Meeting the Five Family Heads!

Chapter 18: Meeting the Five Family Heads!

"Young master, you are back," Cao Caizhi exclaimed in surprise upon seeing Fang Yuan.

The three siblings had been repeatedly interrogated by the five families due to their contact with Fang Yuan, but at the same time, they had never been treated that respectfully. Fang Yuan had become the figure that could change their lives, so they wanted to find Fang Yuan even more than the five families.

Unfortunately, their intelligence capabilities were nothing. If even the five families couldn't find someone in their stronghold, the trio would never be able to do that.

Fang Yuan nodded in response. Since it was his second entry, he was no longer as complacent and nervous as the last time. He had thoroughly made plans for how to act and what to do in different situations.

"Did something new happen over the past twenty days?" Fang Yuan asked since he had been away for twenty days.

It was sure that his entry and sudden disappearance would cause a reaction due to his Blue Wood identity. Cao Caizhi's response proved his conjecture.

It was just that he had underestimated the reaction. He couldn't help but become confused upon learning about the strong search by five families.

He had learned about the five families during his last entry from the mouth of the trio, so he knew basic things about them.

He and Cao Caizhi hadn't walked very far when he noticed a group of people coming toward him.

Cao Caizhi recognized them and informed Fang Yuan about them. The group consisted of people from five families.

***

"Young master, Father welcomes you to his residence," Zhao Luding respectfully invited Fang Yuan.

Since the five family heads were in the same place, Zhao Luzhou sent his son to invite Fang Yuan.

They couldn't send just anyone since Fang Yuan had a Blue Wood identity. But being the leader, they couldn't personally go on to invite him, so he sent his son, the next in line to be the head of the Zhao family.

Fang Yuan accepted the invitation readily and followed the group with Cao Caizhi one step behind him. Cao Caizhi looked proud since following Fang Yuan to meet the five leaders showed that the master trusted him and his siblings. At the same time, he felt happy since he now had something to make his sisters jealous.

Fang Yuan had no plans to come into contact with the family heads this early. It was only his second entry. But after learning about how respectfully the five families treated Cao's siblings just because of their meeting him, he decided to meet them.

He had underestimated his Blue Wood identity. The only thing he needed to worry about was not talking too much, and the situation would go smoothly.

***

Zhao Courtyard,

There was an additional chair in the room for Fang Yuan. He bowed toward the five family heads and then sat down on the seat.

His bow was just to show his respect for their cultivation since cultivation was always supreme. The five family heads had broad smiles as they nodded in response to the greeting from Fang Yuan.

"Fellow Taoist, what brought you here to our Crimson Wood City?" Hu Jinlin asked. She was the only female of the five and took the lead.

The five families in Crimson Wood City were Chen, Hu, Gong, Zhao, and Lu. Of the five, the Chen family was the strongest, while Hu Jinlin, the head of the Hu family was the strongest cultivator below only the city lord Tang Gonglin.

"Senior, please don't treat me that respectfully. I am nowhere strong enough to be considered a fellow Taoist," Fang Yuan responded. His tone was neither forceful nor respectful.

Even though he seemed calm and smiled from time to time on the outside, there was a raging storm in his heart. The people before him were Foundation Building level cultivators. Even a single snap of their finger contained more power than he could handle before perishing.

In Yellow Autumn City, he had seen a Foundation Builder once in his life, and only in his second entry to the city he met five Foundation Builders at once.

***

"Heh! How can an owner of Blue Wood identity not be worthy of being called a fellow Taoist," Hu Jinllin raised her lips and commented.

Fang Yuan didn't say anything in response but only smiled.

The five family heads and Fang Yuan then conversed for some more time, and after that, Fang Yuan left with Cao Caizhi following him.

Once Fang Yuan left, the smile on the faces disappeared and instead turned solemn. Fang Yuan didn't share his identity or purpose for coming to the city. He simply diverted the topic whenever the question arose.

At the same time, they noticed nervousness in Fang Yuan's tone from time to time. They had an intuition that Fang Yuan was going to do something big that might affect the standing of the five families.

Before knowing Fang Yuan's identity, the five families couldn't move against him, so they could only pin their hopes on the city lord.

How could they know that Fang Yuan had no purpose but randomly appeared here? He wasn't an actor, so he was bound to reveal his tensed face while sitting before Foundation Building level cultivators.

Fang Yuan couldn't reveal the truth of his being from another world, so he decided to keep silent about his identity and purpose. Lying about these things might or might not work since he didn't know much about the world's structure. At the same time, the silence would add to his mystery and might keep the five families at bay. 

***

Fang Yuan still had several hours left before the twenty hours came to an end, so he decided to learn about the city and the world in the remaining time.

Since he had the money now, he no longer needed to be cheap, so he asked Cao Caizhi to take him to the store selling cultivation arts and skills. The world was in another spacetime, so the rules for cultivation might not be similar to those on the Qingtian Continent.

(Chapter End.)

***

A/N: Please comment on what you think of the chapter and what I can do to improve the story.