Spoils

The chaos on planet Sakura finaly subsided. Unfortunately, the losses were too high. The three princes had lost their lives and the King had passed away as well. A lot of the Nobles lost their strength as well and the Sakura Nation was heavily weakened.

Unwittingly, the Princess Rin ended up becoming the queen. Red maintained a low profile during this period. He had obtained tons of different loot this time.

The thing he was most happy about was the ring he obtained when he defeated the Chiba young master. This ring was actually a space treasure. Inside were tons of different items that the young master had collected, many of which were of interest.

Among the items was the feather of the dark angel and the scabbard which Red had encountered in the auction. There were some cultivation techniques, including the finger technique that the young master had used against Red in battle. Then he had the orb which the Godslayer had given him. He looked at the black flames with interest, but for now he had no way to absorb these flames.

Red had spent his time practicing the Profound Asura Scripture. His body was constantly getting stronger at a steady pace, while he had focused heavily on cultivating his qi. The equilibrium between his qi gas and liquified qi had reached almost 90 percent. Once all his qi got liquified he would enter Foundation Establishment, when he would have turn the qi lake into a sea.

Red had thought of abandoning his "job" as an attendant to the princess Yui, but he hadn't been able to contact the old beggar who told him to investigate the Chiba clan. So he remained at his post and focused on cultivating in peace. However, it was not all hunky dory for he had already intercepted two assassination attempts on Yui. The current period of instability had allowed the other three medium sized kingdoms close to Sakura Nation to search for advantages in the Kingdom's weakness.

Yet, because of the veiled threat by the Godslayer on the Taira clan, certain information regarding the events on Sakura planet came to light and out of respect for what the Godslayer said, most countries left Sakura nation alone despite it being at it's weakest moment.

Red took out the scabbard from the space ring. The scabbard had left a deep impact on Red. The previous time it had threatened to overwhelm his mind with the bloody slaughter intent. Red wished to use the slaughter intent to temper his mind. When Red had received the benefits from the sound of the God's drop he had some enlightenment regarding how he could temper his mind further.

The old beggar hadn't given him the cultivation technique to pursue the path of the second mental lock, so instead he decided to temper his mind to increase his fortitude. After so many conflicts with people much more powerful than himself, Red had realized the importance of mental fortitude. The intent of the strong would alone be able to slice through one's mind if it were weak.

So Red decided to expose himself to the Scabbard's terrifying slaughter intent, to temper his mind. Closing himself inside his room, Red took out the scabbard carefully. The scabbard was very old and looked to be at the brink of collapse.

Red gently prodded the scabbard with his mind, trying to spiritually connect with the blade and without waiting the scabbard counterattacked. A powerful slaughter intent invaded his mind, but Red was prepared. He steeled his mind, trying to keep it as blank as possible, yet the intent was slowly seeping through his defenses, like searching for leakages. After a minute, he was invade by the feeling of slaughter and Red cut himself off. The one minute exercise had left him in perspiration. The scabbard just had the residual intent from the blade of the owner over years of use. He only shuddered to imagine the kind of intent the owner of this scabbard actually manifested.

Red spent time facing the slaughter intent in the scabbard. Over time his resistance had increased from 1 minute to 10 minutes. He had been able to stop leakages, but after 10 minutes he couldn't bear the pressure anymore. This didn't demotivate Red, instead his improvement showed him that facing the intent was the right training method towards training his mental fortitude.

One day, Red was told he had a visitor. He went to the visitor's lounge of the palace and found that it was the old beggar.

"Old beggar, you finally remembered the student you unceremoniously took?" Red snarled. The old beggar looked embarrassed. "Hehe, I had work." Red didn't believe him one bit. This old beggar was the world's most unreliable man. "I didn't know beggars work so hard they disappear for months. Where's my mental cultivation method?"

The old beggar made awkward faces as if he forgot. "Oh, I forgot to bring it." At that moment Red knew that this unreliable fart would never give him anything unless his life depended on it. He knew that this old man was so powerful he could squat him like a fly, that's why he didn't say anything.

When the old beggar was about to ask something, little Yui came running and held Red's hand. The old beggar looked shocked. "Kid... you! She is too young!" He yelled like a madman. When Yui heard that she went pink.

"Old beggar you will die at my hands! Don't make random accusations, this is the princess of Sakura Nation, princess Yui. I am working as her attendant." When old beggar heard that coughed. "I didn't expect my only student to be a babysitter."

The old beggar and Red excused themselves from the princess and went to the gardens in the palace to talk. The old beggar finally became serious. "Okay kid, tell me what happened in the time you were here. Did you meet the guy who killed God?"

Red opened his eyes and looked around to make sure no one could hear them. The old beggar smiled. "Don't worry, with me around, no one can spy on us. Talk freely."

Red nodded and told him what happened, the Chiba Clan's plan, the prisoners of the Taira clan the fight between the old man and the shadow that called itself God. He kept the bit about collecting the treasures to himself.

"Did you find out what boon the Chiba Clan wanted to ask for?" The old beggar asked in serious contemplation. Red shook his head. "The clan leader simply said after asking the boon they would go back to the core family region. The Godslayer said they were probably looking for power."

The old beggar shook his head. He did not agree with that notion, but he did not mention this matter any further. He asked about the details of the fight between the Godslayer and the shadow God which Red provided in detail. "So it was actually old Demon of War. I thought he had died, to think that Taira Clan had been imprisoning him, but how is that possible? Something is fishy about this event." Regardless he decided to change the topic.