Minerva came to the medic house to check on Dahlia’s condition.Dahlia was already up and on her way back home.“Are you really okay?” Minerva worriedly asked.“I’m fine, Mom. My wound is almost healed thanks to the third elder,” Dahlia said.“I shouldn’t have sent you out,” Minerva said, controlling her tears. “I was busy with other work, but I should have gone myself.”“You shouldn’t go out alone by yourself, either,” Dahlia quickly said. “I know you’re an expert, but if you’re alone, you can easily be overcome by a group.”Minerva, however, smiled. “It seems you learned something important this time.”“Of course. I realized how weak I really am,” Dahlia snorted, feeling angry at herself. “Even though my opponents were also adepts, I couldn’t even land a proper blow on them. Heck, I didn’t even get the time to use my techniques. I realized how much experience also matters. Next time, I won’t let something like this repeat again!”Dahlia and Minerva went home in a horse cart.Her inj

Livia was silently crying without being seen.Nobody ever called her a frog in a well, so Lexar’s words greatly hurt her soul, especially because she thought of him as a potential husband.“If only I wasn’t born with these ugly teeth…” Livia felt like plucking her own teeth.She didn’t join any sect but still reached the adept realm just by training in her own village.However, she always dreamed of marrying someone at least as powerful if not more powerful than her so she could travel the world and grow stronger together.She had always thought that Lexar was the right match for her because Lexar was not known for chasing girls like most other men.In fact, Lexar’s brother Ivan was also a well known skirt-chaser in the neighboring fifty clans! He started flirting with the ladies from other clans when he didn’t even grow a mustache.Now, Livia felt like she had no other choice but to marry the man her father chose for her.“Gunnar Fustil… I didn’t see him before,” she wondered. “Where

Livia entered the library.The girls sitting at the table saw her and immediately understood that she was from the Bluegrass clan.“Are you the one who’s going to marry Gunnar?” one of them asked.“Yeah,” Livia replied hesitantly. “Is Gunnar here? I was told he’d be here.”“Haha, he’s in the underground training hall. But why are you wearing a veil? Are you that ugly?”“Pfft, bahahaha.”All the girls laughed aloud, slamming the table and not at all caring to show any respect to the neighboring clan member.“You wouldn’t have agreed to marry a loser like Gunnar unless you were ugly.”“Two losers fit so well together. Their children will inspire generations to come.”“Pfft, bahahaha.” They laughed without a care in the world even though they were inside the library.Livia just ignored them and looked around.“Hey, you’re not from our clan,” the girls quickly got up and blocked her way. “You can’t just enter this place. Go away, or we’ll tell the librarian, and he will throw you in priso

Gunnar would have gone back to the library, but he followed Livia instead because he wanted to see the marriage getting canceled with his own eyes.Livia met her father who was dancing with a duck and its babies in the middle of a street.“F-Father, what are you doing?” Livia hissed at him in a low voice because many people were watching from their homes and laughing. “Stop embarrassing yourself.”“I was bored, so I had to do something to kill time,” Durk told her. “How did it go? Is he to your liking?”“Come with me,” Livia grabbed his hand and took him to a well where there wasn't anybody around.Just by her body language, Durk could tell that something didn’t go right. “Did he say anything wrong?”“He doesn’t want this marriage, Father,” Livia said in a neutral tone.“Well, that’s to be expected, but this marriage will benefit both the clans. You get that, don’t you?” Durk gently patted her shoulder. “He’s still a bit too young to know it himself, so don’t take his words to heart.

Later that night.The Chian family had gone back to their village.Warren and the four elders were in the meeting hall, talking about how to use the 1000 gold that Durk had given them.“If we use this to buy horses and carts, we can build a small escort group,” First Elder Enron said. “I will personally be the head of the group. We’ll take on urgent missions with relatively low risk.”“Are we really in a position to put all the money into an escort group?” Fourth Elder Rayson uttered dismissively. “Our business has taken a dip lately. Since people aren’t coming to our village as much anymore, it’s only right for us to build a merchant group that travels outside and sells our products. From pottery to herbs, we can sell things and make profit.”“I like Rayson’s idea,” Second Elder Cobbo opined. “We’re extending our clan to the river, but that won’t necessarily improve our trade. We’ve still got to deal with the association regarding the Devil Knife Clan’s issue, so it’s better to earn