A sharp light passed through Jingiza’s eyes when he heard Zilan refer to his disciple like that. Even if he had no respect for his Senior in Mo, shouldn’t he at least give some face to him and hold his tongue.
“Hmph! Who was the one who taught you manners? Are all Half Breeds such simpletons?”
Hearing this, Zilan was slightly surprised. He couldn’t help but wonder, “What Senior? Hasn’t this guy been informed by the other Elders?”
Amani obviously could not know what he was thinking thus he assumed Zilan was intimidated.
“Elder, I’m sure Zilan has an explanation for all of this.” He then turned towards Zilan signalling him to take the stage and defend himself. Amani was confident that he wouldn’t order his students to destroy materials and call it Alchemy, for no reason.
“Explanation? There’s no need for that, let’s leave this to the Disciplinary department.” He smiled as he spoke.
“You?” Senior Mo feigned outrage but in truth he was starting to sweat, the calmness the Half Breed was displaying made him extremely uncomfortable.
Jingiza was also annoyed, he could sense something was off. “Oh! Is junior saying that I am unqualified to handle the situation?”
Zilan inwardly laughed, “I’m trying to save you some face here but since you don’t want to accept my kindness….”
“Fine, allow to me to tell you the truth.” However, before he could open his mouth, Senior Mo interjected. “What truth? Who’s going to believe the words of someone who intentionally destroys the future paths of his students?!”
“Oh! If you say that then I won’t speak.” Laughed Zilan. “I’ll show you instead.”
“Misty, Andrete, Lorn you’ve all taken down the notes for all our lessons so far, yes?” He asked, calmly taking note of Senior Mo’s expression. “This idiot has given me a new chance. Let’s see how far he’ll take this?”
“Yes, I have.” They all responded simultaneously.
“Good, pass them to the three Senior’s.”
Andrete was too afraid of both Jingiza and Mo so he passed his to Amani who smiled as he received it. Misty was straight forward so she quickly but respectfully handed hers to Jingiza. As for Lorn, he casually tossed his over to Senior Mo, not sparing him a second glance.
“Damn, if the teacher is trash the students also become trash.” He remarked.
Zilan’s eyes momentarily widened before breaking out into laughter. “I’m not sure if that is true.” He whispered.
Amani was shocked hearing his words but after taking a look at Jingiza and Mo, he also chuckled slightly. He was also surprised by the kid’s guts, “To think I thought he was scared before, hehe…”
The smile on his face remained for quite some time however, as soon as he started reading the notes written by Andrete his complexion turned incomparably serious.
The more he read, the more he questioned but upon reaching the conclusion of each explanation, it was like an explosion would go off in his head. He didn’t even bother with Jingiza and Mo any longer, suddenly taking a seat and studying the words, carefully.
The High level Alchemist Elder Jingiza was not any different, his mind churned with many theories and rebuttals to the theories in the notes but for some reason he couldn’t find anything that stuck out as wrong. This was probably partially due to the fact that he actually understood very little of what was in the notes. After all, for children it may be easy to accept since they were still young and their minds hadn’t been influenced to move or think in any specific way. However, as a person born in a different time his thoughts had always followed and adhered to certain guidelines or rules of Alchemy that were instilled into his very bones.
Unfortunately, Senior Mo saw nothing close to what the two experts saw,
“The F**k is this?! Blasphemy! Blasphemy of the highest order! You…You dare to contradict the true and traditional ways of Alchemy that our Ancestors left for us? You bloody Half Breed you are looking down on Beast kind? This is a disrespect to the Chairman!…” Senior Mo went on and on, each declaration louder than the last until finally, Amani couldn’t take it anymore.
“SHUT UP! THE MORE YOU SPEAK THE MORE YOU SHAME YOUR MASTER!!” He was extremely furious. How could someone be so short sighted? When had Alchemy ever had a specific path? It was a mystery how this bastard even managed to become a third ranked Alchemist at all.
“Amani, you dare tell me to shut up? Who do you think you ar…”
“ENOUGH!” Taking out a dark red disk from his voidless sack, Amani suddenly crushed it under his palm and closed his eyes.
“Wait..” Elder Jingiza tried to stop him when he saw what was happening but it was too late.
The next few seconds seemed like an eternity for him until finally, what he was expecting had arrived.
“Hahahaha, Jingiza, how long has it been? Come and see me for a while. Hahaha…” The space around the class shook but that was all that anyone noticed. Even Zilan couldn’t detect or hear the voice that suddenly spoke. Only the intended target, Elder Jingiza could hear it.
His face instantly turned sour. He didn’t bother with his disciple any longer, he just looked at Zilan for a while before asking. “Who taught you these things?”
“Self taught.”
Shock!
Amani included, everyone remained still, except of course Senior Mo was waiting for his moment to continue raging. He was very happy with himself now that he confirmed that the calm demeanour of the Half Breed was nothing but a front. In truth, he was actually a heretic, this way he could be rid of him and be seen as being in the right. In the end everything went all right.
“As expected of you.” Disheartened, Jingiza disappeared before their eyes. His last statement was clearly meant for Amani.
“Zilan, these notes can I borrow them?”
“Sure.” He wanted to see Uncle Green’s reaction to his theories.
Meanwhile, the ignored Senior Mo was confused.
“Why has Master left?” He was preparing to say that Zilan’s conjectures were a direct contradiction of his Master’s teachings in order to get his Master more involved and directly punish this eye sore of a Half Breed. But now?
That bad feeling from before was coming back.
He could tell he was in trouble but he didn’t get what went wrong.
“What am I missing?”
Senior Mo was indeed not the smartest person alive however, he was still old and anyone who lived till his age in the harsh, unforgiving Beast world was definitely not a retard. He knew how to pick his battles but only if the reward was greater than the risk and in this case the reward was tens maybe hundreds of times greater than the risk involved.
This was partly due to the fact that he initially didn’t view Zilan as that great of a risk but the main reason was because the reward involved was just that enticing and great.
Every year, fresh Alchemy apprentices would run into the doors of the Alchemy Association with great hope and excitement, it was a grand event, an occasion that affected many people’s lives but none more so than the Teachers.
The position of teacher was actually one that was fought for amongst qualifying Alchemists and the reason for this was all due to the rules of the Association. They stated that any teacher who could successfully guide an apprentice to the second rank would be rewarded and if the apprentices under their tutelage could impress during the examinations the Association had in place, then the rewards for the teachers could be described as nothing less than mouth-watering. Furthermore, if there was ever the case where a genius bloomed beyond what the Association predicted under the care of a teacher, that teacher would be rewarded even more favourably sometimes even getting Merit points.
Zest IronBlood was extremely talented. This was a fact even the Association recognised since they included it in his bio and for someone like Senior Mo, this was a great opportunity to snatch this rare talent rather easily from what he thought would be a weak and fearful Half Breed. After all, this was a bloody Merit point that was up for grabs and how many genius candidates were included in this current crop of Alchemist apprentices? He had to take this chance, but now he could feel that something was wrong.
He hadn’t made an accurate plan since he had all the things playing in his favour, an advantage he didn’t think could be nullified. His Master hated humans and anything like them, Zest was on his side so he could come up with whatever story he wanted and it would be corroborated, plus according to the research he did Zilan was actually preaching heresy and finally, he was just a Half Breed. Yes, he was talented but so what?! In the Beast world there had been talented Half Breeds before but which one of them actually became legendary figures? None!
So why was dealing with this one seemingly harder than scaling Mount Tai.
“No! No! You’re just a piece of scum, a lower existence. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Good! Good! Zilan, I challenge you to a friendly duel, the winner gets Zest.” His smile was borderline horrifying to look at. He grinded his teeth as he slowly said each word.
Zilan however, shook his head.
“Haha, what is this? Are you afraid? Yes, this is the way your people should behave, Hahaha.”
Still calm, Zilan expressionlessly said,
“I don’t want him, he’s all yours.” He then took out a jade slip from his voidless sack and erased the name Zest from his list of students. Anyone who wanted him, could claim him or he could go seek out a teacher himself.
“You..you..I still challenge you!” Mo was basically frothing at the mouth by this point.
Imagine an ant pretending to be at your level, acting all high and mighty, what would you do?
Well, in the Beast world the answer was very simple. Speak with strength, the weak will be trampled.
Zilan knew he couldn’t decline nor did he intend on doing so in the first place. In a hostile environment, a foreign being needed to show his power and Senior Mo had been successfully baited by him into being his spring board to fame.
“I accept your challenge but let’s leave it for after the rookie ranking tournament.” He stated, rather calmly.
Amani watching on the side was slightly irritated and happy at the same time watching this, he felt that he’d played the part that Zilan wanted him to play.
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