Hirose Hide moved between them to deescalate the tension, “Let’s stop this here. It’s just a little water. You two were the ones who mocked Sister Rin’s little sisters first, so just take it as karma.”

She knew neither of them truly wanted to face-off against Aoi Rin.

After all, Aoi Rin was still stronger than the Tributaries when she got serious. Even Hideaki Akiyoshi would only result in a draw against her at best.

Aoi Rin was the first amongst the six of them to reach Core Crystallization and at the youngest age.

The main reason that she was considered a failure was because her cultivation stagnated as soon as she formed her core despite spending most of her time cultivating in her cave.

Each of the Tributaries eventually caught up to her cultivation without showing the same signs of stopping, so she was written-off by the elders and everyone else in the sect.

Although a Core Crystallization was still impressive and could become a vice elder in the sect, a vice elder was still only a vice elder. If she could no longer compress her core and advance, she would be stuck as one of the weaker vice elders for the rest of her life.

A truly sad fate for a direct disciple of a Nascent Soul elder.

Still, the Tributaries had cultivations that either matched or barely surpassed her, so the match-up was heavily reliant on their martial skills.

Aoi Rin was simply too strong against an opponent of the same level to the extent that she could fight evenly against several of them at once.

But they could not easily back down after being slighted in front of their masters lest they would dishonor them.

They needed a reason to back down, and Hirose Hide supplied one.

Sora Yu’s scowl worsened, but he placed his sword back in his storage bag. Shimizu Mizutani let the water fall to the ground.

They wrote the grievance down in their heart and swore to themselves that they would seek her out once their cultivations surpassed her enough to make up for the difference in their combat abilities.

The three elders watched everything that happened without intervening.

Compared to the world of mortals, these sorts of scuffles were quite common in their world.

Letting the younger generation butt heads over such trifles now could help their growth in the long term. Such conflicts could improve their judgment and adaptability so that they might survive more dangerous situations when traveling outside the sect.

Kenja and Hanabi finally caught back up.

This time, Shizuka rode on Hanabi’s sword while Yoshie was still latched onto Kenja.

The elders gazed at Kenja with eyes full of suspicion, but after confirming no harm befell the girls, they did not say anything. After nodding to them, they resumed following Kaitou Daiki’s smoke cloud.

Kenja did not make a mistake this time.

He paced his speed and descent frequency to be slightly worse when compared to Hanabi in hopes that he could reestablish his image as an average cultivator.

He could not let them find out about Sakura!

“She’s definitely faking it. That little minx isn’t strained at all, and she descends whenever the little princess slows down. Why would she intentionally do this when she is obviously more capable?” Ariyoshi Miji whispered to Gao Diao and Kondo, baffled by the fact that such a bright star chose to hide her brilliance.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Che, che, che. A tree taller than the forest will be blown over by the wind. So rare to see a youngster wield such wisdom. She probably slipped up at the beginning because she forgot to consider the little girls she was carrying, but she immediately moved to rectify that. If we weren’t paying so much attention to her, she might have gotten away with it. Che, che, che, such slyness!”

Gao Diao happily pinched his moustache while occasionally glancing in Kenja’s direction. “She is more and more pleasing to the eye! Che, che, che.”

“Her relationship with that sword is extraordinary. That’s the most reasonable explanation. It’s obvious you two are not a good fit for her.” Kondo chimed in with his opinion. He was more focused on the close relationship Kenja had with his ordinary sword.

The better Kenja treated his weapon, the more Kondo wanted to apprentice him.

Even though his original desire was to resolve the issues between Kenja and Matsushita Hizumi, Kondo now viewed Kenja as a malleable and pristine metal that could be hammered and pressed into a weapon of unparalleled might. He wanted to be the one that forged Kenja into a great weapon user.

“How shameless, Third Brother. You were obviously the last one to show up, and now you’re telling us to give her up?”

“I concur. But if we’re comparing who is more shameless, Fourth Brother, you were only interested in my Little Hikaru because she beat my che-llenge before you could.”

“What about you, Sixth Brother? She already rejected any idea of making pills, yet you still haven’t moved on?” Kondo retaliated.

“You hypocrite! Did you see any willingness in her eyes when she refused to worship under you?”

“Che-ah! If we tell Fifth Sister how you treated her disciple, your future will be of greater concern than my Little Hikaru’s.”

“Stop calling her your Little Hikaru!”

“She is my Little Hikaru!”

The three silently, yet savagely bickered until they arrived at the sect’s official arena where the First Elder floated high above the arena.

Kenja noticed that the broken tiles from his training spar with Brother Shin had been repaired.

They gathered in front of Kaitou Daiki.

“The enchantments guarding the Dragon Basin were not tampered with and no one has tried entering or leaving the hole in the past three days. The pillars had not activated any of the distress signals. Also, there are no signs of life within the basin. After each of us grasp the formations inside, we will storm inside and respond—“ Kaitou Daiki paused when he noticed that the three other elders were communicating privately with aggressive faces while he gave instructions, “Am I interrupting something?”

Electricity crackled across his pores. The question was obviously rhetorical.

They immediately halted their quarrel and straightened their posture.

“Wait…did you say zero signs of life? That can’t be right!” Ariyoshi Miji realized something was wrong after hearing what Kaitou Daiki had said.

The pillars were spirits borne from rocks, infused with wisps of the souls from the sect’s elders. While they could be classified as a living entity, they did not reveal the usual signs of life.

Thus, under normal circumstances, there should be zero signs of life inside an ‘empty’ Dragon Basin. But these circumstances were not ‘normal’.

Kitamura Bolo should still be inside the Dragon Basin!

Everyone wore grim expressions when they realized the seriousness of the situation.

“We will rush in and respond accordingly. With all of us here, we should be able to handle anything with brute force. You six form pairs, and stay close,” he nodded to the Core Crystallization disciples before glancing at Aoi Rin, “Little niece, you and your partner can watch after your junior sisters.”

Kaitou Daiki quickly gave out instructions, “Hurry up and get ready. Once we finish adjusting our control of the Dragon Basin’s formations, we’re charging in.”

The three elders joined him in moving to specific spots on the arena and forming different seals with their hands to activate control over a portion of the countermeasures installed within the Dragon Basin.

“Would you like to team up, Brother Akiyoshi?”

Shimizu Mizutani had hurriedly fixed her hair and clothes after facing off against Aoi Rin. Now that her condition had returned to its ideal, dry state, she hoped to partner up with Hideaki Akiyoshi.

Hideaki Akiyoshi glanced in Kenja’s direction before replying, “My apologies, Sister Shimizu. I am worried about our junior sisters, so I think I should go help Sister Aoi watch over them.”

Staring at Hideaki Akiyoshi’s receding back, Shimizu Mizutani’s pouted in annoyance, her cheeks and chest puffing outwards.

After several steps, Hideaki Akiyoshi waved his hand at Aoi Rin, “Sister Aoi, I can partn—“

A shout cut him off, “Junior Brother Hizumi, come pair up with my elder sister!”

Kenja’s yell froze both Hideaki Akiyoshi and Matsushita Hizumi in place.