He wanted to start absorbing spirit stones and spending all of them on upgrading his cultivation, as well as getting that mind skill to ease his troubled mind. But at about that moment the doors to his new penthouse apartment opened up and his good old gramps walked out with two people that were closer to Zhang Dong's age group. The man looked a bit stern and calculative while the woman looked somewhat motherly with a smile on her face.
He almost did a business greeting in the form of a handshake while looking at the other male from the group, but then placed his hands behind his back and gave the people a nod. The two clasped their hands as they did a formal greeting and didn't talk, they let Zhang Jie do that instead.
"This is Zhang Ya and Zhang Kuo, they are my disciples and can be trusted, we need to talk about a couple of things."
The two looked up at Zhang Dong, trying to feel him out.
"Ah, I guess you want to talk about me becoming the next Patriarch, are you sure about that Gramps?"
The two people twitched a bit after they heard the man call their clan's only core formation elder gramps. The man in question just grasped his belly and laughed out loud in a jolly voice.
"No one ever called me gramps before, but yes it's about that. Some members are against you becoming the new Patriarch, they don't want someone from the side family to be in that position."
The man shrugged, kind of not caring about what those other clan members thought, he didn't put much weight in the purity of the blood, all Zhang Clan members were equal in his eyes. He was more interested in their character, drive and actual battle prowess.
"Well, not like they can do anything about it, they are mostly hot air. If they offend you in any way, be sure to give them a good thrashing!"
"Also Ya and Kuo will help you out with your Patriarch duties, if you need anything just give them a call, they'll be your guides around the clan grounds don't need to worry about making these two work hard!"
The man laughed some more before giving the two people behind him a pat on the shoulder. The female just smiled while the man rolled his eyes slightly.
"It's a pleasure to meet our Clan's savior, it's going to take some time to set up the ceremony and banquet."
Matt tipped his head to the side while looking at the woman, question marks appearing next to his head.
"Ceremony, banquet?"
This time the man stepped out and replied.
"Yes, the Patriarch candidate is adorned with the title during the ceremony, all the core clan members have to be present during it. After the title is bestowed we host a banquet, then it's customary for the Patriarch to visit the city so that everyone can witness his grand appearance."
While the man was talking the woman slowly went behind Matt and started patting him down. He noticed that she had a measuring tape in her hands.
"We need to prepare your robes for the ceremony, your white battle robes aren't suited for the festivities also the color isn't very eye-catching."
The woman said while chuckling to herself and doing her measurements, her eyes were sparkling as she did it making it seem that she was really into this task.
"We still have to make repairs to the grand formation, account for the loss of lives in the attack and prepare for any further intrusions."
"Do you think someone will attack us again?"
Matt asked.
"No Senior, we should have eliminated the core fighting strength of the clans that attacked us, the Tsai Clan will probably try to hold up in their domain, the Wu clan lost their Patriarch that was their strongest cultivator the Wong clan retained some of their cultivators but don't think we will see them again. Due to Senior showing his power, the other Clans will probably think twice before planing anything. We should be safe for now, unless one of the stronger clans or sects gets involved."
Matt just nodded while stretching his hands out so that the woman could measure his arms, she giggles when she managed to take the measurements of his biceps. He didn't really tense up like the last time a woman was touching him, guess the previous encounter did change him slightly.
"It will probably take about a month till the ceremony, you can just take your time and get used to living around here after it's official we'll talk about retaking our lost assets. I bet those bastards are shaking in their boots right now."
Zhang Jin said while clenching his hand. The clan had lost most of its assets and was chased out of cities that they were managing, one of them being Moonlight City that Matt previously visited. After a while, the measurements were done and the woman excused herself to prepare the ceremonial garb, the stern-looking man also excused himself leaving Zhang Dong and Jin in the room alone.
"I didn't want to say it next to the juniors, but you should prepare yourself for the future. This will be turbulent times for our Clan, we might have won the battle this time but we don't know what will happen next. The Dark Palm sect might be a problem later as well, they were the ones that forced our Patriarch to act in that failed expedition. But in their eyes we were just a tool that could be used, let's hope they order some other clans to finish the job instead."
The Zhang Clan was more or less a medium-sized clan, they had their territory but in reality, this belonged to the Dark Palm sect that was the real hegemon in the area. They used the clans to manage the cities and resources for them, taxing them for 'protection' and using that to grow their sect. There was no rule against clan members joining sects, it was common for them to do so as if they were deemed worthy they would inherit powerful cultivation skills. But the further you were on the ladder the more you were expected to put the sect on a higher pedestal than your clan or previous life. That was also the reason why most sects only recruited younger members as it was easier to indoctrinate the young.
"But you probably don't want me to prattle on all day, so I'll leave you be for now. Maybe if you look around your memory will return."
Zhang Jin said while heading out, but stopped after Matt asked him a question.
"Um, aren't you forgetting something?"
The man looked back at his grandson's face, he was squinting at him and looking at a certain place. He followed that gaze and noticed that he was eyeing his storage ring. This made him sweat a bit as he thought he could pull a fast one on his grandson that might be busy with getting to know the ropes around here.
"Oh, ho ho.... silly me... here..."
He tossed Zhang Dong a storage ring, just one as he did say that he would have some people sort through them. He scanned its content to see some more spirit stones and resources, it looked to have similar things to what the Tsai leader's ring had so he reckoned that was the stuff from those two other elders inside. He didn't spot the bow that one guy used that he choked out though, did he get away or was gramps holding out on him?
"Well, then my dear, loving grandson... grandpa will be leaving..."
"Wait... didn't one of them use a bow weapon..."
Old gramps twitched and caught a couple of times into his hand, before taking out another spatial ring and tossing it over.
"Oh, it was just such a nice bow, so I just couldn't resist... forgive your old grandpa."
The man laughed while looking at Zhang Dong that had a deadpan expression on his face as he pocketed the storage ring.
"You sure are a piece of work gramps... I'll make you something better than the bow, later on, just provide me some resources."
Matt knew that there were enough spirit stones in those rings to let him buy the next stage of the crafting abode, then he could make earth grade weapons next.
"Oh, you are also adept in the Dao of blacksmithing? What a talented grandson I have!"
.
The man just laughed while removing himself from the room as he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he would let Zhang Dong have some time to himself before seeing him again. The man in question just gave out a sigh while moving back to the room, he had to examine all the items and start absorbing the resources, it was time to level up!