**Chapter 742: Noobs Pecking Each Other**

When David found the two of them, the fireworks in the banquet hall had just finished one round.

He made his way through the crowd and spotted Jie Ming at once, standing beside the flowerbed and silently keeping company with Augusta.

Their postures were almost identical.

One hand hung casually at their side, the other relaxedly held a wine glass. Their shoulders were slightly loose, and both wore polite, proper expressions that were clearly somewhat vacant.

If not for their noble bearing and appearance, anyone looking would have immediately realized both were spacing out.

“Jie Ming!”

David walked over quickly. The smile on his face was far more sincere than the one he had worn while greeting guests earlier.

He wore a formal deep-blue robe, a golden Colmar family emblem pinned at the collar. He looked more spirited and steadier than he had ten years ago.

Jie Ming turned his head. He smiled upon seeing David, his attitude unchanged.

Jie Ming truly did not care that he might be used. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Although he already knew he had been drawn into the Colmar family’s power struggle, and held no interest in such matters, David himself was still that same blond youth who had fought shoulder-to-shoulder with him on the planar battlefield.

David had his own reasons for choosing this path.

Jie Ming did not approve of this approach, but he understood why David had to do it—just as he could understand those veteran sixth-ring wizards whose talent had run dry and who turned to political scheming instead.

After all, not everyone could continue advancing along the path of research. Even Jie Ming himself could only keep going purely because he had been lucky.

At the very least, David was still paving the way for his family and his descendants. That alone made him better than those old schemers who only knew how to plot against one another.

“Looks like you’re doing well. Is there anything you need my help with next?” Jie Ming asked.

David’s eyes brightened. From Jie Ming’s question, he knew the other man had already grasped the current situation.

He then shook his head, a trace of embarrassment appearing in his smile. “No need to do anything.”

“Your presence here is already the greatest help. You don’t have to do a thing—just stand here.”

He lowered his voice slightly:

“Actually, the main seat this time isn’t ours. With the people invited by the patriarch present, even if certain individuals want to cause trouble, they’ll have to think twice first.” Jie Ming nodded and said nothing more.

As time passed, the guests on the teleportation square gradually arrived in full. The crowd in the banquet hall began to flow orderly toward the central area. The high-rank wizards of the Colmar family finished their greeting duties on the square and entered one after another.

Jie Ming stood at the edge of the crowd holding a glass of fruit juice. His gaze swept across the sixth-ring wizards entering the banquet hall from different directions, and his brows twitched slightly. The numbers didn’t add up.

He remembered clearly that three Colmar sixth-ring wizards had been greeting guests on the square: the family patriarch and two others. The entire Colmar family, counting David, only had seven sixth-ring wizards in total.

Three were on the square, David and his wife were already inside accompanying family or guests, so only three Colmar sixth-ring wizards should have remained.

Yet the number of sixth-ring wizards now entering from different entrances clearly exceeded seven.

Jie Ming lightly spread his perception, checking the positions of those sixth-ring wizards one by one.

Eleven.

Excluding David, his wife, and guests without special marks, there were eleven sixth-ring wizards wearing Colmar family emblems on the floor. The two men and one woman he had seen on the teleportation square were all present.

The patriarch led the way at the front, smiling and nodding in greeting to several seated guests.

The other eight sixth-ring wizards entered from the two sides of the central area—four men and four women.

As these wizards gathered, they paired up two by two, their attitudes clearly intimate.

It was obvious from their interactions that these extra sixth-ring wizards were not blood members of the Colmar family, but the partners of the Colmar sixth-ring wizards.

Jie Ming quickly reviewed the Colmar family’s power structure that Augusta had explained to him earlier in his spiritual sea.

The Colmar family was divided into two branches. One was the patriarch’s branch.

The patriarch himself was single.

On the patriarch’s side, there were two other Colmar sixth-ring wizards—one male and one female—whose partners were also sixth-ring.

That made five sixth-rings in this branch.

The other branch consisted of the remaining three Colmar sixth-ring wizards in alliance, plus their respective sixth-ring partners, totaling six sixth-rings. In terms of numbers, the patriarch’s branch was actually at a disadvantage.

Five against six—one fewer high-end combatant.

The patriarch’s sole advantage was that he was the founder of the Colmar family, holding the high ground in both name and legitimacy.

Yet this advantage was steadily being eroded in the face of the disparity in strength.

David walked over to his side. Noticing something from Jie Ming’s expression, he explained in a low voice:

“The patriarch married early in his youth. His partner sacrificed on the battlefield before reaching sixth-ring, and he never took another companion afterward. The other elders, however, all found partners after advancing to sixth-ring, and they chose fellow sixth-ring wizards. So although the patriarch is one of ours, for a long time the other side appeared to have more people on the surface.”

He paused, glancing toward the other branch.

“But now that I’ve advanced, plus Irene, the patriarch’s branch has suddenly gained two more sixth-rings. The high-end combat strength has become seven against six. We’ve already surpassed them in numbers.”

“The other branch felt a real threat, which is why they’re jumping out so eagerly for today’s wedding.”

Listening to David’s explanation, Jie Ming’s eyes swept back and forth across the sixth-ring wizards in the banquet hall several times before he withdrew his gaze, somewhat bored. Though it might hurt David’s pride to think this way, Jie Ming couldn’t help feeling bored—even wanting to laugh.

Because these sixth-ring wizards before him… were all too weak!

Every single one had been forcibly pushed to sixth-ring through resources due to insufficient wisdom. In actual pressure, many of them couldn’t even compare to stronger fifth-ring wizards.

This level of noobs pecking at each other truly couldn’t stir any interest in Jie Ming.

David continued chattering beside him about the internal factions of the family—which elder had voted for what at which meeting in which year, what conflicts had arisen from which resource allocation, and how certain sixth-ring couples had been roped in…

Jie Ming subconsciously absorbed the information but did not analyze it carefully. His gaze grew somewhat distant. Overall, he only grasped the most crucial point: when the time came to speak, suppress the opposing side completely!