"Lord, we have retrieved the artifact from the two families," said a young girl barely in her teens.
"Excellent, now soon the An and Ai families will start fighting and ruin themselves. They shall rue the day they embarrassed me like that. While they will blame each other for this mishap, I shall be the true culprit of their wrongs. I am Chad Dominero. Muahaha!" said the villain sitting on the throne of a dark cave.
***
"Please help us with your insight, or there will be a large-scale war. I shall pay you whatever you need," the old man begged the seer.
It was a vast room that was all white and gold, and many servants and family members had gathered there.
"Sorry, my powers don't work like that," the seer politely and respectfully declined, bending down to show his refusal.
The seer had no fortune-telling power whatsoever. The world was just too predictable for him, and he knew that some third party was involved.
"Elder, has your family or the An family, or better yet, both of you, ganged up on a single person and embarrassed him or something?" the seer asked.
"Uhhh" they all went almost at the same time. all their eyes looking upwards doing complicated math and counting.
By the looks of the expressions on their faces, it seemed that it had happened too many times to count.
"Ugh, it's a third party that wants revenge on either or both of you. That is all I can tell at the moment," the seer laid down all his current thoughts.
I mean, obviously, these two powerhouses have crushed a lot of talents and wronged a shit ton of people.
Be a good person or a bad one it matters not, if you are in Murim, you will have a multitude of enemies, and even more so if you actively crush people to defend your fragile ego and vanity.
Which basically describes everyone in Murim—all very vain and egotistic. Even a good-for-nothing beggar has a frail ego that should not be messed with here in the Murim.
The seer and the unwilling woman he dragged here decided to leave, but it is rarely so simple.
Wham! Bhurj!
A bunch of An family members had raided their house. The wall had a hole, and the new constructions of the garden and domes had crumpled onto the ground.
"What is this nonsense? Courting death? Did you eat the wrong medicine in the morning? How dare you guys break into the Ai family estate?" the old man yelled at the trespassers.
"It is your Ai family that is courting death. How dare you covet the Yin Yang set? We demand it back," the man who seemed to be the leader of the bunch yelled back.
"We don't have it. How dare you steal it from us and then blame us for having done so? We demand compensation," some foot soldiers yelled.
"How dare you, meager martial apprentices, talk back to us. Courting death!" the leader attacked and killed the three men that spoke up.
"Are you insane? Do you think you can just storm in and kill Ai family members like this? You think we don't dare cripple your cultivation!" some branch family members that were there now spoke up, their faces glowing red and purple.
The old man quickly ran into the middle of the two groups that were about to throw down and emitted an insane amount of ki that subdued both of the groups.
"Are you guys mad? Wish to start a war? Stop fighting," he said in a cold, murderous tone.
"If that's what it takes, that is what you get," the leader of the attacking mob said as he struggled against the pressure.
"Our An family will withdraw," the old man shouted in anger and crushed about three of their members. They were now a stain on the ground and nothing more.
"We will give the elder some face and withdraw for today," the An family could not go against such pressure and left.
This decision was not appreciated by all. The disrespect that the An family just simply broke in and killed some of the Ai family workers, and the others that were present outside were arguing with the elder. All of them were furious, and so was the elder, but he controlled himself and quelled his anger.
"The An family has made us lose face, and they shall pay for it tenfold."
"Yes, how dare they insult us."
"Why did you let those bastards go, elder?"
"We shall crush them with our own hands."
The elder, after talking and reasoning with his fellow family members, accompanied the seer and his granddaughter to the exit.
The tension between the families was already at its peak, and the incident just now showed that any more pushing and testing of each other would lead both clans straight to war. Neither would back down, and neither lacked talented individuals.
"I have to go back to the An family and prepare for war," An Liu said in a low and drained-out voice.
All four sat together around the table, with only the seer actually ordering and eating anything. There was no reply to Liu's declaration. It was obvious and inevitable.
All An family members and Ai family members were called back to their respective clan estates to bulk up for an all-out war, with the exceptions of merchants and others.
"I have a solution. Go home and tell your daddy about me. Tell him I will find the Yin Yang relic set for a price. The price should be equal to or higher than the value of the treasure. You do the same, Li Hua. I will wait for the summons. Cao Tang, you will act as my assistant. I am pretty sure it will be okay as soon as the relic is found... or... you guys can just elope right now and let them kill each other so there is no one to oppose your marriage," the seer suggested a solution as he stuffed himself with more fried meat.
The second option was a no-go, and it was obvious, but the seer believes that you always have a choice, even if the choice is death.
They looked at the seer weirdly for even suggesting the second choice.
"Don't look at me like that. We both know that is a sensible and wise choice to make. I don't get why people will chalk off a choice and then say, 'I don't have a choice.' It's not like your parents love you or you them anyway. You don't actually have emotional relations. It's fucking Murim. You don't have those here," the seer quickly spoke up in defense.
Like always, nobody could refute the harsh truth the seer spoke of.