The elders grumbled at the decision of the patriarch but they knew there was nothing they could do since he had made up his mind, any of their complaints would fail on deaf ears.
The father of one of the three geniuses was also an elder, he was one of the elders who clamored for the patriarch to punish Alusec.
"We should be thinking about making friends with him not becoming his enemy. I can sense a special aura around him anytime he's close-by. That is no ordinary man, he must have a lot of secrets," Patriarch Hong revealed while cautioning the elders, "Just let Dabi keep watching him for now but I forbid anyone of you from taking any action without my permission," Patriarch Hong said his piece and stood up to leave the hall.
On seeing the patriarch action the elders understood that the meeting had ended but a lot of them were dissatisfied with the conclusion.
While leaving the hall, an elder with dirty blond colored hair dragged another elder to a corner. This elder was the father of Fengshar.
"Elder Feng, What's wrong?" The other elder asked.
"Elder Mori, Are you satisfied with the decision of the patriarch?" Elder Feng asked in a low voice.
"Of course not, but what can we do? Patriarch Hong has made his stance on the matter clear," Elder Mori replied with a look of helplessness.
"I must take revenge for my son, that man named Alusec ruined my son's chances of finally participating in the tournament and ending with a good position," Elder Feng said while clenching his right fist, the look of rage could be visible on his face.
"Did you not listen to the Patriarch instructions, there's nothing we can do... you have to let it go," Elder Mori advised.
"No! I'm not letting anything go..... I'll expose him for the fraud he is... After slaying him, I'll get the artifact he used to defeat my son and the others, and hand it over to the patriarch. It can't be an ordinary treasure so the patriarch will definitely let me go for disobeying after I hand it over to him," Elder Feng stated out his plans to Elder Mori.
"Hmm, it does seem plausible but what if you're interrupted before you're able to finish him off?" Elder Mori asked knowing that if such a battle happened, everyone will gather there which can lead to the patriarch finding out and coming over in person to save Alusec.
"That is where you come in Elder Mori, I'll need you to erect a barrier around the site of the battle that blocks vision and sound from the outside so no one will notice that anything is going on," Elder Feng explained.
The two elders albeit ruthless were bitwise. They knew that someone who was able to block the attack of the patriarch without suffering any injury and defeat three people of higher cultivation than he would be able to put up a fight even though he doesn't win.
"Alright, count me in but Elder Feng whatever treasures we find on him apart from the one you plan on presenting to the elder must be shared fifty-fifty," Elder Mori stated making Elder Feng smile in acknowledgment, "No problem, so long as you play your part and I'm not interrupted when I'm making that bastard pay,"
---
In Ivrena's consciousness, Alusec and Rhadelia had been conversing for a long time that Alusec already forgot about that Briella was still waiting in Bali mountain.
They were sounds of loud laughter from time to time, as they both reminisced on a lot of things. Some of them being :
- "Remember that time we went on a mission to Arvrisia, you were evolving and had a hormonal imbalance, you transformed into a man and went to a small village, hahaha, you ended up srewing every single female in that village. Hahahaha, I'm sure those husbands you cuckolded must still be cursing you in their deaths,"
- "Hahahaha, Lord Alusec you bastard you just have to remind me about that again and again, what about the time when you were defeated by a lizard, hahaha, a freaking lizard lord Alusec, hahahaha,"
- "Haha, Shut up Rhadelia, I have told you countless times I was defeated because my energy was sealed, not only was I weakened in cultivation, I was also weakened in strength. What about the time when you asked out Sheena the female dragon and was turned down, hahaha, she ended up mating with your junior brother, hahahaha,"
- "Lord Alusec, hahaha, you keep reminding me of my humiliation when it comes to picking up ladies since it was very easy for ladies to come after you in adoration,"
The difference between Alusec's relationship with Rhadelia and Ruby was; Rhadelia met Alusec first when Alusec was still traveling from realm to realm, at that time Alusec was still a young true god while Rhadelia was a deity, and even though Rhadelia was weaker, he and Alusec became very close after some time. Rhadelia was a royal dragon from the Bhavilis tribe, one of the top strongest dragon tribes in the universe. Alusec was a god envoy at that time, he created a team and Rhadelia happened to be one of his subordinates after forming a team. The work of a god envoy was to receive missions directly from the god-king. They could be sent to any part of the universe to quell any unrest happening in that place.
Yemoja was also part of the team and it was during one of their missions that they found Calicrum and Ruby. Alusec decided to take Calicrum in as a disciple after some weird scenarios while Ruby didn't agree to be his disciple, saying that she would only accept the position of a slave because of what Alusec did for her.
(Author's note: That's a story for another day)
Rhadelia could speak to Alusec in ways Ruby never could. They went way back to more than six hundred millenniums ago. They were like brothers but Alusec had one other person he regarded as a brother, he just didn't know if he was alive or not since Rhadelia explained to him that their clique was targeted by Calicrum for extermination after Alusec's supposed demise.
Alusec finally bid farewell to Rhadelia and left the space.
When his consciousness returned to his body, Ivrena's consciousness also returned.
When he opened his eyes and looked around the cave, he saw Briella sitting at the left side with her back rested on the wall.
When she saw Alusec turning around she stood up and walked towards him.
"Alusec, you're back," She said with shyness and turned to also look at her sister coming back to normal.