Sun Jiao’s entrance caused the room to become quiet. As he entered his eyes swept over the room with a look of disdain. Though the room was dark the small light, coupled with his eyes as a cultivator, was enough for him to view the room completely.

As he approached the Heaven Council table his eyes lingered on an object pushed to the side of the room which caused a flicker of a smile to appear on his face and a hint of mischief in his eyes.

Before Sun Jiao could reach the table Left Chancellor Cao Hai, took charge of the room and broke the silence.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice. We were just-”

Sun Jiao paused before entering the center of the table where he was expected to stand. Instead he curved around the table and slowly moved towards the chair that had been pushed aside.

This action caused Cao Hai to halt what he was saying as he couldn’t tell if Sun Jiao was listening. This forced him to wait for Sun Jiao to return to a spot where he could properly conduct a discussion.

Once Sun Jiao reached the chair he grabbed it with one hand, turned and began lazily dragging it behind him around to the open end of the table.

The tilting of the chair caused the legs to meet the floor at a sharp angle which forced out a high pitched sound akin to nails across the chalkboard.

The wide and open room was designed to carry casual speaking voices into the upper reaches so that those above could easily hear the sounds below. This made the chair’s noise echo out which in turn caused a few of the ministers to flinch in surprise.

Sun Jiao took his time as he brought the chair to the corner of the U shaped table and  unexpectedly stopped.

He then straightened the chair so that it was upright on all four legs. While paying no attention to anything around him and intentionally ignoring the glares of a couple impatient ministers he brushed his clothes and straightened his sleeves.

His hand then returned to the chair and dragged it the rest of the way.

The chair stopped not in the center of the table, but instead at the opposite end of where Imperial Counselor sat. If the table was a square instead of open on one end then Sun Jiao would be seated at the head of the table.

Placing the original chair that belonged in the Imperial Counselor spot in that spot was a clear sign that Sun Jiao was facing off against the Imperial Counselor.

Moving to the front of the chair, Sun Jiao pulled out a cloth from his ring, and wiped the seat off.

All this took time to explain and rightly so for it took a while to drag the chair over.

As Sun Jiao sat down in the chair Cao Hai opened his mouth to continue, but was beat to the punch by Sun Jiao.

“Can we hurry this along? I am very busy and can’t waste time here.”

Cao Hai, Shen Duzi, and a couple of the other ministers nearly coughed up blood.

First you dragged the chair and took your time! Second you stopped moving the chair to take the time to straighten your sleeves! Finally you stopped to brush the chair off!

“HOW IS THIS BEING BUSY!?”

All of them raged inside, but kept it to themselves. Yelling wouldn’t change his attitude and he was still a member of the Sun family so they could only swallow their words.

A few turned towards Sun Shen to see his reaction, but he had a sleepy look as if he was ignoring the whole situation.

Cao Hai choked back the blood and coughed to get their attention.

“Yes. Well we were just about to vote on having you as the replacement as the Sun family representative for the Liangqiu wedding. First we need to know if you’ll accept?”

“I’ll accept. As I said though my time is important so I expect to be compensated.”

“What kind of compensation?”

Sun Shen showed interest and decided to ask the question directly. Sun Jiao had always ignored family matters and never asked anything from them.

“Transportation, guards, servants, and ten thousand spirit stones a week.”

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“WHAT? Ten thousand a week? Preposterous!”

One of the robed ministers yelled out. This was the Minister of Finances who was in charge of the treasury.

Sun Shen waved his hands to quiet him down.

“Transportation, guards, and servants are all doable. After all we can’t have you traveling without an entourage. Ten thousand is a bit too high. How about giving me some face and accepting five thousand a week?”

Sun Shen decided to handle negotiations himself. He knew the ministers had a poor view of Sun Jiao while Sun Jiao had a high view of himself. This would undoubtedly lead to conflict and, if handled poorly, cause Sun Jiao to leave. That was the best case scenario and even Sun Shen had trouble imagining the worst case and all the work that would cause him.

While Sun Shen was inherently lazy he knew that a little work now would save him a lot of work later and was willing to put in a little bit of effort. Still he knew that he could only guarantee four votes and needed two more which meant appeasing the Minister of Finance.

Sun Jiao snorted.

“You think I’m worth less than I say? I said my time is worth ten thousand a week. Give you face? If I accepted five thousand then wouldn’t that be the same as slapping my own face?”

Sun Jiao didn’t even take time to consider before refusing. Five thousand spirit stones was considered quite a large sum and was indeed giving Sun Jiao face, but Xiaobo had told him to milk them for all he could so he wouldn’t back down.

Sun Shen clicked his tongue, but didn’t reply. Ten thousand spirit stones was a fortune for a person, but for an empire it wouldn’t amount to much. It wasn’t worth the effort arguing as it would only affect the Minister of Finance vote. Even without his vote there would be six other ministers and he only needed to convince two.

“Hmph. How arrogant! I vote no. After hearing his conditions I can’t possible agree to the costs. I’m sure everyone will keep that in mind as they vote.”

Seeing an opportunity to take charge of the vote Right Chancellor Fu Kun quickly seized it.

He was upset with the prince for giving control of this meeting to the Left Chancellor and used Sun Jiao’s high price as his reason to vote against Sun Jiao going. He also made sure to give the ministers a way to also vote against it as well.

What minister would dare vote no against a proposal from the first prince if they didn’t have a reason? Now they could vote yes or no without worrying about offending or insulting Sun Shen.

Cao Hai laughed before speaking.

“I vote yes. He’s a member of the Sun family so how could his price be too much? Aren’t you insulting the Sun family by saying that? What do you say Minister Xia?”

Cao Hai and Fu Kun was the first vote Sun Shen counted on. The two would always vote against each other which meant at least one vote yes.

“I vote yes as well. How could I possibly insult the Sun family?”

Minster Xia was the second vote Sun Shen Counted on. Xia Tan was the Minister of Architect and was a well known supporter of Sun Shen. Cao Hai knew that Xia Tan would side with Sun Shen and thus asked him first so that he could follow up perfectly.

By now Fu Kun stomach was twisted with anger, but he didn’t show any signs of stress. He might not have the guts to argue against Cao Hai, but he had no fear of the ministers. Turning towards Minister Xia he vented his anger.

“How is voting no insulting the Sun family? Does the money not belong to the Sun Family? Isn’t voting to frivolously spend that money an even bigger insult? In fact I’d say- ”

Fu Kun started his rebuttal but was interrupted by Sun Shen.

“Settle down. Just vote yes or no how you feel. The Sun family won't be insulted either way.”

He let Cao Hai speak his mind to sway the yes votes, but how could he let Fu Kun negatively impact the votes? It would be better put an end to that line of thinking immediately rather than drag things out.

Sun Jiao gave a small chuckle and spoke to himself just loud enough that the others could hear.

“Can’t even keep things in line. What a joke.”

Minister Herald slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and pointed a finger at Sun Jiao.

“You dare insult the Imperial Counselor!?!”

Sun Jiao lifted an eyebrow and looked towards the cloaked man with disdain as if to say ‘so what?’

The Minister Herald was speechless. He expected Sun Jiao to bow his head and apologize for insulting the first prince Sun Shen. The Minister was strong enough to crush Sun Jiao with a single finger, but if he insulted Sun Shen then he would beg on his knees for forgiveness.

Now that Sun Jiao wasn’t begging the Minister Herald didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t attack Sun Jiao and no one else was speaking up. Even Sun Shen was pretending not to notice as he merely wanted to hurry things along so that he could go back to bed.

Having no other choice the Minister sat down.

“I vote no.”

If the man wasn’t wearing a hood to hide his face everyone would see it was beat red, but whether that was in anger or embarrassment only the man knew.

“That’s two for and two against. Who’s next.”

Fu Kun quickly spoke up before Cao Hai could.

“I of course vote no. We can’t afford it.”

The Minister of Finance confirmed his vote against sending Sun Jiao. He figured that whatever alternative they could find would definitely be cheaper.

“No as well.”

“I also vote no.”

Following the Minister of Finance were two other Ministers voting against. The Minister of Artifacts and the Minister of Exploration.

These two were good friends with the Minister of Finance and would often vote together unless their was a good enough reason not to.

The Minister of Exploration was in charge of exploring the universe. From ancient battlegrounds, to hidden legacies, to unexplored worlds and uncharted territory. Often he would find various magical weapons and other such artifacts.

He would then sell the artifacts at a high price to the Minister of Artifacts who was in charge of storing and maintaining them for the Sun Empire.

The weapons and artifacts discovered naturally belonged to the Sun Empire so the money received for selling them would be handed over to the Minister of Finance. Of course the Minister of Exploration would take his cut for finding them.

In order to buy the items the Minister of Artifacts would request the money from the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Finance would naturally give him the money as he was acquiring the item for the Sun Empire.

Once the Minister of Artifacts received the item the Minister of Finance would issue a reward for raising the amount of items the Sun Empire possessed.

Each and every transaction meant additional work for the Minister of Finance so he would reward himself for facilitating the deal.

Through this process the three had earned a significant fortune. They made sure to not take too much however as they couldn’t be too excessive. The amount they took would never be more than half the value of the item. This meant the Sun Empire profited with every item and those involved were rewarded.

Sun Jiao of course knew nothing of this and only knew that more and more votes were going towards no. Didn’t they need him to go? Wouldn’t they spend anything to have him go? Sun Jiao was starting to regret not accepting the 5 thousand offer, but he didn’t let it show and remained silent in his chair.

“Ha ha. Five against and two for. Two more against and things will be decided.”

Left Chancellor Fu Kun joyfully announced the total votes so far. He was feeling much better now that things were going towards his vote. If he won then that would be another victory over Cao Hai.

The next to speak was the Minister of Justice. He had been thinking things over for a while and finally come to a decision.

“My vote is no. You’ll stay here. Now that I finally have you in front of me how could I let you go?”

The man stood up and removed his hood. He was a handsome middle-aged man with blue eyes and golden hair with a touch of grey throughout.

Pointing his finger at sun jiao he roared with righteousness.

“Sun Jiao! You are under arrest!”