Ebony's Fable

The Saintesses left, Shi Tao got pulled along by the hand by the Ning Saintess.

Uncle Wu stopped by immediately after.

"Fresh catch." He handed over an alien fish, like an eel but with 3 tails split around the halfway point of its body.

Ebony saw a scrawny man following along with Uncle Wu.

Immediately, he could tell that this scrawny man had a shockingly deep mana pool. He couldn't even discern its end.

'How is it so endless? Numerous signatures, non-human. He's the summoner-tamer from Lure.' Ebony was convinced. Summoners and tamers were Lure's strongest groups.

From this man's mana, Ebony was sensing numerous signatures. He guessed that the summoner was carrying the mana pools of all the creatures he could summon and possibly use them as his own. A mana conversion fortification wasn't out of the question for a summoner that uses its summon's mana.

A few million creatures at the very least, but Ebony's Mana Discern was not clear enough to sense any better or individually pick out 1 signature from millions.

Too bad, the Xengs as a whole probably didn't see summoners or tamers as anyone worth noting unless they were the type that used a creature's power to enhance themselves. They preferred to fight a super soldier than to fight a whole army of normal soldiers.

"Y-you-you! Why do you have the aura of the Ecstasy Lord on you? He died. You killed him…how?!"

"What's so surprising, you came attacking and never expected to be killed?" Xin wouldn't have bothered, but she was his translator, and he was curious why someone very obviously stronger than the Dullahan was surprised that the demon could be killed.

"He's one of the scariest creatures in the Region…of course, I would be surprised to find his aura on you while you're alive."

"You're much stronger than him…" Ebony voiced his thoughts. He could be wrong since all he was judging by was from aura and gut instinct.

"No amount of strength is of use if all he has to do is speak and remove our soul."

'A compatibility issue, huh. I suppose if no one has soul manipulation, practically none can resist regardless of their power.' Ebony had a better grasp on why the Ecstasy Lord was supposedly the ruler of multiple Worldcores. Almost all living creatures are defenceless in front of his powers.

All that specialisation into souls and minds….and he couldn't even get through passive defences. Ebony hoped that the universal scale for the powerful was a bit higher than the Dullahan's.

There was a bigger problem now. How did this summoner sense that he killed the Ecstasy Lord?

Xin also started sniffing him while he scanned himself with Will. 'I need a detection Will prepared for Mana Discern.' Ebony found yet another lacking part of himself. For that, meeting this summoner was already worth the time.

He looked at his wife, and she looked at him. They confirmed without speaking, neither of them sensed anything that could let another person tell that he had killed someone…weeks ago.

Aura?

They would sense any remnant essence that would have Intent stuck on it from miles away.

"Am I marked in some way?" Ebony asked.

"I wouldn't say that."

Uncle Wu smacked the summoner's head at that pause, "Alright alright, a few of my summons can see death. I can see who someone killed if it hasn't been more than a few standard years unless they've already been reincarnated."

'Reincarnation is real after all.' He wasn't surprised by the casual reveal.

"In what manner do you see death? Souls?" Ebony decided to clarify.

"No, aura of death. I would know who, if I met the person before. Otherwise, all I would know is that you killed a random living being."

It couldn't be helped. Some people just had esoteric skillsets.

Ebony didn't even know where to begin to copy a skill borrowed from a summoned creature. Nothing but Will in his repertoire will help him achieve the same effect.

'A detection Will for all forms of auras and energies to be imbued into Mana Discern.' He put a note in his mindspace for Dusk. The Numbers wouldn't be able to experiment or study this without significant Will supplied.

Uncle Wu didn't accept Xin's invitation for a cup of tea and left. The summoner was swinging in the air from a fishing line.

"What Clan is Uncle Wu from?" He asked his wife.

"He was adopted by a couple of the Yu and Zhang Clan."

"Adopted?"

"Shh, I heard the Wen Clan helped with bloodline transfusion." When speaking about the Wen Clan, they were only referring to one person.

The one that gifted them a half-rotting organic, half-mechanical arm as a wedding gift. He was the entire Clan himself.

Along with the Shi and Ning, they were the 3 Saints of the Xengs.

"Did it fail?"

"It succeeded. Uncle Wu's parents both passed during one of their adventures. He can be considered from the same generation as my parents."

"Hmm."

The pair of Saintess didn't stay. They didn't even show themselves at Xienor.

After being uncomfortable in Xin's house for over a day, including a bit of Priming, their house arrived by flight. It just didn't feel right resting in her maiden home. It felt quieter inside, emptier.

Most unexpectedly, Veronica showed up.

Kicked aside by his wife, he spent the day fishing with Uncle Wu.

The pond here, a hole in the continent caused by the Spear Saint that hunted Rueful and the Gluttonous Solar Blooded Phoenix. This was supposedly impossible to cover. Tiva was littered with these holes, though smaller. Their Shamans, or physically throwing earth into the holes, always failed. Till this day, roughly twelve thousand years later the holes in the earth remained.

It was wider than the eye could see, it was akin to an ocean. It was the view of the horizon.

Floating out of a small, shaky wooden boat, he sat with Uncle Wu with a borrowed fishing rod. And a tense Summoner in between the two of them.

Despite being shaky, Ebony didn't need to use gravity magic for weight reduction and the boat could carry them naturally.

The pond was still.

The two part-Xeng were silent.

The only sound that disturbs their time is whenever their fishing thread dips into the water.

"Now." Uncle Wu prompted.

Ebony let his fishing rod go, took a step forward onto the stem of the boat, and his palm thrust out with mana imbued. The summoner watched his palm strike the air, but the moment his arm fully extended, a large fish head surfaced into the air and perfectly contacted his palm. The vibrational impact from his palm strike knocked the fish out without killing it.

"Felt like it flew up to take your attack…" The Summoner felt all his aquatic summons roaring at him to complain about the stupid King-ranked fish that surfaced the water at such a bad time, at such a bad position.

"Since Aunt Veronica is back, little Xin is probably going to evolve very soon." Uncle Wu commented.

"Mmm."

"She matured a little."

"Mmm."

"Does she have friends now?"

"Mmm."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"You left her unprotected."

"….Mmm."

"Perhaps you married too young after all."

"I ask for your guidance."

'When she falls asleep,"

"Mmm."

❅❅❅

The Summoner looked left, right and back at his feet over a dozen times in the short moment of conversation before silence reigned yet again. 'You call that a conversation!?'

Yet he didn't say a thing and borrowed the skill of one of his aquatic summons, producing a mana sound wave from his hand to beguile other fish. He had been promised to be released the moment this fisherman learned the baiting and hunting tactics that aquatic creatures could use.

The fisherman was definitely after his Spirit Qi Whale's ability.

Yet, he was never threatened to spill about his skill sets. This group of people were not as violent and overbearing as he'd heard.

"You're Human." The newcomer stated.

He wouldn't have bothered answering a mere King but gulped when the death aura of Esctasy Lord was staring into his very soul. At least, that was what his summon was transmitting to him.

"Yes."

"You're lacking something I feel from Humans."

"He doesn't have any Core Skills." The fisherman who caught him replied in his stead.

He was shellshocked. How did the fisherman find out!?

Then the back of his head got smacked. He had been too stunned to react.

"Ye-yes, people from my Worldcore do not have Core Skills. We have Core Summons instead, and my Classes changed this to Core Beasts. I am connected and have the powers of all my Core Beasts." Crap.

Why did he spill?

There was something about this King, and his Core Beasts had instinctively protected him. He'd realised that till now that he hadn't made eye contact with this man. All thanks to his Core Beasts' instincts.

"A race suited for summoning, and changed by your summoner-tamer hybrid class. So the biggest auras from you are your Core Beasts. A whale, some reptilian, a tiger, a falcon and an…insect? A fly." The oddly intimidating King casually exposed him.

He gulped. That was pretty much spot on. What is with these people's Perception skills?

Did they have some high-tier Identify?

"That whale is your essence pool base. The reptilian, your camouflage and stealth. The tiger your physical prowess and battle instincts. The falcon for speed and some aerial… spirit-based movement, it's also helping to keep you together. The fly is interesting, I have no idea. Insect-type monsters have a wide range of specialities. Precognition is one example insects excel at, but I doubt you would've attacked this place if you had some form of future sight…" Then the man raised a figurative finger.

He and his Core Beasts that embody him could tell, this man only moved his mana to point his finger and no physical movement was made. Yet his eyes could see a shadow of movement of his actual body moving. What dense mana...

"I see. The fly is hypersensitive. It provides your unnatural reflex speed for a non-physical class."

'With just a mana finger pointing, he gauged my reflexes to determine more of my capabilities. What were my tells?" He didn't even let his eyes or mental senses for mana wander around but the King caught it.

"Five Core Beasts for five Core Skill slots that an Emperor would have. Hmm, I presume these Core Beasts have a physical form of their own and need to level instead of you levelling a skill. Or are they fully Spirit-based creatures and are roaming the Spirit Realm while using or lending you their powers for a physical presence in this realm."

"Would you tell people your Core Skills?" He argued rather nonchalantly. Putting aside the odd sense of intimidation and the Esctasy Lord's aura of death, the King was too weak for him to fear.

"Understood."

Silence reigned again.

This was supremely uncomfortable.

He'd already tried escaping through the Spirit Realm with his Amalgamation Falcon and had to find out the painful way that he was already on a hook and line. There was no escape till he was released. However, it wasn't all bad.

He only took this well-paid job because his Core Beasts told him the Spirit Realm in this vicinity was extremely volatile, in a good way.

He just needed a suitable Saint-ranked entity from the Spirit Realm as the candidate for his sixth Core Beast before he was comfortable preparing for his evolution. The key factor for his next step forward in evolution.

Nothing else took precedence, except maybe his life.

He wanted nothing to do with the Angel's beef with the Wandering Celestial Monastery. How would he have known this tiny place and backwater Region was home to the masked ones?

'Should've done my due diligence and done my homework…' Regret had not sunk in yet.

While this was an opportunity for the masked fisherman, it was also an opportunity for him. He had prepared himself to go to war with the native Elves, hoping they were low in their caste, as he was under the assumption that's where the juicy physical location of the direct connection to the Spirit Realm would be but Xienor was even better, or so his Core Beasts' instincts were telling him.

Then, his greatest treasure, the Spirit Qi Whale screamed at him to duck.

A spatial tear opened above their heads.

Looking at the two unperturbed men on the boat, he silenced the coward of a whale of his.

"The Xu is here. You should go." The Fisherman didn't look away from his fishing line.

"Mmm."

If the masked people in this village scared him and his Core Beast, then this new masked lady of small stature almost made them abandon him.

In fact, many of his other spirit summons scattered the moment she appeared. He lost the support of thousands of summons just like that. Unless he enticed them with better rewards, he could forget about summoning them or borrowing their power.

"Huh…that's third-gen Xu Lu. Ah right, you are my great-granduncle. They won't call for someone from a younger generation for a request of yours."

"I see."

'What did I just hear? This young man is the fisherman's great-granduncle?' He did not know that it was merely in status, not that he studied every culture in the universe.

"Cousin…." A cold, feminine voice echoed in his ears. He listened to his Core Beasts and stared at his feet instead of looking up where the spatial tear opened.

"Ebony…or Wu Mu."

"I'm Xu Lu. Cousin Mu, which house should I get ready for evolutionary energies?"

"Cousin Lu, you don't seem to be a crafter."

"Yes, I'm the only combatant of the Xu Clan."

The man called Ebony pointed to the house he'd just been to deliver fish with his captor.

"I would get started right away but if you have any support spells for mana regeneration, cast them on me Cousin."

"I have just the thing, forgive its lacking effect."

The Summoner couldn't tell what was going on, but he could feel the obvious jet of dense mana being channelled to the individual floating near their boat.

"…it's rather jarring on the ears and my mana, but this would suffice."

A black dot conjured in front of the mask.

He directly fainted upon perceiving the energies it produced.

❅❅❅

Ebony's very Will shivered. This cousin of his, one of Kong Jing's family member, was rather forceful.

She directly ripped away his Will because his Resolve's Cadence wasn't potent enough, and she self-propelled his augmentation to her. He didn't mind the Will or mana being ripped away to support her spell, since she was casting a spell for him, but it was not the best feeling to know that someone could directly override and take over his power to support their spell.

He couldn't tell what element was being used, if any at all. Likely none.

Her mana didn't have the properties of mana used for Aspects either.

After a moment of Mana Discerning the black sphere her mask was generating, he concluded that it was a Tier 7 Skill at work. Maybe multiple Tier 7 Skills. That would mean it worked with concepts.

It was 100% out of his understanding.

There was nothing Mana Discern could teach him about what he was witnessing.

The road to a third-generation combatant Xeng felt so far away. Wonderful.

"Hmph, the Shi Clan is the Shi Clan after all. You're still standing straight. Is the drain alright?"

"The mana drain? Do you need more?"

"If you would."

Ebony recalibrated his Will and cast Resolve's Cadence for himself.

"It works on yourself too? Wonderful. Should've done that from the start." Xu Lu returned him some of his regenerated Will. As far as he sensed, his support skill probably buffed her by less than 0.1%.

The stronger or higher one's effective Constitution and various stats, the more it takes to buff them in any way.

"Cousin Lu, have you fought mana beings?"

"I have."

"How does my mana compare to the best you've seen?"

"Hmm, amongst what I've seen. Slightly above average Emperor mana purity. Average mana density. Pitiful volume. I don't think I've seen better regeneration amongst Emperors. Then again, I'm not the most familiar with mana-beings. You should ask Qin Mei or any of our uncles and aunties. The second generation knows mana-beings better than any of us."

'Qin Mei was the one who replied to Aunt Tao about the Soul Basilisk, the Cruel Empress of the Empire.' Ebony nodded after recognising the name.

Needless to say, she directly compared him to the universal Emperor average, for it was what she was most familiar with. The peak of mortal evolution.

"He's not average!!"

His dear wife seemed to have overheard the conversation, or her foresight was helping her.

Ebony wouldn't be surprised if every single villager here could hear their unhidden conversation anyway.

He moved before Xu Lu even flicked her fingers at the naughty child, but it was Veronica who scoffed and collapsed the energy blast. "Cousin Mu, I won't say too much since you're her son, but teach your young wife some manners."

"Before she is of the seventh generation, she is my wife." Ebony cut back at Xu Lu's comment.

"….I misspoke."

"Mm. Thank you for coming. Your assistance is appreciated."

'Oh? I think my aura layering worked more effectively there.' Ebony got distracted soon after Xu Lu took her words back.

Ebony curiously watched her spell turn into a black beam that touched Xin's maiden home…and then nothing. The vigorous beam of energy, more intense than anything he had ever felt, had done nothing to the house.

"It is done. Farewell, Cousin Mu." Xu Lu cupped her left palm over her right fist and performed the slightest bow before she used a knife-palm and sliced open a spatial tear yet again. She went as swiftly as she arrived.

The first thing he took note of after she left was that Xin's maiden home started to stink of fresh blood. He might have lost his lungs, but his olfactory senses were still working perfectly fine, should he choose to use them.