AN – Extra long chapter, enjoy 😀
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The Association’s array came equipped with a void setup that spanned the entire grounds and as long as someone was a member they would be able to access them to traverse this large area.
Of course, some areas were locked off from voids because there existed special places which the Association deemed private and off limits.
The Central area though, was an exception since this was where Beasts were allowed to be Beasts. Grudges, territorial disputes, power struggles, these things were all crucial parts of their culture and as much as it was something some feared, these situations would still mould them into more careful and confident individuals in the future.
The Alchemy Association, needless to say, did not just indiscriminately toss their members into this fire pit expecting them to fend for themselves against the stronger or more accurately, the more advantaged of the bunch. No, the Association had strict rules and zones where conflict was forbidden as well as made sure that the residential areas were among these no fight zones. Those who sought more protection than this were free to join up with one of the numerous camps and live under their wing or they could form their own, granted they possessed the requisite strength and resources to support such an endeavour.
However, there were some of the more powerful camps who sought much more land since the residential area was limited in space thus they built their strongholds outside of the ‘no conflict zones’ bringing upon themselves more danger.
In most cases these large powerful camps did indeed have the strength to deter anyone from acting against them lest they get burned. But it wasn’t like there were no over confident Beasts who opted to carve out their own territory only to meet their untimely ends at the hands of night raids, ambushes, poisonings etc.
Only the large camps had extremely detailed and reliable escape measures in place for the one day they met an unstoppable force, not to mention most of their strongholds weren’t located far from the no-conflict zones, usually situated right at the edge of the zone.
The Purple Heart Two Flames camp was one such powerful camp that had successfully conquered a large patch of territory which they controlled, outside of the no-conflict area.
To travel from here to the Western region without the use of a void would take too long of a time even for a cultivator, thus one had to first travel to the no-conflict zone before they could activate the environmental array and void to their destination.
With his speed, it did not take even the time for one to finish a cup of tea before Zilan had arrived at the no conflict zone. The area was as expected large and filled with houses as well as buildings of various shapes and sizes however, mixed within the sea of architecture were a number of stalls on the road, not so much pleasing to the eye but one would be remise to dismiss them just because of that. Naturally, thieving and trickery was also a part of the charm of the stall experience but only the bold and confident would partake in such actions, especially in the central area.
The scene was chaotic and the roads were somewhat narrow due to the number of stalls, at least compared to the large walkways of the camp’s castle Zilan was used to walking but nevertheless, he quite liked the environment.
Since it was still early, he decided to peruse through the wares being sold and see if he could spot something he liked.
“Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since I’ve done that….” Pondered Zilan as he cheekily smiled.
Unlike a market, here the stall owners remained silent as they patiently awaited customers. In fact, it was quite common to see the customers fight amongst themselves for certain wares while the seller calmly watched on the side. Of course, this was mostly due to the fact most of the owners of the stalls were proud Alchemists who’d take out their creations in hopes of taking advantage of the many Fire Guardians around.
For Fire Guardian stall owners who operated in the Central region, their situation was far less eye catching. Since most of the time, it was them who had to step out in search for buyers, using all manner of grandiose pitches to draw them in.
Alas, one could fool a pretty girl that he’d just met but it was impossible to fool his own mother.
To expect your contemporaries who’ve experienced close to the same things you have to actually come up and purchase things they could easily obtain at exorbitant prices was plain stupid.
However, the prey these veteran Fire guardians were searching for were not their fellow Association members of years and years. No! Their prey was a much more naïve and simpler animal, someone they could easily rope in as well as entice to spend big on their wares. These magical people were naturally the newbies and rookies of both the Alchemy department as well as the Fire Guardian departments.
Although they’d be hesitant to offend a future Alchemist, they would still go for the kill since that was still a problem for later. As for the Fire Guardians, they couldn’t care less, in fact making them mortgage their entire futures was still par for the course since there would be no one they could complain to. Other Fire Guardians even those from large camps would simply tell the victims of such scams to learn from the experience and thus the cycle of valuable ‘education’ has and will continue for decades to come.
Zilan obviously was no ‘chump’ but ever since he was young he’d held an ungodly advantage when it came to spotting treasures thus as a child he quickly got bored of taking part in such events. But that was when he suddenly came up with an excitingly great idea in order to test himself.
He’d walk into a market and without using his ‘eyes’ he’d pick up a few items that he felt looked valuable, then after purchasing them he would thoroughly ‘examine’ and appraise them to see if he was either right or wrong. Majority of the time he was expectedly wrong, losing a lot of money in the process but in the end the few times he got it right were enough to offset this loss, bringing him an untold amount of joy since for him it was almost the same as being blind and picking up treasure from the floor. It didn’t matter how valuable the items were even if they weren’t true treasures, as long as their real value was more than the selling price, he’d consider himself to have won the game.
Moving along the stone paved road, a lot of eyes quickly focused in on him. The veteran Fire Guardians didn’t really feel anything towards Zilan except that he was interesting however, the Alchemists on the other hand with the exception of a few, all appeared to greatly dislike him. They all had their own self-created reasons but in the end it simply came down to the fact that they felt envy and jealousy of the highest degree towards this abnormal Half Breed. Truthfully, who wouldn’t? A member of a race that was usually relegated to slavery had suddenly turned into a dazzling star seemingly overnight.
Also, his accomplishments after being in the Association for such a short period of time were unheard of. Not to mention for a newbie, he was already a walking money bag.
In exchange for breaking over half of all the records for the first test set by the Elders in the past, it went without saying that Zilan was deservedly rewarded with a hefty amount of mystic grains.
Although not everyone had seen him before, most people had heard of his unique clothing preferences thus identifying him wasn’t really that hard.
As usual Zilan didn’t really care and if he was forced to voice out his opinions about the current circumstances, then all that would come out of his mouth would be, “This is good, keep it up! It doesn’t matter if you hate me or like me, as long as you all know me and recognise my skill along with my accomplishments.”
Ignoring the looks from the surrounding people, Zilan calmly walked towards a nearby stall operated by a Fire Guardian Dog who looked to be in his early thirty’s.
“Ah, young Master Malaika, what can I do for you?” He said while rubbing his hands in delight.
Zilan only spared him a glance before transferring his attention to the wares on display.
Seeing that the ‘bag of money’ didn’t want to talk, Rexio also kept his mouth shut, he even controlled his breathing so as to not bother the young Master.
Zilan on the hand measured all of the things in his view very seriously. In his experience, anything shiny that had a grand description shouldn’t be considered since it did not fit the description of being a diamond in the rough.
With that in mind only three things stood out, an assuming triangular trinket, a rusty sword that looked to be breaking down and a small figurine that looked just like an alligator.
Honestly, he didn’t really see anything good about these things but then again for him everything on sale was equivalent to hot garbage.
“I’ll take these three things, how much?”
Hearing this, Rexio’s heart sank and he couldn’t help but frown. He’d been following Zilan’s eye trail and he quickly noticed that only the trash things could enter them however, he refused to believe it thus he held out some hope but after hearing Zilan’s words just now, it took everything within him not to curse.
“Hmph! One mystic grain for all three, quickly pay up and leave, your presence is chasing away my customers.”
Zilan found Rexio’s reaction normal. Where there was money to be made merchant types would always put aside everything to earn it but once the potential to attain wealth was gone, their true colours would come out. In this case the racist tendencies that most Beasts possessed quickly surfaced.
Removing his sector badge and passing on the Mystic grain, an idea all of a sudden popped into his head.
“I’ll add an extra Mystic grain if you point me to a place where only antiques are sold.”
Rexio’s complexion immediately softened as he obediently drew a map for Zilan, licking his nose the whole time.
……………..
About an hour later,
Zilan took his time as he moved through the Central area admiring the scenery where he could. The map in his hands wasn’t very detailed but it was close enough that he wouldn’t need to ask for directions.
All of a sudden as he was just about to crack a smile, Zilan heard a threatening voice directed at him,
“YOU!”
Quickly turning to take a look, he instantly recognised the owner of the voice.
“Oh! If it isn’t Zest IronBlood, what can Teacher do for you?” smiled Zilan.
“Keep your slave mouth shut! How can someone like me recognise some trash as his teacher? Listen…_” Before he could finish, Zilan raised his hand in annoyance to stop him.
Zest looked oddly more human than other evolved Beasts who in most cases retained a lot of their Ancestors features. His skin and hair were completely purple as were his eyes. His body looked somewhat built and on his back two folded bat-like wings could be seen giving off an eerie, dark aura. Standing beside him was an Alchemist who was clearly in his later years but what caught Zilan’s attention was not the fact that he appeared to be a rare Two-tailed white Badger but rather the three cauldron pins on his chest.
“You say I am trash then what are you?” questioned Zilan, his voice deepening and his eyes narrowing.
“Heh, how presumptuous!” laughed the old Badger. “Someone who does not even possess a flame dares to try and misguide a child as talented as little Zest with his nonsensical conjectures?”
Zilan stared right at the old Badger who also did not look away.
“I do not know who you are but if you have a problem with my appointment as a Teacher then feel free to bring this up with the Elders or if you like I can help you by letting them know that you directly oppose their decision.” His words immediately caused the old Badger to frown but unfortunately Zilan was not going to give him a chance to speak out.
“As for that ‘amazing talent’ that you spoke of….well, I don’t think you quite understand the situation you’re in right now Zest. But since I am you’re Teacher for now at least, I’ll give you a hand.
You have great talent that is a fact! However, without proper guidance that talent is useless and it will ultimately wither away. I am offering you that guidance but due to your arrogance you opt to miss lessons and question my knowledge while not even listening to a word I say let alone an explanation on my theories, if this isn’t the definition of waste I don’t know what is. Right here, right now, I am willing to guarantee that with my help you will soar but if you choose other, lesser people, to be your guide then that will be your downfall. Every single one of my current students will gradually pass you by while you wallow away in a land where old Badgers bow down and agree with you, feeding you knowledge with a silver spoon. And you know what? Once it’s all said and done, you will be the one to look back and say, “At one point in time, I was the most talented one amongst them”. Your classmates on the other hand will continue to move forward, the name Zest IronBlood, becoming nothing but an afterthought, a stepping stone so insignificant that they won’t even remember it.”
“The choice is yours, this will be sole time that I persuade you to come to class. I’ve done my duty as a Teacher, whether or not you see the light is up to you.”
Not waiting for a response, Zilan quickly used a void to leave the area.
Meanwhile Zest took a moment to digest everything his ‘Teacher’ had said but in the end he expectedly took it as an insult.
“Senior Mo, if you can teach that Bastard a lesson, I’ll agree to what you proposed earlier.” Stated Zest while grinding his teeth together.
“With pleasure!” replied the Old Badger.
Important announcement ;
I will continue to release a chapter a day for a while as we get back into the groove of things. If you would like to read chapters in advance without having to wait days, then please feel free to check out my patreon page. Regardless of the amount you will get access up to chapter 100 however, after that only those who’ve pledged $3 or more will get to see the chapters in advance. (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.
