Richard found it difficult to leave the mansion since he had to have an escort at all times. On multiple occasions, two of his elder brothers, Derik and even Neil, would find him trying to leave and start random nonsense with him. They would either sarcastically congratulate him for his win or falsely express their sympathy for his lost subordinates.

The only one who seemed to actually feel bad was his elder sister Alyss. She was around 18 and was the person behind the Lava Lizard Tribe. She had actually planned on kidnapping He Zhi but was stopped by her butler. If she had gotten him, then her Father would have taken him from her.

When she realized that her little brother was being the target of such unfairness, she conveniently forgot about her original plans. Alyss had instead decided to back him up. She was personally upset at their Father and elder siblings anyway.

The Elder Siblings, Herald’s first four children, included Michael, Derik, Jessica, and Neil. They had a proud desire to come out on top in any situation, apparently a combination of their Father and Mother’s personalities.

The Younger Siblings, which included Gabriel, Alyss, Trisha, and Richard, were very passionate and quick to act. They followed their hearts, which made them no different from their elder siblings. The difference was the authority they had.

Of course, the Elder Siblings all had a firm grip on the surrounding people, with military, connections, public support, and even the economy. In fact, this was respective towards the Young Masters themselves. So Michael had the military, Derik had the connections, and so on.

The Younger Siblings had to make due with simple operations like foreign diplomacy or education. The difference was actually the two siblings sitting in Richard’s room.

“Sis, I don’t know what to do! I can’t seem to find a way out to go warn He Zhi!”

“I could go. They are paying attention to you, but not me. Maybe I can do something.”

“No, you would still have to be followed by one of Dad’s men. Don’t you also need to return to your mercenary group?”

Indeed, she wasn’t one to be wed off to some noble or Mage. She desired to earn her things by herself. Their Father didn’t approve, of course. But their Mother did.

“That’s it! Why not send one of my men?!”

“You could do that? Please!”

“Alright. As long as I don’t leave the mansion, we won’t be followed. I’ll just call them here and then we can send them off.”

“Thank you!”

“No problem, little brother.”

========================================

Some time passed, but still, no word came. Come to find out, her men never came back, either. The worst part was that the guards never even said anything about seeing them. It seemed he was tailed and silenced.

A couple days had passed since their initial conversation, but Derik and a few of his men left to go find He Zhi.

========================================

Another week passed when they returned, empty handed and scowls on their faces.

“Hehe, good! It seems Brother Derik was unsuccessful!”

“Hm? What do you mean, Brother Richard? You act as if you knew what my objective was.”

“Haha! That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you now have to report to Dad!”

Derik’s face had turned ugly, nearly grabbing his new spear from the waiting attendant. He paused, then continued on his way, not giving Richard a second glance.

“Oh…please be okay. When I can, I will help get back your siblings! I must!”

Richard walked back to his room, unaware that he was probably biting off more than he could chew with his train of thought.

Why?

Because he would deliberately be acting against his Father’s wishes!

=======================================

Back on the Cyrian Mountain, He Zhi was practicing in almost plain sight. He had long ago searched the bodies of the Mages, searching for valuable equipment to help him in his ventures.

However, when he saw the multitude of bodies, he threw up. Not the humans, but the frogs inside the Magic Bag, a simple tool that had a set size. Thankfully, it was large enough to bring the other bodies together.

He had come across the corpses in the marshlands and gathered them all up. He Zhi then started a mass burial of his family. The other frogs were sent to the village since he didn’t care about the marshland frogs.

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But, he did care about the villagers.

His own siblings, however, needed a burial. They were given a proper tomb beneath the massive dead tree that Arthur used to use as his. There he had found the unfortunately mangled corpse of one of the groupies.

She had flown into the trees and must have broken something important.

He gave her a burial as well.

He visited Elder heron who didn’t know what to do. They already had new eggs on the way, so their family was not gone. Unfortunately, the loss of their family members still hit them hard. They only had one daughter left, after all.

They talked enough to come to terms, but then He Zhi asked an important question.

“Do you want her back?”

“Of course I do!”

“Then help me.”

Seeing the dark expression on He Zhi’s face brought understanding to the old bird.

“Okay.”

The little frog man produced little cloths. These were meant to carry the frog and heron eggs to a safe location. One that He Zhi already had in mind.

There wasn’t a lot of eggs left since some were caught up in the battle.

Only two of He Wu’s children survived and only five of Big Brother’s survived.

He Yi and He Yu stood guard over the eggs while He Zhi practiced his drill behind the waterfall. The ground was already wet, so digging was dangerous. Fortunately, they only needed a small entrance for now. Enough for the herons to enter.

Once he got to drier stone, he enlarged the tunnel, making it to where the larger frogs could hop around. Some water from the waterfall managed to come inside, making the place damp, but not wet. In fact, it made for a very comfortable place for the frogs.

He worked nonstop for several days there was enough room for the others to easily walk around. He Zhi returned to the large pond where the herons used to live and dug for the object. It turned out to be a broken fan. After finding more of the Riverweed, he returned to the hidden area behind the waterfall.

He constructed a pedestal for the fan and made several small puddles big enough for several large eggs and placed some of the Riverweed in them. With this, they would have something to eat when they woke up.

He Zhi continued to drill a way out, since going through the waterfall was a dangerous idea. If he hadn’t used his powers to weaken the force, then the eggs would have broken!

He made wide training rooms and created several stone dummies to practice on. In one place, he connected the river to a small pond. Here, they would farm fish for food. Everything was well hidden and if anyone not an ally tried to wiggle through the waterfall entrance, they would be speared through in an instant.

It didn’t take long for the eggs to hatch. The seven children began to quickly grow. The weird part was their childish appearances. Obviously, the big frogs were just bigger versions, but the froglings were like little humanoid tadpoles! They already had arms and legs! Not only that but their tales were magnificent, like a fish’s, not like sperm!

Thank goodness.

Luckily, both of the froglings managed to succeed at the special rotation. In fact, one of the giant frogs succeeded too! He Zhi wondered if they would just end up being bigger versions of the froglings or retain more of their froggy details.

Well, they still had a long way to go before they could continue with their training.

But that wasn’t what was on He Zhi’s mind. He kept looking at the kids and seeing his siblings who he had lost. He couldn’t stand the thought of seeing his close ones die like that. Of course, in his previous life, he hadn’t been close to anyone, not even his family, but in this one…

He just realized that he hadn’t gone anywhere without his family being nearby at all. And now…he was surrounded by strangers.

He was so wrapped up in the depressing mood, he didn’t notice Derik and his men searching for him. At this point, the animals could sustain themselves easily, not having to go far for food. Instead, they all focused on training and meditation.

A couple days passed and the men left, never alerting He Zhi to their presence at all.

In his tireless pursuit of creating a hidden entrance for the herons and the weaker people to leave, he found a new discovery. Multicolored stones!

Well, the stones were only one color, but the colors were diverse! There were red stones, blue stones, green stones, and even yellow stones! There were purple stones, white stones, black stones, gray stones, and clear stones!

Each one felt powerful, just like the broken fan or those little gadgets that the brat had.

These were Magic Stones!