The patriarch's voice was raised as he scolded him, "I tell you, I am so angry right now that if you were a child, I would put you over my knee right now and spank you until your buttocks bleed. That's how angry I am."
Lady Vena spoke with some hesitation, "Sir, isn't a rank 3 weapon too much for him? Some third-mortal-coil cultivators don't have rank 3 weapons."
The patriarchs sneered at her, "What do you know? Of course it is not too much. I have to make this kind of investment in order to impact his life in any meaningful way. Anything short of that will just be superficial."
Then the patriarch began to berate the two of them some more. He had a lot to say because the family had missed out on a talent like Arthur and because he had just lost his precious weapon. At that point, Arthur will finally recognize the value of the gift.
He had told Arthur that it was a rank 2 weapon so that it wouldn't draw too much attention to him. But Arthur will surely find out when he reaches the third mortal coil or encounters someone knowledgeable.
It can be said to be a long-term investment. Even for a cultivator at the third mortal coil like him with a 250-year life span, this investment is still long.
The investment is also expensive. Even if Arthur was a wastrel, he wouldn't have spent so much money on raising him. But he has already lost the time and opportunity to invest in Arthur's life. He can only make up for the lost time with something really expensive and precious. It made his heart ache.
After ranting for a while, the patriarch calmed down and said, "I will tell the other patriarchs about him. When he gets into a sect, the family will support him wholeheartedly. With him and Jason, we might have a chance to finally have a fourth mortal coil in the family. The status of our family will change completely."
The patriarch calmed down when he thought of the two hopes for the family.
He turned back to the window and looked up into the sky with a smile and said, "He will surely pass the regional sect examination and get into an excellent sect. If he can't do that, then no one can. In fact, those kids don't stand a chance against him. He will slaughter them."
The more the patriarch thought about it, the happier he became. He grinned as he thought about Arthur's success in the regional sect examination.
The patriarch became lost in thought. He became silent as he imagined Arthur's performance at the regional sect examination and the changes that will happen to the family if he or Jason reaches the fourth mortal coil.
Vena and Augustus didn't dare to hurry him up. They could only wait for him to finish.
While this was going on, Arthur was having a good time at the party. He had regretted coming to the party, but now, he is glad he came.
Many people were curious about him. They wanted to know why the patriarch had given him a gift. They also wanted to know who he was.
The party was being attended by members of the family only. There were some external members like mistresses and bastards, but most of them were inner members of the family who resided in the inner court.
Some of the bastards and mistresses knew him. They had heard one or two things about the crazy boy with the wild and unruly red hair. But the people of the inner court had never heard about him.
For most of them, this is the first time they will be seeing him and the first time they knew that someone like him existed in the family. So there was some estrangement between him and the rest of the family.
They were curious about him, but they kept their distance from him. Only Jason and Delia bothered to interact with him.
But Jason and his mother had to leave soon after. They had friends in the family who they wanted to speak with, so they left him alone.
He didn't mind the loneliness at all. Maybe he would have cared enough to complain if he hadn't received the bow and quiver.
Even then, he would just have found one corner to read the force diagram or left the party. But now that he had been effectively bribed, he didn't care much about what was going on in the party.
He was just waiting for his mother to return so that he could inform her that he had tried his best to suck up to his father and he was leaving. He felt that she might come after his life if he left without informing her after bragging about being more talented than his father.
She had brought him here to suck up to his father, and he had done the opposite by saying that his father wasn't that great. Knowing his crazy mother, he felt he owed it to her that he was leaving. So he waited for her.
While he was waiting, Jason came over to him. Apart from Augustus and his family, Jason is probably the only one who knew him to be a distant member of the family.
Jason had come to his fight with Skylar when Skylar first challenged him three years ago. He and Jason had fought that day. Jason had defeated him and made the public declaration that anyone who messed with his dojo would be punished by his uncle.
As usual, Jason was all smiles when he came to greet Arthur. The guy didn't put on any airs around Arthur at all.
The man of honor for the party was Jason. Many people had come to the party to greet him and give him gifts. Some people couldn't even meet him. They had to drop their gifts in a pile. Yet, he came over to greet Arthur when the rest of the family was keeping a distance from him.