13 The Elder

Stepping into the safe house, Yue Qin felt like she had entered a whole new world. Everything looked so near yet so far; real yet illusionary.

Like a mirror-verse, Yue Qin could see a reflection of herself and Bing Bing from every surface within the room - the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the furniture. A large chandelier at the centre of the ceiling refracted iridescent spots of lights. Soft hazy light shone from the magic jewels that embellished the walls. It was an optical illusion at its finest.

For a split second, Yue Qin nearly believed that she had entered a different world again.

Then Yue Qin Qin whirled in fright as the door behind them closed with a loud bang. Seeing her reaction, Bing Bing started giggling.

Yue Qin jabbed the elder girl in the stomach with her elbow. "Not funny," she hissed.

"Oh, but it was so very funny looking at you jump in fright."

"Har har har." Yue Qin walked forward towards the shiny sofa and sat on it crossing her arms and legs. Now that they had arrived all they could do was wait for the Elder to arrive.

As if summoned by her thought, the metallic floor started glowing and luminous cerulean blue symbols quickly unravelled out across its surface. Then a hazy figure appeared in the middle of the symbols before quickly solidifying into a real person.

"Elder Hu?" Yue Qin heard her sister gasp from behind her.

Scrambling up from her seat, the two quickly bowed towards the Elder who had just teleported into the safe house. Elder Hu was one of the higher ranking Elders in the Clan due to his status as an Advanced Swordsman.

"Elder Hu, it is a pleasure to see you." The two spoke while maintaining their bowing posture, with their right hand across their chest.

"Rise." His soft voice floated ephemerally. Waving his hand, he gestured for the two of them to sit while he sat on the armchair opposite them. "You are Xue Bing and Yue Qin, right? I skimmed through your information before coming here. I hope you kids are not playing around here. You should know the consequences of what would happen if you raised a false alarm right?"

"Of course Elder." Bing Bing spoke softly as if afraid to provoke his anger. "I believe that my sister here may be in huge trouble."

"What happened? Explain clearly."

"I suspect that my sister may have activated a special physique Elder. She had a flash of inspiration in school which led her to form her Class Core on the spot. However, as she formed her Core, her body underwent great changes and improved rather drastically from before."

Elder Hu turned towards Yue Qin as he heard this, his eyes seemingly piercing into her soul. Yue Qin felt like shrivelling under the might of his intense gaze. Then, he took her hand into his and she could feel a foreign energy journey up her arm.

Paying close attention to the Elder's reaction, Yue Qin did not miss the small hitch in the Elder's breath as he touched her wrist. A conflicted expression appeared on his face as if torn on what to do.

Yue Qin felt her nerves strung tighter with every moment of silence.

"It is said that to test the tenacity of those gifted with extraordinary talents they would face countless challenges within their lifetime. Yue Qin, what you have been given would be both your greatest blessing and your greatest curse."

Hearing the Elder's words, Yue Qin's heart sunk like a boulder thrown into the sea. Her hopes of Bing Bing's cautionary words being mere fallacious rumours disappearing like a gust of wind.

"You have been gifted the Supreme Body of Holy Light, an extremely rare physique that would only be seen once every 10 000 years across the whole Empire. In fact, according to our Clan's records, since the founding of our Kingdom, only one person has even been recorded to have awakened such a physique. As to across the whole Empire, the number of people who have been recorded to have it can be counted on one hand." The Elder paused for a while before continuing.

"You chose to become a priest right? That is indeed a good choice for your physique type. Initiate, Apprentice, Journeyman, Intermediate, Advanced-It is recorded that those born with Supreme physiques like yours would be able to easily reach the Advanced rank without any bottlenecks at all. As long as you stick to cultivating Light related spells, you would be able to gain insights even while you sleep. In other words, from the moment you awakened your physique, you were already destined to become an Advanced Priest. As such, this would be your greatest reliance and blessing. However, as you may have heard, this has been an extremely turbulent time for people with special physiques to be born."

A trace of bitterness could be heard bleeding through from his tone. "In the past, the Clan would have spared no expenses to nurture a genius like you. After all, unlike this sac of old bones who has worked his whole life to become an Advanced Warrior, you would be guaranteed to become an Advanced Priest as long as you do not fall before your time. However, the current political situation is extremely volatile. The various powerful factions entrenched in the Empire's capital and the Royal Family have been embroiled in a bitter power struggle. Any talents that surface are snatched up as soon as they surface. These include even those who activated the trashiest of physiques. I'm afraid that if you were brought there as you were now, you would be eaten alive with even your bones licked clean." Here, the Elder paused as if to emphasise his point. "The scariest thing in this world isn't the warriors who can kill you with a single shot but the schemers who will turn into the marionettes for the stage they designed."

"Is-Isn't there anything the clan can do to help?" Yue Qin stammered unbelievingly. Surely the people there weren't that scary right? In response to her doubts, she heard Apollo snortle in her mind.

Elder Hu shook his head. "Although our Clan is extremely powerful within this Kingdom, the citizens of the Empire view us nothing but country bumpkins. As such, there is simply no way we would be able to protect you should you get dragged into a calamitous ploy."

"What if I just hide it? That way, no one would find out right?" A trace of anxiety lined Yue Qin's voice.

"You won't be able to hide this." Elder Hu spoke sorrowfully. "Perhaps you could have in the past, but this is the internet era. Although the Empire might not pay too much attention to their various vessel Kingdoms, they still have plenty of manpower assigned to each Kingdom to monitor and report any important information."

"Indeed." Bing Bing echoed apologetically. "Too many people noticed you earlier on your way out of school already. With how efficient keyboard warriors are, I'll expect your photos from earlier would have been transferred to the phones of every single male in our school and even pasted on their walls. This was my fault. I did not expect so many people to pay attention to us. And with how curious teenage boys are, there is no doubt that many of them are already digging to find out who the new goddess is."

"But this is just within the school! Surely it won't catch the eye of these spies right?"

"Perhaps it will, perhaps it won't. The core of the issue though is that they will sooner or later. And once they do, you would be dragged into a war that you are woefully unprepared for."

"I can lay low though! I swear! No one will realise anything!" Like a monster rearing its ugly head, Yue Qin could feel the desperation clawing its way out of her throat.

Yue Qin heard the elder let out a loud sigh. "Indeed, you can hide it for now, but how long can you hide it for? Despite being one of the many kingdoms under the Jade Empire, the rich rewards they offer for valuable information is enough for this place to be crawling with the Empire's informants. Sooner or later they will catch wind of you and by then it'll be too late for you to hide."

Biting her lip, the raven-haired girl blurted out the doubts that had accumulated in her heart. "Surely it can't be that bad right? If they are gathering so many talents, they can't possibly be killing them all! Maybe... maybe... the various factions just want to raise more power for themselves! And if I were really brought to the capital I would be heavily groomed due to my potential?"

A melancholic smile appeared on the Elder's face. "Death would be too light a consequence, for there are far worst fates than death. Have you not heard of the numerous rumours on what happened to the many genii that were taken away by the ambassadors of the various factions? At first, the local factions believed it to be a blessing that their talented descendants were being recognised and brought to a better place to be nurtured. However, over time, they realised that more and more of the genii that had left died, the life tablets they left behind shattered into shards.

"But, Elder Hu, do you know what are they actually doing with these genii? Why did their life tablets shatter?" Bing Bing piqued. Yue Qin listened attentively too, hoping that the truth would be much simpler than the exaggerated rumours which her sister had conveyed.

Slowly, the Elder slid his polished sword out from its sheathe and held it upright, his reflected face staring straight back at him. His finger gently traced the sword's body, a solemn silence filling the air. A single word fell from his lips. "War."