Chapter 0059
Whereas before Tempest received stares filled with jealousy and greed mixed with the intent to rob, this time the stares sent her way were filled with arrogance, contempt and derision.
Tempest can already hear the biting words the owners of the gazes.
Actually the onlookers never felt the need to censor their comments so Tempest heard it loud and clear.
“What idiot comes and takes the test for the Brilliant Yin Sect without knowing anything?”
“Did she seriously ask a stupid question?”
“What did you expect from a country bumpkin? She doesn’t even know this is the test conducted by the Brilliant Yin Sect.”
“No sect has a cultivation method for a cultivator with no spirit veins! This brat should keep dreaming!”
“How can anyone not know why we are hunting the Sundered Lion? Where did she come from?”
“No wonder Aria Se Jivock gets along with her. They are both crazy.”
The last comment was made by a plain green dressed girl hiding towards the back of the crowd. With a bang, the girl fell down on her butt with what seems like a compound fracture to her lower leg.
Xing Zhi Hui may disparage Aria Se Jivock as much as she wants but she doesn’t permit outsiders the same liberties. It also depends on her mood and given their previous interaction, Xing Zhi Hui wanted to vent a bit and the girl provided a good excuse for her to do so.
Tempest ignored her surroundings. She was used to the strange glances tossed her way. Instead she focused on the obviously agitated Aria Se Jivock.
“You have no spirit veins?” Aria Se Jivock asked after a while. It seems she didn’t get over her shock just yet. While she always thought the opinion of the masses was beneath her as they judge without knowing the facts, Aria Se Jivock had to agree with the mercenaries. Who comes to the test for the Brilliant Yin Sect without knowing anything?
“Nope.”
“Then why did you come for the test?”
“I didn’t. I was looking for a way to make some money to I make my way towards the Magus Alliance when I heard an all female mercenary group was forming to hunt the Sundered Lion, so I came as fast as I could.”
Aria Se Jivock wondered if fate was playing a cruel trick on her. Is this what they have called so near yet so far? The person is so close to her, close enough that she can and did grab with her own two hands yet she knew she couldn't keep her. Aria Se Jivock remembered all the time she moved people to do her bidding, and realized this is how a pawn might feel when they knew they are being manipulated.
Xing Zhi Hui took pity on Aria Se Jivock and decided to intercede on her behalf. She is a disciple of the Brilliant Yin Sect after all. “How did you mistake an entry test for a sect as a hunting expedition?”
“I went into a tavern and listened to see if there was an all female group forming.” Tempest lied.
“Why does it have to be an all female group?” Xing Zhi Hui was suspicious of Tempest, but she didn’t realize Tempest was lying. There are no benefits to lying to them right now.
“Look at me.” Tempest pointed to her short, petite body. Although Tempest looks extremely immature, a hint of beauty can be found in her beautiful eyes, her plump red lips, symmetrical face and her white pearlescent skin. “I may not be beautiful but I am pretty enough for unsavory people to lust after. I figured it would be safer if I joined an all female group. I don’t have to worry about perverts preying on young children.”
“I see.” Xing Zhi Hui did understand. Children are easy prey. Children with no family are easier prey for the depraved and perverted. She’d seen the result of those kidnapped children. They were either sold into prostitution or trained as disposable killers.
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“That’s not the point!” Aria Se Jivock finally got over her disappointment to join in the conversation. “You said you didn't have spirit veins, yet you can cast spells!”
“Well, yes. I don’t have spirit veins, but I do have affinities. That’s why I’m heading to the Magus Alliance.” Tempest explained her situation in a logical manner, which served to further irritated the already irate Aria Se Jivock.
“Then you have no interest in joining the Brilliant Yin Sect?” Aria Se Jivock’s whiny pleas did not help her case.
Tempest can barely handle the usual Aria Se Jivock. Seeing her now makes Tempest want to avoid the Brilliant Yin Sect even more. She doesn’t want to become another Xing Zhi Hui!
“There is nothing I can learn from the Brilliant Yin Sect.”
“Hmph.” Aria Se Jivock saw that her approach didn’t work in luring a very powerful ally. Xing Zhi Hui could have told her from the beginning she’s so overwhelmingly insane, no one would want to ally with her if they didn’t have to. “You might as well take the Brilliant Yin Sect Disciple token in exchange for your share of the profits from selling the Sundered Lion. You can sell it for more money anyways.”
“Wait a minute! Aren’t those token bound to the person they are given to?”
It was Xing Zhi Hui who explained. It seems Aria Se Jivock explanation is so convoluted and confusing only the terminally stupid or someone very desperate would try to understand it.
Originally the Brilliant Yin Sect conducted their entrance test like any other sect until an incident happened. There was a bedraggled young woman who entered the sect using a token that didn’t belong to her. If she had normal qualifications, then the sect would have followed the rules established at the time and banished her, but she had a heavenly earth spirit vein and a sky wind spirit vein with a Fleeting Wind Shifting Sand physique suitable for one of the higher tier cultivation methods.
The Elders at the time wanted to keep the young talent. The person she stole the token from didn’t have amazing prospects anyways. Not only that, because the original owner of the token was a rich young miss from a noble family, she offended many people in the sect.
Therefore, the Elders in the sect accepted the young talent and amended their rule. The entry test for the Brilliant Yin Sect will be conducted as usual, however, disciples must make their own way to the gate of the sect with the tokens to be officially considered a disciple of the Brilliant Yin Sect.
After listening to Xing Zhi Hui’s explanation, Tempest does not want the token. She could sell the token for good amount of money, but the qualifier is if she lives through the transaction. Everyone knows she is alone and by herself. It will be cheaper to kill her and steal the token.
If Tempest takes the token, she isn’t sure she has the power to fight off all the people eyeing it. She might be killed after she takes a step out of the mercenary camp.
Or, the greedy side of her whispered into her ear, she could sell the token before she leaves the camp. She can get a bit of money and send the people after the token towards the new buyer.
Aria Se Jivock saw the greed in Tempest eyes and knew the girl will accept the token, yet she is dissatisfied with the little girl. Fate deems this girl is the one who can lift the karma stagnating her cultivation, yet could it chose a better person? Someone more reliable.
Luckily Xing Zhi Hui couldn’t read her thoughts or she'd put her life on the line to kill Aria Se Jivock. Compared to a silver-haired person she knows, Tempest is much more reliable. It isn’t a testament to Tempest’s dependability but how incompetent Aria Se Jivock is.
“This jade token allows you to become a disciple of the Brilliant Yin Sect. Don’t lose it.” Aria Se Jivock shoved the token into Tempest’s hand, forming a karma line between them.
Suddenly visions filled both of their minds.
Memories Tempest deeply cherished flow through her mind.
She saw them.
The sisters of her heart.
She remembers the good time they spent together. These were the memories she re-lived during her darkest days. It was what sustained her when her faith in the world crumbled. It was what sustained her as she sought justice in a corrupt system. It was the memories she cherishes the most; it was also the memories she wished she forgot.
William Shakespeare’s famous lines, “It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”
Tempest called that bull!
She’d rather live a bleak life rather than experience the warmth of their friendship and love only to have it snatched away. Revenge and their memories sustained her for a time, but once she was done, there was nothing. Nothing but an empty shell of an insane woman who had no faith in the world.
Those memories flowed into her line of sight, forming five karma lines, converging towards the north.
Tempest gripped the jade token in her hand.
Karma lines!
Karma lines between her and her friends exist in this world. They have been reborn in this world like Tempest has been reborn.
She can see them again!
Tempest recalled the conversation she had with Jean a while back, “...the past is just that, the past. My family and friends in the other world aren’t here. I don’t have to worry about it like you do. If I were to see them again, then I’d be very happy and try my best to get close to them. I have to acknowledge that the them in my past life isn’t the them in this life. Therefore, I’d make the effort because I believe at the core, they are the same people then and now, just shaped differently due to their circumstances. If they accept my friendship then great! If not, then I would move on. The world is big. I’m sure there are other people, many other people, I can befriend. And lastly, I am a different person than my previous self. What I would have done back then, I wouldn’t do right now; what I wouldn’t do back then, I can do now. Tempest isn’t the name of my previous self. It is the name of the person I want to be.”
She’d eat those words if she could. Tempest knew she couldn’t give them up now that she had a clue where to look. The past may be the past, and Tempest is the person she wants to be, but at one time she was also Athena. At her core right now, she is Athena. Time and experience will shape her to become Tempest, but she is Athena. Athena will not give up her sisters.
Who cares if the world is big. Who cares if there are billions or trillions of other people out there. They were fated to meet in their previous lives and now they will meet in this life.
She’d drag her sisters' butt into her life whether they want to or not.
It was their fault for loving her.
Suddenly screams can be heard all around Tempest as lightning began to strike Aria Se Jivock.
“Aria Se Jivock, you idiot! You peeked into Heaven’s Fate again!” Xing Zhi Hui scream as she dodges the lightning like a pro which she is considering the innumerable amount of times Aria Se Jivock peeked at Heaven’s Fate and was punished for it.
This time, Aria Se Jivock didn’t actively look into the fate of the girl before her. It was an accident when she pushed the jade token into Tempest’s hand.
While Tempest saw the past and the karma lines connecting her to her sisters, Aria Se Jivock caught a glimpse of the important role Tempest and her sisters will play in the Cardinal Realms. Accident or not, those who looked into Heaven’s Fate will be punished.
As for Tempest, who is nearest to Aria Se Jivock, the lightning did nothing to her. One of her affinites is lightning, so her body absorbed the lightning strikes rained down by the heaven and converted into nourishment as she took advantage of the confusion to slip out of the mercenary camp.