On the left sat an elderly man with a wisp of long beard—he was the second elder of the The Carter Family, William Carter. Seated at his lower left was a short, slightly balding, chubby old man, the third elder of the family, Henry Carter. On the other side, at the upper seat, sat a man with a face as sullen as a horse’s—this was Samuel Carter, the fourth elder of the family. Next to Samuel Carter, at the lower seat, sat a young man named Grace Bennett, who was the representative sent by James Carter’s sixth uncle, Charles Carter.

As soon as he entered the council hall, James Carter recalled the information about these people in his mind.

Charles Carter was also one of the elders whom James Carter’s father had entrusted to help James Carter when he handed over the position of family head. However, he usually never got involved in the elders’ affairs, nor was he willing to participate in any such matters. Only on the monthly elders’ council day would he send a representative—this young man named Grace Bennett—to come and listen in.

As James Carter walked in, he thought to himself, “Good thing I’m not so clueless as to not recognize the elders of my own family, or I’d really make a fool of myself.”

Still, the atmosphere felt somewhat oppressive. James Carter thought, “Better to remain unchanged in the face of change,” and walked straight to the massive family head’s seat in the very center and sat down. There was a platform here, clearly much higher than the seats below. Looking down from above, sitting on a chair even larger than the dragon throne he’d seen in the Forbidden City, James Carter truly felt a bit uncomfortable.

“Hm?” Grace Bennett raised his eyelids slightly. This kid actually sat down without any explanation today, and didn’t even exchange pleasantries with the three elders first—how odd.

Could it be that he knows he’s gone too far and doesn’t know how to explain himself, thinking he can get away with it by staying silent?

“Bang…” Just as James Carter sat down, the fourth elder, Samuel Carter, suddenly slammed his teacup heavily onto the table beside him. “Outrageous! You actually forgot the family elders’ council day, making us sit here waiting for over six hours. And to make matters worse, it was all because you were fighting over a woman! Just look at yourself…”

The third elder, Henry Carter, also furrowed his brows and looked up at James Carter sitting in the family head’s seat. “Family head, as the head of the family, you should set an example. Not only were you late for the elders’ council day, but I’ve also heard reports from within the family that you got into a jealous quarrel over a woman at the Jade Emperor Academy and were even knocked out. Is this true?”

His words were basically redundant—any fool could tell what happened from the bump still visible on James Carter’s forehead. If he hadn’t been beaten up, then he’d really have to have something wrong with his head to do that to himself.

“Family head, here is your expense account for last month. The family clearly has its own supply of medicinal herbs, so why did you purchase so many useless herbs separately? And there are many other expenses, especially this one…” At this, the second elder took out an account book and opened it directly. He was prepared to get straight to the point, using this as a breakthrough before discussing other matters with James Carter.

“Spending three thousand taels of gold to bathe in top-grade spring water from Yongquan County… Buying ten thousand Firecloud Sparrows for ten thousand taels of gold just to eat their tongues… Last month, the family head’s expenses exceeded the limit by a full thirty percent. And all of it was squandered on such wasteful things. It seems that the normal monthly allowance of fifty thousand taels of gold and the advance limit of one hundred thousand taels are still too much. Today, we must discuss reducing the advance limit and cutting the family head’s regular allowance.”

“Pa!” After William Carter finished speaking, he closed the account book with a dark expression. He had never seen such a prodigal spendthrift. If the grand elder weren’t in seclusion, and two other elders weren’t away from Yujing City, and if Charles Carter didn’t just send a representative to the monthly elders’ council, making it impossible to gather enough people for an emergency meeting, they would have called one long ago.

Now, after putting up with it for a month, it was finally the elders’ council day, and William Carter went straight for the jugular.

“That’s right, the family head is getting more and more reckless and dissolute.”

“This won’t do. The dignified head of the The Carter Family, getting his head bashed in over a jealous quarrel—if word gets out, it’ll be a laughingstock.”

“Even though the The Carter Family is a large and wealthy family, we can’t allow such wastefulness. We must cut back.”

……

Chapter Four: Furious Outburst

Henry Carter and Samuel Carter chimed in one after another. They had held back for a long time, and now they were finally letting out a month’s worth of grievances.

“Hmph!” Grace Bennett snorted coldly in his heart, slowly picking up his tea and taking a sip. He’d seen this kind of thing more than once. These old guys seemed to really enjoy this moment. Next would be James Carter repeatedly admitting fault and humbly trying to please the elders.

Although, as a junior, it wasn’t a big deal to admit mistakes and yield to elders of his grandfather’s generation, but he was the family head, after all.

Every time he thought of this, Grace Bennett felt a deep sense of disdain. Just think of his own father, John Carter, and how glorious he had been back in the day. He inherited the family headship at sixteen, led the family’s soldiers to wipe out an evil cult at eighteen, led troops to war at twenty, destroyed fifteen small countries in three years, and launched several major campaigns that shocked the world. By twenty-five, he had already reached the Yin-Yang realm, becoming the top martial force in Yujing City and the number one among the younger generation. After that, he led the The Carter Family to its most glorious era.