Ch64: Foes Lurking in All Corners

Rein slowed down once he had escaped from the somewhat dangerous situation with Lyne. Perhaps some might think him to be a coward for doing so, but there is a difference between bravery and recklessness.

Lyne was at best an acquaintance, and she was simply trouble, even if it weren't necessarily her own fault. Rein, having spent some time in the Green Trout City, had come to know that the Xuere Clan controlled much of the trade from the western wilderness to the Minhr Nation through the singular point of Green Trout City. The volume might be small, but the value is immense.

That, combined with Lyne's beauty and her status as a scion of the Xuere Clan, meant she was very much desired by quite literally every House in the Minhr Nation, particularly the princes of the Dingien Clan that contended for the throne.

Rein had no desire to run afoul of any of those princes-- he had already offended quite a few troublesome powers in his vicinity.

Rein could only sigh-- that second prince might now hold a grudge against him. He recalled Chenhr's information that someone in the Dingien Clan had sought help from the devil sects far into the west…

By now, he was beginning to understand some of Suey's words regarding the nature of fate. Looking back, he was able to connect the dots.

His current situation began from the very moment he had come upon Chirh. Chirh's nature was a bit of a wimp, and as such, he attracted Rekcen. Rekcen was a bit of an idiot, thus he recklessly used Rein's armaments despite knowing that many armaments had blood defenses.

Thus, Rein became the enemy of House Larne, their patriarch not willing to accept a son's mistake.

After joining the Hall of Heroes, Rein needed to build his reputation. Thus, he had participated in the sudden event of escorting that chest with ancient runes. Since half-senior Chenhr had taught him how to use a javelin of heaven, and he had received an aura-restraining art from Master Yirn, he had attracted Dunzkr of the Convergence Sect.

One thing led to another until his current situation. Rein had every intention to remain low-key, but now that Convergence Sect was hellbent on taking his life, he had no choice but to remove any future enemies-- frankly, it was easier to take the lives of these enemies in duels, than be even more outnumbered in the western wilderness…

One could say this to be his inevitable fate.

Rein glanced at the pair of long and slender legs that dangled mesmerizingly from his right shoulder. He comforted himself by caressing the delicate skin and squeezing those springy thigh flesh.

 "More…" Suey whined in pleasure as she shifted her legs in nervous anticipation.

Rein smacked her perky bum and continued running his fingers and palms over those lovely legs.

"I'm… I'm…"

To his astonishment, the minx sprayed liquids from her snatch just from his repeated handling of her legs. Did this woman enjoy being mauled by his hands that much? Or perhaps she was already at a high from earlier on. Luckily, the smell of fighting advancers obscured her arousal earlier in the arena.

Rein lowered the woman back onto her feet. Seeing her wanton face, he couldn't resist leaning in.

"Slut kitten…" he whispered sternly into her ear.

"Mmm… punish this slut kitten~" Suey puckered up her lips, and Rein responded, the two sharing a sloppy tongue-dancing kiss.

He brought Suey back into the Halls' Labyrinth and to his cave abode.

"My celest…"

"Yes, kitten?" Rein could see that Suey was anxious, her hands fidgeting endlessly.

"The scar on my cheek…" It was rare for Rein to see Suey insecure. Rein recalled that during his combat against Runzkr, someone on the sideline had told Runzkr to look at her scar to avoid the distraction of her antics. The scar across her cheek was certainly jagged, but well… Rein couldn't care less.

Plus, "you can always remove the scar as you rise in your advancer realm," he said in a comforting tone. "To my knowledge, the physical features only get locked in once you fully form the soul in the telekinetic realm and imprint the nature of your body into the soul."

"But I wish to keep it," Suey replied with her eyes downcast. "It reminds me. It reminds me of my mission to protect my home."

Suey hadn't revealed much of her home. Rein only knew it to be a backwater place.

"A respectable mission." Rein himself had lost his hometown already. He understood without any additional words.

"You won't throw me away because of this scar, right…?" Suey whispered.

Rein was beginning to wonder if something had come over the woman today. She had always been confident, throwing her body at him if given the opportunity.

"I'll throw you onto a bed and ravage you, kitten," he replied as he held and lifted the chin of the woman, such that her eyes no longer stared at the ground.

"I… I wasn't very useful today," Suey continued in a downcast mood. "There aren't many inheritances of advancer arts from my isolated home. I don't have a tempered body, most useful for dueling in the inner realm. I only have a few tricks…"

"I'll take you to the Harmony Sect." Rein recalled that the man Aizen had mentioned that Harmony Sect was often quite willing to share some of their arts with advancers that are couples. "If we complete missions, you should be able to obtain some from the Art of Pavilion as well!"

Suey nodded, still somewhat dispirited. Rein could not find skills for Suey-- members of the Halls weren't allowed to share advancer arts of the Halls, even with each other.

"I'll be back." Rein left his cave abode and Suey was left inside, unsure of why her man had suddenly left. She rolled around in the furs covering Rein's stone bed, wondering if her visions of the future might have changed. Not that she could tell-- currently, she does not have the materials and environment to perform such an extensive art.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Rein returned to a Suey tossing and turning on his fur bed in the nude.

He stood to the side and enjoyed the erotic show. After satiating his eyes, he went forth and handed Suey a jar that contained a resplendent cobalt blue fluid.

"Something from my merchant days," he informed the curious-eyed Suey. "It's from the northern desert tribes. They have a history of decorating their bodies with paint, each of their different-colored paint sourced from a unique spiritual location."

"This one is cobalt blue, sourced from rare underground caves where the water wells are saturated with the magical color of cobalt. The northern desert tribes turn this into paint."

Suey now brimmed with joy and clutched at the jar of cobalt blue face paint.

"Do it for me please, my celest," she begged as she bit her lips, before adding, "then use me as you see fit~"

How troublesome. Rein's left hand wrapped around his kitten's neck, slightly squeezing down to both limit the woman's ability to draw breath while locking her in place. He dipped his right finger into the cobalt blue paint, ready to decorate the woman once again.

_____________________________________________________________________________

In Supreme Guihnes' Garden of Rapture.

Unlike the time when Overseer Jeahz visited, this garden, every single feature intentionally placed to give the zone a hyper-realistic combination of man and nature, was now filled with many refined beauties of different ages, all in flowing silky dresses, robes, and even martial outfits.

This was Supreme Guihnes' business and his influence. Beincen himself could not help examining every different beauty on entry to the garden. He knew that all these women are virgins, sold to the highest bidding nobles and those of influence. Supposedly, some of these beauties had even been bought by the Great Sects of the Evergreen Mountains.

One might assume Supreme Guihnes to be hated for this type of trade. Not so. It is believed that the man followed certain rules. All these jade beauties here are here because they chose to do so. Not that Beincen fully believed these claims himself.

He had come to request assistance from Supreme Guihnes. At least, he believed the supreme had every reason to act against the twin ladies, Suxeire and Joxeire, who had rejected his offers.

What he received instead, was a rebuke!

"Beincen of House Larne," Supreme Guihnes gravely intoned, his voice filled with a threatening air. "Do not accuse me of mistreating Suxeire or Joxeire."

"I fully accepted their rejection. I am a Supreme, an outer advancer closing in on the telekinetic realm. It is not me who has acted against those two-- I never gave such orders. It is the common folk, who believe that by mistreating them, they would gain my favor. It is common folk, who believe that by distancing themselves from the two, they are less likely to suffer my ire."

"This is not something under my control-- why would I go out on a limb to protect them after being rejected by the two? I have already chosen not to give orders to punish the two. The behavior of the common folk is not my concern."

Beincen could only bow his head, unsure of how to rope in Supreme Guihnes into acting against Rein.

"I have also attempted to provide you help already," sighed Supreme Guihnes exaggeratedly. "The aurae bloodhounds for one. I also lost one of the minor keepers I had control over. I ordered them to prevent Rein from learning more skills, only for the Halls to take the minor keeper's life. He was gone in a single snap. You should know the rules of the Halls."

"Rein is a difficult opponent," Beincen repeated, his head bowed before Guihnes. "He has gotten so much stronger already. How has he gotten so physically advanced? Is it a good idea for him to continue his growth? I need your assistance in the western wilderness."

"Very well…" Guihnes had a mysterious look. "You must know that it is believed by the higher-ups that Rein has awakened the bloodline of the fiends."

Beincen felt fear upon hearing this knowledge. Such physically gifted inner advancers had always been hard to deal with. Human's rise and dominance only came due to their numbers and ability to grow quickly, overcoming such physicality after entering deep into the outer advancer realm. Tempering the body required much tolerance and endurance.

"Come, Malak!" Guihnes yelled. A hulking man appeared beside Supreme Guihnes. He had a mark on his forehead. Beincen knew that mark to be the slave sigil of the Lurdi Clan. A metal-spiked collar with the same sigil was also tightened around the hulking man's neck.

"This man has the bloodline of a fiend as well, and stands at peak shell realm," explained Supreme Guihnes. "I will give him his orders and lend him to you. However, he will not follow your orders-- these northern tribes respect strength. You're too weak-- he won't listen to you."

Beincen was overjoyed and repeatedly bobbed his head in gratitude. The hidden House Larne members in the Great Sects had expressed their concern with revealing their identities, and would prefer if someone else could deal the killing blow-- Malak would solve this issue!

Beincen soon left with his heart full of confidence. After all, he had raised his own strength to the mid-shell realm as well.

"Iurzy." Guihnes stopped a beauty who was walking past this seat. "How is your brother doing?"

"Supreme!" Iurzy smiled. "My brother has been promoted in the Dingien Corps. Thank you for your support!"

"Good!" Guihnes beamed. He did not just train these women and sell them to those of influence. What he valued that most, was in fact, the talented relatives of these women that he funded into influential positions of the Minhr Nation. This was why he had connections to the Dingien Clan.

Once the area around him was empty, Supreme Guihnes' expression returned to neutral.

"Old friend, are you not going to come out?" he scoffed.

A man dressed in regal purple robes with jet-black lines zigzagging down the edges appeared. This was the man who had accompanied Overseer Jeahz on the day when Beincen had attempted to attack Rein at Blacksmith Rahr's forge.

"Guihnes. I'm surprised you still care about these women and their relatives. Overseer Jeahz has already promised your clan a place if you succeed in locating the Great Sects' secret jade mine." He lowered his hood, revealing a young man with black middle-parted long curtain hair, along with a right eye with the emblem of the sun, and a left eye filled with the moon.

"Huhrz. I am not you. I am not guaranteed success." Guihnes was not praising Huhrz. They had known each other for a century. Guihnes hated Huhrz to the core back in those days. Yet, Huhrz had bailed him out of trouble so many times that eventually, he had to cave to the man's will. Huhrz was dedicated to the Halls' principles in a way that Guihnes knew he never could be. He was a shadow that desired no influence, but if an order was given, a corpse would return.

This man is Supreme Huhrz of the Green Trout City Halls branch.

"And you are a sneaky bastard as always. Placing that combat slave beside Beincen when your targets are his hidden ancestors."

Guihnes could only shrug nonchalantly at these words… especially as he had attempted quite a number of these 'sneaky' acts on Huhrz when they were new to the Halls.

"Don't indulge yourself in the influence you have built here anymore," Huhrz advised as he left the pavilion that stood at the center of the Garden of Rapture. "If you cling to these desires, your mentality will suffer. You do know finding the location of that hidden jade mine is not the end."

______________________________________________________________________________

In a guest room of the Hall of Heroes.

The second prince Tohrsen shattered a porcelain cup of wine against the ground in rage. He had been rejected by Lyne and the Xuere Clan again. The first time, he had thought the woman was simply playing hard to get, only to discover today that she was, in fact, capable of displaying some expressions.

"That fucking bitch. Does she think the Xuere Clan can still stay neutral?!" He split a maloewood table with a kick of his right leg.

What enraged him the most was that the bitch seemed to dispel her cool demeanor and speak quite 'normally' with some random nobody named Rein.

"Second prince. Calm yourself. Our investigation has shown little-to-no relations between the two. The other princes are our foes. They sacrificed a whole town to kill your older brother. This nobody is not worth it. He is but an initiate that will die in the western wilderness in a few days." These words came from the mouth of an attendant prostrating to the ground before Tohrsen.

His words certainly helped the prince steady his heart.

"Let us ensure that then!" He harrumphed. "Send the image of this… Rein to the devil sects out west. Reward them for his corpse. And Lyne… I have heard she has been recklessly throwing herself into the western wilderness like a desperate commoner. How embarrassing. There's no need for us nobles to sacrifice our lives! Have the devil sects capture and deliver her to me!"

"Yes, second prince."

____________________________________________________________________________

In the Evergreen Mountains

The Convergence Sect Master slammed a fist onto a polished mahogany table.

"How dare that young man even retort. If not for that being the Halls homeground, I would have taken his life there and then." He sneered derisively, "let's see how you survive in the western wilderness!" 

"Sect Master…" An elder interrupted. "We have far more pressing matters. The Uni Sect and One Formation Sect are attempting to gain a larger share of the jade mine, along other long-established resource locations of our sect. They see us as weak-- we must retaliate against them first!"

"No matter," the Sect Master grumbled. "At least put up a poster such that if some of our disciples come across him, we can take his life!"

____________________________________________________________________________

The Uni Sect

"House of Genesis." The Uni Sect Master said to a group of full-black cloaked men. "As per agreement, we have housed you. And now, we also provide you with information about a man with the origin skill, 'Rebound'."

"He has joined the Hall of Heroes, and will be a part of the new initiates group traveling to the western wilderness."

"I believe the Halls will not retaliate. This man has supposedly been stuck as a peak inner advancer, with psychedelics not being effective for him." 

"Hah!" one of the black-cloaked men chortled. "It has been a pain trying to find a sample with 'Rebound'. Those who have had this echo awakened in them always die too early due to the users' reckless and unyielding nature. I even once thought that someone had a vendetta and was specifically targeting those who have had 'Rebound' awaken in them."

"Well, regardless, thank you for providing assistance to our prodigy," the Uni Sect Master replied. "He has already mastered the 'Infinite Faces' advancer art. Even a telekinetic advancer will be tricked by his mastery over the skill!"

An image of Xeeseir was handed over to the group of black cloaked men.