Shielded

“Master, someone brought a letter addressed to you” Lisha, who had been patrolling outside, carried a small envelope. It did not take too long for Edrick to figure out where it had come from. Although it appeared rather simple and mundane at a glance, the paper was of exquisite quality. Furthermore, it had been sealed shut with wax, and upon the seal was the shape of a hydra.

It seemed like his family was finally taking some time to check up on him. But as he tried to dig through Zixuan Elt’s memories, he realised that this sort of letter had actually been sent to him every year since his exile, and the content was always very similar.

It was basically just a belated happy birthday from his mother, but that was beside the point, as there seemed to be a bit more to it than the previous years.

The letter read:

‘I have heard how you were doing. Your father and I are very proud of you and would like for you to come by the clan soon.'

Zixuan’s mother wrote in a very dry manner, always straight to the point. One could just imagine a woman writing this with a blank expression, but that was just his imagination. Edrick was struggling to find memories concerning the previous owner's family. After all, he had been in exile for a while, and had an exceptionally bad memory to boot.

“Master, the messenger who carried the message is still waiting outside. He said that he could carry a letter back if you wished” informed Lisha, causing Anoteros to lift his eyes from the letter and look at her.

She was quite the pretty girl indeed, with long, dark hair, cold blue eyes, and a height of one meter and seventy-eight centimeters. As the maid in charge of guarding the residence, she could often be seen patrolling the halls and surroundings of the house, always carrying her spear, which had a rather long, dagger-like blade that allowed for as much slashing and cutting as it did stabbing.

Lisha was skilled enough with her cultivation technique to summon her spear out of thin air when needed, but carrying it like that was meant as a show of power toward anyone who might have unlawful intentions, a reminder that the place was well-guarded, in case her garbs were not obvious enough of a sign.

She was dressed in dark blue robes of similar in colour to the robes she had worn as a core disciple, the difference was that these were not full-on robes. The upper garments simply flowed downward to a great length, and her pants allowed for ample movements. The width of the clothing was not too tight so that her motions were not easily perceived or predicted.

Edrick had even provided her with a protective chestplate along with gauntlets that were darker in colour to match the rest of her attire.

If someone looked for trouble with the residence, Lisha was fully prepared to dispose of them, or at least make them run away. Of course, one should not forget the hydra pattern with one head bearing a horn across the uniform…

“Is that so? Stay here for a moment, then” he said. This was a good opportunity for him to make contact not just with his family, but also with one of their vassal sects, which he had taken a keen interest in after doing some research.

Naturally, since he sought to increase his influence, he had looked up everything he could about his clan and the connections it had. Arguably, quite a few of the sects and smaller clans attached to the Elt were not easy to get intel on, quite a lot were probably not even known to the public due to the fact that many of them were made up of unsavoury individuals in the eyes of the people.

One that was deemed strange but not outright malicious or devilish, was called ‘Labyrinth Palace’. They were rather far removed from the typical styles of cultivation, as they were specialised in something that sounded a bit ridiculous.

Architecture cultivation was what it was named, and as one could guess, it had to do with building and enhancing structures. Labyrinth Palace had a focus on creating confusing layouts and distorting space within buildings. That bizarre way of life had ended up making them loyal vassal of the Elt clan, which said quite a lot about how they tended to use their abilities.

Edrick was counting on getting one of them to come here, intending to have them help him move the whole residence to somewhere else. It would be a shame to leave this remarkable place behind to start anew elsewhere. Anoteros did not want to be a measly vagrant, he desired to have his own place that would be massive and lavish to the extreme. He believed that Labyrinth Palace might know of a way to move entire residences around.

He wrote a letter quickly, sealed it with wax in the same manner as the one he had received, and handed it for Lisha to give the messenger.

Then, Edrick began to wonder about how he would proceed next.

His birthday celebration yesterday had taken quite a lot of time, but now that it was done, he had several things to take care of. Yin could be left alone for now, the tomboy would surely go and seek Hui, who would take care of pushing Yin into her husband’s arms.

More importantly, he did not have a firm grasp of what Xiao was going to do next. He had seen a few bits of what he would probably be doing in the future, but what he had seen thanks to the memory wisps lacked context. For all he knew, they could potentially be events that would take place far into the future.

Furthermore, Xiao was not a stickler to the script. Clearly, he had decided to mingle with that Ai girl and had completely forgotten about Yin, who was supposed to be his second harem member if one followed the plot.

If Xiao messed up his own plot, that might benefit Edrick, but Anoteros did not want things to work themselves out so simply. He wanted a challenge, problems! Besides, following Xiao was certain to allow Edrick to get his hands on rare treasures, unique cultivation techniques, and women of either great talent or possessing special traits.

In short, Xiao was a gold mine.

‘System, would I be able to kill him right now, or is he still protected like he was back then?’ he asked. If Xiao really didn’t want to be a good golden goose and lay eggs, then Edrick would just eliminate him right now…

He is still shielded

The system replied directly.

‘Then, I guess I’ll merely observe him for a while. If he doesn’t want to move his ass, I’ll give him a good reason to want to proceed with the plot’