Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 101. Loser’s Mindset.
Around the same time the White Guards were forming up a plan with Arslan, Laien and Yin returned from their sparring and sat down within a simple tent they had set up for themselves. The two of them made use of their insights into the Aspect of Awareness to cover the nearby area with the aura-like energy and only after that, they took out the tomes they were interested in. Laien handed the Martial and Spiritual Transcendence tome to Yin, while himself he focused on the two water-element Ancient Magic tomes.
“Let’s see what the Intent of the advanced tome is. The basic one should be the same one as its lightning equivalent, an overall description and introduction to water-element itself,” he mused with a smile while Yin occupied himself with the actual pages of the Martial and Spiritual Transcendence tome. “The joined Intent hid the Profound Mystery of Maelstrom, but I didn’t find out what the advanced tome held that time at Patrick’s place,” he thought eagerly and closed his eyes. First, he got ahold of the basic water-element tome. Just like the first time, he didn’t need to put any effort in before the Intent of the tome revealed itself to him and drew him into the epiphany-like state. Then, after a moment, he opened his eyes with a mildly satisfied expression on his face.
“Yup, just a basic description of water and its uses. It will be useful later on, but for now, it won’t help me get stronger quickly,” he thought with a calm smile and without getting discouraged, he moved onto the advanced tome. Moments later, a very pleased smile emerge on his face.
“Amusing! It’s actually ideal for me. Profound Mystery of the Shifting Currents, it’s the thing I was beginning to comprehend through spear arts instead of the water element. With some training, I will be able to improve my Elemental Spear Art both in technique and in pure power. Heh, there’s so much I’d love to meditate upon, where am I supposed to find time for all of that?”
With all the Aspects and Profound Mysteries he had insights into, not to mention the Principle of Energy and his other perks, like Nine Refinements of Mortality and the various kinds of magic he wielded, Laien was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. He was beginning to suspect that he would need at least a few years to properly stabilize and develop all the skills of his… but once he did, and once he grew older and his cultivation increased, his prowess would rise exponentially. It was something he very much looked forward too; both in the process and as far as results themselves went.
“Well, since I’m more or less done…” he mused quietly and looked the side. “Yin, you found something interesting, right?” he inquired and scooted over to Yin’s side, then peeked at the pages of the tome he was holding on his lap.
“It’s what we suspected,” Yin replied wryly, then chuckled and said. “Only six out of the Nine Refinements to Immortality are described on the pages of this tome. As far as Nine Refinements of Mortality, there’s no mention of them at all. I guess the creator, whoever he was, was only willing to bestow the best benefits to those who had both the luck to get ahold of this tome early on and a high enough potential to receive and comprehend its Intent. That Patrick… he knew he had something incredibly precious, but even he didn’t quite realize how precious it was,” he finished with a laugh. It really was bad enough that he was beginning to feel a bit guilty about getting one over on Patrick to this extent… but it was only just a little bit guilty; nothing he would get hang over upon.
“It’s the same with those Ancient Magic tomes,” Laien agreed with a playful smile. “We will be able to share our insights later on too through the Soul Realm. We really hit the jackpot this time around,” he reminded, thinking how great it would be when they became able to merge all the top-level Mysteries they had potential to study. The Profound Mystery of Inferno, The Profound Mystery of the Mist, the Profound Mystery of Maelstrom and the Profound Mystery of Lightning Rush… each one of those Mysteries was at the very top of its element. If the four of them could be joined and used by one person, just what level of power would they reach? It was hard to imagine.
“Mhm,” Yin nodded in agreement, feeling similarly excited. “My Qi is still all over the place… It’s nice since I can feel my strength rising, but I want to start training in those Nine Refinements of Mortality too,” he complained lightheartedly. Truth to be told, he was in the same situation as Laien; he had too many things to train in and too little time, so there was no harm if he needed to delay a part of his training by a few days or even a few weeks. However, it still left him pretty impatient. It was just like having a treat hang in front of you but be unable to actually take it and much it down.
Only able to sigh, Yin handed the Martial and Spiritual Transcendence tome back to Laien. The two of them exchanged a glance and both chuckled a little as Laien put the three tomes back. Studying Ancient Magic tomes would take them quite some time, so it was pointless to try doing so here when they didn’t know when someone would disturb them. As for the Martial and Spiritual Transcendence? The tome itself offered nothing with regards to Nine Refinements of Mortality, so reading it at the moment would be a pure waste of time. Thus, the two of them seated themselves comfortably and started meditating and improving upon their existing insights.
For the time being, Laien made the Profound Mystery of the Shifting Currents his priority. Yin made a similar choice and also started improving upon the Mystery he had gained from the advanced Ancient Tome; the Profound Mystery of Lightning Dance. Each of those two Mysteries would not only allow them to gain a lot in the short-term, but they would also continue being immensely useful in the future. Knowing this much, Laien and Yin slowly lost track of time as they immersed themselves in meditation, their lips curving upwards ever so slightly as they did so.
The day and the night passed in the blink of an eye. The two of them weren’t yet done with their training, but they opened their eyes.
“Do you want something?” Laien called out to Reian, having sensed his presence outside of the tent quite a while ago. Luckily for Reian, he had come before they engaged in the Combined Soul Realm training, else he would have needed to wait two or three more hours until they were done with it.
“Are you done training?” Reian asked from outside, sounding as if he didn’t want to disturb them and yet was doing just that.
“Not yet,” Laien answered truthfully. “But if it’s brief or important, then we can take a little break,” he added with a quiet laugh.
Reian smiled a bit helplessly, thinking that it was just like Laien to be so straightforward it almost hurt. “I think it won’t take all that long, an hour at most, but it’s quite important,” he explained without going into details, seeing how it wouldn’t be the smartest thing to discuss here, in the open.
Laien and Yin exchanged a look and both stood up. They got out of the tent, after what Laien stored it back in his interspatial ring.
“What’s it about?” Laien inquired as the two of them followed after Reian. He was leading them back into the provisory town that Johan and the rest of those five thousand people they brought with them were using, so he doubted it was anything related to the matters of the Ruishi Federation. Then, did it have anything to do with Mustafa, perhaps?
“You will learn in a bit,” Reian responded briefly, without giving any hints. The fewer people had a potential chance to hear about their plan, the better.
Laien raised an eyebrow but didn’t insist. It was quite obvious from Reian’s serious attitude that he wasn’t simply teasing him, so he would be reasonable and wait patiently. Though, he would use the time they were walking to take a few guesses for the fun of it; then, he would be able to compare his thoughts with reality and see if he was right in his predictions.
A few minutes later, Reian led the two of them into the sturdy-looking building, much unlike the rest of the ones in the area. Inside, they were greeted by the sight of Arslan and the remaining three White Guards of their group, and additionally, by the sight of six unfamiliar grey-cloaked men.
“Who are those guys?” Laien frowned slightly. “Their auras are incredibly restrained, but I can tell they are all relatively high-level martial masters,” he mused silently.
“Those six are also White Guards,” Reian introduced the group, dispelling Laien and Yin’s doubts. “Mustafa sent them to find Arslan… and to deliver the news of his own state,” he explained, the tone of his voice, which was fairly energetic at first, turning dull and sad. “No point beating around the bush, it’s just like you suspected that time in Lugna. Mustafa’s Qi Origin was damaged by Arakar,” he informed, then revealed a little smile when he saw that both Laien and Yin immediately glanced in Arslan’s direction and only relaxed a little when the five-year-old smiled at them and shook his head.
“I imagine you called us for more than just to tell us that,” Laien said with a little smirk and gave Reian a meaningful look. Arslan seemed to have dealt well with receiving this news, so there shouldn’t have been a reason for Reian to come to them before they finished their training, unless there was something more they needed them for.
“You are right,” Reian said calmly, though in a tone that no longer was as depressed. “I honestly don’t see how you two can help us this time around, but since Arslan insisted we at least tell you… well, just sit down and listen. Jasmine will explain everything,” he said and shook his head helplessly. It was true that those two boys were unnaturally strong, but one or two equivalents of marital masters of the fourth rank would change nothing this time around. The only other thing they could offer was a tactical advice or new suggestions… but could they really come up with anything that they hadn’t thought of already?
Laien laughed inwardly, while Yin revealed a somewhat wry smile. Telling them that they would be of no use was just like challenging them to be proven wrong; they quickly seated themselves on the pillows and looked at Jasmine in a way that was telling her to hurry up and start explaining.
Jasmine suppressed a laugh and indeed, went straight to the matter without circling around the subject. She first described the plan Mustafa most likely had, then mentioned how Arslan suggested using the Prophecy to their advantage. She elaborated on the results of their research into the various past Prophecies of the Prophet and how the way they came true was very literal; she mentioned the plans to get the Grand Elders into the scheme to make Yimar Maar believe Arslan would try to sneak through to the Holy Union in the wave of refugees and how they wanted to send out a fake unit escorted by the soldiers of the Ruishi Federation to the north to divide the forces of Yimar Maar. Finally, she mentioned which other ideas to have Arslan escape they had already ruled out and in the end, asked the two of them what their thoughts on this whole plan were.
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Having just heard so much, Laien and Yin remained silent for a while. They sank deep in thought, analyzing the situation. Was there something Jasmine and the rest had missed or was there something they could improve upon? They thought just about that, since as annoying as it was, it was just like Reian told them; personally, there wasn’t all that much they could do to help with this plan. Their strength was much too low to influence a battle between the army on the level of the White Guard, so all they could offer were their thought and ideas.
As the silence prolonged, the six grey-cloaked men began to look at Laien and Yin in a doubtful way. They had been quite opposed to involving those two young boys into such an important affair, but after they heard how Laien and Yin played a major role in fending off Yimar Furi and his subordinates, they had no choice but to swallow their complaints. Yet, they couldn’t help but think ‘Didn’t we tell you so?’ when they saw the two boys seemingly unable to come up with anything on top of what was already presented to them.
“I will be honest,” Laien spoke up all of the sudden, just after he and Yin exchanged a look and nodded at each other in a fashion that looked very rank to the onlookers.
“Yeah, he will tell us he couldn’t come up with anything.”
“What could a kid have come up with anyway?”
“We shouldn’t have told them. What a needless risk for no benefit.”
The six grey-cloaked guards thought along such lines, but when Laien’s next words sounded in their ears, they all almost choked on their own tongues.
“This whole plan is trash to begin with, from the idea of breaking through with raw force to executing a bait-like scheme around the Prophecy. Plainly speaking, it’s all been come up with a loser’s mindset. It’s like all of you have given up on winning and only want Arslan to survive in a pitiful way.”
Apart from Yin, everyone else was shocked by Laien’s declaration. Their whole plan was trash? They had given up? Was this kid saying so seriously?
“Ridiculous,” Jasmine blurted out, unable to hide that she was rather displeased and angered by Laien’s brash statement. She would concede that Laien’s future potential was unmeasurable, but that didn’t make him all-knowing! She had hundreds of years of battle experience and she had discussed her ideas with Sirius and the others, so how could he dismiss their plans as ‘trash’ just like that?
“Do you have a better idea?” Arslan inquired, the tone of his voice sounding more intrigued and hopeful than angered and disbelieving. This little fact made the four White Guards who stayed with him the longest sigh and simultaneously, baffled the six grey-cloaked White Guards. This absurd level of confidence in the abilities of this black-haired boy… where did this ridiculous thing come from in their little master?
“I do,” Laien stated, but then added as a precaution. “However, if all you guys care is about preserving Arslan’s life, then your idea has better chances of doing so. Mine is riskier, but at the very least, it’s not a loser’s plan,” he said challengingly and looked at the faces of the White Guards. Had all of them been so overwhelmed by Mustafa’s demise that they forgot their pride and strength and discarded whatever bravery they might have had in the past? For them to come up and consider going through with such a weak-willed idea was beyond disgraceful and above that, really cowardly.
“Then say it,” one of the grey-cloaked men barked angrily. “Let’s see what you thought of, and it would better be good because if it’s a bunch of self-conceited crap, I’m going to personally beat the shit out of you,” he threatened, letting out some of the anger and anxiety that had been building up inside him since he learned of Mustafa’s state and happened to be triggered by Laien’s provocative statement.
“You won’t touch him,” Arslan said almost instantly, his voice sounding so decisive that the grey-cloaked man momentarily forgot the tongue in his mouth. He couldn’t understand why little master Arslan was taking the side of this boy so heavily… and he had trouble trusting that story about Laien and Yin killing multiple men of Yimar Furi’s too, not to mention the supposed act of stopping a Grand Spell by this black-haired kid. Yet, all he could do was curse silently and lower his head; after Mustafa, Arslan’s orders were absolute. The Grand Yimar had made this fact very clear to all those whom he decided to inform about his current state.
“Thanks,” Laien said with a laugh, then took a deep breath and wore a more serious expression on his face. Before saying anything else though, he turned to Yin and asked. “I think you have an idea of what I’m thinking about, so are you fine with it?”
“Silly question,” Yin replied with a playful laugh, his attitude so different compared to the prevailing atmosphere that no one but Laien knew what to make of it. “We will need to get to the north anyway and I doubt you are planning to have us go through something borderline suicidal. I have one condition though, okay? Before we move, I need six days to recover to my peak state,” he said with a smile. Laien must have sensed his doubt and assumed it was about putting themselves in a dangerous situation again, but he was being too much of a scaredy-cat. If one life-threatening experience was enough to dim Yin’s own desire to grow strong, then he would have never left the Forbidden Lands to begin with and stayed in hiding until he died of old age!
The only thing he would regret was if they set out before he recovered fully and achieved the peak of his current strength. That’s why even if they were helping Arslan out, he was intent on keeping this one condition in place no matter what, even if Laien was opposed to it… and he could already tell that Laien wasn’t opposed at all.
“Okay,” Laien said with a grin and resisted the desire to hug Yin. If this meeting was a bit less serious or if the subject he was about to touch upon was less sensitive, then he wouldn’t have cared about what everyone else thought, but this one time, he didn’t want to appear silly. Once again, he took a deep breath and returned his attention to Arslan and the adults gathered in the room.
“Like I said, all your plans are far too defensive to begin with. You are giving up on the notion of victory just because you can’t achieve it in an absolutely certain fashion… even that Prophecy, heh. The idea of using those eight million people is good; they are going to attack the Guode Yimarate on their own anyway, so why not use it to your benefit? However, you want to play it too safe.”
Having said so, Laien stopped speaking for a few seconds and looked at everyone’s faces. He could see that Jasmine and Sirius were confused but recognized that he had a point, but the rest of the adults seemed to remain heavily doubtful; those grey-cloaked men, in particular, appeared to hardly trust him at all.
“So, there’s the gist of what I thought about,” he continued, his gaze wandering in Jasmine’s direction. “There are a few major points that I would like to accomplish. First, I’d like to negotiate with the Grand Elders here, perhaps with Elder Samuel alone, the request to ‘borrow’ General Julien, his Cherubim and a few hundred of his officers. We could have them act incognito and join those eight million refugees, then make use of their presence later on,” he proposed with a smile, then seeing as no one was trying to interrupt him, he continued at a steady pace.
“The second part will concern Yin and me, and Jasmine or Sirius; anyway, a representative of Arslan’s and Mustafa’s. I want to set out before the refugees do and reach the Holy Union. We will ask them to help out in defeating Yimar Maar,” he stated and chuckled inwardly, seeing how the expressions on the faces of Jasmine and Sirius began changing into ones of genuine surprise and an ill-hidden excitement. Yes, if anyone, those two old folks thought quick; now that he gave out the premise, they could see that both of those ideas, deceivingly, had high chances of working out.
“After both of those things are confirmed, we will have Arslan actually move out alongside the eight million refugees while making sure to hide it as well as we can while still allowing it to leak out. Yimar Maar will certainly be quite astonished that Arslan would attempt such a crazy gamble and he will send someone trusted to capture him… like his Sword of Rala, since one of his Yimars had already failed.” As he spoke, Laien’s smile turned wry. He exchanged looks with Jasmine and Sirius, then laughed a little. Yes, those two must have guessed how the final part would look like by now and going by how they were both smiling dangerously, they were already on board with him.
“However, we will have a few nasty surprises waiting for him. The majority of the White Guard that will be with Mustafa will suddenly launch an attack from the south-west the moment Yimar Maar splits up his forces, while General Julien and the reinforcements from the Holy Alliance will screw over the portion of the army sent after Arslan. If everything goes well and nothing wrong leaks out and Arakar doesn’t attempt to take the risk and duel Mustafa to the death, then we should be able to achieve an overwhelming victory,” he finished up, a clear smile still present on his face. He was fairly happy with the ideas he had thought about… but more than that, the looks on the faces of those four White Guards he was acquainted with were the greatest reward.
“Aren’t you a bit too full of wishful thinking?”
And yet, the six grey-cloaked men didn’t look convinced. They all worse frowns on their faces, seeing the plan laid out by Laien to be far too unreliable to ever work out as intended. Where was the guarantee that the Ruishi Federation would help them, or the Holy Alliance? Why did his plan involve putting little master Arslan out as a bait to the enemy and allowing him to be in great danger? What if anything about this plan was somehow leaked out? They would then risk a total annihilation! They were sure Jasmine and Sirius could recognize those flaws too, but to their confusion, the two experienced people voiced contrary opinions.
“It’s you who know too little and judge too fast,” Sirius reprimanded with a snort. “Are you aware of the hatred General Julien and his subordinates bear toward most Ikarians? Do you know what kind of a person is Elder Samuel? Have you forgotten how conflicted our Arkaria is with the northern Eulene, with the Holy Alliance? Laien even told you that as far as saving only little master Arslan, the plan we had has a higher chance of success! You are being children by refusing to listen to someone’s opinion with an open mind… and ironically, it’s a child who you are trying to dismiss,” he lectured without holding back, making it obvious to anyone that he was in support of Laien’s idea.
“I’m of the same mind,” Jasmine supported strongly, her gaze quickly moving to Arslan. “As long as you are willing to take the risk, little master, I suggest we try to win. It was my failure to consider something so simple… and yet so hard as to go on the offensive. I’ve started to think that we need to preserve and defend since your father is unable to battle in person… but that was stupid of me. To begin with, our White Guard is unrivaled. In an offensive battle, we will have far better chances of achieving victory,” she elaborated, speaking quickly and with plainly recognizable excitement. She didn’t dare to say it out loud, but as long as it was executed right, then this plan of Laien’s had an eighty percent chance of success, or maybe even more! How could she not be excited when what she was thinking of just half an hour ago were the ways of using the lives of her own and her subordinates just to allow Mustafa and Arslan to escape? The difference was like between heaven and earth!
Sirius nodded a few times at Jasmine’s words and added from himself. “Also, little master Arslan, we can back off from this plan as long as we don’t receive support from the Ruishi Federation and the Holy Alliance. The setup is the most difficult part, but we can freely back off without much of a cost in case the negotiations break down. It’s a win-win situation.”
The six grey-clothed men worse ugly looks on their faces as they listened to Jasmine and Sirius attempt to convince Arslan. They hoped that the little master would reasonably tell them that this time around, it was his own safety and survival that was the most important. With just one word, the six of them wouldn’t hesitate to die for the sake of saving little master Arslan’s life! Alas, little did they know that even before Jasmine and Sirius started speaking, Arslan’s mind was already made up.
“Let’s do it,” Arslan said strongly, his eyes burning with determination. “We will go with Laien’s plan, defeat Yimar Maar and force Arakar to run away!” he exclaimed, the flames of passion burning within his whole body and soul. Yes, he wouldn’t be a burden on his father! He would have a chance to help him out! This was more than he could have asked for, so he was delighted and welcomed with open arms whatever risk came from playing the role of a bait for a portion of Yimar Maar’s army.