Chapter 0186

Tempest saw the excitedly screaming Fenix charging towards them with the rest of the team hot on her heels and braced for impact.

“Damn it Fenix! Have you been binge eating? I swear you gain a couple of pounds since I last saw you!” Tempest complained as she was laid flat on her back with a happy Fenix above her.

There are reasons why Tempest’s teammates didn’t think Tempest was female. Even though Starm calls Tempest Big Sis Tempest, he was strangely enough agreed Tempest was asexual from his point of view. All men know to never mention a woman’s weight. All women know to never mention their weight. How can Tempest not know to not mention a person’s weight? Losing weight, maybe it can be mentioned. As for gaining weight…

“Ouch. Damn it Fenix, that hurts.” Tempest yelled as Fenix sent burst energy throughout Tempest’s body, making her feel as if she had a mild sunburn.

“You deserve it your foul mouth jinx. Do you know how worried we were about you?” Fenix countered with concern and another glomp which leads to her sucking water mana from Tempest.

“People who worry tend to lose weight, not gain it!” Dunce Tempest complained. “Ouch, quit it!”

Graden and Li Ming look on the duo with indulgence. The previous event opens its eyes to the stark reality of being weak. They all had very high potential but they must be alive before they can reach their potential. Fenix worrying and taking it out on the silly Tempest alleviate some of their anxiety.

Bei Ting Mao looks thoughtful at the Tempest. He wondered how Tempest was able to defeat a madman fighting his inner demons when he couldn’t. He wanted to know. Although he wasn’t obsessed with the subject as much as before, curiosity got a hold of him.

Starm was eyeing the duo intensely. He was waiting for a chance to insert himself in and when it presented itself, Starm jump right between them. Starm got in a “Big Sis Tempest is mine! Interloper, go away,” before Tempest instinctively tried punted him away but the sticky little bun held on tight.

Once Tempest realizes what she was doing, she held back and let the sticky little bun circulate his mana through her. He needs to recharge just as much as Fenix does.

After everything was settled, Tempest answered the question that was on everyone’s mind, “What happened?”

“I fought the madman and nearly got killed. Luckily, Cardis intervened. I grabbed the loot and ran. Afterward, I set a protective formation and had some words with my spirits.” The answer was succulent and to the point.

“I missed a perfectly good chance to see him! Damn!” Tempest had forgotten Cardis was Fenix’s idol. The enthralled girl was attentively eyeing Tempest up and down.

Before Fenix could ask Tempest a thousand and one questions about Cardis, Li Ming asked the question everyone overlooked. “Did you actually have loot from a chaotic rift like the girl claimed you did?”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and as one turned towards Tempest like they were cats and she was the kitty crack.

It was not a joking matter. Claws, scratches, kitty bites, blood, and extreme harassment are involved with cats and kitty crack. Tempest experienced it first hand! She barely lived to tell the tale. She swore she was like Sasaki from Azumanga Daioh. Cats go out of their way to bite her.

Running was not an option.

Surrender was the only option.

“I got these loots.” Tempest started tossing out all the loot she gathered when she was fighting the madman in a bid to divert her teammates’ attention. If she didn’t know how precious the treasure from the chaotic rift was before, she sure does know now!

Tempest was sure they weren’t going to believe her when she says she doesn’t have any treasures from the chaotic rift. She can’t convince herself much less the others.

They would continue to pester her for treasures if she hid it from them, or worse yet, try to search her mage robes.

Therefore Tempest picked the lesser of the two evils. She tossed out everything she looted after the madman was imprisoned in a lava ball and a small portion of the treasures she got when the chaotic power bum-rushed her.

Among the odd and ends she tossed out, a few of them were plants. More precisely, it was the plants that grew from the seeds she took from Graden.

“Ah, my little beauties!” Graden yelled as he threw himself on a pile of plants, “You survived and thrived! Look at how big you have grown!”

In normal times, everyone would have been shocked by Graden’s change in behavior and sneered at the love obsessed fool. No one had the time to jeer at Graden. They were too busy trying to snatch the best treasures Tempest tossed out of her mage robes.

“I get 70% of the loot! Mine, mine, mine!” Tempest went from one team member to another, snatching the treasures in their hands and stuffing back into her mage robe.

“By your reasoning the other 30% of the treasure is ours.” Fenix tried to reason with Tempest since the treasure she wanted was snatched back by the money grubber.

“Mine. Mine. Mine.” Tempest stuffed the treasures she took out back into her mage robe.

“We’ll give you 70% of the treasures we collected while you give us 30% of your treasures.” Bei Ting Mao phrase his offer using logic and lure. They made an agreement that Tempest get 70% of all the treasures they collected from this expedition and they get 30%. Bei Ting Mao subtly reminded Tempest of their agreement while trying to lure Tempest with her portion of the treasures they collected.

“Hmph. I think you got it wrong. My treasures are mine. 70% of your treasures are mine. I’m not trading my loot in your hands for my loot in my hands. That’s just stupid.” Tempest blatantly twisted the original agreement to her advantage and short of killing her and stealing the treasures, they can’t do anything about it.

Tempest knew the few treasures she took out would tempt even the most strong willed principal mages to betray her. She was happy to note while her teammates might try to snatch the treasures, there was no killing intent in their actions. It never entered their mind to simply kill each other and hoard the treasures for themselves.

“Tempest, be reasonable. You can’t use everything you have. So why not give us a little.” Li Ming entered the conversation when she saw Bei Ting Mao’s method didn’t work.

“Mine. Mine. Mine.” Tempest said while she eyed Li Ming and Bei Ting Mao cautiously. They could only helplessly watch as money grubber Tempest turned into dog Tempest, complete with sharp fangs and a strong jaw that would never let go of the bone in her mouth.

Fenix decided on a different approach. “Graden quit sucking on the stigma. Get your head out of the pistil and talk sense into Tempest.”

Bei Ting Mao and Starm took an instinctive step back as Fenix’s words reminded them of Graden’s ambiguous preferences.

Graden’s face smeared with nectar didn’t help the situation any further.

Tempest would have laughed at the strange situation if she wasn’t acting like a rabid dragon guarding her hoard.

“Ah, what is going on?” Graden asked as he pulled out a cloth and wiped his face.

“Once you are into your beauties, you forget your friends.” Fenix vented her frustration at Graden. It wasn’t the best move on her part but her hand itched to beat Tempest silly. Since she can't, she might as well take out her frustration on a suitable target and Graden happened to be that suitable target.

“Tempest is being her treasure grubbing self.” Li Ming explained with a few simple words.

“Ah, I see. And you select me as the representative?”

“We can’t handle her.” Bei Ting Mao’s simple words spoke volumes.

“Then you’d abide by the outcome of my negotiation?”

““““Yes.”””” They all agreed, even Starm.

“Okay.” Graden turned towards Tempest and sighed in his heart. When Tempest adopts her dog in the manger stance, it is harder to profit from her than a business minded cultivator from the Mysterious Wasteland.

Graden didn’t waste time and made his best offer. “We’ll give you everything in our mage robes right now except the weapons you gave us in exchange for one suitable treasure from you. We’ll also use all of our connections to help you with your sisters.”

As Tempest had pointed out, she doesn’t need to trade her treasures in their hands - the weapons they are using were from her - for her treasures in her hands.

“You don’t look like you’d settle for just one treasure.” Tempest pointed out.

“Well, yes we don’t want to settle for one treasure but I figured we can trade for some more down the road,” Graden said to Tempest but his words were meant for the others.

The others were satisfied with Graden’s words. It gave them the option to obtain more things from Tempest in the future without compromising their integrity.

“Okay.” Tempest immediately agreed. This odd lot she was stuck with have their issues but Tempest knows they won’t stab her in the back. If they were like that, they would have done so. The treasures from a chaotic rift was that enticing to mages. She wouldn’t mind strengthening them up.

“Fine. We’ll start with Fenix since I already gave you your treasure.”

“What! I didn’t get anything!”

“What do you call those ten plants you were rolling around in?”

“Compensation for the sacrifices I’ve made,” Graden said seriously. “My beauties didn’t survive the madman’s attack. It’s only fair you compensate me for my sacrifice.”

“Your sacrifice? Don’t you mean their sacrifice?”

“I’ve planted them with all my expectations, water them with love and nurtured them with my blood, sweat, and tears. Of course, it is my sacrifice!”

“Just like a man to claim credit at the expense of others,” Tempest grumbled, then paused. She stared at Graden speculatively.

Graden’s attack power is pathetically weak. Fenix is the epitome of a powerful fire mage. She has a variety of spells at her disposable and knows how to adapt each spell to the situation at hand. She also has a strong understanding of the laws her magic was based on. Graden....aside from the commonly known spells, he uses his plants to attack. Even then he tosses them out and commands them to fight using the special connections he has with them. It was as if he hadn’t learned anything from his spirits.

If that was the case, then he did indeed sacrifice much when they fought with the madman.

Tempest may be greedy but she knows how to repay kindness. Having experienced little of it in her life, Tempest learned to treasure the acts of kindness shown her.

“Fine! I feel like I’m getting the raw end of the stick here. The madman uses a technique and aged them, what a thousand years in a slash? You’ve only raised your beauties for a little bit but your getting several plants over a thousand-year-old and your getting a treasure too.” Tempest tossed out several treasures and waited patiently for Graden to make his pick.

Graden lowered his head to peruse the treasures Tempest tossed out all the while hiding a sweet smile. He didn’t want Tempest to know the seven plants she gave him were not a thousand years old but ten thousand years old. She’d vomit blood and start to make outrageous demands. Although he cares for the silly girl, he can’t give up a treasure from the chaotic rift. He, more than anyone here, needs the treasure in Tempest’s hands.

Take the Soul Sunfire Weave and give it to the Golden Flame Vine.

Resentment filled Graden’s heart.

The cultivators from the other realms won’t openly say it but they thought mages were merely puppets of the spirits. Graden had never felt like he was pawn until today. They ignore him when he was worthless and order him around when he has something they want.

Graden’s hand trembled in anger but he still reached for the Soul Sunfire Weave.

“It’s warm. It’s not hot, but warm.” Graden thought to himself as he held the Soul Sunfire Weave. He rubbed his face against the fur like a baby cuddling under his blanket. A sense of nostalgia touched Graden along with pain, loss, and love.

The soul of the Sunfire elemental was calling out to him, soothing his soul and easing his heart.

Graden knew the soul of the Sunfire element had accepted him.

Sunfires are not beasts like phoenixes or dragons but a creature born out from the purest fire elements found in the Primordial Chaos.

Chaotic power is known for being hard to handle and extremely destructive yet few knew chaotic power can give rise to sentient of the energy itself. Elementals are a manifestation of the paradox that is chaotic energy. Sunfires are mid-tier elements born from the concentration of fire energy.

In the Primordial Chaos, elementals are among the top ten most powerful creatures. They are immune to physical attacks since they are a creature of pure energy. Mental attacks work on them if the cultivator is stronger than them but even an immortal who cultivates the mind as their immortal path are hard pressed to even scratch the surface of a low-tier elemental much less one as powerful as the Sunfire.

Soul attacks are particularly harmful to the Sunfire creature but no soul cultivator would dare fight a Sunfire elemental because Sunfire can devour soul force.

The Soul Sunfire Weave is a fabric made out of the condensed soul of the Sunfire at the time of their death. In a way, the Soul Sunfire Weave can be considered the soul of an elemental.

A soul has a personality. It has its likes and dislikes.

Graden was pleased it had taken a liking to him.

The Golden Flame Vine sensed the power of the Soul Sunfire Weave and made its way over to Graden. It undulated cutely while inching its vine towards the Soul Sunfire Weave.

The Soul Sunfire Weave took exception to the Golden Flame Vine taking Graden’s attention from it and lashed out, trying to burn the Golden Flame Vine.

The Golden Flame Vine thought the Soul Sunfire Weave took a liking towards it and wanted to play. It used one of its vines to poke and prod the Soul Sunfire Weave.

“Seriously, you’re trying to imitate the Eternal Flame Tree as your avatar?” Fenix asked, surprised at the route Graden was taking.

“Wah?” Tempest yelled, puzzled and worried about Fenix’s remark. She was sure she never mentioned the Eternal Flame Tree to anyone except Graden. Did she let the cat out of the bag somehow?

“The Soul Sunfire Weave can unravel itself and merge with a vine type plant. Now if it should merge with the Golden Flame Vine, it becomes the Golden Sunfire Vine, the plant that is said to most resemble the Eternal Flame Tree. Power wise, the Golden Sunfire Vine can’t even touch a root of the Eternal Flame Tree, but people often have mistaken it for the Eternal Flame Tree due to its uncanny resemblance.” Fenix eyed Graden knowingly.

All the alchemist Fenix came in contact with speaks longingly about the Eternal Flame Tree. They all said it was the ultimate fusion of fire and wood, the ultimate avatar. Alchemists are willing to go to great lengths to obtain even an imitation of the Eternal Flame Tree.

Fenix wasn’t surprised by Graden’s choice. If she was an alchemist, she’d try for an imitation too. The real Eternal Flame Tree was unobtainable. The original Eternal Flame Tree died a long time ago and its seeds scattered throughout the Primordial Chaos were snatched up by powerful creatures lurking there.

The first phoenix, vermillion bird and golden crow have seeds of the Eternal Flame Tree but they have never been successful in their endeavors to grow another tree.

“Hey, the loot is running away!” Tempest yelled as the Soul Sunfire Weave and Golden Flame Vine slowly disappear before her eyes.