Chapter 32: The Chen Family's Path
Chen Wei looks at a cup of tea that has been impeccably prepared with incredible culinary skill, besides having a scent that makes anyone's mouth water who senses its aroma.
This is the so called essence of white lotus tea, and it is his grandfather's favorite, who specially hired a famous chef gu master from the clan just to make this recipe for him every day.
Chen Wei calmly takes a sip of the tea, which is much better than any other he has had on earth or in clan shops, but after so many years of drinking it every day, it's not as special as it used to be when he was a child.
"It would be nice if I could find coffee..." He thinks since he used to have a strong habit of drinking coffee when he was on earth, but after coming to the gu world, he found nothing similar in the He An clan.
"Chen Wei, are you paying attention? This is an important matter!" He hears his grandfather speaking with an irritated voice, so he lifts his head to look at his grandfather and sees him also with a cup of tea in hand but an irritated expression on his face.
Chen Wei looks around the room to see his father, who has a serious look on his face as he reviews the data and information, which are a basic summary of what happened in a gu that was given to him by Chen Wang.
"I apologize for the distraction, I momentarily lost myself in thought... but to your question, grandfather can ensure that they will find nothing incriminating in the laboratory." Chen Wei speaks seriously and composedly, but his thoughts still wander in relation to the tea, which according to his knowledge from the novel is simply an incomplete gu recipe of the Food Path.
In fact, this applies to most foods, wines, and teas that are enjoyed by the immortals. Chen Wei is not sure if the same applies to this high-quality tea enjoyed by his grandfather, but considering that this tea only uses rank 1 materials and costs at most twenty primeval stones, he doubts that this is the case.
"Well, because of my influence and the just attitude of that old bastard Wang Su, the investigation will only be routine to check if the spies did not set up anything in the laboratory." Chen Wang speaks cautiously to avoid revealing more than he can, as this could cause him to suffer great harm because of the Clan Vow gu, which is a special gu of the clan used to make agreements and keep secrets that, if broken, would lead to the death of the gu master.
"Grandfather could you tell me how the investigation will be conducted and what methods they will use?" For Chen Wei, this kind of information is already redundant since there is nothing he can do now, but it is still of interest to him to know.
"Well... you do not have authorization to know that." Chen Wang repeats a phrase that Chen Wei heard most during this conversation they had, but there is nothing he can do about it.
"Ah... Poison type gu are really scary if put into practice... but the biggest problem is that they are still very impractical..." Chen Wei speaks because despite the name not indicating it, this Clan Vow gu is a poison path gu that has an extremely strong effect to give a quick and painful death to the gu master who disobeys the vow that was accepted.
But despite being quite strong in attack, the poison path, at least in the He An clan, is not cultivated by many people, well excluding assassins of course, because for them, this is their preferred path among all.
This mainly comes from the fact that this is not a completely established path yet, with most of its methods being unorthodox and focused only on the attack, leaving other aspects of cultivation lacking.
"Hmm, from everything I've checked, I assume it will be difficult for them to uncover the truth, and if they do, it will take at least nearly a year of investigation." Chen Liang, who was quietly analyzing all the information, reaches a verdict and informs his father and son in a serious and straightforward manner.
"I also have the same analysis, but after so many investigations, they would have suspicions, and just that will be enough for the other elders to be able to attack me as well as the little Wei." For Chen Wang, the concern of the truth being really discovered and his grandson being punished by the clan is almost nil, so his real concern lies in the reputation of himself, his grandson, and his family, which will be attacked when the investigations generate these suspicions.
"The other great elders really fear the recent rise of my Chen family, and the same goes even more for the clan leader." This fear comes from various factors, the main one being Chen Wang himself, who in the opinion of many has an influence that only loses by a small margin to the clan leader's and this is because the leader's faction has two rank 4s despite one of them being almost dying in bed but still is one of the pillars of the leader's influence.
Also, what scares the clan leader and the other elders the most is the terrifying future potential that the Chen family presents to the clan as a whole since they have four potential rank 4s for the relatively near future.
With the first being Chen Wang, who has been at peak stage rank 3 for some time and with a B-grade of 74% primeval essence besides his talent and abilities, which are publicly known as some of the greatest within the clan, many consider it only a matter of time before he breaks through the rank 3 barrier and reaches rank 4.
In fact, most elders, as well as the clan leader, imagine that he is just waiting for an opportune moment to try to advance to rank 4 with all his might, thus being able to use their family connection because of Chen Wei and Wang Mei's marriage to claim the position of vice-leader of the clan.
This is a position that exists only when the clan has more than one rank 4 who is physically and mentally fit and can only be occupied by someone who is from the clan leader's family or has a family connection with the leader's family, this being the main reason for Chen Wei's marriage.
And for now, none of the elders want to see Chen Wang, who became known for his political skills and enormous battle strength as well as brutality and cruelty to his enemies, which allowed him to raise the declining Chen family, which was being suppressed by all the other great families of the clan, to be the current strongest family in the clan, even reaching the point of being a possible coup threat against the current leader's family.
But in the eyes of the clan leader, there is an even greater threat, and that is the second greatest potential rank 4 of the Chen family, which is Chen Wei who, with his innate talent as well as practical talent, is already being considered as an addition of a new rank 4 to the clan, with most people easily believing that he can reach rank 4 before thirty years old, some even say he has the potential to reach the acclaimed rank 5 in this lifetime.
The reason why in the eyes of the clan leader Chen Wei is even more frightening than his grandfather comes from four facts: his age, his status, his talent, and his relationship with Wang Mei. In the clan leader's view, if Chen Wei had only one of these characteristics, it wouldn't be a concern; if he had two, it would be a minor problem; if he had three, it would be a major problem; but all four are a horrifying nightmare for the clan leader.
In fact, the clan leader foresaw this problem long ago, so since Wang Mei was young, he turned her against Chen Wei, which had a great effect since she grew up hating her future husband. But to the clan leader's despair, all it took was a single meeting for all that hatred he saw to turn into love somehow.
And considering the great talent for cultivation and great combat strength that he presents, besides who his grandfather is, the clan leader sees a possible future where the Chen family will have two new rank 4s with great combat strength and a good justification for a possible coup.
And this is only the best-case scenario because it is entirely possible in the eyes of the clan leader that Chen Wei manages to manipulate Wang Mei to the point of making her betray her family for him, making his faction gain another future rank 4 since she has an A-grade innate talent.
And besides these potential rank 4s in the near future, there are the two last potential rank 4s of the Chen family, who are still in the distant future. These are Chen Ming, who is publicly recognized for being the strongest of his generation in the He An clan, and he is already at the upper stage rank 2, it's only a matter of time until he reaches rank 3.
And the last potential rank 4, which is more of a worst-case scenario for the clan leader and the clan elders, is if Chen Hua, the youngest daughter of Chen Liang, also has great cultivation talent, which, considering the rumors of the little girl's high intelligence, is quite possible.
"Well, little Wei, everything you needed to know has already been said, so now I ask you to leave me alone with your father." Chen Wang speaks with some complication in his voice since he really loves this grandson of his besides considering him the future of the Chen family, but at the same time, he is quite angry about the great mistake that Chen Wei made that caused all this problem for him.
"I bid farewell to the honorable grandfather and father and apologize for my mistakes that put grandfather in this situation." Chen Wei says with a regretful expression on his face and bows respectfully to Chen Wang and Chen Liang before leaving the hall for important meetings at the Chen family mansion.
When Chen Wei leaves the meeting room, he sees two gu master guards, one on each side of the door in attention position, prepared to prevent anyone from forcibly entering.
"Young master!" Chen Wei waves his hand indicating that formalities are unnecessary as he makes his way towards his room calmly and without haste as he looks at the exquisite paintings and statues that line the hallway.
His attention is soon taken by a statue made entirely of marble that resembles those made by renowned sculptors on earth, with the only difference being that it is completely colored realistically and exquisitely, which would make someone think they are really looking at a real person if seen from afar, unlike those on earth that are usually all white despite presenting the same level of realism.
"He An Chen Wei..." He murmurs softly as this is the statue of the most renowned member of the Chen family who ever lived, and it was also he who inspired his father to give his name when Chen Wei was born.
"A rank 4 of the upper stage, enough to suppress the current clan leader... but in his time, he was just a great elder." This comes from the fact that this ancestor of the Chen family lived during the time when the clan leader had a rank 5 cultivation, besides the leader's family of that time having another rank 4 as well.
After looking at the statue for a while, Chen Wei continues on his way until he reaches his room where he sees a maid in front of his room waiting for him.
When the maid sees Chen Wei approaching, she approaches him with a charming smile on her face and bows before him before saying, "Young master Chen Wei, your future wife Wang Mei came to check on your condition but as you were in an important meeting. She has been waiting for you in one of the guest rooms."
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