novelraw Chapter 236 - 235 - Annoyance
Chapter 236 - 235 - Annoyance
The first month in his residence was spent making it his own. Or rather, Reya made the mansion her own. Lind was carted off to the main bedroom suite to get out of the way as his wives with Fey worked to settle the mansion and assign several rooms for specific purposes.
Behind the mansion was a massive enclosed yard with a stone arena in the middle. Lind had seen Fey and the others practicing when not cultivating. He also began to work on his Forging and elixirs once more.
Forging was close, so very close to grade 3 and he needed to see if his new revelations could help replace his lost staff. Lind also began using practice weapons of various make and design.
All of them had been stunned at Lind's ability to use almost any weapon to the near master level! What took lifetimes, he had somehow comprehended a solid foundation for each kind of weapon.
His best weapons were still spears, glaives, and other fairly mid range weapons. Swords were decent but Cyntilla and Fey could run circles around him with their techniques. The fact his body could take any attack they dished out did not change the fact he found it hard to hit them.
Shoti's whip, however, was still a massive issue for him. While Lind had some control of a whip now as well, he paled far in comparison to her. Annabelle had begun trying to find formation plates more compatible with her illusion abilities but thus far even grade 4 blank slates burnt out after 1 to 2 uses.
They were all progressing while the mansion was settled but Lind only barely broke through to low grade 3 Forging before the day his first appointment would arrive. He had worked with Lady Su and Mythra on regulating who would be coming to visit him, but there were a few that insisted on moving to the front of the line.
Some he could freely ignore, but quite a few were indeed powerful enough to make them annoying. If they were honestly trying to cut the line and get his assistance, Lind could swallow his frustration, but far too many came with an unattached young girl in their proposal to see him.
"I could deal with many of these." Cyntilla was smiling in a way that made Lind shiver but he was not totally opposed to intervention either. Some of the requests were troubling for the ones like the Demon Empire.
Lind was worried about it for who was heading the envoy, Temptress. She was now a peak Gold Tier so it could be about her breaking through to Diamond Tier but there was little he could do for that at the moment.
The chosen sequence of visits began with Lind's strengths. He had been a low grade 4 elixir master for over a year so he was firmly established in it and slowly moving forward once more. Now that he had the gold badge for Forging at low grade 3, he began to study each aspect of the materials and his understanding of them.
All of that would take time but commissions would help fund what was to come. His elixirs grade 2 and below were still being steadily given the Sapphire Auction House but they were no longer as in demand save for the tempering ones.
Lind remained the only elixir master able to make tempering elixirs at all. No matter how much he guided or spoke with his former students, they never seemed able to create a tempering elixir.
The mystery could be tied to his harmony or just being a 6 elemental that allowed him to make an elixir others could not. His students had been able to make elixirs related to techniques, arts, body tempering, and various other aspects of cultivation.
The major difference was Lind's inclination to heal or recover while everyone else seemed able to enhance the rest of the cultivation life. He was able to comprehend and make some improvements but felt like it was moving through mud for some of them.
Most dealt with cultivation technique enhancement as his own theories and revelations on the cores or fonts working together had better results on their own for him. He did not dismiss them at all, but he could grasp why he had trouble with them.
Still, Lind would have been happy to go back to how things once were with the auctions funding his progress but that was no longer possible. He had to take commissions and deal with the various aspects of that process.
With the fairly straightforward grade 3 requests, he had pre-made elixirs ready to go, but any Forging request would require a question and answer session with the client. The whole thing was a headache compared to before but Lind swallowed his annoyance and moved forward.
"Who is actually coming first?" Lind had not heard the final decision as he knew part was decided by travel time or access to the teleportation arrays. The Demon Empire, despite its considerable power, was being kept back due to poor relations with the rest of the world.
Qing and Shoti looked over the jade slip sent by Lady Su but both frowned deeply. Lind did not miss that detail but neither spoke and instead began to look at the slip as if it was an enemy.
"What is it?" Annabelle asked the innocent question and sunk her senses into it before the other 2 could react. Lind then was shocked when the jade slip cracked from too much Qi being put into it. "Why is that man coming here?!"
Who had such a reaction from Annabelle of all people?
Lind stood up but Cyntilla was as confused as him. They looked at the 3 Maidens before they finally turned to him and simply spoke one word.
"Midnight." He felt a vein twitch on his forehead at the mention of that particular name. While he had been able to overcome the attempt to subvert him by implications or rumors with his prestige as a Forger, the man was tenacious.
"How is that even possible?" Lind felt tired just thinking of the entourage that man could bring with him. Valery Hall had been a nightmare on many levels but Midnight was coming to him from Indelia. Why?
Midnight Guild had its power base and influence all in Cimmeria. It was not a small thing to have that kind of level of influence in a multifaceted trade city but Cimmeria was the capital of Stardust Emporium. Next to the Heavenly Maiden Sect, it was the most powerful organization on the 3 continents.
The methods it used to gain that power, however, were diametrically opposite to even the vicious Demon Empire. Rather than power through cultivation, Midnight gathered favors and alliances with rising individuals. He ignored no level of power as the smaller powers fed into the higher powers.
In less than 2 centuries, his guild had ascended before anyone truly realized it. It showed no sign of slowing down either.
Lind could not conceive of why Midnight would leave Cimmeria to come to him when it would be more in line with Midnight to make Lind come to him. It was how he operated the last time until he learned Lind was a Forger.
"Did Mythra or Su give a reason he was first?" Surprise passed over all 3 faces and then blushes of embarrassment. Lind sighed as he realized they had not even read the request. Lind summoned a communication jade to get a copy resent to him.
Mythra tried to find out what happened to the original, but by her giggles, Lind knew she could guess most of it. The new slip arrived shortly and he looked it over but it was surprisingly vague.
It simply made a request for a personal request and Midnight even made contributions to several organizations that helped rogue cultivators. He also noted that Midnight went out of his way to help fund the various groups that left Altair.
Why would he go out of his way to do that as well?
Lind found it all mysterious but simply noted the date and time of day. He had a day left which was plenty of time without any direct request in the slip.
"All right, we will prepare for him. It does not specify his party size but assume he will be accompanied by a few given his status as a low Diamond Tier in Cimmeria." Lind pecked each wife on the cheek to reassure them. He then moved back to his forge to begin deepening his study of grade 3 Forging.
The 4 women behind him made meaningful glances at each other before nodding in unison. They would defend their husband from such villains no matter what!
Reya rallied the other servants to prepare for their first guest but noticed the tension in her mistresses. She made note that whoever arrived was to be treated with caution and, if necessary, driven out on command.