When Leo came to his senses, he was standing on a similar platform they were on just a moment ago, except this one was inside of a grand hall. He threw a curious glance around, but realizing that the two youths from before stood at his sides, he obediently looked down at his bare feet and pretended to be mute.
The only thing he noticed was that the hall had a really high ceiling and white walls. In addition, not too far the two elders were talking to some other people, but even if he could hear them, he wouldn’t have had any clue what they were talking about.
“You returned rather quickly, venerated elders.” A half naked middle aged man, dressed only in a leather kilt and covered in tattoos from head to toe, said. Next to him stood a similarly looking elderly man, holding a weird looking gnarled staff.
“You don’t have to worry, sect master Maramasa. Since there was no need for repairs we immediately came back. We have other things to do as well, you know?” Elder Tillert nonchalantly replied.
He didn’t like to lie or withhold the information, but this time it was his job. How to deal with the situation afterwards will be the problem of the higher-ups – he himself was never interested in politics.
“Of course, of course!” The half naked man named Maramasa widely grinned and said, “But what about the griffin? It should’ve laid an egg few years ago, right? My son is about to turn fourteen and I really wanted to gift him a unique mount.”
“Sect master Maramasa, your son will have to be patient for now.” Elder Sigfried decided to help his colleague and interrupted, “The Immortal Alliance will send over someone else to settle questions like these.”
“Sir, if I may ask – what about the fruits from the Divine tribulation tree? A couple of our elders are preparing for their Nascent stage tribulations …” A tall and busty lady, dressed in a dark red gown said.
Judging from her looks she was in her forties, but still very beautiful and one might easily take her for an aristocratic housewife if not for the enormous claymore she was leaning on. Behind her stood a young, pretty girl in a while dress, blushed beet red all over. She obviously felt uncomfortable to be present in this event, or rather – she felt uncomfortable by the presence of the two tattooed men.
“Lady Evelyn, we only do the maintenance.” Elder Sigfried evasively said, “Like I said, the Immortal Alliance will send someone over. Now, if you’ll excuse us … right, I almost forgot. On the way back we picked up a person. I would like to ask one of you to take care of him. Not personally, of course, I understand you are busy people as well.”
The two sect masters and their aides standing next to them turned their heads towards the chubby boy standing between the two runemaster apprentices. He was probably scared or tired and kept staring at his feet, so they couldn’t see his face, but the cloth he was wearing was dirty and torn, the hair disheveled and he was barefoot.
The sect master Maramasa reacted first, “He looks more like one of our people, doesn’t he? The Voodoo sect would love to do this favor to you, elder Sigfried. He is welcome to stay with us for as long as needed.”
“This is not a personal favor to me – it’s a job you need to do for the Alliance.” Elder Sigfried nonchalantly dismissed the attempt of putting him in a debt, “In addition, he speaks an unknown language, for us that is – you’ll need to teach him the main dialect of the Immortal Alliance. You have at most a month, afterwards someone will come and pick him up.”
Maramasas expression turned slightly ugly, but he immediately recovered and asked, “Do we need to teach him cultivation as well? Maybe some of our secrets?”
“That’s up to you. All we need is for him to be able to talk to us within a month.” Elder Sigfried said ignoring the sarcasm, “Alright, we are in a rush. Goodbye, sect leader Maramasa, lady Evelyn!”
In order to not get asked more annoying questions and finally end this awkward conversation, elders Sigfried and Tillert slightly nodded towards the two sect leaders and received deep bows in return. While the two elders, similar to the sect leaders, were also Nascent soul cultivators, they were not only several centuries older and had a whole another level of strength and experience, but they were also expert runemasters. The mortal realm didn’t have anyone at their level and even in the immortal realm sects and clans were fighting to attract people like them.
And while the two old-timers were already incredible, the youths standing next to the little fatty were even more amazing. They were at most twenty years old each and had already formed their nascent souls. And because of their expertise under the wing of the Immortal Alliance they were almost guaranteed to become true immortals.
With a flash of light the four people disappeared from the platform leaving Leo in daze and speechless. On the other hand it was not the first time the two sect masters saw someone teleporting away.
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“I smell something fishy about this all situation.” Lady Evelyn shook her head while staring at the empty platform.
“I agree.” Maramasa seriously nodded, “The two geezers were definitely hiding something. But there is nothing we can do, can we?”
Seeing the beautiful lady silently nod, Maramasa continued, “Now then, Evelyn. How about we strengthen our alliance with a marriage? Your daughter should be soon coming of age and one of my sons ...”
“Dream on, sect master Maramasa!” Lady Evelyn interrupted, “And since we are not close friends, please call me ‘sect master Evelyn’ or ‘lady Evelyn’. And we don’t have an alliance, but common interests regarding the island with the Divine tribulation trees and also only because back then the Immortal Alliance decided so. Don’t think we are ignorant to the immoral deeds your sect performs! I’m warning you, the Sacred Order is keeping close watch … you are walking on a thin ice, sect master Maramasa!”
After saying that she turned away and proudly left while her aide, a pretty young girl barely could keep up.
“Fiery as ever, huh?” The elderly man standing next to Maramasa grinned showing two rows of yellow teeth.
“Indeed!” Maramasa nodded grinning as widely, “I swear, one of these days she’ll find herself panting under me! We’ll see how fiery she can be then. She obviously likes big swords so why don’t I let her play with mine?”
But the next instant he turned serious, “But the bitch was right, something is fishy about all of this. Father, I’ll have to ask you to contact your most trusted sources and find out if there are some new undercurrents in the Immortal Alliance. Of course, they wouldn’t be interested in a small sect like ours, but from what it looks like, something important is going to happen in a month. I have a bad feeling about this.”
His father also turned serious and wordlessly nodded. Indeed, he’ll have to put his best people on this.
When elders and their apprentices left, Leo thought that the two pretty ladies were about to take care of a poor, lost boy like him, but to his great horror they soon departed and he was left alone with the two scary looking half naked men who for some reason wore short skirts. Yes, there were few other people in the grand hall, but all were busy with their own thing and the whole time completely ignored the crowd at the platform.
Fortunately nothing bad happened, at least not yet. The older guy took Leo by the hand and trying to put up the nicest smile he could muster, proceeded to the exit. The younger one didn’t play any theatrics though. Something was bothering him and he seemed to be deep in thought.
The moment trio stepped out the grand hall, Leo was blinded by the bright sunlight and when he somewhat got used to it he realized that the building they were in was some kind of a temple. It’s size suggested that the only room inside was the grand hall they were just in and from outside it looked as white and impressive as from the inside.
Before Leo could take a good look at his surroundings, he suddenly felt his feet leaving the solid ground and at a speed that was not slower than that of the eagle he once flew, they departed leaving a cloud of dust behind.
Leo remembered his father talking about places like this … it was called a ‘desert’. There was nothing around as far as he could see, but endless fields of golden sand that for some reason took similar forms to the ocean waves.
… and the next moment Leo lost consciousness.
“You don’t expect your old man to carry the luggage?” The Maramasa’s father suddenly stopped and poked Leo’s forehead sending the boy in deep sleep.
“Sure.” Maramasa shrugged, threw the plump boy over his shoulder and once again sped up, “Let’s go. I feel we really need to rush.”
Leo didn’t know he soundly slept for over a day and a half until they got to the Voodoo sect, but when he woke up, he smelled the familiar air he breathed during the time on the ape island. Unfortunately it was already nighttime and he didn’t see much except for the few bonfires creepily illuminating the large crowd of the half naked tattooed people. All he could tell was they were gathered in open and somewhere in the distance he could discern outlines of some smaller buildings, but that was it.
Of course, Leo also had no clue what the people around him were talking about. All he knew was that the two he departed with turned out to be some really important guys since they sat on large expensively decorated, weird looking chairs on a platform that towered a couple yards above the half kneeling crowd in front of them. There were also two youths standing at the side of the leaders, looking extremely solemn and important as well.
“My people!” Leo was startled by the sectmaster’s voice reverberating through the night, “We have lived lazy and comfortable lives long enough! It’s time to shake things up a bit! During the upcoming month I want every present person put the double effort in their respective tasks, meaning double the cultivation and double the production! Of course, you’ll be handsomely rewarded as well – for a month you’ll receive the quadruple of the usual amount of cultivation resources and those who perform the best – for two months!”
During the first part of the speech the crowd knelt motionless and in a dead silence. One could even hear the crackling sounds coming from the bonfires. But after the last sentence everyone jumped up and loudly cheered in joy.
For the first time Leo could observe these people a bit better. There were men and women of different ages, their skin seemed to be darker than the people he had seen in his life, but every present person except for him was covered in strange tattoos. Just like their leaders, they wore only short skirts, but women also covered their upper bodies with few pieces of cloth, although not all of them.
Seeing them jump in joy and their things jiggle up and down, Leo instinctively gulped and for some reason felt an urge to get closer and fiddle with those swaying parts. Either because of his early days when he got breastfed by tens of different women or because of the contrasting traditions they had in Farrand, he found these half naked females especially attractive.
Meanwhile Maramasa watched the reaction of the crowd in satisfaction and when the cheers died down, continued, “In the morning your respective elders will instruct you personally on which tasks to focus! Now go and get some rest! Starting tomorrow you won’t have time for that! Elders, stay!”
The crowd cheered once again and rapidly dispersed while thirty odd people stayed behind.