Wang Yan's Reputation Plummets

Now, Meng Hongchen had clearly grown into a young woman.

She stood over 1.7 meters tall, with a full chest, a slender waist, a round and pert little butt, and long, straight legs.

Things she had not understood before, Meng Hongchen was gradually beginning to understand.

For instance, why Grandfather had prevented her from meeting Wang Chen Gege, and why, even when they did meet, it had to be in private.

It was because the Wang Family had sided with the Second Prince and been drawn into the massive whirlpool of the succession struggle. Grandfather did not want her dragged into it.

Now that First Prince Xu Tianran had become Crown Prince, the Wang Family, which had backed the Second Prince, certainly would not have an easy time.

Meng Hongchen's heart clenched, and she could not help worrying about Wang Chen Gege.

Before long, Meng Hongchen thought of her grandfather. "If Wang Chen Gege is in danger, I'll beg Grandfather to save him. With Grandfather's strength, saving Wang Chen Gege definitely won't be a problem."

Thinking this, Meng Hongchen felt a little more at ease. She paced back and forth in her room, scenes of her time with Wang Chen constantly surfacing in her mind.

"Wang Chen Gege has seemed very busy lately. I wonder how he's doing now. Tomorrow, I'll go to our meeting place and see whether he's left a reply." Meng Hongchen murmured.

Meanwhile, at the Trial Field of the Ordinary Alliance branch.

As Zhang Ming's enormous Martial Soul Avatar crashed to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust, the entire venue fell silent.

The people from both the Ordinary Alliance branch and the Xishui Alliance branch stood dumbfounded, their mouths hanging wide open.

A moment later, the Ordinary Alliance branch erupted into cheers.

"Lord won! Lord is incredible!!"

"Lord may look fierce, but he's so strong! He defeated Zhang Ming, that Soul Sage expert from the Xishui Alliance, in just a few moves!"

While the people of the Ordinary Alliance branch celebrated in excitement, the people from the Xishui Alliance branch stared in utter disbelief at the sight of their branch chief, Zhang Ming, being defeated.

"How is that possible? How could this obscure branch chief of the Ordinary Alliance be so strong?"

"Our branch chief, Zhang Ming, is a Soul Sage expert, and no mediocre one among Soul Sages at that. He has defeated several Soul Sage experts before. How could he have been defeated so easily?"

"This branch chief of the Ordinary Alliance defeated Chief Zhang Ming without even activating his Martial Soul Avatar. Such strength is simply terrifying."

Wang Chen looked calmly at Zhang Ming, who lay on the ground, forced out of his Martial Soul Avatar state.

Ordinary Soul Sage experts were nothing much to him. He could defeat them without even using his trump-card Secret Arts.

Wang Chen then followed their agreement and took all the soul tools from Zhang Ming, placing them into his own Storage Soul Tool.

As a Soul Sage expert, Zhang Ming possessed considerable wealth, including several Class 7 soul tools.

Wang Chen had no use for them, but selling them would fetch him at least three million Gold Soul Coins—a substantial boost to his funds.

Wang Chen cast a glance at the people from the Xishui Alliance. At that glance, their faces instantly turned pale. Their legs trembled, cold sweat poured down their backs, and they feared that Wang Chen would kill them the next moment.

"Get lost," Wang Chen said coldly.

Upon hearing that Wang Chen would not kill them, the Xishui Alliance members felt as though they had been granted a pardon. They immediately grabbed the heavily injured and unconscious Zhang Ming from the ground and fled, terrified that Wang Chen might change his mind if they were too slow.

The reason Wang Chen had spared the Xishui Alliance members was that the three major underground forces in Mingdu currently maintained a tacit balance.

If he killed Zhang Ming, a Soul Sage-level expert, it could very well draw out Soul Douluo or even Titled Douluo experts from the Xishui Alliance.

After all, a Soul Sage was no insignificant nobody who could simply die without consequence. To any faction, Soul Sage-level experts were rare talents. Losing even one would be deeply painful.

If a Soul Sage expert died, the Xishui Alliance certainly would not let the matter rest. That would only create more trouble.

At this critical juncture, with Xu Tianran having become Crown Prince, Wang Chen had no desire to stir up further complications.

After dealing with this minor matter, Wang Chen sent his chattering subordinates off to perform their respective duties.

Afterward, Wang Chen left the Ordinary Alliance branch. He then checked on the subordinates he had secretly recruited, made all the necessary arrangements, and headed toward the Wang Family.

Recently, Wang Chen had been running all over the place to increase his strength and expand his influence. He had not returned home for a long time.

Now that Xu Tianran had become Crown Prince, the Wang Family was undoubtedly in turmoil. He needed to return and see how his parents were doing.

Mingdu, the Wang Family.

As news of Xu Tianran becoming Crown Prince gradually spread, the atmosphere within the Wang Family grew increasingly heavy.

The Wang Family members were not fools. They naturally understood that once Crown Prince Xu Tianran ascended the throne, the Wang Family, as supporters of the Second Prince, would surely face a grim fate.

Under such circumstances, many clan members inevitably grew dissatisfied with Patriarch Wang Yan.

After all, when Wang Yan had chosen to support the Second Prince, it was not as though no one in the family had opposed him. In fact, there had been many opponents.

Many clan members had not wanted to become embroiled in the imperial family's struggle. They only wanted to steadily develop the family's power step by step.

However, Wang Yan's prestige within the family had been too great, and he was also the strongest among them.

Relying on his own strength, he had forcibly suppressed every opposing voice, stubbornly supported the Second Prince, and involved the family in the battle for the throne.

But now that the Second Prince had failed in his bid for the Crown Prince Position, Patriarch Wang Yan's decision had brought an enormous crisis upon the Wang Family.

For a time, Wang Yan's reputation plummeted to rock bottom. The senior elders of the Wang Family who had originally opposed his decision all hardened their stance, immediately demanding to see the patriarch and convene a family meeting.

Ancestral Hall of the Wang Family.

Wang Yan and the Wang Family's twelve elders gathered in the main hall of the Ancestral Hall, convening a family council before the ancestral tablets.

All twelve elders of the Wang Family were formidable experts at the rank of Level 70 Soul Sages.

The strongest among them, the First Elder, had broken through the Level 80 bottleneck last year and reached the realm of a Soul Douluo.

The First Elder had also been the one most opposed to Wang Yan supporting the Second Prince in the struggle for the throne.

Wang Yan sat in the seat of honor at the center of the hall, while the Wang Family's twelve elders sat to his left and right, arranged in descending order of status.

The atmosphere in the meeting hall was as heavy as the stillness before a storm, and everyone held their breath.

The First Elder was the first to break the silence. His blazing gaze fixed on Wang Yan, his voice low yet filled with suppressed fury. "Patriarch, we advised you from the start not to involve yourself in the imperial family's conflict, but you insisted on having your way.

"Now that the Second Prince has been defeated, Crown Prince Xu Tianran will certainly not spare our Wang Family. Have you ever considered how the family is supposed to deal with this crisis?"

The Third Elder continued from where the First Elder left off. "Patriarch, is the foundation our Wang Family has built over so many years to be destroyed because of your decision? And how are the futures and lives of the family's younger generation supposed to be protected?"