Rivers of the Night-Chapter 412: Soft Power

"This is bullshit." Ryuss’ roar filled the throne room. "I’m not just some kid anymore. I’m a pillar of the Clan, am I not? But we’re not going to do anything about the Mandate Guild just pulling the rug out from underneath us like this?"

Ryuss’ father sat on the throne of the Black Clan, dressed in silvery seal beast skins. Tufts of white hair formed pauldrons on his shoulders, his rough and grizzled face making him look more like a barbarian Flux Mancer than what one would have expected from a Water Mancer.

His posture was lazy as he rested an elbow on the armrest, his head tilted to the side. However, there was a dense coldness in his eyes that wasn’t aimed toward his son at all.

He, too, was furious about this. But the Mandate Guild wasn’t something that could be easily offended, much like the Seijin Clan. But somehow, in just the last month, they had ended up on the wrong side of both of them.

They had lost a high-tier Elder, a princess, and now their geniuses were being suppressed.

Ryuss wasn’t as good as his elder brother, or his elder sister for that matter, but to say that he wasn’t a pillar of the family would be a joke. The Black Clan just happened to be rich in luck enough to produce three astounding geniuses.

Of them all, his daughter was most definitely their greatest pride. She had been number two on the Mandate Leaderboard in her time, only losing to a Seijin.

However, everyone knew that the Seijin were absolutely abhorred by the Heavens because of their dabbling in controlling and seeing through Karma and Fate. When adjusted for this, she was seen as the number one in the eyes of most that year.

"Aren’t you going to say something, father? Fuck!" Ryuss raged. "If it had been Karra, we would already be gearing up the armies and marching their asses down. Do you think those arrogant, pencil-pushing pricks would be ready for us if we surprised them? By then, the whole library of Water Mandate Plaques would be ours!"

Ryuss’ father still didn’t respond, his blue eyes looking even more icy than usual, to the point they almost looked silver themselves in the light.

A deathly sort of air hung around him.

They weren’t in a position to start a war. Their subordinate factions were in a complete mess right now, and though their power was strong still, with the Seijin dabbling in their affairs, who was to say that if they stepped out now to attack the Mandate Guild that the Seijin wouldn’t take the opportunity to do something more?

Honestly, Patriarch Black still didn’t know why the Seijin were so involved in their affairs. But he had taken a step back again and again, only to suffer for it again and again.

In the cultivation world, the greatest weapon powerful families had wasn’t their bloodline, or their legacy, it was their face. It was face that acted as a deterrence.

The one thing his son was right about was that the world was probably treating them as a laughingstock right now.

For now, they were laughing, but in a few years from now, maybe those jeers would turn into quiet voices plotting in the background, and then those silent plots might become targeting. Soon, they’d be gathering armies to swallow up their resources and take control of everything their Ancestors had built.

This concept was something any intelligent leader understood. Using soft power was by far more effective than any real hard power. The Seijin were the prime example of this. Everyone feared what they *could* do, not what they *had* done.

But when soft power began to wane, the only way to get it back was by using hard power.

Unfortunately, Patriarch Black wasn’t sure if this was something he should do.

If it was just the Mandate Guild, he would have probably already made a strong stance. At the very least, he would send an Ancestor-level character to demand a response in a strong showing. But with the threat of the Seijin also looming...

They couldn’t face them both.

BANG!

The door to the throne room suddenly slammed open. A young woman, gorgeous beyond reason, with skin as warm as wheat and clothing a perfect reflection of her father’s, shot inside.

"Father! Guiss collapsed!"

Patriarch Black suddenly stood, his eyes flashing with murder. Were they really being targeted? What happened?

Wasn’t Guiss in closed-door cultivation? Who could target him if not a Seijin? What was happening here? How had they offended the Seijin? They had no relations whatsoever.

...

Patriarch Black stood over his pale son, the words of the healers flying in through one ear and out through the other as though he hadn’t heard them at all.

All he had grasped were two things.

His son’s path of cultivation would never be the same again. His soul was half crippled, he would likely never progress, and even if he did, without the ability to comprehend Laws properly, he would be nothing more than an empty shell of power.

He’d be akin to all those high-tier Gold Mancers with "strong" cultivation, and yet lacking the actual power to match it.

As for the second thing?

It was the Mandate Guild’s fault, the crack in the plaque Guiss was clutching filling him with unbridled fury.

No. This was more than enough.

Even a cornered beast would lash out when pushed too far. And their Black Clan was far from a cornered beast.

They were one of the five most powerful centers of strength on the entire continent. This... this would not be tolerated.

BANG!

A fiery aura surged out from Patriarch Black, a heavy black shield and a trident that looked carved from jagged obsidian appearing in his hand.

He was going personally.

The Mandate Guild would answer for this.

"Father, I will go with you," Karra said coldly, her fury having been increasing every day as well.

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