NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31: Underground
Kumari and Radha went to the kitchen to prepare for lunch. As today was a joyous occasion for the Rijal clan, naturally there needed to be a grand lunch. Preparing the ingredients, Kumari and Radha came out of the house. Radha went outside to fetch nine tailed spirit chicken, whereas Kumari roamed the field picking different herbs and spices. Meanwhile, the grandfather-grandson duo were chatting casually. After some time, Kumari returned to the kitchen bringing a basket full of leafy green vegetables and some herbs. She went to the kitchen and started preparing bread and vegetables. Radha returned after a few minutes dangling two nine tailed spirit chickens in her both hands. At the same time, a resentful cry could be heard from the beast taming area. She went to the kitchen and promptly slaughtered the chickens and started preparing lunch. The mother-daughter duo were chatting and laughing while preparing lunch.
As lunch was nearly prepared, Punya came down the stairs and sat on the dining chair. Looking at the four people chatting with each other making a duo, he felt like a third wheel. He cleared his throat and said, “What smells so good? What are we having today?” Hearing him asking them the four people looked at him at the same time and then ignored him. He felt a little awkward. After sitting in the chair with an awkward expression on his face, lunch was served. There were two kinds of bread, two kinds of meat dishes, a few vegetables, and what seemed like a salad bowl mixed with fruit slices. The five people sat at the round table and started eating lunch talking about some of the things happening in the clan and Lunaris city. Kumari and Radha were still gossiping about various people they knew and the rumors circulating around.
After finishing lunch, the ladies went to do the dishes, and the three gentlemen of the family sat in the waiting room. Keshab then turned to Punya and said “How are things coming along with elders about the inheritances?” Punya replied “I hadn’t had the chance to talk about the inheritances with the elders. The fifth elder seemed very happy. He is updating them one by one from the first tier. So the elders don’t know about the inheritances for now but they will in a week when the fifth elder updates all the inheritances for high tier. I have a strong feeling there will be unrest for some time.” Keshab and Punya talked about strategies on how to pacify the elders and delay the leak of news as long as possible.
Radha and Kumari came back from the kitchen and sat at the table. Seemingly remembering something Keshab said “Oh right! You two should conceal your cultivation realm. Don’t tell the others you have healed a little. Be discreet when searching for ingredients for the Lesser Blood Essence Restoring pill. Although they won’t know about the pill they will take the opportunity to oppose you.” Punya replied “Yes father. I have taken some measures but news will eventually leak. The source of inheritance will seem suspicious and I am afraid there will be few greedy people even within our clan. As for our cultivation realm, we are used to being low-key.” Keshab nodded and stood up “Alright you should go do your things, I still have a lot of arrays to upgrade. Ask your mother and get the herbs she needs for alchemy. Even a few pills of top-tier will make a significant change. The waters of Lunaris city are going to be muddy. The beasts in Bareback mountains are getting restless and so are the two clans. A beast tide will break within a decade, prepare appropriate measures.” Saying this he went to the underground chamber where array plates were located.
Nodding at his father Punya stood up with Radha also standing in a tow. He looked at his mother and said “Mother I have to go. Give me the list of required herbs, I will look at the clan treasury.” Kumari nodded and began engraving the herbs required with their descriptions. Amrit was listening to the elders talking nodding sometimes. At that moment he looked at his parents and said “Father, Mother about the martial arts I gave you, you should practice it. It will improve combat strength in a short time and I have already mastered the technique so your mastery will improve in a short time.”
After hearing this Punya thought for about a moment and said “Okay but there are no good halberds in the clan and crafting one will take some time. Even if we mastered it, without having a suitable weapon to complement it, there won’t be much difference in our strength.” Amrit wanted to tell them it was derived from heaven grade skill but ultimately held back. He just shook his head and replied “Your point is valid father but practicing this technique and incorporating the understanding with our clan’s Black Earth sword skill will make the sword skill much stronger. It will be infinitely closer to the spirit grade martial arts.” Seemingly convinced by Amrit’s words Punya nodded and said “Alright I will go to the treasury to bring halberds for practice. If we make an improvement, I will ask the third elder to forge a second-grade halberd.”
Punya got up and left. Radha wanted to say something but Amrit looked at his grandmother and said “Grandmother is there any place where we can practice the halberd technique.” Nodding Kumari told him about the underground rooms they used for practice. She led the way and Amrit followed. Radha also followed after them. As he went down the stairs to the basement, it wasn’t as dark as he had imagined. There was a long corridor with night pearls embedded in the walls. At the end of the corridor, there were three stone doors. Kumari pointed at the left and right doors and said, “This is the alchemy chamber and this is your grandfather’s array room. This also doubles as an array control room for our surroundings. The door straight ahead of us leads to the training room which is an open field with many defense arrays stacked within but we haven’t put any puppets for self-training."
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