Earth's Greatest Magus

It was such a surreal sight. The sage didn't act like a grand magus at all—he just casually invited them to enter the wooden house, took out some fishes, and gutted them before he started cooking.

From his expression, Thrax was impatient for answers while Klea was busy interrogating Chumo and asking about what he knew about the mysterious man.

Fuxi. Written in history as one of the great Sovereigns, he was one of the great individuals said to be the one who laid the foundation of China. The man was apparently not just an Emperor of a great kingdom, he was also responsible for the early creation of many; music, hunting, domestication, and also the system of writing Chinese characters.

Now, such a great figure was living in a wooden hut, cooking dinner for them. Of course, they would be speechless.

Sensing the palpable silence become more awkward, Julian decided to whisper.

"We wouldn't give up on him, right? If that man doesn't help us, we can forget about having our own faction."

"No need to worry about that, we should get to know the other person first," said Klea confident.

A savory mixed with sweet scent radiated from the kitchen and became stronger as the sage came and brought out a steamed fish that had been cooked with a dozen different spices. From the amount of spices they could see, it was definitely cooked in an eastern style.

Not only that, he had prepared some freshly steamed rice. The steam was still wafting from it.

"Please, enjoy the food. All the ingredients used were all planted here myself."

They came here with a favor to ask, so Klea behaved especially nicely in hopes they could have a better chance of convincing him. With a radiant smile, she asked," Senior, what about your daughter? Why don't you ask her to join?"

"Naya? Ah, she doesn't eat cooked meals, so please enjoy yourselves."

While they were eating, Klea took this chance to ask some more and glean more information. The sage shares the story of how he met the legendary water creature, taught her the law of water, which later evolved into a magus-level individual. The girl was the only living being who stay with him for the last 300 years.

As the conversation started to wind down a bit, Emery decided to join in the conversation and ask the sage a question.

"Senior, have you ever ever thought about going home at all?"

The sage was startled for a second. Seeing he was ready to open up, Emery decided to ask again.

"Senior, can you please explain to us why you think our plan was a waste of time? Please, we will… we will not stop asking unless we get an answer."

The sage took a deep breath. The question certainly had exasperated him, but his voice had no real malice.

"No, …it wasn't that the plan itself was bad. Actually, it was a good plan. However, Izta was always the type to let this kind of thing get way over his head" He paused for a second and said

"I am sure he doesn't have any real strategy on how to actually create the faction."

Emery nodded. What the man said certainly made sense, as his master, Izta, had indeed never said anything other than to look for a Grand Magus. The more he thought about it, the more certain he felt that this was not an easy matter.

The sage then added.

"You do know that while a grade 1 faction will allow you to handle two planets on the same galaxy, such faction would still have to be under the authority of the faction in charge of that galaxy, right? Now… who is it that in charge of our galaxy?"

Emery and his friends didn't need to check to know that it could only belong to one faction.

"The Nephilims."

"You get it now? Unless you manage to create a grade 3 faction and gather enough power to challenge the Nephilims, you will never completely out of the Nephilims' authority, never"

The old man's words rendered Emery and his friends speechless.

The sage then appear amuse as he said

"I believed Izta has talked to you about how he was suffering under the Nephilim unfair agreement, didn't he? I'm sure of it."

"Yes, senior," Emery affirmed.

The sage gives a deep sigh before continue

"That man. He never changes... Did you know that we never forced him to do that? Besides, he has Nephilim blood in him, In a way, he was just serving his own family"

"What the... no way!!" Thrax became emotional upon hearing it, and it wasn't just him. The rest's reaction wasn't much different.

The sage then looked toward Emery. "It's great you have the academy willing to mediate meetings with the Nephilim, but at best it will only help create a civilized audience with respect to the academy. The academy has no power to dictate the Nephilim"

The sage then stared at Emery intently and continued.

"You plan to come into the meeting to ask for the right to become the caretaker of our planet, but do you have anything of value to prepare for the Nephilims? Or do you really think that they would give it to you if you ask them nicely? A whole planet just like that?"

Seeing Emery was taking the brunt of it, Julian spoke up, "Senior, we will listen to what they want, and we will do everything in our power to take our planet back. That is our plan."

Thrax added, "Even if we have to fight, we will! We aren't afraid!"

The sage smiled.

His smile was not condescending. Rather, it was similar to a smile usually given to a particularly eager child.

"Yes…All five of you possess great talent above your seniors, and you all also possess a great fortune. Unfortunately, those would just be a grain of salt against the ocean that is the Nephilims' forces."

Those words made everyone fall into silence. However, unwilling to accept such an end, Emery continues.

"Senior, do you really think that there is no other way and we really should just accept our fate?"

The old man put down his bowl of rice and calmly said.

"Yes, there is no chance of succeeding against the Nephilim. …Just give up."

He then stood up and continued, "Stay for the night, tomorrow, I will open the Hexagram formation and you all can leave. If you promise not to talk about the Nephilims, you can come to visit me again next time."