The journey back to White Herb Sect took another week or so. When we returned to Azure Cloud City, we split ways with Hong Yao Yao. She returned to the Lan family estate while Lan Bei Er and I went to see the patriarch of the White Herb Sect.
He was waiting for us in the borrowed shrine at the city square, surrounded by the elders – including Lan Bei Er's master, Yao Guai.
"Sect patriarch," I greeted him with a bow as I knelt before him. I then reached into my spatial ring. "I present to you the Ruby Rhino's horn."
The old man literally jumped out of his seat at the sight of the huge, flaming horn. His wrinkled face crinkled in delight and he hurried forward to receive the horn.
"Impressive!" Bai Yao Cai said, patting my shoulder and gesturing for me to rise. "Excellent work! You really succeeded and proved all doubters wrong! You bring pride to us as our White Herb Sect's son-in-law!"
"This is impossible!" Yao Guai shrieked. "How can trash be able to bring the horn of a Ruby Rhino back?! I know! He cheated! That must be it! Stop cheating!"
I was getting sick and tired of her nonsense. If it weren't for my wife, I would have just cut her down right there and then. But that would bring Lan Bei Er a whole lot of trouble, and I was anything if considerate.
Besides, I wasn't stupid. If I was going to get rid of that bitch, I would do it secretly and not in front of everybody. Like, seriously, what kind of idiot murders someone in broad daylight? There were laws put in place here, and if I wanted to break them, I had to do it in a way where nobody knew about it.
You know, the old military adage. You can do anything you want…just don't get caught.
"That's enough from you!"
Fortunately, I was rewarded for my patience with the sight of Bai Yao Cai slapping Yao Guai so hard she was flung across the hallway like a stone. She lay on the ground, sprawled and stunned, while the patriarch loomed over her.
"You agreed to give him the task, and when he fulfilled it, you accuse him of cheating? So no matter what he does, you'll find fault with him? Can you be any more unreasonable?"
"Yeah!" Another elder shouted. "If you dare to gamble, then you should dare to lose! Stop being such a sore loser!"
"Your petty grudge is going to cost our sect a huge talent," Xue Ren said stiffly, the leader of the Blood Blades standing at the gate as partially serving as security. "Or do you have some sort of agenda?"
"I don't care! Lan Bei Er, listen to your master and divorce that trash! Otherwise I'll disown you!"
"That's perfectly fine." Lan Bei Er stepped forward, much to Yao Guai's astonishment. "From this day onward, we are no longer master and disciple. I will break this relationship with my very own hands."
She cut herself with a small blade, and then bowed.
"Forgive this former disciple for being un-filial, but I am no longer going to tolerate your insults toward my husband any further."
Quite frankly, she didn't need Yao Guai to teach her. I was pretty sure Lan Bei Er had surpassed her master the moment she learned Phoenix Rejuvenation. Speaking of which, she hadn't informed the sect of her newly acquired technique yet. Well, that was up to her.
Yao Guai was gaping at her disciple, and then she seethed. "How dare you?! Are you going against me now?!"
Before she could lunge forward, Xue Ren caught her and yanked her back, throwing her to the floor in an undignified, crumpled heap.
"You…!"
"Behave yourself, Elder Yao, or I'll be forced to restrain you."
"No, we'll be expelling this bitch from the sect." Bai Yao Cai was decisive. "Xue Ren, see her out."
"With pleasure." The leader of the Blood Blades seized a kicking and screaming Yao Guai, half-carrying her out of the shrine and roughly throwing her down the stairs. I could hear her undignified yelps as she tumbled all the way to the bottom.
Sometimes it was funnier to watch them suffer alive than to outright kill them.
"Thank you very much." Bai Yao Cai was nodding his head profusely, placing an arm over my shoulders. "I always needed a Ruby Rhino's horn to concoct a detoxifying elixir that helps counteract the princess's current constitution."
"The princess?" I repeated. Bai Yao Cai nodded and lowered his voice.
"Oh, seems like you didn't know? The first princess has the nine yin veins blockage, which causes her to suffer from chills and yin qi poisoning. The imperial doctors have been seeking a cure for ages now, but they were unable to provide anything other than temporary relief. Fortunately, it appears that only the Divine Flame Elixir might be able to permanently cure her condition. But it's a five vein pill, so it'll require every skill I possess to refine it. Oh, and the main ingredient is this horn from a peak Innate Realm spirit beast that you just obtained for me. The pure yang qi in it should help purify the yin qi that blocks her meridians and veins."
"Uh, okay?"
I didn't understand a single word he just said. I wasn't an alchemist or a doctor, so yeah. I wasn't going to pretend I knew anything about pill refining, so I just nodded numbly.
"Everybody, I'll be going into seclusion to make the pill for the first princess now! Xue Ren, I'll leave Hei Ye in your care."
"Understood, patriarch." Xue Ren cupped his hands and lowered his head. The meeting dispersed, and the leader of the Blood Blades gestured for me to follow him. Lan Bei Er also followed, staying close to me, but Xue Ren chuckled and raised a reassuring hand. "Don't worry, niece Lan Bei Er. I have no intention of doing anything untoward to him. I'm just giving him a special appointment."
"Huh? Special appointment?"
"Well, it seems that you've learned something else that the Blood Blades didn't teach you, and I don't think it's a good idea to force you to learn our techniques. There might be a clash in your qi or something and I think it's better for you to continue training in whatever it is that you're training."
Xue Ren narrowed his eyes and studied me intently. I had a feeling that he had realized something about me, but chose not to say it. Did he know I was a demonic cultivator? Then I realized that the Blood Blades practiced techniques that bordered on demonic, so he wasn't going to judge me. That was a relief.
"Yeah, you'll be a surveyor. It's an autonomous role that allows you to move about freely. While most Blood Blades remain in the sect to serve as security, you aren't bound by the same restrictions. Instead, your duties will be more like what you did for the patriarch – going out, hunting spirit beasts and gathering necessary ingredients for spirit pills and elixirs. And if necessary, representing us in battles in intersect tournaments and the like, while collecting information on the enemy. It's a scout role, but it's meant to be more flexible than that."
"Oh, I can do that." It was a lot freer and less restrictive than I thought it would be. That was good. I didn't know what the hell scouting had to do with representing the White Herb Sect in intersect tournaments, but whatever. I was pretty it was an excuse that Xue Ren and Bai Yao Cai came up with to justify shoving the responsibility of competing against other sects onto my narrow shoulders. Not that I was adverse to it. I was actually looking forward to dueling against the disciples of the Ten Thousand Sword Pavilion. Jian Shen and I still had an unresolved grudge. "Please inform me whenever you need me to do something, and I will do my best to accomplish it."
"Excellent. I'll let you know if there's any new missions and such. But most ingredients can be bought from the market anyway, so I think the next time anyone needs your services will be when the patriarch ends his seclusion and needs to refine a new high-level pill."
"Gotcha."
"For now, you should return home and spend more time with your new wife." Xue Ren grinned and patted my arm encouragingly. Then he turned around and left us alone, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, "Ah, it's good to be so young."
"Um…should we go home then?" I asked Lan Bei Er after watching Xue Ren leave. She nodded with a smile.
"That's right, my parents should be expecting us! I hope they aren't too worried…"
As it turned out, both father-in-law and mother-in-law were worried, but about something altogether. Their expressions brightened when they saw us, but Lan Bei Er noticed the strain in their faces when we sat down to converse.
"What's the matter, Dad, Mom?"
"Um…Bei Er, as you know, I've been serving as the castellan for a while now." Lan Tian Kong took a deep breath. "Unfortunately, it seems that there are other families who have their eyes on our position for a while. "The Cang family, for example. And the Yun family. They are stepping forward to challenge for the position of heir to Azure Cloud City's castellan."
"They can do that?" I asked, confused. Father-in-law nodded somberly. I frowned. "Huh? But who's the current heir right now?"
"That would be me." Lan Bei Er raised her hand hesitantly. I cocked my head to the side, even more confused. I knew the position of castellan was hereditary, which made the Cang and Yun family's actions illogical. Yeah, well, there was a lot to say about nepotism, but this was a different world with a different system, so I wasn't going to touch politics with a ten foot pole if possible. Still…
"If that's the case, then why do they think they can challenge for the position when Bei Er is already the legitimate heir?"
"That's precisely the problem." Father-in-law sighed. "I only have a single daughter and no sons. The Yun and Cang family are challenging her legitimacy simply because she's female."
"Why can't a woman be a castellan? I don't recall any rules saying that the castellan must be male."
Lan Bei Er shot me a grateful look, but she shook her head. "If only the patriarchs and elders of the Yun and Cang families thought the same…but they insist that they should put their male sons on the position of castellan. They claim that only men can bear the responsibility."
"What outdated, old-fashioned thinking. Women can be the equal of men." I shook my head in disapproval.
Father-in-law didn't seem to agree, but he was more concerned about having his blood and flesh succeed him than he was about gender equality and woman rights. I didn't want to get into a debate with him because I knew that the customs and mentality in this world and era were different from the world I came from. It was pointless to change people's minds when they were already so rooted in such a system. I could try, beginning with my generation, but I would have better luck wrestling a Ruby Rhino than persuading father-in-law to embrace wokeness.
"But there's a solution," he said instead, staring intently at me. I raised an eyebrow.
"What solution?"
"Now that you're the son-in-law of the Lan family and Bei Er's husband, you have a legitimate claim to be the next castellan. You just need to prove your worth to the Yun and Cang families."
"Hell no, I'm not going to be the next castellan." I shook my head. Before father-in-law could protest, however, I continued while placing my hands on Lan Bei Er's shoulders. "However, I'm going to do everything I can to ensure that my wife becomes the next castellan…even if I have to raze the Cang and Yun families to the ground to do so."