“Stop and do not move.”

  The lone man who was approaching the stronghold stopped where he was and did not move a single muscle.

  “What do you want?”

  The man, an Elder of the High Flame Sect and at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, opened his mouth at that point. There were no signs of any pompous attitude coloring his speech. He had been given clear and precise instructions to be deferential, respectful, and obedient when conversing with the people living in the stronghold.

  He was confused by the order and could not imagine why he, an Elder of the High Flame Sect, needed to be obedient to another power, but that confusion only lasted for a brief moment.

  The person telling him to be deferential was the Vice Master himself, a man in the Immortal Realm. If an immortal told him to be deferential, then it was obvious that any other choice would lead to his death. They would not give such an order lightly, not when the prestige and reputation of the sect were on the line.

  So he carried out his orders dutifully.

  “Greetings. I come from the High Flame Sect to thank you for helping to correct a failure on the part of the High Flame Sect. As thanks, we have brought the required compensation, along with an extension of an invitation.”

  Without missing a beat, the elder from the High Flame Sect slowly lifted his right hand and displayed it for all watching to see. On his palm rested a small triangular chip, pitch black in color.

  “The details of the invitation and the paid amount for your help in clearing our image are all inside. Please feel free to check the contents.”

  While the chip was still in the palm of his hand, more than one powerful sense crashed into it, scanning every part of it as if desperate to find a problem, a trap, poison, or something else detrimental to their patriarch lingering within. It was as if they believed something had to be there, that they simply had not found it yet.

  But they found no such thing.

  The High Flame Sect knew better.

  The contents of the chip were exactly as described. A small envelope that held a letter, and exactly thirty thousand Rank One Spirit Stones. A bit more than the bounty offered as a reward.

  “We do not require proof of the blemish cleared. Once again, thank you.”

  With that, the elder slowly bent down and placed the small chip on the ground before standing straight once more. He nodded once toward the stronghold, then turned on his heels and began walking away.

  Not too slow, where it would look like he was lingering or afraid to leave.

  Not fast enough to suggest he was fleeing a potential problem.

  Just a slow, measured walk north, back toward his sect.

  No one asked him to leave.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  After roughly fifteen minutes of walking, once he felt he had reached a respectable distance, he slowly floated into the air, his hands resting behind his back, and began flying home far faster than his walking speed.

  It wasn’t until after he was long gone that someone from the stronghold came out, gave the chip a final and through scan, before picking it up and bringing it inside.

  That person was Lidaz, and if he couldn’t find anything wrong with it, then that would be the end of it. Of course he could go ask Rellia, but this clan business and he would keep it that way if he had anything to say about it.

  Lidaz then delivered the spirit stones to the financial department while taking the letter in one hand and destroying the chip in the other. Now normally after making sure the letter and the envelope it sat in was safe he would’ve either delivered to Vrusha he would then give it to Patriarch, or he could technically do it himself.

  But with the Patriarch indisposed at the moment, and both Lirian and Frian were still on their own missions, Lidaz had a choice to make. He could leave the letter alone and simply wait for the Patriarch to complete his breakthrough and give him the letter then.

  Or he could wait for either Lirian or Frian to return and either consult or just leave the decision with them.

  Finally…he could open and read the letter for himself.

  Lidaz chose the latter option.

  If this was a time sensitive matter, the Patriarch wouldn’t have liked the fact that they sat around waiting for him. Lidaz knew full and well waiting and missing out on something even if they would’ve declined it anyway would’ve drawn more ire from the Patriarch than taking some initiative.

  As long as he didn’t endanger the clan needlessly or do certain things the Patriarch actively didn’t like to do, then he’d be alright.

  Their Patriarch was pretty easy going in that way.

  Well…from all Lidaz had heard growing up on Planet Infernal, most of them were pretty easy going in their own ways. Until they were angry or a war was on the horizon or something like that.

  Anyway, Lidaz went to his abode and opened the envelope.

  What met him there was just a few words in a language that Lidaz could not understand. The system as quiet as it always was would always take care to translate voices heard. Written words would always be a bit of challenge, there were times where it would work, like the names of places…and then there were times it wouldn’t.

  Like right now.

  Well that was only if these were regular words.

  Lidaz could not understand the words themselves but he could feel quite clearly the quality of the Immortal Qi imbued within those very words quite well. For all he knew the person who penned this letter could’ve written nothing but gibberish, but he could understand the meaning behind them.

  ‘Once again, we appreciate the correcting of an error on our part but let us look to the future. The High Flame Sect would like to officially invite you to our Sect to discuss further collaboration and the plans of future business. Consider this is a standing invitation until you are ready.’

  Lidas digested the words and realized that even if he waited for the Patriarch, he wouldn’t have been able to read it on his own anyway so no harm foul on that front. But despite that…he would not be meeting with them anyway.

  It was one thing to deal with people approaching the stronghold, but accepting invitations to visit Sects and whoever else would come calling…that wasn’t something Lidaz considered to be within his or anyone else in the clan’s job description at the moment.

  Something like that required an explicit order from the Patriarch.

  Lidaz understood the type of political impact a move like that could mean. Even if all he did was visit to hear what they had to say and leave without committing to anything or even downright refuting all laid before him…it would still be ‘seen’ by others and thus certain opinions could be made.

  Even if his Patriarch wouldn’t give a damn what others thought, and hell Lidaz didn’t care either, but it was not his place to ‘not care’. If his Patriarch decided to go and didn’t care what others thought…then so too would Lidaz.

  It was simple as that, no if ands or buts about it.

  So Lidaz stowed the letter and moved to return to his silent watch over the stronghold and more importantly the Patriarch.

  It was then he sensed a lone figure approaching, one cloaked from head to toe…Lidaz was no diviner, but the senses of an Immortal were not to be looked down upon. Something was wrong.

  Very wrong.