Capital City, the Zhao Clan.
The council hall was brightly lit.
A middle-aged man sat at the head of the long table. His features were stern, bearing a fifty- to sixty-percent resemblance to Zhao Ming, but his presence was far more profound.
He was the Zhao Clan's current head, Zhao Wuji, a late-stage Transcendent Stage Realm cultivator who had led the clan for over twenty years.
To his right sat a white-haired old man with a thin face and half-closed eyes. His aura was barely perceptible, as though he might dissolve into the air at any moment.
He was the Zhao Clan's grand elder, Zhao Xuanzhen, at the peak of the Transcendent Stage Realm and second only to the clan's ancestor.
On the left, Zhao Ming sat upright, a silver spear resting beside him, faint lightning patterns showing along its shaft.
He had emerged from seclusion only three days earlier and had yet to fully rein in his aura. The faint rumble of thunder lingered around him.
"You've all read the intelligence on that Lin Jin from Jiangcheng." Zhao Wuji's voice was steady, betraying no emotion. "Tell me what you think."
Zhao Ming spoke first.
"Father! I believe the intelligence is inaccurate."
"The Transcendent Stage Realm?" A trace of disdain colored his voice. "An unaffiliated bloodline inheritor, with no clan resources or renowned mentor's guidance, breaking through to the Transcendent Stage Realm in his early twenties? This report is probably exaggerated."
Zhao Wuji glanced at him without offering a judgment, then turned to the grand elder.
Zhao Xuanzhen opened his eyes, his voice aged and calm.
"This intelligence came from our Zhao Clan's people within the Demon Suppression Bureau. The source is reliable. Moreover, our informants in Jiangcheng have confirmed that four Domain Realm members of the Dark Moon Organization