Mad God

In the City Lord's mansion, Solas welcomed Nubes, who arrived just an hour before dawn.

"That foreign demigod has to be dealt with." Nubes said as soon as he met up with Solas, "She should not be related to the Lotus, as we know all of those demigods, even those who are only on friendly terms with them... She is not one of those; I checked her face from afar."

"We can make up an excuse to pursue her. With the two of us, it should be enough to kill her!" Solas nodded, agreeing with his peer. "The Lotus disciples are the finest ingredients we came across all these years; we should prolong their acquisition as long as possible!"

"We kept our ways a secret for more than 500 years; this is not the first time to deal with something like this!" Nubes smiled with confidence.

Their Sect of Dawn was one of many that bordered the massive territory of the Lotus Mandala Sect. Most, who also did so, were not in the camp of worshiping any of the Gods. They did not want to draw the anger of one of the Immortals. It was widely known they did not tolerate any cults or religions in their vicinity. Since the Sect of Dawn got established and grew to be one of the strongest, middle-sized sects in the eastern region, they masterfully masked their devotion to the God of War, Skoorn. Even amongst their disciples, only the truly initiated ones knew about it; by then, they were devout believers. They could not change their ways even if they wanted to, as their strengths came from the ways of Skoorn. This long ongoing success of living beside an Immortal and still 'fooling' her people was the main reason they got reckless and started to abduct disciples even from her sect.

"I can devise a fabricated accusation that would allow us to take action against her any time." Solas continued.

"Any information about her background?"

"None. I asked around a dozen or so smaller sects in the vicinity, but they have yet to hear about her sect! Nor about her!"

"Maybe she is from another region?" Nubes crossed his arms, wanting to make sure they didn't anger someone they should not.

"I highly doubt it." Solas shook his head, "The aura she had was… weird. I think she is either a vagabond cultivator, some kind of renegade, or a remnant of another sect. By the strength of the fluctuation she had, she only recently advanced. I am fairly sure she just went ahead and established this 'Immortal Wonders' nonsense, and they don't even have a treasure land."

"Hmmm, then we should have an even easier time dispatching her." Nubes smiled, believing Solas's deduction as, at their level, it was usually correct. "I also got an idea…" he scratched his chin, thinking about something. "Do you have one of the remains of the failed ingredients? And from the strength measuring crystal she used?"

"Yeah, but both of them are broken down."

"No matter, in fact, even better!" Nubes laughed, "Let's set it up this way; she is the one responsible for their disappearance and a follower of Skoorn! It would place us into a position we can deny anything later on if there are clues they find and just say it was her doing! Plus, we could avoid suspicion of the Lotus in the future! It would paint us in a light that we are more of an ally than any other neutral sect!"

"That would be even better!" laughed Solas. "I'll send word to the Sect Master and see to it! I can arrange a 'scene' for the night, and we can play it out. We already had some youngsters from the Lotus sniffing around the streets…."

"Perfect!" Nubes exclaimed, "They are going to be our witnesses that we are the ones who helped them out and apprehended a dangerous demigod~! If this goes perfectly, we may receive some kind of reward from the Immortal herself! Ahahaha~”

"Being paid after consuming their tasty resources? Ahahaha, I don't know if I could go through it without laughing!"

…
….
…..

Back in the little courtyard that Kolkat rented out, he meditated in seclusion when his Master contacted him, transmitting his thoughts directly into his mind.

"Your guess was right!" the young-sounding male voice arrived, clearly happy about his disciple's findings. "All the missing disciples were born under the same phenomena when the Sun was the hottest in that year! Good catch!"

"Thank you, Master!" Kolkat replied with a happy smile, "It was just a lucky hunch!"

"Mmhm, sure~ If you are going to continue like this, it won't take long until you become an Inner Disciple! Then your way to advance to the 2nd stage of Harmony is going to be guaranteed!"

"It is all thanks to you, Master! Thank you for giving me a tip about the mission related to our missing comrades!"

"Sure, I would have none of the time to look into things like this; lower ranked disciples go missing almost every month, some just stumble into something to plunder and get lost, some die, some simply switch sects because they are too weak to advance amongst our strict rules! Solving this mission is sure to make your name recognizable amongst other disciples! What about the helpers you brought along?"

"They are fine; when I raise a rank in the Sect, they will be good followers to build upon!"

"Mmmh, good! A good, strong network of followers is a must! The competitions amongst the inner disciples are harsh battlefields! So be ready for it!"

"I will be, Master!" He nodded. "I'll get back to you after we investigate the disciples of the Sect of Dawn!"

"If you run into trouble, use my seal, it should be enough to deter them!" he said, confident in his 3rd stage of Harmony Realm cultivation, before terminating the connection.

When Kolkat exited his room, he was full of energy and confidence, already seeing himself as someone who was soon standing amongst the elite of the Lotus Mandala Sect.

"We have a visitor." one of his comrades, a girl named Dina, walked up to him. She was only an outer disciple, a hard-working one, but with average talent only. She barely reached the basic requirements of the 7th stage of Body Refinement to receive the resources and help to advance into the Harmony Realm. Since then, she found herself stuck, unable to increase her strength, afraid she had reached her limits. The only hope she was left with was to attach herself to someone with a much greater potential and, by that, receive the needed help and resources to be able to take a step forward once again. That was when she met with Kolkat, and it did not take long to decide this was her chance. Following someone who had a Master who was an Inner Disciple for a long time by now was the opportunity she was searching for!

"Oh? From yesterday?"

"No, it is someone from the Sect of Dawn. We couldn't determine his strength, but he was polite and said it is of the utmost importance to meet someone in charge from the Lotus Mandala Sect!" she said hurriedly, bowing as her chestnut colored, wavy hair swayed in the wind.

"Hmm, in charge? Interesting." Kolkat crossed his arms, smiling at the young-looking girl, who had a nice, curvy body. She interested him greatly since the moment he laid his eyes upon her. It was a genuine attraction, and clearly, it was not something one-sided by the sudden blush on Dina's face as she maintained eye contact with him. She even expected him to make a move on her way sooner, but to her surprise, Kolkat restrained himself, courting her traditionally. "Let's go, Dina; we shouldn't make our guests wait too long~."

"Yes, Senior!" she smiled back at him, following Kolkat into the main hall where Nubes was patiently sitting, drinking tea that was served up to him as the rest of the group sat around the same table.

"Are you the leader here?" Nubes asked calmly, seeing them arrive, and Kolkat immediately felt their visitor was way above them in strength, just by the heavy aura that lingered in the air of the room.

"Yes." Kolkat nodded, cupping his hand, retaining his calm demeanor as no matter which powerhouse was before him, he was still part of the Lotus Mandala Sect and not a nobody.

"I heard you are searching for missing disciple brothers and sisters of yours?"

"That is correct."

"I also hear you are suspecting our sect to be involved in their disappearance." Nubes continued calmly, looking into his eyes.

"That is also correct. Is this a threat?" He curled his lips upwards, his hand slipping into his pocket and grabbing his Master's seal.

"No." Nubes shook his head in answer. "We understand; they have gone missing in our territory. It is a logical conclusion! I am here because we also discovered it not too long ago, and it is… disturbing, to say the least!" He sighed, shaking his head, and everyone in the room felt he was completely sincere in saying that. "Take a look at this!" he stood up, waving his hand, and suddenly a body dropped onto the table from his spatial bracelet. It was the dried-up, wrinkled corpse of one of the missing disciples, looking like thousands of years old mummy.

"Who did this?" Kolkat crossed his arms as the others also stood up in anger, watching their comrade lying on the table. They were not angry because they knew him; no, they were upset because it was a blatant provocation and aggression toward their sect!

"We have… some proof connecting his death to someone. But we are not 100% sure yet, I must say!" Nubes explained calmly, "Our guess is that; it is some kind of ploy to set us up! As you know, our Sect has grown to power quickly in the region. We have a lot of enemies!" he said, watching the corpse with a sympathetic look. "But we did find something… interesting!" he produced a fragment of the strength-measuring crystal that was blown apart in Ren's hand.

"This is?" Kolkat furrowed his brows, taking it from him. "A fragment of…?"

"As you know, everyone without a valid pass coming into the city is measured and recorded down. This resulted from a foreign demigod, playing along with the crowd, going through the queue at the gates."

"Hm?" A surprised voice came from all of them as they looked at each other. A demigod would not even bother standing in line; he would simply cover the city with his aura, letting the people in charge know he has arrived. Standing amongst ordinary people and waiting? Only weirdos would do something like that.

"We also found it… weird. But this is not all; her disciple also possessed a horrifyingly dark affinity! You can still feel the residue in this fragment!" He produced another, giving it to Kolkat, who quickly felt Ariana's aura inside it. "Plus, she had a demon with her, a fully-fledged one, riding on it like a mount!"

"Senior…" Dina whispered.

"Yes… they sound like the ones we met yesterday."

"Oh?" Nubes tilted his head to the left. "I suggest you be extra cautious!" he turned serious as he tapped on the dead body, and a faint strand of aura rose up from it, containing a little of Ren's and Ariana's inside. "They are not afraid of killing disciples of the exalted Immortals."

"..." Kolkat put down the fragment, crossing his arms as he was thinking hard, falling silent for minutes, staring at the corpse until Nubes spoke again.

"As this came to light, we were already prepared."

"For what?" Dina asked while Kolkat remained silent.

"To assist your sect, of course! I was sent here, especially for this reason! Alongside the City Lord, it is two demigods against one! It is in our own interest to capture or kill this individual before she causes bigger trouble and more lives are lost!" he told him with conviction and honesty, making them trust his words almost instantly. "If you are ready to witness and accept our offer, we are also ready to stand up against her!"

"We have a meeting set up for tonight with her," Kolkat spoke up again.

"That would be a good opportunity. If you lull her into a false sense of security, we can pull off an ambush and capture her for you!"

"Let's do that." Kolkat nodded in the end, agreeing with him after another long, silent deliberation inside himself.

"I'll get ready and leave your disciple brother's corpse in your care." Nubes smiled at him before disappearing, showcasing his genuine aura briefly, shaking their bodies.

"This is going to be… dangerous…." Dina murmured, gulping loudly. Dealing with other Harmony experts was already stressful; now it turns out the one they met yesterday was a demigod? One wrong move, word, or just a nasty look, and they will end up dead without recognizing it!

"But when we succeed, our names will carry more weight than anyone else!" Kolkat said, holding his chin, watching the mummified corpse left on the table, making the others gulp. "Leave the talking to me tonight. If something goes wrong, I'll hold out until you all escape. I have some treasures on me that would give me a brief chance to hold out against a strike of a demigod. Just don't make me waste it!" He smiled at them with an encouraging look. "No wonder they knew so much about it just from pictures and me telling them who they were! Hmph! Helping us? I now believe they would have led us into a trap, and we would be the next four to go missing!" His words immediately turned the others' faces a shade paler, convincing them that relying on the demigods of the Sect of Dawn was the correct choice. While they were talking, Nubes was already back with Solas, smiling wickedly.

"This was easier than I thought!" Solas laughed as he listened to him. "Planting the residue from the fragments into the dead body was easy, and they ate it up like hungry children! Now we only need to strike and kill the girl and her disciple and demonic pet!"

"She is a fresh one; an ambush should do it nicely. We will say it was inevitable; a fight between Demigods is an unpredictable one~ They can't blame us if she… dies~" Nubes laughed, already feeling victorious and not even anxious about what was going to happen in a few hours.