"Shut up!" The man in red snapped back at her, "Didn't your mother teach you not to disrespect your elders?"
The girl laughed, "Hah! So, what? My parents have been gone from the world a long time ago. Are you going to be educating me then? Hah! Didn't you scold me for calling you uncle before? What do you have to make me listen to you?"
"You-!" However, the man in red was at a loss for words.
Cater nearly choked on his own words that had yet to emerge from him as Trey was left speechless. Riddle narrowed his eyes in disapproval as he pursed his lips in silence.
"These are the backup that was called?" Cater stood there with wide eyes, "At such a young age and is already so vicious. Is she really just a kid?"
Trey frowned in thought as he watched the group bicker, "We can't tell the words apart, but I can at least understand the meaning behind their words."
"That would be the ability of the Zhi Lily..." Lotus raised a brow, "Wait... Didn't I only gave the pill to Riddle?"
"About that..."
"Enough..."
Trey was about to speak when an arrogant voice cuts in the chattering voices. They looked back down and saw a figure leave the Diasomnia dorm. It was the black figure man. Despite being by himself the aura alone made others freeze and lower their heads instantly in fear. Lotus knew that this guy was the one calling the shots...
"Only a few hours of cultivation... And you're wasting it on bickering amongst yourself?!" The man's voice boomed in the room.
The whole room fell silent. The man scolded, "Don't feel like arguing now, do you? Tell me what led to this bickering in the first place."
It was the girl who spoke up in an aggrieved manner, "Master, Kong Fang still has not fulfilled any of the task over the course of two weeks now and scolded me for not respecting him when I haven't said a word of lies?"
"But, I-!"
The man glared down on the red figure with a dissatisfied look on his face, "If you had problems you could not fix, why did you not speak up? Look at all this time we've wasted!"
The red figure shook with fear before lowering his head apologetically, "I apologize..."
Though the girl didn't show it on her face, her eyes smiled with a smug glint behind it. She then spoke up to her teacher, "Master, why not give him a hand? It's true that he's blocked out from the mirror he was designated to."
The man in black looked past the man in red and turned to the man in white, "Huo Wei?"
The man in white cupped his fist courteously, "Kong Fang and I have tried to break open a path recently, but have yet to make a passage open."
"Even you have trouble with this?" The man in black raised a brow curiously.
He raised a brow and moved toward the mirror.
"Crap..." Cater cursed under his breath with wide eyes, "This is bad..."
"Cater." Riddle reprimanded him with a scowl, "That's enough... We can't hear..."
"Ah." Cater quickly calmed down, "R-Right... Sorry..."
The man called Hou Wei to check the mirror. The man in white touched the frame of the mirror curiously as he began to exam every inch of it.
"What is he doing?" Trey spoke up with a shudder.
"Looking for clues on how to get in." Lotus responded bluntly, "Arrays are made up of materials and mana from the body. The stronger the person and more in depth they are with the knowledge, the stronger the array is. Array could leave some clues behind, so he suspects there are some conditions to entering your mirror and is looking for a way to get into your mirror with that."
"Eh?" Cater raised a brow, "But we don't have any of that."
"You don't." Lotus responded with a smile.
"There's an array surrounding the mirror. Once we strike it, the strength of our attacks doubles and reflects back at the attacker." The white man stated.
Surprised, Lotus smirked as her eyes were locked onto the man in white, "Hm... Not bad..."
"Why are you saying that when he's able to list out the effects of the array?!" Cater exclaimed in bafflement.
"Why not?" Lotus stared at the wings with great interest, "He was able to guess the affect of my array the closest. After all, looking at the array is similar to examining the circuits of a bunch of servers. So, of course, I'm curious about his abilities. So, I wonder how far he can go..."
Seeing the scary look in her eyes, Riddle shook his head in defeat with a sigh, "Do what you want, but don't get the students involved anymore into this matter..."
"All right. All right." She responded passively with a wide smile.
"Uh... She did hear us, right?" Cater questioned nervously.
"Look." Trey pointed out to the wings and frowned, "That man is approaching our mirror again."
"Yup." Lotus nodded with a smile.
Cater raised a brow and watched the wings again. With a flick, the guy sent a bolt of lightning at the mirror.
Lotus narrowed her eyes as she scowled, "Fool..."
"What?" Trey raised a brow.
"Someone will die..."
However, the bolt vanished and reappeared hitting the man in red as he screamed.
"Gah!!!"
The man in black's eyes widen in shock and ordered, "Han Yan, Xiao Hei, take Kong Fang back to the snake chamber for treatment!"
"Yes!" The man in brown bowed his head as the woman went to check his breathing.
"It's no use..." Han Yan grimaced as she put his body back on the ground, "He's dead."
Stunned by the turn of event, Riddle shuddered as Trey grabbed a hold of his arm pulling him back. Lotus watched as the group discussed into a bicker before leaving towards their respective dorm mirrors.
"That's the Diasomnia dorm..." Riddle noted with a frown as he gathered his composure once more and saw the leader follow the young girl to the dorm with the dragon leaving the body behind.
Lotus nodded with a scowl, "The students will be fine with his mana drained away."
"Where does the mana go to?" Riddle questioned curiously with a frown.
Lotus shook her head with a sigh, "Where do you think it went to? Didn't you see it?"
Cater and Trey looked to her in disbelief. Riddle spoke up daringly, "You mean, it powered up the array..."
"That's right." Lotus nodded with a satisfied smile, "No matter how many times they gather their mana, it will a whole day to absorb the mana out of their body as they spend time in the dorms. The mana is absorbed from the dantian on their bodies and powers up the array."
"The dantian is the source of the mana in your body, right?" Riddle spoke up curiously, "Head, chest, and abdomen."
"That's right." Lotus nodded, "Magicians use their mana from their body, but you guys don't use it from processing the surrounding mana as we do. Hence, the array won't absorb the energy from the students. Even if those guys wants to harm someone of importance, they won't be able to do anything to them without interacting with the students."
"And, the students are protected by those guardians of each dorm." Riddle nodded his head in understanding before looking to her with a smirk, "Hmph! Looks like you've had everything figured out from the beginning. So, how are you going to take care of this matter?"
"Easy." Lotus yawned, "It may take a few more weeks to months though."
"That long?" Cater grimaced.
Lotus nodded, "Even if I'm able to help the guardians protect you guys, I'm actually weaker than everyone there."
"What?!" Cater gasped as he and Trey looked to her in bewilderment.
Lotus yawned, "Riddle, have you learned about the cultivation that we follow?"
Riddle nodded, "Just the basic, though. There are mana around us that can be differentiated into different categories. For us magicians, we use these to manifest our magic and take it in through consumption of food and rest to maintain our mental state, but cultivators are different. One major difference is that you are born with the ability to control at least one element of mana and there are five of them. Fire, wood, water, earth, light, darkness, and metal are the basics that you usually get at birth, right?"
"Looks like you've been studying..." Lotus smirked, "It would seem that guy gave you some useful books..."
Riddle ignored her words as if they were sarcasm and sneered, "Ice, wind, and lightning are of the secondary elements in your category, right?"
"That's right. We call these elements, 'roots'." Lotus nodded with a smile, "Normal cultivators can't obtain those easily by birth and they can usually have just one. Those who are uncommon is born with two and rare cases are three."
Cater shuddered when he recalled something before asking hesitantly, "I heard from Lotus... That they give those who aren't born with them... some harsh names..."
Lotus raised a brow and nodded, "That's right. In our terms, those who can't cultivate or use magic are looked down upon as just objects that take up space, hence using the term waste has been common in our vocabulary. It's harsh, but cultivators have always been harsh and selfish from the beginning. Take me for example, since I want to live, I've fought off other people and have even killed other cultivators. Though we have some who say that I'm not being selfish, just having the desire to live is also considered a selfish wish. After all, once you're a cultivator in the world of cultivation, it's the survival of the fittest. We kill other cultivators who tries to attack us in any sense from pride to physical. To many, those around them could even neglect their family or even use them, much like royalties had, just to live. So, being called a waste is already letting things off since a cultivator won't even need to left a finger to take their lives. It's unfair, but this is our life."
"I wonder if we have any roots in us..." Cater muttered curiously.
"You're different, remember?" Lotus responded as she took back her butterfly into her ring, "You don't have the core cultivators utilize to absorb the energy into our bodies. There are ways to obtain a core, but they aren't easy to find, so many claim that it's impossible because it'd be years before they come across a method."
Lotus sighed, "And, just as there are ways to obtain a core, there are far more easier ways to lose them. For instance, the core is somewhere in our bodies. All one needs to do is shatter it and the cultivator would just become a normal person unable to cultivate for life. It's much like as if a magician lost their magic completely and forever."
Cater sighed in dismay, "That's... scary..."
Riddle nodded, "They see their life from a materialistic point of view and take advantage of those before them in ways they can to live. This type of perspective is twisted, but nobody can say proper words if it's done so they could live their life to its time... What about you?"
Lotus raised a brow, "Me?"
They looked to her curiously as Riddle nodded, "That's right. From your point of view, we can't use root elements like you or do all these things you do. Moreover, a lot of these students have yet to enter society and may have families and friends they care about."
"That's true." Lotus sighed, "But, you're different from either wastes or cultivators. We don't have magicians in our society. To us, magicians are something new and unknown. Some may not like what you do either and call it a taboo or demonic while others may respect it or even worship it. However... to me... I don't really know..."
It was true. She realized how she had never thought about that before. Her perspective on these things were something she had never taken into account for deeply at all. From when she came into this world to now, she never thought about it.