Thankfully, Kuroda stayed inside. She was actually still learning to walk around and trying to focus on her power.

He Zhi turned to the Apprentices he saw, and looked around, seeing some familiar faces. He glared at them but made no further movements against them.

Instead, he said “Go tell your leaders that you found me. I wish to speak privately with my family.”

Most immediately obliged, but some stayed behind until one of the Apprentices came back and requested for everyone to return to the Illusion Seeking Sect.

Once they were able to, He Zhi led them into a room nearby. It didn’t pass by the stone room or any of the other places that had special items. He Zhi was afraid that these naïve siblings of his would babble about what they saw.

Yet, it tore him up inside to be suspicious of his own family.

After he learned about what happened to them since they were captured, He Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe, and that was the most important part. After that came the reason why they wanted He Zhi.

When they told him about how they couldn’t teach others the method of becoming human, they sought out He Zhi. He realized that this was pretty important since this would lead to amazing Mages appearing in the future.

So what were the cons of teaching the Mages? Well, that is hard at the moment, let’s look at the pros.

First, his life is guaranteed since he is the only one to teach people how to unlock the High Human Bloodline.

Second, he can take advantage of the situation and possibly receive gifts or payment for his actions.

Third, he could even become allies with these Sects.

It almost looks like he wouldn’t have any bad things happen to him. But…his family is now being used as hostages, sort of. He won’t be able to do anything but teach the Bloodline. Don’t forget that some people might just want to kill him to shut him up. If someone can’t get something, they might just ruin everyone else’s chances at getting it as well.

If He Zhi wanted to get through this as easily as possible, he needed to somehow set up conditions for the others to follow. Hopefully, if they are as nice as his siblings claim they are, it will turn out great.

But the problems lie in how the other groups think. Will they try and fight each other for dominance? Will they try and kill He Zhi in frustration? He hated having his life being decided by someone else. He really needed to talk to those leaders.

It was a little bit later, probably a couple of hours later when some knocking came from the rock. There was a nice little contraption that He Zhi took from his past world, a peephole. He had used a really small water drill to make a small hole to look outside and see who was knocking.

It was a familiar face, Ruby, as Hu Lao and Little Sister called her.

He Zhi opened the path, and Ruby rushed inside before He Zhi grabbed her and flung her back outside without missing a beat. Everyone was surprised by He Zhi’s reflexes and his ability to capture someone who was clearly good at dodging.

The others moved out of the way and let the Froglings and Hu Lao exit. The four Frogling girls and the herons stayed behind to watch over the children and Kuroda.

Ruby stood up, massaging her backside.

“Ow, that hurt.”

“Then don’t try and trespass into our home.”

He Zhi was emitting an intense killing intent towards the three Intermediate Mages. Unlike when he had gone Berserk, this was more intense. Probably because He Zhi was now focusing his anger instead of letting it consume him again.

He Zhi’s siblings managed to calm him down to listen to the trio.

“We can get in touch with our Masters, but it won’t be in person. Here.”

Three small discs were placed in front of He Zhi and another disc was placed for him to stand on. This was a set up similar to the meeting room Herald Marshall set up. Three small figures appeared and seemed surprised to see He Zhi.

“Hello, I am Mason”

“I am Perinea”

“Sup! I’m”

They all started their introductions at once but realized there was someone else speaking. They all quieted down and waited in an awkward silence.

“Ahem, I am He Zhi, the Elder Brother and Leader of the Froglings. What do you want? You, old guy, you first.”

Marko chuckled and Perinea’s face seemed to slip into a smile. The old man harrumphed before continuing.

“I am The Sect Master of the Twisting Terrors Sect and I was wondering if you would be willing to teach your knowledge to those of us here.”

“How much?”

“Um, whatever you know?”

“No, how much are you willing to pay me?”

At that, all three of the Masters and the other Mages all stared in shock. This little frog thing was so forward! How crazy! Is he mad?!

Yes, he was. Extremely.

“Well, we would offer you and your family guest positions at our Sect.”

“So you wish to use my family as hostages?”

“No! Not at all! We just…”

The others began to realize they weren’t messing a mere animal. They were messing with an intelligent and cautionary person. Well, he acted confident, but he wasn’t hiding his severe distrust in the Sects.

This time, Marko spoke up.

“We can’t offer you any sort of payment since we don’t know what it is that you want.”

“Time. Time and peace. I wish to live, not be someone’s puppet.”

Sure enough, the Masters began to think about their next course of actions since He Zhi was a simple person, but could act out at any possible moment.

He wanted his family to be safe and to live out a peaceful life. Surely, they had messed that up.

Perinea spoke up.

“We offer an Alliance.”

This rattled the other two Sect Masters because why would they bind themselves to such a small group of animals, even if they were strange and strong?

“What conditions are you seeking?”

“You can teach our students once a month. No harm will come to your sister and we will help her get stronger.”

“Once a month? And what happens if you don’t have a lot of students who succeed in the process? Are you going to get angry if I teach your students wrong? Because I am not so gifted at this either. I only have some limited knowledge to go off of.”

Now the Masters were confused. Why act all haughty and then turn around saying he wasn’t good enough?

“No problem. We expect many successful results. If you have any other family members gifted in healing, we can help teach them.”

That’s it! Help his family! Of course! The Twisting Terror and the Dancing Leaves Sect could also do the same thing! Not only would both groups benefitted, their Sects would also get more powerful members!

They decided to jump in on the Alliance.

“I can see the good side, but how do I know that you won’t just get rid of me in the future?”

The Masters blinked in astonishment because they knew Bloodlines were hereditary. However, they wouldn’t need He Zhi to teach if most people became born with the High Human’s Bloodline. Well, at that point, would they even see He Zhi as a threat?

Technically, they didn’t think of him as a threat even now! They were merely pacifying a pessimistic child, in their eyes. But now…

“I have some conditions of my own. Once a month, and I will only teach 5 students each time.”

Mason was about to yell out something, then stopped. That wasn’t bad. Even just five people were better than none.

Of course, if He Zhi had refused, they would have waited until their students had returned before coming to attack him. They wouldn’t be able to take back the Froglings, since they would probably die fighting, but…

How would they convince He Zhi to teach them?! What if he taught them a different Bloodline? Was that even possible? They didn’t want to disfigure their students, so they decided on a healthy agreement.

But what came next was a complete surprise.

“So, what do you know about Mana Stones?”

This time, Mason spoke.

“Mana Stones can be used to craft all sorts of items like staves or orbs to help with magic. They can even be fashioned into jewelry and used to grow powerful plants by mixing them into fertilizer. Why?”

“No reason, I just wanted to know how much they would cost. Pretty expensive, right?”

“Have you…found any?”

“I believe there are some deposits on the mountain, it might be why the Marshall Family has made a claim here.”

“But the mountain belongs to the Illusion Seeking Sect. Then that means the Marshall Family is going behind their back to steal from them! Thanks for the info!”

That was Marko, who seemed oddly happy.

“Well, you guys can play rock paper scissors to figure out who goes first.”

“Play what? I have never heard of that.”

After explaining the rules, the Masters went off and met each other in a meeting room to decide the victor. First was the Healing Lily Sect, followed by the Dancing Leaves Sect and the Twisting Terror Sect.

Mason kept throwing rock and Marko was overthinking it too much. They actually enjoyed it, playing for a little while longer than they should have.

When the three Sects left the mountain, He Zhi would leave with them, to begin his teaching.

And while he was there, he would learn more about the world and hopefully get his hands on some new tools to help him survive.

Unfortunately, He Zhi had no idea what was in store for him now.