Elizabeth should have been angry at both her master and her sister disciple.

Sadly, it was impossible to stay mad at either of them. Especially when her master put her hand on top of her head and pat it. Even more, it was kissed in such a gentle manner.

"Muuu!!! This is unfair! I can't stay mad at you!" She said trying to be indignant but failing miserably as an intended moan escaped her lips at his actions.

His touch was electric and she did not mean it metaphorically. She could feel her master's happiness through his touch and the feeling was intoxicating. She would do anything if it meant she got touched like this regularly.

A small part of her mind was shocked at how easy it was for her master to manipulate her feelings. But the rest of it told that part to go fuck off. She had had enough of worries and getting backstabbed in her lifetime. She was the owned property of a handsome, powerful, and very tasty cultivator now and she liked it.

Eishath chuckled at her but acquiesced as she said.

"I am sorry Ellie. You are just so fun to tease."

Elizabeth looked shocked at her statement, but this time it was a very happy shock.

And so easy to wrap around my finger. That part was left unsaid.

"Ellie?!" She asked.

"What?... You can give me a nickname but I cannot." Eishath said in mock offense.

"No! No. Continue..." Elizabeth replied trying to suppress a happy squeal.

Eishath looked at her pleasantly before her expression turned serious.

"Ellie... And I say this with the best of intentions... But you do not have much of a chance in the 'Great Battle'."

Both Samuel and Elizabeth looked at Eishath with surprise at her sudden shift in mood.

Manipulation was Eishath's game and even now she was spinning a web. But this time she did not need to lie.

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"The bare minimum to even have a chance at the first round of the matches, you would need to be of the foundation stage. And those tend to have at least a couple of nasty tricks under their belt."

She said adding quite a bit of somberness to her voice.

A trick to make someone dependent on you. Grind them down, but in a way that they do not realize it is you who robbed their self-esteem. Then add nuggets of encouragement here and there, some consolations, some 'advice', and a bit of time investment. Soon, you will have them eating out of your hands.

Eishath was sure that Elizabeth would fall in her first round, this year there were too many powerhouses performing. She would know, a part of her 'previous' job was to keep track of all these things. And she knew who Elizabeth was being matched up against tomorrow.

Zato was her opponent. A rising outer sect disciple who would make his debut in this tournament. What most did not know, however, was that the little monster had already reached the essence condensation stage surpassing his own master.

He wanted to make a big splash and directly take a shot at the inner sect. Elizabeth was a very big and easy target, as she was garnering quite a bit of a reputation herself. But being so clumsy in combat and a cauldron on top of that had pushed the sentiment towards her sister's disciple into a downward spiral. Her winning streak only added to that resentment, someone to knock her down a peg was something the disciples wanted.

The 'disciple league' or whatever they called themselves these days hated cauldrons with a passion.

The reason they gave was that cauldrons were robbed of their rights as humans. But from what she had seen about cauldrons, they were treated on average much better than disciples. So Eishath came to the conclusion that at least in part, it was due to jealousy.

On cue, Elizabeth's mood fell.

"Really?..." She sounded very dispirited all of a sudden.

The little cultivator had a very twisted sense of self-worth. She believed herself to be a toy to master Samuel, to use as he saw fit. Yet, she had this odd wish to continually prove herself in combat.

"Is that right?..." Samuel finally chimed in.

"Yes... I do believe that to be true..." Her master was an oblivious superweapon but nascent soul cultivators were a terrifying lot, the less she lied the better. Thankfully, she did not need to lie at this moment.

Elizabeth did not have a high chance, not because she was not powerful. Eishath could feel the raw essence wafting off her sister's disciple, enough to make even an original spirit demonic cultivator drool. But because the series of opponents she was pitted against just happened to be absurdly difficult. But what she had said was still technically true.

"I see..."

Samuel's focus was on Elizabeth and he had a look in his eye that had Eisath curious.

"What is it, Master Samuel?" She could not help but ask...

"Just thinking whether I should just push Elizabeth to the essence condensation by tonight or not..." He said casually.

"WHAT?!?!"

"WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Both his disciples cried out in unison.