Chapter 421: Converging Conflicts
“Okay so Second Uncle is over here next to Fifth Uncle and Third Uncle, while Sixth Uncle is all the way on the opposite end with First Uncle and Fourth Uncle… great…,” Zhen Jin mumbled to himself as he stared over a map of the ship that he drew with a piece of charcoal, based on what the kaijin saw while they were running around the ship in their mini modes.
Despite being the ones to have built the damn thing, even having some input on some of the rooms to include in the ship, absolutely none of the kaijin or those in charge of them, thought it would be prudent to create a ship’s map prior to now. It also didn’t help that once all of the main and side branch Zhen Clan members took up their cabins, it added another layer of randomness and risk.
Not only did Zhen Liu have to figure out where among the dozen or so rooms that each of his uncles were located, but he also had to take into account whether or not the neighboring rooms next to his desired target’s rooms happened to be occupied by people with razor sharp senses. In essence, all the things that make it really fucking hard to be sneaky.
‘I don’t have to worry about Fifth Uncle since he was injured recently, but Third Uncle is still a Grandmaster who I know is a night owl type of person despite being a master of peafowl,’ Zhen Liu noted as he made little doodles on the map he was looking at to represent his thoughts on what to do as well as the attributes of his various uncles, ‘while on the other hand, First and Fourth Uncle are both fully healthy and the former doesn’t have to sleep as much because of his formula’s quirks and neither does the latter because of what I did during the caravan ride…okay, that settles it, Second Uncle it is.’
With the plan now mostly set, Zhen Liu got up from his desk and map and prepared his Possestol for usage the second time today. All he needed now was the right kaijin for the job.
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‘Alright, I need a volunteer. Who wants to go over into my Second Uncle’s brain and see if they can help him achieve a breakthrough while he sleeps? If it helps, the man has a light attributed aether formula.’
[I will pass, milord,] Nepherage rejected first, [ I have a vested interest in your Fourth Uncle breaking through sooner since I was there to help him get to this point in the first place. It would feel like a disservice if I helped someone else breakthrough first.]
‘Understandable.’
[I…will also… pass,] Frosttusk rumbled, [not enough…regret or revenge…for me…to work with…]
‘A surprisingly in-depth answer,’ Zhen Liu accepted, ‘what about you Hurricroak? You wanna jump into my uncle’s brain for a midnight breakthrough?’
[Normally I’d say yes, but I don’t think Second Uncle and I are on the same wavelength, ya dig? I could probably help to stir up something in his soul, but there are no guarantees I’d be able to help him reach his full potential.]
‘Huh…keeping that in mind for later…which leaves-.’
[I’ll do it,] Razorstella volunteered, [you said that Second Uncle has a light attributed formula, right?]
‘That I did.’
[Yeah, I think I can make this man shine brighter than any star in the night sky. Well, aside from me of course.]
‘Okay, any objections?’
[No, milord.]
[No…]
[Nah, maestro.]
[I’ve had my fun for the day.]
[Eh, I’ll wait for uncle number five then. He always struck me as someone who can tap into that quiet rage real well.]
‘Cool. Oh, secondary note, can one of you guys handle the rat corpse in the cargo hold? Let’s not leave it to my family to dissect or gift.’
[No problem milord.]
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Zhen Liu reached into his pocket and pulled out the accessory that Razorstella turned into for a brief moment before the accessory transformed into a card depicting a dancing Razorstella.
Once this change had occured, Zhen Liu quickly loaded the Possestol and quietly made his way out of his cabin and into the direction of his Second Uncle’s cabin.
‘Lets hope everything goes smoothly,’ Zhen Liu quietly prayed to himself.
Spoiler alert, it wasn’t going to be smooth.
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“Fucking side branch. Humiliating us like this, what the fuck…,” A drunken man mumbled as he stumbled on the ship’s deck.
“Can’t believe we’re on the same ship as those traitors. Bleh!”
The drunken man grumbling was known as Zhen Gou, a true blooded member of the main branch Zhen Clan, a volunteer to go on this capture assignment and an utter disappointment/loyal lapdog in the eyes of the clan.
“How the fuck are there so many Grandmasters and even a Lord when these side branches are exiles in a land with barely any resources, how is that fair?!,” he grumbled again between swigs of rice wine that he brought for the journey.
The reason why for his status as a disappointing lapdog was simple, while Zhen Gou had plenty of pride and loyalty in his status as a true blood membered, he had very little talent in his cultivation abilities and had put in very little effort into trying to fix that.
A swordsman from the Radiant Feather continent once said that in order to succeed in the path of cultivation, a warrior needed three things: pride in something, talent to work off of and willingness to put in effort.
Having plenty of pride, but no talent or effort will make one into a zealot, one that would blindly die or do something drastic for no good reason.
Having plenty of talent but no pride or effort, will turn one into a failed genius, one who had great potential, but lacked the self-confidence to continue or ability to see how they can improve.
Tons of effort, but no pride in themselves or talent to work of off, makes into simply a workhorse. One that can be relied on, but not much else.
And in the case of Zhen Gou, he was a zealot for the Zhen Clan, a grunt with too much pride who’d probably jump off a cliff if it was for the clan’s sake.
“Someone needs to remind the side branch their fucking place in the hierarchy…,” Zhen Gou kept grumbling.
When Zhen Gou had heard how the runaway stain of the Zhen Clan had finally been located after all of these years, establishing his own branch of all things on another continent, he was one of the first to volunteer to be part of the group that was to go and apprehend the criminal known as Zhen Shi.
Zhen Gou had expected this to be a short but glorious moment, one where they finally exact justice on a fool who dared to defy the will of the clan, only to be sorely disappointed and humiliated when that didn’t happen.
Disappointed that Master Zhen Wang didn’t go through with capturing or killing Zhen Shi, humiliated in the sense that he was part of the group that woke up in th middle of nowhere with nothing more than a tattoo on his ass cheeks. He didn’t know who “Molly” was, nor why it surrounded by a fucking heart, but he was going to get it removed the first thing when they got back home.
“Lousy fucking exiles… if only someone could spill some of their blood and then maybe they’ll…wait a minute…”
Zhen Gou paused his drinking as he remembered an event that had occured early this very day involving one of the elders of the side branch clan.
While the details were fuzzy, he did overhear that there was a scuffle of some sorts with a giant monster rodent in the cargo hold and had been horrifically injured as a result.
At least, Zhen Gou assumed this elder was horribly injured due to all the bandages he was covered in.
“Horrific injuries…an elder of the side branch…who is also a direct son of their patriarch, who is a traitor to the clan…maybe…”
Zhen Gou thoughts slowly began to change from drunken rage at damaged pride to one of calculated bloodthirst.
He stared at his half empty bottle of rice wine for a brief moment, before smashing part of it against the ship’s railing, watching the shattered glass fall like jagged rain.
“People succumb to their injuries all the time…ain’t no crime to put someone down in pain…”
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=Not to worry, my emotionally charged companion, our lord is well aware of the situation of this corpse and is already making plans to take care of it…or at least, he made sure one of the kaijin took care of it.=
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[So…why did all three of us come?]
