At that moment, a dozen or so elders sat in Cloud-Sea Hall at the Main Headquarters, every one of them solemn and silent.
In the sect leader's seat sat a rather cold-looking middle-aged man with ice-blue eyes.
The man had a high, straight nose and wore a blue brocade robe. His slender fingers would have put many a zither player to shame.
A golden belt circled his waist, and he wore black boots inlaid with a piece of jade the size of a pigeon's egg. He was Ximen Taigao, the leader of the Cloud-Sea Sect.
“How are Qiao Xiao's and Tian Hao's injuries?” After a stretch of silence, Ximen Taigao asked Grand Elder Wang Haiting, who sat below him.
"Their injuries aren't serious. We caught them in nets. Besides, one is only at the early Fifth Rank and the other at the middle Fifth Rank, so they were easy enough for us to capture," Wang Haiting replied.
"That Lord Tang started pressing us about those two as soon as he arrived. Are we handing them over or not?" asked Chief Dharma Protector Ding Yuandong.
"We certainly have to hand them over, but we must wait for them to come negotiate. If we hand them over now, we'll put ourselves at a disadvantage," Wang Haiting said.
"Hand them over, my ass! What damned lord? What Deputy Tuanlian Commissioner? Our Sky-Stone Island is far from the mainland. What have we got to fear from them?" Blood-Killing Hall Master Lin Tianwei was a fierce man, and his tone was brazen.
"Exactly! It's been almost a hundred years since we moved to Sky-Stone Island. Who has dared come trouble us?
"So what if it's Gui Wusong? We offered a hundred and fifty thousand taels. If he wouldn't sell, there was nothing he could do