Secret

"This is the best place to speak, no one comes here. Only the pillar family heads have access and they spend most of their time away from the academy. I need to leave soon as well, so we need to hurry this up."

'That's elder Kami…' Thought Dyon, 'I wonder what's going on.'

"First, I'd like to say congratulations Pillar Family Leader Kami, I hear your son has found a suitable wife."

Dyon gaze went cold, his fists clenching. He didn't expect the first thing he heard to piss him off like this. It also seemed that it wasn't a coincidence that he had run into this conversation. This was the safest place to talk and they just so happened to be speaking about matters related to his attempted murder.

Dyon bet that these two never expected for the dead man's grave they were celebrating over to still have movement.

"It's all thanks to your Daiyu family, how else would we have found the cure?"

The elder from the Daiyu family chuckled, "You're quite sinister to call such a thing a cure."

Dyon's nails dug into his palms as his irises greyed, effected by the death qi that was slowly seeping through his arrays.

"It's a form of a cure, is it not?" Kami chuckled.

"…I guess it is a matter of perspective. But, about the matter of payment. Not only has my Daiyu family mended your younger son's soul, we've also helped your elder son get something he's always wanted while massively improving his future prospects…"

"Of course, Elder Daiyu, I always repay my debts. Although Meiying hasn't been receptive to Chenglei, I'll ensure he retains his spot to enter the center pillar world. We've also been ensuring that the power supply is enough by fueling the school's energy system for the past two years."

"Fueling, huh? You seem to have an uncanny ability to make such evil things seem so normal," Elder Daiyu chuckled.

"Sometimes some sacrifices are necessary. This is the martial world. If they expected an easy road here, they were mistaken."

"Hoho, how cold hearted. They came here to learn, not die. I suspect this also has to do with that boy's disappearance, no?"

Elder Kami froze, before speaking quickly. "Don't speak of this. Not even here. That matter is far more dangerous than we initially believed."

Elder Daiya clicked his tongue, apparently not taking the warning very seriously.

"And to think, his poor little sister has been stifling her talent in this godforsaken place just to look for a dead man… you'd best not let her find out the truth, or else there'll be endless trouble."

Dyon froze, 'Who's he talking about?'

Dyon's mind couldn't help but think back to Ava's face when he mentioned an elder brother… But it couldn't be this coincidental, right?

But then Dyon remembered the odd feeling he had gotten from Ava's whip. Could it really be her they were talking about?

"Elder, please," Kami said feeling slightly uncomfortable, "How else could we pay our debt? If we didn't sacrifice a few of the elder students, we'd never power the formation properly. If we could have used nothing by 1st layer students, we would have.

"But, their cultivation is so shallow, it wouldn't be possible to get enough without raising suspicion. We would have liked to save his talent and have him be one of our alumni, but who knew he couldn't see the bigger picture? He even threatened to get his family involved.

"The Sicarius family… they're connected to a much, much bigger problem."

'Sicarius?' Dyon shivered, 'Definitely Ava…'

Elder Daiyu chuckled, "You don't have to explain it to me. You know what our family deals in. I've seen plenty of bad. This can be considered child's play. All I know is that for even members of the Sicarius family to come here for your central pillar world, it must be quite a place. Quite impressive for such a small school. So, I thought I'd get a place for Chenglei.

"What I'm more interested in though is the technology you use to harvest the energy. The amount of death qi contained in the pond should be an astronomical amount. How do you stop it from corroding the things that use it as a power source?"

"Actually, only the Storm and Kami family know about this. If the other families knew, they would directly oppose us."

'Storm?... what do they have to do with this?...' Dyon suddenly had a thought, but he didn't dare complete it.

"The Storm family stole this technique from the Ragnor family after they had stolen it from the Pakal family during their famous war. It's why the Storm family ran all the way to the edge of the continent instead of staying a branch family of theirs. Storm used this as payment to join the Pillar Families, then we built this school."

"One technique was worth losing the protection of such a strong family?"

"We haven't perfected the technique yet because we're missing some items, which is actually why we want to open up the central pillar world. That world was actually left behind by the previous sect housed in this area.

"I haven't looked too deeply into that sect, but from my understanding, the crescent shaped island used to be whole. After a major war, they were wiped off the face of the planet, leaving a huge hole. We built the academy on this lake because although the old sect is gone, it still has a pretty dense center of energy which is good for cultivating."

"I see, so the books in this library must be ones you found from that sect, right?"

"Right. Since I can't afford to repay your kindness in helping my younger son, what we can do, is once Meiying has been married into the Daiyu family, you can stop being a secluded family. Now that the wars between you and the Bai family will cease, you can join our academy and enjoy the spoils of the Storm family with us. Which is the only reason I've told you all of this…"

Elder Daiyu shivered in anticipation, "So, what is the true secret of what the Storm family stole?"