Conditions
It was a very simple as well as brilliant condition to restrain Taotie going outside and putting himself in danger by exposing his identity. In the present times, the Wusun Clan was not a very welcoming clan in the outside world. Due to some incident a few hundred years ago they were branded as an evil clan and were even hunted down by some powers in the outside world.
Surf idea was simple, if Taotie reached Level 10, then even in the outside he'll be considered a powerhouse and with a few precautions, he can easily wander in the outside world. But Surf was also thinking it'll take at least a century for Taotie to reach at Level 10 and by that time he'll surely have to forget about the outside world and focus his mind on being an apprentice Chief of the Clan.
"This!" Taotie was taken aback. He continued in a low voice, "But uncle I want to go to Imperial Academy outside from next year."
"What?!" A surprised voice leaked out from Surf's mouth. Going to the outside world for a few days was one thing but joining the Imperial Academy was a totally different thing.
"Tao, you can't join Imperial Academy. It's very dangerous there. Just think a little bit, what will happen if they found out your identity?" Surf hurriedly said.
Imperial Academy was a place where people from all over the world used to come to study as well as with tons of other motives. There were many possibilities that few hostile powers able to identify Taotie.
"Uncle Surf, I had heard a lot of amazing things about that academy. Apparently, everyone in the outside world dream to attend that academy." Taotie paused for a few moments.
"Not only that I heard that two Saint Level experts of the outer world are also there," he continued.
"And I think only there I can make lots of friends," Taotie added.
"Fine. I will talk to the elder brother about this. If he agreed then only you can go outside and join that academy." Reluctantly Surf replied. "However until that you have to work very hard to solidify your foundation and then increase your level. Understand?"
"Alright Uncle." With a smiling face, Taotie replied.
The sky had slowly gotten dark.
After talking to Surf, Taotie went to his room without bothering anyone else, and right now he was sitting in his room looking at an old book of his father while lying on his bed.
Knock… Knock…
"Tao, Brother George is calling you. You have to come with me."
Surf knocked at his door and entered the room before saying that.
"Uncle, do you know why father has called?" Taotie asked.
According to Taotie, his father George was a very busy man, he either usually busy with his training or either leaving for the outside world for some reasons for months. Due to all of that, there were many times when both the son and the father could not see each other for months.
"Your father is a busy man; he'll never call you without any important reason. Don't you also think so?" Surf mysteriously replied as they both left the room to see the man.
After going through a dark passage, both the young and middle-aged man entered in a hall. The hall was almost covered in darkness, the only source of light was the fireplace in which woods were burning with small flames and producing the soft crackling and popping sound.
Next to the fireplace was sitting a man with his legs crossed and eyes closed on a small mat. His upper body was naked but it was covered in sweat and due to that, it was also shining like gold. Down his waist, a large black piece of silk draped around his lower body. Looking at him right now, Taotie felt like he was looking at some ancient evil fiend as he shuddered seeing his father like that.
Suddenly the man in front of them opened his eyes, looking in those eyes Taotie felt like it was a deep abyss of darkness so he immediately averted his eyes.
This was the first time he felt like that, seeing his father. Last time when he saw his father six months ago, when he had returned after a year from the outside world, he looked a little haggard with some bloody bruises on his body.
"Tao, my son, I heard you ran away and went to the outside world." While looking in the eyes of Taotie with his bloodshot abyssal eyes, George asked.
"Yes, father." Suppressing his shock and his almost trembling legs, Taotie timidly replied.
If one asked how warm the relationship between the father and son between Taotie and George was? The answer was the relationship was not warm. The clan maids and Surf used to say that Taotie was very close to his mother, Lila in his childhood and would often cry seeing his father, George. And since his mother died while he was just three years old, his father started going outside more often for longer periods and since then the distance between both of them become more apart.
"And just now Surf told me that you also want to go outside again to attend the Imperial Academy. Is that true." The cold voice once again sounded.
"Y…yes father." In a mosquito voice, the child replied while nodding his head slowly.
"Do you know by going outside you put our clan in grave danger?" George asked in his cold voice.
"But you also go....." Just when Taotie brought up his whole courage to reply back to his father, he felt an ancient violent aura suddenly heating up the hall by almost a hundred times. Sensing that he immediately swallowed the next words he was going to say.
"Just yes or no." A cold sound assaulted the heated room.
"Y… yes." Without the courage to say anything he just nodded his head after that.
"Good… Good." With a fiendish smile on his face, George said.
"Seems like my blood is getting fouled, my own child wants to live among those bastards and breathe the same air as them." With a chuckle, George said and paused for a while.
Soon he turned his head away from Taotie and looked towards the fireplace and continued, "Lila, before you left you made me promise to not force your son for anything, be a good father to him. Fine, I'll not force your son and throw him into dark prison for ten years as punishment for going outside without permission." George paused once again after saying that.
After a few moments he continued once again while looking at that fireplace, "But he will have to make a choice."
"Tao, I'll not stop you from going outside but then you'll have to promise one thing, you'll have to cut all the ties with this clan. You'll have to bury all the memories and secret techniques this clan has taught you. Do you agree?"
"Father... I..." Stunned by his father's condition, Taotie was unable to speak anything.
"Brother, this? Brother you're forcing Tao to leave the clan." Surf immediately interjected.
"Huh? You think I'm forcing?" George asked while looking towards the fireplace.
"Brother, please reconsider." Surf immediately responded.
"...." A strange silence took over the atmosphere as George kept staring at the fireplace without saying a thing.
"Fine, for Lila's sake let me change it a little bit." Finally, Geroge's voice broke the silence of the room.
"He doesn't need to cut all the ties. He can also have all the secret techniques of the clan he had learned till now. But for all of this he just needs to do three things." George paused after saying that.
"And those conditions are?" Without wasting a moment, Surf immediately asked.
"First, he cannot become the chief of Wusun Clan in the future. Second, he needs to reach at least Level 5 Warrior or Magus in eleven months, before leaving for the Imperial Academy." George paused after saying till that.
"....."
"And the third condition is?" Without waiting for Taotie to reply Surf asked his brother.
"He has to defeat me if he wants to go to the outside world." With absolute calmness in his voice, George said the third condition.
"Absurd. Brother all of these conditions are im..." Once again Surf immediately tried to spoke against that but before he could even complete his sentence, he felt a violent berserk intent on himself. So he shut his mouth instantly before even completing what he was saying.
"Taotie decide. If you agree to all of those conditions then I'll never stop you from going outside. Of course, you can also decline and even then you'll not lose anything. In few years I'll personally start teaching you and maybe with your talent, you can even achieve Saint Level in less than a thousand-year but for that, you just have to wait to go outside till you become the Clan Chief after me." While facing towards the fireplace George said.
"I… I agree father." A hesitant but clear and loud voice reverberated in the hall.