The Su Clan was truly a struggling mid-level clan. Compared to the luxurious Chen Clan, it was struggling on pretty much all levels. The main mansion housing the main family was surrounded on three sides by the residences for the secondary families and disciples. The guest rooms were on the outer periphery of the territory. This itself showed just how suspicious and cowardly the Su Clan Leader was. He had almost fortified his own residence with protection from all three sides!
Unlike the indecisiveness shown by grand-father Su during his time at the Chen Clan, today he showed great pro-activeness, and almost as soon as they had paid their greetings to the Clan Leader, they were whisked off to three entirely separate areas of the clan. He was definitely seeking revenge on the matters of yesterday.
Rihanna didn't bother with his childish pettiness. As long as they were all in the same campus, she would surely find a way to reach them. Giving the excuse that her pet was plenty mischievous and could not sit still, she sent off Fluffy to take a look around the Su Clan territory, and also to find out where the two siblings were being housed.
She had been shoved inside a dormitory for servants near the guest residences....at the outer periphery. And she had been given the task of collecting waste materials from all over the territory, before taking it to the waste deposit room at the other end of the territory. Grand-father Su had sure made certain to keep her busy all day long!
Never mind...unfortunately for him, he had actually handed a golden opportunity to her. Not only could she figure out the entire place, she could also search for Su Matsao's sister under cover. She definitely wanted to create a huge chaos....and quickly. But before that she had to make a definite escape plan for all four of them. They had to escape....and they had to escape far away by the time these people figured out what was going on!
Surprisingly, Wen Haoli was also staying at the Su Clan. She had asked one of the older servants to take her around, so she would know where all she needed to go to pick up trash. She came across this character at the medical field....following Su Maihiya.
"Do you and your grand-father think that you can keep the girl hidden forever? You are planning to hide her and then bring her out to pay tribute to the Sect Leader once more, in exchange of more benefits. Do you think the Sect Leader is not aware of what you are planning. Be intelligent, and hand her over to us, and we'll tell the Sect Leader to be merciful to you and your clan. You know what happens to people who keep pushing their luck.....or have you forgotten what happened to the Lei family?"
Su Maihiya looked exasperated and annoyed, her face flushing in suppressed anger. She turned to glare at Haoli, no longer caring for her gentle persona.
"Wen Haoli....it was you and your despicable friends who came up with this outlandish idea that you can claim to have seen Su Matsao, and then say she escaped your grasp, and then throw the blame at us! But your plan has too many loopholes. How in the world could a common girl live after falling down the cliff over Poison Swamp? How did she return with only a memory loss? She should be crippled from that long fall....if not thoroughly dead! Moreover....who do you think is going to believe in your unbelievable talk...that a commoner escaped the clutches of three cultivators? And if she did escape...what in world could possibly make her run back to this place, fully knowing that we would only turn and hand her over to the Sect Leader....from whom she was escaping in the first place?! If I can think of all the loopholes, do you think the Sect Leader is less intelligent?"
"It's a plan only you could have come up with! Ah....you must have thought that keeping her here, in front of everyone, yet hidden, would be the safest. And then you could make new demands on the Sect Leader for helping your Su Clan. Who in the three cities of Dormia doesn't know that the Su Clan is barely hanging on to it's name of a mid-level clan. One push....and you might just be obliterated!"
"Wen Haoli! How dare you curse my family and our prestige! Who are you....a 'Dog' of the Neigi Clan! If your family hadn't sold you to the Neigi clan, you would only be a pick-up for the Moon-Grave Sect. And even in the Neigi Clan, you were only an outer member. Only through boot-licking abilities have you been able to become an Inner Sect Disciple! I am the Young Miss of the Su Clan.....no matter what you do, no matter where you go, no matter how much you suck up to other people, you will never be able to match up to me! Know your place....and get out of my Su Clan!"
Su Maihiya flushed red, and was panting in anger by the time she finished. Snorting loudly, she turned and whip-lashed her way out of the medicine field, leaving an extremely ugly faced Wen Haoli behind. He almost spat behind her back, gritting his teeth as his face distorted in anger and spite. His vicious eyes followed her till her figure disappeared, then he too snorted and vanished in another direction.
The servant who had been leading Rihanna had stopped in a corner of the field, shivering under the oppression of two spiritual cultivators, wanting to disappear from the spot. Rihanna on the other hand, stood with her head lowered, but her senses were sharpened and spread out. This was the first mess she had created. And they were already at each other's throats?!
Hmph! There was much more from where this had come. Even though she felt a hint of sympathy for Su Maihiya, she couldn't agree with the path she had taken to achieve her own success. Sacrificing lives, for Rihanna, was not okay. Even if Su Matsao was a commoner, how could a cultivator be so arrogant as to believe everything on this land merely existed to be their tools in growing stronger?! Since the Su Clan had not directly killed her, she would not kill them either. But she could still have some fun....right?
After silence returned to the medical field, the shivering servant sat down on a bench in the corner, gulping in air to return back to normalcy. Rihanna didn't know whether to laugh or cry! They were only having a verbal fight...not like they were about to end up fighting with their elemental powers in the middle of the medicine field....right? Why were all the commoners in this world so scared of the cultivators? They were definitely more in number....so why did they not come together for helping and supporting their own kind?
After the slight delay, the tour continued. Unlike the Chen Clan, the alchemy and medical department, a primary level weapons workshop and storeroom, and a small two tiered pagoda, housing all the basic cultivation technique and skill books, basic weapons and armors, primary level pills and elixirs, and low grade spirit stones were all built in between the main residence and the residences of the secondary families and disciples.
Looking at the span of the Su Clan territory, Rihanna could assume this was so since there must be a lack of space in the internal regions. It seemed only the precious materials and resources were hidden away inside a thick enchanted forest beyond a large lake behind the main residence.
The alchemy and medicine building was divided in two. The lower level was for medical treatment, wherein all patients could be housed in four rooms, two large halls were for the doctors, one large hall was were the doctors met with the patients.
The second floor was for the alchemists. One part of it was divided into 10 small rooms, with built in alchemy furnace, wood and basic alchemy materials. The other part had two halls for the alchemists to use for their research purposes. There was one large room which housed all kinds of herbs, roots, fruits, flowers etc., which were used in making the pills and elixirs. Of course precious resources could not be found here.
There were also a few locked rooms on the second floor. The servant wouldn't say what was in there, but judging from his expression, Rihanna had a feeling that Su Matsao's sister might be in one of these rooms.
This was truly being treated as a lab rat!
More importantly, she had to figure out which room specifically, otherwise she couldn't move ahead with her other plans. But how to see through locked doors? Also there seemed to be some kind of an array covering this building, and she couldn't really expand her senses much!
How can the Su Clan get hold of something this precious as binding one's senses, which even the Chen Clan didn't have?! Or was this one of their heirloom artifacts?
Her lips twitched. Having taken away one of the heirlooms of Chen Clan....she was suddenly feeling greedy. Would it perhaps be possible to take another heirloom on the sly before escaping? This was a very enticing prospect!
'Stick to what you have come to do! You don't even have a blueprint for any of your other plans....and already you are thinking of robbing another heirloom! Don't they say in your world....don't count your chickens before they are hatched?'
Rihanna sighed, her excitement level dropping back to normal. True. She had to find out where Su Matsao's sister was; she had to figure out a concrete escape plan....with backup; she had to figure out the entire lay of the Su Clan territory so she could reach the siblings, Su Matsao's sister and escape in the shortest time; and she also had to find out how she could mess up the Su Clan to keep them busy for a very long time! And all of this had to be done very quickly....or she might expose herself.
Her work began from tomorrow. Thanking the servant who had faithfully shown her around, she took leave to go to her own quarters.
'By the way....you never explained what happened yesterday night.'
Instead of an answer, as was usual with Little Purple, she only heard a very long and distressed sigh reverberating within her mind.
'Don't even talk about it! I have never seen such a depressing student as you!! What in the world is wrong with your cultivation style?....Your absorbing energy is as disastrous as releasing it outside! Your power is like a tornado...uncontrollable and unbound! How in the world are we supposed to tame this thing?!...I don't know! Don't talk to me! Even thinking about it is giving me a headache!'