After Etessa left, lady Evelyn and Christopher Delian stared at each other for a while until she got bored and said, “Obviously it’s not as simple as I explained, right?”
“Honestly? It actually is.” He intended to go and sit at the side of her bed, but noticing her eyebrow twitch in annoyance forced himself to move over to one of the windows and sit on the windowsill.
“There should be a couple additions though.” He continued, “First of all, the salary or allowance, call it as you wish, of your disciples and elders will be changed. Uhmm, let me rephrase that – for the next twenty five years you won’t spend spirit stones in any other way than supporting the Spirit tower and operating the teleportation platform.”
“You expect my people to work without getting payed?” Lady Evelyn disliked the idea.
“No, their payment should be something that benefits the Sacred Order, not them individually.” Christopher patiently explained, “You should implement a similar reward system that exists in basically every sect in the Immortal realm.”
“You mean – the merit or contribution points?” She asked, “Do we even have anything to offer to use them on?”
“Of course!” Christopher said, “Besides passable cultivation methods and battle techniques, you have warehouses full of crap that your disciples will be happy to obtain. Weapons, armor and what not – lower level cultivators consider many of those items to be precious.”
Then he realized Evelyn used a claymore as wall and awkwardly scratched his head.
“But that would be only one part.” He continued, “You’ll offer processed higher quality cultivation resources as a reward as well therefore you need to invest in developing a strong alchemy division. If anything, the war with the Voodoo sect proved that only developing combat prowess is not enough – not everyone is as talented as you or Etessa. And regarding alchemists, trust me, you’ll be surprised how many of your disciples have talent for the craft.”
“Sounds reasonable. And you probably want to suggest to fuel the newfound alchemy division with the resources we gather from the other mortal realms?” Lady Evelyn asked.
“Mhm. It’s a self sustaining system that will benefit the Sacred Order greatly in addition to fixing you.” Christopher said.
“Sigh. With Maramasa’s last attack I lost my chance to become an immortal, you know that.” Evelyn said without a change in her expression, “It’ll take me decades to expel the corrosion – that is if I ever manage to do that. By the way – what evidence did we find that proved them to be from the corrupted path?”
“Hahaha! You’ll find this funny …” Christopher began, but then noticed her cold look and said, “Ok, maybe not … anyway … there was nothing found in the sect and your people gave the signal because of misunderstanding. But the two items Maramasa and his father used actually were forbidden artifacts.”
“Explain.” Lady Evelyn commanded, but the immortal already knew she was too tired from the prolonged conversation and barely stayed conscious.
“Both – the fire scorpion’s heart and the emerald mamba that were used to craft those items were Nascent soul stage beasts. Their souls were locked within and while the fire scorpion’s heart that damned Maramasa had hidden inside his own body, the emerald mamba was at the plain sight all the time – the old man was carrying it around him as if it was a staff. I don’t know where or how they got their hands on these items, but they definitely originated from the Immortal realm. Fortunately the two had no clue how to properly use them otherwise I’m afraid no one would’ve survived.”
“Alright.” Lady Evelyn nodded, “Now go. I need to rest.”
“Sure. From tomorrow on you’ll be staying in the Spirit tower.” Christopher said, “It’ll be solely used for your needs until you completely expel the corrosion.”
“No … as a sect master …” She tried to argue, but he interrupted.
“I’ll veto any objections. This is not negotiable. Right and one more thing … regarding Etessa. Would you consider …”
But this time she interrupted him, “No. You don’t understand since you have no children. She’ll stay here for now.”
Christopher gave the beauty who passed out after the last sentence a strange look. Eighteen years ago the two of them spent an unforgettable night together and less than a year later Etessa was born. But for who knows what reasons Evelyn stubbornly refused to admit she was his daughter.
Of course, he was few … well … more like a dozen millennia older than her, but false immortals like him rarely had children. And out of all the women he had in his life, she was the one he liked the most. Obviously that was the reason why he supported her and her silly little sect in the name of the Immortal Alliance.
Since he technically didn’t break any rules and didn’t directly meddle in the mortal realm’s business, he never got in trouble, but during the last event with the Voodoo sect he almost messed up. Fortunately it turned out to be fine and he was certain that with enough effort this proud lady would be capable of becoming a false immortal like him and they could spend the rest of their lives together until their souls deteriorated into nothingness. A whole different question was if she was in any way ‘tamable’, but he was not in a rush and fortunately she was alive so they still had a chance.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
While officially the festival was supposed to start the next day, celebrations began the same evening. The Sacred Order having their Nascent soul stage sect leader alive was vital for the sect’s existence, but for the regular people of Avila it was even more important.
While the sect might parish at some point for whatever reasons, a Nascent soul cultivator would still live for a couple millennia or maybe even longer and lady Evelyn was the official current protector of the holy city Avila thus making it untouchable. Those were the unwritten rules of the mortal realm Aurora.
The grand festival came with a three day tax free period and holidays for everyone except for the people working in inns and taverns, but they didn’t seem to mind much by earning in few days what otherwise would take half a year. Even the disciples of the Sacred Order mixed in the crowd and drank and danced with the common folk till the sunrise.
Jack dragged Leo along to the city to show off the sights, but since one was a child and another one youth without a single hair growing on his chin, they couldn’t join the ‘real’ festivity with alcohol and women like the older disciples did. In addition, both were short on spirit stones and had no conventional money at all therefore after gawking their eyes out came back to their rooms before midnight.
There was one thing Leo was sure of – the alchemy industry in Avila was at high level because during the short walk he could smell people drinking Firewater or something similar everywhere. They even went in some establishment not too far from the sect, but before Leo could make any inquiries, they got thrown out because neither had any money.
For the first time in his life Leo realized he was actually poor. Back home everyone bought him all he wanted, but to live in the jungle with apes one didn’t need any currency – everything depended on your ability to get to the edible fruit or stalk first. Unfortunately living among humans required real money, but there was no way he could earn any if he continued like this.
Suddenly Leo realized that he has been living his life completely wrong. With what he did on a daily basis he was not becoming stronger nor richer. He was only existing and dragging on this miserable servitude for who knows what reason.
‘That’s it! Starting tomorrow I’ll change everything!’
With this thought Leo fell asleep and slept soundly till the next morning. He had no clue what exactly he wanted to change or what was he supposed to do, but the thought of change alone made him happy.
To Leo’s great confusion he was woken by Jack.
“Let’s go! Quickly! Something big is happening!” He shouted and pulled the half-asleep Leo through the narrow pathways of the outer sect.
At first the boy was annoyed, but when he saw dozens of others rushing the same direction even though the sun had only just risen, his curiosity was peaked.
The outer sect housed thousands of outer disciples who technically performed roles of servants or laborers while stepping on the road of cultivation at the same time. Usually the most talented were quickly noticed and accepted as sect’s inner disciples where their main focus became the cultivation and development of their combat skills. Obviously the numbers of inner disciples were much smaller.
There was a considerable difference both in the social standing and the future prospects between the outer and inner sect, but during the time the Sacred Order was considered the strongest sect in this mortal world even the outer sect disciples could walk around with their heads held high. Of course, they still remained lower class citizens within the sect, but most didn’t really care.
“What the f*ck is this?” Leo blurted out the moment they arrived at the central square.
During the past months his more experienced colleague taught him how to ‘properly’ curse and finally cleared Leo’s misconception about the ‘mother tucking’ subject. At fist the boy was not completely certain he understood the meaning, but after Jack’s detailed explanation and remembering what Bimpo and Onataka did to Runamata, it all started to make sense.
His biggest confusion was about the reasoning behind the abusive procedure, but all Jack could say was that he would understand after getting older since everyone, even beasts, did it to what Leo could only nod – indeed, those damned apes humped each other almost every day, especially the biggest one.
Of course the boy happily learned the ‘correct’ usage of those words in the main dialect in addition to expanding his vocabulary. Jack, on the other hand, was glad to guide him becoming Leo’s first mentor in Sacred Order. Being few years older certainly had its perks.
“Those are some big f*cking stones!” Jack expertly explained not having a clue what they were actually looking at.
They had arrived at the entrance to the crowded main square of the sect. At one side was the pride of the Sacred Order – large, white building containing one of the only two teleportation platforms in this mortal realm and across the wide area covered in cobblestone that was packed with people on this early morning stood the Spirit tower – according to Jack the best cultivation spot in the world. Leo, of course, had seen the teleportation platforms before, but to get inside the Spirit tower for now had to remain a dream – at least not until he officially got to the Qi gathering stage.
The main square was surrounded by the other important buildings of the sect, like the library, armory and treasury, but what everyone was gawking at were four ten yards tall stone slates erected near the Spirit tower.
“Something big is about to happen!” Jack confidently said.
“What are those?” Leo asked.
From where they arrived they could only discern that there was something engraved on the slates, but it was too hard to actually recognize the words from that distance.
“Those are some kind of reward and ranking lists.” Miles, one of their neighbors said. He was the same age as Jack, but a bit of less of a know it all.
He arrived here earlier and the crowd already was discussing the contents engraved on the stones.
“The rankings are empty, probably for now, but for some reason they have something to do with dragons.” He continued, “The guys are guessing that we’re going to hunt them.”
“What about the rewards?” Jack asked.
“Those don’t make any sense either.” Miles shrugged, “For some kind of points one can buy the cultivation resources which the inner disciples get for free and then there are techniques and weapons we can get as well.”
“Where do we get those points?” Leo curiously asked. Since he saw his father wield that flaming sword he had always dreamed of having a similar one.
“How would I know that?” Miles shrugged again, “Probably elders will explain it to us.”