Using some of Elder Sumei's energy and aura which....ahem....'Little Purple' had passed onto her, Rihanna opened the passage through the illusion matrix surrounding the inner region and slipped through to the other side.
By now almost everyone was pretty much in drunken stupor, especially the guests and hosts. Even the patrolling guards were yawning away, and Rihanna had no difficulty in creating the 'drunken-old-man' act and slipping away unnoticed. These people believed in their arrays and inscriptions, judging them to be infallible defenses! Tsk!
A ball of hair-less black fur, cannon-balled into her stomach as soon as she came in. Barely managing to catch Fluffy, Rihanna almost choked at the sight of his wrinkled black skin filled with bright pink and yellow dots....what in the world had he been doing these past two days?!
'I was attacked! You are my master, and must avenge me this misfortune and betrayal!'
Eh!.....Why did she feel Fluffy was suddenly speaking alien? She sent him to check the area and infrastructure of this inner territory.....so who betrayed him, and how?
As Rihanna was fondling Fluffy, trying to make out what he meant, the bushes nearby shuddered violently, and something jumped out of the foliage to block their path. Rihanna stared at it in shock.....which slowly melted into a weird realization as she squinted her eyes to take a better look at this creature.
It looked exactly like Fluffy....except it had bright pink skin, and it's ears and tail and small hooves were bright yellow.
'Umm....is this the thing that betrayed you?'
Fluffy sniveled, refusing to look at the whining creature.
'It's not a thing. It's an Illusion Hog, a mid level spiritual animal. When I came to this place, he sniffed me out despite me being invisible, and would follow me everywhere. So I decided to make it my lackey, allowing it to show me all the important places in this area. Till now it was quite obedient. But when I said that my master had come to finally take me away from this crummy place, I don't know what happened to it?! It became crazy, and suddenly bit my mouth! It's gone mad! It must be afflicted by some disease! And now I have weird colors on my fur!!'
'Ahem....Ummm.....Ahh..'
'What are you making so much noise for? Don't tell me you have lost your voice?! Are you sick as well?!'
'Hmph!....I was merely trying to save your feelings, but looks like you don't need my consideration. Well, in that case....this hog is not a male. It is a female. And it was not following you to become your lackey, but perhaps was trying to woo you. And when you said I had come to fetch you, it probably panicked that you would leave it and go, and so....it did not bite you.....I'm guessing that is the way she kisses the boy she loves! So congratulations....you just had your first kiss! My-my....this little guy I brought from the forest, has grown so quickly.....all ready to become someone else's burden!'
Fluffy had frozen into a lump in Rihanna's embrace, his eyes wide and blurred, his mouth hanging open and drooling...he seemed to be very deep in contemplation.
'A....girl?....First kiss?...Kiss!.....First kiss with a girl?!!!!'
'Ahhhhh!!'
Fluffy jumped on all fours, his non-existent hairs standing on their ends, as he leapt off Rihanna's embrace and disappeared into the thick bush, leaping off the path to jump head first into a small pool at the end of the path. When Rihanna rushed over, she saw a water soaked black ball rolling and dunking itself in the pool, it's tiny paws wiping viciously at its mouth. The pink and yellow glob followed behind Rihanna on her stubby feet. She stared at Fluffy piteously, then glared at Rihanna. This was the root of all mess...tsk!
Rihanna felt her lips twitching at the sharp 'I-will-kill-you' glare.....hey, she was completely innocent, okay?!
Finally after a few rounds of Fluffy's washing and spitting and crying, with Rihanna's losing her calm and spanking Fluffy's buttocks again, and then some more crying from Fluffy and his new friend....the drama came to an end when Rihanna piled on a lot of barbecued meat before the two hogs. Both immediately forgot their previous difference of opinions, and silence reigned, only broken by the sound of chewing, crunching, gnawing and munching.
After stuffing his belly to a little round ball, Rihanna forced down another dose of the Invisibility potion down Fluffy's gullet, albeit bulldozing over all his protests. His earlier disguise had worn off - probably had something to do with the kiss?!
The now pacified black hog sat atop his permanent perch on Rihanna's shoulder, lifting his chin arrogantly into the air, as he guided Rihanna around the territory (He forgot that no one could see his pride currently since he was invisible!). The poor glob of pink kept whining piteously as she stumbled along like an abandoned puppy, her large eyes glinting with tears of protest. Rihanna shook her head inwardly - was Fluffy going to turn into a playboy in the future? She really needed to keep a good hold over his leash....couldn't have kids from her household running amuck in the world, creating broken hearts all around them, and destroying her name as their master!
The area where the children were taught basic spiritual techniques was a rather quaint set of thatched wooden cottages, spread around a large, uneven ground. It wasn't well maintained, and had a rather wild and untamed feel to it. Though at a glance the entire place looked rather casual, through Little Purple, Rihanna knew that there were a whole series of matrixes protecting and defending the training area.
As they walked to wards the building Fluffy had mentioned before, Rihanna could see the wide disparity between the front of the territory and the back. The front was like an ornate and well synchronized garden, elegant and beautifully decorated.
In contrast, this was more like the Australian wild outback....well, not vegetation wise!
There were tiny hills in the horizon, with scraggly bushes and unkempt trees running all over them. Small and big cottages with courtyards, bamboo forests, flower garden, medicine fields, alchemy and medicine research rooms, weapon refining and furnace rooms, weapon and armament storage halls, inscription and array building halls - basically everything of real importance was hidden inside this wild and overgrown outback of the Chen Clan.
The front of the mansion was just for show....everything of importance was here. Rihanna wondered if every clan territory was divided in the same way.....indeed what a good way of protecting the important things at the back with a group of powerful protectors in the rearguard.
'Wait. There is something wrong up front! Be very careful, and don't go near. Try to get a look from a distance.....something seems to have happened inside that thick forest of Green Creeper Trees.'
'Huh! But that is where that heavily protected building is!'
Fluffy had perked up his ears, and looked forward in surprise and confusion. The pink hog stopped whining, tilting her head, trying to sense something. Then it abruptly gave a loud grunt, and disappeared into the creeper tree thicket. Rihanna hesitated for a moment, clutching on to Fluffy's neck as he tried to chase after the pink hog. No way!.....The pink hog belonged to this place....but Fluffy wasn't one of them. If he was caught, it would be trouble for all of them! She had to first make sure they were all safe.
Rihanna slipped into the forest. The creeper trees were basically large creepers. While planting them, one had to plant long and thick poles at regular distances, connecting them with ropes. This way, as the creeper trees grew, they could spread their infinite creeper branches all around, crisscrossing over each other, till they formed dense webs of branches and foliage, through which the sunlight could barely reach the ground.
Rihanna looked around, then swiftly shinnied up a pole, moving deftly from creeper to creeper. She had had much experience in climbing trees and moving from tree to tree in the Poison Swamp! The thick creepers were very strong, and didn't even bend under her weight.
'Is that....the smell of blood?'
Rihanna was immediately reminded of the Devil Cultivators outside the city. Could it be them?!
'Move a little more forward, but be careful. I can sense the presence of someone or something. But it is quite powerful. In my current state, I won't be able to do anything if you get caught. So be very quiet and don't try to catch it's attention!'
Rihanna nodded her head vigorously.....she wouldn't do anything to even let 'it' know she was here....she was like air....no....like space....ever present yet not really there! Repeating the reminder that 'I-am-air-I-am-space', she moved on slowly, crouching onto a thick creeper-hammock, as she pulled at the thin vines to peep through.
A very tall, pyramid shaped building was floating in the air, a couple of feet above the ground. It was slowly rotating around it's point. There seemed to be seven levels in the building....at least that's what Rihanna felt, seeing it from this distance.
'There are nine levels....you can't see the two top levels from outside.'
One green and one white array was lit up around the building. And just outside the array, seven people were currently sprawled on the ground. Some were coughing blood, some were not moving. Even if they were not dead, they were definitely seriously injured! All of them had shallow and deep cuts on their bodies, and blood splattered all around on the ground.
One of them still had some consciousness, as he tried to pull his body up to a half-laying position.
"Why....why is It you?.....Why do you need to do this?....You could have just told us and we would....no! No!.....You are not him....You are not....!!"
Before he could finish his sentence, his entire body distorted in pain, stiffening and twisting in a weird way, till Rihanna could hear the sound of bones cracking. Blood gushed out of his mouth continuously, eyes widening till the whites were covered in red lines of blood. Veins popped out on his hands and necks. The sound of bones being crushed grew louder....then abruptly stopped. The body fell down like a heavy rock, smashing hard on the ground. Every bit of life and breath had been squeezed out.....it was as dead as dead can be....just like all the other corpses around it.
A shadow of a figure moved out from the corners of her sight, and stood in front of the arrays, chanting something while making gestures. A tear opened into the array border, and the figure slipped in, disappearing through the doors on the first floor.
Rihanna squinted her eyes, still hidden in the same spot.....Wait.....Why did that shadow look so familiar?....Like....like the Clan Leader of Chen Clan?!!