Death... and me

"E-Elder Fauk..."

He didn't even notice when Old Worm entered the room.

"Roan is my disciple. Do you want to take him away from me?"

Reliance's demeanor completely disappeared as he immediately shook his head.

"This lowly one wouldn't dare."

Old Worm snorted.

"Hmph! Of course you wouldn't. Also, his cultivation is deeply related to how close he is to his brother. You better not try to separate them."

Old Worm then looked at Roan and asked.

"Is it over?"

Roan nodded.

"Yes."

Without saying anything else, Roan and Old Worm left straight away. After all, they were still in the middle of alchemy practice when Rean called them over.

Finally, Elder Reliance calmed down and looked at Droman.

"Why didn't you tell me his brother was Elder Fauk's disciple? Are you trying to kill me?"

Droman laughed out loud.

"Hahaha! That's for you to understand that the world doesn't exist to fulfill your every command. Anyway, Elder Fauk knew that you didn't know about Rean's brother, so he won't make things difficult for you."

Droman continued.

"On top of that, I thought of bringing Rean away in the past, but the issue they have regarding cultivation can't be avoided. That being said, I can't separate them either. That's why I spent most of my time teaching Rean in the sect instead of watching over the communication system construction."

Reliance couldn't help but feel perplexed.

"What is this cultivation proximity that you and Elder Fauk talked about?"

Rean was the one to answer that question.

"Oh! It goes like this..."

He then explained the same thing as he did to Droman a few months ago.

"I see... if that is the case, then I really can't bring you further away from your brother. What do you do about missions?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders.

"We basically take them together. However, we also make sure that the missions are difficult enough for the two of us to complete. That means we don't have any problem with real combat experiences."

Reliance massaged the space between his eyebrows.

"Droman. Even if I can't bring this kid away with me, I still want him."

Droman didn't yield, unsurprisingly.

"Hmph! Keep dreaming. Even if I have to fight your Demon Beasts, I will not give up on him."

Rean then raised his hand.

"I believe you two are forgetting the main point here. It all depends on me whether I want to get a new master or not. Droman is my Formations Master for apparent reasons. As for you, Elder Reliance, I don't really have a reason to accept you as my Master."

Reliance narrowed his eyes.

"Kid, other than Formation-related things, I can definitely give you as much or even more than Droman. Spirit Stones would not be a problem, for example."

Rean and Droman looked at each other for a second and then started to laugh.

"What is so funny?"

Droman then patted Reliance's shoulder with an expression of pity.

"Too bad, my friend. If there is one thing that Rean doesn't lack, that it Spirit Stones."

Reliance narrowed his eyes as he looked at Droman.

"You were quite the money-grubber. Since when you started to treat Spirit Stones that cheap?"

Rean was the one to answer that question.

"If Elder Droman is a money-grubber or not, I don't know. However, I've never needed his help with cultivation resources to start with. I have plenty of ways to get Spirit Stones. Just my steel works alone are already enough for my and Roan's cultivation."

Reliance didn't know what Rean was talking about, so Droman gave him a quick explanation about Rean's Blacksmith Skills. Finally, Reliance came to understand that Rean was already rich in his own right. If anything, the Jamariz Weapon Store had been giving him more and more Spirit Stones every month. Not only that, but they even began to consider expanding their shops to the other sects' territories as well. After all, the Steel Swords were just way too popular with low-level cultivators that couldn't pay for Spiritual Equipment.

Reliance felt a headache already. Rean turned out to be harder to deal with than he thought.

It was then that Rean said.

"Elder Reliance only wants to help me with Kentucky's training, right? How about this: There is no need for you to take me as a disciple. During the times I'm in the sect, Elder Reliance can simply take the chance to help me with it. I'll basically leave Kentucky's every step for you to decide. Of course, there will be times that Roan and I will go out for missions. Still, this is also good since we can have Kentucky try some combat."

Reliance pondered a bit before saying.

"Very well. But I won't forgive you if you let it die, so you better take good care of it."

Rean nodded and then asked the question that was puzzling him for so long.

"So... What race is Kentucky from?"

Reliance scratched his dreadlock hairs and looked at Droman.

"What? Is it some kind of secret? I've never talked about Lanlan, Zunzun, and Jinjin, so why would I open my mouth about Kentucky?"

Reliance then pointed at Rean.

"Didn't you just say it to this kid?"

Droman didn't care.

"That's because you want to take him as a disciple. If that is the case, you obviously have no intention of keeping those three hidden in the first place. Am I wrong? Besides, I just spoke a few names. I didn't tell him what they are."

Reliance wanted to refute Droman's words, but he knew that he couldn't. If he had really brought Rean and Kentucky away, Rean would eventually find out about his three main Demon Beasts.

Rean then added.

"I trust Elder Droman, so there is no need to feel apprehensive about him. By the way, who are Zunzun, Lanlan, and Jinjin?"

Reliance finally let it go.

"Fine!"

*Fuiiiii~~*

Suddenly, a small Fiery-Red Palm-Sized bird entered the room through the window and landed on Reliance's shoulder.

"I can't show you the other two since they are a little too catchy. However, this one should be okay. This is Zunzun, my Fire Tanager."

Rean didn't know what to say about the bird. It looked as weak as any common bird around. It's just that it's fiery red feathers really reminded him about the fire color. Still, it was just a Tanager.

Too bad that Rean didn't try to use his Spiritual Sense. If he did, he would notice that the little bird wouldn't appear inside his Spiritual Sense at all. After all, the difference in cultivation was just too high!

"Errr... that's quite a beautiful bird."

Still, Rean didn't know why Reliance would want to keep it a secret. It was then that an idea came to mind.

"Oh! I see... this Tanager is a rare one, right? Because it is too weak, Elder Reliance is afraid that someone will try to steal it."

Droman heard those words and began to sweat a bit. All of a sudden, a red flash passed by Rean's eyes.

*Bang!*

Before Rean could even process what happened, his body was sent flying! Something had just hit his chest head-on!

*Crash!*

Rean hit the wall with so much strength that the entire room trembled. He fell down right after and vomited some blood. He looked at his chest and saw the scourged black mark left behind by the assault.

Rean then looked around, afraid that an enemy had attacked him. However, he soon saw Elder Droman's weird expression as Reliance laughed out loud.

"Hahaha! That's too funny!"

Rean couldn't understand anything. However, he noticed that the red bird on Reliance's shoulder disappeared.

"Hey, brat! Where the hell are you looking?!"

Only then did Rean notice that fiery red bird on the ground... was talking to him.

"I will let you off the hook this time since Master likes you. However, if you disrespect me again, don't blame me for not holding back. Hmph!"

Rean's fearful expression changed to that of extreme shock in an instant!

"The bird can talk?!"

Droman then sighed as he explained.

"Ahem... Zunzun is a Stage Six Demon Beast after all."

Rean's blood drained from his face as he looked at the palm-sized bird in front of him. Without a doubt, this was one of the biggest shocks he had received ever since he was born in the cultivation world.

"Alright, Zunzun. Leave him alone. It is not good to abuse your power in front of the kids."

"Yes, Master!"

Zunzun then became another flash of red light as he flew back to Reliance's shoulder.

"Zunzun has a very high affinity with Fire Element, which makes his behavior as fiery as his feathers. Don't take it personally."

Zunzun didn't like Reliance's words but didn't say anything.

"Hmph!"

Reliance then smiled and explained.

"Stage Five Demon Beasts can use Spiritual Sense to convene their thoughts. As for Stage Six, they gain the ability to speak with words."

Rean always had the thought that the higher the Stage, the bigger the Demon Beast. Obviously, that was not the case.

"So strong! Could it be that Zunzun is some Legendary Tanager or something like that? Could it be that Kentucky is also a Legendary Bird?"

Reliance laughed once more.

"Hahaha! Legendary? Far from that. There are so many Fire Tanagers from where I came that you might even see thousands in a single pack. Well, Fire Tanagers usually never cross Stage One, though. I had to put a lot of effort into helping Zunzun reach his actual level."

Reliance then looked at Kentucky.

"However, it's not wrong to say that about Kentucky. After all, it is a Minokawa."