Clan Building System: I'm not the Protagonist?!-Chapter 101: A Random Family [2]

Gu Jian stepped forward, each word measured and sharp.

"So what if they struck first? We will make them bleed, slowly and thoroughly. Use the Imperial Order if you must.

Squeeze them of everything they own. Demand reparations for our ’losses.’"

His voice dropped, a low thunder rolling through the room.

"If we must burn resources, let it be to humble the right enemy. That boy Fang Yuan has grown too arrogant.

Let’s remind him, remind all of them who truly rule the North and commands the East."

Silence reigned.

But it was no longer the silence of chaos, it was the silence of fear, and of a plan taking root.

He returned to his seat, eyes glinting beneath the lantern light.

"We will bleed them dry. And we will make them kneel."

Just as the oppressive silence settled over the council hall, the doors slammed open with a thunderous bang.

A gust of wind swept in and with it came Gu Lanyue, the former patriarch of the Gu family, cloaked in a storm of fury.

Beside him stumbled Gu Zhen, eyes red, face pale, lips trembling as if he had been weeping moments ago.

His legs barely kept pace with the old man, as though dragged by the weight of shame itself.

The elders straightened instinctively. Even now, Gu Lanyue’s presence carried the weight of an era.

But the fire in his voice hadn’t aged a day.

"Gu Jian!" he roared. "Is this how I raised you?!"

Gu Jian didn’t flinch.

He sat still, eyes calm, fingers resting lightly on the table.

"No familial love left in your bones? Look at the boy!" Gu Lanyue gestured behind him with disgust.

"Your own son was humiliated and ridiculed, yet instead of seeking justice for him, you lecture him, as if he were the one at fault?"

A flicker passed through Gu Jian’s gaze.

He rose, slowly, deliberately.

His spiritual pressure rose in tandem with his voice, coiled and controlled like a blade half-drawn.

He stepped forward.

"Father, shall I repeat the words I’ve kept buried for days now?"

He cast a cold glance at Gu Zhen, whose knees nearly buckled under his father’s gaze.

"This boy, your grandson ran off without permission," Gu Jian said coldly, his voice like grinding stone. "And he dragged twelve Golden Core cultivators, our most promising youths, with him to try and capture Lin Zhaoyue."

He took a step forward, aura flickering with restrained rage.

"Do you even realize what that means?"

His voice suddenly rose, sharp and thunderous.

"If those twelve Golden Core disciples had died out there, do you know what that would’ve cost our clan?!"

He slammed his palm against the stone table, rattling teacups and hearts alike.

"They entered the Night Forest! That cursed place, they walked into it. It’s a miracle they only come out humiliated!"

His eyes flared as he turned toward Gu Zhen, lip curling with disgust.

"And for what reasons did they enter there?!"

His voice dripped venom now.

"For lust?"

He took another step closer, his spiritual pressure spiking as his voice dropped to a harsh whisper.

"Are you stupid? Do you even understand what she is?"

His words cracked like whips in the stunned silence.

"A mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator."

Gu Jian’s hand opened and closed, as if holding something fragile and poisonous.

"I am at mid-stage Nascent myself. And even I wouldn’t underestimate someone like her. This boy thought twelve golden cores would be enough? That’s not bravery. That’s idiocy."

His tone sharpened, full of scorn.

"So what if Khai Sang declared Lin Zhaoyue his wife? Let him! Let her! What exactly did we lose?"

He turned to face the elders.

"Nothing. Nothing! If anything, it removes a future threat, the Lin family has always been a thorn in our side.

And now? Let the sword demon marry her and carry her off. Let them waste each other’s strength."

He took a deep breath, aura flaring like a gathering storm.

"I am the patriarch now," he said, voice thunderous. "And I demand the respect that comes with that title."

For a beat, the room was frozen.

Gu Lanyue’s face darkened with insult.

"No respect," he muttered. "Not even for one’s own father."

He turned with a disgusted flick of his sleeve. "Come along, boy. I alone am enough."

But Gu Zhen, overwhelmed by his father’s fury and humiliated before the elders, had already lost control of himself.

The smell of urine filled the air.

Mortified, he scrambled after his grandfather, eyes lowered, silent and pale as a ghost.

The doors closed behind them with a final boom, sealing the tension inside like a trapped beast.

Gu Jian didn’t move. He stood tall, like a mountain rooted in storm, eyes fixed not on his departing father, but on the Fang family’s downfall.

"Foolish sentiment," he muttered under his breath. "Will not save us from war."

The scent of urine still hung thick in the council hall when, thousands of kilometres southwest, sunlight gilded the Moonview Pavilion.

Here, no shadows of war lingered, only the whisper of maple leaves and the hum of cicadas.

Fang Tian traced the railing’s moon-carved patterns.

"Brother, it’s ironic," he murmured. "We stand at Moonview Pavilion when the sun bleaches the stones."

Fang Yuan didn’t turn. His gaze stayed fixed on the courtyard where plum blossoms floated on a koi pond.

"Ironic?" A ghost of a smile touched his lips.

"This is where Mother birthed you. At high noon, under a sky so fierce it scoured clouds from existence."

He pointed upward, finger cutting through the glare. "That sky named you. Tian."

Silence pooled between them, broken only by water trickling over stone. Fang Yuan finally faced his brother. "Twenty years ago, you arrived at this moment. Today, at this exact moment, you will depart."

From his spirit ring, he drew a band of star-metal, cold even in sunlight.

"A parting gift."

Fang Yuan chuckled as he leaned back, holding up a jade-colored ring that shimmered faintly under the sunlight.

"Brother," he said with a grin, "our family really is blessed with rings, isn’t it?"

Fang Tian raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Fang Yuan smirked. "First, there’s the one you wear around your neck. Sentimental, isn’t it?

Then there’s the one you were so desperately searching for, which, by the way, happened to be in my possession all along."

Fang Tian blinked.

"And now," Fang Yuan continued, lifting the new ring between two fingers, "this one."

He turned it slowly, watching it catch the light.

"This was a gift from my master. He told me it contains enough power to block any attack from a Nascent Soul cultivator, for thirty minutes."

Fang Tian’s eyes widened. "Any attack?"

Fang Yuan nodded casually, slipping the ring onto his finger.

"Any amount, any force. Thirty minutes of survival... if I ever needed it."

Fang Tian leaned in, voice low with awe. "You... you had a master?"

Fang Yuan’s expression shifted slightly, still smiling, but with a glint of reverence.

"Yes," he said. "But he had no name. Only a title."

He looked out the window as if recalling a distant memory.

"They called him... the Thousand-Faced Immortal."

The name dropped like a stone into still water.

Fang Tian’s breath caught. He swallowed hard, voice nearly a whisper as his fingers turned bone-white around the ring.

The koi stilled in the pond.