Chapter 72: Patriarch Instructor

Two days after Tyler's battle with Jex's werewolf…

Off in the eastern continent. Where the mountains held breathtaking beauty. Trees surrounded the entire mountain range. Wildlife thrived here, beasts and wild animals alike. This place seemed to be disconnected from the human world. The air was exceedingly fresh and the world energy that moved around this area seemed abundant in the air. 

Hidden within a valley and shielded by two peak mountains. A large pavilion stood. Its architecture was similar to that of an Asian palace. This was the auxiliary branch of one of the most networked underground information center and assassin sect in the Martial world. 

The Shadow Sect. 

It was smallest branch but it was the one that had the most interactions with the mortal world. 

Within the pavilion a man was currently in a room that had shelves upon shelves of information scrolls and books. Yes, these shelves were actually filled with scrolls. In the center of this large room where the air actually smelled like paper, there was a long wooden table that had stacks upon stacks of scrolls that were inscribed in mandarin. A man currently sat this table, book in had the moment. 

He had a slightly wrinkled face but his features were mostly strong. He had Asian features, a smooth face and pure white hair. He wore black robes with streaks of gold. He looked like an ancient kung fu from the Chinese movies.

The man enjoyed the silence as he read through an interesting book on soul cultivation and though it was only a brief introduction and theory, the man was actually quite intrigued by the content. He had yet to turn to the next page when suddenly a shadow blinked into existence seemingly out of nowhere before kneeling before the man.

"Did I not say to not disturb me when I am studying?" the man didn't even bother looking up from his book as he said this but an insurmountable pressure permeated from his body and all of it was concentrated on the bowing figure before him.

The figure felt a cold sweat on his back but he responded nonetheless.

"My apologies Patriarch but we got a report about a disturbance in an American city…" 

Finally the man looked up from his book and arched an eyebrow.

"…reports say that there was an abnormal howl that rang throughout the city. Nobody knows what exactly caused this but we believe it was…them" the figure dared not to raise its voice as it said this.

The man pondered for a moment. By 'them' he already assumed that they were talking about the ancient werewolf clan but this didn't make any sense because the werewolves usually just stayed holed up on their dump of an island so it didn't make sense for them to make a move now of all times. Especially when they knew that the clans and sects of the martial world who were now on high alert because of the incident that had taken place in North Korea a few weeks ago with the vampire ghouls. And the fact that the vampires were all quiet just made them all the more wary.

The man known as the patriarch of the Shadow sect, sat silently. Until he thought of something

"How are the new brats doing?" the patriarch asked causing the lips of the kneeling man to twitch.

The patriarch always called the new recruits brats because even after six months, they still couldn't master the first 2 chapters of the [shadow step] movement technique. Still, the fact that some had managed to grasp even chapter 1 of [shadow step] was a feat in itself. 

The [shadow step] wasn't a simple technique at all. It required one to have an affinity for the darkness element which could allow one to have some control over the shadows. But even gaining such an affinity was difficult, in fact the man who was kneeling had only mastered 5 chapters of the technique. The thought of the patriarch even expecting the recruits to master 2 chapters within six months was nothing short of a ridiculously high and difficult requirement.

Of course the patriarch knew this but he just couldn't help himself. Not when he had seen a talented young boy when he had taken some effort to search for talents in the mortal world. Many would think that this was ridiculous. How can there be greater talent in the mortal than in the martial world? After all the mortals were just normal humans without any cultivation.

The patriarch though, was a strange man. He would do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it and won't give a damn about what others would think. So he had taken what he called a vacation to the mortal world and he worked as an instructor for an organization called Tonitruum for about two years. Where he covertly tried to teach some of the mortals there part of the [shadow step] only to be disappointed again and again.

But when he first saw a boy no less than 7 years old come to train with a tremendous will to survive. He couldn't help but be intrigued, even in the martial world, children who could muster that amount of will power was practically negligible. He immediately took a liking to this boy and personally trained him.

At first it was just the basic body strengthening training and the boy could keep up just fine. After almost a year, he decided to see if the child was capable of mastering just part of the [shadow step] and was shocked to see that the boy was actually quite adept at using it, although it could be even better if he had an affinity for darkness element and some cultivation, it still didn't change the fact that the boy could learn a martial technique!

The patriarch was brimming with excitement, he wanted to teach the child more and bring him in to the martial world as his very own disciple. And so he taught the boy some more and after one month the boy's proficiency of the technique had risen to the point that he had mastered chapter 1 in less than 3 months without any cultivation!

At that point the patriarch could only see this little boy as a monster of a genius.

Unfortunately though the Patriarch had to return to the martial world because some of the old fogies from the major clans had wanted to bring down the Shadow sect. So he could only leave his 'disciple' behind until he solved the stability issues involving his sect. 

So he could only fake his death. He knew that the boy would be devastated by this but it had to be done. The patriarch made a silent promise to return and get his disciple to experience the wonders of cultivation but who could have known that after returning years later, he would find that Tonitruum had been razed to the ground, the whereabouts of its members unknown including that of his disciple. If Tyler were to see this man, the patriarch, he would have easily recognized him as his father figure and instructor who held a position equal to that of Aunt Carol and Laura in his heart.

Yes this was the instructor who he admired and thought to have died on a classified mission that even to this day Tyler didn't know. This was the same instructor who had taken care of him during his younger days at Tonitruum.

Instructor Cheng Yu

Or better yet known as Master Cheng Yu, the 25th Patriarch of the Shadow sect.

"Send out five of the best brats to check it out" master Yu spoke nonchalantly before looking back at the book. "Also tell them not to forget to have some fun while at it"

"Yes patriarch!" the man responded before blinking out of existence again. 

Patriarch Cheng Yu was left alone once more in the silent library.

He sighed as he absentmindedly stared at the book.

'I really miss that little brat'