Before he left the room, Shui took the time to read the three jade slips he received from the Artisan Palace branch manager. He started with the information on the Five Cities region. There hadn't been any major changes since the last update he received, which was both good news and bad news. He was glad that he had time to help Emily, but Kate was still missing. He knew she was alive, but he still wished to receive some additional assurance.
The next jade slip he read was related to Nikolai. Most of it only confirmed when he learnt in the trial of the Primordial Library, but the latter portion touched on what happened after he left Silver City with Emily. The two lived in a city known as Rockshaw in the Fern region for around five years. The Fern region was adjacent to the Stonefield region and was on the normal route that most took to go between the Five Cities region and Paraj. Shui planned on taking an alternate route, but his next destination would be very dangerous and troublesome to traverse, so few chose it.
As an array master on the Minor Ranking, Nikolai was well-received by the city lord of Rockshaw and was given the job of creating a set of arrays to protect his eldest son when he went out. Nikolai successfully completed this task, however, one day the city lord's son left in his carriage, but neither he nor his guards returned. The city lord sent out a search force soon after, but they could only find the mangled corpse of the son. In his mournful rage, the city lord slew Nikolai.
The story seemed straightforward, but there was one line that made Shui especially suspicious.
'The array master ranked tenth on the Array Master Minor Ranking was originally supposed to design the arrays for the eldest son's protection, but the city lord gave this task to Nikolai instead.'
He considered returning to the antique store to request information on this other array master, but he trusted that the Artisan Palace would include these details if they were important. With the two more important jade slips read, Shui checked the last one, which the branch manager said held an anecdote.
It was a tale of a young boy with no strong backing, rising as a forge master thanks to his talent and hard work. It would have been a motivational story if not for the unfortunately realistic ending. After being accepted as a disciple of an archaic-rank forge master, the boy, now a young man, became one of the top forge master talents, but his glory days ended once he was accused of stealing materials and expelled from the Forge Master Circle. A faction that opposed his master's faction had framed the young man, but his master was powerless to stop it. Scorned and rejected, the young man left Paraj.
There wasn't anything in the story that really stuck out to Shui, but the title made it obvious who it was about.
'Young Darino'.
Though he had destroyed most of them, the artifacts that Darino used in their battle had interested Shui enough that he might have considered discussing them with him had they not been enemies. Learning of his past didn't make Shui feel sorry for him, but he sighed as he thought of how many geniuses had their paths cut because of similar circumstances.
Unknown to Shui, one such genius walked by his room and left the cafe. She was Freesia of the Bloombird family, and happened to be the niece of Iris, former wife of Nate of the Heaven clan. She was the daughter of Iris' elder brother who became family head after Iris was ousted from the family. She was still a toddler when Iris left the family, so for her, the first time they met was on the day that Iris returned hope to her life.
Before that day, Freesia was lauded as a genius that would raise their family into a minor-level force by reaching the Earth Realm. This wasn't farfetched either, as Freesia had broken through to the Soul Realm at 14, leaving plenty of time for her to climb to the next realm. She had also become the direct disciple of a core elder at a local minor-level cultivation sect, so her future seemed assured, but she caught the eye of a young master from a stronger sect. Unaware of how the world worked, she rejected the young master and ran to her master for help when he persistently pursued her, but he decisively cut ties with her and expelled her from the sect.
She then ran home to her family, but their reaction was even stronger. Her own father, gathered her and other women of her age and sent them to the young master to assuage his anger. Just like that, she lost her home, her innocence and her pride. After a few weeks of being toyed with by the young master and his friends, death seemed ever so alluring, but a devil's hand reached out to her.
"Take my hand, and I promise you the deaths of those who hurt you."
She had thought there was nothing left to live for, but those enticing words lit a fire in her chest. As promised, that sweet devil, Iris, slaughtered her family and destroyed her sect, but she left the young master for Freesia to deal the final blow. Before then, Freesia had never taken the life of another, but once the knife reached her hand, she pounced on the young master and stabbed him over and over again until there were nothing but holes in his body. She did this all while laughing with a smile showing absolute bliss.
"I'm so glad you didn't turn out like your father. Now, why don't you come with me?"
Without hesitation, Freesia grabbed her hand once more and joined the group known as the Pink Devils, which Iris founded. It was only afterwards she learnt that Iris was her aunt and felt that their meeting was the work of fate.
Some time after her leaving the cafe, Freesia entered a small mansion that would have seemed normal in most other cities, but looked old in Paraj because of the prevalence of innovatively and artistically designed buildings. She wasn't sure what room her master was in at first, but the sound of intense moaning gave her a good hint.
By following that sound, she reached one of the bedrooms on the second floor and found two of her fellow little devils sprawled out on a bed next to their mistress. Although there was no misunderstanding what they had been doing, Iris didn't do it just to satisfy her lust, but mainly as a form of cultivation. By dual-cultivating with other women, she could refine her yin essence to make herself more bewitching and powerful while also draining the women of their excess yin essence. It was a type of training that Freesia had also gone through, but she was still jealous of the two on the bed.
"Oh, you're back. How did it go, Freesia?"
Iris' voice alone was enough to tempt Freesia, but she didn't want to disappoint her mistress, so she quickly suppressed her lustful thoughts and lowered her head
"It has been done as you ordered. We await your command to continue with the next phase of the plan."
"Good. Come, let me give you a reward."
Freesia almost moved forward to accept the offer, but she knew Iris' 'reward' would be more than she could handle before a mission.
"I am most grateful, but please allow me to defer accepting that reward until after we have completed the mission. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I committed an error after receiving your grace."
"Fufufu, you're still so disciplined, Freesia. Very well. Take your junior sisters with you and leave me alone to think."
"Yes, mistress."
Once Freesia left with the two frail women, Iris' expression quickly turned blank.
"What an annoying little girl."