Chapter 0151

Tempest sat in the middle of the camp, glaring at anyone stupid enough to give her a second glance.

She was mad.

She was sulking.

She didn’t care if everyone knew it.

First, it was that Lei Mo bastard.

Bei Ting Mao, Fenix, and Starm did a good job bringing people in and slowly reducing the momentum of the fight.

Except… why the hell did they have to bring members of Lei Mo’s group? Couldn’t they leave those ungrateful bastards to die?

Okay, they didn’t know those three bastards were a part of Lei Mo’s group. They knew Lei Mo and Ashley Elling are members of the same group, but they didn’t do their research. They never bother to see who else was in Lei Mo’s group.

They were too busy handling Li Ming to care about Lei Mo’s group. Li Ming had so many issues to wade through, finding out who else was in Lei Mo’s group got put into the back burner.

Damn bastard!

He was about to take his group members away without paying. Tempest wasn’t about to let that happen! Hehe. Those ungrateful bastards eventually cough up the money, but they did so grudgingly.

Some groups they make. Tempest hadn’t overcharged them and they were already grumbling. Should they encounter a dangerous magical beast, Tempest bet all of her savings they’d sacrifice the other members of the group to save their sorry behind.

Hmph.

Hmph.

Speaking of which, Li Ming, that girl got some nerve. Throughout the entire fight, Tempest only manages to create four Water Spheres. Her power was strong enough for Tempest to shove three-person into one Water Sphere, so she saved 12 lives in total.

Li Ming, the little showoff, was able to create and hold ten Water Spheres at a time. She was able to save 46 lives.

Now, at 100 silvers person, Tempest made 1,200 silvers while Li Ming made 4,600 silvers. It was almost 4 times Tempest’s earning!

Tempest didn’t want to believe anyone was better than her in her given elements, yet here Li Ming was, better than her. It shattered her assumption she was the strongest water mage out there.

As a wake up call to bring her back down to reality, it wasn’t harsh. It was enough to knock Tempest off her relative small pedestal. She was somewhat grateful for Li Ming showing her there is always someone better than her in a given area. It doesn’t mean Tempest is going to let Li Ming off the hook. She’d better give… donate?... hand over?... whatever! A portion of those silvers will be hers sooner or later.

While Tempest was giving Li Ming the evil eye, she saw a member of another hateful group.

Damn thieves. They are always thinking about stealing something. First, they went after her charms then they went after the magical beast she killed. Now they came after the credit for de-escalating the fight.

Those bastards held their position near the fight and killed anyone that came their way, magical beasts or cultivators. No one question about the dead cultivators they killed. In a chaotic battle like the one they were in, it was everyone for themselves. Those who died were unfortunate.

The cultivators who monitored the fight turned a blind eye to it all.

Tempest can tell they were up to no good. Tempest wasn’t the only one.

Oblivious she may be, but Tempest can sense the thick tension in the camp.

Everyone aside from Tempest was doing their part trying to figure out the current situation.

Graden dragged Bei Ting Mao from one group to another, gathering and sharing information. Graden is good with cultivators from the Magus Alliances but he isn’t very good interacting with the cultivators from the Heavenly Mountains. That is where Bei Ting Mao came in. Despite his distaste for idle chatter, he played his part. He, too, is aware of how valuable good information is.

Starm, the little charmer, was chatting up the ladies. Never underestimate the charm of the token bun. Tempest definitely won’t.

As for Fenix, the fire mage was off in a corner studying the charms she took from Tempest.

During the fight, the schemer took the chance to demand more charms from Tempest. Now, if she paid upfront, Tempest wouldn’t mind it so much. Except Fenix said, “Give me some wind and water charms now. I’ll pay you later.”

Tempest marked down the amount Fenix owed her, but she doesn’t believe for one moment she’d get her money back. It’s like Wimpy in the cartoon Popeye the Sailor Man. “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Ha! Tempest watched most of the episodes and can’t remember Wimpy ever paying anyone back. She’d even watch Tuesday’s episode and he still never paid anyone back.

Cry.

Cry.

She was never going to get her money back.

“Is this a bad time?” Skylar Sedonis asked.

“With you, it is always a bad time.”

“You are better if you can insult me,” Skylar Sedonis concluded.

“People can insult others and be miserable.” Tempest protested. She wasn’t feeling that bad, to begin with but seeing the embodiment of annoyance here made her melancholy worse.

“People insult other people because they want to feel a sense of high. They have their own miserable situations they are living with and they need a sense of worth to continue living. Bullying other people gives them that sense of worth because no matter how miserable they are right now, there is someone in a worse situation than they are. It also gives the bully a sense of control. They can control their own fate. After all, the fate of another is in their hands.”

Tempest glared at the blond girl. What she said made sense. Tempest also sensed at one time the blond girl was both the bully and the victim. It made Tempest want to talk to her. There was no instant camaraderie between them but it feels like they have been in a similar situation.

“I’m Skylar Sedonis by the way.”

“I don’t care what your name is. You are the thief’s friend. A friend of a thief is also a thief.” Tempest made a broad general stereotype here, but who cares! She doesn’t need to be politically correct. She doesn’t have to be aware of how prejudice colors one perception. She can say what she wants to say, feel what she wants to feel and damn the consequences. Worse comes to worst, there is always Cardis.

“Have you considered the possibility the friend of the thief is a possible target of the thief?” Skylar Sedonis countered.

Tempest opened her mouth then snapped it shut. She never saw it from that point of view but it does make sense. Thieves can befriend people to rob them. Isn’t that how fraudsters and con artists work? They get to know you and rob you blind when you least expect it.

“What are you here for? My good company?”

“I’m here to resolve the issue between you and me. Here take this.” Skylar Sedonis tossed Tempest a bag filled with coins. It was a hefty amount too, judging from the weight of the bag.

Tempest wanted to pocket the bag, she really did, however, she still had her principles. “What is this for?”

“Atonement money for being blind.” Skylar Sedonis said with pain.

“What? It isn’t a payment for the charms your friend destroyed. You know, you were completely in the wrong. Your friend came up to me, grabbed the charms I was selling and destroyed it.”

“Actually, I don’t think I was wrong at the time. I went to the Assignment Center and saw my friend being attacked and her purse stolen. I stepped in to stop the fight and retrieved the goods. I did not harm you nor did I cause the situation to escalate to an irreconcilable level. From a disciplinarian point of view, we played a game of tag with someone else’s property. It can be called children squabble. The only thing I did wrong in our game was using an authority I didn’t have. If you were in my shoes, you would have done the same thing. In fact, given your vengeful personality, the situation might have turned out much worse than it did.”

“Okay, I admit, you made your point. It was a good one too.” Tempest conceded. She didn’t want to admit Skylar Sedonis had good, if not misguided, reasons for her actions.

If Tempest was in her shoes, she would have used overwhelming force to give her opponents the beating of their lives.

“Still, you seem to be helping her before you know all the facts. If your group hadn’t come to reinforce her group, I would have-”

“You shouldn’t incriminate yourself.” Skylar Sedonis interrupted Tempest.

Again, Skylar Sedonis stumped Tempest.

“They tried to claim the magical beast I’d kill,” Tempest whined. Hard to refute sound logical reasoning.

“And you could have continued fighting over the magical beast corpse with Hannah and her group.”

“With your group there, we were outnumbered. We would have to pay a huge price to kill you all.” Tempest retorted with resentment.

She wasn’t completely herself when she fought Hannah. She was aware of her surroundings at the time but she was driven by a need to kill Hannah. If Bei Ting Mao didn’t pull her back, she’d kill Hannah in two moves then proceed to slaughter the rest of her group and her reinforcements. (1)

“Incriminating. Now, I’ll add a false assumption. My group heard the sound of fighting and we went to investigate. Your group assumed we came to help Hannah and retreated. It had nothing to do with us.”

“You’ve help Hannah once. It isn’t a great leap in logic for you to help her again.”

“Again, assumptions.”

“Ugh.” Just who is this girl anyway? Her nemesis? Tempest just can’t seem to win against Skylar Sedonis today.

“The bag contains 1,800 silvers, three times the quoted cost of your charms. Take it and we’re even.”

Tempest held the bag and considered Skylar Sedonis. The girl is good. She is also everything Tempest admired in a person. She is loyal to her friends, conscientious in her conduct, logical in her assessment, rational in her behaviors and knows how to apologize when she is wrong.

Even her reparations are perfect. Tempest remembers a line from a book she read, “When you point your finger in accusation, your three other fingers are pointed back at you.” Tempest interprets it as when you falsely accuse someone, you must pay three times the damages.

Skylar Sedonis understood this concept as well. She paid three times the price Tempest quoted.

“I’ll take it. The money will wipe away my disagreement with Hannah and you.” Tempest’s wording is misleading. Her disagreement with Hannah will be wiped clean. She said nothing about the arrogant prince who tried to claim her kill. Hannah was an afterthought in that fight.

“The reparation is payment for our misunderstanding. Hannah had nothing to do with this.” Skylar Sedonis adamantly said this. “Hannah’s debts are her own to settle. I’m just paying mine.”

Skylar Sedonis turn and resolutely walked away.

Tempest knew she wasn’t walking away from just her. She was walking away from Hannah as well.

And that made Tempest respect her all the more.

(1)

Author: Tempest, it was six moves. Quit inflating your ego!

Tempest: Six moves, two moves, what’s the difference? She’ll be dead in the end.

Author: The difference is four moves and your ego would be smaller than it is right now!

Tempest: Six moves then, two moves now. Wow, I’ve improved quite a bit in a few chapters.

*** Tempest flies away with her overinflated ego.

Author: Tempest!!!!