A ripple of incredulous voices rose at once; men pressed forward to peer.
"How can this be?" They murmured. "So much has happened in a few days…"
Elder Xiao Xing Yun's face was an iceberg. He smiled, and the smile was cold. "It seems the arrogant Jun brat has somehow been cured of his affliction. A rare and interesting development."
His eyes flicked toward the couple. "City Master, this is grave news indeed."
Han Zhan Meng looked to the Great Elder, voice even. "You called us here, Elder. What do you propose?"
The Great Elder, wrapped in the ancient calm of one who has weathered empires, unsealed his thought like a frost-hardened blade. "Solitary Falcon's act of seriously injuring and humiliating the Sixth Elder cannot stand unpunished. If this reaches the wrong ears, our prestige will be ruined. We cannot be lax."
A hum of agreement swept the remaining elders. The suggestion itself, topunish one of the Eight Great Masters, was audacious, and yet no one balked. In the scale of Silver Blizzard City, even those titans were, at best, instruments to be tuned.
Han Zhan Meng tapped the armrest, eyes half-closed. "Proceed."
"But there is more," The Great Elder went on, his voice sharpening. "The Soul-Replenishing Jade is an heirloom of the Xiao Family. Its power transcends common means. It must not remain with an outsider. Retrieval is essential. There is no compromise."
Anger flashed across several faces. The jade was not merely a trinket but a relic of transcendence; to lose it was to invite calamity.
"The letter warns that this mysterious master may exceed even our estimations of strength," The Great Elder continued, folding his hands. "If true, a direct assault, even if all of us joined, might fail. We cannot risk lives on blind pride. We must verify before we strike."
"A wise caution," Han Zhan Meng nodded. "We cannot rush to war without knowing the depth of the abyss we would leap into."
Another elder, white brows knit, raised the counterpoint. "And yet… if the Jun Family continues to harbour such provocations, if they shelter beings that threaten our order, then what message do we send if we do nothing?"
He let the question hang like icicles. "Perhaps decisive action is necessary. We could wipe the Jun Family clean, make an example so no other house dares mock the Silver Blizzard City."
He made the motion with his right hand: a single, downward slash of will. The meaning was plain: annihilation.
Silence followed, heavy and slow. The hall seemed to draw a breath, the ancient ice holding its own as the elders weighed honor, power, and consequence. To strike at a family might be simple in language, but the ripples would wash across the whole continent.
Xue Shuang Qing's fingers dug into Han Zhan Meng's sleeve until the silk creased; the motion was small, but the tremor through her hand spoke of the shock that tightened her chest.
The proposal to annihilate the Jun Family landed like a thrown boulder in the hall, sending ripples of cold wind through every elder's spine.
"This cannot be done!" Han Zhan Meng's voice cut through the murmurs like a drawn sword. His brows rose into twin blades; his tone, usually composed as mountain ice, sharpened into something lethal. "I have no quarrel with the first two proposals, but I will not agree to the extermination of the entire Jun Family. Have we not already tasted the bitterness of that plan ten years past?"
He fixed the Great Elder with an unblinking stare. "Ten years ago, without sanction, many of the Xiao Family's Spirit Xuan experts stirred strife against the Jun Family, dragging them into the wars of two nations. I halted it, but even so, the Jun were struck thrice thereafter. The second generation was reduced to one crippled scion, the third collapsed into decadence. Whatever the excuse... this was too much."
The hall grew as silent as snowfall.
Men exchanged uneasy looks; even the ice breathed as the memory of old violence drifted through the rafters.
Han Zhan Meng's voice hardened. "The Jun Family is not worthless. The personal enmity between Houses is one thing, but do not make it the burden of us all. When any of you next step out on a personal vendetta without my leave, you will answer to the city law. There will be no mercy."
The Great Elder's face flushed with indignation. He straightened as if to strike back with words. "Yet now Jun has gained two powerful patrons. Sooner or later, they will pose problems. Even if we do not strike first, their grievance borne of our past acts will fester into an attack. We killed four of their notable members. We crippled one. These facts do not vanish with time. Must the Xiao Family alone bear the Jun's wrath for the sake of Silver Blizzard's future?"
The room crackled as old wrongs were laid between them like tinder.
Han Zhan Meng's reply came like frost wrapped steel. "The Xiao Family's actions laid the root of this rot. Do you wish to add more stains to our hands? To bleed the city for the grudges of a few? You would have the Silver Blizzard sacrifice itself on the altar of personal revenge? I will not allow it. These are good men; they shall not be slaughtered to cure our politics. Such madness will not be permitted."
He rose from his chair then, the motion deliberate and dignified. "This has been a dispute for ten years... ten years of stalemate. I will not re-litigate it now."
His gaze swept the assembly, cold and final. "If the Jun Family truly attacks the Silver Blizzard City first, then do as you please; I will not block you. But do not expect the city to initiate this march of ruin."
A scoff, curt and incredulous, rose from the back.
A tall, thin elder, Xiao Bu Yu, the Second Elder, snorted, his disdain sharp as an icicle. "The Jun Family attack us? Laughable. They are but a single house; to think they could threaten Silver Blizzard is to court their own death. In a hundred years, they won't amass such power."
Han Zhan Meng's eyes locked on Xiao Bu Yu, cold and slow as glacier water. The air between them hissed.
"If the Jun are so feeble," He said quietly, every syllable a blade, "why then does the Xiao Family tremble so at this news?"
Around the hall, blue lights guttered softly as the elders stared at one another.
The question hung like the first wind that precedes a storm.
For all the arrogance and histories and calculated schemes within Silver Blizzard City, one truth had been laid bare: the balance of power had shifted, and certainty had fled.
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Spoilers for the next five chapters!
Chapter 141: Third Aunt
Chapter 142: Third Aunt (2)
Chapter 143: A Woman of Grace
Chapter 144: Take Responsibility
Chapter 145: An Apology Gift
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