Chapter 524 — Conflict

"Greetings, teacher, little royal princess," Pou finished her bow while Heian Ciemnosc and Little Ish walked towards her. The latter kept hugging the former's right arm, but this was no different from the 'new' usual little royal princess Pou and Heian Ciemnosc were used to. Little Ish put on a 'royalty' expression and lifted her chin to greet her confidant, but Pou was already used to this little girl's antics and wasn't offended as the latter commenced. "This princess greets thee. What has thy brought me today?"

Rolling her eyes, Pou picked something from her back pocket and showed it to the little girl, whose brightest, cutest aquamarine, azure eyes widened. Seeing the little adorning pins, she took one and immediately put it on her training clothes before smiling. The little one damn liked it. Looking back at Pou, she stored the pin to put it in her non-aggressive, combating clothes later and went up to chat with her dear comrade. Heian Ciemnosc was left alone, but he was alright with it, and his darkest eyes even narrowed as he looked far into the west.

Heian Ciemnosc kept staring at the empty space a little more before returning to the girls. He floated towards them with his legs already crossed and started the day. His voice was calm. And after not seeing him for a long time, Pou felt he had become more formidable. She could still remember the ephemeral fragments of that night, as did her master and uncle master. She listened attentively as Little Ish and rapidly fell into thought.

“Pou, you have broken into the Second Step already, but you still have a few stages more before attaining your Neutral Energy. It is the same as comprehending the Water element, but not as readily as breaking through. You’ve both used many resources since the moment you attained the Spiritual Ligament realm and have been prone to little worldly knowledge. Yet, after some time spent traveling and living in the jungle for a few hours everyday, you have taken leaps in your progress. Just like this little thing over here.”

“Hehe,” Little Ish proudly giggled, nearly sounding like her mother’s laugh, causing a slight smile on Heian Ciemnosc’s lips as he gave her a quick look. When Pou’s serious voice went out, Heian Ciemnosc turned to look at this half-semi-apprentice. “Yes, teacher. I have learned what the world in this little jungle is like. Despite not even being 1/100 the size of the Far East Region, it contains the richest Fauna and the most fresh flora in the Region.”

“When the Blauw Empire successfully forms a connection in the not-so-far future, I’m sure the Far East Region’s influence can expand. With the Academy’s permission, such as the assigned supervisor’s word, they could even vassal as Kings other leading Second Step organizations in the neighboring Regions.” Pou said without shame nor batting an eye. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her, lifting his left eyebrow, and she solemnly bowed while sitting cross-legged on the ground.

“Woaah~!” Little Ish looked at Pou like a younger sister would to her big sister. Her eyes sparkled, making Pou feel proud, exposed by the emphatic grin on the left corner of her mouth. Heian Ciemnosc opened his mouth but narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Cult behind her, not just Pou herself. “Those are words with much heavier meaning than you might think. Is this part of your master and the Pastor?”

“Mn,” Pou nodded, not trying to hide anything from this big boss. She looked into his eyes respectfully and even a little fearful and added. “The Cult isn’t trying to become the Empire’s vassal. But with the assigned supervisor’s previous achievements, we believe only the Far East Region isn’t your goal by the time your decade here runs out. Although we don’t discard the possibility of your re-election to remain here, Sir.”

“Mn, that’s fine. Let’s not talk about this. You’re too young and not involved in the Blauw Empire,” Heian Ciemnosc cut her off in case she wanted to say more and could feel the excitement grow as she talked to him more and more. Pou frowned worriedly immediately, trying to say more. “But, teacher, I-”

“No matter what you say now, you’re not alone. Your actions respond to your master and the Cult, not just yourself. You aren’t a believer they can dispose of if they are trouble, but the future Cult’s Pastor perhaps. Quit it and listen,” Heian Ciemnosc calmly and solemnly said. Pou’s lips remained open as they slowly closed. She lowered her gaze and let her beautiful blonde hair wiffle with the breeze. Heian Ciemnosc’s expression remained casual, somewhat indifferent, before continuing.

“The Elements are the most important in the Second Step, besides the natures of one’s own. To discover yourself, you just have to keep living, but to discover others…” Heian Ciemnosc made a momentary pause before finishing. “You ought to take it.”

… A few hours later, after Pou was instructed to help Little Ish understand the vital differences between the First Step’s Power Energy and the Second Step’s Power Energy with some exercises incorporating the Water element, which they almost understood completely, they ventured into the jungle. Heian Ciemnosc flew above them, sitting cross-legged to warn off any Second Step Fauna that thought of themselves strong enough to do as they wished away, with his Ornament a kilometer above the ground level, just in case.

Little Ish ran forward with extreme precision and swiftness. Wherever her feet landed, a tree, bush, or any flora’s root would be left behind with only some specks of dust flying away. Her movements were so smooth and flowing that she practically flew with her body sliding on the ground. To Little Ish’s right, Pou made long strides, slowly advancing into the distance and slowing down to let the little girl catch up.

Little Ish wasn’t slow, however. With her bodily strength and Bloodline, her legs, and body strength were so influential that she could move faster than most other cultivators in the same level and several stages above her cultivation base without surpassing her realm of cultivation. Pou was impressed, but although her Clashing Dust Cult wasn’t known for having a movement-based Art, their swift Wind and ephemeral Light techniques were their backbone. It wouldn’t be far fetched to say that, if they prolonged through history, they would give birth to an individual capable enough to form a movement-based Art, perhaps even like the similarly named Interchanging Dust Dynasty.

Like this, the girls followed Heian Ciemnosc’s instructions and headed to the next victims, a pair of dog-monkey-looking Fauna whose babies’ genes came with ancestral fortune. Their parents were brown and gray furred, but the babies were golden and red. They were an auspicious sign, deemed to be worthy of great success. Rumors said, however, according to Heian Ciemnosc’s chats with some other Fauna, that they are letting their infants roam outside their territory recklessly. So, why not?

However, just then, Heian Ciemnosc stopped and looked to the left. Timely so, the girls stopped and surveyed the area before looking back and up at him. Pou was the first to ask, with Little Ish’s frowning face seemingly finding something off as her nose sniffled. “Teacher, is there something wrong?” - “Teacher, is there any danger nearby?”

“...” - “...” Heian Ciemnosc looked at them but remained quiet and blinked his eyes. He stared ahead when they reopened, either in contemplation or not knowing what to say and do. The girls looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Pou frowned as she watched Little Ish sniff at times. She remembered her training under the assigned supervisor and started trying that but couldn’t catch anything. After several seconds, she began to get the hang of it, but still nothing.

“Gasp!” A dozen seconds after that, she seemed to get it, and about a minute later, several dozen men and women dressed in the Blue Emirate Grotto’s colors but without emblem showed up. They were mainly grown-ups and looked like seasoned fighters, but some were even stronger, already in the Second Step and wearing the Blue Emirate Grotto’s emblem with obscure purple clothing.

Rustle, rustle. Step, step, step, step… step. The other group, similar to Heian Ciemnosc and Little Ish’s previous encounter, stopped after coming out from ‘hiding’ since all three people were looking towards their side. Some among them, young-looking but more than 2,000 years old, at the very least, looked at the girls and then at Heian Ciemnosc when one young male spoke to him loudly. “Hey, human lad. How much for these?”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc tilted his head to the left, and a lot, looking at the Earth Elf guy with an afro and extremely curly hair. He wasn’t ugly, but neither was he handsome. Heian Ciemnosc blinked his darkest eyes once, and then, he reappeared before the Second Step folk…

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… At night, close to midnight, Heian Ciemnosc ‘walked’ out of the jungle with Little Ish and Pou accompanying him left and right, respectively. However, they weren’t using their legs… but other types of legs. They belonged to a small diversity between a few Races. Yet, it wasn’t just legs. It was also torsos, limbs, and even skulls with some of their skin left hanging. What Heian Ciemnosc and the others were riding were basically constructs made of people.

Heian Ciemnosc rode in the center with the girls on his sides, and they each carried 3 other constructs that moved as their rides moved. Heian Ciemnosc wanted to make skeleton horses, but their bones broke too effortlessly when he bent them, so he conformed himself with some strange, headless, dog-like creatures for mounts. They were just tools, in truth, but Heian Ciemnosc and the girls rode them like mounts.

When they met those training fellas, it was transparent that they wanted some fun with his little apprentices. Naturally, after Heian Ciemnosc dispatched their Second Step leading figures, he caught the others and brought them to some of the Fauna he brought the girls to steal babies from. Filled with fury seeing their malefactor return, those babies’ siblings caught the First Step weakling in their clutches and made a feast of them.

Unfortunately, they broke some bones, too, and ate far too much meat, so Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t do much with just the folks’ bodies and clothes. He wasn’t going to waste even a grass blade on the ground or a branch fallen from a tree to have some fun getting creative. He had standards. Thus, the trio went around the jungle in these slow but comfy constructs. After finding their victims, Heian Ciemnosc grabbed their mounts with a string made from vines and brought them flying through the jungle, not wishing to keep them in his Covert Space bags.

After getting away from mommy and daddy dog-monkey, the girls hugged cute infants to their hearts’ content. Even now that they exited the jungle, the infants were snuggling on their lap, shoulders, and behind them on the constructs. They were simply at ease and unworried about being taken away from their parents, as if they had saved them instead. However, these few dozen infants were correctly tended, and Heian Ciemnosc could even feel their parents’ blood essence in their bodies.

They cared so much for their infants that they spent so much blood essence just to keep them safe. Were this to be the usual daily life of the jungle, they would’ve been running through the entire jungle and not stop when they were ‘blocked’ by knowing they were entering another Fauna’s territory. Heian Ciemnosc shook his head as the dog-monkey infants slept, and the girls gladly hugged them.

“...” Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc felt his medallion heat up. The girls also seemed to discern it as they took them out a few seconds after Heian Ciemnosc. After revising it, Heian Ciemnosc opened his Universal Conveyance and saw images of Heian Ciemnosc murdering innocent trainers before bringing even more innocent trainees to their deaths at the jaws and clutches of several different juvenile Fauna. The videos were of excellent quality, and their scenes were so dramatic it even made him want to see more.

However, that was it. The brutal scenes disappeared without censorship since only cultivators and citizens can have a Universal Conveyance, followed by Heian Ciemnosc’s information, where he was, and when those scenes happened. Of course, some additional data was added. The veracity of such wasn’t noteworthy because right now, half the Existence suddenly discovered a prodigious, insanely mighty growing cultivator was, in reality, despicable and cruel! That was what mattered!!

“Teacher, what is going to happen?” Pou asked, initially feeling worried and insulted. But before she was halfway done with her words, she saw a devastatingly devilish, charming grin form at the corners of his lips and become serene somehow. When Pou finished asking, she felt it was unnecessary, but Heian Ciemnosc’s words made her believe it wasn’t for nothing. He spoke calmly… very calmly. “Let’s return to the territories. Don’t worry. The jungle will still be our available training ground, no matter what. They aren’t stupid enough to involve the little jungle’s Fauna. And they definitely can’t ‘convince’ the big fellows otherwise.”

“Mn,” Pou nodded. Her back was straight like a spear, but her eyes suddenly became determined. At first, Little Ish was confused and somewhat startled at the situation, but the growing little one cleared her mind quickly and looked at her teacher solemnly. This was the first time Heian Ciemnosc saw her turn like this, and the reason behind it appeared in his incredible brain. She knew this was the start… where her home started taking the reigns… and rising!

“Let’s return,” Little Ish commented. Pou looked at her from the other side and lowered her face. She knew she was too young. Despite her learning and studies under her master, the first thing Pou wanted to do was to jump into the hot pot together with the people her confidant is from. That alone let her realize she wouldn’t be a good leader if she wanted to thrive, were she to continue being like this.

Pou became silent but slowly raised her head again and looked at the obscure sky before turning towards Heian Ciemnosc. “Teacher, I will leave first. I must go back and debate with Master. I might come out less, little royal princess, but only for some time. I won’t stop coming to learn under Sir. Farewell.”

Pfooh. Whoooosh~!

Pou didn’t hesitate to take her General type Fighter out and streak into the distance, hurrying towards her Cult’s territory. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her, then at the construct she left behind, with the dog-monkeys on it sleepily leaping towards Little Ish. The little rat was so joyous she was grinning from ear to ear despite the seriousness of the situation and what was coming. Once the infants were on the other side, Heian Ciemnosc palmed in the air.

Phwooosh. Clank clank- graggggg… The constructs to his right were turned into dust, returning to the ground and immediately covering the dirt with some extra nutrients. There was no more pure energy remnant or Power Energy, but the bones and some of the skin’s composition were enough. Heian Ciemnosc then turned to look at Little Ish, who was back to wearing a solemn expression and nodded towards her.

Pfooh. Heian Ciemnosc summoned his Ornament from his Covert Space bag, and Little Ish opened its cabin with its Soul and Spirit Sense recognition system to jump into the Fighter. The dog-monkeys were brought with her Power Energy and Soul, rapidly getting used to the seats around before lowering to the floor with Heian Ciemnosc’s gaze. Thus, only one dog-monkey per seat remained after Little Ish’s pouts. They didn’t work as much as before…

Finally, Heian Ciemnosc turned his Ornament on, and after looking to his right, to the south while his cabin slowly closed down for some reason. He returned to face the front and rotated his Fighter to aim its front at the ground. The smallish engine was activated, the first time inland and Heian Ciemnosc unhesitatingly bombed the air around his Ornament out of reality for an instant.

PEEEEEEEEWW~~!...

The Ornament zoomed into the distance, leaving everything behind a mess. The place where the smallish engine was activated was left with 1 km behind as if an invisible tunnel had suddenly materialized with a diameter of over 10 meters. The grass wasn’t burnt, but it was definitely not alive anymore, and unless some cultivator used Power Energy to return it to normalcy, it would remain in that state until it withered.

***

Several tens of thousands of kilometers from the little jungle where Heian Ciemnosc took the exit from. A small encampment, lowkey, and in the Blue Emirate Grotto’s borders.

This was where no Cult believer or Pavilion member from the Clashing Dust Cult and Feathered Valley Pavilion took position to guard in the neutral zone. Their numbers had to be well distributed, lest the other top organizations grow crazy and take any chance to rush an offensive on their territory. Everything was valid unless they attempted to throw a Region into chaos, especially theirs.

In this lowkey encampment, a tall structure struck out from the rest, from other tents and a few caretaker’s Fauna buildings. It was a wooden construction, but what mattered was beneath the first floor. Its height was a facade, although everything was built, and nothing was left halfway done. In any case, several floors beneath the ground level, a meeting was happening.

This was no ordinary meeting. But, for starters, it wasn’t just about the Blue Emirate Grotto’s hierarchy or the Grottoes from its past… but all other top 5 organizations… among other vassal organizations under them. Yet, all these people sat in a room where only one chair was in the center and against the wall. It wasn’t more oversized or more lavish. But considering that every other seat was next to another, including the other extremity of the room, it meant something more.

The person in that chair wasn’t humble, but neither haughty. The person showed calmness despite meeting these people, and half its ember could be seen, but it was difficult to discern. All one could see was an eye, but it was hard to figure out. It appeared to be drawn as energy, though.

“Hooh, it seems that we were seen? Lower everyone else. There’s no point chasing something not even I can catch with my own hands.” The cloaked person said. Their cloak and hood were of a light but powerful blue and had some yellow dots and foggy spots without a pattern. The person’s head nudged upwards, revealing half their chin and gleaming eyes with a strange gray-silver. The others knew who this fellow was, but even now, they felt like they were meeting an untouchable expert after their disappearance.

“It’s done, we will wait for another ambush.” The Blue Emirate Grotto’s Vice master said, viciously gritting her teeth. But the cloaked person shook their head and spoke lightly. “No. No time for that. Besides… for someone like the little black monster, this is a stupid, petty trick. His Ornament is too advanced, damned Academy…”

The person’s voice was neutral, although it sounded a little manly and young. They tapped the ground with the back of their left feet while their right hand and fingers supported their face.

…