Chapter 21 - Cultivation Spree
Somewhere, in a dark tunnel, two shadow-like figures walked leisurely. One of them stood tall and walked with pride, his steps well measured and a stance that translated into both elegance and power. The other figure walked slightly behind the first figure, his steps were much more silent like an assassin, although he was not trying to sneak up on the first figure—he just naturally walked like that.
The two kept walking through the tunnels quietly until the silent figure spoke.
"My Lord, may I ask what we are doing here?"
"..."
The "Lord" did not speak at first, deciding to keep walking instead of answering, however, he changed his mind halfway.
"Many years ago, in order to find a way to grow stronger I started researching about a way to improve the Nell Family's bloodline." he made a slight pause before continuing. "The result of said research was in a treasure that the Nell family found in Stygian Island. However, said treasure only works in bloodlines with special abilities, so I made some efforts to marry myself into a bloodline with great abilities. The result was my dear daughter Liz."
"Ever since then, I have studied the treasure in order to feed it to Liz to awaken the dormant bloodline in her and make it stronger. Turns out that the treasure charges power overtime, that is, the more time I would leave it charging the stronger her bloodline would be."
The Lord looked at his servant with a grin.
"Twenty years. That was the time that I had been waiting for. Indeed, only ten of those were with my wife and only eight of those with my daughter, but I have been accompanying the treasure for that long. Who knows how long it had been charging before I found it? Today I am just going to take a look at the progress. After all, in two years Liz will start cultivating and receive her first Stygian Guards, she will receive this gift from her father at that time."
"I see, my Lord."
The servant did not speak anymore. He had finally understood his master's conviction. The reason for his marriage with the Lady and the birth of young lady Elisa. It should be to become the Patriarch, no?
His master was the fourth son of the current Patriarch. Unlike most of them he did not possess any children in the Stygian clan and was the son of the latest wife the Patriarch had and the youngest of his children. He was also the least likely to become patriarch, however he had great ambition, and although not as striking when it came to cultivation compared to his sibling, he was definitely the smartest.
To bring a child to this world for the sole reason of creating a weapon for your ambition, to pretend to love a person for the sake of having her loyalty—it disgusted the servant.
He had met with the two ladies, and he had grown a soft spot for the young lady. However, he was only a simple member of the Stygian clan, he could not do anything to help them. The Lady was deceived by the Lord's fake love, and the young lady truly admired her father.
Even now, talking to him, the Lord made it seem as if he was presenting a great gift to his beloved daughter.
He could only hope that one of his brothers from the Stygian clan could help the young lady break out of that illusion, although he didn't have that much hope.
As a member of the Stygian clan, he knew that there was no one that could leave that place without fearing going against the decisions of the family. It was in vain to hope for someone to do so for a member of the Nell family.
"That's right. You are from the Stygian clan, right? What's your identification?"
"I'm 3-1-2, my Lord."
"A son of a direct relative of the Patriarch? Do you know who your father is?"
For a Stygian clan member to know who their parent from the Nell family was, was a great taboo, unless you gained certain privileges, which he had not.
"I do not."
"Any suspicions?"
His lord seemed curious.
"My Lady said that I am similar to the Third Son."
"I suppose so, but you also remind me of Uncle. There were rumors about my dear brother's father being in fact our dear uncle. There is no way that's actually true, right? Father wouldn't let that slide. He already killed half of the family when he was our age, from what I've heard because he thought that they were trying to steal his place as the heir."
3-1-2 decided to ignore on how one would believe that half of all the Nell family, that was once the most powerfull family during the ages where mana still existed. He had never seen the Patriarch, but all that he heard pointed to the fact that he was a complete lunatic. Not that the other members of the family weren't.
They kept walking, once again in silence, until they reached a wide room. It was in the shape of an hexagon and was filled with several stairs that headed down to the center of the room.
At the center was a single sphere of seeminly glass, with only a small amount of light coming from it. 3-1-2 felt his Lord's rage from the way his cultivation was made present.
His Lord was in the Martial Master Realm, making him one of the most powerfull men of the Western Continent. Him on the other hand was simply on the Martial Disciple Realm, two realms below.
He was forced to step back slightly before speaking carefully.
"What is wrong, my Lord?"
"..."
The raging energies calmed down as the Lord relaxed, although his rage still boiled beneath his eyes.
"The Sphere is the treasure that I was reserving for my daughter, it produced a maginificient light when I first found it. That light only grew everytime I visited. Now, it's even dimmer than it was when I first found it."
"What happened?"
"Most likely, someone took it. In this area, some guard from the nearest Squad of the Stygian clan? Or maybe a Stygian?"
3-1-2 felt his heart drop. Even though he was completely loyal to the Nell family, mostly because he had no choice, he still had a deep love and a faint sense of loyalty and pride on the Stygian Clan. Of course, he didn't want someone who was one of his brothers to die, it was already fucked up to see some of them being killed because someone from the family needed to vent their anger.
"3-1-2, do you still have the contract with that Horned Rabbit?"
"Yes, sir."
"Is it still in this forest? I believe you normally leave it here for leasure?"
"That's what I normally do, yes. However, I recently sent it to scout some areas a brother of the Stygian clan requested."
"Not out of orders I hope?"
"Never, sir."
"Good. Once that is over, I order you to use it to find out who it was that stole my treasure and kill it."
"Yes, sir."
"Let's leave."
Anger still spilling from his words, the Lord turned around and walked in the direction they had come from. For a moment, 3-1-2 looked at the glowing sphere of light before proceeding to follow his master.
He was worried about who might have stolen the treasure and how powerful they were right now, but he had no choice. After all, if the family ordered him, a Martial Disciple, to fight a Martial Grandmaster from the East, he wouldn't have a choice but to do it.
That was how a Stygian lived.
A good Stygian follows orders.
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Meanwhile, at Squad 9's yard.
"Haha! I finally did it! I am officially an Organ Tempering Stage cultivator!"
The boy that was shouting was Notres, also known as 9-3-1. From the trio of friends, he was the last one to reach the Organ Tempering Stage of the Body Tempering Realm. Nero had done so last week, and Nio had reached the Muscle Tempering Stage, making them officially the strongest kids in Squad 9.
It has been a few months ever since he started cultivating and he had progressed a lot, he even had stopped going to the forest in order to focus on cultivation.
The biggest problem was definitely stabilization. According to their teacher, Nio was moving too fast, and that could potentially put his body in danger due to sudden change, and therefore he should let his body adapt naturally to the new strength it possessed, especially now that he had reached the Muscle Tempering Stage.
[
Status:
Name: Nio/Nioo/9-1-1/Alex
Age: 10(28)
Cultivation: Body Tempering Stage 3 : Muscle Tempering
Bloodline: Mortal Body of Chance and Change
Health: Very Healthy
PHY: 81
SPE: 39
END: 88
INT: 33
CON: 35
Credits: 881
]
And his stats spoke for themselves, he was going steadily, and it was going to be a while until he went again to the forest to train. He had decided to focus on cultivation for now. He didn't know for how long, but he was definitely not going for now.
He didn't know how much importance this decision took for his future.
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Fun Fact: The rabbit was not meant to be a familiar originally, but I decided that would be a good way to tie things up for this volume.
Check out my other Novel: Unsealed Demonic Dragon Goes to the Academy. The first Volume, Unsealing, was just finished!