On hearing that he would be away from Ye, Hei also felt a bit akward given that he usually did things alone or with both his little sisters. But it was his mother's decisions, so he stopped thinking about it and accepted it, as he had absolute faith in their mother and knew that she was certainly doing it for their own good.

Instead he decided to talk about something else that had tugged his mind for some time and made him uneasy.

'Mother, can I ask you to stay at home this afternoon as well as in others when we go to cla.s.s in the inner sect?'

Hei's request was a bolt from the blue. Never Bao Bei nor his daughters would have expected such a request from him. Among the three, Hei was certainly the most attached and devoted to Bao Bei. It was really hard to imagine that he had spoken these words even though they had listened to them just a moment ago.

Feeling that there was a good reason for his request, Bao Bei raised one of her legs to calm the little spider and the little snake and turned to Hei. Her eight eyes were concentrated on Hei's face and he didn't look away, stating with such a gesture how serious he was about it.

'Why do you want me to stay home, my little one? Speak freely, tell me what you are thinking.'

The tone of Bao Bei was calm without a trace of anger, inducing him to relax the tension that he had begun to feel after saying those words. After all, it wasn't something he would have asked for normally.

'When we were in the Multicolor Leaf Forest, you started feeling more and more tired and falling asleep more and more. But from the day we had to leave, except for the night, you always stayed awake to watch over us. I know that mother is tired and needs rest, that's why I want you to stay here to rest. The innner sect is controlled, there are the guards and the sect's elders. Nothing will happen to us, so I want you to rest as long as possible. Do it for me, please mom.'

When he finished saying what he had kept hidden in his heart for some time, Hei kowtow to the ground to beg his mother to listen to him. Just because he cared about his mother's health, he was doing all this.

Seeing her son beg her, Bao Bei felt a strange emotion. She didn't like that Hei was doing something like that, especially because she was the cause of the problem.

Indeed, with her vital force dropping, she needed as much rest as possible to contain the continued decrease in her strength. In the Multicolor Leaf Forest, when her children went to the village, she took long naps to recuperate her strenght in case of need.

However, the incident with the bandits and the risk of having lost almost all of her children had caused her such anxiety that she could no longer cut loose and sleep again as she did before. Only at night could she calm down a little, but she would still wake up several times in the middle of the night to see if her treasures were there with her.

With the Green City incident and the training to plan for Hei, Lian, Ye and Xing as well as the other activities that her son had put in place, she had further suppressed her tiredness to keep watch over them and not fall back again in the same error.

But that ended up having an unwanted effect - Hei had become more and more worried about her.

Initially, he hadn't taken much notice of it because he had many things to do, but as time went on, it had become increasingly evident to him and in the end he was no longer able to stop himself from talking.

He knew his mother was doing it for them and it was just that reason he couldn't stand - he couldn't stand his own weakness that was forcing his mother to tire so much for them.

Pleading with her mother was his way of declaring that there was no need for her to try so hard but also, that he would show her that he was capable of defending the family with his own strength and that she could give herself a little deserved rest without worry.

Sensing all the emotions inside her son, Bao Bei eventually decided to consent. They were growing and she couldn't impose herself forever in their lives. Fortunately, the Flower Sect was well protected and there would be no problems in giving them more freedom. Even if accidents had already occurred due to her absence, she nevertheless decided to trust her son's words and consent to his request.

'All right, that's fine. I will do as you asked, my little one.' Bao Bei said in a calm voice but at the same time a little disconsolate. Although she wasn't fully convinced within herself, she decided to suppress her concerns.

Listening to his mother's surrender at last, Hei slowly raised his eyes to meet his mother's. In his expression one could read grat.i.tude and remorse as well as resoluteness for the promise he had made.

'This time it will be different, I have become stronger and I will become even more so. I won't let mother each time consume her energy to help me. I'll take care of solving whatever situation comes up.' Hei thought to himself as he stood up.

Ye and Xing meanwhile approached their mother and squeezed one of her legs for a long time.

With all that had happened before, they had forgotten that fact. Yet as soon as Hei mentioned it, the worries they had buried in the corner of their minds came back more powerful than ever. They regretted not having noticed it before as well as cursing their weakness.

If it hadn't been for Hei, they would have continued not to notice who knows for how long. With a new determination within them, the two broke away from their embrace with their mother and decided to put more effort into what they were already doing. They didn't want to be a burden to their mother or to their big brother.

Noticing that it was getting late, Bao Bei ordered them all to hurry up and start going. She certainly didn't want for them to be late since the first day, considering that everything was new to them.

With a bitterness in their hearts, the three together with Lian left the spiderweb house to go to the inner sect. Even if they were feeling dejected, at the same time they couldn't help but be excited about the new things that were waiting for them and accelerated their pace.

Bao Bei accompanied them out of the spiderweb house and stood in her place until she was no longer able to see them with her eyes. In the end, she sighed inwardly and returned to their home. Since she had decided to fulfill her son's request, she couldn't take back her word; all she could do now was to recover as much strength as she could in order stay with them for as long as possible.

Shui ordered the buffalos to protect the spider's house as well as the queen bee who ordered a group of her exploring bees to monitor the surrounding area. With Bao Bei resting, even if it was a completely useless measure, they couldn't help but put themselves in defensive mode and watch her during her sleep.

Meanwhile Hei and the others had reached their destination. Except Lian, the others were still shaken by the matter before but it wasn't the time to let the emotions take over. Even though it was a bit strange not to have their mother with them, they had to concentrate on their homework.

Hei took Lian and his two sisters to one of the large buildings for the younger generation's training. Asking for directions to various pa.s.sing inner members, he asked where the two cla.s.sroom designed for the study of alchemy and the study of formations were.

Fortunately, they were both in the same building and Hei took Lian and Xing to their first. There, Lian was recorded and she was provided with a notebook and a book with the symbols used for creating formations as well as other writing materials.

Since it was something known to all, the sect provided this information free of charge to those who enrolled in the course. The difficulty in creating formations, in fact, didn't consist in learning the various symbols used but in knowing which ones to use and how to weave them together to get the desired result.

Once a.s.sured that they had everything they needed, Hei left them to follow their lesson and quickly ran to his cla.s.sroom arriving fortunately in time before the lesson began. There, he underwent the same procedure as Lian and was given a notebook and a book containing an encyclopedia on the ingredients commonly used for alchemy and their properties as well as writing materials.

Like how in formations' creation, knowing the ingredients used by heart didn't lead to the certainty of being able to create the desired pill or potion. The same in turn also applied to blacksmithing. The theory therefore only carried up to a certain point and from there it would go to the crafter's personal ability in knowing how to manage the various elements of the creation's process.

After completing the formalities, Hei came in with Ye who was excitedly waving her tail, curious at what they would do. Even if she honestly would have preferred something more eventful, she trusted her mother's judgment and was looking forward to creating something.

The cla.s.sroom used for the lesson was a large rather simple room - there were a series of wooden counters arranged horizontally and in front of these there was a large table, also of wood, in which there were several closed boxes. From the smell that came from these, Hei deduced there were plants inside. At a corner near the large table was placed a kind of brazier with dry wood placed over it.

The few inner members present began to whisper among themselves as he entered with a snake in his arms. They recognized him instantly and were surprised to see him there.

In fact, they had known that he had shown up during the morning alonside the sect leader but had subsequently disappeared suddenly. No one had seen him for the rest of the day even though they had looked for him in every place for the younger generation. Now instead, he was there with them to take the alchemy course for inner members.

This fact seemed curious to them because they had thought Hei would have preferred to focus exclusively on fighting rather than following a secondary activity simultaneously with cultivation. Although alchemy, formations and blacksmithing were useful to improve control over one's spirit power, it wasn't something that everyone did immediately after entering the inner sect.

In fact, their own concern would be to increase their strength as much as possible and only once they realized they couldn't be among the best, they would concentrate themselves on secondary activities.

Obviously, it wasn't a rule applied to all innner members - the personal disciples of the sect's elders with their great talent and the resources at their disposal could easily study secondary activities in addition to cultivating their spirit power.

In their eyes, Hei's action was as if he were saying that alone he was on the same level as the personal disciples supported by the elders and the factions behind them and therefore he could very well study alchemy without having delays on his own cultivation.

This was unheard of for someone who came from nowhere and it apparead absolutely arrogant. However, the demonstration of the previous day was still vivid in their eyes and they couldn't do anything but be thrilled to see if he really had such a level of talent.

The commotion present in the cla.s.sroom was soon appeased by the arrival of the teacher a.s.signed for the lesson of the day. Since it was a general course on alchemy, each lesson was conducted by a different teacher among the various inner members who worked as alchemists for the sect, given their commitments and the little free time available. Of course, for their service, the various teachers would be rewarded with contribution points. This also applied to the other two courses.

As far as the alchemy lessons were concerned, these consisted of explaining the creation of a specific pill or potion for each lesson. It would start first with an introductory explanation of the ingredients and then proceed to a practical demonstration of how the procedure was carried out with a lot of explanations attached.

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Of course, the pills and potions explained were the most common; if you wanted to learn the rarer ones you had to meet certain requirements as well as pay an appropriate amount of contribution points.

However, the recently settled fuss reappeared again at the sight of the person who came as the lesson of the day's teacher - that was none other than the third elder of the sect, as well as head of the alchemy divison who was in charge of producing pills and potions on behalf of the sect.

According to rumors circulating in the inner sect, his skill in alchemy was even greater than that of the sect leader and was said to be among the best even in the entire Rainbow Island, perhaps even number one.

But since it was difficult to formalize a compet.i.tion to show who was the best alchemist of the entire island, this rumor couldn't be verified. Nevertheless, he was a talented individual in that field, not counting his cultivation that placed him at the peak of the level of strength reachable on the Rainbow Island.

Those present couldn't help but get excited - even for inner members it was difficult to meet one of the elders in person and within them a fire of trepidation and hope lit up. Although it was an absurd idea, they couldn't help wis.h.i.+ng to show off and receive the third elder's attention.

They had already renounced being among the best in terms of combat between those of the younger generation and the future that awaited them was just that of simple alchemists who had to create potions and pills on behalf of the sect as simple gears of a more complex system.

However, before them, the opportunity to rise from their position as mere gears and perhaps become one of the engines on which the sect was based had unexpectedly appeared.

The personal disciples of the third, fourth and fifth elders were in fact chosen on the basis of their ability in their secondary field rather than on the basis of cultivation and the overall fighting strenght, unlike what happened for the sect leader and the remaining elders.

Becoming a personal disciple of the third elder would give them a certain status within the sect, and, even if they didn't reached his own level of talent, able to place him among the best alchemists of the island, they would still have the opportunity to study rare recipes and improve their skills, bringing them to a level that would be unreachable if they remained as mere gears.