Chapter – 93 - The Hidden Families of the End-Points

Nanate took a deep breath as he glanced at the slimy green liquid flowing beneath his feet, then gulped down the shiny red pill in his hand. Beside him, Kunwa too swallowed his own pill, then cracked his head left and right, like he was getting ready for a big fight. Nanate looked on speechlessly as Kunwa took a long, deep breath, then abruptly jumped headlong into the slimy green pool beneath the last stairs. Nanate could still smell the weird smell of the liquid...he couldn't describe it as disgusting, yet he definitely did not feel comfortable going into it.

Pushing down his discomfort, he gently eased himself into the liquid, then quickly dove down to follow Kunwa to the sunken enfilade. No one could imagine that beneath the black soil of the graveyard, was actually a viscous liquid body which flowed under the ground and all through this large building, separating the lower chambers from the upper rooms.

The room which Beibei had taken on as her experimentation chambers, was actually a row of rooms, all interconnected, and somewhere between the lower and upper part of the building. It was filled with liquid at all times of the year - this same strange, viscous and slimy green liquid.

None of them understood what Lunaeri was up to when she suddenly brought them through the portal, and thrust this entire building onto them. Since then, they held complete authority over this piece of land, be it the building or the barren lands around it.

Beibei discovered this in the second year of her being in the academy - the strange liquid had a very high life elemental property, and could combine with almost all other elements, and create strange combinations, depending upon the combining ratios of each element.

After entering the academy, Beibei herself had chosen Array and Incantation as her specialised subjects.

Array covered Inscriptions, Array Matrixes, Rune Inscriptions and Inlays.

Incantation included Spells, Curses, Elemental Offense/Defense Enhancement, Illusion and Enchantments.

Unfortunately, Lunaeri was not satisfied. The next day she was dragged to the Alchemy and Medical Department and thrust into the basic course classes as well. Technically, she didn't need to attend the classes with the other students. Just had to show her face every few months with all the completed assignments and missions, and also pass the Bi-Annual Grading Assessment.

Both Array and Incantations used a lot of mathematical calculations, charting and derivations....she found herself familiar with a lot of these calculations and derivations. They were easy to understand, and she seemed to have an inborn talent for making accurate calculations, using an apt judgement based on partial observation and partial intuition, and made amazing arrays and inscriptions. Even the Heads of the Departments were excited at finding a good seed.

It was only her and the alchemy department which seemed to sit opposite each other every other week, knocking their heads against the walls. Each wondered why the other was a tough nut to crack! She had no knack for anything living and breathing, and had even less understanding about how the different nutrients and toxins reacted to each other. The teachers of medicine and alchemy were devastated. This girl could make anything die....even if the plant was especially resilient and could survive under all kinds of extreme conditions!!

So when Beibei discovered this fantastic place where green plant and wood element flowed in such a high intensity through the viscous green liquid, she knew this was the place she needed for her future experiments.

Nanate remembered the day Beibei had managed to freeze to death an entire row of Walaka Herbs just because she felt the heat was especially high that day.

Then he turned to glance at the rows of Walaka Herbs systematically planted in colorful pots and livening up the left side of the second room of the sunken enfilade system. Counting the five rooms of the enfilade and the three rooms below in the underground chamber.....she now probably had more precious herbs and plants and poisonous plants that the entire inner garden of the Alchemy and Medical Department!

"You are here early! Did you two think I was going to leave you behind and run away?!"

Beibei was fiddling with some of the potion jars. She had discovered that along with wind and ice element, she also had a certain amount of fire energy. Though she couldn't understand why her flow of fire energy was rather limited.....as if something else was controlling it on the other side!

However, the fire energy she could currently emit, was enough to light the pill furnace for making pills and elixirs. So over time, she had developed this side interest in playing with all the different kinds of juices and pulp and sap she extracted from the various parts of the different plants. She would mix and match, sometimes using the green viscous liquid, sometimes using the black soil, sometimes mixing in the powder of the crushed beast bones lying outside.

Different ratios led to different products, with different effects and simulations. She would try out each of these potions she made.....recording every little effect and side-effect of each potion, pill or elixir...and then stored them in separate jars, each neatly labelled with the given name and descriptions.

Both Nanate and Kunwa had been forcefully dragged in as lab rats for her experiments.....most of which would end in disasters for them. So seeing her fiddling about with these scary potion jars....both really wanted to run far, far away!

Nanate coughed twice to clear his blocked throat. Every time they stayed inside this green liquid, his throat would get blocked! Beibei said it was the impurities of his own body being instigated by the green elemental attribute....the impurities were binding with mucous and trying to come out. But Nanate still found it irritating and embarrassing!

"There are no direct portals to Ancient Sand Runes. We should take the portal to Gladibus Peak. From there we need to cross only two more peaks to reach the Frontier Valley, from where we can walk straight on to reach the Sand Runes."

Beibei kept quiet for a long while, her fingers moving tirelessly - picking up the jars, opening and smelling them, measuring out little bits with a straw dipper onto polished bamboo or jade plates.

Mixing them in what looked like random combinations, waiting to observe their reactions, noting down each vital point in a slim booklet. Unlike other cultivators who preferred inscribing inside Runic Jade Slips....she liked making parchments out of the dried bark of Maramarae trees, and then binding them together into what she called a notebook!

"No....we will be taking the portal from the Outreach Point, and head over to Gladibus Valley, and then take the Visionless Path."

Nanate and Kunwa both frowned perceptibly. The Valley was on another side of the Gladibus mountain, and the path itself turned towards another mountain, going further and further from the Ancient Sand Runes! Kunwa however seemed to grasp something very quickly.

"You.....are you planning on searching for the Hidden Family of Stryae?"

Nanate looked between the two of them, blinking rapidly in confusion. What the hell was the Hidden Family of Stryae?!

Beibei glanced at him and shook her head. It was to be expected. Nanate was a hardcore sword cultivator. He basically ate, drank, slept, dreamt and thought only of swords and cultivation. Everything else was alien to him.

Kunwa and her, on the other hand, had many different interests, and dabbled in a lot of legal-illegal stuff. Kunwa especially, had this great thirst for information, and he was like a walking-talking encyclopedia. Who's who, what's what....everything had to be at the tip of his fingers. He also had the habit of looking down at Nanate's ignorance, which was the root cause of most of their fights. Needless to say, Kunwa was always bashed up by the far more stronger Nanate every single time!

"A very, very long time ago...don't ask how long, since even the records are not able to clarify this point! But it says that thousands upon thousands of years ago, each of the three different End-points were protected and guarded by a different Guardian Family. Every generation of the Guardian was handpicked by the Elder and Guardian of the Main Sect. The one with the most potential and luck in the younger generation, would be chosen as the next heir or Guardian of the End-Pont.

However, something happened around the same time that this Graveyard came into existence. Nothing is recorded in any of the records available to us. Either it is restricted, or the information has been deliberately erased, or maybe, there is confusion regarding what really happened during that time. Whatever the reason, this was also the time when the records of the Guardian Families also started changing. And within a span of five hundred years, all the three Guardian Families disappeared.

The Elders of the Sect however believe that Guardian Families have hidden themselves, and thus they are also known as the Hidden Families. As long as the Hidden Families do not go against the Sect and its system of working in the surrounding areas, the Sect too does not bother itself with the Hidden Families."

Nanate raised his brows in surprise. This was really not common knowledge!

"And I am guessing that the Hidden Family of Stryae was the original Guardian Family of the Last Boundaries End-point?"

Kunwa looked at him with a smirk. Nanate was always a little late in catching up, but by no means was he a fool!

"But....how can you be sure the Hidden Families really exist? And even if they do exist.....how exactly are you going to find them? Would they even let you go near them. And why exactly do we need them? The mercenaries who have returned can also show us the path."

Beibei stretched her limbs, the creaking of her joints covered by the dull gurgling sound of the liquid flowing all around them. Then she stood up, heading towards another staircase starting at the corner of the room.

"A family which has been in charge of the point for thousands of years, versus some loose and not so powerful cultivators, who don't even know the general information about the point...who do you think is more reliable? As Peretie said.....there seem to be changes coming our way. And they have already started at the Last Boundaries. We can only understand what is changing if we have an idea of what it was like before. There can be no better guide and helper than the Hidden Family of Stryae."

"But what makes you believe they will be interested in helping us? So many reports have already been made by so many groups.....but the hidden family is yet to show itself!"

Beibei stepped down on the last stair of the spiral staircase, then lightly jumped onto the glazed stone floors of the lower chambers of the tomb. The air hit them with a bang. It was definitely not fresh, and there was a stale, damp, slightly astringent odor....but it was far better than the heaviness and chest strangling sensation they had to continuously feel and get used to in the middle levels which was filled with liquid.

"I don't know....That's why I am going to see them. How can you know anything, if you don't go and check it out yourself?"

Nanate felt his bows flinch, as he turned and shared a weird and speechless look with Kunwa. Oh yeah...alongside cold and ruthless....there was also another aspect to Beibei...she was forever....unpredictable!