“Thirty two days ago I was tasked to investigate the events that transpired on the island of Divine tribulation trees in the Wastwater mortal realm.” Andren began his report, “As the name implies, over ninety percent of it’s surface is covered with water and compared to this one it is relatively less developed. There are few natural treasures though, the most significant being the two Divine tribulation trees. For many millennia these trees had belonged to the Immortal Alliance and along with the cultivation platforms are lent to the sects from different mortal realms who had made considerable contributions towards the Immortal Alliance, currently the Sacred Order and the Voodoo sect. I must add that the island is protected by a peculiar formation fueled by the two Divine tribulation trees in order to protect it from intruders and it is almost impossible for a cultivator to get to it without using our teleportation platform.”
This all was a common knowledge, therefore all present impatiently waited for the monk to continue.
“Upon the arrival the obvious thing was the fight that had happened between the two rank seven beasts. Both were already dead for over half a year and their corpses charred while lying in the waters of Divine tribulation tree. The first obvious thing was that the nightfeather griffin attacked the goldenglow tiger and in course of the battle the cultivation platform was destroyed while the Divine tribulation tree had received a considerable damage as well.”
“You!” Lady Evelyn hissed towards Maramasa and grabbed the handle of her oversized claymore while the master of the Voodoo sect furrowed his brows in confusion – this didn’t make any sense. Both beasts had cultivated there for centuries and to suddenly involve themselves in a fight of life and death was more than silly, especially considering the stakes.
Monk Andren didn’t wait for the two sect masters to start their own discussion and continued, “The next thing I immediately found were the remnants of the griffin’s egg on the tiger’s island and the formal reason for the fight became obvious.”
Hearing this lady Evelyn instantly deflated. If the tiger really stole the egg it was only normal for the griffin to attack and since the tiger belonged to the Sacred Order, this was her mess! Fortunately the next part allowed her to heave a sigh of relief.
“At this point one might jump to conclusions, but even at the first glance there were too many unanswered questions like what happened to the fruits, why there were only bones left from the griffin’s corpse and not the tiger’s and why there was a half naked child in the island? This caused me to thoroughly investigate the island and I found few more things that made me think of a possibility that there was a third party involved.”
On one hand it was good news for the present sect masters, but on the other it meant they had suffered losses no one would compensate for. But then Maramasa realized it wasn’t that simple – if there was no guilty party present, this meeting that was in actuality more like a court hearing wouldn't had taken place! He would only received a message from the Immortal Alliance informing him his griffin was dead and that there was no chance of getting any compensation. Him and his father turned out to be correct – this was a setup!
Monk Andren didn’t bother with Maramasa’s inner thoughts and continued, “One thing that immediately became obvious was almost a complete lack of beasts above rank three. You might think it’s probably because of the two rank sevens residing there eating everyone, but first of all because of the cultivation formations the need for the regular food practically non-existent and second – on the island lived a rank six royal eagle, tamed by the Immortal Alliance, whose main task was to supply the two beasts with the conventional food from the nearby islands. It took me a while, but I managed to find its corpse and evidence it had died from an unnatural cause. In fact, it’s death was quite peculiar – it died to a masterful punch to its lower abdomen that ruptured its vitals, but allowed the bird to stay alive for quite some time.”
He smiled and looked around while taking an artistic pause, “Another obvious piece of the puzzle completely out of place was the boy. How did he get there and why, and for how long did he stay there? But we’ll get to that. First I want to point out that on an island which no regular cultivators had an access to seemingly for no reason at all appeared a helpless boy. The present people might realize that for a child to survive in the wild, especially on that particular island is impossible, even with all the high ranked wild beasts gone. In addition, there were no signs of this child wondering around, looking for a water source and the group from the Golden Hand society found him right at the teleportation platform, completely confused. At the time he was relatively obese, but afterwards within a month became thin as a dry branch.”
“Under the effect of passionflower extract incense the boy was barely capable of remembering his own name, but other than that his mind completely consisted of things I initially thought were an irrelevant mess – like medicinal baths, sparks, firewater and chickens. His consciousness has been obviously been tampered with, but unfortunately there is no way for us to check his memories or thoughts since no one in the world, at least not in the Immortal Alliance has discovered a technique that allows to do that.”
“I did check his origins, of course, but as it turns out the family he was supposed to come from not only was located at the other end of the mortal world, but also completely annihilated more than a year ago. Convenient, isn’t it? In addition, he was supposed to be around six years old, but the boy we found is obviously at least eight! The present experts have already guessed what I’m about to say – the child was ‘planted’ on the island with the intention of us finding him and making an assumption he has been manipulated and, judging by the symptoms, style and side effects we were supposed to think it has been done by a Voodoo master.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
All the present turned their heads towards Maramasa, but Andren continued, “Please don’t judge yet – let me finish. If we ignore the child and consider the rest of the evidence, the deed could’ve been done by anyone, and the child is the only variable pointing at the presence of a Voodoo master, but at a somewhat sloppy one. But the person who arranged all of this had to go through the protection formation at least two times and that means they were at least at the middle or later Nascent soul stage cultivation level. But people of that caliber don’t make such silly mistakes! And that could only mean one thing – someone was trying to make it look like everything was done by a Voodoo master in order to implicate the Voodoo sect!”
Obviously at this point everyone turned towards lady Evelyn, but monk hurried to continue, “But that is not all. After wrecking my brains for a couple of days, I realized that the perpetrator still had to be in that mortal realm. In order to find them I gathered a large squad of pathfinders from the Mercenary guild and it took us almost two days until we got results, but I must say – they were shocking.”
After another theatrical pause Andren spoke again, “The most likely person who executed the whole thing turned out to be late stage Nascent soul cultivator from the corrupt path that had sabotaged several our teleportation platforms during the past ten years and disappeared six months ago. We found him in an underwater grotto around thousand miles from the island of Divine tribulation trees when he was preparing to undergo his Immortal tribulation. Unfortunately it turned out to be impossible to capture him alive as he detonated his soul during the arrest therefore a part of what I’m reporting are only my assumptions.”
“Sir Andren, there is a lot of confusing information here. Would you mind telling us the conclusion? I’m certain if you continue this detailed report we’ll be here another day or two.” Christopher Delian managed to get a word in and politely said.
He was not the only one getting migraine from Andren’s story. Lady Evelyn held the head with her hand as if afraid it would explode and the old man Conrad had an annoyed look all over his wrinkled face. Meanwhile elder Sigfried had dozed off some time ago since the discussion had nothing to with him, but Maramasa was deep in thought thinking of ways to get out of the situation his sect would find itself in after this meet will be over.
The only one attentively listening was the young girl accompanying lady Evelyn and there was no confusion on her face despite the monk’s somewhat chaotic story.
Slightly upset by his thunder being stolen, Andren sighed and told the short version, “Three and half centuries ago the Sacred Order and the Voodoo sect were rewarded by the Immortal Alliance allowing to train their contracted rank seven beasts on the island of the Divine tribulation trees. At the same time a devious plan was born. In cooperation with a cultivator from the corrupted path one of these sects sabotaged the long lasting peace and with the intent of implicating and potentially destroying the other one. When the time came and the proper conditions were met they decisively crippled their own strength by killing off their own rank seven beast, but in return created an illusion of themselves being wrongly accused. Only people from the corrupted path could think of a plan like this and they would’ve succeeded if not for us making a proper thorough investigation.”
“We’ll need more than that, Sir Andren.” Christopher Delian plainly said. Already for some time he regretted on not having this discussion in a form of interview by him asking questions and the monk answering them.
“Alright, I’ll speak in a simpler language so everyone can understand.” Monk seemed to be slightly upset, “This whole charade was created by Voodoo sect to implicate Sacred Order as if they have been trying to implicate the Voodoo Sect! The unscrupulous plan that lasted for centuries was supposed to succeed by Immortal Alliance punishing the Sacred Order, crippling their resources and securing the leading position of Voodoo sect in this mortal realm. It would provide Voodoo sect with the excuse to rally other sects, destroy Sacred Order and overtake their spirit stone mines. This way they would kill three birds with one stone and their own investments and losses would be compensated manyfold.”
Sect master Maramasa stared at monk Andren in disbelief. They didn’t have to go through such lengths in order to support Sacred Order in destroying Voodoo sect. Few simple accusations were enough, but the monk’s performance clearly indicated he actually believed his own words! Maramasa had never lost respect for an immortal, but this guy basically forced others to consider him brain dead!
The rest of the present people had different reactions though. Lady Evelyn angrily stared at Maramasa. If he wasn’t at the Nascent soul stage, he would’ve simply died from her killing intent alone. Elder Sigfried had woken up and with interest observed the others, sir Conrad stood there ready to intervene in case a fight broke out, while Christopher Delian tried to hide his satisfied smile – he obviously new the contents of the ‘report’ already. The only person out of place was the man besides him. The whole time no one noticed or payed attention to him – it was as he was not actually there.
“How certain are you, Sir Andren? These are some serious accusations.” Christopher Delian asked pretending to remain impartial.
“I’m eighty percent positive.” Monk confidently said, “Unfortunately or maybe fortunately I didn’t find direct evidence proving that the Voodoo sect has stepped on the corrupted path.”
“Hmm. In that case the Immortal Alliance will continue to keep the neutral stance in any conflicts that may arise.” Christopher Delian pretended to be in deep thought, “Of course, since you are eighty percent certain, Voodoo sect will have to compensate eighty percent of the cultivation platform’s repair costs. This sum will be subtracted from the guarantee your sect deposited in our treasury back then, sect master Maramasa.”
Maramasa gravely looked back at him and swallowed the insult that he had an urge to spew out. He had no clue what actually transpired on the island and currently it didn’t matter anymore. The backing that Sacred Order always had now became clear as well as the devious tricks the Immortal Alliance uses in order to control mortal realms.
It was his father’s great foresight that allowed Mumasa to timely vanish and in order to seek the revenge, and in the future they will have to put all hopes on him. Yes, the Sacred Order had no means of dealing with him and his father, but the Voodoo sect most likely was about to parish really soon.