36 - (Spoiler in title)

"ENTER!!!" A voice rang out through the house, and everyone there heard it.

It was clear that the owner of this voice was at the peak of the martial arts path, perhaps they were even a quasi-spirit realm.

Xu Xin knew that this person was powerful and dangerous. However, he wasn't concerned.

As the boy opened the door, Xu Xin was met with the sight of a middle-aged woman with extreme beauty, donned with a black luxurious robe that designated her as the leader of the black clan in this training area.

She then waved her hand at the boy entering the room while looking at Xu Xin.

That was a signal to explain his purpose being here.

Without hesitation, the boy spoke, "This is a new recruit. He should be about as strong as a peak fourth stage despite being at the beginning of the third stage himself."

The woman then looked curiously at Xu Xin, and he could see the interest in her eyes, but she quickly spoke.

"He doesn't seem to be the type of person that would apply to the Black Clan." She shot a questioning glance towards the boy, but he had somewhat expected this question.

"Why don't you explain since I don't really know much about it," The boy spoke to Xu Xin, "I don't think I'll get it right anyways."

Hearing this, Xu Xin quickly answered with what he figured would be an acceptable answer, "Multi-elemental split personality."

This was a real thing, and he wouldn't tell them that he was just lying, but it was a good enough answer to satisfy them.

A multi-elemental split personality was when someone of two or more elements had the natures of the elements mess with their minds, leading to different personalities at different times based on what they were doing.

Xu Xin simply allowed his demeanor to change, but it wouldn't change his thoughts in the slightest, so it allowed him to say this while having the intended effect.

After saying this, his previously warm and loving demeanor was replaced with that of a bloodthirsty killer as the entire room seemed to freeze from the danger he radiated.

Of course, the woman felt next to no danger from Xu Xin, but the boy felt a fair amount of fear in his mind.

Then, without the slightest warning, that dangerous feeling retracted and was replaced by his previous amiability.

The sudden change in demeanor twice surprised the woman, but she quickly regained her calm and asked, "What are your elements then?"

Xu Xin calmly responded, "Ice and water, both of them are aquamarine in color though." He allowed aquamarine icy inner energy to appear on his right hand and aquamarine watery inner energy on his left hand.

Then, he retracted them before waiting for the woman to speak.

"What's your name?" Were her next words.

"Xu Xin is my name, but you can call me whatever the fuck you want, whether that be a code name, my actual name, a nickname, or anything else." He carelessly responded.

It seemed that he really just wanted to leave right now, which he really did. But he knew that he had to get this out of the way first before moving on to creating his technique.

Anyone that went into the training areas had to get registered into their clans or guilds to be able to stay there, otherwise it would just cause issues.

Once again, the only exception to this was the white clan, which accepted anyone, though even they would prefer to have their members registered.

The woman's voice broke his train of thought though, "What about calling you Frost?" It was a code name that she had just come up with, and it wasn't very good, but he didn't care and nodded his head.

She actually seemed somewhat proud of that name, which he found funny, but it didn't really matter, so he quickly moved on.

After accepting the name, Xu Xin went downstairs following the boy to what seemed like a dining room, but it was quite big, with many spots at the tables and many tables.

If he had to guess, Xu Xin figured that at least 200 people could sit here all at once.

The building may have been simple, with only three floors, but it was big. It would be considered a mansion if it wasn't decorated so simply.

Inside the house, there were plenty of black banners on the wall, and every decoration was exceedingly simple, with most things only having a black design of some kind on them.

Xu Xin looked around the dining room and realized that there were a bunch of people here, but there weren't nearly enough to fill all the seats at the tables, with there only being about twenty people here.

The boy then spoke up towards all the questioning gazes of everyone there.

"This is Frost! He will be our new brother!" With that, he just left the room after giving Xu Xin a key.

The key was obviously a key to a room in this house, where he would live.

Some of the people there raised their glasses in the air and laughed, while a few jeered at him.

All in all, they seemed like a bunch of hooligans gathered together, but he could clearly tell that they were strong, and he might actually be the weakest one here.

Seeing that, he just left the room and went towards the second floor where the housing was for all the members.

A few members of higher strength had a room on the third floor like the leader he had just met, but most of them were here.

He then looked at the number on the key and found his way to his room, and when he opened the door, he was shocked by what he saw.

'Are they chromophobic or something?! Do they really hate the other clans so much that there isn't a single thing in this room that isn't black?'

As he looked around the room, he realized that the only thing that wasn't black was the window, and that was because it didn't have any color.

Other than that, even the wood floor was stained with a super dark stain that made it almost black.

The walls were black, the bed was black, the sheets were black, the curtains were black, the door was black; everything in here was black!

Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching him, and he turned around to see that the woman in charge was right behind him!

"Don't mind the lack of color. The people who built this place were part of the clan, and they hated the other clans immensely, making them refuse to have any sort of color here other than black.

Everyone that's part of the black clan has an extreme personality after all.

Some of the others have just repainted the rooms or gotten new décor since it was just so over the top, and you can do the same if you wish to."

She seemed to be extremely warm and inviting while talking to him, but Xu Xin felt a sense of danger from her, and his instincts were warning him that she was dangerous.

He didn't feel any ill will towards him, but he knew that she wasn't someone to be crossed.

But he also knew her purpose in being here. It was obvious that what she thought was his 'multi-elemental split personality' could allow him to infiltrate the other clans and get them some information.

To show that he knew what she was thinking, he took off his badge and sent some of his inner energy into it, moving it in specific ways and using the mechanisms of the badge to change the color.

She was initially confused at what he was doing, but as she saw the color of the badge start to flicker between black and blue, she was astonished.

She was initially thinking of having him go to the officiator of the training area and change his color, but she never expected him to be able to do it on his own!

After about five minutes, the change was mostly stable and only the occasional flicker of black showed on the badge, and after another ten minutes, it was entirely blue with no black flickers anymore.

She then looked at this boy in astonishment. She had never met anybody other than the officiators that could change the color of the badges.

It was a closely guarded secret after all, and you had to swear an oath not to give up the method.

"How do you know how to do that?" She asked with an incredulous expression. Even she had never managed to figure out the method, and she was the leader of the black clan for many years.

"I can't tell you that. I can do it for others as well, but it won't give you much benefit since your enemies know your ranks. But I'm new, so that doesn't apply to me.

I'll be a spy, but you have to provide me something in return, and what it is is up to you."

He spoke calmly, he knew that she didn't think she could force the method out of him, and she didn't want to do so anyways since he was the best spy that she could hope for at the moment.

Instantly, instead of continuing the conversation, she gestured for him to follow her.

They eventually made it back to her office on the third floor.

Inside, she sat down and had a pensive look on her face. Xu Xin left what she was to give him open-ended, and she had no clue what exactly he wanted, so if she offered the wrong thing, she might lose this chance.

Xu Xin simply took a seat on a chair in the room and started cultivating. It was clear that he was giving her as long as she needed to think about his proposal.

After looking at her one more time and realizing what she was thinking of, he spoke up, "You only get three chances before the deal's off."

Hearing this, she was relieved, because at first she thought that he was only giving her one chance, but it looked like he wasn't that kind of person, which was good.

...

*Meanwhile, in the kingdom*

"What do you mean, he went to the training area for the Black Clan?" Xia Yue's annoyed voice rang out. She had been keeping an eye on Xu Xin under the orders of the king and queen, but Xu Xin had just vanished into the training area.

On top of that, spying on the clans wasn't allowed, even for those in the royal family, and she could do nothing to find out anything about Xu Xin unless he left the training area, and she couldn't just go there to find him either.

She was annoyed, and nothing could clear that anger. The black clan, while it may not have been the strongest, was certainly the most dangerous and most hated among the clans.

It wasn't exactly uncommon for people to die in the training areas, whether it be from the attacks of wild beasts or attacks from other people in different clans.

After all, it was meant to represent the real world in how it trained people, and only specific training areas banned killing.

Little did she know that he had gone here specifically because he was allowed to kill others, so he wouldn't offend as many people if he did.

After all, he didn't go there just to kill; his goal was still mainly to create his technique, and once he finished it, he would leave.

But that technique he was going to make involved a lot of fighting to test it out, hence the training area being perfect for his purposes.

Little did Xia Yue know, but he was currently exploiting the leader's curiosity to get a benefit that she never would've guessed he's ask for.

"Do you want money?" The leader's voice rang out in the room, but Xu Xin simply shook his head.

"Techniques and cultivation manuals?" He shook his head again.

Seeing him turn those down without a single thought, she began to worry about what he was requesting, and this was her last chance to guess what he wanted.

Little did she know that he was just using this to learn more about her and the way she thought.

Seeing this completely expressionless face and the fact that she couldn't read anything whatsoever from his expression, she started to panic as a smile formed on his face.

After all, having a spy in one of the other clans was an extremely valuable opportunity that she simply couldn't pass up.

She seemed to be struggling on what to offer next, but Xu Xin already knew that she would never offer what he was looking for. Instead, he was only using this to see what she though he was like as well as her own personality.

Suddenly, she steeled up her resolve and spoke quietly with a slight blush, "Women?"

However, she was shocked to see him shake his head in disappointment.

But just as she was about to ask him for another chance, she heard his cold voice.

"I need blood."

(Title: Blood)