Chapter – 139 - The Five Countries and Their Systems

And thus, for the next seven days, three humans lived with their heads buried in the pile of scrolls, whilst the two beasts were having blissful holiday, cooped up inside the cottage forcefully, and Xioaguli, who was going through a world of contemplation all on his own.

He was conflicted. Ever since he had started understanding about life, he had only known the people in the Dorminion's Lair. People whom he called family, a place which he came to know as home. They bullied him, or scolded him, or stole away his food, or the elders who looked after him were often reprimanded for being overly protective...no matter what happened, it couldn't remove the staunch belief in his heart that this was home.

He didn't know what a home was supposed to be like. He had never had people waiting for him during meals, accompanying him on his walks, joining him to idle away the time together, talking to him about nothing in particular, covering him with a blanket after he had fallen asleep. Even the elders in the Lair were not that particular. Bandits couldn't molly-coddle the young. They didn't want them to grow up pampered.

He hated the girl who destroyed the only life he had known. At least his mind said that he should hate her, hate all of them. But.....

Xioaguli glanced at Phantasm who was sleeping on her back, four limbs stretched out in the air, and drooling from the side of her mouth...who in the world would say that this rogue was a girl?! And then at Fluffy...even while sleeping he had the most perfect posture, front legs crossed gracefully, with the head resting elegantly over the crossed legs. Even his tail curled in a beautiful arc over the floor. How did Phantasm believe such an elegant creature would even deign to accept her as a foot-maid, leave alone a girlfriend! Some people had serious misconceptions about themselves!

He giggled softly, and the heavy thoughts weighing down on his mind seemed to ease a bit. He lay down on the floor, cuddling between Fluffy and Phantasm, smiling even as he closed his eyes to bask in their warmth.

And seven days were gone in the blink of the eyes. Not that they had not uncovered anything worthwhile during their heavy research...of course they did. Just...they didn't know where to start with searching for all the resources needed to create the medicine to change Fluffy's appearance for a long period of time.

Rihanna rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and gently eased the golden-dragon arm band to her wrist. This was Little Purple's suggestion. This was the same armband which was helping her with hiding her aura and physique. But it had also helped her with her disguise at one point. And Fluffy was her Soul Contract Beast. So according to Little Purple, it should work for Fluffy as well.

Recalling the entire process Musakat had used for the transformation, Rihanna made a sharp slash on her right palm and also on the left sole of Fluffy's front paw. As the blood slowly emerged from the thin, shallow cuts, Rihanna pulled out a stone bowl from her storage space, allowing the blood drops to fall into the bowl's cavity.

Rihanna did not know what stone Musakat had used, but this specific bowl was made from Mythirin Stone. Then she added a drop of the special paste she had made and perfected over two whole days.

It was made from Powdered Shodeya Stone, Powdered Ice Stone, Illusion Dust, Crystallized Shape-Shifting Fruit (Thankfully, she had found some new ones from Ye Luo, who had also picked them up from Poison Swamp), and a few fine hairs discarded from the leathery nether-side of the black hog.

This last one was the most difficult to find, and all four humans and two beasts spent their time with their butts in the air, crawling all over the floors and couches and beds in the cottage, gathering old, stinky hair. Rihanna even had to match each gathered hair with Fluffy's aura to check if they were truly his. She couldn't even eat after handling a whole bunch of smelly, crinkled hair!

The final solution was made in the medicinal pot using her pure fire energy. The resulting paste was reddish-black in color, and fell to the bottom of the bowl, not at all mixing with the blood. Taking a deep breath, Rihanna steadied her hands and slowly started pouring in her pure fire energy to the bottom of the bowl.

As the bowl started heating up, the paste burst into large bubbles as it changed to a liquid state. The two streams of blood too became warmer, and gradually the warm liquids blended into each other, finally forming a dark red solution. Fluffy looked at it and shivered. Thankfully he did not have to eat this concoction! He was certain that this dangerous looking thing could kill him in one go!

Rihanna took out a very thin and small metal tube with a bent handle. Slowly she scooped up a little of the liquid into this tube, then gently and carefully poured it into the mouth of the golden-dragon armlet.

After the golden dragon had had its fill, the ruby eyes sparkled brightly, and red veins appeared all over its golden body. Rihanna felt a buzzing in her ears, whilst Fluffy could feel a dull, throbbing headache starting all over his body and inside his mind. The initial discomfiture soon turned into great pain, and the others looked on helplessly as Fluffy rolled about on the bed, whining like a pig.

Rihanna felt conflicted at this thought. Since very soon, he would actually turn into a pig! And in a very short while, Fluffy had entirely changed, turning into the very familiar and very ugly, hairless, wrinkle-skinned, black pig.

Rihanna released a long heavy sigh, and fell flat on her back on the floor. This was such a time taking process. And the worst was that they needed to do this every five days, or the disguise would get broken, and Fluffy would then return back to original form. Moreover, this method could only be used a few times.

After this Conquest was over, there were a lot of tasks she needed to take care of. Figuring out a way to earn money, searching for the things required to make the potion for Fluffy, work on increasing Fluffy's cultivation, figure out why Phantasm's cultivation had deteriorated and how to bring it back up, work on her own cultivation and other techniques, deal with Su Maihiya, search for remaining members of Stryae Clan. Though the last was not on the immediate list, but still, it would have to be done at some point. Aish! There were so many things already on her plate, and she hadn't even started yet!

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The next day dawned with a heavy and solemn mood hanging in the air. The selection of the Gavarnum was a historic event, but it also carried heavy responsibilities for all the Four Major Clans, thus affecting the mood of all the people who had come to view it.

Rihanna and Artreya accompanied Ye Luo to leave for the Public Arena at the middle of the Core City. For safety purposes, they left Fluffy, Phantasm and Xioaguli back in the cottage. Firstly, there were too many people around, and if anyone of them were offended, even accidentally, they wouldn't be able to keep their lives. Secondly, Rihanna didn't want to take a risk with Fluffy at the moment. Though his disguise looked perfect, it might not hold salt before really powerful cultivators.

This Public Arena was actually built based on the divination of the Great Diviner from Feyin-Damaya. This was the first time that Rihanna came to know that Feyin-Damaya was actually governed by a Sect - the Great Divination Sect. The Leader of the Sect was also the one who Governed the entire country. In fact, the entire country started from a small piece of land which was overseen by the Great Divination Sect, and slowly grew to be the powerful country it was today.

Rihanna raised an eyebrow in surprise. Just a few days ago she was discussing with Little Purple on what might have happened to these aloof and highly sought diviners from his time. It seemed they got tired of being hounded by society and decided to simply take over and establish their own country!

Also, it seemed that each of these five countries had their own form of government, which were quite different from each other. Madsa-Tamu was semi-democratic, semi-bureaucratic, sort of Oligarchic. Ruaan-Jamphu was divided into seven different regions, with them sort-of co-existing with each other. Feyin-Damaya was governed by a Sect. That was almost like a country being governed by an University! Then came Abarone-Tengai, which was a sort of Monarchy.

The last country of Mansara-Gompei, however, remained a mystery. Both Artreya and Ye Luo could not clarify the exact situation in that country, since for some unknown reason, Mansara-Gompei had completely closed down its borders to outside people. Even though it conducted trade with all the other four countries, all trade was done only in the border towns, and they were heavily guarded and strictly supervised by the Government.

Rihanna pursed her lips, pondering on the new information. It seemed another thing was being added to the list of things which had changed since the time of Little Purple. The Diviners had created their own country; the Aratyuusa's had merged into the society, albeit in disguise; the spirit beasts had become rare and the demonic beasts had lost their intelligence.......why did she keep feeling that all of these events were connected to the same root reason?