In the courtyard of Chieftain Jaeger Bloodclaw, the four beastkin chiefs of the Zhuo continent and most of their elders were sitting in the meeting room. They were listening to Chief Razortalon speak about the current events of other tribes in their nation. This wasn't unusual, as the flying beastkin functioned as spies and information dealers on a regular basis. In fact, Chief Razortalon was happy that Huoran's communication artifacts didn't work outside of the island. Otherwise, his tribe stood to lose most of their purpose, and it would start their decline.
"Something has been discovered on the Zhuo continent", Razortalon narrated, "It's of an unknown origin, but presumed to be ancient. I've heard some images were made, and several tribes have described their members acting different or violently."
The female fox chief spoke up, "Who has been affected so far?"
Razortalon responded, "The reports I have received so far mentioned the Snowfur Yaks had an elder and a member get possessed by some stone and several of them were killed. They were also the ones who found and capture images of a special room. Now their elder, Elder Datak, is being chased and everyone tribe is on the lookout for him."
"Only them?", Chief Ironclaw grumbled , "It doesn't seem worth wasting a meeting about this so far."
"I wouldn't waste your time if this was the extent of the news", Razortalon assured them, "One of the Bristlehair Boar princes kidnapped and murdered a princess of the Whitetail deer clan and is on the run. Everyone thought he was trying to force a marriage between them until they found her body."
The other three chiefs physically reacted when they heard, Chief Crimson spoke first, "They have been allies for years, this will probably result in a war."
Ironclaw nodded his head, "This makes little sense, and only benefits their enemies. I don't understand what this Prince was thinking."
Razortalon went on, "Due to what happened to the yaks, they are looking for the prince and also a similar room like was found up north."
Bloodclaw asked, "Why would you be looking for a similar room?"
Razortalon paused for a moment before saying, "Because of this piece of news, an unknown tiger in the Royal Tiger's lands have raised an army that surprisingly been successful in attacking the clan. When the Royal Tiger Army was attempting to find the culprit, they found a room that was almost identical to the one in the north. The only difference was the position of the murals but not the order."
"So you are saying that there are eleven more rooms like this?", Crimson asked.
"For now, but I'm sure they will find the one the boar prince found soon enough", Razortalon added, "We have been asked to return and assist in finding the remaining rooms. Also no one seems to be able to understand the language on the altars and murals, perhaps we could ask Daoist Wei's master to assist. Considering his realm and age, it's possible that he has seen or read something like this before."
"Agreed", Ironclaw said, "I propose that we take most of our elders and return, but first we must make sure our stocks are full. One or two elders should be able to supervise our younglings sufficiently."
Bloodclaw took out his Qphone, "I'll contact Daoist Wei and arrange a meeting just before we leave."
Everyone agreed as Bloodclaw sent a message to Huoran.
Zeng Meirong had sitting at her drafting desk, which was next to two other class 1 apprentices. The three of them were assigned to one class 2 apprentice, and their responsibilities included office errands, studying for the class 2 test, and creating class 1 talismans in simulation space until they achieved a ninety percent success rate.
It had been a few months since starting in the workshop, and her success rate was currently twenty-five percent. Her biggest challenge had been her Qi, while the quantity was sufficient, beastkin are more inclined towards bloodline and essence. She had many exercises and cultivation methods she had to learn to control her Qi flow, but she relished the challenge. When she heard about 'The Destiny of the fairy and sword' and its ability to play as a human, she started to visit the pod cafe more often. While the feeling of not having a bloodline was jarring the first few times, it did help her sensitivity towards Qi.
Today, she was in simulation space practicing the swift wind talisman when a message appeared. Annoyed, she paused her current task and saw it was an official message from her supervisor. She opened the message and was surprised to see it was a summons to see Wei Huoran. She immediately logged off and straighten herself out before sending a reply that she was en route to the city office. Twenty minutes later, she walked into the meeting room, only to recognize Wei Huoran, the human and merfolk ministers, and the leaders and elders of the beastkin.
"Miss Zeng, thank you for joining us at such short notice", Huoran greeted her as she entered.
"Boss Wei, it's an honor to attend", Weirong replied.
"That's fine", Huoran remarked, "please drop the formalities."
She nodded and went to the only empty seat at the table.
"Now, I'm sure you are wondering why I asked you here in such a hurry", Huoran opened the meeting, "I have heard some disturbing news from the four tribe chieftains, and I believe everyone here should also hear this news. I will now turn the floor over to Chieftain Razortalon."
Razortalon stood up, and relayed all the news he had told the other three to the people at the table.
When he finished, he sat down as Huoran stood up again, "Thank you Chief Razortalon, now I understand that the four of you will leave to protect your own tribes, assist the others, and search for the rooms and culprits."
Bloodclaw nodded, "Daoist Wei, as you've said, this is our plans."
"I won't hold you then, but before you go, let's me share some speculations with you", Huoran, " Is that ok?"
"If you think it's relevant, I have no issues staying for a few more minutes", Ironclaw remarked.
Everyone nodded or spoke their agreement to Ironclaw's words.
"Let me tell you a legend that you may or may not know", Huoran replied, "A great emperor decided to name each year after an animal, but couldn't decide the order in which they appear so he went to the thirteen strongest animal clans and proposed a race. The clans that got invited were the clan of the dragon, tiger, ox, rabbit, boar, horse, sheep, rat, snake, monkey, rooster, dog. Now, the cat and rat clans where close allies, and it was well known that the cats slept until late. The rats promised they would wake the cat in the race up in time. The day of the race dawned, yet the rat had forgotten its promise and went to the race without waking up the cat. Before the race, all the animals saw the trail that they would run and saw at one point they would have to cross a river. The rat hatched a plan, he went to the ox and began telling him that he would shout encouragements to assist him in getting first. The ox couldn't hear the rat, so the rat asked the ox for permission to sit next to his ear to perform his cheering. The ox agreed and the rat climbed and sat on the ox's head as all the animals lined up to start the race. True to his word, the rat cheered and encouraged the ox as the race started, and as a result the ox was in front. Eventually, the ox reached the river and crossed it easily before heading towards the finish line. Right before the ox reached the end, the rat scampered down the ox's face and jumped ahead, crossing the line. All the other animals crossed the finish line and the emperor announced the the order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. All the others animals grew dissatisfied with the rat for using the Ox, but didn't say anything in front of the Emperor. Later that day, when the cat woke up at its normal time it realized that his ally had broken his promise. Since that day, the cat clan hated the rat clan and chased them when they could. Only the twelve animals that participated got years named after them but the rats lost their reputation. So even if the other eleven animal didn't hate the rat clan like the cat clan did, they still didn't give them much face either."
The four tribe leaders and the merfolk were baffled when Huoran finished the legend. They had never heard of such a story before but it all made sense to them.
"The reason I bring up this legend in particular is for two reasons: the first is the three tribes that suffered, yak which has close relations to the ox clan, boar, and Tiger, the second is this mural that has been talked about and its thirteen murals, which should equal to the twelve clans plus the cat clan. This should help reduce the number of tribes that need to be checked."
All the chiefs thought about before Chief Crimson remarked, "It's certainly an interesting idea, I don't believe we will exclude any tribes or clans, but I think it certainly can be considered on which ones we will check first."
Meirong's spoke next, "May I ask what any of this has to do with us?"
"Of course", Huoran replied, "If my legend is somewhat correct, there would be a problem."
"And what would that be", Bloodclaw questioned.
"Presumably, the Ox and Tiger rooms have been found and the Boar room should follow soon", Huoran said, "But what about the Dragon room? That definitely wouldn't be on the continent."
Everyone's eyes opened in realization, Meirong quickly spoke, "You mean it's in the Draco Serpentus empire?"
"Most likely", Huoran responded, "It's probably the culprit for your recent troubles with the Merfolk Kingdom."