A Snail's Wisdom

The strong were to be respected, never slighted. The elders could afford to be eccentric. In fact, if behaving strangely could improve their odds of progressing their own cultivations, then the disciples might start plucking their chest hairs out while they walked as well.

Third Elder Kondo entered the underground sect and immediately noticed two things.

First, the environment was enriched with Qi to the extent that he felt an itch to sit down and begin cultivating.

Since Elder Kondo usually stayed above ground to nurture his Nascent Soul, he would only come down here to check on his disciple or attend to the rare obligation. He temporarily moved his personal forge above ground which also reduced the number of reasons to travel down here. These reasons along with the fact that he had spent several weeks crafting his disciple"s sword meant that his information on the day-to-day concerning the sect was limited to what the elders conversed about in the Dragon"s View, what his disciple cared enough to mention, and what he asked the vice elders about…which he never did.

After all, he was an elder! The small things could be delegated to the vice elders and junior disciples. His time was too valuable to waste on insignificant matters. His time could be better spent fortifying his cultivation, raising his disciple, or in Elder Kondo"s case, lazing about with Fourth and Sixth Brother when Fifth Sister and Vice Elder Shirou were not paying attention.

So he had no prior knowledge of the recent happenings around the sect, including the numerous beaten challenges and pillar acknowledgments that had arisen.

The second thing he noticed was more perplexing than the first.

Why were there so many disciples and servants outside?

The gra.s.sy perimeter surrounding the sect buildings and moat was littered with seated disciples and servants who were cultivating intently. The situation did not change on his way to the central pillar. He had to bob and weave around the sitting disciples who were focused on their meditation. Most of the buildings also seemed to be locked or closed for business.

Fine!

Third Elder Kondo could accept this.

Spurred by the air thickened with Qi, the disciples wanted to spend more time cultivating. It was a natural reaction, and the elder approved of their decision. But could they not hold out until they returned to their caves?

The Qi within their caves would be even thicker, and they would be free from distractions. Plus, they would not have to vie with those sitting near them for the Qi.

To collectively cultivate in such an inefficient and inconvenient manner.

He could not accept this.

There must be a reasonable explanation.

Elder Kondo was about to poke an outer sect disciple awake when he stopped himself. What if the reason was something he should know about as an elder? Would he not become a laughingstock of an elder amongst the juniors and his peers?

He decided to hold out and ask Hizumi about these details privately once he found him.

Elder Kondo took out his personal flying sword and soared over the human roadblocks until he reached the central pillar"s first face where his First Brother should be cultivating diligently. Then he circled the pillar clockwise and stopped at the third face, reaching his Immortal cave as well as Hizumi"s cave marked 3-2.

He knocked on the cave"s door while announcing, "Hizumi, your master has arrived."

Elder Kondo knew that his disciple had a habit of cultivating at this time of day. Especially considering the rich amount of Qi flowing through the sect to the point that everyone else was busy cultivating, he could not imagine Hizumi leaving his cave for any reason.

He waited outside the door for Hizumi to open up and salute him.

And he waited.

And he waited…

And he waited some more…

Elder Kondo furrowed his brows. Hizumi had never failed to open the door after the elder announced himself. Did something happen in the midst of his cultivation?

The elder moved into action. He moved his right hand in several different directions in front of the door, forcefully bypa.s.sing the door"s locking mechanism. The door opened, but to his surprise, the room was completely empty.

He was momentarily glad nothing happened to his precious little disciple, but after breathing in the ultrrich Qi-infused air within the cave, his worries returned. Clearly, no one had cultivated within the cave for several days.

He reached into his storage bag and pulled out a long, purple candle. Utilizing a fire technique, he lit the candle and said, "Matsus.h.i.ta Hizumi."

Transmission candles were made up of special-made wax enchanted with the ability to contact distant const.i.tuents. Instead of melting, the wax evaporated into the air and at a very fast rate, losing effectiveness once the wax was expended.

A few seconds pa.s.sed as he stared at the swaying flame before it flickered a bit and a stuttering voice came out.

"M-master? Is that you? Did something happen?"

For someone to use an expensive transmission candle to contact him, Hizumi could not imagine anyone other than his master who would both care enough to use it for his sake and have the means to purchase one.

Hearing his disciple"s usual albeit slightly awkward address, Elder Kondo relaxed once more.

"Where are you right now?"

"Where am I right now…? I am…cultivating in my cave, master, " Hizumi replied with intermittent pauses.

Elder Kondo"s vein bulged when he heard this answer.

"Come to your old cave and bring your master to this new cave that you deem better than the one I gifted you."

Was his disciple lying to him? And so blatantly.

"Disciple does not dare! Disciple does not dare! Master, please—"

"Just hurry over here. I will give you a chance to tell me the truth."

With that, he put out the flame and stowed away the candle.

Shortly thereafter, Hizumi rushed through the still-open cave entrance on his flying sword with a second pa.s.senger standing behind him. They both dismounted and saluted Elder Kondo.

"Disciple greets master."

"Junior greets venerable Third Elder."

Kondo recognized the other disciple. His name was Bando, and Hizumi sometimes used him to pa.s.s messages or updates to him when his disciple was training.

"Un," he acknowledged their salute and gave Hizumi his chance to speak, but it was Bando who began speaking.

"Junior begs venerable Third Elder redress senior brother"s grievances!"

Third Elder Kondo frowned, curving the mutton chop on his face more than normal.

"What happened?" He directed this question to Hizumi, but Bando continued to speak for him.

"One of the new disciples played a trick on us and took our caves" keystones."

Hizumi furrowed his brows and spoke with extreme reluctance, "Now Bando, I don"t think our senior sister would play a trick on us."

Elder Kondo was thoroughly intrigued. In terms of power or authority, Hizumi was among the top in the younger generation. He would address the elders and vice-elders with respect due to their power or seniority, but none of them would be considered a peer to address as senior sister or brother.

So who was this person that even Hizumi had to address as senior sister? Was it one of the other elder"s disciples?

Bando ignored him and continued speaking, "She even wasted more than half of the spirit fruit gifted by venerable Third Elder!"

Hizumi grit his teeth while looking down and squeezed the words out of his mouth, "Senior sister wouldn"t waste master"s gift like that."

Elder Kondo was confused by Hizumi"s manner of speaking.

Understandably, using his entourage to complain for him would produce a less unsightly picture of his disciple, but it would normally be a back-and-forth where one person stated the facts in a straightforward manner and the other embellished and exaggerated the opposing party"s wrongdoing. This tag team would produce the image of his disciple being a humble victim while making the "wrongdoer" look more criminal.

Except his disciple did not add to Bando"s demonizing of the other disciple. Instead, he interjected with attempts to defend her against Bando"s accusations.

Unbeknownst to Kondo, Hizumi was speaking against his will.

Matsus.h.i.ta Hizumi was having the worst week of his life.

It started off great with his master gifting him a whole Sanguine Spirit Fruit to a.s.similate during his cultivation with the promise of a reward once he finished. Then he learned that the younger princess of the Ryu royal family was going to join their sect. If he could use his seniority and power to secure the princess and her "Kiss of the Dragon" before anyone else, his cultivation would a.s.suredly skyrocket, and he would stand above the other Tributaries as the sect"s most promising disciple of the younger generation (even though he was oldest in both age and appearance among the Five Tributaries).

His life would have been smooth sailing…if it were not for that meddling Hirai Hikaru.

She repeatedly thwarted his attempts at getting closer with the princess.

If that was all she did, he could still accept it, but she humiliated him in a public setting. She ate so much of his spirit fruit and took his Immortal cave"s keystone in front of so many disciples. Now, he had to coerce another disciple to lend their cave over to him so that he was not stuck cultivating outside for everyone"s amus.e.m.e.nt.

If that was it, he could force himself to accept it. After all, he was capable of finding a chance to get even with her and retrieve his keystone.

But no! All that was mentioned up to this point did not account for one percent of his anger.

The most infuriating reason for his seething, blood-thirsty rage was because of the Soul Oath placed on him to treat her and the other three girls as his senior sisters!

It was this that he could not accept!

His body contorted in unimaginable pain at any thought of revenge or ill intent towards Hirai Hikaru, the princess or those two insignificant twins. No matter what plans he thought up, that stupid—ow ow ow—that wide-eyed Hirai Hikaru"s words would ring in his head, "Junior brother, is this how you treat your senior sister?" and the pain would erupt from his chest, stomach, head, everywhere.

He could not even go complain to his master about her, and whenever his junior brothers suggested going to complain for his sake, the stupid oath acted up until he stopped them. Now that his master made the trip himself, he pulled Bando along and ambiguously told him to update his master on what had happened.

Even now, whenever Bando painted Hirai Hikaru in a bad light, the pain would not go away unless he said something to offset Bando"s statements.

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"Third Elder, she made him swear a Soul Oath!"

Third Elder Kondo"s eyes darkened at this bit of news.

Soul Oaths were not things that should be sworn lightly. Erasing them was a monumental task that might as well be called impossible.

With an outraged tone filled with displeasure, Kondo asked, "What kind of Soul Oath did she have disciple make?"

Hizumi did not look up from his downtrodden expression. "Disciple replies to master: I was to take her and her other sisters as my senior sisters."

Elder Kondo"s eye twitched after hearing the reply, and his wrath deflated as quickly as it came. He let out a laugh.

"Is that all? So you have to address a couple girls as senior sisters, and they took your cave to get closer to you. Isn"t that good news for you? You"re closer to finding a companion than your old master here."

He heard Soul Oath and imagined the worst outcomes, but instead, those girls just wanted to get closer to his disciple. This disciple did not understand how good his luck was.

Seeing Hizumi maintain his kneeling posture, Bando knew it was his turn again.

"Third Elder is mistaken. It wasn"t to call them senior sisters. It was to treat them as senior sisters. Now we have to act as if that Qi Flourishing girl is our senior…this is just her humiliating senior brother and venerable Third Elder. We implore Third Elder to redress our grievances."

Hizumi winced in pain. "Junior brother…I am sure she had kind intentions…"

Elder Kondo"s heart ached when he saw Hizumi struggle to speak such words.

He understood that this Soul Oath was a deliberately-worded act of a sly woman that wanted to prevent his disciple from retaliating and not from a coquettish girl seeking Hizumi"s attention.

This was why one should tread carefully around females. It was impossible to tell whether one was a kitten or a lioness. She was only at the Qi Flourishing stage, yet she tricked his innocent disciple out of his belongings and respect. Wasn"t she just trampling on his dignity as Third Elder?

Such a woman would indubitably become the "uneaten cat" if she had time to grow.

Elder Kondo walked past them.

"Master will redress your grievances. Take me to her."

He exited the cave and waited for them to lead him to this troublemaking disciple.

Trying his best to withhold his happiness at Hirai Hikaru"s impending misfortune, Hizumi maintained an indifferent expression as he got up and walked out, but Bando had no such restraint. With a snarky grin on his face, he skipped after them and began expanding on Hirai Hikaru to the elder.

Over the past few days, they had researched this disciple"s background that seemed to have come out of nowhere but was unusually close with the younger princess Hanabi Ryu. They could find no news of her family or place of residence, and their contacts within the Emperor"s palace had no clue who she was. After joining the sect, she spent most of the time within her cave but caused trouble for senior brother the moment she left it.

Perhaps the only ones who knew her true background were the Ryu royal family and Fifth Elder Kazane who took her in as a disciple. Of course, Bando did not mention many of these details that could persuade Elder Kondo to ponder the matter more.

After all, he was an elder of the Flowing River Sect and was well within his rights to deal with the disciples in whatever way he wished regardless of their previous backgrounds.

"Hmph, this Junior Hirai trampled on my disciple"s dignity. I will ask her for an explanation."

Such audacity for a mere kitten at the Qi Flourishing stage, he could not and would not accept this.

If she could not provide an adequate explanation, he did not mind showing her what a wolf"s fangs looked like.