Chapter Seventeen
Mirror Jade Shards
Walking through the muddy ground, carrying the carcass of a deer, Sero’s expression flickered between joy and anger as he delved deep into his thoughts, trying to recall memories of the ancient beast—the Zombie Parasite.
"A part of me was terrified by the danger of that creature, but another part felt an immense thrill. I never had the chance to fight this ancient beast in my previous life, and it leaves behind many medium-quality shards upon its death. The best part is, it's weak against fire, ice, and blood techniques," Sero laughed, his steps quickening.
"But how did that mage die? Killing a single Zombie Parasite shouldn’t be difficult," Sero grumbled at his lack of knowledge, then noticed Jin Bei’s group in the distance.
"Look over there! The little brother managed to catch a whole deer by himself!" Jin Bei shouted with pride, as the cheers of the Pathless men accompanied him, each of them carrying a wild boar twice their size on their backs.
Mana was the most important for mages, but for the Pathless, physical strength was essential for men, and beauty was paramount for women.
Many Pathless men lived comfortably by serving the clan as laborers, while many women charmed and seduced mage men to improve their living conditions.
"The young master has great talents!"
"He might become a skilled hunter in the future!"
"Shut up, you fool! The young master is a mage, of course, he’ll become a skilled hunter if he wants!"
Sero studied both Xing Yao and Jin Bei closely, noting that their expressions showed no sign of knowing there was a mage’s corpse nearby, and he didn’t want anyone to find out until the magic realm disappeared slowly.
"Shall we head back to the village? I doubt I can carry another deer!" Sero spoke in a weary tone, causing Xing Yao to chuckle softly.
"We were looking for you for that very reason. The heavens have been generous; we’ve caught enough meat to last a week!" Jin Bei spoke in a tipsy tone.
"I heard the clan is preparing to welcome a caravan, so we’ll have to compete with many hunters," one of the men grumbled while stretching, leaving a bitter taste in Sero’s mouth.
"Anyway, let’s head back. Nightfall is approaching, and the forest becomes a dangerous place in the dark," Xing Yao sighed, and they all began moving towards the village, exchanging boasts about their hunting the taste of wine, and the charms of the women from the red-light district.
As for Sero, his mind was torn between different emotions. He was pleased that the arrival of a merchant caravan would allow him to display his Mirror Jade shards without anyone suspecting their source.
On the other hand, he felt uneasy, knowing that the increase in hunters could lead to the discovery of the mage’s corpse from whom he had stolen those shards. Yet, he didn’t show much concern.
This was because the mage's corpse was frozen to the bone, and with the arrival of summer, it would melt quickly, just as its magic realm would vanish just as fast.
Sero guessed that the realm would disappear within five days, and the snow from that realm would prevent plants from growing, which would naturally change the locations of animals that the clan’s men hunted.
But all of that was merely speculation and conjecture, and fate spares no one. Just as there was a chance that everything would go according to Sero's plan, there was also a chance that everything he didn’t want would happen.
Lost in his thoughts, time passed quickly, and in an instant, Sero found himself in front of the village storehouse where food supplies were kept.
"So, this is the boy who took down old Ji? He looks like a scrawny kid!" The storehouse guard laughed with glee.
"He may look scrawny, but he took down a deer by himself," Jin Bei replied with a laugh. Since their trial by the great judge Horai, Jin Bei had looked at Sero like a little brother and felt pity for him, knowing he came from the orphanage.
But Sero didn’t share those feelings—Jin Bei was, and would remain, just a pawn to Sero.
"Does he intend to store his catch here? That’s fine then. Our storehouse is considered one of the best places to store meat in the clan," the storehouse guard spoke with pride.
In the clan, everyone had to find a way to live, whether they were mages or not, and most didn’t rely on fighting as a source of livelihood. They tried to profit from the clan’s problems. Among those people were those who stored goods for money, and with the Geist Clan heavily dependent on hunting for meat, they made a fortune.
"This is your hunting receipt. Our workers will prepare and divide the deer you caught. Do you want it for eating or refining?" the storehouse guard asked, rubbing his hands greedily. It was obvious to everyone that he intended to swindle Sero out of the wealth he had earned from the trial, but Sero didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he turned and walked away.
"Uh, young master?" the guard called out in surprise.
"The person who retrieves the goods will pay you. Expect to see me here often in the coming days," Sero said firmly, leaving the storehouse without another word.
"What happened with him? Did I say something wrong?" the guard sighed in embarrassment.
"You called him scrawny, then tried to steal his money, and now you’re asking what you did wrong?" Xing Yao slapped the guard on the head with a cold expression.
"Don’t you see he’s trying to build his body? He lived in terrible conditions at the orphanage, and I wouldn’t blame him if he felt embarrassed by your words," Jin Bei added, following his words with a sigh.
...
Through the forest, two long shadows moved among the branches of the trees. One of the shadows belonged to a bald young man with closed eyes, and the other to a woman dressed heavily on the upper body and almost revealing in the thigh area. Both wore white robes with belts bearing the number two, and they entered the icy magic realm Sero had discovered earlier.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"Did Bing Ja die so easily? What a waste of talent," the woman, named Bing Lisi, complained as she spat on Bing Ja’s frozen corpse.
"Oh, sister, we are under attack by the ancient beast, the zombie parasites. He died courageously on enemy soil to give us a chance to spy on them, using his death as an excuse," the young man named Bing Jao Ren spoke with wisdom and calm, then clasped his hands together in a prayer position and knelt. "Return to the waters that gave birth to us, brother."
"And now the bald man is praying to his nonexistent gods, disgusting," Bing Lisi sighed with a pale face as the snowy winds played with her long black hair. She began searching Bing Ja's corpse for shards, which were, of course, missing because Sero had stolen them.
"The fool destroyed all his shards! Only the broken parts of the Mirror Jade Blade shard and the Mirror Jade Claws Shard remain!" Bing Lisi shouted, her voice echoing in the frozen world.
"We can fix those shards. As for me, I found this filthy parasite's corpse," Bing Jao Ren pointed with his finger.
"I almost swear that Bing Ja was silently spying, and when he felt the parasite trying to breach his body, he panicked and detonated his magic realm," Bing Lisi sighed, placing her hand on her hip.
"If I hadn’t spent half my life with you, I would have believed you. Can you come up with a logical conclusion?" Bing Jao Ren opened his right eye and stared with his golden pupil at Bing Lisi.
"It's clear; he was assassinated by the scoundrels of the Geist clan and his shards were stolen. Let’s retrieve the corpse and leave; we are not allowed to interfere or we’ll be discovered," Bing Lisi grumbled angrily. Her black hair then grew until it covered Bing Ja’s corpse like a shroud, and it was strapped to her back.
"Let’s go back. The worst option was that he exploded his shards to prevent the enemy from obtaining them, while the best option was his death being done by the enemy who also took his shards," Bing Jao Ren sighed with boredom.
"I memorized his shards by heart. We will know his killer if they use the missing Mirror Jade Shards. We can use the merchant caravan to sneak into the clan," Bing Lisi laughed with a sharp voice that could shatter glass.
"Until then, let the killer thief rest in the waters that gave birth to us," Bing Jao Ren clapped his hands as tears welled up in his eyes for his fallen companion.
"I swear I will torture your killer, little brother," Bing Jao Ren opened his eyes wide, his golden pupils shrinking in anger.
...
In his private room in the Anira palace, Sero sat with his legs crossed in silence, holding his Mirror Jade shards before him, staring at them with a sly smile.
"Mirror Jade Skin Shard from the first path would be ideal for defense, while the Mirror Jade Hair shard from the first path is good for close-range attacks," Sero thought to himself, though his face showed fluctuating expressions.
The Mirror Jade Shards were powerful for the first path but required mirror jade as a cost for their use—a rare and expensive resource, especially for Sero. Therefore, he intended to use only the shards he desperately needed.
The Mirror Jade Hair Shard was outside his scope since it required the user's hair to be long. The Mirror Jade Fist Shards required the second path, and in the end, Sero decided not to refine them. The Mirror Jade Water Shard was an important part of the shard fusion process.
The will and mana of the beings that shattered the world into shards could logically also fuse the world again to create stronger shards with better uses.
It was possible to fuse the Mirror Jade Skin Shard and Mirror Jade Water Shard to make the Ice Jade Muscle Shard, but Sero didn't dare to consider it.
Ice Jade Muscle Shard turned the mage's muscles into ice as strong as jade and regenerated rapidly using the water in the user's body, but it had only this use. The shard's regeneration came with the danger of losing sensation in the muscles and forced the user to drink four times the normal amount of water. Additionally, it replaced the original muscles without adding any extra strength, no matter how much the mage trained.
In short, it was only a desperate solution to compensate for healing shards.
The second fusion was with the Winter Wind Storm Shard to produce the Jade Knife Storm Shard, but Sero did not possess a Winter Wind Storm Shard and was not willing to gamble on obtaining one from the caravan.
His goal was a shard from the first path to avoid depleting his mana quickly, from the fire or ice style to handle the parasites and cover his weakness against close-range attacks.
He had decided to use a Blood Dagger Shard he would obtain in a week for long-range attacks, so he wanted a close-range attack shard.
Ultimately, he remembered a figure from his previous life, a first-path mage known as the "Fallen of Aria Storm," whose name was feared for assassinating very important figures in the mage world, both from the righteous and dark factions, using only his bare hands.
Among the shards he used was one that caused many debates among mages specializing in refining and fusing shards, known as the Cold Burn Shard.
The Cold Burn Shard was a fusion between an ice-style shard and a fire-style shard, resulting in a shard that enveloped the body in cold blue flames, freezing everything it touched. That was the shard Sero wanted.
But did he have a fire shard? Of course! It was the Small Flame Shard from the fire style.
As for the ice shard, he had two, but he decided to use the Mirror Jade Water Shard.
He closed his eyes and entered his magic realm, where black waves gently surged, then refined the first path shards directly while preserving the second path shard.
"Unfortunately, the fusion process requires a lot of mana in addition to the conditions for using both shards and the shard produced," Sero sighed deeply.
The good news was that the Small Flame Shard and the Cold Burn Shard only required mana as a condition for use. The bad news was that all Mirror Jade Shards required Mirror Jade as a condition. To avoid arousing suspicion in case the mage’s corpse was discovered by the clan, Sero decided to postpone the fusion process until the caravan arrived.
"Now all I need is to reach at least the fourth path so I can survive against the dark faction mages when I leave the clan before the war begins and the ancient beast awakens. I also need to prepare a shard from each style to reach the next important point in this era," Sero sighed wearily and then fell asleep.
The next day, the academy was eerily silent compared to the first day. In front of the massive gate, three people stood, easily distinguished by the academy servants.
The first was Liu Jinta, who had beaten his classmates so severely that they could hardly move. He even resorted to threatening to use his Small Flame Shard to deter anyone from sneaking into the class to take the fire-style shard, the Flame Breath Shard.
The second was Dread, who had chosen the sword style. Unlike the other two classes, he had succeeded in winning a draw against his classmates to obtain the sword-style shard, the Golden Bamboo Sword Shard.
As for Sero, his situation was generally known, but he had a worse reputation than Jinta due to bullying the clan’s girls. However, he hadn’t cared about his reputation even in his previous life.
The three stared at each other in silence. A brazen smile spread across Jinta’s face while Sero and Dread looked on with boredom, trying to ignore him. During the time that passed, none of them spoke; only the sound of the cold summer winds could be heard.
After a long wait, the iron gate of the academy slowly creaked open, and the academy servants stood on either side of the path leading to the lecture halls.
"Congratulations, young masters. Please proceed to your halls to receive your shards," the elderly head servant spoke with enthusiasm and stepped aside from the path of the three students.
Jinta sprinted towards the flame Building without a second thought, fearing that someone might try to outsmart him and sneak in without his knowledge.
Dread walked lazily while pulling out a booklet from his pocket titled "The Story of Terra" and began flipping through the pages in silence.
Sero, meanwhile, took light steps towards the Blood Rose Building and sat quietly in front of the hall, ensuring that no one could pass except Lysa.