Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 206. Unforeseen Trouble.

“Two things, I think?” Laien responded with a playful smile, though his overall expression remained on the level-headed side. “I’d like all of us to try out all three of the jade slips before we go, but first I’ve got a question. When was the last time you tried to comprehend this jade slip?” he asked and held up the blood-red jade slip with two fingers. He didn’t have any big hopes since only a fool or someone who had given up wouldn’t attempt all possible means of prolonging their life and as he saw it, Mustafa was neither of those. Thus, it was most likely that Mustafa had recently revisited this and the other jade slips, but he had to ask if merely for the peace of his mind.

“Two weeks ago or so?” Mustafa responded alongside a sigh, then smiled gently at Laien. “After you three are done, I’ll take a quick look at the blood-red one, too. I gained some new insights into Aspects jus the day before, so who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to learn something more from it this time,” he said calmly and even laughed a little bit, though anyone listening could tell that he wasn’t enthusiastic about the prospect. Objectively speaking, however, it was only natural for him to act this way. Had he held high hopes of his recent breakthrough enabling him to learn more from his ancient artifacts, he would have had at least mentioned the possibility to those three. That being said, he appreciated Laien’s good intentions in asking regardless of those thoughts of his.

“Maybe, eh?” Laien said and gave Arslan a brief glance before turning his gaze back towards Mustafa. “Not unless your soul grew stronger because of those insights. And even then, there’s both the case of compatibility with the Concept of Life and the right opportunity to gain the first spark of enlightenment,” he mentioned with a small, sad wry smile. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be hopeful, but he didn’t wish for Arslan to cling to any false hope. The things in those jade slips were amazing, true, but they almost certainly weren’t going to be of any use to Mustafa beyond enabling him to work with the Nine Refinements to Immortality without killing himself in the process.

“Agreed,” Mustafa said, nodding towards Laien. “I’m curious as to why you’re so sure the access to those jade slips is primarily centered around the soul, but as I said, I’ll wait with asking you for a longer explanation until a later date. For now get done with exchanging the jade slips, I bet everyone outside is getting impatient,” he added lightheartedly, looking at Laien and Yin with eyes filled with curiosity. Be it martial or spiritual masters, or even powerful dual practitioners, all of them had failed to anything from those jade slips. So, could it be that those two boys had souls more powerful than any of them? Truth to be told, he was beginning to wonder if he would be able to hold on until at least the next day with his questions and wouldn’t start asking them during the northwards ride.

Thankful for Mustafa’s consideration, Laien nodded and turned to Arslan, handing the five-year-old the blood-red jade slip. He then glanced at Yin, prompting Arslan to hand the golden jade slip to Yin and in turn receiving the silver-platinum one from Yin the next second. Having been just told by Mustafa to hurry up, none of them wasted any time as they proceeded to concentrate.

As a result, Yin opened his eyes as the first one, a mere few seconds after he had closed them. Soon thereafter Arslan did the same, leaving only Laien with his eyes closed and with a slight smile on his face. As it seemed, comprehending anything about the wind-element techniques or the Heavenly Tempest itself was outside of Yin’s reach while understanding anything about the Concept of Life was similarly beyond Arslan’s current capabilities. Only Laien, who happened to be studying the jade slip with the Inheritance of the Concept of Death, appeared to be immersed in the process.

“Amazing stuff.” A brief moment later, Laien opened his eyes and commented with an honest sense of appreciation. “Can I take your expressions as in everything went as expected?” he inquired with a grin while initiating the second round of swapping. Once Yin and Arslan confirmed briefly that he was right on the spot, the three of them engaged in the final attempt which, as it was soon proved, ended in the same way the previous one had. In other words, Yin spent some time looking through the blood-red jade slip with the Inheritance of the Concept of Life, Laien failed to gain any wind-element insights from the golden jade slip, while Arslan gained nothing from the silver-platinum jade slip with its Inheritance of the Concept of Death.

“Well,” Laien chuckled, finding the somewhat awkward atmosphere to be amusing. They had found some incredible things, but the entire ‘checking out just to be sure’ had cooled down some of the excitement from their unexpected series of gains. However, neither he nor Yin minded as they had fully expected this development before those two rounds of swapping around. “We’ll have a nice calm chat later, so for now, shall we get going?” he asked with a smile and nodded ever so slightly when Arslan handed him the silver-platinum jade slip. Then, after half a second of consideration, he gave the golden jade slip with the wind-element Inheritance to Arslan, startling him visibly.

“What.” Laien laughed and grinned at Arslan. “This one will be mostly useless to us, so just keep it. If we ever want to show it to someone else, we’ll just come over to you and borrow it for a bit,” he said merrily, finding the surprised and elated look on Arslan’s face to be quite cute. Those jade slips were technically a gift from Mustafa to him and Yin, but was Arslan really thinking they wouldn’t give him that golden one when it would be of great use to him? That being said, Laien wasn’t about to complain since the look on Arslan’s face was just too precious and he wouldn’t want to have missed seeing it. Coincidentally, Mustafa was also smiling a few steps away, thinking along the same lines.

“Thank you,” Arslan said in a more high-pitched tone than usual. He quickly put the golden jade slip away into his new interspatial ring, then, after a momentary inner struggle, he jumped at Laien and hugged him at the waist. He proceeded to hug Laien tightly while snuggling his head against Laien’s chest, feeling even happier than after they had victoriously survived the last battle. With death no longer looming over his father’s head in the near future, with him and his new friends having dealt with all of their problems and with a powerful Martial Art to cultivate, he was on the cloud nine.

Meanwhile, Laien chuckled quietly and put one hand on Arslan’s back while tousling his hair with the other. Sensing Mustafa’s gaze on himself, he smiled wryly and glanced at the man, surprised to discover the familiar type of an expression Mustafa was looking at him and Arslan with. “Just like elder brother,” Laien thought quietly, the smile on his face dimming slightly. His daily life for the past three months or so had been full of new and interesting experiences, so he hadn’t really thought about it too much or too often, but he did miss Rudford a lot. Rudford was the only parent-like figure in his life after his real parents had died all those years ago, so he was clearly aware of how much Rudford meant to him and this awareness deepened further as time went on.

“Take this too,” Yin mentioned once Arslan let go of Laien and threw him the blood-red jade slip. While Mustafa was confounded, Laien and Yin exchanged meaningful smiles before Laien stored both remaining jade slips in his black gold interspatial ring. The two of them had come to the consensus that Laien would keep most of the precious things on himself since he liked to always have them at hand whereas Yin didn’t really care thus and was happy to indulge Laien in this matter.

“Let’s go,” Laien said merrily, glanced at Yin, at Arslan, and finally at Mustafa, then grinned and headed outside as the first one. Yin and Arslan followed him immediately, but Mustafa only moved a heartbeat later, having been thrown off a little bit first by the nostalgic look which had appeared on Laien’s face for a few seconds and then by the incomprehensible interaction between Laien and Yin.

“I knew it earlier,” Mustafa mused on the way out. “But those two really are good friends. It’s easy to tell if someone’s relationship is shallow because their interactions will mostly be within reason. Only when the two start communicating in their own way can it be said that they are truly friends,” he pondered with a smile. He knew that it was his own interpretation of friendship and he knew it wouldn’t always be correct, for example, it wouldn’t make much sense when dealing with overly serious people, but whenever it could apply, it wouldn’t be wrong in his experience.

That being said, regardless of what the four were feeling or pondering at the moment, once they left the building they were greeted by complete silence as hundreds of gazes landed upon them. At first, the four wondered what was it all about, but a second later they realized that the aura from Arslan’s enlightenment must have spread far beyond the walls of the building. Yet, as far as the four of them knew, with Laien, Yin, and Mustafa in particular, no one has used their aura to sweep the building and similarly, no one was attempting to probe their bodies now that they had come outside.

“Oh.” Laien grinned, guessing what kind of thoughts must be swirling about everyone’s minds. The aura of a powerful wind-element breakthrough, in their scope of understanding, could only have been brought forth by Mustafa, who was supposed to be crippled. Beyond that, it was probably quite incomprehensible to them that a mere chat that lasted twenty minutes at best could have caused anyone to have a breakthrough in any of the Elemental Laws. And well, they wouldn’t be wrong.

“Bellicose! Arion!” Laien called out to the two War Horses waiting nearby, one black and one brown, all the while pretending not to notice the awkward atmosphere. “Mhm, they sure do look a bit out of place with all those Hisan Horses in the background,” he mused with a smile. He hadn’t had the leisure to think carefreely before, but now that he took a better look, those north-Euleanian Tempest Horses were pretty similar to their southern War Horses. Could it be that at one point in history the south had taken some of those Tempest Horses for breeding or maybe the other way around? Well, with the ancient history from before ten thousand years ago mostly lost, they would never know.

“Who got them ready, though?” Laien asked with a laugh when Bellicose, saddled up and with reins at the ready, stopped in front of him. He was happy that as it seemed, both Bellicose and Arion had been prepared for them, but at the same time he was curious about who could have gotten those two rowdy horses to stand still long enough to put the equipment back on them. Removing the stuff was one thing, but those prideful stallions weren’t ones to allow those they didn’t recognize to approach them, much less tinker with them in any way. His question, though, was soon answered as Julius snapped out of the prevalent mood and approached them with an explanation.

“I’m sorry,” Julius began awkwardly, not knowing what else to say when the two horses started stomping their hooves and snorting at him angrily. “I took the liberty to prepare them for you guys, but I didn’t realize they were already elite-ranked. As you can see, they still hold a grudge against me for removing, but especially for putting the saddles and reins back on them,” he said helplessly but breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed that Laien and Yin didn’t seem to mind. He felt bad for assuming things and not asking beforehand, but he knew that Yin was unlikely to act stuck-up over such things and he was glad to find out that Laien’s attitude seemed to be similar to his friend’s.

Comparatively speaking, to those brought up on the vast grasslands of the northern half of Eulene, and especially for those from the military or noble background, horses were immensely important in their lives. It wasn’t unusual for smaller and bigger arguments and conflicts to erupt over either the treatment of a horse or the rights to his ownership, the more so the more valuable the horse was. What he had done with good intentions and without thinking too much could have very easily been seen as a heavy affront if the other party was of north-Euleanian heritage. He wanted to believe that he had instinctively assumed that it would be fine since those two boys weren’t from there, but if he were to be honest with himself, he would have to admit that he simply hadn’t thought about that.

“Uh, right.” Julius smiled at Laien and brought out a white spear from his interspatial ring. “Before I forget, I picked this little guy up roughly three hours after the battle ended. We all wanted to make sure your Living Steel weapon would have enough time to gather all of its little bits before moving it,” he added once he handed the spear over to Laien. Yet, even though once again Laien didn’t seem bothered and just thanked him with a smile, he started to wonder if he should have done it like that. Perhaps it would have been a better choice if he didn’t put the spear into his interspatial ring and had simply held onto it or immediately brought it over to Laien. However, as he was thinking so, he couldn’t help but reveal a slight, troubled smile while glancing at the palm of his hand.

“What is it?” Laien inquired, having noticed the weird behaviour of Julius’s. Was Julius worried about something? He had to admit that the past him would have gotten angry with Julius perhaps not for annoying his horse, but surely for handling his weapon so casually. However, he no longer cared about such small matters both in heart and mind, so others needed not to stress over them, either.

“No.” Julius shook his head with a smile. “It’s nothing,” he said and looked Laien in the eye, what resulted in Laien shrugging slightly and giving up on questioning him further. “It’s better for me not to pry into his secrets,” Julius thought to himself as he clenched his right hand tightly. He hadn’t expected anything like that to happen, so he hadn’t been wary in the slightest when picking up Laien’s spear. Yet, the very moment he had grabbed the shaft, a surge of cold energy had invaded his body. Even though he had quickly extinguished the cold with some of his Qi, the outer layer of skin on the palm of his hand had been frozen into a necrotic state, leaving him no option but to seek healing from one of his water-element subordinates. That, or he could have cut the dead layer of skin off and relied on his powerful body to recover within a few hours, but he preferred not to have to go through skinning his own hand unless absolutely necessary.

“I assume you’re done?” Azuresky approached Laien, Yin, and the others on his horse. Seeing as Laien and Yin mounted their War Horses once they were done talking with Julius, he dared to assume that there would be no further unforeseen delays. As for the aura of Heavenly Tempest which had appeared for a moment, he naturally wouldn’t inquire about it in front of everyone.

“For now,” Laien responded merrily. Somehow, he found something as mundane as sitting in the saddle of Bellicose to be quite pleasant, now that he didn’t have to worry about anything. “I wanted to ask, where to will we be going in your Holy Union?” he inquired and smiled cheekily, his gaze shifting between Azuresky and Emeric. Did those two prideful Kings have a common meeting place settled beforehand or would they have to decide if to go to the Bolan Kingdom or the Yali Kingdom? If the latter option was true, then he was curious to see the dynamic between those two rulers with his own eyes. He had learned a few things about them before from Raphael and then from Yin just this morning, but he was yet to interact with either of them and see it all for himself.

That being said, while Azuresky appeared to be amused by Laien’s carefree behaviour, Emeric was beginning to frown as to him Laien’s words and actions were nothing but disrespectful. As far as Emeric was concerned, even if Azuresky was willing to overlook Laien’s blatant lack of politeness and the out-of-place provocation directed at the two of them, he wasn’t nearly as soft-hearted. A monster-class genius or not, he wasn’t about to allow a child to do whatever he pleased in front of him. Yet, before the words had a chance to leave his throat, his anger subsided by a level when he noticed Yin smile at him apologetically, put his hands together and give him a decently-deep bow.

“Hmph.” Emeric snorted ostentatiously, his focus returning to Laien once he had given Yin a brief nod in acknowledgement of the apology. “Child, I can overlook you not coming to talk to us immediately after you woke up after your injury and bodily breakthrough. Having a need to clean oneself and fill one’s stomach first is understandable Similarly, I’m willing to overlook the next moments since Mustafa arrived unexpectedly and the situation wasn’t appropriate for you to start talking to us all of the sudden. However, no matter how casually Azuresky approached you, your response was unacceptable. I won’t even mention your attempt to stir trouble!” he stated angrily, staring daggers at Laien the entire time. Once that kid had power and accomplishments on his level, then he would be willing to close an eye to this degree of disrespect, but presently Laien had no such qualifications!

With Emeric reprimanding him in front of everyone, Laien couldn’t help but reveal a frown despite understanding very well that it wasn’t wise to anger Emeric any further. His heart had already sped up since unlike almost everyone present, he was fully capable of sensing the pressure of Emeric’s quietly surging aura, the aura of an immensely powerful martial master half a step into the eighth Realm of Heroes. Yet, he thoroughly disagreed that he was the one at fault and he could tell that even Yin was feeling more troubled than frustrated with him, so he refused to back down.

“King Emeric,” Laien spoke strongly, looking Emeric directly in the eye. As a result, even though he was yet to start speaking his mind, he caused the already tensing up atmosphere to solidify badly enough to be cut with a knife. “I think you’re under some kind of a misunderstanding here. I won’t deny that I’m grateful to you and Warrior-King Azuresky, but when asking Prince Casimir for help, I never once agreed to become a servant of your countries nor one of your subordinates!” he stated outright, angered by the way Emeric was looking down on him, both literally given by the look in the man’s blue eyes and rhetorically given the words Emeric had spoken. What made it all worse was that Emeric’s expression grew stiffer and angrier as the man apparently refused to take what he had just told him to heart, what in consequence prompted Laien to snort and add a few more words.

“If you expect me to bow my head and grovel before you the very first time we’re talking, then with all due respect, King Emeric, I’d rather not speak with you at all.”

The silence which befell the area once Laien finished speaking was almost deafening. Even the hundreds of horses didn’t dare to make a sound, many of them wondering if their masters were about to set out and soon engage in some dangerous battle. However, even though no one dared to say a word, many of those present had their own thoughts on the situation. This, in turn, caused the air to become even heavier from the accumulated emotions and aura-related pressure.

“You…” At first, Emeric was so flabbergasted that he momentarily forgot to be angry. No one had spoken to him in this way ever since he had succeeded his father and become a King, so it took a few seconds for the meaning of Laien’s words to sink into his brain. However, once he regained his focus, he immediately felt a fresh surge of anger rising up from deep within him. “Who do you think you are? You and your friends were the ones in need and it was our Kingdoms that helped you when you needed it the most, yet you refuse to adhere to the most basic forms of courtesy? Do you think I do not dare to teach you your place, little child?” he asked in a clearly infuriated tone. By this point, he no longer restrained his aura and went as far as to release and direct some killing intent towards Laien, clearly intent on intimidating him into submission. He wasn’t planning to do something as illogical as to kill Laien over an argument, but he was dead set on straightening out his attitude!

However, what Emeric did not expect was that not only did Laien not shrink away in front of the pressure, but the look in his eyes became even more defiant. To make the matters worse, Mustafa, who was standing just a few meters away, suddenly released his own aura, which immediately expelled whatever pressure had befallen Laien and anyone near him. In fact, to Emeric’s shock, Mustafa’s aura appeared to be suppressing his own ever so slightly. Given that Mustafa’s Qi Origin was damaged and from what he could tell, his cultivation had fallen to the fifth Realm of Heroes, Mustafa’s insights must have entered the threshold of the eighth Realm of Heroes!

However, judging by the fact that Mustafa didn’t speak up and simply continued standing where he was with a smile on his face and with his arms crossed on his chest, everyone soon understood that he wasn’t planning to get directly involved in the argument between Emeric and Laien. He would step in if things escalated too far, but he wouldn’t speak for Laien’s sake. In itself, it should and would have been seen as conceding ground to Emeric, but even the golden-haired King himself was irked by the casual smile on Mustafa’s face, not to mention that tranquil and yet amused look in his eyes.

“Father.” However, before either Laien or Emeric could start their argument again, Anna raised her voice while directing her horse closer to the center of events. “I don’t believe Laien wanted to disrespect you in any way. He might have been brasher than what we are used to, but he’s not someone to approach others with malicious intentions,” she argued in a gentle voice, at the same time trying to mind brevity. She knew her father well enough to understand that a long speech from her would only be called out as a presumptuous mass of assumptions, so she wanted to reduce the risk of that happening. Alas, she was aware of how stubborn and inflexible her father was, so even if she spoke with the best of intentions, she could very well fail to get through to him.

“That’s not for you to decide.” And, as Anna feared, Emeric wasn’t about to back down from his position just because of her pleas. “Either this little child will come to his senses, get off his high horse and sincerely apologize for his behaviour or he might as well stay here, since I won’t agree to grant him entry to the Holy Union!” he stated with an annoyed harrumph, thus adding even more oil to the already wildly burning fire. Still, as far as Emeric was concerned, it was better to write off those who couldn’t be reasoned with rather than cling at the hope that they will prove useful.