“That is the information I am most interested in. Even Gail didn’t have any info about the Mountain master.”
“I can imagine why. That fellow has always been a very secretive person. He never wanted his name to be too popular.”
“For a man who doesn’t want to be popular, he sure has a lot of popularity.”
“Who says he doesn’t want to be popular? He just doesn’t want his name to be known, but he craves attention and popularity.
It is just that his vanity in this category is way past normal to the point that he wants to be so popular and powerful that not knowing his name shouldn’t even be a concern for the people to fear and respect him.”
“What kind of stupid vanity is that?”
“He is eccentric.
You would be hearing that he is very humble, serene, and calm. Never ever believe that.
If anything, he is quite opposite of all of those things. He is proud and vain. He has an unending and insane amount of love for his vainglory. He appears calm. But a wrinkle on his robe makes him go crazy.
He has a serene expression on his face, but a single unpleasant thing that might even overhear will make him want to kill the person who said that.
He is a crazy psychopath. Nothing more than that.”
Sam was stunned.
This is a first. All this while, he heard a lot of things about the Mountain master from Gail, but not a single one of them goes with the words that the old man is saying.
“Are you pulling my leg, old man?”
“Why would I do that? Do you think I am one of your friends? Why would I pull your leg for no reason?”
“Then what you are saying doesn’t make sense at all. The image this mountain master has is mysterious, and powerful, he is a creature beyond a normal person’s common sense. That is what even Gail said.
How does anything you make any sense in that way?”
“I thought you are a calm and smart kid. Why are you acting like an ignorant brat?”
“Instead of scolding me, why don’t you try explaining it?”
“Of course, scolding doesn’t come in the way of explaining this stuff.
The reason Gail and others don’t know about this situation is, that after committing the deed, the mountain master always cleaned the evidence with the blood of the witnesses. He always had people that did his dirty work.
He never leaves any trace of his presence and he never does anything that would show his involvement.”
“Then how do you know so much about him?”
“Because I have seen while he grew. I have seen his journey until he became the person that has enough power to erase his dirty past.
He has one of the bloodiest pasts in history and now he is the saintly person that no one knows anything about.
Probably there are ghosts roaming around Divine Graveyard currently cursing him for all the deeds he did.
And do you know what the worst part about it is? Even if hundreds of people heard of these stories, no one connects them to the Mountain master.
Because there is no way they could ever connect the filthy name of the person to a being that is respected by the realms.”
Sam stayed silent for a while.
“What? Having second thoughts?” The old man asked.
“No, feeling relieved.”
“What part of this information makes you relieved?”
“The fact that I have information makes me relieved. I don’t know if my friends told you this about me. But I believe that as long as there is enough information and the knowledge of how to use it, then nothing is impossible.
Particularly, when it concerns people and things that are made by people. Nothing is impossible.
Even if it is destroying a person that is feared and respected by millions.”
“You really do believe that, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do. How do you think I survived and grew until now? There is no reward if I don’t go after the enemy out of my league. Not to brag, but I never competed with my peers. Because I always trusted my preparations.”
“Well, with all those bad habits, you need to at least have one good habit, and being prepared is one of the better ones.
Great.”
“Anyway, you continue with whatever you know about this guy. I want to know every little detail about him. The food he ate, the women he was after, the things he is ashamed of, the things he was proud of, his fetishes, tastes, strengths, weaknesses, humor, and cravings. Whatever you can think of, just tell me.”
“Why do you want to know so much? You want to make a biography of him or something?”
Old muttered, but he still patiently explained everything Sam wanted to know.
They spent time just talking since the evening before they were done.
“That is all I know, even if you squeeze my brain dry, you won’t find anything else.”
“That is enough. More than enough. Luckily you were here, otherwise, I would have had a lot more trouble than necessary to deal with this guy.
Now my work is half done.”
“I still think it is better to contact me directly. There is no point in making an enemy out of him. I will mediate the deal if you want me to.”
“No need. Apart from this enmity, there is some other deal I would have to make with them.”
“Don’t tell me you have that organization in your weird list.”
“Yeah, I have that one.”
“So you are after the Bone horn he has in his possession?”
“Yeah, the Bone horn.”
“That is a great treasure. You won’t be able to get it unless you kill that guy.”
“Well, then I will kill that guy and get it.
Anyway, enough of this bullshit. Tell me something about the secrets you left behind. I want to know what he did with the shadow element.”
“I am not showing it to you today.”
“Why?”
“For you to see those notes, you need to do one thing before that.”
“What would that be?”
“Solve a puzzle. A puzzle was left behind by my friend. As long as you do that, you will be able to get all the notes you want.”
“Okay, what is it?”
The old man took out a dark-colored cube and gave it to Sam.
It is in dark black color with a faint purple hue. It is full of shadow energy.
But that is not what surprised Sam. He kinda expected it. The thing that surprised him is the structure of the cube.
It actually looked like a Rubix cube. Same structure, but no colors. Instead, there are myriad patterns on each section of the cube. And instead of standard 3X3, it is 6X6.
He threw that to Sam and told him.
“Inject your spiritual energy into it and then check it with your spiritual sense.”
Sam nodded and did as he was told.
He instantly opened his eyes and was stunned. He saw something like this before. There is a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling from what he felt inside and there is a myriad of thoughts running in his head and even more guesses followed by it.
“You would have seen a small lump of shadow energy inside, right?”
“Yes.”
“That energy is unstable. There is a myriad of formations you can create with the runic patterns on the six sides of the cube.
In the current state, the cube is keeping the lump stable. If you use the patterns and make some shadow elemental formations on different sides of the cube, then you will be changing the nature of the lump.
Sometimes, it will spread out and corrode your body. Sometimes, it will try to access the shadow realm and drag you into it.
Sometimes, it works like a large-scale strangulation entity. Like that, there are thousands of possible outcomes.
But sometimes, there are also some positive outcomes. Some of them are, the energy being stable while the cube opens up by itself. If you can take that energy stably outside, without using your energy manipulation tricks, and close the cube back, then you will win.
I won’t set a time limit, but you better do it as fast as you can.
I bet my friend would be disappointed if I had given out his legacy to someone who barely passed. I would also be embarrassed to know that my disciple has a friend like you who couldn’t even finish a challenge like this.”
Sam didn’t even bother with this low-level taunt. He just took the cube and focused on it. He tried using the observation technique. But for the first time, even that didn’t work.
He was shocked. He never expected that someone would even guard something against the observation energy. In fact, he didn’t even know that there is a possible restriction for observation technique.
The interest in the cube just rose splendidly.
