“We need you to come back.”
“…Why are you here Falo?”
“Did you not hear me? We need you to come back.”
“100 years Falo…100 years. That’s how long I’ve had to live without my wife by my side. I will not return. Leave.”
“We understand you needed to grieve, and we have given you more than enough time to do so, but you owe us. You owe us a lot.”
“…Choose your words carefully Falo. I owe you, nor that guild a single thing. All my debts were repaid before you were even born. Do not test my patience. Leave. Now.”
“We are not scared of you. We are definitely not scared of your Lineage either. The Infernals have never come looking for you, so we know they don’t care about you, and even if they did, we do not fear them. Also, just to let you know, you don’t get to decide when your debts are paid. We do. Now you will be returning with me today whether you like it or not. Do not make this hard on us for your own sake Graylan.”
“You do not fear my Lineage huh….HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!”
Graylan then took out what looked to be a small communication device, and a few button clicks a call was put through and a voice was heard from the small device.
“It’s good to hear from you Graylan, it’s been quite some time. Ready to come home? We will come get you.”
“It’s good to hear from you too. Tell the Patriarch I will come home as long as the guild known as Black Scoro Syndicate no longer exists in any universe.”
Before the voice that answered could respond, a much deeper and powerful voice could be heard from the device.
“It will be done. A ship is on the way to your location.”
That was all that was said before the communication device was disconnected.
Falo looked on in disdain.
“Was that suppose to scare me Graylan? Maybe you have forgotten my words from earlier. We do not fear your Lineage. Now will it be the easy way or the har-..”
Multiple alarms started sounding from the devices that Falo was carrying on his person. Graylon didn’t say a word and just watched with a deadpan look on his face.
- The Eradication of the Black Scoro Syndicate
It was now morning. After finalizing my plans to leave today, I spent the night briefly looking through the books in the ring.
The Qi Refinement cultivation book was titled ‘Infernal Qi’. Calling it a ‘book’ was doing it a bit of a favor since it was only a few pages long. Something I’m realizing was a common theme among books related to cultivation. Though I guess it makes sense to an extent since the books I’ve been reading either contained the bare bones basics like the ones in the Tutorial, or like this one was acutely specialized.
Anyway.
The book talked about two main things. How to absorb and rotate Qi within one’s body and convert Qi into Infernal Qi. Of course, this was my first time hearing about converting Qi into a different type of Qi and of course, I had a lot of questions about it, but I’ll learn eventually. Moving on, the book explained both of those techniques in depth, while also talking about things one should look out for during the process to avoid mistakes.
This was something I needed to dedicate proper time and care to reading, not something I needed to rush my understanding of. Next came the three techniques.
They were as follows. Infernal Empowerment (Early), Flame Step (Mid), and finally Black Lance (Peak).
Three different techniques that all do different things for different stages of the Qi Refinement Realm. It’s nice that I got three different techniques, but it’s a little bittersweet I won’t be able to use all three of them immediately. Though it’s not that bitter since I’m sure it would take me time to master all of them, one per stage will ensure that I only focus on the relevant technique.
Though that wouldn’t stop me from taking a look at all three of them, and that’s what I did last night. The first one was fairly simple. It was about redirecting Qi towards my shoulders, arms, and wrists, for greater control and more powerful attacks with my spear. Next was the Flame Step, which was an interesting one. In fact, both this and the Black Lance technique were interesting.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Both of them had the same words at the top once you opened the book.
‘For Wielders of the Eternal Flame’. Which I guess means that if you can’t use Eternal Flames then you likely can’t use these techniques.
Anyway, Flame Step sounded cool. The gist of it was that I would send rapid bursts of flame imbued Qi out through the soles of my feet which will in turn propel me forward at rapid speeds every time my feet touch any solid ground. It genuinely sounded cool. Looking forward to that one.
Next came Black Lance, which was exciting as well. It was a ranged attack. Essentially, I would be forming a lance of sorts, out of my Qi infused flames while almost simultaneously creating a small explosion behind it that would shoot it out towards my target.
It was interesting, and I wondered just how much it deferred from the ranged attacks I can already create. Obviously, it used Qi, but couldn’t I just create a lance myself made out of Qi and accomplished the same thing? Why would it need a technique?
That was my main question when it came to techniques, but I’m sure I’ll find out in due time.
All in all, I was looking forward to delving into all of these books, with the cultivation one, and the Infernal Empowerment technique up first. Though they will wait until after I come back.
The City Lord mansion was a rather large building. One the second floor alone were six total rooms. My office, my bedroom, 3 other bedrooms, and one room that is empty for now. I guess I could use it for something. Anyway, my bedroom was the biggest, and inside was a large bed, another desk and chair, an attached closet and even an attached bathroom.
It was nice.
Though the other three bedrooms had similar layouts, only much smaller. Both Lirian and Frian stayed in two of these rooms while the third one remained unoccupied for now. \
When I exited the room, both of them almost instantly exited their rooms and gave their typical greeting, the whole ‘I greet the Patriarch thing’.
“Lirian. As discussed, before you will remain behind to help protect the City while I’m gone. You don’t really have to follow anyone’s orders per se but take what Richard says into account before making any brash decisions. You should’ve seen him yesterday, do you remember?”
“Yes Patriarch.”
“Good, then I’ll trust you to take care of things.”
“Yes Patriarch!”
He seemed to have gotten excited after that.
Interesting.
Anyway, I left the building, only instead of my outfit from yesterday, I was in the tunic and pants combo that Elder Zal left for me in the ring. Of course, just like the Tutorial clothes, it fit perfectly.
I walked out of the building and with my spear in hand, and the boys and only Frian following me, I quietly left the City.
It was still very early in the morning, and apart from a few people wondering around, and the guards at the gate and atop the walls, no one really saw me.
Though I’m sure the stronger residents at the City noticed I left. There was nothing I could do about that. It was also that reason why I left Lirian in the City. Jrino, Greja and the others were of course stronger than Lirian, but that didn’t mean I should leave everything up to them to solve. My people needed to be able to stand on our own two feet eventually.
With that being said.
I was now out of the City.
I really only walked a few feet away before taking in the scene before me. Surrounding the City was really just nice green grass for a while, but I could definitely see things in the distance. To north I could just barely make out the faint shape of what appeared to be some massive mountains, and I could see something similar straight in front of me which was the west.
A lot closer than that I could see what looked to be a forest in the north, and another in the south which was much closer. Even straight ahead there were a few small ones not too far as well. So, the in distance we have mountains, and immediately close to us there were forests.
First thing’s first.
“Frian, where’d you drop those people?”
“We left them far north of the City in a forest Patriarch.”
“I see.”
Although I could see the forest from here, it would likely takes weeks of walking for a regular individual to walk without rest from the forest to the City, and that was without taking into account potential dangers, rest, food, and other things.
Even someone at the 5th Cycle of Body Tempering would still likely take around a week to make it all the way here on foot, and the people who were kicked out were definitely not at the 5th Cycle. All in all, they really were deposited quite far.
And it didn’t take the boys very long to go there and back.
Such was the gap between Body Tempering and Qi Refinement.
Anyway, I could head that way to see what the forest held, and potentially check up on those individuals, but I decided against it. Instead let’s just head in a strait line towards the west.
There were a few smaller forests that I could see from here that needed exploring as well.
With my spear in hand, I took off running straight ahead, and of course Frian wasn’t too far behind.
Though he wasn’t carrying his spear. I wonder why. Does he not have one?
“Frian, do you have a spear?”
“Yes Patriarch.”
“Why aren’t you carrying it?”
“Patriarch, it is not permitted to wield our spears in the presence of a Patriarch of another family. Not without strict permission, and even then, it is considered rude to do so unless a situation like war demands it, as the members of the Patriarch’s Clan might take offense.”
How weird…
“So, aren’t you trying to become a part of my clan at the moment?”
“…Y...Yes Patriarch.”
Hm, he stuttered for a moment there. Is he nervous?
“Then you can bring your spear out. I don’t have any other clan members that would be getting upset in the first place.”
“Thank you, Patriarch.”
I watched as a spear appeared in his right hand. It was a bit shorter than mine, but it was still beautiful to look at. It was pretty much pitch black, from the shaft all the way to the tip of the blade.
Huh.
What a nice spear.
Anyway, there seems to be a lot of customs I don’t know.
“Frian, what are some other customs to keep in mind when dealing with a Patriarch of a clan?”
“There are quite a few Patriarch.”
“List a couple. We have time.”