Chapter 714: Unable to Alibi…almost…
[Oh. Looks like the ringmaster figured out somebody was watching him…I should probably make use of this moment…that or watch as this guy goes insane…I can do both.]
_____________________________________________
‘Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,’ Zhen Jun Yao cursed to himself as he began to wrap his head around on what exactly just happened. Out of a mix of panic and worry, Zhen Jun Yao made sure to step away from the scrying mirror as he didn’t want to risk getting it with a second round.
‘How the fuck did that brackborn mutt managed to do that?!’
One moment, he and Elder Zhen Tinh were in the middle of being flabbergasted as to how the brackborn branch managed to survive a cursed treasure attack, the next, the aforementioned elder was laid out on his desk because of a surprise attack that came through the scrying mirror.
To be more precise, in the exact moment the elder attempted to view through the mirror to try and figure out if Zhen Jun Yao’s claim about the brackborn staring directly at them through a camouflaged observation array, an energetic construct in the shape of a massive ballista bolt came flying through it and slammed the elder right in the face.
Zhen Jun Yao heard the sound of an aether defense forming and breaking at a rapid pace, literally moments before the elder was rendered injured and unconscious.
It didn’t take too much for Zhen Jun Yao to put together that the source of the attack was none other than Zhen Liu, seeing as the scrying mirror was focused on the young man mere moments before this event occurred. It did, however, take a while for him to wrap his head around the idea that Zhen Liu had somehow launched an attack through a what was essentially an illusionary display.
The array used was even a one-way observation type, how the hell could something that benign cause feedback this deadly?!
Zhen Jun Yao was incredibly tempted at this moment to just get the hell out of this office and pray to the ancestors that this crazy young man doesn’t know about him…but then he realized something rather important.
As of this moment, Zhen Jun Yao was about to become a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘Wait a minute…the moment I walk out of this office…there’s a very real possibility that I get implicated into why the elder gets injured…but if I stick around, there’s a very high possibility that that crazy brackborn monster will realize that I was a part of this and he may want to exact revenge…and if anyone were to come into the room at this time, I would still be implicated as the culprit, FUCK!’
Zhen Jun Yao began to pace the room in a panic, unsure of what the best course of action was to do in this moment since he was screwed if he stayed and screwed if he left. After a couple moments of this though, Zhen Jun Yao paused as he realized he what the best course of action was.
Zhen Jun Yao didn’t stop to think about, he didn’t even try to think of another solution. He simply stared at his balled up fist for a brief moment, before he punched himself in the face and rendered himself unconscious on the floor.
*POW!*
*Clatter*
And now, he had the perfect alibi.
After all, who would be crazy enough to punch themselves out after injuring and possibly murdering someone?
As Zhen Jun Yao passed out on the floor, a tiny little observer hidden in the eaves of the room realized that his plans were now irrevelant.
[Huh…looks like I won’t have to do anything…but maybe I can at least time it so our lord has a chance to direct this nonsense directly…]
_____________________________________________
“Whoa! What was that all about, Xiao Liu?”
“Huh? Oh. Nothing much, just…wanted to see how hard I could swing this thing. Ya know?,” Zhen Liu replied as a half-truth.
From the point of view of his cousins, Zhen Liu was merely swinging around his newly acquired hammer in order to get a feel for its weight and grip.
They had no idea that in reality, Zhen Liu was “sending his regards” to the presumed bastards that had tried to kill him and his family. While he had no idea who was on the other side of that weird observation array, he did at least wanted to make sure that they were suffering from the consequences of their actions.
To briefly sum up what Zhen Liu did exactly though, he condensed and created a projectile of [Chaos] that was designed to not only give the recipient a rather painful knock to the noggin, but the very tip of the projectile had a special set of runes that could transform any observational type array into a transmission type array for only a brief moment.
Zhen Liu couldn’t take all the credit for this little act of revenge, since Logos and Pathos provided the knowledge necessary to pull this stunt off while his new hammer was the one that made it happen in a short amount of time.
‘While I’m not entirely sure how you managed to adapt to using [Chaos] so quickly, I will address that when I’m back in the library and not floating in a void full of murderous aether treasures,’ Zhen Liu mentally noted. ‘Speaking of aether treasures though…’
_____________________________________________
‘Weird question, is it possible for me to help my injured cousin here get an aether treasure that is appropriate for his cultivation? Call it paranoia, but I think I owe him this solid after this whole cursed hammer incident.’
‘Cool…how exactly?’
=We’re going to try and regulate your [Chaos] flow into your cousin, so that it enhances his aether pulse. This should have the minor side effect of enhancing whatever bits of [Chaos] that Hurricroak left behind, but that shouldn’t be a big problem. He might end up with a neat looking lighting treasure out of this.=
‘Okay, cool…so what do I need to do?’
_____________________________________________
“Zhen Guo, you ready to try again at pulling out an aether treasure?”
After having his mind hijacked by a cursed blacksmith’s hammer, Zhen Guo wasn’t exactly looking like the prettiest peacock at the zoo in the moment. It might’ve been the bloodstained clothes, the bloodshot eyes or the fact that his hand was looking all sort of messed up after having smashed open. Then again, it was probably all three of these attributes at once.
Regardless of these issues though, Zhen Guo proved himself to be surprisingly resilient, as he simply downed a painkilling aether pill the scions kept on hand for situations such as this and used his torn up clothes to wrap up his hand.
The others looked a bit worried over Zhen Guo’s display of toughness since this was rather uncharacteristic for him as a person. Granted, this sudden change in resilience might’ve had something to do with a certain powering up session a couple days ago, but they didn’t know for sure…mostly.
“Yeah, I think I’m good,” Zhen Guo said while opening and closing his injured hand a few times, “not sure if I’ll get anything to good with my current injuries as is though.”
“That…is a fair assessment to make,” Zhen Liu agreed as he gave his cousin’s injuries a once over.
“But I think I might be able to help with that…maybe.”
“Uh…how?”
“Like this.”
Zhen Liu simply placed his hand on Zhen Guo’s shoulder, on the side that wasn’t horribly injured, and began to circulate his “aether” into Zhen Guo, albeit, in the manner that Logos and Pathos dictated.
The peacock cousin shuddered a bit at the sudden flow of energy, but he didn’t find it all too unpleasant. If anything, it just felt…familiar.
“Huh…your aether feels weird.”
“Yeah, anyways, I’m going to be boosting your aether while you do the pulse thing. It should help you pick out a treasure that is suitable to you. Well, maybe expedite the process at least.”
“Okay…why not?”
As soon as he was given the go-ahead, Zhen Guo released an aether pulse once more into the void space, attracting the attention of several aether treasures that appeared to be compatible with himself.
There were several that appeared from the last time he did this, mixed in with some unfamiliar ones as well. Evidently, this was a rather noticeable change.
“Huh…there appear to be a few more treasure from last time.”
“Yeah…hey, Zhen Liu? Would you mind-”
“Don’t worry, cousins of mine. I will also help you guys out too. Rather not risk summoning another cursed item or something.”
“Sweet.”
“Hell yeah.”
