"Update me about the latest news," Ken sat on the couch in front of his maid, his legs crossed.
"Yes, Young Master. You began receiving payment from the Formation Mastery division of 30,000 medium Qi Stones per month for research. The Alchemy division also renewed their payments, and you get 30,000 medium Qi Stones for research from them as well. You also received the payment of 15,000 Qi Stones for being ranked first three age groups above your age."
"And the rewards for my research papers?" Ken asked, raising an eyebrow. Merley renewing his monthly fourth-rank master payment didn't seem much.
"They said it's not part of the rewards. The elders seem to be unable to reach a decision regarding the rewards you deserve," Soleil explained.
"I see, where are the 75,000 Qi Stones then?" Ken asked.
"Oh… Young Master, I used some of them to buy ingredients for better dishes to serve you, and I didn't count how much they gave… Only 73,000 Qi Stones are left…" Soleil smiled coyly and took out a small hill of stones from her storage ring.
"It's fine, you can take 3,000 stones per month out of it for your cultivation," Ken shrugged. He was used to the greedy maid and her light-fingered personality. Since she was being useful, he didn't mind paying her.
"Thank you, Young Master." Soleil shamelessly took back a thousand Qi Stones from the pile into her ring.
"What about Henry?"
"He is gone to fight a match in the arena, he is fighting one of the young masters from the Han clan. The fight was supposed to begin 20 minutes ago."
In the past week, Ken found new value in Soleil as an information hub. She was in charge of all errands and miscellaneous jobs that Henry and he did not have time to do and did not require combat prowess.
'Hmm right, he didn't get to fight his first challenge because of the mission. I guess it's time to instigate some fighting within the sect,' Ken's plan by creating some quarrels between his clan to the Han clan was to force the Sue clan to gather their forces.
Ken was unsure of this plan now. Originally, his clan was a problem he had to oppress, but now they were surprisingly supportive after finding out about his talents. Not many enjoyed direct tutelage under a grand elder, not even the direct descendants of said elder.
If anyone kept an eye on Haoran, chances are that they'd be called back and he'd be able to smuggle his family out of the sect's control. Even if they only hired outsiders as spies without anyone from the clan itself keeping an eye on them, the chaos would allow him better chances to do something about it.
That was his original reason. But now, it lost most of its meaning as his influence within his clan grew. He could probably get Mei and Haoran out of danger overtly at this point.
"I will go to meet my new teacher now," Ken told his maid and got up to leave. He decided to think how to proceed from there after getting to know his new teacher.
"Good luck, Young Master. Young Lady Elodie said she will come here so you can go together to the restaurant in two days," Soleil reported her last news.
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"Hello, I've come to meet Grand Elder Fernando. I'm Ken Sue."
The guard in the gate standing at the legs of a mountain looked at Ken's token. The mountain had many peaks and each one of them belonged to a different elder. The elders lived lavishly in huge wooden houses made of top-notch materials, and huge amounts of money were invested in the formations inside and outside every house.
"Go ahead, Young Master. Grand Elder Fernando lives in the third highest peak of the eastern half of the mountain belt."
The guard returned Ken his clan token and bowed with his fist cupped. Despite being at the fifth stage, a stage higher than Ken, he was a servant of Ken's family.
"All right."
Ken looked around him at the paved road he walked on. The mountain belt was completely unguarded wherever there were no roads; the guards were not meant to keep the elders safe but to manage the visitors.
Thus, the ones who dared trespass into the territory where the seventh-stage and eighth-stage cultivators of the Sue clan lived, had worse things to worry about than some fifth-stage guards.
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Meanwhile in the arena:
"Let's go watch the battle in the fourth arena, I heard that someone is challenging an inner disciple from the Han clan. It can be interesting to watch someone digging his own grave."
"Sure, maybe even today one of the Han clan members will die," his friend said cheerfully. They were all jealous of these from the elite clans that looked down on them.
"Haha, I doubt! Although the challenged disciple is from a branch family of the Han family and isn't in a very high rank, the Han clan would make sure to take revenge."
The two friends, along with many other disciples who talked on the same topic, walked to watch the fight. Fights between fifth-stage cultivators garnered more attention than these of the fourth stage and were rarer.
"Henry Karras against Jason Han, fighting for the 892nd rank, begin!"
Henry aimed at the lowest-ranked member of the Han clan on purpose so he can keep challenging the next ones in order. It was also a reason he fought against someone from a branch family first as they had fewer resources and were relatively weaker than their richer cousins.
As for those who weren't ranked in the top 1000, he could not challenge them under the pretext of going after their rank, else it'd be a direct war declaration from his side, something he wouldn't do.
"Surrender now and you can still be spared," Jason said in a haughty tone.
Henry, however, remained silent as always. Ken was the only person to hear him speak ever since he received his inheritance and got enlightened, excluding the sect elder that questioned him about the details of the inheritance.
He raised his palm, and a prayer necklace made of wooden beads was held between his thumb and index finger. If one was blessed with a good sight, they'd see a golden hue being emitted out of his body and being increased by the necklace.
"Hey, monk, are you mute? I said surrender!" Jacob shouted angrily. He did not know the strength of the challenger and wanted to first bring him down with words before resorting to battle.
'May all beings have happy minds,' Henry muttered to himself, too quietly for anyone to hear.
"Did you say something?" Jacob, the closest to Henry, asked when he saw the monk's lips move.
As he looked at the monk, all his anger and fear were decreasing rapidly as if someone sucked these feelings out of him, and he felt enlightened. His mind was free of any burden, and he was filled with freedom he never dreamt of before.
"Ah, this is pure bliss, why am I even bothering with something like a duel and ranking?" Jacob said to the empty air. These were his last words, as a palm descended from the sky and squashed him to the ground, leaving nothing but a bloody corpse.
'Huh, I've saved another lost lamb from walking down the wrong path today,' Henry thought to himself as he turned around and left the arena, walking back to Ken's house.
"Winner, Henry Karras!"
The shocked voice of the announcer was late to come. Nobody understood why Jacob offered no resistance, nor what happened there in the end.
"Did a ranker die… just like that?"
"I think so…?"
The crowd was left in utter confusion.
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