(AN: Since I have a bit of a backlog at this point, I've decided to release chapters on Saturdays as well, until it gets down to a more reasonable level. Expect some extra content for the next few weeks.)
As Augustine dodged the tree-sized staff coming his way, a part of him noted that things could have gone better for him and his people. In the time since he had sent off his personal disciples to infiltrate both Clan River Heart and Clan Wind Dance, Clan Stone Pillar had begun evacuating the mortal villages along the border between them and the Pit Viper Sect. Augustine had seen it as an opportunity to strike out at Clan Stone Pillar directly, instead of just the mortals under their rule.
Their initial raids had seen some success. Several of Clan Stone Pillar's weaker cultivators had been killed, a few had been captured for interrogation, and thousands of mortals had been killed or captured as slaves. However, it didn't take Clan Stone Pillar long to react to this new wave of aggression and had taken measures to counter it. As more and more raids failed, and the losses for the Pit Viper Sect mounted, Augustine had decided to take a risk. While his people launched raids to harass the borders, Augustine himself would lead a team consisting of elders and senior disciples of the Pit Viper Sect to strike deeper into Clan Stone Pillar territory.
He wanted them to feel that nowhere was safe, that he could strike at them from anywhere. Either this would provoke them to retaliate and move into the Pit Viper Sect's territory, or he would continue to bleed them dry, one strike at a time. While he preferred the former, since many of his plans hinged on Clan Stone Pillar moving into the Pit Viper Sect's territory, he was prepared for the former. Bleeding them dry this way, however, would take much longer.
Unfortunately, his strike team had run into one of Clan Stone Pillar's elders, who had been accompanied by an entourage of bodyguards. The moment Augustine had sensed the man, he had ordered his people to retreat. They had come here to injure Clan Stone Pillar, and provoke a reaction, not throw away their lives. The Stone Pillar elder had sensed them in return, however, and gave chase.
Augustine had ordered his people to escape, while he stayed behind to buy them time. This wasn't out of altruism, or a sense of duty as the sect leader. It was simple pragmatism. Elders and senior disciples took time and resources to grow. They had proven themselves worth the effort. Letting them die would be a waste. Augustine was also confident in his ability to escape from whatever tricks the Stone Pillar elder had.
It worked. Augustine harried the Stone Pillar elder and his entourage long enough for his people to escape unscathed. He even managed to kill two of the bodyguards. When his people were in the clear, Augustine attempted to make his own escape. Unfortunately, the Stone Pillar elder was a tenacious one. He had kept up with Augustine, even as the both of them had left the bodyguards far behind.
However, this presented Augustine with an opportunity to kill an elder of Clan Stone Pillar. While he and the elder were both in the Element Collection stage, Augustine was a little above him in power. More than that, he had plenty of poisons at his disposal. Any number of them would be enough to kill the elder.
The two had ended up clashing in an area of desolate, arid hills in the northern part of the Broken Teeth Hills. It was mid-afternoon, and the sun glared down at them without mercy. A mortal would have been suffering from heat stroke already. Dust filled the air as Augustine and the elder struck out each other, obscuring the area. The two of them moved so fast that even cultivators in the Energy Gathering stage would have trouble keeping track of them.
Augustine wore camouflage patterned robes and wielded a pair of curved short swords. The Stone Pillar elder wore metal armor that covered him from head to toe, and wielded a wooden staff reinforced with iron bars.
The Stone Pillar elder's staff, which was normally smaller but was now tree-sized, slammed into the ground, sending up even more dust as well as pieces of broken stone. A thundering crack echoed all around them.
Augustine launched a counter attack soon after dodging the Stone Pillar elder's blow.
"Poison Fang Strike!"
The sect leader's blades gained a dark green sheen. He dashed forward and lashed out with his swords, striking at two different spots.
To his chagrin, the Stone Pillar elder shrunk the staff down to its regular size and used it to block one of the swords. At the same time, the elder dodged the other sword enough to avoid a direct hit. Augustine's blade scraped along the elder's armor, throwing up sparks. Somehow the elder managed to do this, despite the armor he wore.
This Stone Pillar elder knew how to move. Augustine had to give credit where credit was due, even if it made his task harder. Of course, he was the sect leader of the Pit Viper Sect. He didn't need to fight fair.
When the Stone Pillar elder retaliated with a swing of his staff, Augustine blocked with his swords. The blow had too much strength behind it, however, and he ended up losing one of them. Augustine leapt back and drew a dagger, which he began wielding in place of the lost short sword. A red sheen coated the dagger.
The two of them clashed several times in a short span of time. It soon became clear that while Augustine might have been more powerful in terms of cultivation, the Stone Pillar elder was more skilled in actual combat.
"Twin Serpent Strike!"
Green ethereal serpents, formed from Augustine's spirit energy, emerged from his blades. They hissed and rushed towards the Stone Pillar elder. The elder slammed his staff into the ground.
"Aegis of Unbroken Stone!"
There was a surge of spirit energy in the land beneath their feet. A sphere of solid stone encircled the Stone Pillar elder, covering him completely. Augustine's serpents hit the sphere, and were shattered. A sound akin to breaking glass filled the air.
As Augustine considered whether to try attacking again, or just running, he felt a rumbling from below him, as a muffled voice shouted.
"Rising Stone Pillar!"
Augustine leapt dozens of feet into the air, just as the area where he had been standing exploded, scattering bits of earth and small stones everywhere. The Stone Pillar elder emerged from below, riding a pillar of stone, his staff aiming for Augustine. The sect leader realized that the stone sphere had been a distraction. There was little chance for him to dodge the staff, not with the speed the elder moved at.
Augustine smiled.
"Shadow Serpent's Bite."
The curved short sword that he had "lost" earlier flew through the air, aiming for the Stone Pillar elder. The elder twisted his staff to block the attack, while continuing to rise upward. The short sword collided with the staff. At the same time, Augustine threw the dagger.
"Shadow Serpent's Bite."
Controlled by Augustine's spirit energy, the dagger struck through a weakness in the Stone Pillar elder's armor, hitting the elder behind his knee. It drew blood, but it wasn't a killing blow. It wasn't even a disabling blow. However, it didn't need to be.
With the Stone Pillar elder distracted, Augustine ran away the moment he landed, abandoning his fallen weapons. The elder roared and gave chase. Augustine didn't bother looking back, and just kept running. Moments later, he heard a blood curdling scream. A smile stretched across his lips.
The dagger had been coated in Heartfire, a rare and powerful poison. It burned away at a cultivator's cultivation. Their meridians, their dantian, everything. The more powerful a cultivator, the more painful the process. Regardless of their strength, all cultivators afflicted with this poison died in the end. The antidote for such a poison was even rarer than the poison itself.
Only those at the Nascent Soul stage and above had the strength to fight off the poison. Mortals were immune, since they weren't cultivators, a rare blessing for them.
While Augustine regretted using such an expensive poison, it had been worth it to kill an elder of Clan Stone Pillar. He would have stayed to loot the body, which would have several choice treasures, and pick up his weapons, but he felt the presence of the bodyguards as well as another cultivator at the Element Collection stage.
Rather than risk another confrontation, Augustine fled. He pulled out a flying sword that he kept in the holding bag he kept on his person, and flew off into the distance. The Stone Pillar elder continued screaming from behind him.
***
Given the distance involved, it took Augustine some time to make it back to the Pit Viper Sect, even while on a flying sword. By the time he arrived, it was dawn of the next day. The rising sun shone down on the many canyons and ravines that dotted this part of the Myriad Rivers region. While it once had a different name, long ago, that name had been lost to the mists of time. It was now called Pit Viper Gorge.
Dozens of streams and rivers ran along the bottoms of these canyons and ravines, weaving their way in between walls and cliffs of sheer stone. Plant life carpeted the area, even clinging to the sides of the walls and cliffs, ranging in size from small clusters to entire forests.
Racing from the bottom to the top of these forests had been a favorite pastime of the Pit Viper Sect's disciples for as long as Augustine could remember.
Animals scurried about, hunting and preying on each other, their calls echoing all around him. Some of those calls, Augustine knew, would be the Pit Viper Sect's sentries, announcing his return. While it would be difficult for outsiders to locate the Pit Viper Sect, given the abundance of life to confuse mind sense as well as the formations surrounding this area, it didn't hurt to be vigilant. Sloppiness led to mistakes, and mistakes could be lethal for a cultivator.
Augustine landed on an inconspicuous looking ledge. He performed a series of hand signs. The formation hiding this particular entrance recognized the password, and the wall of solid rock before him shimmered. He stepped through, as if there was nothing there. Once he did, he found himself in a vertical tunnel leading down, standing atop another ledge. The wall behind him turned to solid stone again. Using his flying sword, Augustine flew down.
The tunnel led to the headquarters of the Pit Viper Sect. Instead of building up, they had dug down into the earth, creating a warren of tunnels and caves to house their sect. When Augustine landed at the bottom of the tunnel, which led to a large circular chamber, a number of disciples were waiting for him. They bowed from the waist.
"Welcome, Sect Leader," they all said at the same time.
"I am tired after my long journey and do not wish to be disturbed until tonight's meeting with the sect elders," he commanded in an imperious tone.
The disciples all nodded. One, however, stepped forward. Augustine didn't recognize the boy, but then again, he wouldn't have. The boy was in the Foundation Establishment stage and, based on his robes, was one of the sect's Outer Disciples. He wouldn't have been worth Augustine's time.
"Were you successful, Sect Leader?" the boy asked, an ingratiating smile on his face.
Silence fell over the gathering of disciples. The boy looked around and realized he must have made a mistake, but he hadn't figured out what that mistake was yet. No one stepped forward to help or defend him. Why should they? Stupidity was one of nature's ways of culling humanity of the unworthy.
Augustine, however, was in a good mood. He could afford to be merciful, just this once.
"Yes, I was," he said, walking over to the Outer Disciple.
The boy stood still, trembling, like a rabbit facing a hawk.
"One of Clan Stone pillar's elders is dead."
This caused a murmuring among the gathered disciples. Augustine reached the Outer Disciple who had spoken, and leaned forward to whisper into his ear.
"I will let you off this once, boy," he said, his voice poisonously sweet. "But when I say I don't want to be disturbed, I mean it. Learn this lesson well, and you may survive by the end of the year."
The Outer Disciple nodded in response, still trembling. Augustine squeezed his shoulder, hard enough to cause pain, before letting go and walking off. He heard the boy crumple to the ground behind him. At least he had waited until Augustine had turned away from him.
Augustine made his way through the tunnels of the Pit Viper Sect, reaching his personal quarters. As befitting his status, his quarters were decorated with expensive and comfortable furniture as well as beautiful pieces of art. The spicy scent of sandalwood incense, his favorite, lingered in the air. His servants, all of them mortal slaves, waited to serve him.
Augustine cleaned himself up and changed into a more comfortable set of robes, aided by his servants, before settling down to read his correspondence. While he could have put it off, he didn't want to miss a time sensitive message from his personal disciples. Given his goals, their mission was of the utmost importance to him. As he read, his pleasure slave served her purpose.
Darrell and Sanford both reported success in infiltrating Clan Wind Dance and Clan River Heart respectively. They had also provided some information they had gathered on their targets. Number of cultivators, defenses, and so on. Interesting, but nothing special.
Jaime's message, however, had him sitting up and pushing the pleasure slave off of him. The woman accepted this treatment without complaint, having already learned the price of annoying him. Jaime had reported that the alliance between Clan Wind Dance and Clan Stone Pillar hinged on a trade agreement between the two, as well as a marriage between Willow Stone Pillar, the granddaughter of Clan Stone Pillar's Matriarch, and a member of Clan Wind Dance.
Unfortunately, that was all for her message. There were no details on the marriage, when it would happen, or where. Jaime also didn't include which Wind Dance would marry Willow Stone Pillar, though perhaps she didn't know. Even if she did, she might not have been able to send it. While the transmission crystal relay stations he had set up allowed his sect to communicate with each other across the region, the amount of information that could be sent at any given time was low. It was also difficult to send consecutive messages, since transmission crystals needed time to recharge before they could be used again.
Augustine sighed. The Myriad Rivers region had a number of information brokers, some of whom rivaled the major powers in reach and influence. He would have loved to use their services. However, his predecessor, may he die a thousand deaths, had angered many of them when he killed several of their people over a perceived insult. This started a secret, but furious, war between the Pit Viper Sect and these information brokers. It had only ended when Augustine killed the previous sect leader, took over, and paid remunerations to the information brokers involved.
Even then, they refused to work with the Pit Viper Sect. Augustine calculated that it would be a few more decades before that changed, when memories dimmed and old hatreds faded away
Still, what Jaime had sent was useful. A marriage, huh? Augustine could work with that. If he could prevent the marriage, then the chances of the alliance happening would lower. If he did it in such a way that damaged relations between Clan Stone Pillar and Clan Wind Dance, even better.
The simplest solution would be to kill one or both of the people getting married. Augustine shook his head. No. It was better to just kill Willow Stone Pillar. He didn't know which Wind Dance would be her husband, and the less he angered Clan Wind Dance, the better.
For the most part, they were content to remain in their Silverwood Vale. That was one of the reasons Augustine never bothered them much. The other reason was that Clan Wind Dance was the only major power in the region to have produced Immortals. Not just one, but three of them. If they had wanted to, they could have conquered the Myriad Rivers region and set themselves up as the ruling power. Instead, they had remained in Silverwood Vale and left the rest of the region alone.
Augustine thought this was foolish, but since it made things easier for him, he didn't complain. He preferred the current status quo, where they stayed in their little vale and he left them alone. This marriage threatened to change things, and not in his favor. He needed to prevent this from happening.
That meant killing Willow Stone Pillar. Unfortunately, the girl was protected by several layers of defenses and had never left Fort Stone Pillar, as far as he knew. Getting to her would be a challenge. Augustine needed to think it over some more.
He looked at his pleasure slave, who had remained kneeling on the floor where he had pushed her.
"Get back to work," he ordered.
***
Willow Stone Pillar marched into her grandmother's office. It sat deep within Fort Stone Pillar, and it was from there that Ava Stone Pillar, Clan Stone Pillar's Matriarch, ruled their clan and governed its affairs. It was a large, windowless, and spartan room with few decorations. While most would have felt confined and suffocated in this space, the members of Clan Stone Pillar were earth cultivators. They felt at home within the depths of the earth.
That wasn't to say there were no decorations. A few choice pieces of art hung from the walls, as well as a family portrait that Willow's grandmother had commissioned when Willow herself was a child. It showed Willow with her parents, Thomas Stone Pillar and Alesia Gerrard, before they had been killed. The three of them stood next to Grandmother Ava and Great Uncle Caleb.
Willow's heart clenched whenever she saw the portrait, and today was no exception.
It only fueled the anger that burned within her.
"Yes, Willow?" Grandmother Ava said, without looking up.
Like Willow, she wore the earthen toned tunic and trousers their clan favored when they weren't training or in combat. She sat behind a beautifully carved malachite desk, reading a scroll. Willow marched up to the desk and stood before it.
"An elder!" she snarled. "Those Pit Viper bastards killed one of our elders."
Grandmother Ava looked up, her face as inscrutable and unreadable as a stone statue's.
"Yes, I am aware," she said. "We received word of Elder Alden's death yesterday afternoon. I'm surprised you already know about it. We haven't announced it yet."
It was early morning now.
"The whole clan knows. One of Elder Alden's bodyguards mentioned it to a servant. Besides, when the clan's elders are called in for an emergency meeting, people start talking."
Grandmother Ava frowned.
"That's troublesome. There are too many loose lips among our clan for my liking."
Willow slammed her fists on the desk, scattering the scrolls and papers. The desk itself cracked, but remained whole.
"Forget about that!" she said. "What are we going to do about this?"
Grandmother Ava gave her a cold glare.
"Careful, Willow," she said, she said in a low voice. "I may be your grandmother, but I am also your Matriarch. You will show me the respect that I am due." She nodded towards one of the chairs that sat before her desk. "Sit. Down."
Willow rebelled against the idea of obeying, but in the end she acquiesced. She threw herself into the wooden chair. It groaned beneath her weight, but didn't break. That happened with embarrassing frequency.
"There," she said. "I'm sitting." She leaned forward, resting her chin on her clenched fists, her elbows on the arms of the chair. "What are we going to do about Elder Alden's death?"
"We increase security around our territory, and ensure that none of our people go out alone."
Willow waited for her grandmother to say more, but then realized she had nothing more to say.
"That's it?" she asked in disbelief. "One of our elders dies, and the only thing we're going to do is remain passive?" She pointed in the direction of the Pit Viper Sect. "Those bastards are bleeding us dry, and we're just going to sit on our hands?"
"We are doing what we can, given the circumstances."
At that, Willow stood up, knocking her chair back. It clattered to the ground.
"That's not good enough! Our people are dying. Playing it safe and staying on the defensive isn't working." She clenched her fists so hard that her arms shook. "We should be taking the fight to the Pit Viper bastards! Not hiding away in our fortresses like a bunch of cowards."
Grandmother Ava gave no visible reaction to Willow's outburst. Instead, she leaned back in her chair and observed Willow, her hands in front of her, fingers interlaced. The silence stretched out between them.
As the seconds ticked by, the righteous anger that had propelled Willow bled away and she grew less confident of her actions.
"Do you know how Elder Alden died, Willow?" her grandmother asked, breaking the silence.
"One of those Pit Viper bastards ambushed him, I heard," Willow said. "According to the rumors, it was their sect leader, Augustine."
She spat to the side when she said his name. Of the list of people she wanted dead, he was at the top. The bastard was the one responsible for killing her parents. Ideally, she would kill him herself. However, given the current difference in strength between them, that would not happen anytime soon.
"That was who killed him, not how he died," Grandmother Ava said. "You are correct though, it was indeed Augustine. Your Great Uncle Caleb was the first to arrive at the scene, and he recognized Augustine's aura."
Willow opened her mouth to say something, but Grandmother Ava forestalled her with a raised hand.
"Elder Alden died," she said, her voice hard and without mercy. "Because he ran ahead of his bodyguards and tried to fight Augustine by himself. This alone was reckless, because Augustine was more powerful than him in terms of cultivation. Yes, Elder Alden had more combat skill and experience. This should have been enough to even the odds. However, he failed to remember that the Pit Viper Sect doesn't fight fair."
She stood up. Despite being shorter than Willow, her presence filled the room, making her seem taller. Willow shrank back a little.
"Elder Alden died from the Heartfire poison. Do you know what that does? No? Let me educate you, my granddaughter. It's a rare and potent poison that burns a cultivator's cultivation, until there is nothing left of them. It is a painful way to die. No one below the Nascent Soul stage has the strength to resist it. The antidote is even rarer than the poison itself, and prohibitively expensive."
Grandmother Ava leaned forward, staring Willow right in the eyes.
"Elder Alden died because he rushed ahead, overconfident in his strength and his skill." She pointed in the same direction Willow had earlier. "The Pit Viper Sect is devious, duplicitous, and cunning. Yes, we're stronger than them in terms of combat strength, but if we act like reckless fools and attack them in their own territory, they will bleed that strength away one cut at a time. Ambushes, poison, assassination. If we sent our forces to attack Pit Viper Sect, they would be whittled away little by little, until only a fraction of them remained by the time they arrived at Pit Viper Gorge. At that point, the Pit Viper Sect wouldn't even need to bother with the dirty tricks to wipe us out."
Grandmother Ava walked around the desk until she stood in front of Willow. She took Willow's hands in her own.
"I understand how you feel," she said, pain and anger in her voice. "Trust me, I do. Elder Alden was my friend, one I had known for centuries. His death hurts me far more than you could ever know."
The pain in her grandmother's voice made Willow realize just how childish her anger had been.
"I'm sorry, Grandmother," she said, her voice contrite. "I'm just so frustrated. Here I am, focusing on my cultivation, while our kin are out there dying." She gave her grandmother's hands a gentle squeeze. "I feel so useless."
"You are not useless, Willow. You are doing your part to help our clan, just as I am doing my part." Grandmother Ava touched Willow's cheek. "And there is no need to apologize. Your anger is understandable. Many of the remaining elders on the clan council advocated for immediate retaliation. I will tell you what I told them. When it comes to the Pit Viper Sect, we must be strong, steady, and most important of all, patient. Attacking in a blind rage will be our downfall. We do not have the strength for it."
That was a bitter pill to swallow. Willow knew that her kin were proud of their strength. Unlike most cultivation techniques, the signature technique of her clan, Pillars of the Earth, focused more on body cultivation than energy cultivation. In terms of pure physical prowess, no other power in the Myriad Rivers region could match them.
"You need to remember that these are just the initial skirmishes," Grandmother Ava said, her voice gentle. "We need to wait for the right moment to strike."
"When will that be?" Willow asked.
"When Clan Wind Dance allies with us. Clan River Heart has already agreed to help. Their expertise in medicines and poisons will save many lives in the upcoming war. However, we also need Clan Wind Dance's cultivators. The speed, agility, and skill of their warriors will make a difference. There is a reason why I reached out to them, even though our two clans previously had little to do with each other."
"And that won't happen until I reach the Energy Gathering stage," Willow said, before letting out a sigh. "Any word from them? Has my future husband been decided yet? I know there was talk of marrying me to Lucius Wind Dance."
Grandmother Ava frowned.
"They have sent word, yes," she said. "As for your prospective fiancé…It's odd. While they haven't outright said it, it seems Lucius Wind Dance refuses to accept the marriage. My guess is that he is in love with someone else. Young men in love tend to be rebellious and impetuous when it comes to arranged marriages." She paused. "Young women too, now that I think about it. I certainly was. Good thing too, or I wouldn't have married your grandfather."
Willow looked away. Growing up, she had known that the only way for her to get married was through an arranged marriage, likely to secure an alliance or some political advantage. She was too tall and too muscular to be attractive to men.
Yet, apparently she had been wrong. She couldn't even get an arranged marriage. The shame of it burned through her.
"Then how are we to secure the alliance between our clans if there is to be no marriage?" she asked. "When you proposed this course, you said that a trade agreement would not be enough."
"I never said there would be no marriage," Grandmother Ava said. "I only said that Lucius Wind Dance refuses to agree to it. Perhaps they will pressure him until he accepts." She shook her head. "Even if he doesn't, another name was mentioned, one I hadn't expected. The strangest part was that it was Dominic Wind Dance, Lucius' father, who had brought it up."
Willow frowned at that.
"Which name?"
While she didn't know much about Clan Wind Dance, she knew that Lucius was the brightest and the best of his generation. He was the most suitable candidate to be her husband, given her status as the granddaughter of Clan Stone Pillar's Matriarch.
"Darian Wind Dance."
Willow's frown deepened.
"I don't know a Darian Wind Dance. Are they trying to offer us someone lesser since Lucius refuses?" She paused. "Wait, is he somehow related to Patriarch Darin?"
"His grandson," Grandmother Ava said in a wry tone. "Son of Darren Wind Dance."
Willow stared at her grandmother.
"Don't ask about the names. I don't know the answer either. I think they did it deliberately, to confuse everyone else."
"If this Darian is Patriarch Darin's grandson, why hadn't they mentioned him before? Given his lineage, he is a better candidate to be my husband than Lucius is, despite the latter's genius."
It also had a sort of symmetry to it, which appealed to Willow. The grandson of Clan Wind Dance's Patriarch marrying the granddaughter of Clan Stone Pillar's Matriarch. Air and Earth. Energy refiner and body refiner.
"That's because Darian Wind Dance can't cultivate, or so I've heard. He is a mortal. Other than that, I don't really know much about him. Despite his status as Patriarch Darin's grandson, he is an unknown to most outside of Clan Wind Dance."
At this, Willow pulled away from her grandmother.
"Is he damaged or defective in some way?" she asked, unable to hide the horror in her voice.
"Willow!" her grandmother scolded. "You, of all people, should not look down on someone for being mortal."
She was right. Willow's mother had been a regular mortal, born in a village north of Fort Stone Pillar. By lucky chance, she had met Willow's father and the two had fallen in love. After they married, Willow's mother started practicing the Pillars of the Earth technique and became a cultivator. Despite starting late in life, she had managed to reach the Core Shaping stage before she died.
"It's not the fact that Darian Wind Dance is a mortal that horrifies me," Willow said. "It's his inability to cultivate. Even mortals, with enough effort and resources, can become cultivators. Our clan has known this for ages." She shook her head. "An inability to cultivate is something else altogether. If it's something that can be inherited…" Her voice trailed off, before picking up again. "Being born into a cultivation clan, without being able to cultivate, is a cruel fate I wouldn't wish upon anyone, let alone my own children."
It was something that this Darian Wind Dance suffered through. Willow's heart went out to him, and was even more determined not to marry him. He should never have been suggested as a potential husband for her in the first place. He would be better off marrying a mortal woman. Everyone, including him, would be happier with that. Marrying Willow would be hell for someone like him. At least Clan Wind Dance were his kin. Willow shuddered to think about how her clan would treat him.
"And yet, Clan Wind Dance brought him up for a reason," Grandmother Ava said. "While I am tempted to be offended that they would suggest a mere mortal to be your husband, my intuition is telling me that there is more going on behind the scenes. We need to ascertain the situation for ourselves. That's why I have decided to send your Great Uncle Caleb to visit Silverwood Vale. We lack too much information, and I don't like Clan Wind Dance's games. It'll take some time to make the appropriate arrangements, however. With Elder Alden's death, the situation is too chaotic. We'll have to wait until things calm down. It shouldn't take more than a few months, at most."
"Why not buy the information we seek from a broker?" Willow asked.
She knew that there were many information brokers within the Myriad Rivers region. While they were expensive to hire, their services were well worth the price.
"I trust Caleb's judgment more," she said, shaking her head. "Besides, if I am going to pay that much money, I would rather pay for information on the Pit Viper Sect." She gave Willow a sharp smile. "Thankfully, that won't be difficult. The information brokers hate the bastards almost as much as we do."
"I see," Willow said with a nod. "I should get back to cultivating. The sooner I breakthrough to the Energy Gathering stage, the better."
"Good. Diligence and perseverance is the key to success."
Willow turned to leave, but her grandmother's voice stopped her.
"Just to clear up any lingering doubts in your mind, I will say this."
As Grandmother Ava spoke, she let out a hint of her power. Her voice contained the fury of an earthquake and the crushing weight of an avalanche. Earth was the slowest among the four elements, but there were few that could withstand its might.
"When we do strike at the Pit Viper Sect, we will crush them. By the time we are done, there will be nothing left of them, not even dust."
Grandmother Ava's words reinforced Willow's resolve, and she left the office determined not to let her people down.