Chapter 132 - New Master

Shadow sat on the floor beside Darkness, brooding and silently cursing me. Meanwhile, the rest of us were having a conversation."Losing Body Essence, huh? Well, it's better than dying. Such a medicine could be a huge boon for our warriors. Don't you think so, Elder LI?""Hmm… True. It even makes me wonder if it could have saved my…" Elder Li shifted his eyes in my direction.I shook my head. [Unfortunately not. Even if I knew Li Shao would die so suddenly, I couldn't get to him. That assassin was just too strong.]"Sigh… I see. I don't blame you. He was quite vicious after all. I just realized… You used the Elixir to survive that explosion, didn't you?"I nodded absentmindedly. He was almost right. I used my own powers to resist the blast and then regenerated, but it worked on the same principle."Gerald, son…" Sect Master placed a hand on my shoulder. "How about selling the recipe to the Sect? I assume you are in possession of it?"I shook my head and gave a forced smile. [I'm afraid a recipe will not help.]I took a piece of paper and wrote down everything and then handed it over without a fuss. Sect Master took it and casually scanned it. "Ah… I see… We are lacking ingredients. But wait, fresh Phoenix blood? Where can you get that? Phoenixes are extinct, are they not?"[Well… It's complicated.] I said, and he gestured for me to continue, so I did. [Elder Li probably told you my story, how I came here, right? How I accidentally destroyed the Portal Nexus of the Brilliant Sword Sect?]"Ahaha, yes, yes… I remember. Nearly lost my mind laughing when I heard about it. Were you truly just a Mortal back then?"[I was.] I admitted. [Though various circumstances lead to that event, the fact remains. But anyway, I came from the other side of the world, and I can confirm at least one Phoenix still lives there.]"The other side? Across the endless ocean?" Sect Master stroked his beard, deep in thought. "There is no easy way across, is there?""Not that we know of, Sect Master." Elder Li confirmed solemnly."Ah, such a shame… But wait, how did you get it then? As a Mortal no less!"I lifted my hands in defense. [It is not what you think. I did not fight. I traded some things for a few vials of blood. Besides, Phoenix was still young, no higher than the Nascent Soul Realm. The Neloron continent was really poor in terms of resources, and only a select few Cultivated. There were no Golden Core Cultivators there, as far as I could tell.]"Bah!" Sect Master waved his hand and turned around. "Waste of my time. A backwater place might hide some valuable secrets, but even if there was a flock of Phoenixes, it would not be worth it going there."He waved the paper with the recipe in his hand. "I'll keep this and give it to some of our Alchemists to study. I'm not holding much hope, but if we find a use for it, you will be rewarded handsomely."[Oh, thank you, Sect Master!] I bowed, holding no hope. It didn't escape my notice that the remaining Elixir was not returned to me. Good thing I didn't give all of it away."Yeah, yeah, don't hold your breath." Sect Master then turned to his two members. "Shadow, Darkness, you two are hereby banished from the Midnight Order.""Master?!" Shadow, who just got back to his feet, fell to his knees, beyond shocked. "Why?!""Why? Darkness got discovered by an amateur and you lost to a Junior. Consider yourself lucky I overlooked this breach of orders and incompetency. Consider me leaving you as you are, a final act of mercy considering the work you have previously done."Shadow opened his mouth wide in shock, yet remained speechless. Sect Master ignored him and turned to Elder Li. "Elder Li Roy, I'll be leaving them in your care. Do with them as you wish. Later." He waved his hand and left.I was shocked, Shadow and Darkness were stunned, and even Elder Li was beyond surprised."Why I… Gerald!" Elder Li pointed at me. "They are your responsibility now."[Mine?!]"Yes. Ah, and don't be thinking you will be mooching off me. Get your own food you two, I don't care how." He said, wagging his finger at Shadow who was still too stunned to speak."You can use the free rooms, Gerald can show them to you. Just don't make any mess and we'll be fine. If you need me, I'll be in my workshop. But only call if it's an emergency! Don't bother me otherwise."As I watched him leave, I could feel various hormones being released in my body. It was so sudden, so unexpected, my adrenaline and cortisol both spiked at the same time and I felt awful! My instinct was to punch the problem away, but I resisted, as that was not the solution.I pinched the bridge of my nose as a headache began forming and I became increasingly more annoyed and frustrated. I glanced at Shadow through the gaps in my fingers and he stared back. I looked at Darkness and she stared like a deer in the headlights, swapping between the two of us.[Man, fuck this shit!]I went to the entrance of the arena and began scooping up broken pieces of Tiny. The poor guy suffered unjustly at the hands of Shadow.I was so pissed off. I got two spies that I now had to take care of, the Sect Master was an unpredictable psycho, and, Elder Li, the person I most relied on, completely washed his hands of this entire mess, and left it all to me.I didn't care about those two. At all! Heck, they could just keel over and die, as far as I was concerned. I even considered doing it myself, for a moment. But then again, even if Sect Master said we could do whatever we wanted with them, killing them was probably not an option. That was one of the primary laws of the Sect, forbidding murder between members.Even if that wasn't the case, I didn't want to risk it. I didn't want them to have anything against me, that would just make life unnecessarily difficult.In the end, I decided to just ignore them. Ignore the problem and hope it goes away on its own. They could do whatever the fuck they wanted for all I cared. I glanced back and saw Shadow lifting Darkness up and helping her. Her legs got reattached and she seemed to be recovering well, though she was still pale. She was going to survive, unfortunately. I rolled my eyes and went to collect the rubble.[Come on, Tiny, let's get you fixed up. You are the only friend I have left now.]I didn't forget the other guys, of course, it was just that we were having less and less in common as time went by. Even Ren Kong, the strongest guy I knew, was far behind me. And it had only been a year.That was one of the problems of growing up fast. You outgrew people and had to leave them behind as our lives went in different directions. It was sad in a way, but also inevitable. Life was like that sometimes.Returning to my room, I closed the door behind me. I then dumped the stones in the middle of it and sat on the ground beside it. I took each stone and expertly manipulated it to merge with others. In the Golden Core Realm, I could finally do that. Merge materials on a molecular level. The atoms constituting the rock merged with one another and the physical bonds between them strengthened until the rocks became one.I shifted every stone making the body and slowly reconstructed Tiny, piece by piece, and soon he once again came to life, looking somewhat depressed. I don't know how an expressionless stone could look depressed, but it did. Maybe all those destructions somehow affected him? I had no idea. Anyway, he needed to get more energy and stronger material for his body. I was worried one of these days his core would shatter from impact. It was only a matter of time.As if on cue, a crystalline sound came to my ear as a core dropped from an opening in Tiny's torso. Soon after the hole closed back up on its own and he remained standing there, unmoving.[Speaking of the devil…] I just took a quick look at the core and realized it was cracked. It must have slipped my inspection before. Luckily it was just an energy core and could easily be replaced. But being easy to replace didn't mean it was cheap. And I had no spares.[Looks like you will have to wait a bit for a new core, Tiny. Next time we go on a hunt I'll get you a big one!] I patted him on the shoulder, and Tiny moved his head, almost as if he understood what I was even talking about.Maybe he was, but such a thing was unlikely. When the personality and memories get wiped from a Soul, what is left was a zombie with only the base instincts. Glyphs and Formations could add to that, but the results were limited. Even Elder Li hadn't managed to create a golem that was truly aware. And not for the lack of trying. It just wasn't possible. A body could live without a brain, and so could a Soul exist without thought. Unfortunately restarting the growth was much more difficult, if not outright impossible.[I'll get you the biggest core you can imagine, and a body of indestructible metal! You will be invincible! The world will tremble at the mere mention of your name, you can count on that, big guy!]***"I'll take care of you, don't worry."Shadow lifted Darkness up and brought her to one of the many empty rooms and placed her on the bed."What are we going to do? The Sect Master-""The Sect Master made a… mistake."Darkness gasped. "How can you say that?""Listen… We might have broken the rules and disobeyed his orders, but that devil… He is not human! I'm sure the Elders felt it as well. He's like a beast in human form. His Aura is so messy and wicked. His body is full of curses, both big and small, yet he still managed to somehow convince Master to spare his miserable life."Shadow sighed. "I thought for sure he would be destroyed on the spot when we found him desecrating the Hall of Ancestors, unfortunately, Master's curiosity is his big weakness. The Sect Master might have fallen for his charms, but I will not! Even if all of what he said was true…""He? You mean Gerald?""Don't say his name! He might know when you mention it.""Really? How?""I don't know, but those that study Divination, such as Elder Li, are sometimes able to tell when others are speaking about them. We don't know if he studied those techniques, but it's better to be careful.""Oh!""Don't worry. You just stay here and recover, meanwhile, I'll keep an eye on our new… ugh… Master. He has to be hiding something, and I'll discover it. I'll unmask the beast hiding behind the form of a man, no matter what!"Shadow then became transparent, merged with the flickering shadows on the wall, and slipped out of the room.