Storm Court (2)

Once he realised that they were spirits, he wondered who was the spiritualist controlling them. Spirits/Faeries were born from the world itself and so had innate understandings of one or some of the world's natural laws. They rarely appeared in places populated by other living beings, and even when they did, they were normally hidden to those who did not have the right aptitude.

However, spiritualists were those who had the aptitude to see them and form contracts with spirits. It was a rare job and most who had it weren't very impressive, but if a spiritualist was talented enough then even without cultivation he could become unrivalled. In fact, there was once someone who was called the Spirit Emperor and he once ruled the continent with his spirits despite only being at the peak of Soul Realm.

With a spirit for each of them, they were each led to their homes. Shui could feel Clyde's glare on him up until they parted ways but he only released a light sigh.

'What a stubborn guy.'

Unlike in the inner sect, he got a house for himself here in Storm Court that not only had its own cultivation room and training room, there were also rooms for alchemy and blacksmithing.

"Nice place."

Shui honestly felt like taking his time getting familiar with this place, but he decided to meet Kate first. After a good quick look around, Shui left the house and was going to try and find someone who could tell him where Kate was, but that was unnecessary.

"Shui of the Heaven Clan, correct?"

At the entrance of his house was a beautiful female core disciple who was brimming with dignity as she slightly lowered her head.

"Just Shui is fine."

Shui didn't question why she knew of his clan because it was probably to show that her side did their research.

'I've barely been here for ten minutes, don't tell me I'm already caught up in some other trouble.'

Shui held back his disgruntlement as he faced this woman.

"I see. Then, Shui, please follow me."

After a short bow, she started walking off. He could ignore her but he wanted to talk to someone anyways so he followed her. Once she noticed that he was keeping up, the woman purposely increased her pace, but to Shui this was akin to a child's prank. An ordinary person in the Soul Realm could only sense around ten cales around them due to the presence of dense nature energy, but Shui faced no such restriction. He didn't feel like humouring her anymore, so he kept his pace steady and made her lose sight of him.

When the woman stopped sensing his presence, she smirked and went back to her mistress.

'Hmph, like I'm gonna allow someone like you to come before my mistress. As long as I tell her that he didn't want to follow me, I'm sure she'll change her mind and lose interest.'

She walked with a skip in her step and a bright smile on her face. However, that smile froze when her mistress' house was in sight.

"Oh, this is a nice location."

"!"

The woman jumped away and looked at Shui who suddenly appeared next to her.

"Ho-ho-how did you-"

"Hmm, why are you so surprised?" Shui started off with an innocent expression before eventually changing to playful smirk.

"You-!"

The woman's peak Soul Realm aura began leaking to confront Shui, but a soothing voice that slipped into their minds stopped her.

'You may come in.'

Once she heard this voice, the woman flinched and her face was covered in guilt as she started walking towards the house. Shui looked at the mansion that was atop a small hill with curiosity. This place was deeper inside the Storm Court so the mist was thicker here and based on the telepathy that was used, he knew that the one he was about to meet was definitely in the Earth Realm and had at least some accomplishments in soul cultivation.

'Interesting.'

Shui followed the nervous woman with his hands behind his back as he looked around the residence. The woman wanted to scold him for his casual attitude every time she glanced at him, but she didn't want to make any more mistakes.

After passing through a well-decorated hallway, the two entered a room with a bright chandelier. It seemed to be a lounge where there were beauties providing music as well as light snacks. And the one to enjoy this service was a woman now known as one of the two Fairies of the Storm Court.

The moment she saw the woman sitting down and looking at them, the one who brought Shui here immediately held down her head and apologised.

"Please forgive me, mistress."

The seated woman, Kasia, whose beauty stood out even among this garden of flowers, waved her hands.

"Raise your head. You did what I asked you to, there's no need to apologize. But remember to act befitting of my representative next time."

"Yes, mistress."

Once she was pardoned, the woman sighed in relief before moving to the wall along with the other women who acted as maids waiting for their mistress' demands. In a normal setting, any man would be glad to see so many beauties gathered in one room, but Shui couldn't help feeling awkward. He recognized the woman who was called 'mistress' but he didn't understand why she asked for him the moment he got outside his house in Storm Court. He couldn't sense any malice from her but he couldn't trust this woman.

'Well, her position is a little enviable though.'

After dealing with the one who led Shui here, Kasia returned her gaze to him and showed a polite smile.

"Sorry for that unfortunate display. Please, have a seat."

She directed Shui to a chair on the opposite side of the table she sat at and he sat there without much reservation. She also allowed him to eat the fruits that were laid on the table, but the sting he felt when the ladies around her drifted away when he sat down needed more time to heal.

'I know you don't want me here but still!'

It was an unfamiliar pain so Shui couldn't easily ignore it.

"No, I'm fine. May I ask why you wanted to meet me?"

"It was nothing serious. I just wanted to see the 'genius' that Kate used to always talk about."

Shui didn't sense any sarcasm from her, but he could sense contempt from the eyes of the maids around her.

"Well, now that you've seen me, what's your opinion?"

Shui threw away humility and looked at her with a confident expression despite the sharp eyes on him.

"Hmm, I think she might have exaggerated but you're definitely better than many of the 'geniuses' here."

"I'm glad to hear that. How's Kate by the way?"

Now that he had gotten over his initial unease, Shui picked up a round fruit and took a bite out of it. At the beginning he was like a nervous subject before the queen, but now he could stand as an equal. The maids considered taking action as they saw this change in his demeanour, but Kasia held them back with a wave of her hand.

"She's been less cheery since she heard about the incident, but since coming back from the hunt she seems to have gotten better. Still, I'm sure that seeing you again will make her very happy. Especially at this time."

"Hmm? Is there something happening?"

"Yes, it's an event just for core disciple so it's no surprise that you haven't heard of it. In two weeks, the Spirit Nest will open."