Chapter 276: Searching for bait, angering the hive.
‘Eh, whatever. You guys ready for the next part?’
[Always, maestro!]
[As you will.]
[Sure…thing…]
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‘Shit, shit, shit. What do I do now? What do I even say? Can I even lie to someone like this?’
“Well?”
Zhen Li was dumbstruck as he tried to figure out what the hell his next choice of words should be.
It’s not often one gets forced to talk face to face with an Overlord…well, at least that’s the conclusion he came to after seeing this display of aether control and awareness of what actions he was doing from heavens know how far away.
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While remote aether manipulation and control was doable at any level, all of them up until Aether Emperor required the practioner to maintain some form of awareness from one of their main five senses to do something in regards to it.
In essence, if someone wanted to level a mountain, one had to at least see it.
However, once someone becomes an Overlord, they gain access to an ability refered to as “Dominion”.
There are some nuances to what “dominion” can and can’t do, the most basic usages are the ability to create a space of perfect awareness where regardless of who or what enters an established dominion, the practitioner is aware of it, and the ability to use any aether arts regardless of distance, as long as it’s within the dominion.
That last one sounds, but to sum it up, let’s a Overlord wants to punch someone with a fist-based aether art, but they’re several meters away. The usage of dominion allows the Overlord to clock someone anyways without even making a fist.
There is one other usage to dominions, but that will be touched upon later.
Just keep the following words in mind: stomping ground.
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“Oh come on now boy,” the robed man said in jovial annoyance, “cat got your tongue? Should I use sign language? Or would you prefer Tide Tongue?”
<
Unsurprisingly, the fact that this unknown Overlord decided to switch to his native tongue, made Zhen Li even more nervous.
Regardless, the best he could do in this situation was just swallow his fear and begin talking.
“I-its fine, sir. Hoof Speech will work.”
“Fine by me then,” the robed man said amused, ” but don’t call me ‘sir’, it’s so…formal.”
‘Of course the crazy powerful entity doesn’t care about manners,’ Zhen Li thought to himself.
“Then…what should I call you?,” Zhen Li asked while maintaining a respectful tone.
“Hmmm,” the masked man went as he idly tapped his masked face,”that…depends.”
“Depends? Depends on what?”
“The choice you’re about to make here,” the Overlord said breezily while shifting positions in his chair, feet on the ground, hands folded, eyes dead straight on to Zhen Li’s eyes.
“Now then…I do believe you and your master, Zhen Wang was it? We’re currently investigating into a clan bearing a similar surname to yourselves as of this very moment, is that right?”
Zhen Li clenched his teeth at the question but answered still.
“That is…correct.”
“Good. And if I understand correctly, this matter involves some silly notion of wiping away a ‘stain’ upon your family’s honor-”
“IT’S NOT A SILLY-”
*Snap*
*ZAP*
*FWOOSH!*
“Whoa!”
At the exact same moment Zhen Li was about to lash out verbally in defense of the Zhen Clan’s honor, the robed Overlord snapped his fingers and manifested a ball of fire and a bolt of lighting that narrowly missed him. No…he missed on purpose.
“Boy, I am talking here and I do not appreciate interruptions,” the Overlord said in a surprisingly harsh tone before immediately lightening up, “Now where was I? Ah yes, the silly notion of honor.”
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“Am…am I going crazy, or is Xiao Liu speaking with some type of accent? Like he started using it around the same time Zhen Li asked what he should call him?”
“You are not, I thought I was hearing things too.”
“Not gonna lie though… I’m kinda into it…”
“What was that?”
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“Now this would be the part where I would have you explain every little thing that you and your cohorts dug up on the Zhen Clan, but I get the feeling it ain’t much, except for some old documents you got from before they set up shop here in Stone Claw. Something along the lines of, ‘Zhen Shi seduced and kidnapped a princess’,” the Overlord said while doing air quotes,”right?”
“R-right…”
“In that case, why don’t I tell you a some important bits of information and then you can help your master make a more… well-informed decision. Sound good?”
“Yes…it does…”
Zhen Li was confused, why the hell was this guy giving him all of this information?
Was there a deeper meaning to it?
Was he being lied to?
Why was he even talking at all?
Regardless, information was information…
“Now, do you want a notepad or do you think you can remember it?”
“I can remember it all,” Zhen Li answered.
“Alright then,” the Overlord nodded, “well I can safely say that you and your master wasted your time coming to this little frontier town, because the Zhen Clan was going to head back to Roaring Tide anyways.”
“Wait, what?!”
“Simply put, my little friend,” the Overlord continued, ignoring the outburst, “Patriarch Zhen Shi deemed it necessary for he and his kin to head back to the Pearl Scale Empire to bury old grudges and make ammends with the people they ‘insulted’. Understand?”
Zhen Li’s mind reeled at this revelation.
This might not have sounded like much to most other people, but the revelation of this small bit of information made it so that he and his master could plan all sorts of ambushes, traps, anything that they could play off as a…wait a minute…
“Pardon me, but…why are you telling me this? You must know that my master and I are aiming to do here, that we plan to bring Zhen Shi to justice, so…why?”
In response to this question, the Overlord began to laugh.
“Hahahahahaha! Really? That’s what you want to know? Because funnily enough, the answer to that question is directly related to this next piece of information I’m about to give you.”
For dramatic effect, the Overlord leaned closer to the mirror, as if he was leaning in closer to Zhen Li’s face.
“One of my precious disciples happens to be a member of the Zhen Clan, and is a descendant of Zhen Shi.”
‘Oh…fuck.’
Evidently, Zhen Wang and Zhen Li did insult this powerful figure…at least, by accident.
