Chapter 760 (Patreon)

The Conclave managed to rescue a number of traitors from Clan Yoshu. For what purpose, Julius had no idea. But he also learned that Kaito had been distracted by that other Tier 5 while Caiden had been trying to kidnap Julius. 

The other thing that disturbed Julius was that Celestine had vanished. Clan Kaizen had gone over to her hideout, and even after tossing the entire place over, she was nowhere to be found. Gone like the wind. He wondered if she had somehow been tipped off or if Clan Kaizen had let her slip through their fingers.

He doubted they did so on purpose. The bad blood between them and Celestine was quite well known. 

Another unfortunate consequence of their little plan was that City Lord Zheng wasn’t very happy about it. Not long after the chaos settled down, the city guards came around and began questioning everyone involved. City Lord Zheng personally interrogated Kaito about his involvement.

Thankfully, Kaito and Lily had already prepared several things. They made sure to show City Lord Zheng the captured kidnappers and all the relevant evidence that indicated Hayden as well as Celestine had been the ones behind the kidnappings.

The firsthand testimony Marcus gave the man about what he’d seen gave a lot of credence to the claims. 

Of course, all of this was verified by the Tier 5 Truthseeker employed by City Lord Zheng. Truthseekers were specialized elites who focused on interrogation and finding out the truth. Hence their names. 

They weren’t as versatile or formidable as the mind mages under House Violet’s employment.  Not that many people were; there was a good reason why House Violet was feared. Their division of mind mages was but one of them.

Regardless, Truthseekers had their own specific talents, ones that even dedicated mind mages might not be capable of. It took some time, but they managed to get to the bottom of the situation. Kaito was given a few slaps on the wrist for his hasty actions, but there wasn’t much City Lord Zheng could do. After all, most of the people involved were a part of Clan Yoshu. The only things that he was punished for were the attacks on properties outside of Clan Yoshu’s control.

There was one big issue remaining, though…

“Absolutely not,” Julius said, crossing his arms.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Stop being so stubborn. Just do it.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“Because they are going to do something stupid and demand another honor duel or something,” he said with a grimace.

“They aren’t going to do that. In fact, they seemed pretty apologetic about the whole thing,” Lily tried to convince him.

Julius grumbled. It had been two days after the whole fiasco, and just as he was training that new technique he learned while fighting Caiden and testing combinations of potential skills he could use for his Skill Combination Crystal, Lily came to him with life-threatening news.

The family of that arrogant douchebag from the Nine Peaks Sect had arrived in Goldmere. Julius didn’t know whether the man had complained to them, but Clan Dawnfield was requesting a meeting with him.

They had gone straight to the city lord, who in turn got in contact with Lily. According to them, they only wanted to talk to Julius about what had happened and apologize for Soren’s behavior.

Julius didn’t know if they were telling the truth, but there was a good chance they were just saying that to get him to meet them. In fact, they wanted to bully him into apologizing to Soren or to punish him for embarrassing one of their own. 

“Have you met them in person yet?” he asked Lily.

She shook her head. “No, but Angelina has, and she relayed to me that she thinks it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Clan Dawnfield is quite an important clan in Corvus, and burying the hatchet would be good for everyone involved. Not to mention, they might feel like they owe you a favor, and that is not an inconsequential thing if you’re going to stay within Corvus.”

“And you agree with her?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t think it would hurt that much. Even if things go bad, there isn’t much they can do. Not only are you backed by House Violet, but Clan Yoshu has given you their full support. I doubt they will go against both of us for something like this.”

“Why though?” he asked with a deep frown. 

“Why what?”

“Why go through this much trouble just to meet me?”

Lily shrugged. “I think they might have investigated you and learned about who you are and who you’re connected to. It’s likely they are trying to nip this in the bud before you develop any more bitterness towards Clan Dawnfield. They might have other reasons, but that is what I suspect.”

She said this like it wasn’t a big deal.

Julius didn’t think so and stared at her flatly. “You’re saying that they know who I actually am?”

“What? You didn’t really expect nobody to start realizing it, right? I thought you were alright with it.” 

“I am, but I didn’t expect the first person to realize it to be the family of a brat I beat up,” Julius argued.

“If it makes you feel better, they aren’t the first ones. I’m pretty sure the Golden Cauldron Sect and City Lord Zheng know who you are by now.”

“No way. How’d they find out already?”

“Well, I think they both found out after they met you. Lady Olona from the Golden Cauldron Sect was pretty interested in you, and with their sect’s information network they won’t find it very difficult to ascertain your origins and real identity. As for the city lord, I’m pretty sure he was the one who pushed for the honor duel to happen.”

Julius snapped his head and stared at her. “You said he was the one who pushed for it?”

“More than likely. I was more convinced when he arrived a few moments after the duel ended. He was probably probing for information and to see if your skills match up with the reports.”

Julius rubbed his nose. “Wonderful.”

She smiled and patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I already have an idea to get him back for that.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

“It’s a secret,” she said with a wink.

He sighed. “Of course it is. So when do they want to meet?”

“Tomorrow for lunch.”

“Fine. Set it up.”

She gave him an approving nod. “Nice. Now if we’re lucky, we might be able to squeeze them for something a little more valuable.”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“Well, you do know what Clan Dawnfield’s specialty is, right?”

He tilted his head. “No?”

She stared at him blankly for a few moments before she shook her head. “Of course you don’t.”

“What’s their specialty?”

“Their clan members often have the stellar affinity and sometimes even a bloodline related to it. The guy you fought had both.”

“I feel like you’re trying to tell me something.”

“Do you know what aspects make up the stellar affinity?”

“Nope,” he said with a proud grin.

“It’s actually quite similar to your family’s sun affinity.”

The grin shifted into something a little more serious. Lily suddenly had his attention.

“It’s a mixture of fire and light affinities, but unlike the sun affinity, there are some aspects of force mixed into it. Whereas sun affinities focus on heat and intensity, stellar affinities focus a little bit more on impact and density. Something I thought you would be interested in.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying this because force affinities are not very common in Corvus, but people from Clan Dawnfield aren’t always able to inherit stellar affinities and instead gain force affinities. In fact, the patriarch’s older brother is a kinetic energy user,” Lily said with a nod. 

“Older brother?”

“Yeah, you typically still need a stellar affinity if you want to become the patriarch. And from what I heard, the older brother, Varian Dawnfield, never cared for that position, removing himself from contention altogether.”

Julius frowned. “I still don’t get it. What am I missing?”

Lily sighed. “I’m trying to say that out of the many clans throughout Corvus, Clan Dawnfield is one of the closest things to a force-focused clan you can get. While there are several clans that exclusively practice it, none of them are trying to curry your favor like Dawnfield will likely be attempting tomorrow. In fact, I have done some digging myself and found out that they have a way to increase their member’s connection with their force affinities. You mentioned that your force affinity is the only thing that you haven’t increased so far, so it would be worth asking if you can get something from them.”

He leaned forward and grabbed her shoulders excitedly. “They really have something like that?”

“Yes, some of their most powerful members don’t have the stellar affinity; instead, they have a kinetic affinity. It is why someone like Soren has been elevated up the family and given a lot of privileges. It is also why he’s quite spoiled,” she explained.

He stopped shaking her when he realized something. “Wait, how do we know they will help me with this? It seems a little too valuable for a simple apology.”

“From what I heard, the actual cost of the method isn’t that high. In fact, I suspect it is a rift of some kind and depends on the person entering it to gain anything from it. But for you, that won’t be as much of an issue.”

Julius grinned widely when he heard this. He’d been looking for something to help increase his force affinity for a while, and with Cain indisposed with Doren, he didn’t know what to do. The fact that the cultivation of his seed would be affected until he figured something out had been weighing on his mind. 

***

The next day, Lily invited the people from Clan Dawnfield to the house. At first they considered meeting them somewhere else, but Clan Yoshu was undergoing a bit of renovation, and Lily didn’t want to ask the city lord to mediate this meeting, considering it might pertain to Julius’s abilities. 

Julius was sitting in the pergola, waiting for Lily to bring their guests out there. It didn’t take long for that to happen. Julius shifted his gaze to the approaching group. There weren’t as many people as Julius feared. When Lily explained them, she made it sound like there was an entire crowd.

Instead, he found himself looking at three people. One of whom was someone he recognized easily. Though the last time Julius had seen him, he’d just knocked him unconscious.

The other two were new, though. The person talking to Lily was a tall young man who looked like the opposite of Soren. The man had dark blue hair. So dark that it almost looked black in certain lighting. However, it was the clothing that Julius took note of. Instead of Soren’s brilliant and flamboyant robes, the man had only a pair of black pants and a white T-shirt. 

He had a tan complexion, as if he spent most of his time outdoors, and several long, crisscrossing pale scars along his forearms. His eyes were quite blue as well, looking like a shifting river with each flicker of light.

Appearance-wise, he didn’t seem much older than Lily, but the man’s aura told a different story. It was politely restrained, but it had several telltale signs of a Tier 5 and a mature one at that. It felt strong and fierce, but also calm and surprisingly warm. 

The woman beside this man had similar features, though a bit paler. She did have the same dark blue hair and beautiful blue eyes. Furthermore, she appeared to be around the same height as Julius. 

To his concern, she was staring at him quite intently, just like the other man was. Thankfully, it was not in a bad way, and he didn’t get the feeling that she was looking down on him. It felt like it was more out of curiosity.

Her aura was a bit more restrained than the Tier 5, but it had the marks of a Tier 4. Julius felt something weird about her aura, though. It was almost a little… familiar.

He didn't know why, and he narrowed his eyes as he continued to examine her. Not that she wasn’t already doing the same to him. He could feel her aura senses patting him down. Her control wasn’t terrible, but she certainly didn’t have a delicate touch. That or she didn’t really care.

Either way, he was suddenly a lot more interested in these members of the Dawnfield Clan.