Chapter 751   The Great Elder

In the Private Room of Jingshi Hotel, the atmosphere was quiet. In fact, it was so silent that anyone could hear a pin drop.

A few white-haired men gathered together in the middle of the room, seated. Beside them were from a younger generation. None of them spoke as they stared at the doorframe.

All of them were quite deep in thought.

It was as if they were waiting for someone.

“Tangtang, you’re finally here! Welcome.”

Elder Li was sitting adjacent to the entrance. When he saw Yao Tang and her other two companions stepping into the conference room, he smiled and greeted them.

They were all in extremely high spirits.

Elder Li looked like he had just found the elixir for immortality from the way he was grinning from ear to ear.

Yao Tang was immediately surrounded by the presence of elders.

There were only a dozen or so people in total, quite fewer than she had expected. They couldn’t even fill up the two tables.

“Elders, good morning.” Yao Tang nodded, taking her seat.

President Tan swept his eyes across the banquet.

His eyes widened by a fraction, but he didn’t say a word. Instead, he escorted his student inside.

Tan Jian, however, was not one for formalities. As soon as he took one look around the room, he blurted out, “There’s not a lot of people in the pavilion, huh?”

His voice echoed across the hall.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Deng Hai, Elder Li’s apprentice, stood up. A faint smile coursed through his lips. “We still have two people who were stuck in traffic,” he said slowly. “Please, take a seat first.”

He quickly gestured them to the empty seats.

President Tan sat down on the right side of Yao Tang. Elder Xu sat right beside them.

He nodded at them with a smile, but he said nothing else.

Despite feeling guilty about his son’s outburst, he still felt as if something was wrong!

There were two people who still haven’t arrived. Even then, that would make them about twenty in total. It was far too small.

Previously, he had checked everything he needed to know about the Cabinet. He knew that there were about ninety elders. This wasn’t even half of them!

Where were the other 70?

What’s going on?

“Shouldn’t there be more than 90 people who have registered in the Cabinet?” he asked the man beside him. “Why are there only 20-odd people attending now? Are the others not going?”

Elder Xu’s eyes flashed in surprise.

He didn’t seem to expect that someone would ask him a question. His face had gone blank for a second, not knowing what to say.

The entire hall fell silent.

Feeling as if he had said something he shouldn’t have, President Tan simply smiled and tried to change the topic. “You don’t have to answer,” he said quickly. “Why don’t we just enjoy the event and forget about it?”

Deng Hai glanced up at his teacher, wanting to speak up, but in the end, he couldn’t say a word.

It was Elder Xu who had spoken up first.

“Ah, it’s not much of a secret. There are 90 people in our Cabinet, supposedly. After all, our leader—Elder Yao—was famous. Just his disciples alone were enough to fill the Cabinet. But unfortunately…he has disappeared.”

Elder Xu shook his head regretfully. When they looked around, they noticed that the other members of the cabinet were also ducking their heads in sorrow. “It’s a pity.”

“Why is that?”

“When Elder Yao was around, we were at our prime.” Deng Hai sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Now that he’s not here…”

A trace of nervousness flashed in Yao Tang’s eyes.

“Where did he go?” She immediately turned her head. Her voice echoed across the room.

However, Yao Tang’s loss of self-control didn’t seem to startle anybody.

Everyone was far too immersed in their own memories of the great man.

Even Tan Jian couldn’t help but shake his head in sadness.

“He’s gone missing.” Elder Xu sighed. “He disappeared from the world twenty years ago. No matter how far we look for him, we still don’t know where he could’ve gone, or who had taken him.”

Yao Tang dug her fingernails into her palms. No one could tell what she was thinking as she stared at her plate.

The atmosphere seemed to have frozen.

“Why isn’t Elder Chen here yet?” Elder Li chuckled. “We’ve been waiting for them quite a while. Everyone must be pretty hungry, hm?”

Only then did they remember that not everyone had arrived yet.

There were still two empty seats.