Chapter 58: Incident II
Punya was livid with rage but he had nothing to vent on. He couldn’t just go to the elders and deacons and ask them who leaked the information. If it was Radha she might beat the elders and deacons until one of them confessed but as a clan leader, Punya couldn’t solve this by strength. And even if he asks, it would only create disharmony and distrust among the higher-ups when the real culprit would not be found. He had previously caught some spies but they were just small fries and couldn’t do much damage to the clan. This much was manageable but if there was someone with real influence, they could hide in the dark and attack at the most sensitive and unexpected situation.
This small attack could one day harm the Rijal clan greatly. And in the world of cultivation, it didn’t take much to create disharmony and make every member wary of each other. If everyone is on guard against each other what will they do when the enemy attacks? The attacker had not left any clues even when trackers were used. This shows the attackers were professionals and from the view of things, targeting the Rijal clan. They could be shadow cultivators from other clans, hired assassins, or mercenaries hired from somewhere. There were many such forces that hid in the shadows and did some dirty work in the whole of cultivation world. But even if they hired these forces, the gains wouldn’t make up for the price they had to pay for inviting. This was not all, something was bugging Punya for a while, and he felt that he could not see the bigger picture.
Although the identity of the dead clan members was sensitive, it wasn’t like they were the core members of the clan and they were on some great mission or they had rare treasures for the clan. Killing them would create losses for the Rijal clan surely but it was just some losses, they could always be replaced. The price paid for killing them wouldn’t be worth it. If it was supposed they were killed because of some grudges, it was too much of a coincidence that a few of the clan members died at once in different locations. Punya just couldn’t put his finger on the motive behind those who hired the killers. Were there some other motives or was their purpose just to piss off the Rijal clan? If it was so, they had succeded. The assassins from Amrit’s incident hadn’t been found, and now this happened. When the elders hear about this incident, they will be out for the blood.
Although they weren’t that harmonious inside the clan, when it came to facing outsiders, they always presented a united front. It didn’t matter who the outsiders were, if they harmed any one member of the clan they were on the list. This was also one of the ancestral rules. “No matter what you do inside the clan, always face outsiders together as one.” And one of the good traits of the Rijal clan was that they followed the ancestral teaching wholeheartedly, even if they were forced to. Someone may disagree but they wouldn’t dare to say their thoughts out loud. Apart from the report about the death of clan members, there were reports about the progress of clan members, the business in the city, and resources gathered from various places.
Punya sighed and put down all the reports on the table and with the swipe of his hand burned them, with a flash of light, the papers disappeared without leaving traces. This was a special type of paper in the cultivation world, didn’t cost much to use and with a little spell could be burned without so much as leaving ash. Once burned, couldn’t be traced so most of the clans used this type of paper for one-time reports. Now Punya didn’t know what to do, his parents were incredibly busy, Keshab would only meet him occasionally for resources and he didn’t know what his father was doing or where he was upgrading the array. As for Kumari, she was holed up in the alchemy chamber and the only time they had contact was when they had to exchange resources and pills.
As for Amrit, he was busy cooking all day. He had reached the peak of qi sensing realm for a while now and was on the verge of a breakthrough. But only Amrit knew it would take some time. But the good news was he had finally become a second grade spirit chef. Although it was a low-tier second grade, it was second grade nonetheless, the only second grade in Lunaris city. Although it was harder to progress in the auxiliary profession and being in a major realm ahead of the cultivation realm would create complications, for Amrit with his strong soul power, he had no obstacles and felt like he could go all the way to the peak of second grade.
Although Amrit didn’t have divine sense, he had a strong soul power and innate advantage when it came to micro-control of muscles. After breaking through to the second grade spirit chef, the effects of the food Amrit produced had increased dramatically. The effect increases by a certain percentage in minor stages but after major stages, although the difference is of one realm, the increase is multiplied. For example, the foods which can increase the cultivation realm, for first grade spirit food if it increases the cultivation realm of qi sensing cultivator by thirty percent, the second grade spirit food will increase the cultivation realm of the same cultivator by a minor stage.
The only downside of second grade spirit food was the difficulty in finding recipes, materials, and the chef itself. Although it wasn’t as exaggerated for other second grade chefs, it was due to the lack of suitable inheritances, but for Amrit, his food produced maximum effects. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say his inheritance in spirit chef profession was top on the whole of Isyethnas. There were many astonishing recipes in second grade but the materials required were equally difficult to procure, and many of those materials were unheard of in the Emerald kingdom or were extinct.
This was just for second grade imagine what would happen when they had to collect resources in third grade. Among the recipes, there was one food that could directly increase the cultivation stage of the initial founding building realm cultivator but the herbs required were unheard of. There was even a food recipe for breaking into foundation building realm or increasing soul power and body strength as well as consolidating the foundation of cultivators.