Kate turns nine (2)

The rest of the gathering had no more incidents. However, there was one thing that happened that left a mark in Shui's mind. Near the end of the gathering when the Patriarch spoke to Kate, Shui was also approached. The one who came to him was a gentleman with a neatly trimmed beard and eyes that seemed to see through everything. Due to the various incidents that he had experienced, Shui looked down on the intelligence level of the clan elders, but this man was one of the few that he felt could always stay rational and logical.

Even so, he had no good feelings about this man. Even if he didn't remember the time he had seen him when he was a toddler, the resemblance was enough for him to take a guess.

"You must be Shui." The man started off with a easygoing expression.

"And you should be my first uncle, Nate."

When he got his name right, Nate appeared to show joy and approval.

"Well done, as expected of my nephew. You're as intelligent as you are talented."

"Thank you for the praise."

Shui showed no joy from the compliments and maintained a polite attitude. Nate didn't expect him to make any simple mistakes, but his calm demeanour made him wonder if he was truly talking to an eight-year-old.

"No, you deserve it. I'm sure you make your master proud."

"No, not at all," Shui responded with a weak smile, "I can only barely meet his expectations."

Since he had used the excuse of having a master, Shui knew he had to keep up that illusion even if he had to lie through his teeth.

"Ohh, that's quite the master. I'd really love to talk to him."

"Yes, but unfortunately my master isn't interested in speaking to you."

It was clear enough for most to see it as an insult, but Nate showed no change in his expression. Though he couldn't pick up his intent from the look in Shui's eyes, Nate knew that overreacting to these words would only put him at a disadvantage.

"I see, that's truly a shame. I suppose I'll just have to be satisfied with the brilliant disciple he has. I look forward to your future accomplishments."

"I'll try to live up to your praise."

After their talk, when Nate's back was nearly out of sight, Shui took a quick look around.

'When was the last time I saw Nathan?'

After talking to his father, Shui was reminded of the boy that he hadn't seen since the inter-clan competition. Even his birthday, which was normally a gathering grander than Kate's, was made private this year. According to the rumours he had picked up, Nathan was undergoing harsh training from his mother to improve his cultivation, which wasn't odd considering his miserable performance. However, Shui wondered how much stronger he could grow in a closed-off environment.

Once the gathering was over, Lilia, Bartos, Kate and Shui went into the house sat at the small dining table. Lilia, Bartos and Shui each had a present ready and Kate looked at them excitedly.

"Who first, who first?!"

"That would be me."

Lilia gave Kate a wooden box and in it were needles, threads and other sewing tools.

"...What is this?" Kate asked with a blank expression.

"It's your sewing kit. I think you should start learning a few things to increase your womanly charms."

"...Why?"

"Because you're my daughter and I said so."

When Lilia said 'you're my daughter', Kate's brows furrowed and she was about to loudly rebut, but the rest of the sentence shut her down. All children knew that there were certain words that didn't take any opposition when parents said them, and 'because I said so', was very high up on that list. What logical arguement? What facts? What reasoning could triumph over those words?

Kate reluctantly took the box and looked at the remaining two with hope in her eyes.

"I'm next."

Bartos gave Kate a flexible longsword that could act like a belt when she didn't need it.

"Thanks daddy! You know just what I like!"

Kate showed a completely opposite reaction compared to when Lilia gave her the sewing kit. Lilia didn't say anything about this, but her inner thoughts were already pondering on how high she could increase the difficulty of the sewing lessons.

While Shui watched her hugging the sword in its sheath, he took out the pair of red gloves he made. When he took them out, everyone in the room focused on the gloves. They weren't at the spirit-rank, but they were very close to reaching that boundary. Still, that wasn't what caught their attention. The aura from the gloves was so fierce that even without spiritual sense, Lilia and Kate could feel it. Kate was immediately enticed by the gift and Bartos wondered what sort of innovative project Shui had come up with this time.

"This is my gift."

As soon as Shui handed over the gloves, Kate equipped them and felt a surge of power flow throughout her entire body.

"Woah! What is this?"

"Do you feel different?"

Though he felt that he already had the answer, Shui wanted confirmation from Kate. Although she wouldn't have enough energy to activate them at this time, as long as she could feel a connection with the gloves then there was a high chance she would be able to use one of the red tiger's abilities once she reached the Soul Realm.

"Yeah, I feel as if my entire body is getting stronger."

Kate opened and closed her hands while looking all over herself. The power she felt was even higher than when she fully utilized her nature energy. This was the first time that Kate had experienced this so she was naturally entranced by the experience.

"That's good."

"What are those?"

As Shui looked at Kate's excitement with a gentle smile on his face, Bartos asked about the artifact.

"I call them 'Red Tiger Paws', it's pretty straightforward. I used a red tiger's skin and core to make it so she should be able to use one of the core abilities of the tiger."

"That's..."

He should have gotten used to Shui's creativity by now, but he was still shocked by the function of the artifact. Although it was a common fact that using an evolved beast as the main material in an artifact could result in the artifact retaining the abilities of the evolved beast, that was an occurrence that only came from luck for special and spirit-rank forge masters, and yet Shui was telling him that he had purposely made such an artifact.

'I don't plan on forcing them, but he would make the perfect son-in-law.'

"How did you get the materials though? Beast spirit parts rarely appear on the local market, especially cores."

There were many who could hunt beast spirits in Cyrus, but not many who would openly sell the materials since every part of a beast spirit was valuable to every profession in the cultivation world. Those in the energy cultivation system could absorb the energy from cores, inscriptionists could use the blood to draw symbols and spiritualists could use the heart as a sacrifice to summon a true spirit.

Due to its versatile usage, those who could hunt them either kept the materials for themselves or had specific people to sell to.

"Uh, well, I happened to be lucky I guess." Shui responded while trying not to break his smile.

Obviously he couldn't leak even a hint of his worker activity to anyone else. Bartos found his reply a tad suspicious, but if he questioned everything Shui did he wouldn't have enough time in the day so he let it go.