[What now?] I shrugged. That was for them to decide.
“So, you are the monster we were looking for all this time?” Astarion asked though we all knew it was a rhetorical question.
[Hmm, I guess?]
“So it was all lies? You were just playing, making a fool out of us?” Gale said, appearing emotionally hurt.
[No… Not really. I just recently realized the mysterious monster you were hunting and I were the same being.] I admitted frankly.
“And when was that exactly?” Fen questioned with undeserved authority.
I turned to her. [Honestly? When you found the remains of the Wyrm. I recognized the place and the scales. Though, I wasn’t completely sure, so I didn’t say anything and just went with the flow.] I said.
“And just like that, you killed… four guardians? Why would you lie to us?” Gale demanded an explanation.
I was baffled. [I didn’t lie. Everything I told you was true. I had no idea about this place being protected by guardian beasts. I thought they were just normal Spirit Beasts. As for the Slothrosity…] I let the sentence hang in the air for effect. What followed was a series of rapid-fire questions.
“Slothrosity?”
[This… Sleeper beast, as you called it. It looked like a sloth and a monstrosity. I combined the two. Anyway, it attacked me first, so I was just defending myself.]
“It attacked you? With sleep magic?” Astarion queried.
[Yeah.]
“But… You weren’t affected!” Bai protested.
I turned to her, outraged. [So what? Just because I’m immune to its attacks I should let it bully me? Nah! That’s not how that works.]
I could see some of them wanted to protest, but they held themselves back until Gale spoke again.
“That thing you just did… with the blood…”
[Oh, the ritual?]
“Is that what it was? What does it do?” He asked.
[It’s a classical technique from my Sect. It allows a person to absorb the traits of a beast.]
“It does?!”
I lifted my hands to calm him down. [It’s not as simple as it sounds. It’s easy to go overboard and curse yourself if you aren’t careful.]
“Oh…”
“What Sect are you from?” Astarion questioned.
[Myriad Beasts Sect. Ever heard of it?] I replied.
They all shook their head. “No. Is it a large Sect?”
[A shame. And yes, you could say it’s pretty large. It’s also very far away.]
Gale frowned, rubbing his chin. “So it is… But then… Why are you here?”
I sighed. [It’s… a long story. Let’s just say that I was a victim of unfortunate circumstances.]
They accepted that and didn’t probe further, and because they didn’t have any other questions, we just stood there in silence. I was the first to speak that time.
[So, now what? We fight?]
Instantly the atmosphere changed and they all tensed, taking defensive postures. They were quite on edge for being powerful Spirit Realm Cultivators. Anyway, I was just joking about the fight, but they seemed to take it seriously, haha.
“I’d rather not…” Gale said slowly, but his eyes were sharp and his body tense. If I did anything he considered aggressive, I had no doubt he would spring into action.
“We still have to finish the mission…” Fen mentioned as she glanced at him. “And since we found the monster...”
Gale took a deep breath. I could guess what he was thinking since they explained their purpose well enough. “Since this monster hunt was all a big misunderstanding…” He began. “I’d like to ask you to stop killing the guardian beasts here and leave this place. That way we can finish our mission without spilling any more needless blood.”
[Hmm…] I considered doing them this favor. But first I needed to know one more thing. [How many guardian beasts are there left in the valley?]
Gale considered this. “You took out… fours, right? If that’s the case, there should be two left. Oh, man, the higher-ups won’t be happy.” He massaged his temples in clear frustration.
I nodded. My Soul was stuffed and I was ready to advance to the Eighth Layer. That was as much as I was going to get out of this place. Unless, of course, I wanted to turn the Valley of a Thousand Mountain Peaks into a dead zone. Maybe that way I could scrape together enough for another Minor Realm. Obviously, that was never going to happen. I would have to slaughter every single living being and absorb all their Souls. Even the weak ones that would degrade almost instantly. Too time-consuming and totally not worth it.
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[Sure, alright. I’ll leave the valley so you can finish your job. In return, you’ll tell me more about this city you keep mentioning.]
“Hmm, right... I forgot you aren’t from here. We can do that.” Gale said and the others nodded.
“That other group was sent out of the valley, we should probably leave soon.” Astarion mentioned.
Apparently, they triggered the return function on their bracelets as soon as they were out of danger. Those guys got traumatized and wanted nothing more than to leave.
“Right. If they think a monster is still here, or worse yet, that a guardian beast went rogue, that would bring too many eyes to this place.” Gale nodded somberly. “We have to quickly explain the situation.”
[And how do you plan to do that?] I said, squinting my eyes. They couldn’t lie to their superiors, so that would make it difficult. I really didn’t want to be hunted again.
“Simple. We tell the truth. Four guardian beasts are dead, but the disturbance has been taken care of. The monster will not be returning. Right?” He looked at me, his gaze carrying a lot of meaning.
[Yeah, okay. Can do. I have no use for this place anymore anyway.] I said. It was just a shame I didn’t collect any herbs, but they weren’t all that valuable anyway, so I wasn’t too bothered.
“Great! Then let’s pack up the camp quickly and… Ah!” He turned to me again. “Can you fly without your draconic form? We need to be discrete, especially since you are here illegally, so if you need help…”
I rose from the ground and floated steadily in the air as the answer to his question.
“Right, yes, of course… Of course, you can manipulate Space, why am I even surprised.”
----------------------------------------
After packing up the camp, we flew straight out of the valley. The group stopped momentarily at a pagoda to return the golden bracelets they wore as well as send news of their task completion. I cloaked myself with all kinds of techniques and gave the building a wide berth before rejoining them sometime later further away from the valley.
The city they were from, they told me, had no official name. Well, at least not a permanent one. It was just referred to as The City. That’s because the three Clans that controlled it could never agree on anything, and as such it had no official label.
Having about the same amount of power, the three Clans could never overpower each other and so they eventually settled on some kind of three-way truce. They didn’t even trust each other enough for two of them to band together and take out the competition. They were too anxious about getting backstabbed or double-crossed, which had happened in the past, resulting in this paranoid outlook on the world.
That was actually great as that somehow stabilized the region, letting it flourish as they tried desperately to one-up each other and gain supremacy. It never happened. Almost as if by decree from the Heavens themselves, the three grew in unison.
Gale mentioned his group had close ties to one of the Clans as he was the 31st son of the 75th Elder in line to the position of the Patriarch in the Clan. That was to say he was a nobody, but a nobody with a smidgen of power and some connections to the upper echelons. It was also the reason he managed to get the job of clearing out the monster from the valley.
Considering they took more than two months I thought the reward would surely not be worth it as any monetary gain they could receive could easily be just created since they were Spirit Realm Cultivators.
Well, good thing the reward was not cash then. It was access to the sacred library the three Clans controlled, which only those in the Sky Realm could access. The fact that they could even enter it before reaching that Realm was a huge boon for them. Especially since it contained the knowledge on how to reach that height of Cultivation.
That knowledge was something many would risk their lives for and was worth more than money. Even I had no idea what had to be done to reach the Sky Realm. It wasn’t as simple as just gathering enough Soul Essence anymore. Even just for the Spirit Realm, a Cultivator had to build a foundation, sprouting a Spirit Seed inside their Dantian that would connect body and Soul on a much deeper level. While sounding simple, it was anything but. Creating a Spirit Seed out of nothing was an incredibly difficult thing to do, something many spent centuries of effort on, only to fail in the end.
Luckily for those in a Sect, or a Clan in this case, an Elder at the peak of the Spirit Realm could create a Pseudo-Spirit Seed and implant it into a Cultivator at the doorstep of the Spirit Realm. That way all that effort could be skipped and a person could directly advance without worry. Such things were common.
Though the Cultivator would be much weaker by having a Pseudo-Seed rather than a normal one, it was better than nothing. I suspected a similar step also prevented people from advancing to the Sky Realm, and just the knowledge of it would be of huge help to many.
I finally understood why the reward was so tempting for Gale. He was nearing the peak of Spirit Realm and he was still relatively young. In another century or so, he could break through the final hurdle and become a person of importance.
As for why they called it the final hurdle, the reason was simple. Nobody could reach the Demigod Realm, which was the one after Sky. There were rumors of a few ever achieving it, but none of them lived anywhere close to The City. Also, no information about that Realm was to be found anywhere.
The only thing I knew about the Demigod Realm was that the old ancestor of Myriad Beasts Sect was aiming to become one. And he was working on reaching that height for a thousand freaking years! The man was patient as hell, even stockpiling all the Body Essence of Cultivators who died in his Sect.
The man was crazy. A crazy genius. I could respect his grind, even if I was kind of annoyed his stupid magic portals kidnapped me against my will.
Anyway, back to The City and the Clans that controlled it.
Gale and his group were from the Verdant Ironwood Willow Clan and most of their members were Formation Masters and Builders. It was no small feat to construct some of their creations, especially since they used exotic materials and cores of powerful beasts to power their magic.
I already experienced some of their power at the hands of Astarion, and I had to say, if they were all as good at creating Formations as he was, their people would be a force to be reckoned with. Especially if given enough time and resources to prepare.
Then there was the Blazing Bloodstone Thunderbolt Clan, known for their fighting skill and fiery temper. Gale mentioned I would probably fit nicely with their members as my fighting style was similar to theirs. They just didn’t use beast bloodlines.
And finally, there was the Misty Shadow Moon clan full of Pill and Poison Masters. While appearing the weakest on the surface, without any strong warriors, they were in fact probably the deadliest ones. While officially they denied it, everybody knew they had a secret order of assassins whose members could take out targets half a Realm higher than themselves in some cases. They were extremely skilled and tricky to deal with.
It was safe to say that if those three ever got into a real, all-out war, The City would probably be poisoned, blown up by fire and brimstone, and forever cursed to remain a forbidden zone by the deadly Formations the Verdant Ironwood Willow Clan had no doubt hidden all over the place.
And so, under the threat of mutual destruction, the three lived peacefully.
Having explained a few tidbits about The City and its surroundings, I was left with a pretty good impression of how it would look. The short education reached its conclusion just as a dark cloud appeared on the horizon.
“Well, there it is, The City!” Gale proudly announced. The rest of his group cheered for finally returning home. The dark cloud was the smoke rising from the industrial part of the settlement.
[That’s The City?!] I exclaimed loudly. It was absolutely nothing like how I had imagined it to be. I somehow felt scammed despite having been promised nothing.
How should I say this… I expected something… different.