Chenhr shook his head as he released an exasperated sigh, expressing his disappointment at the situation.
“And so history repeats itself. Let me remind you that this conflict will remain long unresolved. Advancers have long lives-- a hundred plus years is nothing but a short period of conflict to us.”
Upon hearing the likely cause of his family and hometown’s demise, Rein could not help but take a chug of the white liquor before demanding a refill, bitterly mocking himself inside. In the end, his suffering was just a side effect of conflict between higher powers.
To his own surprise, he was unruffled by this knowledge. Rein did not know exactly why, but after letting out tears earlier on in the evening, now he felt in himself an unyielding resolve.
Perhaps, it was the fact that he had found a target. Or during the past half a year, Master Yirn or Chenhr had placed a seed of sorts inside of him.
His mind was already slowly adapting to the nature of the advancer world. It did not matter whether he might have to wait ten, twenty, fifty, or even hundreds of years. One single chance, and his targets will come to know of him-- in death!
He gulped down another bowl of white liquor as his worldview shifted-- yes, to an advancer that could live for five hundred or even a thousand years, there is no need to be overly desperate!
Chenhr’s explanation also reminded Rein of his mission. He was to join the Hall of Heroes, an independent organization. This would give him the freedom to snoop on both the Dingien clan and the devil sects to the west.
Yet he still had one question:
“Why do you and Master seek to interfere?” Rein couldn’t help but wonder whether their goals were truly aligned.
Chenhr raised an eyebrow at the question and offered a minimal explanation. “We simply travel the myriad of realms, keeping an eye on hegemonies and rescuing a few poor souls here and there . Rest assured, Master Yirn has always stated that no mission will ever be thoroughly completed if one’s heart is not of one’s own volition.”
“I, however, will tell you this much: There will always be those who seek to take advantage of chaos. And you, half-junior, simply need to alter the situation slightly. To give the equation a new variable and give the outcome,” Chenhr rotated his wrist as if loosening a cork of a liquor bottle, “...a little twist. That will be enough, Master Yirn hopes, to create a different outcome!”
How cryptic. But Rein was at least somewhat assured. He had thought that Chenhr would identify Master Yirn’s enemies. Yet, if these ‘forces’ were explicitly pointed out to Rein, it was entirely possible that Rein would give them one glance too many, thereby warning these ‘forces’ of himself.
As of now, he is but an ant in the advancer world. Thus, he would not attract much attention provided he didn’t start sticking his nose into the wrong places in too pointedly a fashion. It was best for him to remain oblivious.
It was unlikely that a group would instantly attack an ant associated with the Hall of Heroes, that accidentally wandered in, provided that the ant had yet to learn of anything truly dangerous. However, if there were any signs that the action was premeditated and not accidental, one would surely not be let off.
Rein understood this concept, thus he did not pursue his curiosity of these ‘forces’.
“Hah, Master Yirn even allowed the other traitorous disciples to leave with their bodies intact!” Chenhr further assured Rein, though he seemed rather miffed about the master’s actions.
Rein could see that if he truly wanted to leave and pursue goals not aligned with that of Master Yirn’s, he would not necessarily be stopped.
“Remember Xeeran, the man whose skull you nearly cracked? He’s already within the city-- he will find you occasionally. You, on the other hand, only need to focus on being a good boy in the Hall of Heroes.”
“Now,” Chenhr continued. “Let us discuss the outer advancer that I’ve already thrown into the grave. What do you think of his strength?”
Rein did not want to sound overconfident, thus he hesitated before expressing his honest impression of the corpse-man. “He was… he seemed pretty weak. Well. For an outer advancer.”
“Definitely a weak outer advancer,” nodded Chenhr in agreement. “His skillset was narrow. His aurae hands lacked aurae density. Frankly, even his aurae skin lacked compactness. His only outer-body magical skill was raising the dead, yet the wights lacked coordination, though he was certainly somewhat disrupted by the bombs you threw half-haphazardly. Would have been even easier if your pathetic mind knew how to throw and combine those aurae bombs’ effects properly.”
“As for why he was weak? I hope you recognize that this is a result of using psychedelics to break through to the higher advancer realms. It was obvious that the corpse-man had yet to comprehend and master proper use of his own aurae. He must have used psychedelics to fool his mind and body to enter a higher state on foundations of sand.”
“Truly competent outer advancers would have been able to at least match my aurae density, and thereby cause a problem for our mission. Then again, such a highly-rated advancer wouldn’t be sent to guard a merchant pretender.”
Rein, in all honesty, wasn’t entirely sure what to think. He had assumed that the corpse-man to be weak, simply because they had defeated him. He would need to see a proper outer advancer in action to really gauge the difference.
“As for your use of your origin skill? Slightly early-- but at least you used it as a ‘surprise’ successfully. If you had panicked and teleported earlier in combat, we would not have so easily baited then incapacitated the devil with the formation magic.”
Chenhr’s next action opened Rein’s eyes wide and his lips open like a starving goldfish. This half-senior placed a vial of gray liquid onto the dinner table.
“The corpse-man’s heartblood concoction…?” Rein shook his head, having no interest in controlling corpses.
“You must have a misunderstanding of heartblood.” Chenhr rolled his eyes as his half-junior’s continued half-understandings of the advancer world. “It is the comprehension of the nature of the world that gets etched into the heartblood. Though weak for an outer advancer, the corpse-man had a tough physical body and certain understandings of controlling multiple objects at the same time. You should be overjoyed. You’ll gain a tiny fraction of the corpse-man’s understanding.”
“Then the children that the devils use for mutating heartblood…”
“Rein. Children are full of potential because their minds have yet to be trapped by the underpinnings of the world around them. A child occasionally can make some… leap or connection using the comprehension within the heartblood injected in. That new understanding is what the devils harvest.”
“Oh.” Rein replied. His single-word acknowledgement made Chenhr’s scratch his scalp in frustration. Chenhr found himself unable to tell if this half-junior of his actually understood or not.
Little did Chenhr know that Rein actually had begun intentionally giving him single syllable replies over the past few months to frustrate him. It was Rein’s way of getting back at him for his verbal jabs.
Chenhr watched Rein consume that gray liquid before issuing a final warning, one which he had repeatedly drilled into Rein’s head over the last six months. “Remember not to overly rely on your origin skill. Remember the existence of those mad origin skill organizations. Otherwise you’ll end up glued to Master Yirn’s side. Just a bird in a gilded cage.”
Rein got back on his feet and moved towards the front door of the house. He could already feel that he would be able to progress the draconic tempering arts at a quicker pace.
Anyhow, It would be a long time before he would come face-to-face with Chenhr again. He was to leave at sunrise the next day.
It was now that he realized he no longer needed to silently take Chenhr’s occasional verbal insults silently. Chenhr was no longer his teacher and Rein no longer needed to fear any form of reprisal even if he were to retaliate!
“Half-senior,” he spoke as his feet came to a halt right at the doorway. “I hope your son does not grow up to be like you. Abandoned by your fellow disciples. Hiding in a hole in the mountains like a cornered rat.”
It was Chenhr’s turn to be a goldfish. This was the first time Rein had ever even suggestively poked him with a sharp knife.
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He suddenly began laughing uproariously like a madman.
“Yes! Our paths diverge. I am a hunter of those traitorous fellow disciples!” He exclaimed. “And you. Rein. You are a half-disciple because you walk a whole different path! A fool’s lonely path! I finally understand why Master Yirn made you a half-disciple!”
Rein was incredulous. What sort of… line of thought had Chenhr entered to spout such words? The man must have gone mad from Rein’s first set of verbal jabs. But, at the very least, he certainly understood from the start that as a half-disciple, he would not be in the confidence of Master Yirn or remain close to him, if at all.
As Rein left Chenhr’s abode with the ‘aura blast’ booklet in his hands. Dusen, who was supposed to be in bed, was waving through one of the gaps in a window.
His thoughts returned to the images of those deathly children whose consciousness had been robbed by the devil advancer.
Yes. All he needed to do was to enter the Hall of Heroes, and hunt the devils out west and dig into the secrets of this Dingien Clan! Otherwise, nothing will change, no matter how much he dwelled on images of those long lost.
________________________________________________________
Chenhr sat in front of an ancient wooden desk, the room illuminated by a glowing metallic orb placed in a cavity at the top of a metallic pillar.
He opened his thick and heavy book bound with thick string, to an empty page. With a magical brush in hand, he proceeded to write. There was no need for the brush to be dipped in any ink; the brush itself generated the jet-black ink.
‘Year 1402, Dingien Era of the Minhr Nation, Fusion Realm’
‘We had finally made headway into the elements of chaos in the nation. We had found a seed to plant within that chaos-- my junior half-disciple.’
‘I fear for him-- he has a beastkin element in him, the first case of a beastkin element not devouring the human body... For now at least.’
‘I still remember my sister disciple who couldn’t resist the urges that came along with beastkin magical arts.’
‘I have been unable to advance to the shell realm for many years. I have long wondered why, but… it must be fear. Master’s other disciples. My disappointing senior and junior fellow disciples. They all eventually abandoned the Master's teachings and sought to rise into the shell realm through whatever means possible.’
‘They all became odd. Like they had lost part of their humanity. I cannot lose mine. I have never felt much positivity towards Rein… but what exactly do I dislike about him? The more I thought of it the more I noticed… it was my own fear of what he could become.’
‘But I saw Rein’s unbridled rage today. I knew that was humanity.’
Chenhr stopped writing as he looked upwards at a beam supporting the roof. Ever since the other disciples had left one-by-one, he had started writing his thoughts down into this diary. He found it an effective way of organizing his thoughts and reflecting on his own dilemma of being stuck in the inner realm as a result of his origin ability.
_______________________________________________________________
The austere white lady that had interrogated Rein at the east gate of the Green Trout City was examining the section of the forest that had been more or less wiped out by the corpse-man’s corrosive aurae hands.
This is Baejenh, the representative sent by the Fusion Sect that governs the Fusion Realm.
Naturally, Master Yirn’s bandits had long burnt anything that would give any clues as to what had happened here. All that this white-robed lady could sense was that the area had an aura of death and decay.
“Devils?” She muttered to herself. She raised her arms and clapped her hands together in a last effort to draw some reaction from the environment.
When the two palms connected, a silvery aurae sphere expanded outwards accompanied by a shrill. As the surface of this sphere passed through the tree stumps and the remaining trees, for a single heartbeat, the branches seemed to freeze, as if slowing down to give time for the austere-looking white robed woman to observe all details.
The silver aurae sphere slowly faded as it expanded farther and farther outwards, disappearing into nothingness.
The lady frowned with frustration, before leaving through the sky, each step accompanied by an explosive gust of wind that could be heard kilofeets away.
____________________________________________________________________________
When Rein left the hidden village in the Bleak Mountains at sunrise, he was surprised to find Chenhr waiting to bid him farewell. Oddly, Chenhr once again seemed slightly more mellow compared to his usual self. The half-senior even gave some advice on when to use that ‘aurae blast’ skill-- which of course, can only be used in dire situations as the skill would completely deplete an inner realm advancer such as Rein.
As for the beastkin cores that Rein had relied on to quickly advance to the high inner realm in a quick six months? He could only bring a small pouch of the low quality ones with him. Too many or high quality, and people would become suspicious of Rein.
There was also the possibility that Rein would be attacked-- although humans dared not consume the cores, there were many methods to turn the core into a consumable, though the process was difficult and would lead to a loss of a majority of the aurae within the core itself.
All of this meant that Rein would have to procure more through the Hall of Heroes or hunting beastkin, while keeping his consumption of these cores a secret.
Unlike the previous time, Rein now entered the Green Trout City through the west gate, which opened to the scenery of the Green Gilded River.
The two city gates on either side looked identical save for one feature: The west gate had a canal that allowed boats to travel in and out of the city through to the river.
The walls were made from creamy yellow limestone blocks covered with inscriptions. Well, it looked like limestone blocks, but it was hard for Rein to be sure of that, given that the advancer world had unique materials.
This wall, as tall as a small mountain, wrapped around the huge city, and Rein could not even see how far it reached now that he was in front of it. Every kilofoot or so, a robust tower sentried by a number of guards would rise dominatingly into the clouds.
These were not just simple towers-- With his understanding, Rein knew that the significantly more dense and intricate inscriptions on the towers was for one goal-- the towers would launch offensive magics at any invader, while contributing to the defense system of the city as a whole.
His observation was interrupted by a string of junk rigs with battened sails gliding out through the canals into the Green Gilded River. The yells of fishermen coordinating themselves in preparation for their job broke the tranquility of the early morning.
It was also at this time that the huge and heavy crimson doors covered with golden knobs, the west gate of this city, creaked open. Two burly men strenuously pushed against the doors until they were wide open, followed by soldiers that positioned themselves either side of the arch opening, ready to screen any travelers.
Rein felt rather concerned about Baejenh, the supposed icy cold austere representative of the realm-ruler Fusion Sect in this city. They did not have the most cordial of meetings the last time. He had pointed this issue out to Chenhr, but Chenhr appeared unperturbed and had replied that, “It’ll just be fine.”
Rein did not feel that it would be ‘just fine’, in any shape or form. That elder was already suspicious of him previously. As he spun his head around, there was no shadow of that lady standing at the entrance of the west gate.
He lowered the soak staff from his right shoulder, allowing his sack to slide down into his arms such that he could take out his papers-- his real identification, as there was no issue with his original identity-- handing them over to one of the heavy-lidded metal-scaled guards.
The guard shook himself awake, skimming Rein’s identification papers before glancing up and down Rein’s body, no doubt determining if the young man before him was on a wanted list.
“Purpose?”
“I wish to enter the Hall of Heroes. As you know, I’m from the Golden Desert Town. Surely, you have heard of the incident there and understand my desire to hunt down the devils!”
Rein showed significantly more enthusiasm than his usual self. Although he was no longer a merchant, he had retained the ability to control his expressions and demeanor well. He had been trained to do so in the face of stress-inducing business deal-making. Probably not comparable to stage performers, but good enough to fool most that would come across him.
Naturally, the fact that he truly wished to identify the group of devils that had participated in the Golden Desert Town massacre made this all the easier. It was just that… he also wished to use the Hall of Heroes to investigate some of the Dingien Clan and its associates’ movements prior to the massacre.
This soldier scrutinized Rein as if he was searching for a mole attempting to dig up hidden secrets. A few heartbeats later and the soldier waved Rein through without another word.
Rein breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, only to curse shortly after. There, observing the inner west gate from a porch, sat that icy austere white-robed lady from the Fusion Sect.
The building was right behind the inner gate, and the porch, on the second floor of a stone house, offered a clear view of all who entered through the west gate.
The white-robed lady took a sip of her morning tea, and she simply raised an eyebrow at the sight of Rein. Yet her current inaction only made Rein more nervous.
By all rights, she should have immediately accosted him… Rein turned his head left and right as he casually walked away, presenting himself as a country bumpkin new to the city, drawn by every single sight. To him, this seemed the most ‘normal’ behavior.
He turned to a shop owner for directions to an inn-- he needed a few days to rest before the entrance assessment into the Hall of Heroes.
The Hall of Heroes had quarterly entrance assessment. The impending one at the start of summer was the primary reason why Rein was hurried to the Green Trout City with such haste by Master Yirn. It would occur in a short few days.
A typical inn appeared in Rein’s sight after he made a multitude of turns down streets and alleyways. It was rather out-of-place for a traveler to request a room in the morning, but Rein wanted a place to store his items. Of course, he would carry valuables on his own body to avoid potential theft.
He handed over a limpite coin from his coinsack to the innkeeper. This was a round and flat grayish coin with a finger-sized hole in the middle. The common denominator of advancer currency, given to Rein from Chenhr for use.
This made the innkeeper somewhat wide-eyed. The innkeeper--a mortal-- did not come across this valuable coin often.
Rein ignored this look, and indifferently hurried to his room-- he would quite like to get some pan-fried meat pies from that street store close to this inn. It had been a long time since he’d had anything tasty… thanks to Chenhr shoving shattered beastkin cores down his throat.
As he turned the knob and pushed open the door to his room, he became petrified at the sight of a figure facing the now open doorway.
It was none other than that white-robed lady, Baejenh!