Inside the 'treasury' aka 'Hall of Fortune' in this under-developed world, there was a deathly silence as Solio was pacing up and down the building. 'Will what happened with the kid be good or bad for the clan, how much cultivation resources need to be allocated, what contingencies do I need to put in place to ensure that the kid doesn't end up biting the hand that feeds'.
Just last month, there had been a battle with the Chao clan, in which the Yuzhou clan lost a lot of territory in and had to give up a lot of clan resources as remuneration.
There had been combat between the Yuzhou and Chao clan for thousands of years- although both shared roots from the Kezdet tribe. The Kezdet practiced martial arts stemming from chaos in the universe, their techniques were unpredictable and used to be known as the one of the best across the Phantom continent. Yet over time their influence had decayed as internal conflict became strife- after the discovery of chi this divide only grew larger, half of the tribe adopted chi as a better technique based on harmony with the universe, whereas the other half remained firm in their beliefs and instead of chi developed an entirely different cultivation method based on destruction which others began to call 'dark chi'.
Unlike 'chi' the life energy amongst all creation, 'dark chi' was not similar- but rather completely different being an emotionally driven energy with the ability to influence other entities. The limiter of chi cultivators was the total living energy available to them whereas for dark chi cultivators it was their emotional capacity. Many had tried to combine both energy types, but those that tried were either driven mad, died in some way or another; be that by bursting blood vessels, losing all life energy, separation of organs, or developing personality disorders.
After a period of experimentation, most had come to accept that it was only possible to cultivate one type of energy. However, this discovery led to the question, 'were there other energies that could be used for cultivation?'. This question did not need to be asked by any individual, the entire cultivation community was working towards identifying other types of energies, mostly for selfish reasons. This was the golden era of cultivation, many individuals took the world by surprise after rising to prominence and clans became more secretive, as they began to restrict information and get less involved with others.
Anyhow, despite having a strong start- the Yuzhou clan was in decline and was always being bullied by the Chao clan. If it was not for the fact that they had the backing of a much larger clan, which in a way they were forced into being subservient to, they would have been cleaned out already.
Coming back to the issue at hand, Solio was under pressure to reduce expenditure of clan resources whilst also saving more for promising candidates of the future generation that could help bring back prosperity to the clan. It wasn't just her working on this, this was a matter that required the co-operation of all seven halls, the 'Hall of Fortune', 'Hall of Scholars', 'Hall of Artisans', 'Hall of Smiths', 'Hall of Intel', 'Hall of Fighters' & 'Hall of Elders'.
'''Knock, Knock'''
A knock at the main door took Solio out of her trance, as she wondered who had come at this time of day. An attendant had already opened the door, by the time she got there, a panicked outer-disciple had entered.
"Th Th Th There's a burglary happening in one of the barracks, I saw a group of thieves sneak in and they seemed to be M M Mortal Realm Cultivators. We're doomed, all of my stuff is also missing, I'm scared they are going to k k k kill me if they find out I came here." The disciple stuttered whilst shivering from fear.
Having heard this much, Solio immediately headed out, "Who dares take our Yuzhou clan this lightly, do they think we are a bunch of pushovers!" she exclaimed, having built up stress and anger from the way others were treating the tribe- all rationality had gone out the window. Solio just hurried to arrive at the settlement for outer disciples.
From a distance, she could hear thrashing sounds coming from one of the barracks, heading there she sensed six intruders all at the Mortal Realm. It was the same barrack she had left Zuck in, after the incident at the gate!
Bursting in through the door, Solio saw Zuck (Roland) being thrashed and falling unconscious, which was to be expected given his lower cultivation. It took a few seconds for her to register the knocked out 'thieves', as she was too hot-headed to notice earlier. Just what in the world had happened here, was this kid strong enough to do this? There is no way, no one can overcome 6 stages of cultivation in a one-on-one fight, never mind a group fight. Someone must have protected this kid, but who?
"Well, I guess this is all the more reason to keep an eye on this one" sighed Solio as she took care of the group and left the settlement. There was no point in staying, as the kid might not even know who protected him and even if he did there is nothing to say he'll hand over the information just like that.