That night, beyond the Wilderness boiling with chaos, a document from the An Family of Hunter Finger stirred up a massive uproar among the White Deer lineages of the Four Systems of Scale, Horn, Claws, and Fangs.
Openly and without concealment, they applied to the headquarters to have An Ran—who had first made a name for himself in the West Sea and had since returned to the fold—removed from the main branch. He was to be permitted to establish a new branch of his own and inherit Blade Tooth.
From then on, though his kinship and bloodline remained unchanged, his actions would no longer have anything to do with Hunter Finger, nor would he receive the An Family's protection.
For a moment, countless eyes turned toward this inheritor of Blade Tooth, weighing and assessing whether he could bear such a title. It was foreseeable that the old enemies of Blade Tooth and Hunter Finger were also casting cold looks in silence, murderous intent baring its fangs from the shadows.
Even before this, however, the reply from headquarters had already reached An Ding's hands.
[The Chieftain has been informed.]
It was still a formulaic response.
Yet this time, instead of a printed document, it came in the form of a richly inked handwritten note, flowing like clouds and water, stamped with the Hermit's seal. There was not a single additional word.
And yet, it was far more than that...
The An Family's application had officially been copied and distributed by headquarters to every family and surname among the four lineage branches!
Its meaning could not have been clearer.
If changes were to be made, why not make more of them?
Move!
Everyone could move!
Taking this as a precedent, the various branches no longer needed to be bound by their original