Chapter 67: Complex Emotions
Beneath the weight of everyone's questioning stares, Xiao Xing and Xiao Hai felt utterly at a loss. Yes, they had been the ones to summon Xiao Hu and the others here to discuss something — but who could have anticipated that the Clan Leader would suddenly appear? And everything that followed had been one thing after another, causing even them, the ones who had called this gathering, to completely forget their original purpose. Had Xiao Feng not brought it up, they would likely have needed to hold another meeting the very next day.
They felt deeply helpless about it all — yet they did not dare say any of this out loud. After all, the one responsible for the whole situation was their own Clan Leader. To say such things would practically be asking for trouble. So they had no choice but to swallow their grievances and take the blame entirely upon themselves.
"Clan Leader, everyone — this was our fault. We called you all together and then forgot the very reason for doing so." Xiao Xing and the others spoke with sincere expressions, as though that were truly the case.
"Never mind. Just tell us what the matter is." Xiao Feng waved his hand and moved the topic along quickly. In truth, he understood perfectly well that the reason Xiao Xing had not been able to raise the matter earlier was entirely because of his own sudden appearance. Xiao Xing's words just now were an act of protecting his Clan Leader's dignity, so naturally Xiao Feng had no intention of pressing the issue.
"Yes, Clan Leader." Relieved by Xiao Feng's response, Xiao Xing and the others composed themselves, then spoke with serious expressions.
"The reason I summoned everyone here today is because 'Hell' has discovered a clan called the Xiao Family in a remote minor empire on the Northwestern Continent." Having said this, he glanced at the faces around him, curious to gauge their reactions.
Sure enough, upon hearing Xiao Xing's words, Xiao Hu and the others furrowed their brows. Had they not known Xiao Xing for so long and understood his character well — and had Xiao Feng not been sitting right before them, keeping their behavior in check — they might have already slammed the table in frustration.
*"Some remote minor empire, some Xiao Family — what does that have to do with the Xiao Clan? Just because they share the surname Xiao, does that make them clansmen? There are countless people surnamed Xiao across the Dou Qi Continent — surely they aren't all members of our clan."*
*"And on top of that, Xiao Xing made such a grand show of summoning everyone here to discuss it, as though it were a matter of the gravest importance. This is practically a joke. In ordinary times it would be one thing, but right now this is being said in front of the Clan Leader, delivered with such gravity as though it were a matter of real consequence — wouldn't this make the Clan Leader question their competence? Aren't they afraid he might grow angry and punish them for it?"*
The moment they imagined the possible consequences Xiao Xing and the others might face, the flicker of irritation in Xiao Hu and the others' hearts quietly faded — replaced instead by a genuine concern for the ones standing before them. Though their day-to-day relations were not particularly warm, they were still colleagues of long standing, and their comparable levels of strength had bred a certain sense of closeness between them.
Of course, buried beneath that concern, in the very deepest corner of their hearts, there was also a faint and barely perceptible trace of schadenfreude — something they themselves might not have even been aware of. Their strength was roughly equal, and each oversaw their own domain of responsibility, their authority evenly matched. Alongside the camaraderie came an undeniable undercurrent of rivalry.
So in the privacy of their hearts, they quietly harbored a hope that one day the other side might stumble — might fall out of favor, suffer Xiao Feng's punishment, and see their power diminished. It might not bring them any tangible benefit, but it would grant them the illusion of having come out on top, of being able to stand before the others as the victor.
Yet such darker thoughts were generally buried deep within — rarely surfacing, and even more rarely recognized, even by the very people who harbored them.
Human beings were just this complex. The tangled interplay of so many different emotions could leave one's head spinning. And yet it was precisely because of these layered, contradictory feelings that they could be considered truly human.
However, beneath the outwardly calm surface that everyone saw, Xiao Feng's heart was in utter turmoil. As someone who had crossed over from another world, he had instantly recognized exactly which clan Xiao Xing was referring to. This was the Xiao Family from the original story — and they too were descendants of the Xiao Clan!
Xiao Feng had always assumed that everything he had done — the tremendous changes he had brought about for the Xiao Clan, the creation of the Xiao Clan's small world — had been far-reaching enough in their impact that the Xiao Family out on that distant frontier would simply never have come to exist.
The Xiao Family had always been too small and insignificant to draw attention. Moreover, he had no way of explaining how he could possibly know of their existence without arousing suspicion — it touched directly on the question of his own identity and origins, something he could not afford to be careless about. For this reason, he had never instructed anyone within "Hell" to investigate the Xiao Family's existence, and as time passed, he had simply forgotten about the matter entirely.
Today, Xiao Xing's words had stirred memories long sealed away in the back of his mind. Had this moment not come, the Xiao Family's existence might have been forgotten by him forever.
After lengthy reflection, he arrived at what seemed a reasonable explanation: everything he had done had indeed been far-reaching — but the construction of the Xiao Clan's small world in the beginning had been kept under the strictest secrecy. Only he himself, Xiao Xuan, and the Eight Great Elders had known of it. It was not until the very end, when the clansmen were selected and taken away, that anyone else became aware of the small world's existence. And now Xiao Xuan and all eight elders had fallen in battle — no one beyond them had ever known.
Beyond that, the identities of these Xiao Clan members were unknown to the outside world, and no one had ever suspected a thing. Everyone believed the Xiao Clan to have perished. On the surface, everything appeared the same as before. The Xiao Clan's small world had simply been developing quietly in the shadows, without causing any significant ripples — that was most likely how things stood.
And so a new question now settled in his mind: was this Xiao Family he was hearing about truly of Xiao Clan blood — genuine descendants? Or were they merely a family that happened to share the same name, a similar flower with no true connection — and the real Xiao Family had simply never come into being at all, erased from the flow of time before it ever had the chance to emerge, by the very changes he himself had set in motion?
With these thoughts swirling in his mind, he turned his gaze to Xiao Xing and the others, wanting to see what they were thinking — or whether they had already confirmed that this Xiao Family was indeed a clan founded by descendants of the Xiao Clan.
In his assessment, Xiao Xing and the others were not the sort of people to act rashly, nor to exaggerate matters for the sake of recognition. Since they had decided to raise the issue — and had gone so far as to summon everyone including Xiao Hu — they had most likely already uncovered some clues, or perhaps even confirmed the true identity of this Xiao Family.
Seeing the mildly displeased expressions on Xiao Hu and the others' faces, Xiao Xing and the others showed no particular reaction. They paused for a moment, then continued:
"The first time I heard of this Xiao Family was when two of 'Hell's' agents — one from the Western Region and one from the Northern Region — brought it to my attention.
At the time, they were simply puzzled by the Xiao Family's existence and were looking to me for confirmation."
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End of this chapter...