The images in front of him were moving too fast, but he managed to catch two familiar faces. They were speaking to a woman—her body was covered in scars that stood out starkly, drawing the attention of any observer away from the rest of her features. Yet if one looked closely, they would find her to be a stunning beauty: short in stature, with glistening hair as white as milk that contrasted sharply with her deep black eyes. One would only find her pleasing if they managed to overlook the scars scattered across her body, like a beautiful painting smeared with jarring lines that didn't belong to the original work.
He recognized her immediately, of course. He was someone who appreciated talent—even if it came from a variant human, let alone a human from a different tribe. And she was, indeed, talented. Not only had she managed to inherit her master's inheritance at the age of twenty, but her mastery and proficiency over it appeared to surpass her master's own when he was her age.
'That alone is amazing—to be able to understand her master's enslavement path inheritance this deeply, and at such a young age. But she also managed to create entirely new killer moves that didn't even seem like they belonged to the enslavement path at all. She often left her army back at her tribe when on missions, only using it for the most dangerous tasks. Her most famous original killer move appeared to use an ancient metal heart as the core to assemble her own ancient guardian…'
His thoughts drifted, but were brought back as the fast-moving images finally slowed to an appropriate speed.
---
"Don't you think this price is a little… low?"
---
"Calm down, Kui Tu. Miss Luo Niu doesn't mean to disrespect us. It's just her way of doing business. You don't have to be so stingy about it."
---
"At least one of you is smart. If you want me to kill somebody, the price depends on their rank. I take 1,000 primeval essence stones for any rank one masters. Rank two will cost you roughly 2,500. As for rank three or higher, I can't do it…"
---
"Oh! You can take care of this one first, please."
The image showed a photo of what appeared to be a student from the Ma tribe. He felt like he knew him but couldn't recall the name.
"That's Ma Rue Bu, elder. He is a student from the Ma tribe this year. His talent is at the top of B grade," the Gu Master at the side reminded him, wearing a grim expression.
"…Who?" The elder wanted to praise Rue Bu's talent, but he wasn't really in the mood after what he had just seen. "Who sent this footage, and has anyone else seen it?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"The sender claims to be Jin Luo Niu, and she said that aside from her and the two young masters… only her 'master' knows... " He hesitated for a moment, and his expression betrayed him.
"… she has already taken measures to ensure her safety and that we don't try anything… hmm?" He sighed for a moment, then noticed Hong Zhen's troubled expression.
"What? Just say it!" The elder was furious.
"Yesterday, there was an incident… A team of students were attacked by an ancient guardian… and one of them died…" He hadn't even finished before the elder stood up immediately.
"Ancient… guardian… Ma Rue Bu… Died..." he stammered, slamming his fists on the desk in anger.
"…Umm… Elder Kui Lang… Ma Rue Bu is still alive…" the young Gu Master added before the elder caused more of a mess.
"Hong Zhen, just spit it all out at once already!" Kui Lang shouted at him.
"Yes, Elder. The team was on a mission collecting the metal hearts of guardians in the Jin tribe's territory. According to them, an ancient guardian appeared in a place it shouldn't have. They managed to escape, but only after a Shui tribe student met his end, and Ma Rue Bu lost an arm in the process of saving Elder Chen Ning's granddaughter—which he was repaid for by Elder Lin Lou growing him a new arm. I believe they just returned this evening…" Hong Zhen explained at last.
"… it's a relief that such a talent is okay… but," he gritted his teeth in anger again, "him being alive isn't good either… and she also killed a student of our alliance…" If she had killed Ma Rue Bu, at least the alliance might dismiss her words and evidence—after all, she would be the culprit—but now, with him still alive, she could claim innocence.
"Elder, please think about the two young masters!" Hong Zhen pleaded.
"… I know… it's an unfortunate death, but," Kui Lang sighed, "Whether she killed the Shui student just to strengthen her position or it was simply a failed attempt at Ma Rue Bu doesn't matter—she has leverage over us because of those two idiots… and we can't touch her because she already informed her master of the situation… What does she want?"
It would take a miracle to capture a Gu Master of her strength without alerting her Rank Three master, so he braced himself for a list of outrageous demands.
"… she mentioned a lot of Rank One and Two refinement materials—from the enslavement, soul, wisdom, and even metal paths… but the one she emphasized most was a Rank Three Violet Soul Flower…" His voice quivered at the end.
"… Violet Soul… in addition to all the other refinement materials… is she trying to refine a Rank Three Enslavement Path Gu? But what about the rest of the wisdom and metal path materials? There's too much for them to just be supplements to a Rank Three Gu worm…" Kui Lang pondered as he looked at the list. The main ingredient was clearly the Rank Three Violet Soul Flower, and considering her master and their inheritance, it wasn't a big leap to assume she was refining an Enslavement Path Gu worm—but something felt off.
"… give her the materials," he finally said through gritted teeth, "but I won't make it easy for her either. Give her the full materials on the list except for the metal and enslavement paths ones. We're not the Jin Tribe—how could we possibly have that many materials from those paths?"
They did have them, of course. They were one of the four tribes that controlled the entire region. Even though their tribe didn't specialize in those paths, they still collected those materials—and guarded their resource points even more heavily than their own. If they didn't need them, wouldn't the other three tribes want them? Of course they would. So, guarding the resource points of other paths was even stricter than their own, in case any tribe tried something suspicious.
'But that only works if we're at peace—like right now. We can still trade with each other without any major obstacles. Even the Jin Tribe still trades with all the alliance members. But if war breaks out... we'll have to abandon this tactic and focus on what matters most to us,' his thoughts drifted again.
If war broke out, even if your path's resources weren't valuable to the others, they were still crucial to you. Losing them would be like cutting off your foundation. So, in times of peace, they guarded resources more valuable to others to deter attacks. But during war, priorities reversed. Even if those resources brought in many primeval essence stones through trade, their own foundation came first—without it, their days would be numbered.
"Elder?" Kui Lang was brought back by Hong Zhen's voice.
"Hmm? Did you say something?" he asked.
"Uh, yes. What I don't understand is—why? Why is she doing this and risking the wrath of a Rank Three…" he trailed off but was interrupted by the elder.
"It has nothing to do with that, Hong Zhen," the elder shook his head softly. "It's not about fear. I doubt she'd do this to a Rank Four Gu Master—but you wouldn't know," he shrugged and continued.
"It's simple, really. She's blackmailing us because she can. Sure, I could go find her right now and kill her. She'd put up a good fight, but I'm confident I'd win."
Hong Zhen was puzzled. Of course the elder would win—what was he trying to say? But Kui Lang didn't elaborate.
"But then what would happen? Forget the anger her master Jin Shun would feel—she already said he knows everything. Even if I'm not afraid to face him, those two idiots would still be implicated. And can we really kill a Rank Three elder—an enslavement expert at that —without alerting the entire Jin Tribe?" He shook his head.
"That would escalate into an all-out war…" Hong Zhen muttered. He hadn't expected such a minor incident involving the young masters to have such far-reaching consequences—but he was wrong.
"Yes. She's done everything I would have in her place. If she hadn't mentioned her master, maybe I'd already be on my way to her… and those two idiots too. How could they not sign an agreement with her…" He slammed his desk. It wasn't just anger at them—they were still only fifteen, barely considered Gu Masters.
'it's mostly on me… I didn't teach them well enough… that will have to change too,' he thought.
"Don't be too harsh on them, Elder. Besides, you're the one who taught me not to trust alliance agreements so easily, right? If they can be formed, they can be broken…" Hong Zhen tried to soothe Kui Lang's frustration.
"And what was the lesson before that?" Kui Lang nearly threw the ink stone at him.
"To not need one in the first place…" Hong Zhen ducked out of habit, though he knew Kui Lang wouldn't actually throw it—just like always.
"Go and take care of this mess. Then come back to me with the other team captains at the northwestern gate—I need to meet with Vice Alliance Leader Ma Li in the morning." He set the ink stone back on his desk and issued the order. "...Oh, and send those two to me," he said after a moment of silence.
"Yes, Elder! I'll be taking my leave, then." After a slight nod from Kui Lang, Hong Zhen's echoing footsteps were all that remained in the empty room—that seemed to deepen the gloom on Kui Lang's face.