……
...
The finality of Kenja"s words caused the tension in the cave to thicken to an unimaginable degree. Snail stared at Kenja open-eyed, letting his words sink in. After a couple of breaths, he coughed.
"Ahem...of course you are, disciple. Who here said you weren"t? I shall beat them for sullying my disciple"s name!"
…
The fury in Kenja"s eyes lessened after hearing Snail"s words. He had yet to spend a whole week with Snail, but he had already witnessed multiple times how quickly Snail could change his tune and adapt to any situation. For Kenja, the ability to react so easily and suddenly to anything was enviable, and he admired Snail for it.
Snail, sensing the anger from Kenja settling down, continued to speak.
"Now, disciple, all I meant was that if you were to leave here in such a fashion, wouldn"t you immediately be recognized as a man even though you had entered the sect as a woman?" Snail spelled out the situation clearly to appeal to Kenja"s rational side.
Kenja"s frown curled into his business smile that he hadn"t worn since he had convinced Wise Man Satoshi to buy his stock of spirit stone fragments for triple the usual rate.
"Why do you think I obtained these keystones in the first place?"
Snail"s interest was piqued. Most would think Kenja had gotten the keystones for an extra source of revenue, but Snail knew Kenja had no thought for more credits when he had obtained the keystones.
"Of course, it was to retain a low profile when shopping?" he said in a way that seeked confirmation from Kenja.
Kenja laughed at him, enjoying the nostalgia of being several moves ahead of the other. "That is merely a bonus. Let me ask you a question. Why can"t I leave this cave as I am right now?"
Snail thought for several breaths, his tentacles arched forward. As if the clouds parted to reveal the sun, his eyes became lucid. He now understood what Kenja was talking about.
The number of people in the sect that could recognize Kenja as a man could be counted on one hand. The primary issue lay with the fact that his own cave was situated next to his sisters, so if he came and left from another cave, he could avoid running into them entirely. Even if the twins had not been present, his other sisters could notice a strange man exiting from Hirai Hikaru"s cave which would raise red flags.
If he were to leave from this cave as a man, the odds of someone realizing something strange about him would be nearly non-existent. Thousands of disciples resided in the sect all with their own cliques as well as dozens of outsiders visiting the sect on business. Who, in the sect, could name and recognize every single person?
Kenja saw the change in Snail"s pose and spoke to him. "Finally understand? There are only four people in the sect that could recognize me, and their memory of me was before I broke through to the Qi Flourishing stage. With my hair like this, and my cultivation raised to this stage, they would doubt their eyes unless they got close enough to examine me."
Snail stared at Kenja with mesmerized eyes as if he were looking at some impossible or unbelieveable object.
Chancing upon the the situation with Hizumi was completely unplanned, and yet in just a few breaths, Kenja had taken the unfortunate encounter and converted it into a tremendous boon. Even his Supreme self hadn"t thought that far ahead; he had thought the keystones were a mere whim to retain a low profile and that Kenja"s primary motivation was to help his sisters.
Kenja"s current smile reminded Snail of the time he had taken Sakura and her rocky prison into his storage ring. The words resounded in his mind.
"When you see the chance to exact vengeance, take it."
Snail hadn"t paid the statement any mind at the time, but it now became apparent to Snail. Kenja had considered Snail would renege on the initial agreement and planned for it, giving the sword the instruction to aim for his sh.e.l.l.
Kenja"s forethought was fearsome.
Seeing Snail staring at him without speaking caused Kenja to feel uneasy. He didn"t want to waste anymore time, so he broke the silence again.
"Now that you see the heart of the matter. I will take my leave. You can wait here, and I will be back for you."
Snail"s eyes became confused again as one tentacle arched a little. "Wait. Why are you leaving without me?" Snail said the sentence in a pitiful tone, trying to gather sympathy from Kenja.
Kenja had already turned his back to Snail and took a step toward the door when he heard Snail"s words. He could hear the pitiful tone that the words carried, and he stopped in place.
"How shameless can one be…"
Without turning around, he spoke out, "You fail to restrain yourself when we"re outside. I am not going to keep company that tries to control my actions only to serve his whims."
Kenja was tired of Snail leading him around by the nose. Fighting the cultivator outside the forest, touching the Orbs of Eventuality, demanding tea and wax—Snail repeatedly compelled Kenja to do what he wanted.
He paused to wait and see how Snail would respond.
"...Fine, fine, my disciple. I am a reasonable snail. You wish for your sensei to—ahem—stop making you do things without your consent, so I shall stop. You have my word!" Snail pointed both of his tentacles straight at Kenja, attempting to make his eyes look as endearing and apologetic as possible.
Kenja tilted his head to look back at Snail, but he didn"t say anything. He pondered whether to accept the half-apology and let Snail back on his ear.
Seeing Kenja"s hesitation, Snail lectured cutely, "Let me impart to you my most important teaching, "Snail-sensei"s Teaching, Number 1: Never leave without your Snail-sensei. It will result in a quick death and a drop in cultivation!""
Kenja"s torso jolted, and his head bent forward. He couldn"t contain his laughter.
"Shameless…! Why would a drop in cultivation matter if I die?"
Kenja turned to face Snail with a smile and twisted his face to present his left ear.
PLOP!
Snail jumped onto Kenja"s ear and situated himself snugly on the lobe.
"Can you change my robes to match the outer-sect disciple"s robes? And can you change your sh.e.l.l"s color?"
Since Sakura was on his back, he didn"t have to worry about the Snail doing something to her, so he had him jump on the other ear. By making him change the position of the earring and the color of Snail"s sh.e.l.l, it would be slightly more difficult to relate him to his alter ego who had previously roamed around the sect.
Additionally, changing the robe"s appearance would further separate him from Hirai Hikaru. The population of outer-sect disciple was significantly larger than the inner-sect, so blending in with them would make it even easier to go unnoticed, and they get less attention from the more powerful ent.i.ties in the sect.
"Who do you think you"re talking to? The Supreme Me can do anything!" he declared in a proud voice.
Kenja felt a stream of energy wrapping around the inner-sect designs of his robe and changing their appearance. In less than a single breath, the energy dissipated and the inner-sect color and designs were replaced with the outer-sect"s version.
Kenja felt Sakura move from his back, and he turned his eyes to the left to see the reflection of Snail"s sh.e.l.l on the shiny rusted side of Sakura"s blade. It had changed to a darker shade than before, a sign of Snail"s good will.
He turned to face the door, his heart thumping in excitement as Sakura reattached herself behind him.
...
Although he had donned the disguise several days ago, he had walked around with it for only two days, but for Kenja, that was two too many. The annoying acting he had to do, the contrasting conduct catered to him, even the sensual stares from salacious spectators as he dealt with Hizumi—he had had enough.
Kenja wasn"t an idiot. Infiltrating the sect under false pretenses would cause him to suffer serious consequences, so he knew he couldn"t end the masquerade permanently.
But as long as his master wasn"t around to teach or supervise him, no one would bother Hirai Hikaru. At worst, his other sisters might worry about him, but for all they knew, he was cultivating in seclusion and didn"t want to be interrupted. He would return to his own cave and disguise once Elder Kazane had returned.
…
Kenja opened the entrance and stepped outside. The cave closed behind him.
…
He paused outside Hizumi"s cave, relishing in his feeling of normalcy.
…
…
"Disciple, if you were just going to stand out here, then I would have stayed inside."
Kenja"s joyful daze was brought to an end. The smile on his face relaxed, and he rolled his eyes at Snail"s words. He walked past the gra.s.sy circle surrounding the pillar and entered the city.
After locating a nearby TD with some privacy, he excitedly hurried towards it. Once he was in front of it, he took out eight keystones from his storage ring.
Snail paid close attention to Kenja"s actions. Before he had entered Hizumi"s cave, he had moved all the credits onto one stone, resetting the eight before him back to zero. Once they entered the cave, he took out only four stones and placed them in the pool.
If he wanted to maximize credit accrual, he would have placed all nine of his stones in the pool, per Hideaki"s advice, and there was no reason to move the credits around since he wanted to divide them in reasonable amounts for shopping purposes.
Snail was stumped with no explanation or reason for Kenja"s odd behavior.
Kenja picked out four of the keystones and began placing them into the TD one at a time.
"7...6...7...8," Snail noted the amounts. They had moved the points less than a day and a half ago, so these amounts were not unexpected.
Kenja took those four stones back and placed the remaining four into the TD one at a time.
"These should be the ones from the pool, so they should be around 10 or 11 credits," Snail surmised.
The first stone.
…
Snail"s eyes blinked several times in disbelief.
The second stone.
…
Snail"s eyes bulged wide open.
The third stone.
…
Snail"s tentacles shot for the dial.
The fourth stone.
…
Snail shouted out without using telepathy, "WHAT THE h.e.l.l? WHY? WHY? WHAT? HOW…?"
He looked at Kenja who wore a wide smile and expectant eyes, as if he were not surprised by the results at all.
"This kid…" thought the terrified snail.