Chapter 0124

“What’s there to talk about? It is obvious she doesn’t like any cultivators from other realms.”

“Yu Li Ming, enough!” Yu Li Ming settle down under the intense gaze of Bei Ting Mao. Her stance told a different story. She already made up her mind and nothing the other did was going to change it.

“As I said before, my name is Graden Murkeiel, a 89 fire 51 wood mage. The girl-”

“Your an alchemist?” Bei Ting Mao interrupted the introduction in his surprise. Dual fire wood combinations are hard to find considering fire and wood doesn’t naturally coexist in nature.

Graden grimace before speaking. “I can perform minor alchemy, but my elements are too imbalance to pursue the profession.”

The others didn’t continue with their line of questioning as they can see how much it pains Graden. No one wants to be told they can not pursue their dream career because they weren’t born with the full potential to do the job. They can dabble but go no further. If they tried, all that awaits them in effort spent in vain.

Ventus told Tempest a different story. He has inside him the seed of the Eternal Fire Tree. It is a rare and precious treasure alchemist all over the Cardinal Realm and beyond would kill to possess. His spirits are nurturing it right now. If he lives long enough, you might witness to the rise of the greatest alchemist in the world.

“X-nay on the subject until he’s strong enough to protect himself?”

Yes.

“I am Fenix Arosis, a single element fire mage with 85 affinities. Single element mages experience certain issues with their bodies. Mine is fever. If my temperature spikes high enough, I go into delirium and would embrace the nearest water mage to cool myself down. Tempest and Li Ming, expect me to touch you alot.”

Tempest widen her eyes with amazement. Fenix had a valid reason for her perversion and expect Tempest and the girl Yu Li Ming to accommodate her. The worst part is, they can’t really refuse. They are group together for the unforeseeable future.

Tempest knew she wasn’t lying because Graden beside her was nodding his head in agreement.

She has the Aspect of the Phoenix, an ability which allows her to revitalize herself in her own flames.

“How valuable is this ability?”

Valuable enough for people risk their lives to capture her and drain her of her essences. The Aspect of the Phoenix has the ability to not only revitalize her, but to bring the dead back to life. If she learned the Soul Recall sutra, she can bring anyone back to life. It will cost her half her cultivation, but she can do it.

“X-nay on the subject until she’s strong enough to protect himself. Got it.”

“My name is Bei Ting Mao. I have 75 earth and 72 metal affinities. I was previously a cultivator in the Heavenly Mountains but my dan tian got destroyed. I came here to restart my cultivation as a mage.” Bei Ting Mao stated his current situation casually but everyone with eyes, except Tempest because she is listening to Ventus reveal the secrets of her group, can see he went through much suffering to get here.

He is a body cultivator with earth and metal spirit veins as well as a mage with earth and metal affinities. His speed of cultivation will leave many people in the dust when his dan tian is fixed. His spirits are working on it now.

“X-nay on the subject until he’s strong enough to protect himself. Got it.” Tempest learn the drill really fast. She is grouped with a bunch of freaks who had to high potential.

No. Go ahead and tell him. He needs to know so he can prepare himself. Since his spirits are recreating his spirit veins and dan tian, the cultivation process will be inverted. Instead of starting from outer and working inward, he will start inward and work outward. The cultivation process can be inverted, but it is painful and precautions need to be taken.

“You don’t have to hold back on our account Bei Ting Mao. Everyone in the Heavenly Mountains heard how your brother stole your fiancee and betrayed you at the critical moment causing your Qi deviation and destroying your dan tian. Once your shameless family realize you are worthless to them, they couldn’t wait to throw you away and accept the unscrupulous pair into the clan. Your master and senior brother isn’t any better. They reveal the plot not because they want to help you but to make you a laughing stock in the entire domain.”

Bei Ting Mao glared at Yu Li Ming but said nothing. She was right, and he couldn’t refute her. Anyone with connections to the Heavenly Mountains would have heard about it. No matter how much it pains him, he’d accept his current situation.

“Ooohhh, the genius to trash trope where everyone betrays him, then he finds a cheat and cultivate like a mad man and goes back and gets his revenge on everyone who betrays him and makes his family regrets turning their backs on him.” Tempest eyes sparkled brighter than the stars in the sky. She’d read enough stories to know there is going to be a lot of scheming and revenge killing in store for Bei Ting Mao. Tempest can’t wait to see the drama first hand. “I’ll go with you go back to the Heavenly Mountains. I want to see the look on their faces when you make them regret turning their backs on you.”

“How stupid can you be? Do you know how hard it is to cultivate another immortal potential?” Yu Li Ming stared at the strangely amused Tempest with frustration. Did wild animals raise this little brat or something? Her common sense is very lacking to say the least.

“Nope.”

“Agghhh.” Yu Li Ming screamed. It isn’t prudent for her to smack Tempest, but the urge was there. This group was truly vexing. It was just her luck to be grouped with a bunch of weirdos.

“Now, Ming, Tempest can be a bit of an air head. Don’t mind her.” Graden stepped in again to try and soothe ruffled feathers.

Tempest didn’t bother protesting his choice of words.

“My name is Yu Li Ming. People might get ideas if you call me by my name.” Four sets of eyes stared at Yu Li Ming in confusion. The naming and speaking convention in the Magus Alliance differs from the Heavenly Mountains in that the Magus Alliances and, to some extent the Ethereal Depths, are more lax in addressing people around them. The people in the Mysterious Wastelands follows the conventions that maximize their profits. Hence, four sets of eyes stared at Yu Li Ming in confusion. “Forget it.”

“While we’re at it, why don’t you tell us about yourself.” Fenix guide the topic back to its proper course. She didn’t do it to help Yu Li Ming. She was curious about Yu Li Ming’s strength. Fenix needed strong water mages around her to help with her fever issues and judging by her uncontrollable reaction to both Yu Li Ming and Tempest, they both have high water affinities.

“Yu Li Ming, 71 light and 66 water affinities.”

Daughter of Sea Brilliance. Her actual affinities are 96 light and 90 water. Her spirits hid some of her affinities because they didn’t want her family to kill her on the spot.

“Huh?”

The mortals in the Heavenly Mountains are patriarchal and follows a polygamy family system. They favor boys over girls.

“Yeah, Heavenly Mountains equals Asia while the Magus Alliance is takes after the west. The Mysterious Wasteland are capitalist. The Ethereal Depths is an asylum created to house the insane.”

Of sorts. Most families in the Heavenly Mountains are happy if they have boys who have high affinities, however they abandon or kill off the girls with high affinities. A morally loose female in their clans would ruin their reputation.

“There is nothing loose about that uptight girl.” Tempest pointed out.

Stretching your analogy a bit, the girl’s situation follows the idiom “Red ink stains one red, black ink stains one black.” If there is a female mage in the clan, then the clan is thought to be morally bankrupt. Hence, most clans would kill the girls who have high affinities. We learned about the practice and had taken precautions when our mortal is born into a society bias against mages.

“Wow. Our groups are made up of a bunch of freaks.” Tempest mused out loud.

Everyone turned to stare at the dense Tempest then turned to look at each other meaningfully. They were trying to assign someone the role as Tempest’s guardian.

Fenix was given the nanny position since she needed Tempest to cool her down. Yu Li Ming wasn’t going to do it unless Fenix was in dire straits.

“I’m awesomest of the awesome. Hehehe. Behold the great Tempest.” Tempest paused dramatically, waiting for everyone’s attention before continuing, “I am Tempest. I have a Resonance bond with Kataigida, the True Daughter of Storm and Cardis’ Successor.”