Book 2: Chapter 31: New Rules |
Yin Hu had both girls, Rong, and the strange old spirit lined up before him. He surveyed them one by one, making sure to give each a long, hard look before he moved on to the next person. All of them stood in dead silence for the past ten minutes as he glared and postured before them the whole time. He was trying to make a point very clear to all of them moving forward.
Too many times had Shui and Jun gotten into serious trouble and potentially dangerous situations where he couldn't help them at all.
What was the point of having an ancestor if said ancestor was incapable of doing anything to keep them safe? It almost felt like he was neglecting his main responsibility to them. At least while they were still out and about in the wilderness, rather than within the compounds of a sect, family, or clan.
He would not allow any of them to stray too far or to find too much trouble until they were surrounded by high walls and a thousand disciples.
Yin Hu cleared his throat, making sure to speak in a deeper tone than usual. “New rules will be in place, starting henceforth,” his eyes stopped dead on Shui. The girl looked forlorn and sullen, but it was filled with something else.
Then again, she had been in a bad mood ever since being forced out of the Inheritance Instance. Crying about friend shaped battle guardians or some other ridiculous things she had been saying that Jun tried to act like she didn’t know about.
Even working together now to cause chaos. How the hell did Jun get involved in all the havoc? I need to be more firm with them.
“Number 1. No straying more than a dozen feet from around me. Number two, practice occurs both mornings and nights with increased intensity. Number three, Rong is your guardian and to be taken as my representative in all situations that I am not involved in. Number 4, anything the old man says, disregard it. Don't listen to his words nor any attempt he may make to convince you to do something–”
The old spirit scoffed.
Rong seemed to be clued in and would casually snicker at its misfortune every once in a while as well. Yin Hu was curious, but not enough to break his persona and ask what was holding the old man captive in this area. Or worse, held captive around the girls and himself.
Not that he really minded.
He needed to keep his sparring simulator… err… potential font of knowledge of battle and fights around to train the girls better and provide them with valuable situational incidents that would give them more experience than doing a hundred katas.
Yin Hu just needed to figure out how to prompt the system to accept him as something, not that he would have accepted the old man as a disciple either.
Not after the kidnapping of his girl's debacle.
“And finally, number five. Any spirit you meet must be filtered through Rong,” Yin Hu turned to look at the little kid. “You are hereby dubbed, First Elder of the Hu Clan. Spirit Master and Elder of the Future Generations.”
“Yes, Ancestor!”
The system pinged him with a notification as soon as he said those words.
Do you wish to elevate disciple Hu Rong, of the Flower Glades, The Blade Storm, into an Elder?
Yes -
No -
Yin Hu mentally clicked ‘Yes’ and watched the system calibrate the new information. After a couple of error codes, a final message appeared to finalize what he suspected would happen. The system rarely messed up and failed him when it dealt with second party individuals, especially if they were connected to him. That was a stability he had found to rely on when everything else seemed to not work at all.
(Hu Rong of the Flower Glades | The Blade Storm) has been elevated -
New Titles Acquired -
First Elder of the Hu Clan
Spirit Master and Elder of the Future Generations
Yin Hu nodded at Hu Rong to affirm the change and let him know his portion of the discussion was over. Next he turned to look at the new potential member of their merry band. The sparring simulator… err… font of knowledge in the form of an ancient ghost that likely predated everyone he would meet. Everyone except Yin Hu that was. Yin took a few moments to digest the fact that he was the oldest living thing in this part of the galaxy.
He felt twenty five in his heart.
“Old ghost–”
The old man’s left eye twitched at being called old and a ghost.
“–your name? And be clear and succinct please. No rambling like you always do.”
“I don't," the old man paused. He let out a long defeated sigh. “Da Ruis of the Hidden Lotus Hall. Not many of us exist any longer.”
Da Ruis the sparring simulation creator… I don’t think he’ll like that name much, but who cares. Better than having Rong eat him alive, right?
“Da Ruis. Stand.”
He did as he was told by Yin Hu, giving Rong a worried look but otherwise said nothing.
“Welcome, Da Ruis. As an outer court member of our Hu Clan. Not worthy of a disciple, yet not lowly to be nothing more than a servant. Take your place in the great halls that are the Hu Clan’s list of legends and world shakers.”
Do you wish to accept (Da Ruis of the Hidden Lotus Hall | Administrator Level 98BiER1) as your first and only outer court member?
Yes -
No -
“Err… Thank you?” Da Ruis said.
“You are very welcome,” Yin Hu ignored the obvious confusion and clicked ‘Yes’ to finalize the process. “Your first task is to create a proper Sparring Simulator for the girls and Rong to train in. I have specifications but the most primary portion must be the scalability of the threats to fit them as they continue to grow.”
“Y-Yes, Lord Patriarch… But…”
Yin Hu blinked at Da Ruis. “Is there a problem?”
“Well. Yes. Yes there is,” the old man rubbed his neck.
“Go ahead, explain yourself.”
“Err…” Da Ruis hesitated for a second. “You kind of destroyed my Inheritance Instance so thoroughly that I’m without any resources at all to recreate it in any shape or form. Not only do I need massive quantities of Qi to restart the process, I need something more hefty just to resolidify my existence enough to bring another one. I’ll have you know, I wasn’t always this… pasty and see through. I could actually touch the physical world back in the day!”
Shit… that makes sense. How the hell am I supposed to find him what he needs?
“We’ll figure it out later. Rong, your first task is to take care of this situation for me. I have better things to deal with. More important things.”
“Yes, Ancestor!” Rong shouted at the top of his lungs, suspiciously similar to Shui.
He turned to the girls to address them again, they both haven’t spoken a word and that made Yin Hu very suspicious. “Spill the beans. What are you hiding? I know both of you well enough to figure out you are keeping something hidden from me.”
Jun’s face paled and was easy to read.
Shui, on the other hand, did not blink once. Her sad and forlorn expressions snapped into a dead stoic and innocent look as though she wasn’t the most dastardly culprit in this situation. He would have guessed she had done something without any indication anyway considering how wont she was to cause havoc and chaos the moment she was by herself for even a second.
Yin Hu walked up to her with narrowed eyes and extended his hand.
Her eyes began blinking rapidly, but never turned to look back at him.
“Now, Shui.”
She cursed.
“Shui!” Yin Hu was appalled.
“Okay. Okay! Here.” Shui reached into her dress and pulled out a golden ring and put it in his outstretched palm.
Yin Hu felt the spacial Qi the second it touched him. Making him aware of the five more that were currently hidden around in Shui’s dress. He hadn’t even noticed a second before yet the moment he had a hint of it, it became obvious what he was looking for. His senses entered the ring and found four pouches in there that were spacial bags as well. If each ring had the same amount…
Where the hell did she get so much treasure from? There has to be mountains of it!
He narrowed his eyes. “All six rings in my hand. Now.”
“But, Ancestor!”
“Don’t you but me. Rings here. Now. You are too young to be treasure hunting. I will not raise a loot goblin!” Yin Hu was struggling not to become the nagging over obsessed parent, but what choice did he have when the girls were thrown into danger at every turn and upturned pebble they encountered. “And Jun… I’ll have a discussion with you later.”
Jun gulped.
Yin Hu needed to find out exactly what escapades they had gone through in the Inheritance Instance while in there for roughly one minute before he snatched them back to this reality. How the hell had they found all this so quickly? Did whatever control the inheritance kowtow and hundred times before throwing every iota of items it had within its coffers the second they showed up?
Something was afoot and he suspected it was more trouble.