Bonded By Blood?

Following his meeting with Chengjie, Edrick stepped outside of his residence and walked down the beautiful paths that cut through nature. The Elt clan’s ancestral grounds were quite the sight. The buildings melded well with the ample amount of greenery and colourful nature.

Walking around, it didn’t seem like his parents or any of the ancestors were around–But he soon felt his hair behave strangely, like when static electricity built up in it… Moments later, Lui had her arm flung around his shoulder.

“Zixu~ I missed you quite a lot! Have you been having fun in your little realm thing?”

“It has been quite enjoyable. Also, I have decided to give it a proper name: Eltysia. I didn’t go far to find that name, but I think it sounds good enough”

“Eltysia, huh? You are better than me. I would have called it Lui Land or something stupid like that… Talking of stupid stuff, you probably didn’t hear of it, but the bigwigs–You know, the guys who actually bother to go to meetings and stuff–Decided to bring back some old appellations for us great clans… They want us to differentiate ourselves from the rest by having our own jargon and all that”

“Oh? What is this jargon about?”

“It’s nothing much, really. They want to eliminate things like ‘father’, ‘sister’, ‘aunt’, and whatever, to replace them with more flowery and unique language. So, you know… We refer to each other by these words that will sound super mysterious to those not in the know. I find this a little bit silly, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt anyone”

“Here, take this little booklet. It contains the words they have already agreed upon. Don’t hesitate to make proposals as to what you think the terms that aren’t present should be renamed to”

Edrick took the booklet, feeling a jolt of lightning course through him as he did so.

“Did you not say that it was old jargon? Why would there be a need to figure out new words?”

“Oh, they are going to pretend that these are ancient terms to the people who don’t know. We are actually just making shit up to look cool”

“Ah… Then…” he flipped through the booklet “...You are my Jhila? Jhila Lui? It does have a nice ring to it…”

“Yep, and you would be my sweet Jolib~ But hey, just call me Lui like we said last time. No need to bother with formalities when we’ve stretched the same hole at the same time already”

Lui cracked her neck.

“Would you perhaps have time for another expedition? I wasn’t able to find any good candidates to join us, so it will just be the two of us and whatever slut we manage to find”

“I’ll be staying for a while before I return to Eltysia–So I definitely have time for us to have some fun together”

“Hell yeah! That’s what I call some real… Jhila-Jolib bonding time! I’ll need a little bit of adaptation before getting used to this… But hey, now you can say to someone: ‘I am having a baby with my Alrinir’, and they won’t have a clue that you just said something that would normally alarm them! These clueless plebs…”

Anoteros looked down at the booklet. Alrinir was indeed the alternative for something that most people would not consider normal to be making a child with. This, however, was a great clan–And thereby it was only natural to make sure to ‘keep the bloodline pure’ every once in a while.

In any case, after promising that he would go on a little hunt with Lui, Edrick headed for the places he knew his siblings would be if they were around. As far as he was aware, he had several of them, but those who weren’t exceptional did their best to stay out of the limelight. Therefore, only a handful of the direct offspring were actually easily recognisable.

The only sibling that Anoteros was able to find was one who had not bothered to have his own residence built, instead staying inside one of the rooms of the main building. It was the very same one who had caused a new script to be started…

He Who Does Not Wish To Follow The Tradition

Zhicheng was his name, and he looked just as one would expect… He had incredibly dark hair and eyes of the same colouration, and was dressed in dark robes. However, he was a bit of a strange one within the clan. He was part of the siblings who were not considered talented enough to be put at the forefront.

Of course, since this was a great clan, he was still an incredible talent, but from what Edrick had heard about this fellow, he had refused to learn any of the more powerful cultivation techniques given to him... Instead settling for weaker, less ‘evil’ ones.

The script’s name was well chosen.

“Hello there, if it isn’t my-” Edrick made sure to find the right word “-Younger Alrin. I don’t think we have gotten the occasion to meet before”

“Huh… Hello? Nice to meet you, but… Why are you trying to enter through the window?”

“I had the feeling that you wouldn’t want to open the door”

“Well… You’re spot-on, I guess. Are you Zixuan?”

Zhicheng spoke in a quiet, reserved tone... Not what one would expect from a noble scion. Even a faraway cousin–Or rather, Valli–Would be far more assertive than this. Even a drop of Elt blood in one's veins was enough to celebrate and brag about.

“Mmh… What… What are you here for, exactly? I don’t usually receive any visits”

“What else? Are we not siblings? We should spend some time together. I am going on a little venture into the city with Jhila Lui. Do you want to come along? I am sure she’ll be delighted for us to form a trio”

“Jhila Lui…?”

Zhicheng thought for a moment and then shook his head.

“I don’t… I don’t really want to be a part of Jhila Lui’s ‘ventures’. I have heard of what they typically entail… It isn’t really my thing”

Edrick glanced at what his Alrin had been working on before he got here.

He had been painting. He only had black paint and a white canvas to work with, and yet the piece of art was incredibly detailed. The painting represented a young woman with a peculiar mark upon her forehead. That was a dead giveaway of who she was.

“Painting a picture of our older Alrinir?”

Zhicheng hid the painting with remarkable speed once he realised that it was out in the open.

“No need to be ashamed…”

Edrick squatted down.

“...We are in a great clan, I get it. Do you want her as your wife?”

“Of course not! That would be… Well, I guess it wouldn’t be weird, as you say, but that’s only for us in the great clans! Besides… She is one of the talented ones, while I am not. I don’t have my chances. She won’t think that I am worthy to… Breed with her”

Edrick raised an eyebrow.

'All he wants is to get Zhenluo? Is that the goal of his script? Or is it just a motivator that will kickstart it?’

The script was called ‘He Who Does Not Wish To Follow The Tradition’, so it implied a divide between him and the Elt clan. If Anoteros could convince him to accept the ways of the clan by persuading him that it could get him what he wants, would it consider the script broken?

From what he could see, Zhicheng wasn’t like Xiaolie. He wasn’t from another world, and he didn’t seem to have any knowledge of the future. If he did, he was doing a pretty good job of appearing genuinely saddened at his inability to have the girl he liked.

Edrick slapped his knees as he stood up.

“You recognised me, so you must know that I am something of a womaniser, right? We are family, I’ll help you free of charge”

“Huh…?”

“I’ll do my best to ensure that you and Zhenluo get together. I am sure you’ll make great pure-blooded babies”

Thus, the first domino toward the shattering of another script was pushed.