After the monk left, Maramasa dismissed elders without an explanation or giving new orders.
On the outside everything still seemed to be fine, but after they were left alone, his father said with a sigh, “Good thing we sent Mumasa away.”
“You also feel like someone is setting us up?” Maramasa asked.
“Setting up for what?” His father sighed again, “The list of our enemies is not short, but since the Immortal Alliance is involved any foul play is impossible. They might be selfish bastards, but they care for their name immensely. In addition, their formal stance is to not get involved with anything that goes on in the mortal realms.”
“Then what about Andren? Why the hell he was here?” Maramasa was obviously annoyed, “If anything – that was a direct involvement.”
“I’m certain they’ll have an explanation.” The old sect master shrugged, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m as pissed as you are and even more – I’d suggest we prepare for the worst.”
Maramasa furrowed his brows in displeasure, “You don’t expect us to go down without a fight?”
“Hahaha! No, son! I expect us to fight! Let us fight so fiercely people would fear our names for thousands of years to come!” His father laughed, “What I mean is we should mentally prepare for the work of our predecessors to be destroyed because of few scheming bitches. They can kill our people, destroy the sect, but what the hell can they do to Nascent soul cultivators like us? We’ll leave and afterwards turn their lives into a living hell! Looks like they don’t understand what kind of plague the two of us are capable of unleashing. And after Mumasa achieves immortality, he’ll finish what we’ve started.”
“So you knew all along?” Maramasa asked in surprise.
“No, just like you I only had a bad premonition.” The old sect master said, “We made a few precautions, that’s it.”
“Alright! Let’s go to war.” Maramasa grinned, “If it turns out to be nothing at the end, let’s exterminate a sect or two to relieve the frustration. Even a small one like Westmarsh sect or Four Elements sect should suffice. No, I’ve got a better idea – let’s go for the Angelic Dawn! I’m in a dire need of concubines and our boys would love to have a bit of fun as well.”
“To eliminate a female only sect … sounds like you want to piss off lady Evelyn on purpose.” His father grinned, “Alright, count me in! And don’t you dare to think of having all the peaches for yourself!”
The father-son duo didn’t leave the sect master’s residence that night and spent it while chatting, planning and drinking the best alcohol from their stash. Leo, on the other hand, was thrown in a small shack made of straws and told this would be his new home.
In the outer sect disciples district there were hundreds of such small houses built closely one next to another and only now Leo realized how good his life had been up until now. While no one was pestering him with the language lessons anymore, he was living on a dirty field in a shack that was smaller than a quarter of his room back home. He even began to miss the days spent at the ocean with the two mother tuckers where he could earn sweat smiles from wet, naked female cultivators, pass them towels and even help them to dry themselves if there was a chance.
After acquainting himself with the few neighbors, Leo realized he was transferred here to begin his road of cultivation. All residents had some menial tasks they were performing around the sect, but in the free time they were cultivating hard in order to one day also become a Nascent soul stage cultivator just like their sect master.
He guessed that the visit to the sect master’s place was some kind of a test and either he performed badly or even failed, therefore had to start from the bottom. Of course, the social standing didn’t bother Leo much – he was only angry at his own inability and the lack of talent. Fortunately his father couldn’t witness the embarrassment and he still had the opportunity to make up for it.
Memories of his father brought back father’s teachings and with a newfound energy he dived into the cultivation. Yes, he was forced to start over, yes, the food in canteen was crappy, but with enough hard work he could achieve anything! At least this was what his father taught him.
Leo continued to practice the ‘secret technique’ by forcing all the lightning in his consciousness into the trashcan, the dantian. After the few medicinal baths his efforts were rewarded and he felt as if the process became much easier.
His two neighbors, Zalupo and Fanaka, boys several years older than him, maybe around fifteen, actually tried to take care of the newcomer. One of them even offered his family’s treasured cultivation technique, a real one contrary to what Leo practiced, but got turned down.
Stolen novel; please report.
Nevertheless the two somewhat pitied the proud orphan who according to their understanding was not even allowed to work yet in order to get spirit pills or other cultivation resources. They consoled him saying that soon he’ll also be able to carry water or firewood for the alchemy division and the things will definitely turn around. Leo, hearing that politely nodded, of course mostly because he didn’t understand even a quarter of what they said.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” A tall and heroic looking middle aged man, dressed in a golden attire, slightly resembling chain mail armor, said to the small crowd gathered on top of the building Leo was teleported to approximately a month ago.
There were total of eight people standing on the roof platform. The leader who just spoke, another man dressed in a similar way except the color of his clothing was silvery, lady Evelyn along with the young aide she was here the last time, sect leader Maramasa – this time alone since he couldn’t leave the sect without a Nascent soul stage cultivator present, elder Sigfried, monk Andren and another old man with an unkempt beard dressed in white linen robe. The last elderly was barely five feet tall and his presence couldn’t be noticed at all signifying an unfathomable cultivation level.
Maramasa looked around and inadvertently sighed. It was unlikely the place had seen a gathering of this caliber before. Three immortals, event though false ones, coming to a mortal realm at the same time was no small matter – clearly something big has happened on the island of Divine tribulation trees and at least two people were here to keep the others in check. While he already knew the monk and the man who just spoke, he could guess who the old guy was. What made him uncomfortable was the presence of the person whom he didn’t know even though he seemed to also be only at the Nascent soul cultivation level.
“A month ago elder Sigfried reported to his superiors in the Golden Hand society about a disturbing event and since it concerns the property of the Immortal Alliance I was tasked to get to the bottom of this.” The man in golden attire proudly continued, “Right, introductions first! I’m Christopher Delian, junior elder of the treasury department of the Immortal Alliance.”
‘Ye, right!’ Maramasa snickered to himself, ‘After throwing your weight around mortal realms for several centuries there isn’t anyone at the Nascent soul stage level who doesn’t know you, show off!’
Of course, on the outside he didn’t dare to show his thoughts and the man continued, “In order to make sure the Immortal Alliance doesn’t overstep the set boundaries, Sir Conrad is present to oversee this meet in the role of observer.”
Everyone present looked at the old man, but he only slightly nodded and Christopher Delian skipped the rest of introductions and said, “Since we are pressed for time let’s don’t waste it. Elder Sigfried, would you mind telling everyone what exactly you found when your squad arrived at the island.”
Elder Sigfried nodded and said, “We went there to perform the routine maintenance on the teleportation platform and the two cultivation formations. As you probably know it has to be done once every seven to ten years. Upon arrival we noticed almost a complete destruction of one of the cultivation platforms, the lack of fruits on both Divine tribulation trees and the remains of the two rank seven beasts residing on the island. Since there was nothing wrong with the teleportation platform, according to the protocol we immediately returned to make a report … and one more thing … right next to the teleportation platform we found a child whom sect master Maramasa volunteered to shelter for a while and teach him the man dialect so he could testify.”
The expressions of the present two sect masters turned grave. While they expected their beasts had met a tragic end, the destruction of one of the cultivation platforms under the Divine tribulation tree was extremely costly matter. Most likely it occurred while the two beasts fought and the guilty party will not only have to compensate the Golden Hand society for the repairs, but also the death of their rank seven beast to their rival sect. Even bigger problem was that both beasts were on the verge of breaking to the Nascent soul stage and their value couldn’t be actually measured.
The fruits of the Divine tribulation trees were also a sensitive matter. Both Sacred Order and the Voodoo sect were provided with one of the trees along with the cultivation platforms and the fruits were a considerable bonus. The pills made from processing those were an incredible supplement for protecting a practitioner while going through the Heavenly tribulation during their attempt in forming Nascent souls and even though they weren’t divine pills, even heavenly pills of that level were rare and incredibly expensive.
Even bigger problem was that the Divine tribulation trees bloomed once a century and three years later produced two to six fruits each and both sects were counting on these fruits in order to promote their new generation. It was especially important for the Voodoo sec which was in a dire need of the third Nascent soul cultivator and Maramasa planned his eldest son, Uwataga, would become one within a decade if he was lucky.
Clearly the one who picked both trees not only intended to double their own benefit – they crippled the other side at the same time. Realizing this both sect masters looked at each other radiating fierce killing intent, but then suddenly felt an enormous pressure suffocating them and quickly regained their outer calm. Just as they guessed, Sir Conrad’s skill turned out to be terrifying. The tiny old man who seemed to not care about the discussion easily kept everyone in check.
“Is there anything else you would like to add? Something you saw, noticed? Anything missing or exactly the opposite – you found something?” Christopher Delian continued ignoring the changes in expressions of the two sect masters.
“No, given the sensitivity of the subject we acted according to the protocol.” Elder Sigfried replied, “The old monk will have to tell us all what exactly transpired there.”
Monk Andren smiled back at the elder like a sunshine. Indeed, he had at least triple the amount of Sigfried’s years behind him even though he looked as if he could be the runemaster’s son. Even if he was only a false immortal he aged at a completely different speed compared to someone at the Nascent soul stage.
“Alright!” Delian nodded, “Sir Andren is one of the best investigators Mercenary guild can provide. Would you please share your findings with us, including your opinions and conclusions, if I may ask?”