Elders Rebuke the Hedonistic Family Head

"Right, why could it equal zero, and also four, five, six, seven, or eight? Could it possibly be ten thousand times ten thousand?" Suddenly, Gao Ren thought of what Ren Jie had said earlier about one plus one. Although that thing about one man plus one woman was a little... well, that, he had to admit it was a wonderfully strange idea. Especially one drop of water plus another drop of water still equaling one drop of water.

With those two answers, Gao Ren—the fat man who had truly seemed like an enlightened master ever since meeting Ren Jie—was baffled as well. When he thought to chase after him and ask more, he discovered that Ren Jie had already left with the newcomer.

Jade Emperor Academy was one of the two pinnacle academies of the Bright Jade Dynasty. It gathered all the royal descendants, heirs of the Five Great Families, and children of influential and wealthy households, and was also known as the Hedonistic Young Master Academy. The other academy was Jade Essence Academy, which brought together the cream of the crop from every field throughout the Bright Jade Dynasty, the finest talents selected through countless trials. Its name meant the essence of jade. Since spirit jade was the foundation of cultivation between heaven and earth, it was also called the Elite Academy.

Jade Emperor Academy was less than three hundred li from Jade Capital City, the imperial capital of the Bright Jade Dynasty, situated south of the dynasty. Jade Essence Academy, meanwhile, was to the north.

At this moment, Ren Jie was seated inside an extraordinarily spacious and luxurious carriage. The interior alone covered more than ten square meters, like a small bedroom, with places to lie down and sit. The carriage moved with astonishing yet steady speed. He casually lifted the curtain and glanced outside, where the scenery flashed past as the carriage raced along an official road dozens of meters wide, entirely paved with smooth stone.

There had originally been two young maids in the carriage, but Ren Jie had sent them both away. He wanted to be alone and quiet for a while.

Looking at the unique ring on his hand, the symbol of the Family Head of the Ren Family, Ren Jie did not know whether to laugh or cry. Although he had merely been an ordinary man in his previous life and had now unexpectedly transmigrated into a genuine hedonistic young master—no, the head of a great family—Ren Jie did not feel particularly happy.

Deep down, he was not pleased at all. In the past, he had enjoyed reading about protagonists transmigrating in novels because it allowed him to enter a brand-new otherworld alongside them and experience something different.

Now that he had truly transmigrated, the first thing Ren Jie thought of once he calmed down was that he would never be able to play computer games again, use a phone, watch television or movies, or download porn anymore. Although he was an orphan and had relied on the inheritance left after his parents died to attend school, with nothing much tying him down back home, he had still grown up on Earth.

Having left behind modern life and truly transmigrated, he genuinely felt miserable.

But the die was cast, so he could only deal with it for now.

"Who goes there? Stop and submit to inspection."

"Impudence! This is the carriage of the Family Head of the Ren Family."

Because Ren Jie remembered that Jade Emperor Academy was three hundred li from Jade Capital City, he had planned to use the journey to think things over carefully and quietly. After all, he had arrived in an unfamiliar world, and so many things had happened.

Yet what he had not expected was that he had only reminisced and sighed a little, thinking about the modern life he had known on Earth, and it did not seem like much time had passed. Even if he had lost himself in those memories, it could not possibly have been several hours. Half an hour would have been the limit, yet he heard voices outside.

When he lifted the carriage curtain again and looked outside, he saw streams of carriages and people slowly entering the city along the road, with an enormous, majestic city beyond in the distance.

"So it is the carriage of the Family Head of the Ren Family. Y-yes... let them through at once."

Someone outside answered carefully, and the way was immediately cleared. The carriage swiftly passed through and entered the city.

"Where are we?" Ren Jie was puzzled. After a brief thought, he asked vaguely.

"Reporting to Family Head, we have entered the outer city. We are less than two hundred li from the Ren Family. We will arrive in another two quarters of an hour," the guard outside immediately replied respectfully.

They had entered the outer city, and the Ren Family was still two hundred li away? Two quarters of an hour was about half an hour. Two hundred li in half an hour meant a speed of roughly four hundred li per hour. No wonder they had covered three hundred li so quickly. What kind of carriage was this? It practically rivaled high-speed rail, not much inferior to maglev. This was terrifying.

Ren Jie suddenly realized that he knew very little about this world. What sort of world was it, exactly? As for his predecessor, aside from women and things involving food, drink, and amusement, there was nothing else in his mind.

It seemed that if he wanted to truly understand this world, he could only rely on himself. But Ren Jie soon thought of something else. If the carriage was moving that fast, how had he been able to see the scenery outside just now when he lifted the curtain, without any speed-reducing glass? The things he had once known and understood seemed useless here. One thing was certain, though. From his predecessor's memories, he knew that he was only at the fifth layer of the Body Refining Stage, which was considered fairly good among ordinary people.

But among the younger generation of the Five Great Families of the Bright Jade Dynasty, aside from one good-for-nothing who could not cultivate, one person crippled by severe injuries, and one fool, his cultivation ranked fourth from the bottom among all the hedonistic young masters of Jade Capital City in the Bright Jade Dynasty.

Even so, his body seemed strong enough to withstand looking at the scenery outside while traveling at three or four hundred li per hour without getting dizzy or suffering any other reaction. Beyond that, his memories contained the True Qi Realm, Divine Power Realm, and Yin Yang Realm. Above the Yin Yang Realm was the Taiji Realm, an existence that was ordinarily almost beyond the mortal world, capable of soaring through the skies and burrowing through the earth with one's own power.

Damn, that was all?

Ren Jie was very interested in learning about these matters, but after ransacking his original memories for knowledge of cultivation, he had only learned that after the Body Refining Realm came the True Qi Realm, then the Divine Power Realm, where one could wield divine powers, followed by the Yin Yang Realm and the Taiji Realm, powerful existences that transcended the mundane world. There was nothing else.

"Family Head, please dismount. The elders have been waiting in the Great Council Hall for quite some time. They said that once the Family Head returned, you were to go in immediately." After turning the matter over and over in his mind for half the day and obtaining only that little information, they had already arrived at the Ren Family.

When he stepped down from the carriage, he saw a grand complex of ancient buildings. Unlike the ancient architectural compounds he had seen on Earth, these were more vivid and magnificent, with many elements beyond ordinary imagination. In the distance stood countless pavilions and towers. Some buildings were no less imposing than the skyscrapers of his previous life, while many others were beautiful and lavish beyond measure, completely surpassing ordinary understanding and imagination.

Wow. Add some dry ice and mist, and it would feel like stepping into an immortal realm.

The Ren Family's Great Council Hall was even more exaggeratedly grand than the place where emperors held court in the Forbidden City that Ren Jie had visited in his previous life. As he entered, he saw three elderly men and one young man seated below. The three elders all wore gloomy expressions. When the young man saw Ren Jie arrive, he gave a faint, disdainful snort through his nose, then looked at his nose and let his nose look at his heart. Here it came again. It had been nearly a year, and this performance happened every month. Thinking of what was about to occur, he found it rather amusing.

Sixth Master had not wanted to come and watch Ren Jie grovel and curry favor with the elders, so he had sent him instead. In truth, he also hated the monthly Elder Council Day, and he hated Ren Jie even more—for disgracing his father, Ren Tianxing, and disgracing Sixth Master as well.

The elder with a long wisp of beard seated on the left was the Ren Family's Second Elder, Ren Junyang. Below him sat a short, fat, slightly balding elder, the Lineage's Third Elder, Ren Hanlin. On the other side, seated in the position of honor, was Ren Wenxu, whose face was as gloomy as a horse's face—the Lineage's Fourth Elder. Below Ren Wenxu sat the young man named Wan Hong, the representative sent by Ren Jie's Sixth Uncle, Ren Tianzong.

The moment Ren Jie entered the Great Council Hall, the information about these people surfaced in his mind.

Ren Tianzong had also been one of the members of the Council of Elders entrusted by Ren Jie's father to help Ren Jie when he passed the position of family head to him. However, he normally never involved himself in the Council of Elders' affairs and was unwilling to participate in any matters. Only on the monthly Elder Council Day did he send a representative—this young man, Wan Hong, at his side—to listen in.

As Ren Jie walked forward, he thought that fortunately, this guy had not been such a bastard that he failed to recognize even the elders of his own Lineage. Otherwise, he would have truly made a fool of himself.

Still, the atmosphere felt somewhat oppressive. Ren Jie thought to himself that it was best to respond to all changes by remaining unchanged, so he walked straight to the enormous seat of the family head in the center and sat down. There was a platform there, clearly much higher than the seats below. Looking down from above and sitting in a chair even larger than the Dragon Throne he had seen in the Forbidden City, Ren Jie felt rather unaccustomed to it.

"Hm?" Wan Hong slightly raised his eyelids. This brat had actually offered no explanation today and had not even exchanged pleasantries with the three elders before taking his seat. How strange.

Could it be that he knew he had gone too far and no longer knew how to explain himself? Did he think that staying silent would let him escape?

Bang... Ren Jie had barely settled his buttocks onto the seat when Fourth Elder Ren Wenxu fiercely slammed the teacup in his hand onto the tea table beside him. "Outrageous! You actually forgot Elder Council Day and made us sit here waiting for a full six hours. And it was because you were fighting with someone over a woman. Look at yourself..."

Third Elder Ren Hanlin also frowned deeply and looked up at Ren Jie in the family head's seat. "Family Head, as the family head, you should lead by example. Not only were you late for Elder Council Day, but members of the Lineage reported that the Family Head fought with someone over a woman at Jade Emperor Academy and was even beaten unconscious. Is this true?"

That was utter nonsense. Anyone with eyes could see what had happened from the swelling on Ren Jie's forehead that had not yet gone down. If someone had not beaten him into that state, then he truly would have had something wrong with his head if he had done it himself.

"Family Head, this is your expense account for last month. The Lineage clearly supplies Medicinal Materials internally, so why did the Family Head separately purchase so many useless Medicinal Materials? There are also many other expenses, especially this one..." At this point, Second Elder Ren Junyang took out an account book and opened it directly. He intended to go straight for the heart of the matter, using this as a breakthrough before discussing other issues with Ren Jie.

"Buying top-grade spring water from Gushing Spring County for bathing cost three thousand taels of gold... Buying ten thousand Fire Cloud Sparrows cost ten thousand taels of gold, merely to eat their tongues. Last month, the Family Head's spending exceeded the limit by a full thirty percent. And it was all spent on such ruinous extravagance. It seems the normal monthly allowance of fifty thousand taels of gold and the advance limit of one hundred thousand taels of gold are still too much. Today, we must first discuss lowering this advance limit and reducing the Family Head's ordinary allowance."

Smack! After Ren Junyang finished speaking, he shut the account book with a gloomy expression. He had simply never seen such a prodigal wastrel. If the Great Elder had not been in seclusion, two members of the Council of Elders had not been in Jade Capital City, and Ren Tianzong only sent someone to attend the monthly Elder Council Day, leaving them unable to gather enough people to convene an emergency council, they would have held one long ago.

They had endured for a month, and now Elder Council Day had finally arrived. Ren Junyang immediately struck at the vital point.

"Exactly. The Family Head is becoming more and more reckless, more and more of a hedonistic young master."

"How can this be allowed? The dignified Family Head of the Ren Family was beaten until his head was split open over a fight for a woman. If word gets out, it will be a complete joke."

"Though the Ren Family is rich and powerful, it cannot squander money like this. It must be reduced."