Hatsume woke with a raging headache. His headache wasn't the only thing that raged through him though. He lost and had to swear an oath to a random upstart.
Hatsume formed his hands into fists, and slowly calmed the raging storm of emotion inside him. How long had it been since he lost control like that? Not long enough. But the fight had been the most frustrating fight he had ever been in.
An enemy that didn't even fight back, and just evaded, taunting him with every missed attack? Just about the worst matchup a berserker could get. Sure, anger was power, but uncontrolled anger was uncontrolled power. And the power you didn't control was worse than the power you didn't have.
He thought back towards the oath he had to swear to survive.
I, Hatsume, hereby swear I will not, through action, inaction or thought, reveal the actual power or other secrets of the cultivator Triss to anyone.
Now, that oath said nothing of the useless louts that were his disciples. He allowed his aura to sweep over the area, and saw his disciples in the grass next to him, all still unconscious. He moved to get up, only for his bones to remind him that would be a bad idea right now.
He sent his mind inside the ring on his finger, ready to retrieve a healing pill he stored for such occasions, only to come up empty. No extra space opened to his mind, no room filled with his belongings. Nothing. Panicked, he checked himself, finding only the clothes he was wearing. Everything else had been removed.
Hatsume cursed at his adversary, the thieving scamp.
After ten minutes of that, he felt a little better. Losing his ring hurt. Hurt more than just about anything else she could have done to him. But it didn't hurt as much as losing his life would have. What to do now? He would have to wait at least another hour until his bones healed enough for him to move again. That meant he had ample time to think.
He swore he would not reveal her power in any way. Nor her secrets. Why did she want to stay hidden? Hell if he knew. He knew one thing for certain though, he'd stay as far away from that girl as he could, regardless of what happened. She had most of the advantages on her side after all. She lived in a remote town, had enough cultivators working for her to found a small clan, and somehow managed to reach the third realm in less than two decades without any additional resources.
Attacking a third realm cultivator on their home turf, with several dozen other cultivators supporting her would need more resources than the clan could move into such a small town. At least not without exposing the move to their enemies, who were liable to offer the girl help in exchange for her joining them. What clan didn't want a genius in their ranks after all?
Of course, if the girl had made any moves against the clan that would be different, allowing someone like this to live for any longer, just waiting for them to grow in power would be utterly foolish.
Even with the blood debt working for her, she wouldn't be able to defeat a couple of third realm cultivators after all. No, they needed to avoid crossing paths with her as long as possible, and hope she forgot about them. Because they would meet again, considering their clan owed a karmic debt to her.
An hour later, his disciples were all woken with a rough kick into the ribs.
“Wake up! Enough sleep.” He yelled.
His disciples woke up one after another, crying out in anger after realising they had been robbed blind. That girl really seemed to like robbing people for whatever reason.
“Master, what happened?” One of his disciples asked.
“You lost. I was ambushed by a third realm expert and barely managed to fight them off. They ran, and when I turned you were all knocked out and robbed, with our prey nowhere to be seen. I decided against pursuing the target, in case the enemy expert returned. Their attack felt highly suspicious to me.” He lied. “We are leaving. The mayor wouldn't have dared cross us, especially now that the girl has people that can continue her work. Which means we have opponents we don't know about. And you don't fight such opponents on their turf."
"Yes, master. We will ready ourselves for travel." The disciple answered.
"Good. Once you're done, come to me. I need to know how you lost." He commanded.
A few minutes later they slowly walked back towards the town, and the disciple returned to his side.
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"You're here to tell me about your fight?" He asked.
"I am. We charged the girl's guards, and they charged us in turn. They ran in a strange formation, like they all had a place inside of it, and hit us in the middle, separating us in two groups.
Once we were split, they started attacking us viciously, like they were in a hurry. Started herding us around as wolves do with deer." The boy remembered with a shudder.
"They fought you like wolves? A single wolf or a pack?`" He asked,
"Like a pack of wolves master. We never stood a chance regardless of that though. They knew all of our secrets, our meridian pathways, our qi intent. They probably got information from the third realm expert you fought."
Now that was really concerning. Not the part about the girl's guards knowing his men's secrets - he could do the same easily enough. No, the way her guard fought.
If she continued growing like this, she wouldn't take longer than a century to reach immortality. And considering all her guards were reported to grow faster than they had any right to grow too? She must have found a hidden inheritance.
A powerful one at that.
"I see. Good thing we are leaving. I don't care what she did, but creating a wolf guard, or something similar means she has bigger plans than this town. Probably bigger plans than us too." He mused.
"We should hurry back, leave while the other third realm expert is still healing from our fight." He said.
"Yes, master. I will inform the others." The disciple said.
Two weeks of intense travel later, and they arrived back at the clan compound near the city.
Hatsume immediately went to report to the clan master. He sent the rest of his disciples to sleep. They barely managed to walk straight. He scoffed, weaklings. He remembered walking two weeks without break running off anger alone, back in the second realm.
“Hatsume, I see you have returned. You have succeeded then?” The master greeted him.
“I did not. We attacked the girl and her guards when they left the town." He started explaining.
"You did not? What are you doing here then?" The clan master yelled.
"I am here because we were fought off." He explained with a sigh.
"FOUGHT OFF? How incompetent can you be, being fought off by a mere second realm cultivator!" The clan leader yelled.
"My disciples were defeated without dropping a single enemy. I couldn't support them because a third realm expert ambushed me." He explained.
"DID YOU KILL THE ONE THAT INSULTED OUR CLAN? DARING TO AMBUSH YOU?" The clan master screamed.
"I didn't. I fought them off, barely, but my disciples were knocked out, our prey nowhere to be seen. I could not identify my attacker, not even their gender." He lied.
"Who do you think attacked you?" The clan master asked, voice low.
"I don't know, clan master. I know I never fought that enemy before that though." He explained.
"Who do you think dared? The mayor?"
"Not the mayor. He said he doesn't care about the girl as long as a spirit seamstress remains. We didn't attack her compound, so he wouldn't have to interfere." He explained.
"I see. A hidden expert then. Perhaps the girl's father?" The clan master mused.
"I do not know. Her mother was killed by a cultivator though. No one knows who that cultivator was though." He lied.
He did know, someone from his clan, but that was a secret, and he swore to keep her secrets to himself.
"What did you find out? You were gone long enough to find out a thing or two. Tell me what you know, I'll send another group. You are needed elsewhere." The clan master said.
"There isn't all that much." He said. "The people see her as a genius. It's an open secret she already opened her dantian, and managed to create her own qi intent. No one but her workers know what that intent is, and the only thing we managed to find out is that it allows her to move and leave her house nearly unseen.” He explained.
“Why didn't you get one of your people to join her then?” The clan master asked.
“Because she requires an oath. A heavenly oath you have to swear before she tells you anything. If you don't swear that oath? You don't get to know anything.” He explained.
“Anything else?”
“All cultivators working for her are far more powerful than they were before. Than they should be.” He said.
“I see. I will double the size of the group then.” The clan master said.
“I don't think we can afford to send that many man, clan master.” Hatsune cautioned.
“We can and we will.” The clan master yelled. “She insulted one of us in front of a sect member, so she has to die!
“You are acting foolish. Control your anger and think about it. It’s very doubtful the sect would have started any ties with us because of a lowly member. And no one but your son and two of his lackeys was present otherwise. We lose nothing by ignoring her.” He reasoned.
“WE LOST FACE IN FRONT OF A SECT! THAT CAN'T STAND!” The clan leader yelled.
“I see you are set to follow this path.” Hatsune sighed.
A pity.
“I am. Now go, and don't you dare lose again.” The clan master said, ice in his voice.
Hatsune left the raving madman behind. He wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. This operation was stupid, wasteful and embarrassing. It also was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Hatsune went towards his chambers. He had to plan for the future. For the future of his wife, his children and the others that relied on him. They needed to leave this doomed clan before someone they couldn't deal with came for them.