Chapter 870: Inked Devil learning the Details
*Bing-Bong*
Please note that the following chapter is being spoken entirely in Tide Tongue, but we will be using the traditional quotation marks since that is the only language being used.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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“What do you mean that old hermit made a mistake?”
“As the letter states, Matriarch. Hermit Zhong Wei says that he miscalculated how thin the Aquarii aether was in Stone Claw City, so the teleportation array ended up connecting to a small destroyed country to the south of the Empire’s borders.”
“Huh…”
“It then goes on to say that they’re going to have to delay the array’s completion for a few days as they need to acquire materials necessary for the readjustment.”
In the lavish office chambers of the Zhen Clan estate on Blessed Willow Island, Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian was in the middle of renewing the ink on her tattoos. While she technically didn’t need to, due to them being aether tattoos, she found the novel activity to be relaxing. Plus, if she actually did feel like it, she could modify any of tattoos in the moment.
However, while she was in the middle of refreshing a particular set of tattoos that came in the form of a school of monstrous koi fish on her thighs, her son, Hero Elder Zhen Xun Po suddenly came in to inform her of a rather strange development occurring in the home city of the branch clan. Namely that her planned trip to the Stampeding Bison continent was going to be delayed due to a bookkeeping error.
A bookkeeping error that Zhen Xun Tian didn’t believe was real in the slightest.
“Bullshit.”
“Pardon me, matriarch?”
“Xiao Po, we’re in private and you’re my son. You can call me mother.”
“Okay…pardon me, mother?”
“I’m saying, bullshit,” Zhen Xun Tian reiterated as she stopped applying ink to her thighs and got to her feet. Once the inked needles were off her skin, the koi fish tattoos quite literally swam away to a different part of her legs.
One would think that she was getting up so that she could read the letter for herself to determine the validity of both the sons’s claims and the hermit’s words, but instead, she went over to a small table that had a jug of water and poured herself a cup to drink.
“If there’s one thing I know about that perverted double cultivating freak of nature, is that he never miscalculates shit. I one time played a game of chess with him, and I swore he made a rookie mistake on the first turn, motherfucker trounced my ass six turns later using that rookie mistake to finish it.”
“Wait…was that the day you punched him through a wall?”
“No, that was the day you stopped me from pile driving him through the floor. The wall incident was when he compared my tattoos to a child’s doodles.”
“Oh yeah…”
As there was a natural lull in the conversation, Zhen Xun Tian took this opportunity to take a drink of water and offer the jug to her son, who politely refused.
After taking a long swig of water, Zhen Xun Tian decided to ask the most pertinent question of the moment.
“So with what I know in mind, mind telling me what that old hermit has in mind for reinforcing the teleportation array?”
“Oh! Uhhh…give me a moment,” Zhen Xun Po paused as he read through the letter once more. “Ah, okay! It says here that the branch clan had managed to stumble upon a wandering ruins in their territory that was chockfull of aether treasures. Some of which have the necessary Aquarii aether needed to complete the array.”
“Really?”
“Yes. He goes on to say that the ruins appear to be some place that both he and yourself can access with relative ease, but that the treasures they need to finish the work were well within the power levels of the local branch clan warriors.”
“Uh…huh…did he mention how many members of the branch clan will be joining him on this expedition?”
“Uh…no…I don’t see any mention on the number of participants or a list of names at all.”
“Of course he didn’t…that sly fucking dog…”
A strangely proud sneer appeared on Zhen Xun Tian’s face as it took her all of a minute to realize that Hermit Zhong Wei was scoping out the branch clan’s abilities via a bullshit excuse.
If he wanted to, he could’ve easily snatch up those treasures and just be done with it, but by having the branch members participate, it gave him a chance to not only assess their abilities, but made it appear that he was someone who respected them for who they were. Granted, a part of her was also certain that he was wanting to scope out the abilities of one specific scion.
‘Well…nothing I can do about it here…hopefully my darling great grand nephew knows what’s up and doesn’t reveal too much,’ Zhen Xun Tian thought to herself. ‘Or at least, just enough to intimidate them into silence…’
“Keep me posted on the status of the Hermit and my nephew. If shit goes sideways, I want you to find me something that can fly really fucking fast.”
“Of course, mother.”
With the matter of the letter resolved, Zhen Xun Po proceeded to pocket the document for archival purposes. Once he made sure it was nestled safe and soundly in the folds of his outfit, he proceeded to move on to the next item for today’s agenda.
“Alright, mother. I know you don’t like to handle the day to day affairs of the clan, nor do you like dealing with people who come to visit the clan’s estate to meet with you-”
“That’s because y’all don’t trust me with the former and the latter usually involves people who regularly piss me off.”
“Not wrong, but anyways, a pair of aether warriors showed up about twenty minutes or so ago, and they requested an audience with you. They said it was important, but I wasn’t entirely sure if they were telling the truth…”
“Really?,” Zhen Xun Tian asked her son with an incredulous look plain on her face. “Mysterious warriors? That’s it? Those type of people show up at least once a month, and if there’s more than, it usually ends with a foiled assassination attempt and a new body we need to bury in the garden. What makes this one so different?”
“They mentioned being members of the [Temple of Nowhere] or something.”
“Oh,” Zhen Xun Tian said with a susprised expression. “Well then…clear my schedule for the rest of the day, I’m going to and greet our guests myself.”
“Of course, mo-wait a minute,what?”
…
“How much longer do we have to wait here? My fists are getting bored…”
“Just wait a little longer, Miss Amazona,” Kit replied while calmly sipping their cup of tea. “Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian is a busy woman and our reason for being here isn’t a top priority.”
“Hmmm, true…”
In the lounge area for the Zhen Clan estate, a pair of mismatched looking warriors were waiting for the arrival of the current matriarch of the Zhen Clan. These warriors were none other than Kit and Amazona, but they were rocking human disguises at this point in time. Granted, the former was looking significantly more comfortable in their disguise than the latter.
“Seriously how the hell do you do this all day? I can barely stand being this…unarmored.”
“It’s all in your head, Amazona. It’s all in your head.”
“I know, but still.”
Kit was rocking their usual androgynous look, but with a new outfit. Since they were meeting with someone that was technically their creator’s superior, they figured they might as well look nice and not show up in their candy shop uniform.
As for Amazona…she looked decidedly less dressed up. Granted, that might’ve been due to being less by choice and more so due to physical limitations.
Due to her imposing physique, Amazona opted to disguise herself as…an Amazon. Or at the very least, what Amazons would’ve looked like based on the descriptions from a certain blue planet.
As such, she looked like a tan skinned human woman with short black hair, muscles that could crush a man’s skull with either their thighs or hands, all topped off and wrapped up in an animal skin outfit that vaguely resembled that of a white tiger, with a rainbow-scaled snake skin belt.
That last bit was due to the missionaries that Amazona lives with, they weren’t present for this meeting for obvious reasons.
Either way, one look at the duo and you’d never think they’d be friends, let alone interact with one another.
But due to the two having shared origins, and being assigned to a secret mission of sorts, Kit and Amazona grew surprisingly close with one another.
Then again, it also helped that they could occasionally read each other’s minds.
“Seriously, how much longer do we have to-”
“Sorry for being late! So, what did my great grandnephew make you two out of??”
“Speak of the Inked Devil and she shall appear.”
