Immortal Cultivator System

Chapter 76: Second Recruit: The Savage Band

Silverfish's sudden outburst had told Jian everything he wanted to know. Hatred ran deep and it also spread wide, especially when it came to the flies. It made Jian wonder why someone like Emperor Zhigang was working with them.....But then again, Jian wasn't a leader. He didn't know how these people thought. 

However he was content, for this outburst proved to him that Silverfish could be a worthy ally. Jian had still asked Mara if the boy was deceiving him, but Mara had nothing to say, so Jian instantly got onto the explanations before the grey-haired child jumped him.

"I am not with them ! In fact I am against them ! This member of yours, Fang, he has been working for me for some months now. Well not directly working for me, but it still counts I presume. I'm making an Order, one tasked with...Well it's not important. My goal won't really matter to you, however it will require me going against many of the continent's powers. One of them being the Flies. " Jian explained. 

He observed Silverfish's reaction while readying himself to take out his halberd at any times. Fortunately enough, Silverfish simply circled around the table that was right in the middle of the tent, before yelling.

"Qibao ! Get me Fang, now !" 

Jian heard a stiff yes coming from outside of the tent and the sounds of footsteps growing distant. He released a breath he didn't know he was holding and relaxed. He had previously used his buddha eyes to scan the savages and knew he could beat at least a dozen of them....However there had to be more than five hundred of them in that camp and Silverfish was in the upper forms of the Mortal Realm, so if it came down to a fight....It would be hard for Jian to get out in one piece. 

As the person named Qibao went to search for Fang, Jian and Silverfish merely remained in the same position, completely still and silent. Jian was watching Mara play with a knife he found somewhere in the tent while, but his eyes went back to Silverfish when the boy started to search for something in his tent. 

He looked everywhere, until he got what he was looking for in a drawer near Mara. Jian was scared for a second when he saw the boy with a map and the knife Mara had a few seconds ago, right in his hands. 

Jian turned to glare at Mara who appeare sheepish, and the boy could only roll his eyes. He was starting to regret the days of the old Mara, the scary one. Not the goofy, stupid one. Not that he even knew why Mara was acting this way these days.

His attention was taken off Mara once more when Fang suddenly entered the tent and bowed.

"Little Lord Silverfish." He said as Silverfish motioned for him to get up. 

"I am going to be very clear here, Fang. This person you brought to us seems to want to hire us.....However I would've been told if someone with enough money to do that suddenly appeared in the capital. Given the cape and everything, he is most likely that Crow guy that just popped out of nowhere a few months ago and who just so happened to be an ally of that crazy monster, Biyu. I am willing to hear what he has to say and that's simply because I know Biyu hates the Flies even more than I do, which is quite impressive. However I want you to be clear with me too. Do.You.Trust.This.Guy ?" Silverfish said, making sure to put an emphasis on each of the last words. 

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Jian didn't react as this was something he expected, however he wasn't sure if Fang's views would change anything. This Silverfish would be quite an unique leader if he was willing to trust him simply because Fang did too.

"I.....I don't completely trust him. But I think there is much to get from that order of his. I....I have heard that he is friend with the prince of the Li Zhang Kingdom. He is also close to a Zhao Warrior and of course he has Biyu on his side. It's not much, but if we can get him at the top, we will benefit from him. We were already quite neutral, and his order would only make us ennemies of the Zhao Warriors whom we already hate, the Flies who we already want to destroy and the sects opposed to his...Which isn't very much of a problem since the only sect we ever allied ourself to has nothing to do with this war." Fang explained, doing his best to convince his leader. He couldn't really tell him the exact reason as to why he wanted to join Jian's order, but what he said was already good...At least he hoped.

"Oh shit !" Mara exclaimed as Jian's eyes widened.

This was....Unexpected. Or rather, he should have expected something like this. 

"Remain calm kiddo, this isn't the time to have an outburst !" Mara yelled as he quickly got back inside of Jian. 

'I know that.....I should've known this would happen. Damnit !' Jian thought as he struggled to remain calm. He was once again ready to whip out his halberd and stab the first person who would approach him.

He should've known Fang would reveal these type of informations. After all, he wasn't like Biyu or even Zhao Shu and Uma. He was recruited on the spot by Biyu and Jian never had his loyalty. However it seemed like he was really trying to convince Silverfish and revealing such informations would help. But now....Even if Silverfish didn't already know about Jian, he only needed to do some researches to get his real identity. It wasn't much of a problem, or at least it wouldn't have been if Jian wasn't in a dangerous place, surrounded by nothing but potential enemies and now found himself at a disatvantage in terms of negotiation. 

Chimi did teach him a bit about negotiating with people since she did that a lot with the Flies officials. And according to her ' If you hold informations over someone, you negotiate. If they hold information over you, THEY negotiate. ' 

And at the moment he only had a name to go with. Silverfish just had Fang reveal him everything he knew about Jian, so this wasn't going very well.

However Silverfish didn't react. He simply nodded and went back to his table. He then stabbed the knife on a certain location of the map he had found a minute prior as Fang's eyes widened.

This motion put jian even more on edge, but he didn't show it. At least there is something he was happy about, and it was that he hadn't put enough trust in Fang to reveal more than what he had just said. Fang knew next to nothing about his abilities, his past or.....Anything other than what Uma had babbled about really. 

He was starting to trust people less and less, and he was starting to think it was a good thing, even though Uma highly disagreed with him. He remembered she said something like ' Let me carry all the evil. Just remain your innocent self and never be tainted.' but he hadn't been paying attention to whatever she was saying when he left the royal palace, so he didn't remember what she said exactly. However the meaning was still there, she wanted him to remain the way he was when he left her all those years ago. The innocent, quite happy and frankly easy to amaze Jian. 

He didn't know why she thought he had changed. He hadn't really changed. He was simply modifying some parts of him so they would fit his new goals. He couldn't be the mysterious leader of an Order that would go against most of the continent's powers if he remained exactly the same old him. 

But he still had time and he would allow himself to transition slowly. If he just took a sharp turn and actually changed his whole personnality.....People might have asked question and might have discovered a things or two about him. At least when it came to those things, he was still as secretive as possible.

"Do you think I should trust this guy then, Fang ? Because if you think so, I'll accept his proposition....Of course I won't agree to anything, but our band will join him. And so I need you to be sure. You were always the best judge of character, so I will entrust you with this duty. " Silverfish said, looking at Fang with such intense eyes the man felt he could have just up and died at that very moment.

"Ah.....Yes I do. I think we should join him. We have been doing next to nothing in the past few years and this is a chance we shouldn't let go of. However....." 

Fang looked at Jian for a moment, before shaking hi shead and continuing. 

" I also think you should make sure we aren't totally binded to him. Just in case this whole thing turns badly." Fang said earning a full blown-out laugh from Silverfish. 

It surprised both himself and Jian as the leader boy nearly cried.

" Oh this is great ! Of course I was going to negotiate our terms Fang, don't worry. Now leave us, I have things to discuss with him." Silverfish said, his tone completely serious as his smile disappeared in an instant.

Jian would be lying if he said this sudden change in expression didn't scare him a bit.

"R-Right." Fang said before taking his leave. 

"Well, seems like we got a lot to discuss about. But If we do end up agreeing on profitable terms for the two of us....I will have another thing to discuss with you about." Silverfish said, pointing to the map before bringing a chair for Jian to sit on. 

"My father used to receive guests in that chair, but I usually kill whoever approaches us, so I never had the occasion to use it. Have a sit, this is gonna take a long time. " Silverfish said as he took out a piece of paper, a brush and some ink.

"Hmm....Kid ain't half bad, he wants this to be an actual binding contract." Mara said, but Jian didn't hear him, or rather he was tuning him out. He had something else that got his attention.

"This map...What is it about ? You are searching for a treasure or something ?" Jian asked. Silverfish put down the ink pot and turned around to look at the map before chuckling.

"Well.....You can say that. The place I pinned down is quite famous, although no one had located it before. The flies found it but the forces they sent were completely crushed. They are about to send another group, a stronger one, but we got our hands on the location and we want to steal their prize right in their hands. Not that they will even suspect us....After all, we haven't been active in so long, so it simply couldn't be us...Hahahaha, I do love taking advantage of people's beliefs. Anyway if you really wanna know, a huge object crashed in that zone. Or at least that's what people used to say, now we know it wasn't an object....But a being. And a big one at that." Silverfish explained, making Jian's interest grow more and more as he talked. 

Jian was on the edge of his seat as Silverfish dropped the bomb on him.

" And that big fellow is believed to be a dragon."