Inside the Xiao Lineage's Council Chamber.
The core members of the lineage had all gathered there.
"Family Head, why do we have to be so polite to those people from the little frontier kingdoms?" Third Elder Xiao Li asked.
"Yes, Family Head, I've been holding this question in all this time. Do people from those little kingdoms really deserve such courtesy from us?
"And that Du Shu actually took the intelligence I worked so hard to obtain just by asking for it!
"This Xiao Lineage belongs to us Xiaos!" A younger male cousin of Xiao Buyu's spoke with considerable resentment, clearly having little liking for these "country bumpkins."
Beside them, Xiao Chuang and Xiao Xuan understood the situation perfectly well. Tang Yan could be called the benefactor of the entire Xiao Lineage.
But the specific details were inconvenient to disclose. Once word of the Desolate Forest leaked out, it would be an absolutely fatal blow to the Xiao Lineage.
"Enough. Do not bring this up again. Young Master Tang and his companions may very well become major customers of ours!"
Xiao Buyu was getting a headache too. This meeting had originally been intended to discuss how to expand the lineage's channels for medicinal ingredients, yet his clansmen had started voicing objections to Tang Yan and his companions first.
"Major customers? How major could they be?" the Second Elder demanded, his eyes wide. "Medicinal ingredients in the Northern Spirit Realm are no cheaper than in the frontier kingdoms. Surely they aren't planning to buy high and sell low?"
The Grand Elder commanded considerable authority within the lineage. He slapped the table and said, "We're having a perfectly proper meeting. What are you all babbling about? The Family Head naturally has his arrangements. What are you worrying about?
"If Young Master Tang