Punya looked towards the direction where the fifth elder was headed and sighed. ‘I hope at least you will be able to survive this ordeal’ he prayed. He then headed towards the supreme elder’s residence. There was no one inside when he arrived there. He sent a message to his father and went to the kitchen. He found some leftovers there so he brought them to the table. He was in no mood to eat but it had become his habit. After a few moments, Keshab arrived.
He nodded towards Punya and Punya began to explain “The fifth elder had already reached the middle of outer region. I have sent two shadows to tail him. One is erasing traces and scaring beasts in secret and the other is staying near the forest entrance eliminating anyone who came following traces” Keshab nodded and replied in a low tone “So the news was still leaked. Not many people knew about it and it was still leaked. The mole has hidden himself too deeply. It’s a pity we couldn’t flush them out this time. This is like a sword hanging above us, there is no way of knowing when it will fall.”
Punya nodded and said “Only my most trusted subordinates knew about the movement of the fifth elder but the parents of those children may have supplied the information to some elders. This was a pretty far-fetched plan to find the mole but I was sure they would leave some traces. At least those spying upon the fifth elder are no longer alive, we can just say he is assessing those children on one of our properties in the city if some elders ask tomorrow.”
Hearing this Keshab nodded “I have given Bhimeshwor some of my best portable arrays. If he avoids the third-grade beast’s territory, he should be able to survive with some luck. As for the clan, I have engraved arrays in various places, I just hope they will come in handy when it counts. My friend in the capital sent a message this afternoon. He said that the situation there was dire. The ancestor of the royal family has not shown himself. The princes are creating their own factions, fighting openly and in the dark for resources. The situation is grim in the capital. They are just an incident away from causing a full-blown war with themselves. The families and sects although haven’t made any moves, there is a rumor they are pooling their resources to prepare a trump card.” Keshab sighed after saying this.
The situation was dire everywhere. If the war happened right now in the kingdom, then it would be okay as people would be involved and it would end after some time but the waiting game was making it even harder for common cultivators to survive. But it was of no concern to the Rijal clan, they were already on the brink of war, and the thing they were concerned about was surviving to be able to see the big war.
After discussing for a few moments about plans and strategies, Punya returned to his house. Amrit was still training inside the illusion array perfecting his moves. If you look closely enough at his moves, you will see no waste movements. There were no fancy performances, just basic motions each aimed to kill. Even the exchange between movements of slash was lethal. For most of the cultivators, the moment of exchange between one slashing motion to another would be awkward and it could appear as a flaw but in Amrit’s case, even if it appeared as a flaw, it would just be a feint.
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The transition between the movements of the Heavenly halberd technique itself was a lethal move, a hidden killer. The first move had twelve variations and the second had eighteen variations yet the transition between every variation was smooth; it shows he was approaching the perfection realm. There were very few people except for the creators of martial arts who could reach perfection. There were many geniuses who could reach mastery but reaching perfection was a league of its own.
Not just his halberd technique, but his movement technique the Nine nether steps was also coming quite along. It was just a bit short of reaching perfection even better than the halberd technique. With the movement technique, Amrit was confident he could escape even from late stage foundation building realm cultivators. With the first steps he could use short distance bursts to parry or ambush enemies while fighting and with the second steps, he could escape from most of the foundation building realm cultivators especially those not proficient in movement techniques.
His mastery was increasing rapidly, especially after yesterday. If this situation remains, he will reach perfection in both moves in a few days. As for the bottleneck of cultivation, he didn’t know what was causing it, it just didn’t budge an inch. He knew he would probably make not much significant impact on the incoming war but he was glad just to be fighting alongside his family. If he didn’t fight this battle he had a feeling that the inheritance would probably abandon him and go to hibernation.
Meanwhile, Punya reached his house and sat in the dining room thinking. He then went to the kitchen, took out his stash of hidden foods and started eating. He was lost in his thoughts replaying every scenario that was likely to happen and if there were ways to prevent them. He may have replayed hundreds of scenarios but in the end, it all came to one thing – strength. If their clan was strong enough, they wouldn’t have had this problem. ‘But even the strong royal family was also facing the crisis, maybe even the strength would never be enough’ Punya sighed.
He had already done as much as he could for the clan. The seeds of the future were sent away, so even if the clan falls, they will uphold the bloodline as the next generation of Rijal clan. He just wanted to face the ancestors without any remorse after all there is no such thing as true immortality. Weren’t there legends of so-called immortal dynasties and sects, in the span of thousands of years haven’t they all perished?
‘Even the sun, moon, and stars may perish someday so what’s the point of dwelling on the fickle immortality?’ Punya thought silently and sighed. The night was deepening, he had a meeting with the elders tomorrow and it was sure to be hectic after the elders found the unusual movements of the major clans. ‘Boy will they make a fuss. It will be a show to watch tomorrow’ Punya thought and went upstairs to sleep.