe at the man before them as they knew what this kind of gesture meant.
Regretfully Matt wasn't someone from this world so he didn't realize what his little act caused. In this world allowing a woman to walk beside you was akin to declaring her as your lover. This was something he was slowly trying to go towards for but this was seen as quite the power move on his part.
The girls in the back were surprised by the boldness of this sect leader. The youths were just shocked by how nonchalantly he had done it, there was no hesitation, no fear. He just went for it and the lady next to him was looking quite glad.
'Why is she blushing like a ripe tomato?'
'Why is everyone looking at me like this?'
Matt was curious about the reactions of the people in the back. He just took a step back so that Feng Liena didn't have to do this saving face nonsense and walk next to him. He didn't make anything off it, it was just a simple gesture of good etiquette.
"Shall we?"
He asked, indicating that he wanted to move forward. Feng Liena's heartbeat increased and he could hear it. The increased heartbeat caused him to think that she was having some kind of panic attack as it was highly irregular to behave this way. He stepped forward, he was a physician as well so he could probably give her a checkup if he just grasped her hand.
So he did. The people in the back and from all around opened their eyes widely. Her Sect master was so brazen, he just more or less asked for the woman to be his lover and now he was already moving ahead and asking her for marriage. To Matt, this gesture didn't mean much, to the people here it meant that he was proposing. The people around them went wild, their eyes glued on the two as they hoped for a good reply.
'The heart rate is a bit high but nothing out of the ordinary, think she is just nervous?'
'Is she stressed out from having to guard the convoys?'
'Maybe I should give her some time off?'
"I…"
He finally heard Feng Liena replying, she started stuttering at first but then she came to some kind of conclusion.
"I accept!"
"You accept?"
He replied.
"She accepted!"
Everyone shouted in the back with a lot of emotion that caught him off guard. Why were these people acting like weirdos again?
"Yes, I accept!"
She replied again while dropping her head down and turning to the side. He let go of her hand and they finally continued on with the tour of the base.
Unbeknownst to him, the people from his sect were on this like rabid dogs. Everyone sent out information with their jade tokens about the good news. The Zhang Clan Patriarch, now the United Element Sect leader, was going to wed Feng Liena, the Feng Clan Patriarch.
This was quite the scoop for their people and also a morale booster. This brought two powers together in a bond of unity and the Zhang side and the Feng side would be even closer than before.
This did bring the Huo Clan into a bit of a predicament as they didn't have any bargaining chips from their side. Their biggest opportunity was in Huo Kong's relationship with Zhang Dong's female disciple. If they could get the two together, they could expand their influence in the Zhang Clan and get a better foothold.
When the news reached Zhang Jin that remained behind at the old Zhang Clan sanctuary he was ecstatic. He feared that something was wrong with his grandson as he was taking his time with courting. He himself would have already sealed the deal and a baby would be on its way.
He alerted his wives to the good news, they were to prepare a list of people to invite to the wedding. They could host it in a few months after more of the sect was set up as a large banquet. It would bolster the spirits of the people. Seeing two of their leaders as a couple could be used as a tool to further the sect agenda.
They could invite all of the scattered clans from all the other cities. Show off their power and also stabilize their position in their hearts. They could also send invitations to the three powerful sects that would probably send some envoys of goodwill.
Marriages like this were perfect for finding new business partners and allies. If all went well, they might bring someone from those three overbearing powers over to their side. There was also a chance of offending them in some way but they just needed to take the risk. They still had Zhang Dong's master protecting them from the back.
"The sect leader is getting married? To senior Feng Liena?"
"We must prepare a big banquet!"
"A banquet? We should make a whole festival, invite everyone to show off our mighty sect!"
Zhang Jin's wives started chuckling with each other while making plans. The festivities were going to be big, the problem was the lack of funds from their side. They were still a bit low on spirit stones due to the war and were in the recovering process.
"Don't worry, just ask my grandson's sworn brother for some aid, their clan should have the funds."
Zhang Jin gave his advice. The Huo Clan section of the sect would probably be worried about not really being included in the whole wedding. But if they covered most of the expenses they would also gain some face.
Everything went in motion, the people were already picking out the venue and designing the best wedding dresses for Feng Liena to pick out from.
The man of the hour, Zhang Dong had no idea what he had started. He was just trying to be nice while slowly courting his target. He had never gone through this process so he wanted to slowly enjoy it while their emotions developed. Soon he would discover that today's actions had brought something into motion that he couldn't stop anymore.