Chapter 197 – Mystery
Most of the spectators were still trying to understand what had just happened while the formation went dormant, repairing the damage to the floating arena and removing all the blood around Siu, leaving only those splatters behind that were now staining his robes. Especially around the arm he used to finish off Salen. Besides that, nothing else about him suggested he had just fought a Paragon.
"S for Superior! I for Invincible! U for Undefeated!"
It was then that Siu registered Arya's voice, coming from all directions, still doing her best to cheerlead, while everyone was gawking at him... And he finally understood how Seloryn felt not that long ago. The difference being he had no way to run away.
“He won?!” Finally, someone else piped up, making everyone realize they had a voice, too. “What was his affinity?! Did someone see that...?”
“He didn't use one...”
“Everyone uses one in a Paragon fight!”
“Then what did he use?!”
“Did Salen's technique even work?!”
“She cut him... I SAW THAT! But then why didn't his body stop moving...?”
Just a few moments later, the same questions were asked, over and over again, but nobody really had any answer to them. As the yells grew louder and louder, Siu decided that it was best to just leave. In a relative hurry, he stepped towards the others when Arya flew at him, crashing into him with a grin.
“MASTER! That was superb! Let's get home, I'll lick your wounds so you feel better!”
"..." Maybe because he was unsure what to say, he said nothing, making Arya's mismatched eyes twinkle even more, taking it as a silent agreement. The way she looked at him made Siu realize it was a big mistake... But by then, the others had arrived too, with Marly landing on his head and hugging him, making it impossible to correct it.
“You did the same with her?” Nokoh asked, looking at his minor cut as he stood before Siu.
“Yep.”
"You are a monster," He added, still staring at him, shaking his head with a smile. "You may be one of the quickest of the disciples to get onto the list... And nobody will ever know that."
"And I don't really care about it," Siu answered with a shrug. "I just want to focus on improving; fame from it is not really my interest. I saw what it does to people, and I want none of that."
“Weirdo.” Ruben's eyes narrowed as he heard him say it, watching him. "That's how you get forward in life. Don't ignore it, use it!"
"Enough of that." Seloryn arrived beside them, smiling from ear to ear despite scolding Ruben. “Congratulations, Rank One Hundred, but let us go home. Too many ears around to keep talking about it.”
"True," Siu groaned, patting his stomach. "And I'm hungry."
“Food!” Marly and Arya yelled at the same time, "Party-sized breakfast, here we come!"
As they were talking, ready to leave, Fire Ring and the Burning Banner came up to him to congratulate him just the same. Naturally, he received it with a bow of his own, missing the fact that the rest of the spectators were now rooted in place. The Spirit Wardens had four Paragons now, and, from what they were seeing, the lowest-ranked one led the other three... How? Why?
“That doesn't make sense,” was what everyone seeing it thought.
Nobody knew how that came to be, but it was clearly the facts, because even the leaders of the two other associations were talking to Siu the most. Wait... What was Burning Banner doing here? Why ARE they here? Soon a new question appeared in everyone's mind, as they began counting. If they also joined an alliance with them, there would be a group that had... ten Paragons? That never happened before; at least, none could remember such an event...
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After the Wardens finally left and the day actually began for the sect and its countless disciples, the first to discover the change without having witnessed it did so around midday. The Paragon List had become busy again when everyone realized that, at the end of it, a name had disappeared, with a new one replacing it.
“Who the hell is Siu?” The first to discover asked, drawing some attention to the list, “So... Salen lost again? No wonder she is off the list.”
“Apparently so...” another voice offered, scanning the bottom half of the list, as nobody was even looking above Rank 50, from where the Core Disciples' names started.
“Do you know who he is?”
"Never heard of him."
“The Spirit Wardens!” Someone yelped out suddenly, making more heads turn towards him than the man had ever had to deal with before. "I read his name once, and now I remember where! He was in the report I bought, when thinking about joining them... He is the leader and the one who made up that stupid rule of paying to join his stupid association! He's their leader.”
“So he is the main Warden of Greed? Does he have a green eye?” Someone asked with a laugh, but... few were laughing with him at the moment.
“They may love money... But they do have four Paragons.” Another voice joined in, "And... how many people are in these Wardens? Ten? Less? Do we really know? Four Paragons out of a group that small? Tsk...”
"That's... Something alright." Someone whistled, but someone else just scoffed at the notion.
“Three of them are at the bottom, below 95. Big deal. Only Seloryn is 80. Anyone in the bottom 10 is...” But he didn't finish, because even he only half-believed what he was saying.
“Still...” The first voice tried but never continued, sensing the apparent animosity in the air, as many disciples were still angry about the Wardens' way of handling their recruitment.
“Everyone is acting like he took Rank Fifty, when he simply challenged the lowest person possible." A new voice cut in, filled with scorn. "The same Salen who had just been beaten not that long before. Isn't this against the rules? One of his own members already softened her up! How can someone like that, using such underhanded methods, get onto the List at all?!”
"Totally," Someone nodded eagerly, echoing the discontent in the air, “She barely had time to recover. This is a joke, because even if she was fit, that does not mean she could fight another match at the same level as before. The mighty Spirit Warden leader waited until his own Paragon knocked someone down two ranks, then stole the last seat. Pathetic!”
That version of events may have spread a bit faster than the others, mostly because it was satisfying to say and try to get back at the Wardens for the imagined grievances. Even if the Wardens themselves never wronged anyone, it was simply how people had always been... They already looked at the prospects, the lure of joining the Wardens as their own. A right they owned. And when that enticing future got taken away from them by requiring their payment, a hefty one at that, with strict rules... It was like stealing from their pockets, despite never having anything in them at all.
“Maybe they'll raise membership to six Suns now.” Someone even commented jokingly, but it quickly got added to the rumors.
However, by the end of the day, there were also those who saw the fight and began to spread their versions, even if it traveled more slowly than the first, more negative one.
“You didn't see it. Salen wasn't weak at all. And, as the one being challenged, she was the one who set the time, not Siu! Meaning, she was confident, yet she still lost.”
“Yes, that says something, but still. Nokoh had messed her up first.”
“No, you don't get it; you didn't see it! That Siu didn't beat her the way Nokoh did in their fight. Not at all...”
“Okay, then. How? Tell me.”
“I don't know.” And that was the problem: making everyone who heard the voice talk feel weird, suspecting he wasn't even there.
“What do you mean, you don't know?”
“I mean I don't know!”
“Were you even watching?” A sarcastic voice asked from nowhere, making people laugh.
“Yes! Stop the nonsense!”
“You stop it, idiot! If you saw the fight, then tell us: what did he use?”
"That's the problem!" The disciple's expression tensed up, biting his lip as he looked around at those who now surrounded him. “It was just basic martial forms.”
“With which affinity?”
“I don't know, how many times do I have to repeat it?! He didn't use any.” The group quieted at that, because that was... weird indeed. “Salen cut him, too, but it had no effect on him.” He continued, and that detail caught the attention of many who already thought the new name on the List might have a special, self-enhancing affinity. That was their best bet for now. "But," The voice added, sounding a bit cautious, lowering his voice, "I would be careful when challenging him... The way he handled Salen was ruthless, and if not for the formation, that girl would have been dead."
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By nighttime, most, if not all, brokers were running around like headless chickens. The scene unfolding at one such headquarters was not a solitary example.
“Check again!” One of the top brokers, dealing with secrets for a decade now, yelled as he looked at his assistant, his hair ruffled, eyes bloodshot, reading through the nonsensical news in his hands, discarding the sheet in a furious flick of his hand.
“I already checked...”
“Then fucking check again!”
“There is nothing else!”
“There is always something else! It's our name that is on the line, because by morning, people will want to know EVERYTHING about this fucking man and we have jack shit!”
The assistant sighed, punching the table before him because they had checked everything... they did... but nothing. The room around them looked as though someone had practiced their wind affinity, throwing everything around, be it cabinets, papers, books, scrolls, whatever that was not nailed down.
“Start from his admission.” The leader said, forcing some calmness onto himself, "We know that he joined our Hollow Song as an Outer Disciple. Where does he come from? Which region under our control? Even if he is a peasant, there should be a record of it somewhere.”
"I already sent out inquiries to those we have on the outside, but nobody knows anything." One of his subordinates spoke up, shaking his head. "We are still waiting on a few answers; it may take a day or two, but..."
“Okay, then work on the next question until then. So..." He looked around at the dozen other people in the room. "When? When did he join us?!”
“Only a year ago...” A voice offered, making the room fall silent. "And it's... That's only as an Inner Disciple. We don't really have anybody at the outers to verify how long he was down there..."
"Then send someone down, for fucks sake! And..." The broker stopped looking at the men in the room, closing his eyes, pinching the ridge of his nose. "You said... A year? And he is on the FUCKING LIST?! A year, he says... heh... hehehe..."
"..."
"How did we miss someone with abilities like that?! FUCK!" He moaned, kicking over his own table. "Okay, okay... Okaaaaay. He has two beasts, yes? Let's go from there! Do we know their names?"
“Arya and Marly." Someone reported at once, "The former has already taken human form. There was something regarding them, Nokoh and a servant from the Companions. An event that even involved High Elder Delia.”
“Finally, so we DO know something!” The man sighed, rubbing his face. "That's unusual enough, so go from there. Interacting with a High Elder is not normal, so chop-chop, go and get me all the information! What else do we have? Get everything we know about the other Wardens, and from there, we can establish the route he took to get here. Get me all we know about Seloryn, Nokoh, Ruben, Joren... Who else is there? The servant named Quillian! What does he do there? Why is HE there? Servants don't mingle with us, disciples. Why hasn't anybody investigated that?! Hm?!"
"Servants are..." A voice began, trying to say that interacting with Servants was not rare, but also, who would do it for long? And why? They were servants after all, but it also made them forget that they were once disciples, too.
"Shut the fuck up, and investigate Quillian and his past and when he came into contact with Siu. By morning, I want to know it all, including what his favorite breakfast is. Got it? Who else in that group?! Fucking Wardens..."
"There is another anomaly..."
"Another?!" The broker yelled again, feeling a stroke threatening his heart, even if he was a cultivator. "Who?!"
"There is an outsider with them, going by the name of Vael. I couldn't find anything else. I am running into walls, boss. Something is not right with the man, because the Elders sealed everything related to him... I can't get through those blockades; nobody can."
"For Heaven's sake..." The man finally collapsed into a chair, burying his face in his hand. "All these fucking mysteries and blind spots, and we missed it all? Yet we are supposed to be THE Ciphers' Lair? I want everything by sunrise, or our reputation as the top brokerage will suffer its greatest hit! Call on all the favors we have." He yelled again, standing up, "I'm going to see some of the Elders I have some rapport with. I can't believe I'm using up my lifesavers for... this fucking boy... He's just... Just a Siu... FUCK!"