Rivers of the Night

It wasn't long before Theron had more elixirs to heal himself and a new plaque to sense.

However, for the first few moments, he sat there in silence for a moment. He spun the plaque on his finger, his eyes narrowing. It seemed that his time left was a bit short.

'Tomorrow night.'

He planned to make his move then.

His gaze shifted to the plaque and his gaze flickered.

'This is… interesting…'

\\*\\*

"This is bullshit!" a voice thundered, the air rippling out in wild waves. It felt as though space was distorting, but it was nothing more than an illusion of the eye.

It was instead like one was looking at a mirage through the desert. However, while a mirage would be little more than a trick of the eye, it felt like this one was incredibly dangerous.

Elder Pipen stood in the midst of this rampaging aura, feeling a bit uncomfortable himself.

It had to be remembered that the Veils—whether it be the White Veils or the Elder Veils—weren't necessarily the strongest in combat. Instead, they all seemed to have unique traits that allowed them to be of quite some use to the Mandate Guild.

Of course… Ancestor Veils were an exception to this. They were necessarily powerful.

The trouble with all of this, though, was that sometimes, an Elder Veil would end up in a situation exactly like this one. Though, in Elder Pipen's defense, he was definitely among the stronger few Elder Veils. The issue was that this child was too powerful.

Tattoos of black coated his tanned skin, his blue eyes radiating the depths of the ocean, while his hair was as black as its bottom.

The seventh-ranked on the Mandate Leaderboard: Ryuss Black.

Unless Elder Pipen was willing to use his Mandate Mark, it was impossible for him to deal with Ryuss despite the gap in their cultivation.

Not long ago, a plaque that he had just traded for was taken from him. He couldn't resist the Ancestor Veil who had had to take personal action to make it happen, but that didn't mean he would just let it go either.

In addition, the Mandate Guild couldn't just ignore his fury either. Setting aside the fact that he was quite powerful—as was his Black Clan—they had a reputation to uphold.

If plaques geniuses spent years building enough credit for could just be unceremoniously taken away, the largest source of the guild's benefits would suddenly be stripped away.

Trading for a plaque, especially a high-level one like the one Ryuss had just lost, took more than money. It took fulfilling tasks on behalf of the guild, clearing certain requirements, and most importantly, gathering Mandate.

This so-called gathering of Mandate was something that only the best of geniuses could do. While they couldn't control it like the Veils of the guild could, they were the most suited to accumulating it because the Heavens hated geniuses the most.

There was no Clan better at this than the Seijin, because they were even more hated by the Heavens than usual—but to make a complicated matter simple, these geniuses were the foundation of what allowed the guild to gather what they felt was their most valuable resource.

If the geniuses suddenly stopped because all of their hard work could just be snatched up by the guild on a whim, then which of them would still continue to do this?

Right now, the relationship worked well because the geniuses gave away energy they couldn't use, while the guild gave away plaques most of them didn't have the genius to comprehend anyway.

"Young Master Ryuss, we've already explained. You're free to have any three other Mandate Plaques of your choosing, free of charge."

"Fuck your explanation," Ryuss growled. "Do you think I'm someone easy to bully? Do you think I won't come back here in 50 years to challenge your Ancestor Veil to a fight to the death for this insult?"

Elder Pipen froze before speaking a bit stiffly.

"Please mind your words—"

"Shut the fuck up, or I'll take your head first. You think I fear your Mandate Mark? Even if you suppress me by half, I'll take your head in three moves. Do you believe me?"

Elder Pipen's jaw clenched. He had gone through so much in the last three days, taking one risk after another… but this was the thanks he got—babying a child into calming his anger.

Now he was being humiliated in the middle of this training room. The only saving grace was that this wasn't in public.

"Pl—"

"Stop fucking talking. Everything you say is just one layer of bullshit after another. I heard that you captured a Water Mancer recently. Did you take my plaque for him? Where the fuck is he?"

Elder Pipen took a breath. "Young Master Black, we've already told you that the plaque was defective. If you communicated with it, you would only get a piece of the Mandate and harm your path. This is for the best, and it was our mistake for neglecting the upkeep of the plaque."

"I said stop feeding me bullshit. Where is he?!"

Ryuss' aura boomed and it felt as though an enormous sea creature, roaring out tsunamis of ocean waves, had appeared behind him.

Elder Pipen reacted as though he had been buffeted by winds, taking one step back, and then another, a heavy aura clashing against his own and threatening to shatter it to pieces.

He coughed, feeling his inner organs churning. The air just felt so heavy—the Water Mana weighing down on him.

"Fine." Ryuss sneered. "Don't say anything. I will remember this."

He turned and left. He didn't need their random plaques. He had been saving up for that one in specific because it was one of the three most valuable of the Water Mancy Path.

However, before he could even meditate on it, it had been taken away. He was absolutely furious.

Elder Pipen watched him storm away, feeling that this would most definitely cause problems very soon. However, with the storm that was brewing right now, it would be drowned out.

Unfortunately, Elder Pipen didn't know how wrong he was just yet. As for why… that was because the nature of the Water Mandate Plaque was more special than normal. And the moment it disappeared from the world, it triggered a chain reaction.