Chapter 16 - Giant stepping stone.

A/n.

This will be the only regular chapter of the week. I'll start the two regular chapter a week release schedule on Monday.

Although Silver couldn’t possibly know that Tous was Hion’s father but due to the uncanny resemblance, he was certain that they were at least relatives.

Silver narrated what happened to Hion in the burning tiger room as well as how he got to the forest.

Of course he made sure to leave out some things that shouldn’t be known as well as making sure to “add salt to fresh wounds”.

His recounting of the “facts” of what happened included,

“A young boy who looked just like the Uncle here, was on the ground pleading for his life. I couldn’t bare to just leave after seeing such a pitiful scene so I went to rescue him.” said the pale-faced Silver as he pretended to struggle to say each word.

Tous was immediately enraged and wanted to slap Silver a thousand times but unfortunately for him, his father was the one who forced Ignus to make Silver recount everything that happened to everyone. How could he do anything?

On the other hand, Rolind didn’t seem too upset over the matter, he only frowned a little when he heard mention of the burning tiger room. After all Tous hadn’t told him of Hion’s encounter with Krias and within the promising children Tous had come with from the Northern Branch, were some who did indeed resemble Tous.

So in other words, Elder Rolind had yet to piece everything together and was thus just like all the other spectators who were completely clueless and were simply listening to a good story.

Silver noticed the lack of expression from Rolind and as if he suddenly remembered something said,

“Ah! I hope that brother is okay now.”

Rolind slightly curious asked,

“Was there something wrong with him?”

Silver couldn’t help but be happy, Rolind had taken the bait.

“Hehe…let’s see how you use your words to get through this?” thought Silver.

“It’s nothing big, it’s only that fellow brother had wet himself in fear. It must have been traumatizing for him, I sincerely hope he can recover in time for the beginning of the ceremony. What do you think of this Elder?” said the pale faced Silver as he looked up at Rolind with eyes filled with anticipation.

Tous was about to shout out in fury but before he could do anything, loud laughter rang out from Rolind. He seemed as if he had just heard the best joke of his life, then with a smile plastered on his face looked downwards toward Silver and then turned to face the crowd as he said,

“I  think everyone has gotten a clear understanding of what happened here as for that weird energy, it’s probably one of Old Ye’s experiments gone wrong.”

Murmurs rang out from the crowd but no one voiced any objection.

Rolind cleared his throat and continued,

“Right, I should probably give a verdict on this matter. I’ll leave the matter of that slave’s punishment to Elder Ignus, after all it was his grandson that was injured.”

Ignus said nothing but the fact that he didn’t object meant that he had consented.

Rolind then looked at Silver and with a light chuckle said,

“Young one, as for that “fellow brother” you were worried about. He has already shamed himself, there’s no way such a person can be given the right to participate in the ceremony.”

Silver was unable to contain himself anymore as he let out two light chuckles in the form of a cough.

Suddenly a loud shout sounded out from Tous,

“FATHER!”

Rolind turned to look at his son Tous, who currently had an ugly expression on his face as he pointed at Silver and then back at Rolind,

“YOu…wha..at have you done?” said Tous in a silent hoarse voice.

“Shut up, can’t you see I’m talking!” replied Rolind with anger in his voice.

Tous immediately kept quiet he only looked at Akela and said,

“You will regret this!”

Akela looked at Tous’s ugly expression and came to the conclusion that the “fellow brother” Silver was talking about must be someone close to Tous.

“Hmm…it might be that genius disciple of his who I keep hearing so much about.” Thought Akela.

Ignus also noticed Tous’s actions and had assumed the same thing so he asked Silver in a voice that was neither loud nor silent yet could be heard by everyone,

“Little Silver, do you know the name of that “fellow brother?”

Silver thought for a bit and then remembered hearing the name,

“…hion.” said Silver as he thought out loud.

Just as those words came out, Rolind spat out some blood as a result of biting his own tongue, Tous on the other hand just looked onwards at Akela as if saying, “I will remember this debt.”

Rolind’s mind was in chaos and so was Akela’s and Ignus’s, they couldn’t believe what they had just heard.

It wasn’t just them who were shocked by this, everyone present at the scene were also reeling. Probably the only person who didn’t know what was going on was Silver, however that was soon rectified when voices from the crowd began to discuss,

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“Hion!...could it actually really be that young master Hion. Then doesn’t that mean that Elder Rolind has banned his own grandson from participating in the ceremony.”

More and more people began to talk about this, some were happy seeing the great Elder Rolind make a fool of himself while others only had ugly expressions on their faces.

Suddenly an underling of Tous who had followed him here couldn’t take the insults and condescending looks anymore and so shouted out saying,

“Keep your voice down, don’t you know whose territory you’re in. Do you not wish to leave this place with your lives?”

As soon as those words were said, the atmosphere immediately became tense and hostile. After all who were they to be told that their lives were in the hands of one clan.

In the first place how had they wronged the Divine Tiger clan, all they did was listen and comment on the actions of an Elder who basically just destroyed his grandson’s future.

Add that to the fact that these people are guests who came here on behalf of different powerful factions, the words of that underling could basically be interpreted as a threat to a large number of factions.

“Huh! What did you just say? I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you properly.” said a rather old man as he gave a light chuckle.

Hearing this Tous’s underling was about to burst out another remark but then suddenly from beneath his feet, a huge inferno erupted burning him to a crisp in an instant. He didn’t even have a chance to let out a sound.

This kind of action was too sudden, “who could do such a thing in the Divine Tiger’s territory?”   was the thought going through many of the spectators minds.

“HaHa…you really haven’t changed Rolind, still as merciless as always.” said the old man as he let out a hearty laugh, one which was unbefitting of a man his age.

Rolind looked at the old man and he suddenly clenched his teeth until veins could be seen spiraling from his forehead to his neck.

“Senior Emphos, I’m sorry you had to listen to that buffoons ramblings. Please let me compensate you by giving you “that”.” Said Rolind.

As soon as he heard Rolind mention “that” the old man instantly raised his thick, bushy eyebrows revealing two blood red eyes shining with excitement.

“Mm…Junior really does know how to talk, very well lets go now.” Said the old man as he nodded his head.

The old man was someone Rolind had invited in order to make Hion his disciple. At first the old man was to witness Hion’s performance in the ceremony and then decide whether or not to take him in as a disciple, however because of Rolind’s mistake things have changed. He now has to bring out a family treasure in order to bribe the old man.

This only served to fuel his rage towards the entire Southern branch.

In his mind, he believed that only someone as sly as Ignus would be able to fool him therefore although he had hate for Silver too but it was impossible for him to put the blame on him.

“Ignus, you’ve really done well this time. Just you wait, I promise I will pay you back a hundred times over.” And with that thought Rolind led the old man towards the exit of the forest while ignoring everyone else’s gazes.

Tous quickly followed behind his father but not before apologizing for his underling’s foolishness.

It was at this time that Ignus and Akela finally woke up from their shocked state, they both turned to look at Silver but didn’t say anything at all. In fact it wasn’t just them who were looking at Silver but everyone present was also doing so.

No one knows what each of them were thinking about but as for Dion he was excited,

“I was with Akela the entire time, we even came here together. There’s no way that scheme was made by him as for whether or not Ignus was involved, I can’t tell for sure. Bu…but if, this is all that child’s doing then in the future he can definitely rise to become one of the Captains or even Commanders of the West.”

Silver on the other hand was feeling neither excited nor happy, in truth he didn’t even put Rolind and Tous in his thoughts. In his mind his plan had already began and that plan involved creating the perfect training environment, “it is impossible to become truly strong unless you overcome everything in front of you, do not fear adversity but rather welcome it.” This was the motto Silver lived by in his previous life and now his first giant stepping stone had presented itself, the Nothern Branch of the Divine Tiger Clan.

The main emotion Silver was feeling right now was relief, everything had gone his way.

First, he had no need to come up with an excuse for that mysterious energy that came from the mask thanks to Rolind and secondly Krias had been placed in Ignus’s custody which makes fulfilling the agreement he made much less complicated.

With all that out of the way, Silver couldn’t help but breathe out a sigh of relief. He then looked up at Akela and said,

“Father, I’m feeling weak.”

Akela looked at his son’s pale complexion and then finally came to a decision,

“I really can’t figure this child out. Anyway first I’ll take him to his room to rest, then we’ll slowly discuss what happened here.”

With that Akela apologized to Dion for not being able to accompany him and then immediately left however Ignus on the other hand didn’t leave and instead went to visit Old Ye.

After those two went their separate ways, the rest of the people also left the forest and headed back to the hall.