"Once we have taken your father home for burial, we must reclaim your Marriage Contract and put an end to this matter. I will find you another good match then."
Madam Cui held Cui Yingying's hand. Weariness showed on her face, along with a trace of doubt.
A fiend had donned a skin and assumed Zheng Heng's identity, staking a daughter of the Cui Clan on a wager. By rights, this was an insult to the Cui Clan as well. Why had the main clan shown no reaction?
She did not believe the Cui Clan had received no word of it.
Or was it that, now her husband was dead, widows and orphans like them no longer carried even the slightest weight in the clan?
At that thought, Madam Cui's heart abruptly sank.
After all, this was a world where transcendent powers manifested openly. The strong could raze cities and uproot mountains, sever rivers and cleave peaks with a wave of their hands. Although her husband had been the Chancellor of the Wu Dynasty, a first-rank official, official rank could not turn into strength. In truth, it amounted to little.
Others' wariness and respect toward them had come entirely from the Qu Ling Cui Clan standing behind them. Who knew what people had said in private?
Among the scions of the great aristocratic houses, who would willingly enter court and squander their days as an official if their cultivation was progressing smoothly?
Aside from those who cultivated amid worldly affairs and temporarily held office, almost everyone pushed forward to serve as an official-especially a civil official-had little future within their clan.
Chancellor Cui had belonged to that category.
His circumstances, however, had been somewhat unusual.
He had originally possessed exceptional talent and had been a priority for the Cui Clan's