"Did the Breakthrough Specialist finally arrived? Check for me." Elder Waterfall inquired calmly to the subordinate beside him after he looked at the color of the waters around him. He had just finished a round of cultivation and was planning to resume if the 'Mistress' still didn't arrive. It was already dark, indicating that it should've been night time in the outside world.
The subordinate was a small fish, just the size of a baby's palm, extremely agile, and prompt in his job as a personal attendant of the elder. It tilted its head in acknowledgment and disappear immediately. After less than a minute, it appeared again, dipped its tiny head and relayed the information it gathered.
"I see. Finally, she's here. She disregarded our representative just like that? Humph. Inform the young one to keep on persisting. This is important for our goal."
The little fish bowed low. As it about to disappear, Elder Waterfall added, "Try to arrange a personal appointment with her as soon as possible. I need to know about her disposition."
The tiny palm-sized fish disappeared immediately after a pause to give a nod.
...
After greeting the Grand Elder amicably, Hana and her group were ushered further in. Although she had been offered again to at least change her mount to a better one, she adamantly refused. After all, the cutest freshwater creature with a pink hue around here was only Saras besides Ara. Another thing was, she didn't want Saras and her friends to be sent back since she was very fond of all of them.
Suddenly, all the other fifty-some attendants didn't have anything to do except just to be an escort. They eyed the rest of the servants with jealousy, a tinge of anger could be felt simmering within. Even the clueless Hana could feel that the atmosphere was somewhat strange and tensed. Her womanly sixth sense was tingling as if informing her of someone's ill intent. It made her more vigilant as she gripped her Clawknife a little tighter under her sweater while engaging in empty talks about the weather with Grand Elder Watershade. Even Shiro had moved closer to insert himself between the two, though he tactfully placed himself a step behind. Shiro's insolent behavior had made Gramps Alpy underneath him sweating profusely.
[Mom, did you notice it?]
Hana was quiet for a moment and replied telepathically with a straight face. [..Is it about how these creatures eyeing us? Are they angry because we're late? Seriously? Why do I feel this ominous feeling oozing from them? Did they wait too long for us?]
[Before, it might be so. We've spent too much time beside the riverbank today. But now it seems that they're unhappy that you favored these minnows so much. The ominous feelings you're detecting was killing intent. Remember this feeling, Mom. In other situations, if you could detect it, be extra careful.]
[That is so childish! They've made Mommy happy. Of course, Mommy likes them!] Hana was beginning to get angry. She simply couldn't fathom how could these creatures kill off anything that they didn't like due to jealousy. At this moment, Hana's impressions of these attendants had fallen to a new low.
[We need to find out the structure of the clan. A clan as big as these must have many factions. If you treasure these.. minnows.. do something for them. If not, they could be executed once we return.]
[Why? They didn't do anything!]
[That's how this realm works.] Shiro shrugs as he remembered his previous clan with a sad heart. [Looking at the energy fluctuations of these 'attendants', they might be high level talents sent over to entice you before the real selection begins. This clan is quite prosperous to have so many talented younger generations.] Shiro commented quietly.
Although what Shiro told his Mistress was only his speculation, it was infinitely close to the truth. In this realm, the strong devours the weak. The weak had no choice but to just leave it to fate to survive. It could be said that the servants brought by Chomper had snatched away the golden chance of these talented younger generations to be noticed by Hana. Chomper will still be fine since he had Ara to shield him. However, the fate of the rest of the servants was still unknown. If the opposite party was as petty as it could be, they might even face death.
Hana scrunched her brow while she contemplated on how to proceed. A plan started forming in the aunty's mind as she gave the Grand Elder her sweetest poker-faced smile with an austere gaze. Seeing the scheming smile of the aunty, the Grand Elder returned his own slightly crooked smile while he visibly shuddered.
...
Presently, the landbeast Lord of the Lightning Serpent's Territory paraded through the middle of the Crystal-veined river's third fork, the Gates of Waterspring. A sizable number of attendants were escorting the landbeast Lord and her group. The left and right side of the river was filled to the brim with a myriad of freshwater creatures of different species and sizes, some with limbs were even observing them from the dry riverbank. As their eyes fell on the famed scourge of nature, the ten Elemental Fiends, they revealed a panic expression! They never knew apart from taming the notorious Lightning Serpent, the new Lord had also conquered an Elemental Fiends' nest! It was a silent way of showing power!
The river opened up into a somewhat large lake enclosed within a treacherous terrain with thick vegetation surrounding it, which acted as a natural defense. For other spirit beasts to go any further, they had no choice but to traverse through the lake to reach to main clan's ground where the elusive Spirit crystal lode was said to be located.
The lake itself was very picturesque, with an emerald green hue at the sides and a deeper tone in the middle, indicating that it was immeasurably deep. At the far end of the lake was a gigantic four-tiered waterfall, pouring down majestically while creating a beautiful miniature rainbow at the bottom through condensation and sunlight.
The Grand Elder introduced the area to Hana, "The start of the Five-fork Crystal-veined river is where our true territory lies. However, to truly reach the inner clan's ground, one must traverse over one of the five branched out river. This river we're on right now will lead to the Gates of Waterspring. Similarly, other rivers will lead to different Gates. The other gates are the Gates of Waterfall, Gates of Watervenom, Gates of Watersprout, and Gates of Waterlake. Each one of the rivers harbored a Guardian Elder with the same corresponding name. These were the last defense we had to repel intruders from entering our main clan's ground."
"Fascinating! This is such a beautiful lake!" Hana's mood was lifted with the natural beauty surrounding her. Unknown to her, beneath the deeper part of the lake, the Guardian Elder of Waterspring was observing her with curiosity as she gossiped with her followers in Bubble language.
...
"Was this the famed Breakthrough Specialist invited by Watershade? Why is the aura so weak? The foreign white fox beside it is strong though. I've never seen this species with such a strong ice-attribute in this area."
"We're not so sure, Elder. Powerful experts could mask their powers from us low-leveled ones."
"True. Should I go out to meet it? Will it be okay?"
While being indecisive, Hana passed through Elder Waterspring head's upon Saras' back. This made the Grand Elder sighed heavily in helplessness. He couldn't blatantly show favoritism in front of all elders, but he could somewhat guess Hana's preferences. Him following this route was giving the elder a chance to shine and made herself known to Ara's Mistress.
He cleared his throat loudly and paused his movement, explaining a little more to grab Hana's attention. The clueless aunty kept on getting more and more fascinated with the natural beauty of the location as she eagerly absorbed all information just like a tourist with a professional tour guide.
Getting the Grand Elder's cue, Elder Waterspring immediately surfaced with a smile etched on her lovely face.
...
"..and here is the guardian of this lake, Elder Waterspring." Just as Grand Elder Watershade finished describing how the basic defense of the five Gates system worked, the water shook violently and a large three-meter orange-pastel colored aquatic spirit beast surfaced from within the deepest part of the lake!
At first, Hana was quite scared, but upon closer inspection, the huge lizard-like aquatic spirit beast had a silly-looking face! (1)
"Pftttt.." With a larger-than-its-body head, small eyes, mouth devoid of sharp protruding teeth and a fat body, Hana was having a hard time suppressing her laughter from its funny appearance. If she did, it would be considered as body shaming! Hana had seen this animal somewhere on the internet. It seriously looked like a Giant Salamander! But of course, a Giant Salamander was only around 1.5 meters. This was larger than a Giant Salamander! Additionally, its ability to become an Elder meant that it must be an expert with great prowess!
"Welcome to our humble abode. Just ahead is the way towards the clan ground. Mistress can just call me Little Waterspring." Not understanding why Hana was all smiles, Elder Waterspring put herself in her most amiable state and introduced herself humbly. Who knows, in the future, this Breakthrough Specialist will favor her more than the rest?!"
...
The news about the arrival of the Breakthrough Expert had traveled very fast! Even before Hana arrived at the clan's main grounds, her name had resounded far and wide amongst the freshwater marine spiritual beasts! Everyone was so excited to see the mysterious expert who had subjugated the Lightning Serpent and became their willful princess' Master!
As time went by, more and more freshwater spirit beasts congregated around the entrance of the clan's main ground to spectate Hana's arrival! The aunty had become a celebrity even without knowing it!
...
Authors' Note:
1) silly-looking face = you guys can see the face of a salamander by googling 'Giant Salamander'. It looks quite silly and cute. It looks somewhat like Barney's face from Barney and Friends. Haha.