After listening to Arthur's story Zhao Haoran didn't give his answer immediately and instead said, "I need to discuss it with my clan members." It was his wife that he wanted to talk over.
Zhao Haoran excused himself from the group and went into his wife's chamber. Inside his wife's room, he saw his wife and daughter talking to each other. He entered and said, "Meimei, can you please us some time? I want to talk to your mother alone."
Just as Zhao Mei was about to go out, her mother said, "Meimei stop, no need to go out you can stay here and listen."
Zhao Haoran began to narrate the story and after listening to her husband Zhao Qinyang asked her daughter, "Is this true?"
Zhao Mei knew about the actual story but she replied, "Yes, mother but I don't know the whole story. Most of them are not shared with me."
"That bastard lied to you, Hao, they have with them four or more crystals and they only said two to make us join them." Qinyang was too cunning she mentally messaged her husband and learned the gist of the story beforehand and instructed him to increase the number of crystals to four when recounting the story.
When Zhao Mei heard it her heart shuddered, then she calmed herself and said, "It is natural that they downplayed it but we have four, one was given to me and the other to Xiang. And mother, do not call my son a bastard, he is not a bastard. We married off properly, don't ruin your daughter's reputation by spouting nonsense." She was pissed off at her mother for making her stay and fishing things out of her, and also because of her mother calling Arthur such names that she got so mad and stormed out of the room.
She then went to her son and narrated what happened inside the room leaving out the cursing part by her mother to Arthur.
Arthur also cursed, "That old hag is too cunning."
Zhao Mei said, "Sansan, don't call my mother such names."
"Sorry Sansan, mother spouted out our clan's secrets. Are you disappointed with your mother?"
Arthur replied, "Mother look, every clan has their secrets. It is not that I don't trust them but they also have their own secrets that we aren't aware of and we do not try to dig out their secrets either. This is the general courtesy that every clan maintains or should uphold. I'm not disappointed in you, you are their child after all. Why I do not want to share it before they agree to work with us is because it doesn't only involve a huge wealth but great danger too. Forget about possessing it even knowing about it can put lives in danger. That's why we allow no one from amongst our clan members to leave our village and only my father's men and uncle Ping's men step out of the groove."
Finally, it was time to meet each other to discuss things further. When everyone assembled, Zhao Qinyang said, "Sansan, how dare you lied to your grandfather? Ran, your grandson lied to your face. Won't you say anything? He is too young yet too cunning even lying to his family. He needs to be disciplined properly." She was already very satisfied with his grandson. They were both similar to each other; very calculative and shrewd.
Before Zhao Haoran could say anything Arthur said," Grandpa Ran, I'm sorry for lying to you. I lied because it involved my clan's secret but I still lied, therefore I apologise, I'm sorry and I won't lie to you next time, I'll only lie to grandma fox."
Zhao Haoran replied with a single word, "okay" and then cringed after hearing the last sentence.
At this time Zhao Qinyang was fuming and Zhao Mei, chuckling. The three old men just looked at each other and smiled helplessly.
Soon, they came to the more serious issues and started discussing them at great length. It was finally decided that Zhao Mei's crystal was to be given to the Zhao clan, it was a better bargain for the Zhao clan because only a sixth of its energy was used. The Zhao clan also agreed to help the Lu clan by sending some smiths. But, the topic of moving the clan to the groove was delayed for the future discussion because there was another problem that lay ahead of them. The problem was an uncertain one, a rumour that Zhao Qinyang had heard. The rumour said that the Connate Realm cultivation expert of Solitary Peak Academy, known as Hermit Shan had been trying his best to invite the flood Dragon to become the Spirit guardian of the Academy. Spirit Guardian is just a title given to the highest guardian. Although he failed every time to convince the flood Dragon, he still continued to visit every year at the onset of the winter to please and request the Dragon. He had already invested heavily in the Dragon hence, his reaction to the present outcome that had taken place was quite unpredictable. They were only 3 months away from winter and they had to act fast.
Lu Donghai sighed and expressed, "Do we have to move our clan again?" He mumbled and sighed once more.
"Grandpa Hai, relax! we are not moving our village anywhere," assured Arthur.
Then he looked at Zhao Qingyang and said, "Grandma Qing, I'll give you one offer. If you promise to give me your full support on this, listening to my requests and commands until our clan solve some tasks and agrees to ally with our clan. Then, I'll share more secrets with you even helping to raise the cultivation stages of your people. Don't worry, I won't try to take advantage of you or your people, nor do I want to subjugate the Zhao clan. I won't disrespect my family from my mother's side to appease my clan. All I want is full cooperation with your clan so we can deal with the people from the cities later on and grow together to become powerful clans."
On learning the prospect of knowing more secrets, the husband and wife looked at each other. They already suspected that the Lu clan was hiding something big, but they weren't too conclusive about it either and so, to put their trust completely and invest in it was altogether a gamble for them.
"What do you say, grandma Qing? Whether you take it or reject my offer is up to you. I cannot say anything further on this issue," said Arthur and looked at his grandma and smirked.
If the brain behind the Zhao clan was his grandpa Ran, Arthur would have just laid all the cards on the table and simply let his grandpa make his decision. However, to his grandma, the fox, how can he make it simple? He had to have fun with her.
Zhao Qinyang smiled at Arthur and said, "You are too terrible, do you know that? Tell me first, have you found a way to deal with the problem of Hermit Shan, if the rumour turns out to be authentic?"
"I won't tell you now but you don't need to worry about that. I can work it to our benefit if he comes," replied Arthur and laughed.
Zhao Qinyang thought for some time and said, "Give us some time to think, we need to discuss it with my clan members." She then pulled her husband and also dragged her daughter with her to another room.
"Grandma, you cannot take my mother, she belongs to the Lu clan now," Yelled Arthur.
Qinyang snickered and replied, "She is still Zhao and my daughter. Are you saying that I am not allowed to talk with my daughter?" Saying that she laughed loudly and disappeared from the view of others.
Lu Donghai said, "Sansan, they have taken your mother with them, they already know that we have more than two energy crystals. Now, they'll know about our other secrets too."
"Nah, don't worry grandpa Hai. Why do you think I brought my mother on this trip, for a family reunion? We came to town for business only. Don't worry mother won't tell them everything," Arthur said and laughed.
Lu Yehan asked, "Do you mean to say that from the beginning itself you wanted to let them know our secrets through your mother?"
Arthur replied, "Yes, I want to let them know one or two things, I knew that they'll bite our enticement because it involves a treasure which even the connate realm experts wouldn't be able to resist. But, don't you see that the old hag is too cunning and manipulative. She will eventually want more if I lay everything on the table. I want their cooperation because of their influences and our lack of manpower but I want it to be on my terms and not theirs. Moreover, can we talk about our treasures directly to them before they agree to work with us?"
Arthur continued, "Isn't it better to fuel their curiosity and feed them a little information at times and hook them to cooperate with us until we grow stronger? After becoming powerful they'll not abandon us since they need a trustworthy ally but even if they want to leave, it won't make much difference to us anymore. It is a win-win situation."
Lu Yehan excitedly asked, "Are you planning to make the Zhao clan our subordinate clan?"
"No, grandpa Ye...Forget the Zhao clan, I don't want any subordinate clan under us. I would rather want an independent clan to intermingle with us and form trustworthy allies. We can only depend on ourselves, not others. We have already suffered betrayal from both our subordinates and our own clan members, it has taught us a great lesson. I want a free and competitive environment for our clan to grow. Only when our prodigies grow up competing with others who are their equals and also when they learn to accept working together with their peers, only then they shall learn to grow confident and strong both mentally and physically to become true leaders. If they depend on their subordinates to follow and worship them, not only will it hamper their growth but they'll be conceited and be filled with pride and arrogance. This is not the environment I want for our clans to have."
Meanwhile, inside the Zhao clan's private chamber. Qingyang asked. "Meimei, do they really have more secrets? Do they have a plan to solve the issue of the Connate Realm expert?"
"Mother, they indeed have secrets which you cannot fathom. And I don't know their plan to solve the apparent problem that lies ahead, but if Sansan says he has a solution then it should be true. He has already solved many dreadful problems in the past," replied Zhao Mei and then narrated some of Arthur's accomplishments over the Liu and the Bai clan.
After an hour or so, the trio came out of the private room and Zhao Haoran said, "We are willing to comply with your terms but we need to be satisfied greatly." Meaning to have a bigger share of the treasure.
"Sure, you'll certainly be pleased," said Arthur and continued, "We do have some blood of the dragon. The dragon already lost lots of its blood when we found it so we don't have much. We can only give you a bowl of it. It will be more than sufficient for all of your clan members above Proficient Practitioners to raise your respective cultivation stages to the peak. We have the Dragon's meat too so we'll share it with you but, I cannot give the bones and skin to you. As I have said, I'll solve the issue so if a Hermit Shan comes I'll give it to him if he demands it."
"Sansan, are you sure you want to give away those things to him if he asks for them?" Asked Qinyang. She didn't want to share the treasure with anyone.
Arthur replied, "Look, grandma, even if we possess the dragon's carcass we can neither use it nor sell it to others. In fact, we cannot tell anyone about it or show it to anyone. What's good to have it but only to be kept hidden away from ourselves and others? For now, since no one knows about it we don't have any visitors but if the news about it spreads then troubles will surely come knocking on our doors. By offering the carcass of the Dragon we can establish our connection with the city through him. We can even ask him something in return which will be beneficial to both our clans...for example we can ask some reserved seats for our clans in their academy." We will be under his protection and also we can shove the responsibility of possessing the dragon carcass to him if another Connate Realm comes asking for it. Since we aren't going to tell him about the dragon's blood nor the meat that we possess we can secretly grow unnoticed by others while putting all attention on him, isn't it more beneficial for us?"
"Bravo, bravo," Zhao Qinyang exclaimed and clapped.
"Then what about the crystals, have you thought about it?"
"We will use the crystals before he comes and when he visits us we'll show him most empty crystals. Since he is a connate Realm nearing the Rank of the earthly realm he should be able to determine approximately how much condensed spiritual energy an earthly realm should amass within a soul space. Moreover, by assessing one or two crystals containing some spiritual energy which we shall leave behind intentionally, he'll be likely to infer that we have given him everything without hiding for ourselves. All your sudden growths will be justified too and also by surrendering a crystal containing a third of energy left behind would enable us to gain his trust because it won't be enough for him but it is important for us, " explained Arthur.
"Sansan, won't he lay his finger on us when he finds the empty crystals?" Questioned Lu Donghai.
"That is where the Zhao clan will play their part, with the Zhao clan's influence I think they should have contact with the city right?" Arthur said and looked at his grandmother.
"Right! We have our men in the city but our influence is not big...I see, you want us to know when he is moving out towards your clan. Consider it done. What next?" Asked Zhao Qinyang.
"After Hermit Shan leaves the town and pays his visit to the groove I want your people to spread the rumour that the Lu clan and the Zhao clan had found the carcass of the flood dragon spreading it such that it is heard by everyone in the city. And when Hermit Shan visits your clan delay him for one day, during this time spread the rumours in town also saying that they heard the news coming from the city about the discovery of the dragon carcass by the two clans. With the news spread, he won't be able to lay his hands on you or us. He is from the Academy he cannot ruin his reputation because of us and by this time he'll be busy going back to the groove to fetch the Dragon's bone and its skin to transport it to the city before another Connate Realm comes to snatch his treasure," illustrated Arthur.