Far from Zilan’s abode, outside the house of a certain Elder, the old Badger, Senior Mo, could be seen impatiently pacing about.
“Hahaha, fu**ing Half Breed, see how I deal with you!”
The mansion door suddenly opened causing him to almost jump up in fright.
“Oh, it’s you Enry. So how is it?”
“Mm, Master is inside. He’s agreed to see you.” Replied Enry with a smile.
“Great, I owe you one!”
Preparing himself, Mo put on his best act of depression before slowly walking in.
In the Alchemy Association, there were more than a few Elders each respected in their own right. However, no one knows when but soon among the members of the Association a distinction between the Elders was suddenly made.
On one side were the, revered throughout the Beast world, ‘True Elders’ and on the other side the less respected, Plain Elders.
Whoever coined these terms was extremely thorough as he gave his reasons for doing so. The True Elders were the ones who had reached at least the sixth rank as an Alchemist and also were considered to be at the highest level as a Fire Guardian.
The Plain Elders on the other hand, they had earned their position through being outstanding in just one area. Either extremely exceptional in Alchemy or was outstanding as a Fire Guardian.
Currently in the entire Alchemy Association there were only seven True Elders and the rest were all Plain Elders.
The person Senior Mo had come to see was a Plain Elder proficient in Alchemy. He wasn’t celebrated by the members of the Association however, that did not mean he was not respected.
He was also the person Senior Mo called Master but the relationship between the two wasn’t all too great. That being said, he hadn’t been denounced or expelled so his rights as a disciple still remained.
“Little Mo, what have you come to see me for? Aren’t you neglecting your duties as a teacher?”
“Master, I also didn’t want to disturb you however, your disciple has recently encountered a problem that he needs to seek your advice on.”
“Speak.” Replied Elder Jingiza.
“Master, you’ve heard of the newly appointed Half Breed teacher, yes?”
“What about him?” Asked Jingiza. His tone of voice was clearly harsher, showing how annoyed he was.
Senior Mo smiled hearing this, he knew of his Master’s dislike of humans and anything like or close to them. This was the reason he was bold enough to come here and try to use his Master to deal with Zilan.
Dislike was a light way to describe Jingiza’s feelings towards humans and half breeds. He was a proud Beast, his bloodline was also extremely pure, belonging to the proud line of Silver back wind wolves. In his youth though, he was nothing of the sort. Because of human cruelty, he along with his family had been brought to a point where they wished for death, if it wasn’t for the Associations help then his life would have been ruined and his lineage would have ended.
“A few days ago, I was approached by the young Master of the Iron Blood family. He begged for my help telling me that his teacher, the Half Breed, had refused to allow him to attend classes. When he asked for the reason, his teacher told him that he didn’t care for Beasts.”
Elder Jingiza frowned, he had been busy over the last few weeks so he hadn’t attended the entrance tests or the appointment ceremony for teachers thus he wasn’t acquainted with the Half Breed’s character. Unfortunately for Senior Mo though, his Master knew him like the back of his hand.
“Little Mo, do you take me for a fool? Hmph! He probably offended you and now you’re looking for me to wipe your ass for you. What! Your students are useless so you’re trying to steal one of his? Is that it?” snorted Elder Jingiza.
“No,no,no,no…Master, you have to believe me. You can also ask young master IronBlood, he’ll tell you with his own mouth.”
“What!? So you’re telling me he denied only the IronBlood kid from attending the lessons? Are you stupid?”
Senior Mo gritted his teeth, absorbing all the insults sent his away. He knew his Master disliked him because of his tendency to ‘enjoy life’ too much.
“Sigh~ You are my oldest disciple and yet you stoop to such lengths just to reach your disgusting goals? Do you think I don’t know about that IronBlood kid’s behaviour? There’s a reason that despite his talent he was assigned to the Half Breeds class. Just the fact that he’s around you is already enough of a reason for me to not believe a word from his mouth!”
“Aiy~ Master! Of course, the Half Breed wouldn’t deny him his right to learn forever. However, the first lesson he sat in, young Master Iron Blood got a huge shock. This time, you don’t need to listen to just my words to understand the story. I have some information here on this jade tablet showing the contents of the lesson, if Master doesn’t believe then disciple can’t do anything other than to beg you to question the other students as well as the Half Breed himself.” Finished saying that, he got up and with a wronged expression on his face, passed the tablet to Elder Jingiza and left.
Annoyed by his disciple’s pitiful act, Jingiza frowned but he still took a look at the contents of the lesson. All the explanations were left out but the assignment was clearly highlighted, showing the entire list of ingredients Zilan had prepared for his students to destroy.
………………………………..
Back at the camp,
Zilan was still calmly lying on his bed, contemplating about some things that bothered him when his senses picked up on the arrival of Kifo.
“Finally back.” He said while smiling.
“Hey Kifo, come here for a minute.” Yelled Zilan from his room.
Taking his sweet time, Kifo leisurely walked up the stairs before slowly entering the room, only to find Zilan staring intensely at him.
“What is it?” He asked as he touched his face to make sure there was nothing on it.
“Where’ve you been?”
Hearing the question, Kifo first slowly looked at Zilan from head to toe.
“Sigh~ yet again you’ve grown.” He then softly chuckled before finding a seat for himself. “I’ve been trying to catch up. Grandmama told me not to let the gap between our strengths grow to the point that I become a burden. Besides, I need you just as much as you need me so either help me get stronger or stop progressing so quickly.” Although he smiled and joked, it was obvious that he was faking it.
Zilan could see this but he still laughed. The atmosphere would become awkward otherwise.
“You want to become stronger? Fine, I can help you but under a few conditions.” His lips curled into a mischievous smile as he spoke.
“What conditions?”
“The first one is fairly simple. You have to listen to all of my instructions during your cultivation and you have to call me Boss. This isn’t negotiable.”
“You’re joking, right?” Kifo laughed but once he saw Zilan’s smile widen, he couldn’t help but cough twice before frowning.
“What’s the other condition?”
“Don’t act like that, considering the techniques and teachings that you’ll be receiving, humouring me by calling me Boss, doesn’t seem too bad.” Reasoned Zilan. He then continued by saying,
“As for the second condition, if you want power, then give me an arm!” His face was like stone as he said this. Completely expressionless.
“You don’t mean? NO! I REFUSE!”
Important announcement ;
If you would like to read chapters in advance without having to wait days, then please feel free to check out my patreon page. (https://www.patreon.com/emeraldragon)
Finally, I would like to announce the launching of my twitter account. I’ve been using social media for a while for personal use but I’ve always shied away from using it as a platform to communicate with my readers…(don’t really know why) However, that has now changed! I will be using twitter to interact with my followers on a daily basis and not just have the usual, “chapter updates and then silence”. No! Through memes, gifs and well tweets I will strive to not only entertain but actually interact and converse…but as you know, one can’t talk to themselves at least not without having a mental problem so please follow me as we move on with our journey.
Your humble author,
emeraldragon.
