Chapter 224 - Kentucky's Race

"E-Elder Fauk..."

He didn't even notice when Old Worm entered the room.

"Roan is my disciple. Do you want to take him away from me?"

Reliance's demeanor completely disappeared as he immediately shook his head.

"This lowly one wouldn't dare."

Old Worm snorted.

"Hmph! Of course you wouldn't. Also, his cultivation is deeply related to how close he is to his brother. You better not try to separate them."

Old Worm then looked at Roan and asked.

"Is it over?"

Roan nodded.

"Yes."

Without saying anything else, Roan and Old Worm left straight away. After all, they were still in the middle of alchemy practice when Rean called them over.

Finally, Elder Reliance calmed down and looked at Droman.

"Why didn't you tell me his brother was Elder Fauk's disciple? Are you trying to kill me?"

Droman laughed out loud.

"Hahaha! That's for you to understand that the world doesn't exist to fulfill your every command. Anyway, Elder Fauk knew that you didn't know about Rean's brother, so he won't make things difficult for you."

Droman continued.

"On top of that, I thought of bringing Rean away in the past, but the issue they have regarding cultivation can't be avoided. That being said, I can't separate them either. That's why I spent most of my time teaching Rean in the sect instead of watching over the communication system construction."

Reliance couldn't help but feel perplexed.

"What is this cultivation proximity that you and Elder Fauk talked about?"

Rean was the one to answer that question.

"Oh! It goes like this..."

He then explained the same thing as he did to Droman a few months ago.

"I see... if that is the case, then I really can't bring you further away from your brother. What do you do about missions?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders.

"We basically take them together. However, we also make sure that the missions are difficult enough for the two of us to complete. That means we don't have any problem with real combat experiences."

Reliance massaged the space between his eyebrows.

"Droman. Even if I can't bring this kid away with me, I still want him."

Droman didn't yield, unsurprisingly.

"Hmph! Keep dreaming. Even if I have to fight your Demon Beasts, I will not give up on him."

Rean then raised his hand.

Too bad that Rean didn't try to use his Spiritual Sense. If he did, he would notice that the little bird wouldn't appear inside his Spiritual Sense at all. After all, the difference in cultivation was just too high!

"Errr... that's quite a beautiful bird."

Still, Rean didn't know why Reliance would want to keep it a secret. It was then that an idea came to mind.

"Oh! I see... this Tanager is a rare one, right? Because it is too weak, Elder Reliance is afraid that someone will try to steal it."

Droman heard those words and began to sweat a bit. All of a sudden, a red flash passed by Rean's eyes.

*Bang!*

Before Rean could even process what happened, his body was sent flying! Something had just hit his chest head-on!

*Crash!*

Rean hit the wall with so much strength that the entire room trembled. He fell down right after and vomited some blood. He looked at his chest and saw the scourged black mark left behind by the assault.

Rean then looked around, afraid that an enemy had attacked him. However, he soon saw Elder Droman's weird expression as Reliance laughed out loud.

"Hahaha! That's too funny!"

Rean couldn't understand anything. However, he noticed that the red bird on Reliance's shoulder disappeared.

"Hey, brat! Where the hell are you looking?!"

Only then did Rean notice that fiery red bird on the ground... was talking to him.

"I will let you off the hook this time since Master likes you. However, if you disrespect me again, don't blame me for not holding back. Hmph!"

Rean's fearful expression changed to that of extreme shock in an instant!

"The bird can talk?!"

Droman then sighed as he explained.

"Ahem... Zunzun is a Stage Six Demon Beast after all."

Rean's blood drained from his face as he looked at the palm-sized bird in front of him. Without a doubt, this was one of the biggest shocks he had received ever since he was born in the cultivation world.

"Alright, Zunzun. Leave him alone. It is not good to abuse your power in front of the kids."

"Yes, Master!"

Zunzun then became another flash of red light as he flew back to Reliance's shoulder.

"Zunzun has a very high affinity with Fire Element, which makes his behavior as fiery as his feathers. Don't take it personally."

Zunzun didn't like Reliance's words but didn't say anything.

"Hmph!"

Reliance then smiled and explained.

"Stage Five Demon Beasts can use Spiritual Sense to convene their thoughts. As for Stage Six, they gain the ability to speak with words."

Rean always had the thought that the higher the Stage, the bigger the Demon Beast. Obviously, that was not the case.

"So strong! Could it be that Zunzun is some Legendary Tanager or something like that? Could it be that Kentucky is also a Legendary Bird?"

Reliance laughed once more.

"Hahaha! Legendary? Far from that. There are so many Fire Tanagers from where I came that you might even see thousands in a single pack. Well, Fire Tanagers usually never cross Stage One, though. I had to put a lot of effort into helping Zunzun reach his actual level."

Reliance then looked at Kentucky.

"However, it's not wrong to say that about Kentucky. After all, it is a Minokawa."