At thirty, he even resigned from the title of foreign-surname king; after thirty-five, his strength became unfathomable. In nineteen years, he led the The Carter Family from last place among the five great families all the way to a position where they could now almost rival the royal family, becoming the second most powerful family in the Mingyu Dynasty, second only to the royal family itself.

As a result, his son inherited the position of family head, though it was only by relying on his father’s prestige that he was forcibly made to take over. He was also the first in history to become the family head while still at the Body Refining stage, and at that, a useless seventeen-year-old stuck at the fifth level of Body Refining. But no matter what, he was still the family head.

Just as Grace Bennett sneered, ready to watch the show, and the three elders Henry Carter, Samuel Carter, and William Carter were taking turns speaking, James Carter’s expression grew increasingly ugly.

At first, when he heard these elders talking, he was still open-minded, thinking he could just listen and learn if he didn’t understand. But the more he listened, the more James Carter felt something was off, and the more annoyed he became. What the hell was this?

Moreover, there hadn’t been much information about this in the predecessor’s mind. That bastard really had an A-Q mentality, because clearly this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, yet he didn’t even have any deep impression of it.

At this moment, James Carter quickly gathered the little information he had and finally realized that James Carter’s father—no, now he should say his own father—was actually so formidable. In twenty years, he had led the The Carter Family to the very peak, and James Carter managed to find some useful information: when John Carter was the family head, the only thing the elders needed to do was obey orders.

There was no such thing as an elders’ council; those elders had no real power. If you had ability, you had power. If you contributed to the family, you’d get corresponding authority; otherwise, you’d just quietly wait your turn for the basic resource allocation and go cultivate.

It was only after he himself became the family head that John Carter set up an elders’ council, which included the three before him, as well as his sixth uncle Charles Carter, second uncle George Carter, fifth uncle Thomas Carter, and the long-secluded grand elder Robert Carter, making seven in total.

Damn, isn’t this just like those regents in charge of state affairs?

James Carter immediately thought of those regents like Oboi from the historical novels and TV dramas he’d read and watched.

Compared to what he knew of Earth’s past, this The Carter Family was even more impressive than the royal families of that era.

Now, listening to these people bicker, James Carter grew more and more irritated. He was already unhappy about coming to this world, and now he had to deal with this.

These old guys clearly just wielded their power as soon as they got it, treating a feather as an imperial order.

They did have the authority to do this, but he was the dignified family head, and they even restricted his living expenses and purchases. Although that top-grade spring water and Firecloud Sparrow Tongue seemed to be Edward Grant’s idea, the memories said it was indeed delicious.

And while ten thousand taels of gold sounded like a lot, in the Mingyu Dynasty, silver was the basic currency, then gold, and above gold was jade money. Ten taels of silver exchanged for one tael of gold, ten taels of gold for one jade coin. So ten thousand taels of gold was only a thousand jade coins. For ordinary people, that was several years’ income, but for the The Carter Family, it wasn’t even a drop in the bucket.

The key issue wasn’t how much was spent, but that these guys were just looking for trouble. Originally, the family head could do whatever he wanted, but now with the elders’ council, there were restrictions. The monthly living expenses had been cut from one hundred thousand taels of gold (ten thousand jade coins) to five thousand. The emergency advance limit had been reduced from five hundred thousand taels of gold to one hundred thousand, and now they wanted to cut it even further.

You have to understand, he was the true head of the The Carter Family; even family heads of clans ten times smaller than The Carter Family used gold freely.

Were they treating him as the family head or as a puppet emperor? Were they just bullying him?

James Carter didn’t care what happened before, but right now, the more he listened, the angrier he got.

“Bang… crash!” Next to James Carter’s huge seat was a special table with tea already brewed—top-quality stuff, rich in spiritual energy and worth a fortune. But at this moment, James Carter swept his arm, sending the teacup and table flying into the middle of the hall, smashing to pieces right in front of William Carter and the other three.

“Ah…”

“Hm?”

Anyone who could become an elder of the The Carter Family had seen their share of storms, but at this moment, they all stared in disbelief at the shattered table and teacup, completely stunned.

Even Grace Bennett, who was waiting to watch the drama, froze with her teacup in hand, looking up in shock.

“Come on, then…” Already frustrated by transmigrating, James Carter jumped up from his huge seat, pointed at William Carter and the others, then at his own massive chair: “Come, you come sit here, you be the family head.”

“You want to punish this family head, huh? If you’re so impressive, why don’t you come up here and be the family head yourselves? And you have the nerve to say I’m disgracing the family? Do you even know what it means for the ruler to worry and the ministers to share the shame, for the ruler to be humiliated and the ministers to die?”

“Tell me, am I or am I not the head of the The Carter Family?” James Carter roared, glaring at William Carter and the others.