The Glacier Clan

    The glacier clan headquarters was very fitting for a clan that practiced a mixture of earth and ice magic. The building seemed to be carved from a giant block of unmelting ice, with large standing columns and very high ceilings. Looking at the building I shivered involuntarily, not because of the cold wind that could chill the soul, but because it eerily reminded me of a place in the Rift. The Frozen Heavens sect.

    Just as the Rift had seven ancient citadels, there were three mysterious sects. The Frozen Heavens sect, the Eternal Abyss, and the Endless Night sect. Of the three the Frozen Heavens was the most powerful, the Eternal Abyss was the most dangerous, and the Endless Night was the most mysterious. I have only had dealings with the Frozen Heavens, they once came to very forcefully invite me into their sect. The fight left me in a very sorry state, while they had not received any major damage despite how hard I tried. That was just after the massacre at Sargon some years before I met Andorra. This Glacier clan gave me the same dreadful feeling as those Frozen Heaven disciples did.

    Andorra led me through the maze within the clan headquarters, deftly turning through all the various hallways and empty rooms. It was a while before I realized that at some point we had entered an underground catacombs that stretched far below the city. Andorra eventually led us to a set of very large doors, nearly fifty meters tall. They swung open without a creak to reveal an immense throne room the size of a colosseum. There were large bronze braziers that burned with a cold blue flame lining the hall, and at the end sitting on an immense ice thrown was a woman with hair the color of fresh fallen snow.

    She looked to be in her late forties, but the ancient feeling I got from her eyes told me that this woman was an ancient relic. Andorra strode to the base of the woman's throne and bowed deeply "aunt Arete, it has been far to long" she said humbly. In the presence of this woman Andorra seemed very well behaved, an odd rarity.

    "And whose fault is that" the woman replied coldly, seemingly angry at Andorra's absence.

    "Mine," she said without hesitation or guilt. " I have been in closed door cultivation in preparation for the coming tournament."

    "Are you still so set on learning your fathers spells and not the Glacier clans" she asked?

    "Yes, for the time being my fathers spells are the most beneficial for me" she replied.

    Her frown deepened as her eyes bore through Andorra, then in an instant her face returned to its expressionless form. "Are you going to introduce your guest" she said fixing her gaze on me, in return I locked onto her.

    "I am Tol Nathafa, or if you prefer the Tyrannical Overlord, and I can speak for myself" I said defiantly, the air almost seemed to crackle from the apparent  animosity between us. Two headstrong woman who are not used to taking an inferior position in one room, never a good combo.

    " Hmm, I see. If my memory serves you owe me a favor." She said, lording that favor over me to take the superior position in the conversation.

    "Yes, I'm here to make good on it" I said ignoring her attitude.

    "That foolish patriarch has put you in charge of the selection of participants, and while you are obligated to choose a member form each clan I am well aware that you have final say over who joins. I want you to select a particular member from my clan." She said.

    "And who do you want me to choose" I said cautiously.

    "Andorra's cousin, Serac. She is to be the inheritor of the Glacier clan and I want her to experience the tournament and show her prowess to the world" she said gesturing to a girl that had just walked in. She looked a like a miniature version of her mother, same white hair and dainty features. However unlike Arete, Serac seemed more friendly than her mother.

Feeling out her cultivation I could see that she was only just entering the second stage, woefully lacking when compared to the other inner mountain disciples who were working at the forth stage.

"I can agree, but she will have to move to the inner mountain and work hard at her cultivation" I said.

"That will not do, Serac will stay here to train, her cultivation will progress faster this way, she will only be joining you for the tournament"

"Then I wont let her compete, she can join us for the tournament but she will not take part in any fights." I said, Arete scowled.

"And whys that" she said venomously.

"I would rather over work an inner mountain disciple than let this neophyte compete. All of my inner mountain disciples have had far more life and death experiences than her, they are far superior to her when it comes to combat instincts. If I could bring her on to the mountain with us then we could instill those instincts into her. But right now I doubt she could hold her own, even if she has a higher cultivation by the time of the tournament." I explained, the girl seemed to wince form my harsh judgment.

"Aunt Arete, I'm sure your spies told you about the disciples that challenged us on the day we became conclave disciples. Aurum and Ferra had a weaker cultivation based than most of their opponents and still won many battles. Moving Serac to the Inner mountain would be the best for her training, as she would be around other experienced disciples." Andorra added, easing over the rising tensions.

Arete mulled over Andorras words,"Fine" she spat. "But I will hold her here until her new residence of the inner mountain is built. That is all, your dismissed" she said with the wave of her hand.

Andorra bowed again and began to leave, but I stood still " one more thing" I said. Andorra turned to me in horror as I once more openly challenged her aunt.

"What" she said, staring daggers into me.

"What is your clans relation to the Frozen Heavens," I asked? Arete's expression did not change, but Serac's did. The girl was completely caught off guard by my question.

"I don't know what your talking about" she said.

"Your daughter does, should I ask her," Arete glared at her daughter but didn't do anything to punish her, beneath her frosty exterior I could see that she genuinely cared for the girl. She turned back to me defeated and answered.

"We were once apart of the Frozen Heaven sect before the Great Rift war, during the heavenly era. However there was a schism between us as a number of our members protested the sects policy of eternal maidenhood. We left and joined the Nephilim side of the war as an independent sect. During this current era our sect declined until we were absorbed as a branch sect of the Mountain Fate sect. Is that all you wanted" she said, daring me to pry further. My instincts and intuition told me that if I continued she would try her best to punish me, and while I didn't particularly like her attitude I didn't want our relations to be unrepairable.

So I turned away and left.

The moment the door closed behind us Andorra turned to me "what was that about" she hissed.

"What, I didn't like her attitude, I'm might be posing as a lowly disciple but that doesn't mean I'l act like one to anyone who knows my secret. I expect a mutual level of respect." I said defensively.

"Ok, but could you be a little nicer she's my aunt. She helped me through a lot of tough times" she said.

"Do you think I was wrong," I asked?

"Not really, I like Serac but she half my age, a little young for the tournament, so bringing her to the inner mountain is very smart. But there are like a thousand different ways you could have said that nicer." She complained.

"Wait hold on, why is she so young, don't couples in Illia have their kids around the same time so that they'll have the best chance at the tournament." I asked?

"Yes, normally, but as you heard the Glacier clan was from that one Rift sect"

"The Frozen Heaven sect" I corrected

"Right, their cultivation relies on their virginity, well the Glacier clan left because they wanted to find love, and have kids. They couldn't change their cultivation method, so they modified it a bit so that they could find love and have kids while somehow protecting their virgin energy's , but it comes with a little quirk they can only have kids for a short random period" she explained.

I frowned, the Frozen Heaven was very famous for being a place of virgin beauty's, but every one knew that they couldn't ever find love, even with other woman. But something like this was very puzzling. If there was a way to preserve the energy's and still have love, why didn't the Frozen Heaven Sect do so? And where did Arete get all that money.

There were more secrets hidden within the Glacier clan that I had to worry about, and young Serac might just be my answer.

We returned to the sect after our little outing, Andorra told me she was going to focus on her cultivation level. She wasn't able to cultivate these last few years because she was so focused on her fathers spells, and while she wasn't falling behind the rest of the inner mountain disciples, she did feel like she was lagging behind the other sects competitors.

With Andorra  locked up in her house I decided to return to my own disciple, I didn't tell him where me and Andorra were going, so I was curious about what he had been doing. Though I had a sneaking suspicion.

I arrived in the court yard to see a sweaty Alister waiting for me, he probably saw me coming and stopped what he was doing, but I could easily tell that he had been training hard for the entire time I was gone. I'm pretty sure he didn't even rest when I told him to at Andorra's. Most masters would be very happy with having such a hard working disciple, however I knew better than most the dangers of training to hard. Especially with the Five Tyrannical Refinements, I had almost destroyed my body before by trying as hard as he was. Despite our short time together I really did care for my disciple, something I once thought was impossible. I had to set him straight. 

"Master you've returned, where were you" he asked?

"I went to the city with Andorra, want to know what we did together" I asked.

"What" he asked earnestly?

"We went and got fitted for dresses to this party we're attending, then we toured the city and visited the grand auction hall, we went to expensive restaurants, and stayed in a very lavish hotel together, we even took a bath together" I said, he blushed at the last part.

"Do you want to know why we did that," I asked rhetorically. He looked uncertain but nodded. "We did all that because we were relaxing, like I ordered you to do" I said as I thumped him hard on the head.

He was clutching his head as I continued on " I ordered you to relax when I left, but by the looks of things you've been working harder than ever, why," I asked angrily

"Because the only way I'm going to get stronger is if I train hard" he said staring me dead in the eye as he rubbed his head, seemingly offended by my order to take it easy.

I sighed and pointed to one of the stone blocks we used for chairs. "sit" I commanded. He took his chair but continued to eye me cautiously.

"I'm only going to explain this once so listen well, there's nothing wrong with training hard, but if you don't know when to stop you'll break, and I don't mean physically. If you keep a blade to the grindstone forever you'll wear away at the blade, it might be sharp but it'll be completely flimsy.If you try to use that blade it'll snap before it cuts.If you keep pushing yourself at this rate your going to snap." I said.

"But if I don't train how will I ever become as strong as you or Andorra." He complained.

"By working your way there the right way, and don't make it sound like me and Andorra just mindlessly train. Andorra takes her time to drew or paint, and I will refine treasures in my off time. You need to find something else to occupy your off time other than training, that's all your dismissed, you can go sit in the sun or something but your not allowed to train for the rest of the day." I said walking away.

He stood there confused before he found a rock sitting in the shade and sat there, legs crossed and hands folded over his lap. He looked like a Qi refiner cultivating, and knowing him he was probably checking his cultivation for flaws.

I sighed and shook my head, "he's to headstrong" I thought. I can understand his desire for revenge, sometimes vengeance was my greatest motivator for getting stronger. But at his rate he was going to harm himself.

I changed out of my old robes and sat down to begin examining the deep earth mercury, with the mercury and the purple vortex flame stones I had the basis of a new and revolutionary treasure in mind. One that would change the very quality of my refining, and potentially allow for a new path towards near god tier. However to craft this revolutionary item I would need other rare and unique materials, and while I knew a few of the required ingredients, but some of the more extraordinary property's of the treasure required material that I wasn't sure even existed.

This wasn't the first time I wanted to craft something from materials that I wasn't sure existed, the last time this happened was when I made the Heaven Shattering Lance. I had combed the Blind Fate library for weeks to find any hint of the material I needed, only barely finding a passing mention of materials being synthesized from metal based Titan beasts.

And while the library here was nowhere near as extensive as the Blind Fate library, it still a good starting point. Besides it would be good to check in with Halite, the inner mountain disciples were going to need an upgraded cultivation method soon.

I spent the rest of the night going over spell formulas, I had moved on from the spell mantras to analyzing the very spell formula to see where my issue might stem from. Unlike the mantras that were tongue twisters and instructions,  spell formulas were just pure numbers and mathematics. Endless streams of numbers and codes that went on endlessly, what would have been a page of spell mantras was expend into ten to twenty pages of equations. It was long and arduous and normally pointless to the purpose of learning the spell, only useful for someone that wanted to create additional spells or rework the inner workings.

I spent the rest of the night pouring over the simple lantern lighting spell, endlessly examining the spell equations. I gained a deeper understanding of spells and how they worked, but no closer to my goal of actually casting a spell of my own. At this point while I couldn't fully measure up to Halite mastery of spells, I had total confidence of being able to construct my own spells. Though until I figured out why I couldn't use spells I wasn't going to waste my time doing so.

I continued to study until sunrise when I decided to visit the library and see if Halite was there. Alister had sat on his rock all night, eventually he stopped checking cultivation and just watched the stars. I had been planning to have him continue to relax, but seeing as he had loosened up I sent him on a run up and down the mountain while carrying heavy weights. He took off down the mountain with an eagerness to train that normal people shouldn't have.

I sighed with exasperation as I saw him jogging away, most masters would probably have the absolute opposite issue. With their disciples being lazy and unfocused, or arrogant and brash like Charen had been, Alister wasn't any of those things. He was dedicated and earnest, had a deep desire to train hard, and despite knowing the worst about me still had a deep respect for me. This all added onto my concern for him.

Training hard to be the strongest was fine and all, but what do you do when you reach the end. All cultivation, body refiner or Qi refiner, was limited to the demigod stage. What happens when you reach the pinnacle of power only to find that you had no ambition left, I had just about reached the peak and the emptiness of no longer having something to work towards left me melancholic and bored. And besides whose to say that he will ever reach the peak, sad as it is to say he could die on his journey to the top. And then his whole life would have been pointless and wasted. Something deep within me flickered time life, a feeling that I had long thought dead, compassion. It was something I spent a lot of time in the Rift suppressing, and in turn the Rift spent a lot of time trying to kill it. 

With those grim thoughts in mind I made my to Halites library, walking on the winding mountain I enjoyed the beautiful mountain scape. As I approached the library pavilion the sun was rising behind it casting a long shadow. It looked to be in much better condition than the first time I saw it, disciples from the inner mountain had done a wonderful job fixing it up. Now it looked like a sturdy and well constructed building, though personally I didn't think it was as luxurious as I would like it to be, then again I had expensive tastes.

When I got the door I found an odd pieces of paper stuck to where the doors parted. The paper had an odd set of inscriptions scrawled on it, a seal of some sort. And judging from the power of it, it was made by Halite or someone of equal power. It was odd to see, but not entirely unusual, Halite had been known to shut himself in with his research whenever he was at a crucial point. I pulled a small turquoise knife out of my skull of holding and cut through the seal with a bit of difficulty and let myself in.

The interior was completely dark besides the light I let in from outside, bronze lanterns flew out form the skull at my side and illuminated the room as I closed the door behind me. "Halite, are you here, its me Tol" I shouted.

There was a shuffling in the back and  a darkened figure stepped into the light. The man looked like Halite, but the belt around his robe was undone leaving his hairless chest and torso exposed to my lantern light. His long hair was hanging loose down to his shoulders rather than in the tight bun that Halite normally preferred. He looked me up and down and gave me a lecherous smile that left me a little unsettled. But what weirded me out even more was that his aura was not Halites, though it felt similar I could now tell upon closer inspection that whatever beast that stood before me was not Halite at all.