Kowtow

"I order you to kowtow to me! Listen to your elder! Kowtow to me! Accept Master Rabbink as your master! Do you dare to go against the elder assembly decision?" Master Rabbink used the stick.

"I will even teach some bonus secret martial arts, professions, and many more after you kowtow to me." He used carrot this time.

Master Rabbink knew it could get the kowtow if it offered the two super photos, which it had shown to Trevon. But it wanted to be Trevon master in cultivation path, not the master in joining path. It had the prestige to hold as the only licensed creator in the endless universes.

Trevon kept silent. He started to get a headache from the Rabbink.

"What about that? Just 1 kowtow is enough. Gwahahaha."

"Other than the orange did the elder asked anything more from you?" The elder continued their question.

"He asked me to find a reason to punch a little kid, and..."

"And what?" An elder asked. This was really absurd. [Is this master a warrior of the dark path? Only warriors on the dark path would do something absurd.]

"Kill a dragon in the Poison Marsh." Trevon was stressed to answer this question. [The elder won't ask me to kill a dragon, right?]

"Is there any Poison Marsh near here? I haven't heard any dragon in our continent. Perhaps there would be one in the undeveloped land." An elder who loved to adventure didn't know. [This is a more normal request.]

"Yes, they are legendary creatures. I believed there were less than 100 dragons in the world." Another old elder answered.

"I have heard about a place called Poison Marsh, but it was on the central continent. I read it from a traveler's notebook." A bookworm elder answered.

"Central Continent?" The rest of the elders were surprised.

"I believed this master came from Central Continent." That bookworm elder answered.

The only people from the Central Continent that the family knew were their ancestors. He went with his family branch to Heavenly Phoenix Country from Central Continent, the land of cultivators. It was said cultivators there were like sands on a beach. This was possible, both from the genetic and also from the heritage.

There were many people failed to become high ranked cultivators not because of their talent, but because of heritage. Even McArthur family only had cultivation technique until Peak Rank 3. This cultivation technique allowed one to break into Rank 4 but didn't contain any Rank 4 cultivation. Nevertheless, the family hadn't had a member who managed to break the barrier in the past thousands of years.

"I want to talk." Finally, the elder who asked for the sword spoke.

"It is your time and place, Elder Mante." Charles invited the elder.

"I would like to buy this sword. No, the family would like to buy this sword." He said.

[What? This is an elder assembly, not some marketplace.] That was on the mind of other elders, but they didn't want to say their opinion. Most of them only thought why this elder shamelessly wanted to buy things from a younger generation. They knew this sword might be priceless, especially since the maker must be a high ranked person. [Why do elder Mante need to bring the family to pressure a kid?] Most of them thought.

"This sword will be useful for our blacksmith department. No, this sword will also be useful for our inscription department too. This is not just a spiritual weapon. This is an artifact." Elder Mante said. He didn't want to be imagined as an elder who use the family name to pressure a younger generation. That was a taboo. He only wanted to use the sword to learn some forging tips and tricks.

[Artifact?] Trevon didn't believe his black sword was an artifact. He knew his sword was a powerful spirit weapon, but he wouldn't imagine the sword as an artifact. In the past, it was only a spirit weapon, he hadn't used the sword after coming from his universe.

A spiritual weapon and an artifact were different. A spirit blacksmith could create a powerful spiritual weapon from spiritual materials. The sword created by spirit blacksmith would be far stronger than a normal sword.

A sword artifact was a spiritual treasure that had an inscription embedded. This embedding process was very difficult. It required a combination of suitable treasure and suitable inscription. A little mistake during the process would make both inscription and treasure gone. A finished product would be called an artifact. It would have some unique functions based on the inscription and treasure used.

The embedding process was the job of an artificer. While the McArthur family had Grand Master Blacksmiths, Great Spirit Blacksmiths, and a Great Inscription Master. McArthur family didn't have any artificer higher than Basic. Because of this, the McArthur family could only create a Basic Artifact. Only the peak power in the world had Grand Master or Sage artificer. This made high-ranked artifacts very expensive.

McArthur family often sent people to participate in auctions for high ranked artifacts. However, they only managed to have less than 10.000 artifacts with the level higher than Star Rank. Of those, less than 100 were Heaven Rank artifacts. A very powerful Heaven rank artifact could even become a founding treasure for a family or sect.

"The family could pay you double or triple the price. On top of that, you could get another reward in family contribution points. I would say 100.000.000 points." Elder Mante said.

This number was huge. With this huge number, this could not be said that he used the family name to pressure a younger generation. It was a very generous offer. Normally, this was a reward given to a Peak Rank 3 Grand Elder after completing an SSS level important mission.

"Wait. I don't believe this price is fair for you." Elder Mante thought. He really wanted to pay more, but the real valuation might exceed the family capability. The family only had less than 10.000 Star Rank artifacts, and only important elders could have them. The elders even need to report if they took the artifacts on a journey. Even worse only a few artifacts were weapon type. Most were utility type.

[What did elder Mante say? That number is not fair?] This what was on everyone's mind, including Trevon.

[SOLD!!!] Trevon really wanted to scream, but this was a highly sacred elder assembly. This number was interesting for Trevon, especially since he had only saved 78.000 from his 7 years allowance. Yet, he was offered 368.484 spirit stones for a sword. Other than those spirit stones, he also got family contribution points.

That was the most important. These points were very useful for him. Trevon could reduce his punishment by paying contribution points. For example, he could remove 1 month from the library by using 1.000 contribution points. This was a very useful thing for him. With those points, he would never fear library punishment again in his life. He could even avoid harsher punishment if he had sufficient points.

"Let me take a look!" Another elder asked for the sword. He was the leader of the inscription master department in Redwood City. While he didn't have strong cultivation, he had talent in inscription which allowed him to become one of the top inscription masters in the family.

"Here, Elder Milla!" Elder Mante passed the sword to Elder Milla.

"OH GOD!!!" Elder Milla screamed. This totally destroyed his scholarly image, but he didn't care. He wanted to kiss the sword if this wasn't the elder assembly.

"This is an ancient inscription! A high-level one! I need to check it again, but... WOW!" He can't stop his surprise. While this sword will be useful for any blacksmith to study the smiting, the inscription inside was an ancient one.

The ancient inscription was more powerful than the current inscription. This was because during that time inscription master freely shared their knowledge. But about around 1 million years ago, the inscription master community started to use an encryption inscription on top the real inscription. Therefore, certain designs were hidden inside their own schools of inscription.

This created a backward trend in the world of inscription. Ancient inscriptions were also gone with the destruction of time. Most of the time, ancient inscriptions became the most guarded secrets of top inscription schools. It would totally disappear when the school was destroyed by time. It could be said that by having an ancient inscription, you could create your own school of inscription.

"Yes, I am certain this is an ancient inscription, a Star Rank at that." Elder Milla said. "If the inscription school of our family managed to inherit the inscription inside we could reach a new height. No! 2 or even 3 tiers higher."

"Do you think we can study the sword?" Elder Milla asked the elder assembly.

Sometimes experts didn't guard their secret carefully. Nevertheless, when they found out somebody copied their work, they would use their power to destroy the offender. This was one of the many reasons why no family sent spies to another family. Whether it was for their cultivation arts, martial arts, or some special knowledge of their school of profession like blacksmith, inscription, and so on. It would be easy to find out if they used the knowledge in the future.

It would end into a big war. Perhaps their enemies would create an alliance to destroy the thief. Even if the McArthur family was strong, they didn't dare to steal from weaker family because of the fear of an alliance. The great family had many enemies. It would be a justifiable reason for their enemies to gather an alliance. There would be numerous parties who wanted to fish the troubled waters.

"This..." Elder Mante also felt the loss of words. The sword was a treasure. "Based on the sword alone, it was already a Heaven Rank spirit weapon. I am blinded by greed. Let's us return this to Trevon. Both of us must forget what we had learned." No matter how valuable this treasure would be for the family. The other party, perhaps a legendary character that their family couldn't afford to antagonize.

[WHAT???] Trevon really cried in his heart. [MONEY!!!]

For a poor young master like him, this was a big money. He really wanted to slap himself having said the master made it. He should say, he found it somewhere in that strange place, an artifact from the old age, just in mint condition.

Trevon knew this sword was valuable. With a Heaven Rank spirit sword and a Star Rank inscription, it would be categorized as a Star Rank artifact. For spirit treasure, there were a few different categories. They were Man, Earth, Sky, Star, Heaven, and God. Each corresponded to a profession mastery Apprentice, Basic, Great, Master, Grand Master, and Sage.

For example, the paintings of Margareth and Cecillia were Heaven Tier Spirit Paintings since they were created by a Grand Master Spirit Painter. Grand Master Vale's master final painting was actually a God Tier Spirit Painting. Unfortunately, painting didn't have a direct effect on the battle, so their impact on one strength was not as powerful as other treasures. Their price would be lower than the same tier spirit weapons or even artifacts.

"I will ask the master the next time I met him!" He quickly said this. No elders saw his lie, since their concentration was on the sword.

"We will need a written permission, but this might insult a character such as him." Elder Milla thought. "How about I asked all our grand elders and elders of our inscription school to pay the expert a kowtow. This will turn all our school into his half disciples. Even when we couldn't use the inscription directly, we could use this for inspiration. I believe Grand Elder will agree."

[What a kowtow?] Trevon shocked. Grand Elder of McArthur Inscription School was one of the top grand elders in the family. He was not only powerful but also had expertise in the inscription. He was the family only Great Inscription Master. His grandfather even needed to give his respect in every meeting with the grand elder. This would mean that Trevon would fall from being a student of Master Rabbink into a great grand student of Master Rabbink.

"It was only some simple picture and they want to kowtow?" Master Rabbink was incensed. Master Rabbink had given multiple skills to Trevon and he hadn't paid his kowtow to it.

"Trevon could you describe the elder? Did he say his name? Is he a family friend?" His aunt Josephine asked.

"I don't know him, he called himself Master, but I haven't seen him before. He is a small but fat elder. He is also a very old person. All his hair was already white. He loves to talk, but I don't know what he talked about." Trevon repeated some information that he had said to Raina. At last Master Rabbink always used Master in calling itself.

"What did he talk about?" One of the elders asked.

Trevon repeated the 3 generations of the Rabbink family story, of course, he changed them into humans. All elders were confused, not only them, even Trevon was confused. Why did Master Rabbink tell a story about common rabbinks? They went into another discussion.

"Did he say why he saved you?" One of the elders asked.

Trevon had been prepared for this question and turned a lie into a truth that he believed. "He saw the sword's energy from me. He told me he had a former student who used the sword before. I think that was the reason he saved me." If it was in a normal situation, Trevon would joke, because of his handsomeness.

"Is the master asked you anything? Or asking you to say something to the family?" An elder asked.

"Yes, I asked you to kowtow to me! Acknowledge this Rabbink as your master. Gwahahaha." Master Rabbink shouted, but of course, only Trevon heard about it.

"No, he didn't ask me anything else, other than the strange requests."

"Hm..." The elders were in discussion.

"Well, let's us end the question here! Our nephew needs some rest. Trevon, remember to do any requests from that elder. If it is possible, try to build a relationship with him. Also, if you could ask his permission, you would help the family a lot." Charles said.

Based on the discussion, there were big possibilities the elder would be looking for Trevon again. They would prepare a Rank 3 elder to follow Trevon as a bodyguard to greet the elder. Especially after Trevon completed the missions from the elder.

"We would send more people to protect you. The family will handle the rest." He added.

"Yes, Elders." Trevon bowed to the assembly. He finally passed the hurdle.

Trevon was allowed to go out of the room. The elders inside continued their discussion. They mainly talked about the sword and the potential benefits for the family. They also discussed the possibility the elder was a Rank 4 warrior from Central Continent.

"We should talk about this matter with Family Leader. I will ask the family for permission to study the inscription in secret. Trevon wouldn't reject our offers, he wants to sell the sword to us." Charles concluded. He could see Trevon's expression.

"I agree." One by one each elder agreed. This was a bigger problem than a branch could handle. A single mistake may damage their family.

"I will send a Lightning Pigeon to send the message. We will conclude this as an S level secret." Charles ended the discussion. "Let's back into the Golden Honed Rhinoceros! I will send a message to Alvaro and Kleigh to aim for 10 of them based on the expert's word. Send our spy on other families to check their catch."

While the family was busy discussing the problem, Trevon went to the dining hall. He wanted to eat lunch, and especially to try his Scout skill.