The Lian clan's ancestor worship ceremony had caused quite a stir.
Not only had Jiang Wuyong lost face, but Lian Que's fierce response also brought no glory to the Lian family itself.
Spectators from all over had already departed, and gossip began to spread.
But these were no longer things Jiang Wang needed to worry about.
At this moment, in the most luxurious restaurant in Nanyao City, Jiang Wang was talking with Chongxuan Sheng.
"Offending the Fourteenth Prince so severely, will it really not affect you?" Jiang Wang asked.
He owed Chongxuan Sheng a huge favor this time. Chongxuan Sheng's gains and losses were the only thing he cared about.
"There will certainly be an impact, but overall, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks."
Chongxuan Sheng carefully analyzed it for him: "His Majesty currently has seventeen sons and nine daughters. The eldest prince was deposed long ago and is still imprisoned in the palace. The Crown Prince is the second son. Besides them, only the Third Imperial Princess, the Ninth Prince, and the Eleventh Prince have real power and qualify for the succession."
"Families like our Chongxuan clan would never get involved in the battle for the throne. The losses would outweigh the gains. No matter who succeeds the throne, none would treat our Chongxuan clan poorly. So for the other princes and princesses, I don't need to give them face at all, and the clan wouldn't say anything. Spreading the word would actually prove that the Chongxuan clan is loyal only to His Majesty and has no interest in the power struggle."
The fat man looked extremely pleased, his eyes squinting into slits as he smiled: "And for us. You gained considerable benefits from the wagered battle, and our reputation has only grown."
"Do you know what defeating Jiang Wuyong means? It means that in the Heaven-Piercing realm, you are already indisputably among the strongest. Many will compare you to Wang Yiwu. And you're my retainer—imagine how powerful I must be! Today I brought out everything to suppress Jiang Wuyong, precisely to tell those people they should reconsider where they stand!"
Chongxuan Sheng only mentioned the benefits, not the drawbacks, but Jiang Wang naturally understood.
He listened quietly, then simply nodded: "As long as you've thought it through carefully."
With that, he picked up the long sword resting on his knee and stood to leave: "We'll leave a bit later. Lian Que asked me to find him—he has something to say to me."
"That hideous blacksmith brat?"
Jiang Wang gave him a helpless look, meaning: please don't say that about Lian Que. Also, aren't you just as bad?
"Go on, go on." Chongxuan Sheng waved his hand dismissively.
When Jiang Wang reached the door, he awkwardly added: "Oh, and... apologize to him for me."
Lian Que being driven to suicide to prove his innocence was indeed primarily the Lian clan's fault, but Chongxuan Sheng's mockery had played a significant role.
Deep down, he truly respected such a strong-willed person.
Of course, personally apologizing as the future patriarch of the Chongxuan clan (self-proclaimed) was out of the question. Unless there were benefits involved.
...
As one of the ten most outstanding young members of the Lian clan, Lian Que naturally had his own properties in Nanyao City.
For instance, this tavern.
Jars upon jars of strong wine sat in the main hall, ladled out bowl by bowl to customers. Only a few private rooms on the second floor were reserved for meetings.
These properties, including the tavern, were mainly used for family expenses.
But there weren't many, because Lian Que had never been particularly interested in power and wealth.
Going to the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm was to become stronger, becoming stronger was to forge better weapons—nothing more.
Originally, after driving away Jiang Wuyong, Jiang Wang had planned to leave directly with Chongxuan Sheng. But he couldn't refuse Lian Que's insistence, and after the Lian clan's higher-ups' cooperation with Jiang Wuyong fell through, they also wanted to repair relations with the Chongxuan clan, so he temporarily stayed.
Chongxuan Sheng wouldn't refuse to deal with people just because he had a bad impression of them. This trip to Nanyao City had essentially achieved all his goals—there was no point in being petty.
To achieve great things, one couldn't let personal likes and dislikes dictate decisions. If you don't pick up certain stepping stones, plenty of others would be happy to kick them away. Those competitors would love nothing more than to see you fall flat on your face.
After communicating with Chongxuan Sheng, Jiang Wang arrived at the tavern.
Entering the private room, Lian Que had been waiting for some time.
Beyond forging weapons, he wasn't a particularly careful person, but he still asked first: "How's your hand?"
"Just a minor wound." Jiang Wang smiled. His hand was wrapped in several layers of bandages, but it didn't affect his movement: "You must have gotten plenty of injuries like this when forging weapons."
"Yeah." Lian Que sighed somewhat, extending his hand for Jiang Wang to see—his hand was covered in dense scars and thick calluses.
Jiang Wang's hands also had calluses, but they were mainly concentrated on the gripping part of the sword, at the knuckles. They weren't nearly as scarred as Lian Que's.
"I had a friend who, a few years ago while forging a weapon, lost control of the fire and the furnace exploded. He was too exhausted to dodge, and lost his eyes. Not just gone blind—blindness could still be treated, go to Eastern King Valley or somewhere else, spend enough money and there's always a solution. Both eyes were completely gone."
"You must have been very close?"
"Yeah. He was my only friend."
"So what happened to him... now?"
"Couldn't handle the shock, killed himself that same day." Lian Que said it quite flatly.
The profession of weaponsmith was indeed not easy. It was hard work, dangerous, and容易 invited envy. The divine weapons forged often brought fame to their wielders, while the weaponsmiths themselves remained largely unknown.
The world knew that the master of the army-slaying, general-killing weapon was Jiang Mengxiong, but how many remembered who forged that pair of knuckle dusters for him?
Clans like the Lian, as a weaponsmith holy land, had better circumstances—they had status, respect, and no shortage of power themselves. But most of the world was filled with ordinary craftsmen who toiled in lowly positions with little recognition.
This was one reason why, when Lian Que was prepared to die, the Lian clan's higher-ups immediately softened. Having forged the famous blade Longing, Lian Que could no longer be just an insignificant junior of the Lian clan—he was now one of the key factors maintaining their position as a weaponsmith holy land.
Even if they hadn't figured this out before, after this incident they should have.
Jiang Wang fell silent for a moment.
Because Lian Que wasn't someone who needed comfort.
Lian Que's calloused hand rested on the table as he said: "Actually, the reason I asked you to stay is because there's something I want to discuss with you."
"Go ahead," Jiang Wang said.
"It has to do with Lian Shao. Do you remember Lian Shao?"
That guy who had mocked Lian Que in front of the sword furnace...
Jiang Wang nodded.
"I told you, he's actually a pitiful person," Lian Que said slowly. "The reason lies in the life tablet you returned to me..."
Through Lian Que's narration, Jiang Wang learned of the Lian clan's long-buried history.
Back when the Lian clan's former kingdom fell, the entire clan fled and migrated.
Because the Lian clan's weaponsmith heritage was already quite famous at that time, they faced various pursuits and betrayals along the way.
To protect the clan, to ensure their secret forging techniques didn't leak, to prevent anyone from defecting...
The Lian clan patriarch at the time decided to refine life tablets for every member of the clan, placing them under the control of loyal elders. Any betrayal meant immediate execution.
These elders rarely interfered with mundane affairs, but held power over life and death.
This system indeed preserved the Lian clan's heritage. It united the clan's strength at the time, allowing them to take root in the Qi Kingdom. They built the prosperous Nanyao City from nothing, and even rose to become one of the five great weaponsmith holy lands.
But centuries had passed, and what was once an emergency measure had become a rotten, outdated family rule.
Every newborn of the Lian clan had their life tablet refined before they even had their own will— their fate was controlled by others from birth.
The earliest elders might have all been loyal to the clan, but times changed. There would always be some untrustworthy elders, and there would always be some scum who grew arrogant from the power.
Many people recognized the problems with this system, but those who held power had become too attached to their control to ever let go.
A century before the present, there was a genius of the Lian clan. Unwilling to accept that his life was controlled by others from birth, he secretly harbored rebellion. He quietly built his influence over many years, connecting with various factions and setting up a grand scheme.
In the end, he triggered various forces to hunt down the Lian clan.
If not for the Emperor of Qi at the time needing the Lian clan's help in forging weapons for a major war, and mobilizing the army to protect them, the Lian clan would have been annihilated that time.
Even so, the Lian clan's prestige plummeted after the disaster, and their properties barely survived.
The Lian clan rebuilt after the disaster.
But even after experiencing such an event, the Lian clan's elders still refused to give up their power over life and death.
They had grown accustomed to being above everyone. They had come up through the same system, suffering under its rules until they eventually became part of the rules themselves.
Since then, each generation of the Lian clan had selected ten of their most outstanding young members, acknowledging that they had the ability to control their own fate and returning their life tablets.
Lian Que was one of them.
The way to control floods is to divert rather than block. These ten people seemed like an honor, but at their core, they were merely a pressure valve.
Why did Lian Zhuping and Lian Luyue think a family member's personal honor was insignificant, not even worth considering? Because in their minds, family members would never dare to defy them.
They had never imagined that Lian Que would oppose them.
This outdated, rotting rule had persisted in the Lian clan for too long. So long that it seemed innate, so long that few people questioned it.
And Lian Shao was one of those Lian clan members who couldn't control their own life tablets.
He belonged to the majority whose lives were not their own.
He had tried desperately, for those ten spots of freedom. But everyone tried just as hard, and he fell short by a little, leaving him to live in a different world from those ten.
Precisely because he had no freedom from birth, because no matter how hard he tried he couldn't obtain it, he was especially furious at Lian Que's act of handing his life tablet to Jiang Wang in the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm.
For him, if he could get his own life tablet, he would rather die than hand it over again.
He wasn't really hating Lian Que.
He was furious at his own lack of freedom, and even more furious that Lian Que didn't cherish that freedom!
As he finished speaking slowly, the jar of wine was empty.
Lian Que upended the jar and shook it—only two drops fell.
He set down the jar and sighed: "Born into the Lian clan, a life controlled by others."