Starlight Life Of The Sage

"First off," said Cara as she stepped into their room back at the inn, "The head of the Dixon family is one of the two Soul Refining existences in the Tin City."

"I sensed him there too, but I didn't get a good look at him," Zara replied, not elaborating that the reason she didn't see the man was because she refused to take her eyes off her teacher's fight, even for a second... And another small thing distracted her near the end. A few small things.

"Second off," Cara continued, "That man isn't just a Three Path Cultivator like I originally thought. I couldn't sense his cultivation completely until I got closer to him. He actually walks four Paths. And that fourth Path is as a Mage."

Zara's aura disappeared entirely and her eyes widened in surprise. Her mana was so muted Cara couldn't even sense it at all. Zara, herself, only walked three Paths.

"So that means we can find out more about the new Paths from him…" said Zara, her d.e.s.i.r.es reflected in her visage. Her hands started to shake and it looked like she was about to run out of the room right then and there to kidnap and interrogate the old man.

Cara wasn't certain when her second-youngest disciple turned into such a power-hungry person, but she wasn't against helping Zara get stronger. Zara always lacked a powerful internal cultivation method, since she couldn't cultivate traditional Internal Cultivation or Elemental Palace Cultivation. If they could find a Path Zara could walk that let her access internal paths, then her power would explode! Many soul-related techniques and abilities would become available to her.

Cara was in the same boat. Mana couldn't be used in the meridians or in the Elemental Palaces, that meant her cultivation was limited to mostly external means. Without learning and walking down the Mage path, if there really was a traitor among her remaining disciples, then she'd have no chance to win a fight if she walked down only the Paths of Outer and Weapon Cultivation.

"We can accept the invitation to meet him, but we should do other things first," said Cara.

"What do we need to do first?"

"Well," Cara continued, "I desperately need to find a good material to use in making my weapon. I can't just rely on my boxing skills and Outer Cultivation forever. If my Jade-Dragon technique wasn't so much stronger than that other knight's cultivation techniques, I could have lost. He had a significantly higher cultivation than me purely because he was also a Weapon Cultivator. Zara, you know better than anyone how limiting it is to walk less Paths."

"Teacher, please. You would have won that fight even if you used the exact same cultivation technique as that man," said Zara with confidence. Her mind couldn't help thinking of her older brother-disciple Arc. Her teacher always espoused on about balance and walking more Paths, but hadn't Arc surpassed everyone while walking just one?

Cara just shook her head. Where did the cute little green-haired girl who never questioned anything her teacher said go? What happened to her?

"Teacher are you thinking something rude?" Zara asked, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Are you a psychic?" said Cara.

"What's a psychic?"

-

With Cara's recent feat being such a public endeavor, the stares she received while walking around the city were now fundamentally different. Before she was looked at with strange eyes, ones she had never seen a person wear before, but now she felt the familiar looks given to the strong. Slowly, things were righting themselves.

"The stares are much better now," said Zara in a quiet voice, touching on Cara's own unvoiced thoughts. Cara once again wondered if her disciple actually was a psychic.

"I agree… Though I'm not certain why," Cara replied, deciding to admit her own ignorance on the matter. She figured it was a problem with the culture of this world.

"Ah, Teacher you haven't been a girl for very long! No wonder you don't understand. You see, as an attractive woman, men tend to stare at you because…"

"Ah, there's the specialty store!" Cara interrupted, glad to change the subject. She pointed out a rather large building just on the edge of the Wide District, bordering both the City Lord's sector and the sector belonging to the Four Families. The store was on the corner where all three zones met, right in the dead center of the city.

The building was gilded with silver and gold. Large burly men stood outside, their cultivation blaring like alarm bells. Each was at least in the Xantian Rungs, and one was even in the Zong realm. Large windows displayed numerous expensive goods. A tall sign stood out front, standing vertical, carved from marble; it read: 'The Gilded Trade'.

"Teacher I'm serious, you need to start being careful around boys now. You're a woman so we should…"

"Yeah yeah, we can talk about that later, Zara. Let's go see if they have any good materials," Cara interrupted again.

Cara wanted to scoff. 'Be careful around boys?' Cara knew the only person she needed to truly be careful around was her own disciple. Besides, she didn't really want to face the reality of her own womanhood just yet. That was a topic she wanted to put off for as long as possible.

The two walked into the store, hoping to find the necessary materials.

-

Meanwhile, in the Stonelight estate, a group of angry men and women were gathered in front of the main entrance. Several powerful knights and three mages were guarding the front gate, stopping all the members of the Stonelight clan from leaving.

"You Dixon bastards!" One man from the crowd yelled. He had black hair and brown eyes. Within his body a torrent of mana swirled, coalescing on his head. He was a powerful Mage and he was equivalent to the Xantian Rungs in raw mana quantity, at the least. "Why are you stopping me here! Why won't you let me go meet my niece!"

The man was Tikki Stonelight, whose younger brother was supposed to return three years prior with a daughter in tow. He was Cara's uncle.

"Calm down, Tikki. We'll let you meet her in time," said the leader of the blockade, a tall young man with red hair and green eyes. Freckles dotted his face and arms.

"Why not right now, you bastards!" Tikki roared.

"Because your niece has some very powerful connections. She is also quite powerful herself, and we can't leave such a thing in your irresponsible hands!" The redhead bellowed back. "Her master is someone from the Northlands! Do you know what that means? She's apprenticed to someone stronger than the f.u.c.k.i.n.g City Lord! We aren't going to let the family that banished her parents to Southern Tin deal with her."

"We're her family!"

"So were her parents, but you basically condemned them to their deaths!" The redhead couldn't control himself. His powerful Mage cultivation roared to life, and a mana equivalent to a Zong cultivator with seven cracks exploded in the air like fireworks. "I wouldn't be surprised if that child doesn't ever want to see your family again. So just let us, the Dixons, handle this!"

A small skirmish erupted, but it was soon quelled by the superior firepower of the Dixon family.

-

"I can't believe they only had such junk," said Cara with puffed cheeks as she stomped out of the expensive-looking store. "Shitty mana stones and jewelry with nothing but aesthetic value. What a waste of time…"

"I don't know, some of that jewelry would look nice on you, Teacher," said Zara. Several new necklaces were hanging around her neck and she wore a new pair of ruby earrings. "The jewels of this world are much nicer than the ones from our world."

"They're just shiny rocks, Zara."

"Oh my, Teacher, I see why you never had a girlfriend…"

"I had a girlfriend! What are you talking about?" Cara almost snapped. "I had a wife in the long past, but I couldn't help her break through her cultivation limits. She passed away not too long after we took in Aria."

"Really? So you've… You've married a woman in the past? You're not into men like Gen said…" Zara had a strange glint in her eyes. "You do like girls..."

"-What- did Gen say!?"

-

Once more, in a meeting with the remaining disciples, Gen sneezed. This time it was loud and it almost took him off his feet.

"Gen, what the hell!?" yelled Aria as she tried to collect the loose papers Gen's sneeze threw around the room.

"It's Zara!" Gen replied. "She's telling lies about me again!"

"You're still on this shit, Gen?" Asked Tuku.

"Why don't any of you believe me!"