“Mu … ma … sa …” Leo slowly said and then giggled, “What a funny name … oh … sorry, your parents probably didn’t mean to embarrass you, but it really is funny! I guess I’ll continue to call you ‘Musa’. Don’t look at me like that! Actually … I also shortened my real name. Originally I was called ‘Leonel’, but it sounds almost as ridiculous as ‘Mumasa’.”
The carefree attitude caught Musa off-guard. He just divulged an earth-shattering secret, but all the guy heard was a name he considered silly.
“Sigh …” Musa tried to get back to the initial topic, “After this I can’t go back to the academy nor to my previous master …”
“Nonsense!” Leo suddenly turned serious. Turns out he was listening after all, “No one knows what happened here besides you … and me, but I’m still fuzzy about most things. I’d say you keep your secrets to yourself, in fact, take them to your grave and never divulge to anyone, even your wives. What happened here was because the crazy ass bitch turned out to be a traitor that’s it!”
“What about you?” Musa asked, his countenance turning even more serious.
“What about me?” Leo shrugged, thinking of grandpa Noel and master Torben, “I have secrets of my own! But we are friends so I don’t give a rats ass what the others think. My lips are sealed and if anyone asks – I just lent you a hand after coming back at the last moment.”
“Friends?” Musa was caught off-guard again.
The only thing they had done together during the past two years was to sit at the campfire, eat and sometimes chat. They never got chubby or hung out outside the deployment missions. He he did try to watch after the kid on the battlefield, but wasn’t that the reason Leo always cooked the meat for him? Wasn’t Leo treating him because he was the squad leader ?
Only now Musa realized that the guy had never thought in such complicated terms. He was oblivious to intrigues, sucking up or anything that revolved around the ‘advanced’ human relationships. That was why the youths from the Golden city tolerated him, in fact, they didn’t tolerate him – they considered him being one of them exactly because he didn’t care about the difference in their status!
Suddenly Musa was struck with revelation. He, a proud Nascent soul stage expert, unknowingly had become friends with a Core formation stage guy who in the academy was generally considered a complete waste of space. Formally his only strong traits were having popular friends and the backing of a legendary figure, elder Li, while Leo himself was … talentless?
Who the hell would dare to say he was talentless? He formed his nascent soul approximately at the same age as Musa did few years ago! And he just disposed of two Nascent soul stage opponents in two moves! Yes, he did sneak attack and yes, they were completely weakened, but still … was this hidden strength the reason Musa felt drawn to him?
No. He inwardly shook his head. Even now he could not believe Leo had advanced, so that couldn’t be it.
“Of course.” Leo had no clue about Musa’s inner struggles, “I love the guys from the Golden city, but I always felt there is an invisible divide between us. With you, for some reason, it’s somehow different, even though you’re much stronger than I. Maybe we became friends because you also came from a mortal realm … who knows.”
“What about Alice?” Musa asked.
During the deployments she kept Leo around as if he was her private property and clearly they were much closer than Leo and Musa.
“What about her?” Leo shrugged, but seeing Musa’s confusion explained, “As Jack would say – ‘bros before hoes’? That’s Jack’s rule. His my other friend. A while back he managed to escape to the Golden city and now works for the Hubert family. Sigh … I haven’t seen the bastard in ... two years? … You know what? I have an idea! Let’s go to the Golden city for a vacation – we clearly have earned it … although I’m still completely broke ... What do you think, is it possible for me to borrow few immortal spirit stones from the academy? … I’ll introduce you to Jack, you’ll like him. He probably knows all the best places in the Golden city by now …”
“Uhmm … ok?” Was the only thing Musa could reply.
He was still processing the implications of him keeping the secret that could kill him, but Leo was casually planning a vacation. And then the whole ‘friends’ stuff …
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Musa glanced at the two mutilated bodies that he once considered his mates and sighed … he always felt there will come a day they would try to kill him, although never guessed it’ll happen because he would become a traitor to the Army of Freedom. Truth to be said, he suspected that during the last night his windblades missed few times just because he couldn’t kill the two people because of their history together. On the other hand, master trained them to kill, but then again, they trained together for years and it was possible he had a soft spot for them.
All these thoughts only gave Musa a headache. For so many years he was driven by hatred towards the so called ‘righteous path’ until a guy several years younger than him somehow managed to open his eyes and point at the disaster the Army of Freedom was causing. Actually Musa knew it was all about the big politics, but Leo was the one who reminded him that the small people were the ones who died during the struggle between the two superpowers … without any chance to resist … just like his sect was destroyed back then.
There was a problem though. Musa’s former master. For an immortal of his level it wasn’t that hard to locate someone if they really tried to. Of course, it will take some time for Lily’s and Mark’s nascent souls to find someone trustworthy to bring them away and if not, it will take even a longer time to regenerate their bodies. Either way the information of Musa being a traitor was unlikely to reach the Army of Freedom anytime soon. Nevertheless, Musa knew there will come a day when he will have to face his former master’s wrath.
After some inner struggle Musa decided to cross that bridge when he got there and not worry about things he had no control over. Little did he know that neither Lily’s nor Mark’s nascent souls left their bodies, but for some reason when they dropped to the ground, they were actually dead, permanently. As the result the Army of Freedom will not know of their demise for months and even when the information reached them, they wouldn’t suspect Musa, at least not right away.
When Leo noticed the sun was already setting, he checked Lily’s and Mark’s spacial treasures, stuffed the formation flags and their bodies in one of them. He pondered whether he should switch his own amulet with Mark’s ring, but in the end decided against it. First of all he was used to the amulet, albeit it was rather inconvenient to use in comparison and secondly – for some reason the depicted bird on the thing suddenly seemed so nice, pretty and even somewhat close to him.
When Leo brought Musa back to the camp, after the initial shock about him reaching the Nascent soul stage and Lily and Mark being traitors was over, Alice treated Musa some medicine, and the squad rushed back to the nearest teleportation hub in order to get back to the academy. As Musa expected, the nine students firmly held the defensive line throughout the night and the following beast waves were not too dangerous. The only damage the city suffered was at the very beginning when the thunderhawks went berserk, but other than that it was safe.
It was a tragedy that the two local Nascent soul stage experts perished, but there was nothing students could do about it, except to report on the events to the elders and hope the Immortal Alliance would soon station another expert in the city or maybe even two. The war with the Army of Freedom had lasted for thousands of years and had claimed countless lives in the process, and the events at Naryn were bound to soon become forgotten.
Leo becoming a Nascent soul stage expert shook the War academy more than the news of two students being spies for the Army of Freedom. In fact, another one was suspected because he disappeared during the last deployment after seeing a similar sign to what Musa’s group witnessed on the Naryn’s gates.
Musa followed Leo’s advice and decided to take his own secrets to the grave. He had to give a detailed report to the elders, of course, but it was mostly formal anyway. Afterwards he shut himself behind closed doors to recuperate and didn’t show his face for almost half a month. The damage that Lily and Mark caused to his body was substantial even though it was still in one piece.
Leo’s advancement was an unexpected treat to elder Li who didn’t have any hopes for his latest student at all. The fact that a cultivator with the lightning mutation was capable of forming their nascent soul, completely revolutionized elder’s understanding of Heavenly tribulations, or rather – pointed at the fact that the thousands years of study has only been a drop in a bucket. Ignoring that, this event was ‘a treat’ for both, him and his favorite student, thus elder Li let Leo cultivate on the island as usual, but meanwhile invited Theodore Shaw over so they could question the young man together.
Technically Leo’s life didn’t change much. He was used to the strange looks the other students threw his way and wasn’t bothered. But reaching the Nascent soul stage had its perks – every afternoon a lightning bolt shot from the lake towards the academy and, after a sumptuous meal, back. Leo couldn’t believe how much closer the distances were if one could fly, especially at his speed.
They even had a small race with him, Harold and Claude taking part in it in order to see who was faster. The results were rather shocking and finally Leo had an area that no one from the Golden city gang could compete with him in. Kevin, who still was at the Core formation stage and was not in any rush to advance, guessed that Leo might easily be the fastest Nascent soul stage cultivator in the academy, including the wind affinity experts. That was the highest praise Leo had ever received, but he didn’t allow it to get into his head. He knew there were countless people in the world stronger than him.
Unfortunately the speed was the only discipline the young men could compete in. Actual combat was out of question because of the damage to the surroundings people at their level caused, thus Harold had to postpone his challenge until proper circumstances arose.
There was one person though who was clearly dissatisfied with Leo’s advancement. Few days after their return from the last deployment, Alice left to the Golden city. She did give Leo a strange stare before departing, but when he asked Claude what was all that about, he shrugged and said she hated to be the last one from their group to advance.
Then Leo asked, “What about Kevin and Fan Yun?”
To what Fan Yun said, “In Alice’s eyes Kevin doesn’t count, but I’m too busy working on my relationship to advance.”
Nothing of that made any sense, just like the fact that for some reason Claude blushed from head to toe hearing her words. They were five people in the group from the Golden city and only two had advanced so where was the problem? Be as it may, Jack’s good old ‘bitches be crazy’ was the only thing that came to Leo’s mind and he decided to not think too much of it in the end.