He didn't ask about the Patriarch. He was, Yue thought distantly, a genuinely intelligent man.
She inclined her head. "Proceed."
The ceremony took three hours.
Succession documents. Territory acknowledgments. Cultivation lineage declarations. The formal transfer of the clan seal from the Patriarch's house to the Matriarch's direct authority — which Gao handled with remarkable smoothness, citing the Patriarch's "extended retreat for advanced cultivation seclusion" in a tone that communicated clearly that he was not asking questions and would like others to follow his example.
