Yin & Yang Pleasures of Cultivation

Several hours passed since Darcel, Aniela and Masami tailored the Golden Crow Circle members and arrived back at the City. 

The first thing they did was swiftly traveled right back to their inn room for some last-minute cultivation.

But as they were in the middle of cultivation in their room, Darcel had received Bella's call. And Darcel decided, instead of having a meeting in the open snowy fields, it was much better to talk over the contact rings.

This way, they can have every precaution taken care of and won't have to worry about any unnecessary troubles. 

After Bella's call, the trio decided to stop cultivating and wait for when she got back.

But as they waited, Masami brought up an interesting topic to the duo. Her eyes became engrossed as she asked, "Say….is there really not a single thing neither of you can remember from childhood?"

Her tone was soft and sympathetic. Just a bit before, Aniela had mentioned so casually how neither she nor Darcel can recall anything from childhood. 

And though it seemed to not affect Darcel and Aniela much, Masami couldn't help but feel it's a bit depressing they couldn't experience that.

As Aniela minds recalled into her past, a small calm smile graced her lips. 

She began saying in an even calm tone, "Yep. All I can really remember was growing up in some ragged orphanage that didn't even have windows. And next thing I knew, some people in white coats snuck into my room and kidnapped me."

"Oh….hmm…." Masami couldn't really find the right words to say. 

She began wracking her brain to know the perfect words to say in this situation. And while she contemplated it, one of her fox tails subconsciously wrapped around Darcel and Aniela.

Aniela perked up at the soft warmness, feeling it soothe around her waist. Though Aniela wasn't experiencing any change of emotion, it was quite lovely to have Masami's fluffy tails curl on them.

Darcel as well appreciated the fluffy warmness of Masami's foxtails though his emotions were calm and tranquil. 

He already knew of how Aniela got to the organization, and so Darcel decided to share how he ended up in that bastard of a place.

"It's exactly the same for me. I can't remember anything before my kidnapping. Hell, I can't even remember the place I had stayed in. All I can recall is lying on some hard wooden floor before those white coats people took me to."

"I see…." Masami quietly uttered. 

She began comparing her past with the duo and quickly realized how worse off Darcel and Aniela really are. 

Although Masami had no sense of family back home, at least she did know her mother and father and had a place to stay relatively safe in.

She also had her knowledgeable, kind, and caring Grandmother, who essentially raised her. Compared to Darcel and Aniela, she at least had one parental figure in her life.

But all Darcel and Aniela had were each other and still really only have each other and Masami. Her sympathy arisen for Darcel and Aniela as neither had ever once looked like they were majorly affected by their past.

Even in the cruel dog eat dog world of their society, it takes a vast amount of willpower to stay sane after being treated as a slave for so long. 

Suddenly while Masami was in deep thought, she felt Darcel's warm hand pet her head.

Masami quickly felt her slew of emotions calm as Darcel's tender hand caressed her fluffy fox ears. 

Darcel had actually sensed that slew of emotions from Masami through their Darkness Soul link.

He had then given Masami his small smile, telling her, "Don't null over this too much. If there's one thing that I can say for sure, it's that Aniela and I got tremendously lucky in that place. It was depressing, suffocating, and grueling being in that place. But we were never physically tortured."

Aniela began to huff up as her thoughts crossed over to her previous line of work in that damned place. She could honestly consider the mental toll of being in that place as horrible if they were to endured torturous pain there.

In a surprising venomous tone, Aniela hotly said, "Hm! They just had the gall to treat us like slaves for whatever amount of years we've been stuck there! Having to do all of those stupid experiments because they were so delusional in thinking that they could break cultivation was taxiing. That's why I'm so glad we were able to get a little revenge on that scientist, even if I didn't get to see him die."

Masami curiously glanced over to Aniela, finding her more venomous side as incredibly intriguing. Truthfully, she had only ever shown this side when they were going to meet that scientist the first time.

It more and less confirmed in Masami's mind that even for a bright, energetic girl that Aniela seemingly always is. She, too, can divulge such negative thoughts and feelings.

And at the thought of them taking revenge, Masami had to ask, "Hey….I know that we're building to take revenge against my sect. But have you two ever considered taking full revenge against that shitty organization? I mean, the three of us can, no, we will have the power to stand at the summit of the whole continent! And by then, we can raze that dammable organization to the ground!"

Darcel and Aniela became genuinely thoughtful. Indeed, they both had entertained such ideas of taking full revenge against the Parasol Organization. 

Neither Darcel and Aniela considered themselves good people. They would only take revenge out of their selfish desires than wanting to save the poor victims kidnapped by that place.

But upon seriously thinking further about revenge, Darcel simply shrugged at the end. 

"Maybe I do have that flame of desire for revenge. But it's nothing we really want to go out of our way to do. Because we were basically dropped off on this planet, neither Aniela nor I even know what realm that organization is in. Furthermore, we don't even know the true limits of that whole organization's power."

"Hm." Aniela nodded her head in agreement. "As much how nice it felt taking small revenge, it's really not worth it for us to try and locate those guys. Besides, I prefer staying on the beauty of this planet than going back to that dreary gray place."

'Chi!' 

Abruptly, the contact ring in Darcel's pockets glowed its radiant purple shine through his clothes. 

"Well, we can talk more about this later. For now, it's time to solidify our plans." Darcel took his hand off from Masami's head, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the contact ring. 

This contact ring had the initial B on it, indicating it belonged to Bella.

Darcel spoke into the ring, asking immediately, "Bella. Are you there with Zara?" 

"Yes, Master. What do you want to discuss first?" Bella's carefree voice crisped out of the contact ring.

Aniela and Masami went silent, focusing up for the upcoming meeting. 

Darcel took a moment to think and had then told Bella, "Let's first discuss what you found on the White Demon group."

"Ah Master, those little demons are planning to use a Mage tomorrow to raise a cave out of the ground that contains the Heavenly Crystalline treasure." 

Bella explained, and Darcel, Aniela, and Masami raised their eyes.

"Oh? Now that's a real fancy name." Aniela remarked, and the same settlement was shared by Masami. Though Masami found the name overly long more than anything. 

Darcel simply asked, "What's that fancy-sounding treasure about?"

"You see, Master, the story is that long before any of us walked these lands. Our first Ancestors had buried these incredible sources of energy that took the form of Crystallines. Nobody really knows why for sure. And what's even more of a mystery is that Mages are the only ones that can find these treasures and raise them from the ground. I know exactly where the White Demon is going since our group tried this with a Mage several moons ago. But we were utterly unsuccessful in our attempt." Bella swiftly explained.

Darcel's eyes gained a certain glint as he told Bella, "Perfect. You shall take us there tomorrow, Bella. I will ping for you when the night is almost over so we can get an extreme head start in the morning. For the next part of our meeting….Zara, Bella, have you two ever heard of something called the Province Day Converging."

The line on the other end quickly fell silent. 

Darcel, Aniela, and Masami can just tell those two were quite shocked hearing about this event. Both of them would always be so quick to respond, but now they were pausing. 

After a moment, it was Zara that spoke up this time. She asked, "Master….that's an incredibly ancient event that hasn't occurred for over thousands of years. The Golden Crow Circle….just what did they mention about it?"

"Basically, they were informed by their intelligence network that the Lustrous Silver Jaguar Sect are going to hold another one in the near future. Two members met up with each other, and the tenth level Heavenly King mentions it could be connected to the Divine Barrier shattering." 

Darcel stated as his Aniela and Masami's interest grew in this subject.

Zara was swift to explain, telling the trio, "Master, the Lustrous Silver Jaguar Sect is the strongest and most influential sect out of the Nine Provinces. They essentially have an entire grasp over everyone. And they're the ones that held this event twice, thousands of years ago."

"....Ah! I forgot to mention it before." Masami had put a finger to her chin, recalling some memories. "My Grandma had mentioned several times to me that out of everything in the whole Nine Provinces, they're the only group people I must never bother with. Anybody who angers them, nobody, no matter what sect they came from or who they are, can escape their might. They're supposedly that terrifying."

Although Masami explained that the Lustrous Silver Jaguar Sect is quite intimidating, her tone didn't have any hint of reverence. Darcel and Aniela as well didn't feel any different at the supposed strongest sect.

Bella's voice spoke of the contact ring this time as she said, "Mistress is quite well informed. And as for their connection with the Province Day Converging, long story short, they are the only ones with apparently some means to predict when an extraordinary Mystical Realm will open. And this realm is just chock full of Divine treasures, Divine resources, and whatnot. The Lustrous Silver Jaguar Sect had supposedly accidentally found where the Mystic realm was opening through some hidden means. And when they had found it, the Mystic Realm had immediately opened up. Upon the first opening of the Mystic Realm, portals suddenly began popping up all over the Nine Provinces, which led to that Mystic Realm. And it was called absolute chaos as everyone scrambled and killed senselessly for any treasure in there. Eventually, everyone was forcefully ejected out of the realm. And after that, the Lustrous Silver Jaguar Sect had organized a massive meeting between the Nine Provinces so that when the next time the Mystic Realm opens, everything can be far more organized. After that meeting, people had to wait for over seven hundred years for the next opening. Since the second opening, thousands of years have already passed, and people mostly forgot about this old tale. If the intelligence network of the Golden Crow Circle is right, then this is pretty suspicious."

Darcel, Aniela, and Masami went into deep thought, processing that truckload of information. 

They had immediately found some parts of that tale odd. Such as just how did the Lustrous Silver Jaguar Sect manage to accidentally find something so groundbreaking?

How can they so accurately predict the opening and any other secrets that they're obviously hiding from the public? 

Darcel had then asked after a moment of silence,  "I don't suppose you two have any more intel besides surface-level information?" 

"Sorry, Master, but this is all we know. So much time has passed since then, so there are not many people who can recall this event. And nobody can get any more intel from the Lustrous Silver Jaguar Sect." Zara had explained.

Darcel mulls over the topic a bit more but quickly shakes his head. 

There are just far too many suspicious holes in this tale. And none of them had any way of verifying the truth as of now.

"We'll think more about this later. For now, Bella, get ready; we'll be seeing the White Demon group soon. Zara, you, Lauren, Abby, and Melea keep on comprehending your Darkness Soul links until further instruction."

"Yes, Master." Both Bella and Zara swiftly reply, and the contact ring immediately dies down.

"Fuuu….now that was a huge load dump on us! The Provinces event….it sounds so interesting. But far too jumbled up." Aniela had bounced up to say once they were alone.

Masami's eyes lit up, realizing they may have away. She told the duo, "Ah! Once we get back to the sect, we can just ask my Grandma. I'm more than sure she'll be willing to provide us with the info we need once we make our name well known." Her lips curved into a dauntingly devious smirk.

With rising anticipation for tomorrow's event, Darcel quelled his emotions, telling the girls, "Like I said before, we don't need to worry much about this now. What we need to focus on is dominating these Mercenary groups and increasing our power and forces. Tomorrow will be a taste for what's to come for the whole City."