"Junior brother, stop!"—SMACK—"We're falling too fast!"
As Matushita Hizumi was knocked off his great sword by Sakura in her sheath, he was stunned, unable to grasp what had just happened as he was launched downwards at a much faster speed than he had been traveling.
A warm liquid touched his upper lip, snapping him out of his stupefaction. Touching it, he realized that he had a nose bleed.
His bloodshot eyes reddened several degrees further as he gripped his fists so tightly, some of the bones within his fingers fractured.
A Qi Flourishing had caused him to bleed!
A Core Crystallization was capable of breaking rocks with mere footsteps and hearing a pin drop from a mile away with little effort. For a Qi Flourishing to break past his physical defenses and abnormal awareness to injure him, he had to have completely lowered his guard, something one at his level would ordinarily never do.
Even though he was completely focused on something else, he did not feel he had lowered his guard to such an extent that Kenja could damage him.
But the evidence showed otherwise.
Matsushita Hizumi laughed at himself.
'This demoness has been playing with me since the start.'
Even though Kenja's current actions and words had the appearance that the incident was an unintentional accident, Matsushita Hizumi had long thrown away any semblance of innocence regarding him.
For Hizumi, the woman known as Hirai Hikaru existed for the sole purpose of making his life miserable, a mission she must be fully cognizant of.
Matsushita Hizumi's laughter grew louder.
He was not finished!
Far from it!
The current situation was better for executing his plan.
Now that he was removed from the great sword, the two Qi Flourishing girls would follow him in falling onto the Dragon Basin's central pillar where he would be waiting for Kenja.
He would heroically save his senior sister, and in the process, he could not help it if he touched—or stroked, rubbed and pinched—her somewhere he should not. He was committed to this plan to the point that the soul oath backlash aggravated his nosebleed.
Matsushita Hizumi was arguably not in a right state of mind as he had completely ignored Hanabi's well-being and how good of an opportunity it was to get closer to her by saving her from the fall. He also forgot that they were in the midst of an important operation.
He was too pissed off to think of other things.
His demented sneer grew larger when he saw Kenja and Hanabi lose control of his great sword and begin their uncontrolled descent, but it was erased the instant he saw Aoi Rin rescue the two girls.
He cursed under his breath, but several loud sounds of splashing brought him back to the present.
He turned around to see what fell into the water, and he saw that there was no ground below him, just water…and the sight of the four elders and his brother and sister disciples falling in.
'What the hell?!'
He, as well as the other elders and Tributaries, had all visited the Dragon's Basin before. He knew that the opening led directly to the leading central Pillar of Will that oversaw the sect's historical records and legacies.
But it was nowhere in sight!
He reached for his storage bag to pull out another weapon and slow his fall, but he knew that at his current falling speed, it was unlikely he would make it in time before diving into the water.
Let alone him, even his elders and fellow disciples who had been purposely falling at a much faster speed did not have sufficient time to halt their momentum after realizing the pillar was gone.
'What? It's gone!'
His bag was missing.
He panicked, shuffling his hands inside his pockets and all around his robes looking for it, but he failed to find any trace of the bag.
Fumbling around, his gaze passed Kenja who was being carried by Aoi Rin, and his hands froze.
'Her! It was her!'
He condemned Kenja without a second thought, disregarding the fact that Kenja had never gotten close enough to steal the bag nor was a Qi Flourishing capable of circumventing a Core Crystallization's sensitive detection.
Perhaps, against all odds and forgoing all common sense, he had dropped his guard for the slightest instant that somehow allowed a Qi Flourishing to knock him off his flying sword, but Kenja definitely could not have swiped his storage bag at that time...was what any sane and reasonable expert would ordinarily determine.
His gaze was locked onto Kenja, a crazy glint in his eye, as he, too, fell into the water.
Since the basin appeared empty and safe, Hanabi and Kenja shifted onto their own swords. They descended to the water's surface alongside Rin and the twins.
A brown storage bag appeared in Kenja's hand, taking him by surprise.
"Disciple, look what I found! I think that Matsukatsu boy dropped it."
With a bad feeling in his stomach, Kenja looked inside the bag and found Matsushita Hizumi's keystone that he had returned earlier. He quickly hid the bag inside his sleeve.
"Snail, I told you to stop doing whatever you want!"
Snail gasped as if Kenja had wronged him, "What? I'm just returning what was dropped! First, no stealing things, and now, no giving back things. Make up your mind. I'm only a little Snail!"
"There's no spirit stones!"
Kenja checked all the contents, yet he could not find a single spirit stone.
Snail scoffed, "How pitiful! Such a destitute Core Crystallization is the first I've seen," evading Kenja's insinuation.
Kenja's eye twitched when he heard this.
No one in the world would believe that a Core Crystallization did not have a single spirit stone with them.
Especially considering Matsushita Hizumi had gone into seclusion immediately before the sect's emergency had summoned him, he had to have some number of spirit stones in his bag for his use.
Kenja did not bother with Snail anymore. Spirit stone or not, he could not be found with the bag in his possession.
As he was deciding how to get rid of the bag without anyone noticing, the four Elders and five Tributaries had risen from the water, flying on their weapons once again. Water continued dripping from their soaked robes.
Shimizu Mizutani formed some seals to pull the water out of her hair and clothes. "The pillars…they're gone."
Hideaki Akiyoshi wiped his glasses dry with a cloth from his bag before wearing them. "I can't see them anywhere."
"Was it the Rusty Robber? That brat must have stolen them too!" Sora Yu craned his neck bitterly looking for that bastard who stole his storage bag.
Matsushita Hizumi who had retrieved his great sword that fell into the water hovered in silence, his gaze locked onto Kenja.
On the other hand, Hirose Hide flew off into a direction and yelled out, "Junior brother! Junior brother, if you're there, say something." While her face maintained a stoic indifference, her desperate tone betrayed her.
Kenja had a decent impression of Hirose Hide after she helped him with discovering his talent in the [Flowing Water] technique and entering the Dragon's Basin.
Seeing how Hirose Hide worried over his well-being, Kenja felt warmer feelings towards her on top of some guilt.
"Hide, come back here. Little Bolo isn't here," Ariyoshi Miji called her back. As a Nascent Soul, he was able to explore the entirety of the Dragon's Basin from the center using his Divine Sense.
The Elders were gazing downwards at the water.
"What should we do now?"
"We have no che-oice. We have to learn what happened here."
The First Elder's brows furrowed deeply before his voice resonated throughout the basin, "HOW LONG DO YOU ALL PLAN ON IGNORING US?!"
Aside from Kenja, the other disciples wore confused expressions on their faces, but after a couple of breaths, bubbles surfaced in many different spots around the basin.
Stone platforms began popping up from the surface like popcorn, and their spiritual forms sprung out of the rocks like flowers.
"Why were they hiding? Why do they look like that?" Sora Yu asked.
As direct disciples of Fourth Elder Ariyoshi Miji, he and Hirose Hide spent the most time socializing with the Pillars of Will as they tried to defeat past sect records. This was the first time they had seen the pillars in such a state.
Everyone wondered the same thing.
"Yo, First Brat, you've finally come to pay your respects, and the first thing you do is yell at us?"
"Yeah! How rude, you unfilial brat!"
"And you dare wake us up and accuse us of ignoring you."
"Seriously, the world doesn't revolve around you, First Ingrate!"
The various pillars of will began throwing curses at Kaitou Daiki, causing his facial veins to throb grossly.
This was why he hated dealing with these ancient fossils.
Stone platforms continued rising to the surface and joining the other spirits in berating Kaitou Daiki. Eventually, the three other elders were roped in and reprimanded without doing anything.
"Third Gorilla, why did it take so long for you to visit me!"
"Did you forget I was still here, Fourth Dwarf? Lazy and short, that's what you are!"
"I expected more from you Sixth Whiskers. You should have supervised your brothers better!"
"ENOUGH!"
Lightning shot down from Kaitou Daiki onto the water's surface, causing a flash of yellow that stunned the spirits into silence.
With their spiritual constructs being heavily Yin-based, they backed away from the Yang-based sparks fearfully.
"Could one of you explain what's happened here? Why have you all shrunk?" He emphasized so that they would not all speak over each other.
A bearded spirit replied to Kaitou Daiki, "You've been stuck in your cave too long if you have to ask such a stupid question. Obviously, it's because we acknowledged a disciple. It's only natural we'd be a bit slimmer!"
Kenja recognized the spirit as Huai Yi, the 'Third Granduncle' that Kenja met during his [Ethereal Blade] trial.
Kaitou Daiki was puzzled by this answer, but amazement washed over the other elders.
They knew that the pillars grew bigger and taller as they stored more and more energy. When they acknowledged a disciple, a portion of the stored energy would be extracted from their bodies, and a thin layer of the pillar would disintegrate in the process.
Thus, technically, every acknowledgment would shorten the pillar slightly.
But for a pillar to become a thin platform, they would have had to bestow several dozen acknowledgments, and it was not one but all of the pillars were in the same state.
Unlike the First Elder, the Third, Fourth and Sixth Elders had witnessed the vast multitude of acknowledgments being announced across the sect, but they had not kept track of the exact number. Additionally, the announcements had some overlap with one another, so it was not easy discerning each of them individually.
How the hell did he accomplish such a feat? Even if he was somehow the bastard son of all the pillars simultaneously, he would not have received all those acknowledgments.
Gao Diao passed a [Wind Whisper] to Kaitou Daiki so that he understood exactly what happened.
Anger draped over his eyes. "Why would you all award him so much?!"
Huai Yi glared back at him, "It's up to us how much we give him. It's not your place to criticize us!"
"That energy isn't only for you! What if there's an emergency, and the sect is attacked!"
The pillars' stored energy had more than one purpose. Other than rewarding the sect disciples, they were an emergency energy source in case a powerful enemy attacked the sect. Their energies could be used to facilitate the activation of several energy-intensive defensive counter-formations.
Now that their energies had been depleted, it was the same as stating they had lost half of their fighting potential in the case that an invasion occurred.
A mustachioed spirit popped up next to Huai Yi and grabbed his shoulder to hold him back from retorting violently.
He was the kinder Xiang Xin, the 'Third Uncle' that was Huai Yi's disciple back when they were alive.
Xiang Xin smiled at the four elders, "Brothers, try inspecting us." He flexed his aura to grab their attention.
The Elders furrowed their brows as they scrutinized the different spirits.
"You all...you-you..."
"Yes!"
"Your souls have advanced!"
Nearly all the pillars' Nascent Souls had evolved a stage.
The Pillars of Will were originally rocks who had stumbled across cultivation due to the deceased elders that had cultivated on top of them. Once their predecessors had passed on, their path forward was mostly cut off, and it was almost impossible for them to make progress.
And yet, now, most of the pillars had already advanced, growing and solidifying their Nascent Soul more than before, resulting in far greater strength and a markedly improved speed in gathering and storing qi.
"The kid helped us out, so naturally, he deserved everything we gave him. Besides, it was much easier to advance without all that extra weight holding us back."
Snail's meals contained something that benefited all the pillars immensely. Every bite was progress, and a little bit of their energy as payment for another plate was more than worth it.
The elders nodded their heads in understanding. Now that the pillars had become stronger, they were able to regain their energy at a much quicker pace, and its tier would be higher quality and more concentrated.
It was totally worth it if every pillar received the same benefits.
"Where is that disciple? We need to see him."
Before Xiang Xin or Huai Yi could say anything, a giant shadow appeared across the water's surface. Shortly afterwards, the central pillar surfaced below the group of flying weapons.
A giant pair of eyes flew out of the pillar and joined their conversation, "Why do you want to see him?"
Kondo, Ariyoshi Miji and Gao Diao began to sweat profusely when facing the central pillar's aura.
"Senior, we just want to confirm he is alright," Ariyoshi Miji spoke out.
The eyes covertly glanced over at Kenja before closing his eyes. "He is alright. You may leave now."
The First Elder frowned.
"I have some questions to ask him."