Life Giver

As Casmir and Elena rushed home together, the sun started to gradually set on Ellaris city.

Towards the outskirts of the city there was a small grassland area filled with tents and the occasional wooden structure that seemed fairly rudimentary in design.

Various people from the beast races moved back and forth between the tents preparing food for their evening meal and finishing their days work.

All of these people shared similar appearances, they wore clothes made out of animal hides or other natural materials but their clothes were not rough or poorly made. Their clothing was designed similarly to that of people in the city but simply made from different materials, this gave them a style that seemed both barbaric and sensible.

The people were also broadly divided into two categories, half of them had tall elegant builds with long legs and toned bodies, while the other half had more muscular builds with larger bodies.

The tall people shared a common trait of a unique hair pattern, it was varying shades of yellow brown and black with black spots distributed on it, it resembled the pattern of a Cheetah's fur that Zaya possessed.

The more muscular people looked like men from the Lion races, possessing a thick main that covered their head and neck in golden brown hair, if Casmir were here to see them he would note that they looked similar to Felicity's husband, Hiraka.

However there was a slight difference in the shade of Hiraka's hair colour, likely stemming from his ancestors interbreeding with other races.

Also, although the people here could be separated broadly into two groups, there were many individuals who shared both traits or were of completely different races altogether.

Inside this community of a few thousand people, Zaya was walking, clearly familiar with the environment she greeted various people happily as she walked towards a certain large tent.

In her hands was a small wooden box, the same one which Master Bluefire had gifted her, that held a dagger inside of it. Zaya was on her way to see her father so that he could examine the dagger, she had already tested it and its sharpness was beyond any weapon she had used in the past but she was too weak to test the weapons limits.

As she thought about the dagger's value she finally reached a very large tent.

Before she entered she noted a small wooden stake implanted into the ground by the entrance of the tent, a small piece of wood placed a top it had a symbol carved on it.

This wooden stake would be used to display a variety of symbols that informed people of the tents occupants current opinion towards visitors, it could warn people not to enter, inform them the occupant was hunting and many other things.

Seeing a circular symbol on the wooden stake Zaya casually entered the tent, calling out as she did.

"Father! Are you busy?" Zaya said, after she came inside she walked towards a large table to sit down.

The inside of this tent was covered in various items, pelts and tusk adorned the room but there was a surprising amount of furniture in the style of Ellaris carpenters and manufacturers. Many of these items were bought from the city as the tribe attempted to assimilate their culture with that of the Ellaris people.

One notable piece of tribal furniture was the large wooden table that Zaya so casually sat down at, it was roundish and over 10 meters in diameter, enough to seat a couple dozen people.

However the table clearly held a deeper purpose, it was carved from one solid piece of wood with various decorative inscriptions carved onto the table's surface. The craftsman who made it also left many area's of the table smooth or still covered in bark as if leaving space for more inscriptions in the future.

It was a wonder how the tribe managed to move this table as it could easily weigh a few tonnes.

Zaya carelessly placed her wooden box on this table after she sat down, then a tall man walked into the room through a partition in the tent covered by two draping pieces of fabric like a door.

The man was tall and shared Zaya's characteristics but was surprisingly muscular, his face was rough and stoic as he gave off the overbearing impression of a strong leader.

"Zaya! Don't disrespect you elders.." The stoic man said, as he saw Zaya seated at the tribal table with a wooden box placed on it.

Zaya frowned but took the box off of the table.

"It's just a table.." She grumbled rather rebelliously.

The stoic man clearly heard Zaya's mumblings but he didn't chastise her because he knew it would be fruitless, this daughter of his was being too rebellious as of late.

"I'm sorry I couldn't see you yesterday after your schools little competition, I was caught up with some members of the Ellaris council. How did it go?" Zaya's father said as he walked over to a small table filled with bottles, pouring himself a drink.

Zaya frowned at the words 'little competition' but she couldn't argue with him, compared the tribes competitions Instructor Redfire's tests were indeed 'little competitions'.

"It was fine, my partner got injured during our fight with the ferocious beast but apart from that it was boring." Zaya explained quite casually.

To her father, the details of the test were truly trivial.

"Oh? Your partner was Injured? What kind of beast did they throw at you?" Zaya's father asked.

"It was just a Forest Boar but it went berserk and my partner got injured fighting it back." Zaya explained, she didn't want to talk about Casmir's use of the Will Resonance state because of Master Bluefire's prior warning, even though it was public knowledge.

Zaya's father shook his head in disappointment.

"Only a berserk Forest Boar? *Sigh* The young people in Ellaris and truly weak.." Zaya's father said.

For a moment Zaya grew angry at her fathers description of Casmir, she wanted to cry out that he was far better than most of the young idiots of her tribe.

But she didn't want to start an argument with her father, so she changed the topic.

"Father, do you know a Master Bluefire?" Zaya asked.

Zaya's father was surprised at her question, he even slightly smiled.

"Oh? You've seen Bluefire? How was she doing and where did you meet her?" Zaya's father said enthusiastically.

Zaya explained that her partner Casmir was her student and she gave her a gift for helping him during the test but she didn't go into any detail about Casmir.

Zaya's father nodded understandingly as he sat down next to Zaya.

"What a coincident... Show me that dagger she gave you." He said.

Zaya opened her box and handed over the black dagger to her father.

He held it up to the light and carefully examined it, running his fingers down the blade slowly.

"Very nice blade.." He mumbled to himself.

He then passed it back to Zaya.

"This dagger is very suitable for you, it's a Grade 3 weapon that was specially made to be untraceable and seem low-quality, most people would believe this dagger to be an everyday knife. It's the best weapon you could hope for at your level, if you had a easily discernible Grade 3 weapon people might try to rob or threaten you for it." He explained.

Zaya's father then lounged back, reminiscing about Master Bluefire.

"You know I tried to chase her at one point, I wanted her to be my main wife... she's a very capable lady." He suddenly said.

Zaya was slightly shocked, she knew how powerful her father was.

He was a Qi Grade 7 powerhouse, more than capable of chasing nearly any woman but he had been repelled by her?

Zaya's father knew what his daughter was thinking.

"It wasn't her that stopped me, I would still be chasing her if it wasn't for... well lets just say her families quite protective...."

Zaya's father then stood up and walked over to the partition he came from. He pushed the fabric to one side, looking through it to see a large metal pot filled with a thick bubbling liquid, perched over a fire.

He then suggested to Zaya "I'm making some rabbit and bessilweed soup, if you want to stay for.."

"No thanks.. I'm staying round Lillia's today.." Zaya interrupted.

When Zaya's father turned his head to see her, she had already put the dagger away and was walking towards the tents exit. Clearly she had guessed that her father would offer her some dinner but she did not want to take part in it for some reason.

"Goodnight father..." Zaya quitely called out as she left.

Zaya's father frowned, wanting to chase up to her because he needed to speak to her about something but he decided not to in the end.

"*sigh* I'll wait for now.. I'll tell her in a few months..." he said to himself.

===========

Converse to the position of Zaya's tribe in Ellaris city, towards the centre of the city was a large building made of a marble like stone. This building was tall and surrounded by a constantly shifting guard which gave the building an authoritative air about it.

At the entrance of the building were two guards that were currently standing at attention, their backs straight as arrows as they avoided making eye contact with the lady in front of them.

This lady had arrived a short time ago in her pretty blue dress handing a badge to a third guard who promptly rushed inside to verify her identity, according to procedure. However this process was essentially pointless because all the various guards here recognised Master Bluefire's identity.

Even a truly bold saboteur wouldn't disguise themselves as Master Bluefire.

In her presence the guards didn't dare slack off, most of the guards here were experienced or high level cultivators because of this buildings importance and thus recognised or were even trained by Master Bluefire.

Soon enough the third entrance guard returned and escorted Master Bluefire inside. She was brought to the top floor and to a large doorway at which point the guard respectfully retreated.

Master Bluefire opened the large door and walked in with familiarity, she scanned the room and her cold gaze landed on a short young man staring out of the large window in the room.

"Sir." Master Bluefire said coldly but with respect.

The short young man turned round and looked at Bluefire with a smile.

"How do you like this look Bluefire? I think I did quite well with all the fine details." He said as he patted his clothes proudly.

Master Bluefire rolled her eyes as if annoyed, she then raised her hand and pointed at a plain wall not far away.

The short young man's face froze as Bluefire pointed at this wall.

*Crack*

Suddenly on the young man's face, black cracks started appearing spreading across his body, then pieces of his body started falling off crashing on to the floor.

After a few seconds this young mans body collapsed into a pile of obsidian coloured stones, the outer sides of which still displayed the colour of the young mans body. One such chunk of rock still showed the young man's eye which occasionally blinked, as if still alive.

If any other person saw this they would be incredibly shocked by this scene, but Master Bluefire simply sighed, waiting for this show to end.

Suddenly, from the wall Bluefire had previously pointed at, a swirl of black mist suddenly appeared like a small tornado, gradually condensing into a short old man wearing a black cloak.

"Hahaha! You don't disappoint Bluefire, I spent 5 years on that Morphing Puppet." The old man said quite happily.

He waved his hand collecting the pile of obsidian stones into his hand before it vanished without a trace.

The old man then walked over to where the Morphing Puppet once stood, taking the same position and looking out at the city.

"I take it your here about the Feniss Farming Initiative?" He asked, a plain smile still on his face.

Master Bluefire walked over, standing next to him before she spoke.

"My brother has already confirmed a change in their power structure, their former head has left the city replaced by a new, much younger man." She said.

"Yes I know." He said before pausing for a moment as a wave of Qi energy erupted from his body.

The overbearing wave of energy passed through everything silently, before it retreated back into the old man like lightning.

"I assume you've heard of the truth religion and their new war in the north?" The old man asked.

Master Bluefire's brows furrowed as she heard his question.

"Yes. Why are they relevant?"

"The Truth religion has sent out various representative to nations on this side of the continent and also to the Helios continent to the south. Apparently they want to spread the Truth religion to these regions, the higher ups have already said not to interfere as long as they don't break any laws."

"We don't know why yet, but they are being very aggressive in their actions."

Master Bluefire understood the situation immediately, the Truth Religion only wanted to spread their religion and as a rising power in the north fairly far away from the Heldan republic, the higher ups saw no reason to create conflict as long as the Truth religion didn't break the law.

"The reason they've acted in Ellaris was because we have a prohibition on organised religion, they can't openly spread their religion here so they've been buying off people from the council. I don't have much information on why they helped the Feniss Farming Initiative specifically and unfortunately they were very clean in their actions, I don't have enough evidence to act against them."

Master Bluefire frowned again as she heard this.

She was silent for a moment before she realised there was nothing left for her to learn here, so she coldly turned around to leave.

The Old man expected this to happen but he wanted Bluefire to stay and talk to him for a while, so he used his trump card.

"I do have some information for you though.. something to do with that new student of yours and his family..." He said slowly and calmly.

Master Bluefire stopped walking and turned around.

"What do you mean.." She said calmly.

The Old man smiled like a mischievous child.

"His mother wouldn't send him somewhere without telling anyone you know, she needed someone to insure his safety." He said like a proud white knight.

Master Bluefire could only acquiesce to this old man after hearing that Alexandra, Casmir's mother, had spoken to him about Casmir.

"Why did she ask you and not me?" Master Bluefire asked.

Hearing this the Old man actually frowned unhappily.

"What? Did that old man not tell you who Alexandra's husband offended?"

"That arrogant kid, the mighty 'Helios Jing-Sheng' went against the entire Immortal Council. How else do you think he ended up dead?" The old man explained sarcastically, placing significant emphasis on the stupidity of the name.

Master Bluefire wasn't just shocked by this information, she was horrified. The Immortal Council was the single largest organisation of experts on the continent, all the leaders of every country held sway there and to go against it was to go against the world.