One Last System

"Respectable Elder, forgive me for not noticing your appearance!" I instantly bowed down and cupped my hands together, paying the proper respects to the man.

I used my routine of showcasing just how humble I was once again. After all, this was my best shot for dealing with all sorts of authorities!

But the face of the man didn't change to a kinder one. I had a pretty hard time reading the man's expression for how wrinkled due to old age it was.

Yet, I could say one thing for sure.

This man wasn't happy at all.

"I will ask this only once. Who gave you the right to beat your fellow disciple?!" the elder asked in a domineering voice, raising his chin high and casting a furious stare along the line of the bridge of his nose.

'Oh?' My eyes twitched when I realized my mistake.

This man didn't come here to have his ego tickled. And if he didn't react to the respects, I had no other way but to assume a different kind of stance towards him.

"So that's what the elder meant back then," I muttered, my voice just loud enough for the oldie to hear me.

"The fuck are you saying?" The elder squinted his eyes, my response clearly just fanning the flames of his fury. He didn't unleash it, though, likely thanks, again, to the content of my words.

"We are training, respectable elder," I replied, finally answering the man's initial question. "I thought that was plain for all to see," I added, the corners of my mouth moving slightly up.

"How does beating a fellow disciple amount to a training?" the elder countered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Don't bullshit a bullshiter," he added, squinting his eyes to the point where I doubted he could actually see anything.

"Elder, with all due respect, I'm just following the advice given to me by another elder," I claimed, raising myself and looking the man in the eyes.

Right now, being humble would achieve nothing, so I might as well just do my best to play my cards right.

Mentioning the involvement of another elder in the situation, even if a stretch, was the most important thing.

"So you were told to go an abuse your fellow disciples?" the old elder raised one of his eyebrows, showing just how little he believed in my claims.

"Elder, with all due respect, but this disciple came here to cause trouble," I said, pointing my hand at the man strapped to the pillar again. "What I'm doing is just paying him back for that while making the most of the situation." I shook my head. "And there is the thing, that if the elder wishes to support the claim that he was in his right to, ekhem, trip, ekhem, and shove a spirit stone in me only to demand ridiculous reparations..." I said, cutting my sentence short.

"Then?" the elder asked, falling right for my trap.

"Then I'm all within my right to do the same to him. Trip down, and push both what he claimed to lost and what he claimed his life to be worth on him, claiming his life as reparation instead."

For a moment, the two of us turned completely silent. In the contest of stares that ensued, neither party was willing to give any ground for the other. And in all of that, Mia could only stay patiently by the pillar, not sure how to act outside of desperately attempting to hide her bloodied fists.

"I see you covered your back," the elder finally sighed before shaking his head. "Still, as a representative of the sect, I cannot allow this to go any further. You might've paid... I mean, take his life as reparations, but his life ultimately belongs to the sect," he said, a smile appearing on his lips. "In other words, even if you were ignorant of that, you still crossed the sect's bottom line," the elder added, his smile turning vicious.

The elder shook his head before turning to the side and approaching the pillar.

Noticing the approaching elder, Mia instantly stepped to the side and lowered her entire self. Thankfully, the elder didn't seem to pay her any mind.

"As I thought, he is on the verge of dying," the elder confirmed what I figured out myself. Still, to think that Mia could achieve all of that with a single punch of hers... didn't that mean she was ready for the advancement?

"As such," the elder said, turning himself back to me, his face filled with happiness, "this isn't something that the sect could and would turn a blind eye to."

"Oh," I smiled in response, "it will."

The boundless confidence behind my smile managed to crack the confidence of the elder apart. The happiness on his face gave way to a surprise and then curiosity.

"And why would that be?" he asked, leaning his head to the side as if giving me some space to explain my belief.

"It's pretty simple," I said, moving towards the pillar myself.

Then, without any regard for the elder's presence, I threw a loose punch right to the face of the strapped disciple.

"..." this pitiful man didn't have enough strength to even protest or express his pain. It was questionable whether he could even feel such a weak punch anymore.

"What are you..."

"I broke through the purification stage in two weeks," I said, cutting right into the elder's words. Right now, I cared not for disrespecting him. In fact, if my guess about the local culture was right, I already did it many times over during the last few moments.

Doing it once again wouldn't change a thing.

"This guy is so weak; he can only be in the early stage of the purification phase," I added, looking down at the blood that stuck to my fist before wiping it in one of the rare, clean spots on the disciple's robes. "On the other hand, I'm a prodigy, one who even managed to induce an astonishing growth to my slave, making her reach the limits of the purification stage as well," I said, pointing towards Mia with my chin.

"And what does that have to do with anything?" the elder asked, sending me an amused look. "Even if you are a prodigy, do you really think that you can stand up to my authority?" he asked, appearing to be truly enjoying the moment.

"Me? Stand up to Your authority?" I asked, opening my eyes wide. "Heck no, why would I do such a thing?" I shook my head only for a huge smile to appear on my face.. "But I have all the rights to believe that your fellow elder won't allow you to push your luck here, respectable senior," I said, adding an empty expression of respect at the end. "After all, if you are willing to put your authority on a stake on the orders of a fellow disciple of mine, that can only mean your faction in the sect is just that weak!"