Chapter 88 – Virtues of a Master (III)

Chapter 88

Virtues of a Master (III)

Despite the distance between the town and the sect being the distance of a marathon (or a few of them, really), Elder Qin turned it into a sprint.

We made barely any stops and didn’t sleep more than an hour a night for two days before finally making it to the last uphill climb.

Once there, Elder Qin disappeared without saying a word, and I was left behind to settle the spirit horses and inform the sect of our return. Cao Qiu and Hou He left shortly after the Elder, while the rest of us rattled around the marketplace while listening to the many conversations detailing what happened.

Apparently, it was a very public declaration–a voice boomed from the sky, its pressure immense, and proclaimed that the war competition would take place in fifteen days in a city east of the sect called Sun City. Very inspiring, I know.

It was about an hour later that we finally left and climbed up to the mountain peak, settling down in our respective rooms.

… it was too soon, yeah. Something had happened to change the normal course of events. Ordinarily, according to customs, once an official Declaration of War is sent, the receiving side has about two months to decide on the place and the time. Though there were no time limits, per se, the date was usually set for six months to two years after the fact.

It is pretty much unprecedented to have a war be set so quickly, and since it had to have been approved by the overseeing party… it was no wonder that Elder Qin rushed, as there was likely a conspiracy afoot. What kind of conspiracy? No idea.

Ah, here comes the fledgling little monster that might shed some light on the whole thing.

“Master,” Long Tao greeted rather disinterestedly. It was actually kind of amazing that he still called me that–even in private. Then again, I did technically teach him two things, so, you know. Maybe he’s literal like that.

“Why aren’t you resting?” I asked as he sat on one of the chairs, heaving one leg over the other.

“While I was sneaking around inside the town,” he said. “I… overheard something.” Of course he did. “Something I didn’t feel comfortable sharing with Elder Qin.”

“What did you hear?”

“I’m not quite sure what it all means.” Yeah, right. I almost rolled my eyes but just barely stopped myself. “But they were talking about it being too early to expose themselves, that it was best if they waited for the war, and that ‘that‘ place will still be there. Talking about how they’ve failed to create the Seed, but in the process managed to discover the original one’s location.”

“…” Okay, the whole thing is clearly some ranch dressing that he wove out for me. It had enough clues to piece together the entire thing, so my assumption was rather immediate: he mentioned the ‘Seed’, so it was most likely that thing Elder Qin mentioned during our little excursion.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He also mentioned that they failed to create it but managed to locate the original one’s location. So, whoever was in that town was trying to recreate one of the Spirit Sword Sect’s treasures… except, it sounded like it wasn’t one of our treasures. I don’t think he overheard any of these things, of course; he most likely beat the info out of the people he killed, people that Elder Qin just so happened to ‘misidentify’.

So…

The war would be a time for them to reveal themselves, and the Seed would still be where they now knew it was.

Right.

So, when we go off to war, they’ll sneak or break into the sect to steal the Seed.