Yan Family Crisis

Yan Yun trailed behind them, her steps unwavering, until they finally halted before the grand entrance of the Zhou family mansion in West City.

“What do you intend to do? Are you planning to kill them?” Yan Lingyun asked, her expression chilling.

Given that the Yan family counted among her descendants, Yan Lingyun’s initial impulse, upon witnessing them being plotted against, was to utterly annihilate those responsible.

Her contemplations were far from idle; in her former life, she would have ruthlessly eradicated their entire lineage without a second thought.

During her prime, the number of enemies who had perished by her hand was countless, making it clear she could hardly be considered a righteous cultivator.

“Defeat them? You think too highly of me. Let’s return first and plan thoroughly.” Yan Yun had only recently embarked on the path of cultivation. Not only was she uncertain of possessing such formidable abilities, but even if she did, the notion of outright murder remained far beyond her present capabilities.

With that, she turned and hastened back to the Yan family mansion.

****

Within the Yan family’s walls, however, a storm of turmoil had already erupted.

A misstep in handling this affair would irrevocably tarnish the Yan family’s reputation, leading to losses they would find utterly unbearable.

Within the Yan family’s main hall.

“What exactly is going on? Why are there so many defective pills in our Yan family’s apothecary? How thoroughly did you inspect them?” Yan Long demanded, his fury palpable as he gazed at the flawed pill in his hand.

The Yan family’s most esteemed alchemists had already scrupulously examined these pills, yet even Yan Long himself, a master of the craft, could detect no discernible flaws.

As an alchemist, his sole responsibility was pill refinement; the process of shelving and selling the pills had no bearing on him.

“Patriarch, this is impossible! After we received the pills from Master Gongsun, we inspected each and every one. There were absolutely no defective products. There must be another reason,” the Yan family member responsible for pill acceptance stammered, kneeling tremblingly before Yan Long and the assembled elders.

For generations, their Yan family had never faced such an predicament; the abrupt revelation of a substantial cache of defective pills was, to say the least, profoundly unsettling.

Standing a little apart, Yan Hui’s head was bowed in deep contemplation. A sudden realization dawned upon him, prompting him to voice a compelling hypothesis.

“Father, esteemed Grandfathers, Uncles, if the issue isn’t with the inspection, then only one possibility remains. Do you think someone might have infiltrated our apothecary last night, mixing defective pills among the perfect ones to frame our Yan family?”

At the pronouncement of these words, a palpable grimness settled upon the faces of all assembled.

It wasn’t that this possibility hadn’t crossed their minds; rather, the implications were so dire that they actively suppressed the thought.

Had it simply been the Zhou and Song families seeking a contest of wills, they would have met the challenge head-on, fighting to the bitter end. However, the individual who had uncovered the defective pills today hailed from the illustrious Lin family of the Royal Capital.

Their investigations had already confirmed that this Lin Ze was none other than the son of the Lin family’s Second Master, a lineage of no small consequence.

“Hui’er, you shouldn’t have admitted it then. Had you not, there might have been a turning point. But now, by directly compensating him with pills, you’ve solidified the claim that our pills are defective, putting the family in a very passive position,” Yan Long admonished Yan Hui.

Yan Hui offered no denial; indeed, he admitted to acting with undue haste, or perhaps, to having gravely underestimated the complexity of the situation.

Yet, in that fraught moment, Lin Ze had pressed his advantage with relentless aggression. Had Yan Hui failed to placate the man’s fury, he feared the ensuing commotion would only spiral further out of control, hence his urgent intervention.

“I apologize, Father. I was too impetuous,” Yan Hui readily accepted his father’s criticism.

Nevertheless, Yan Long grasped that if their adversaries were indeed deliberately targeting the Yan family, then any course of action he took would inevitably be fraught with peril.

“Never mind, let’s not dwell on this for now. Where exactly did our Yan family offend the Lin family?” Yan Long mused, unable to comprehend.

As the Yan family members collectively struggled with their quandary, a resonant voice suddenly pierced the tense silence from beyond the hall.

“Report! Patriarch, Patriarch Jiang has arrived.”

Everyone paused, then quickly looked towards the door, where Jiang Yuan entered, his expression grave, accompanied by a young man roughly the same age as Yan Hui.

“Old Jiang, why have you come?” Yan Long asked urgently.

No sooner had Jiang Yuan learned of the incident at the Yan family’s market than he had rushed over, without a moment’s delay.

“I’m already aware of what happened to your Yan family; it seems the Lin family is behind this meddling,” Jiang Yuan stated, having already informed Yan Long of the news his daughter had sent back.

The moment these words were uttered, the faces of the Yan family’s high-ranking members turned a uniform shade of grim green. This revelation essentially solidified the suspicion that the Lin family was intentionally instigating trouble.

“This is going too far, absolutely outrageous!” Yan Long clenched his fists.

For if the Lin family truly were the orchestrators of this scheme, every piece of the puzzle would fall into place. Their guards, diligent as they might be, would stand no chance of detecting an infiltration into their apothecary by such a powerful entity bent on sabotage.

“The Lin family has, on numerous occasions, sought a marriage alliance with my Jiang family for Lin Mo, only to be repeatedly rebuffed. It is highly probable that these rejections have incensed them, and now they aim to leverage their immense power to exert pressure upon both our houses,” Jiang Yuan elucidated.

The Jiang family, for their part, harbored no particular apprehension. They were, after all, direct descendants of the Jiang Kingdom’s royal lineage, and Jiang Yao was a personal disciple of the Yunhua Sect Master. The Lin family would never dare to openly scheme against them.

However, targeting the comparatively weaker Yan family presented no such moral or practical obstacles.

Yet, when it came to formulating a response to this grave matter, the Yan family found themselves utterly bereft of ideas.

“Brother Jiang, might the Yunhua Sect be persuaded to intervene? Otherwise, I gravely fear our Yan family will, in short order, be driven to utter desperation by the relentless pressure of the Lin family,” Yan Long implored, genuinely at a loss for any viable solution.

The influence and strength of the two families were profoundly disparate; for the Lin family to crush the Yan family would be effortless, akin to flipping one’s palm.

A profound look of difficulty settled upon Jiang Yuan’s features.

“What conceivable reason do you imagine the Yunhua Sect would have to assist the Yan family? Do not forget that Lin Mo is a personal disciple of Yunhong, the Yunhua Sect’s Grand Elder. Do you truly believe they would risk antagonizing the powerful Lin family for the sake of an entirely unrelated Yan family?”

These stark words instantly shattered Yan Long’s fragile hopes and illusions.

Indeed, any individual possessing even a shred of common sense could readily foresee the inevitable outcome of such a predicament.

“Then, then are we not utterly doomed, our Yan family?” Yan Long’s face drained of all color, becoming ghastly pale.

It was at this critical juncture that one of the other Yan family elders broke the silence.

“Patriarch, if the situation is truly as dire as this, then perhaps we ought to annul the betrothal between Yan Yun and Jiang Yao. By doing so, they might cease their harassment of our Yan family.”

This indeed presented a potential solution, yet a crucial question lingered: would their adversaries genuinely desist from their machinations at that point?

Placing themselves in the Lin family’s position, would they not ‘kill the chicken to warn the monkeys’ (TL Note: A Chinese idiom meaning to punish an individual as a warning to others) to dissuade any others from daring to forge a marriage alliance with the Jiang family?

These words elicited a sardonic laugh from the young man standing beside Jiang Yuan.

This young man, it was revealed, was Jiang Yan, Jiang Yuan’s eldest son.

“Uncle Yan Xu, do you genuinely believe the Lin family would grant clemency to the Yan family merely upon the dissolution of the engagement? I implore you, consider calmly what your own actions would be in their stead.”

Jiang Yan’s incisive words cast an even deeper shadow of despair upon the countenances of the Yan family members.

“Alas! Old Yan, I confess it is I who have inadvertently brought this tribulation upon your Yan family. Yet, be at ease; in this critical matter, our Jiang family shall unequivocally stand united with yours. Furthermore, the situation is not entirely without hope for a reversal. We possess means to exert influence within the Royal Capital; the Jiang Kingdom, after all, boasts more than just the Lin family among its formidable clans,” Jiang Yuan reassured him.

Yan Long, slowly regaining his composure, offered a solemn nod to Jiang Yuan.

“This, then, appears to be our sole recourse. However, I am presently unable to absent myself. Second Brother, I entrust you with the task of taking suitable gifts and journeying to the Royal Capital to seek audiences with the esteemed Zhao family, the Liu family, the Li family…”

Yan Long’s younger brother, Yan Cheng, promptly rose to his feet, accepting the onerous task without hesitation.

“Yes, Elder Brother. I shall depart for the Royal Capital immediately,” Yan Cheng declared, then exited the main hall without further ado to commence his preparations.

Jiang Yuan, for his part, was not one to idly observe. This grave affair had, after all, undeniably stemmed from his own Jiang family. Should the Jiang family forge an even deeper alliance with the Yan family, the Lin family might well hesitate to act with such unbridled ruthlessness.

Upon returning to his own abode, he immediately dispatched a messenger to the Yunhua Sect to seek out his daughter. If she could, by some means, persuade Sect Master Yunshuang to lend her formidable aid, then this intricate predicament would undoubtedly find an effortless resolution.