Return to the Sect

Clear River Commandery City, Cai Manor.

"Something terrible's happened! Something terrible's happened!"

A member of the Cai family stumbled into the main hall, unable to hide the panic in his voice.

Cai Yuansheng, head of the Cai family, had been holding a cup of tea and listening to a steward report this month's accounts. The shouting broke his concentration.

He snapped at the panicked man, "What kind of behavior is this, rushing in here like that?"

The man was breathless from running. Once he caught his breath, he said, "Family head... Young Master Cai Xian of the fourth branch... the Jade Balance Sect has taken him away!"

Cai Yuansheng frowned and asked in a deep voice,

"What happened? Why did the Jade Balance Sect arrest him?"

Trembling, the man recounted what he had learned in fits and starts. It began with the investigation into Ma Deng. Cai Xian was implicated in one of the matters, and Yu Shaowei, the Jade Balance Sect's Chief Disciple, had personally ordered his arrest.

Cai Yuansheng fell silent for a moment, then forced a sentence through clenched teeth. "...That good-for-nothing."

"Summon the heads of every branch!" Cai Yuansheng immediately ordered a meeting of the family's leaders.

Half an hour later, three branch heads and four elders sat in the Cai family's council hall. Cai Xian's father, Cai Mingyuan, who headed the fourth branch, was among them.

Cai Mingyuan did not yet know the details. "Family head, what did Xian'er do? Why did the Jade Balance Sect take him away?"

Cai Yuansheng gave him a cold look. "What a fine son you raised. He egged on Ma Deng, the Jade Balance Sect's external affairs steward, to block the supply line of the Chen Family's third branch so he could force himself on a woman!"

"Now the