The Lin's Patriarch is weird.

Inside the Lin’s clan meeting hall, after gathering all the elders present within the estate, they sat quietly in their respective seats and began waiting for the patriach to show up.

Several minutes passed yet the Patriarch was nowhere to be seen.

Lin Zhenghai frowned slightly as his patience gradually wore thin.

Finally, he looked toward a family servant standing by the entrance.

"Go and inform the Patriarch that everyone has arrived and that the meeting is ready to begin."

"Yes, Supreme Elder."

The servant immediately bowed and hurried away.

The meeting hall fell silent once again.

After several more minutes, hurried footsteps echoed from outside.

The servant returned, breathing slightly heavier than before.

He quickly cupped his fists.

"Reporting to the Supreme Elder. The Patriarch has already left the estate. He departed with the Young Miss and her friend."

The entire meeting hall fell silent as several elders exchanged bewildered glances.

They had set aside their own responsibilities and gathered as soon as the Patriarch summoned them.

Some had even interrupted important matters within their respective branches.

Yet after making everyone wait...

The Patriarch had simply left the estate.

A few elders frowned in dissatisfaction.

"Hasn’t the Patriarch wasted everyone’s time?"

"If he intended to go into the city, he could have informed us beforehand."

"We’ve been sitting here waiting for nothing."

The corners of Lin Zhenghai’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

He had gathered every elder and branch head for the meeting.

Yet the Patriarch had gone into the city instead.

Taking a slow breath, Lin Zhenghai suppressed the frustration building inside him.

"The meeting is postponed."

His voice remained calm, but the displeasure beneath it was impossible to miss.

"We shall reconvene after the Patriarch returns."

With those words, he rose from his seat and walked out of the meeting hall.

The remaining elders could only look at one another before quietly dispersing.

After leaving the meeting hall, Lin Zhenghai walked through the estate in silence.

His expression remained calm, but countless thoughts raced through his mind.

His original plans had already begun to fall apart.

As for his son...

Lin Shuning was nothing more than an incompetent fool.

The tasks entrusted to him had either been delayed or handled so poorly that they created even more problems.

In the end, everything still fell upon his own shoulders.

A cold glint flashed across Lin Zhenghai’s eyes.

You’ll regret crossing me, Young Patriarch.

Let’s see how you deal with the consequences after word spreads that you killed Bong Haoran, an elder of the Mystic Sky Sect.

Lin Zhenghai possessed no concrete proof that Lin Xuan had killed Bong Haoran.

Everything rested upon his own deductions.

However, after sensing the Patriarch’s cultivation earlier that day, he had become more convinced than ever.

There was simply no way Lin Xuan could have advanced from the Fifth Layer of the Golden Core Realm to the Seventh Layer within a mere six months.

Such a thing defied common sense.

The only explanation Lin Zhenghai could think of was that Lin Xuan had concealed his true cultivation for a very long time.

The story about entering seclusion to recover from his injuries was merely an excuse.

By remaining out of sight for half a year, Lin Xuan could quietly allow the matter of Bong Haoran’s disappearance to fade before revealing greater strength without attracting too much suspicion.

The more Lin Zhenghai thought about it, the more convinced he became.

Perhaps...

The Seventh Layer wasn’t even Lin Xuan’s true cultivation.

Perhaps the aura he sensed today was only another layer of deception.

What if the young Patriarch had already reached the Tenth Layer of the Golden Core Realm?

Lin Zhenghai slowly inhaled a deep breath before exhaling just as slowly.

It was better to overestimate an enemy than underestimate one.

A cautious man lived far longer than an arrogant one.

After returning to his residence, Lin Zhenghai made sure no one was watching before entering a hidden room beneath his study.

A stone wall quietly slid aside, revealing a narrow underground passage.

Without hesitation, he stepped inside.

Ever since Lin Zhaoyue had exposed the existence of the hidden Spirit Pond beneath his residence, he had become far more cautious.

Even now, he still couldn’t understand how the little girl had discovered it.

Had someone betrayed him?

Or had he overlooked something himself?

To this day, he had found no answer.

Not only had the Spirit Pond been confiscated, but he had also been forced to pay an enormous fine to the clan treasury.

The humiliation still burned in his heart.

The only reason he remained the Supreme Elder was because only the Patriarch possessed the authority to strip him of his position.

Lin Zhenghai slowly inhaled before letting out a long breath.

The underground passage beneath his residence had been dug only recently.

It was one of several preparations he had made after the Spirit Pond incident.

He had fully expected today’s clan meeting to end with his dismissal as Supreme Elder.

After all, once Su Qinglan presented everything she had uncovered over the past six months, the discussion would inevitably turn toward his own misconduct.

He had already prepared several contingency plans.

Yet, to his surprise...

The Patriarch never appeared.

The meeting had been postponed before it could even begin.

Soon, Lin Zhenghai reached the end of the tunnel.

He emerged inside an abandoned courtyard a considerable distance from the Lin Estate.

Taking out a black cloak, he draped it over his body before pulling the hood low enough to conceal his face.

Only then did he retrieve a communication talisman and a strand of spiritual qi flowed into it.

"I have important information regarding Bong Haoran. Let’s meet at the usual place."