Mixed Blessing System

Lothur had no idea what other people were thinking of him and was soon in front of the Ice Feathers headquarters, where several council members were standing in the doorway watching him.

Ice drew a lot of attention from 2nd stage cultivators, so when they entered the area of the faction mansions, all the strongest faction members there had come out of their headquarters to observe who it was.

Then upon arriving in front of that place, Lothur saw the faces of the people who had once challenged him and lost humiliatingly.

"Hmm, everyone is here. That makes it easier." He looked at those people and saw that even Karen was over there. "Well, I'm here to make my entry into Ice Feathers official. You guys can help me with that, right?"

While most of those people alternated their gazes between Lothur and Ice, Karen looked at him strangely.

She knew that he had gotten something from a Transcendent sent by Daemon. Hence, her curiosity about what happened to Lothur in the last few days was more significant than Annaliese's.

'What happened to him? Did Daemon help him and still give him this beast? 'But why? Why would he do something like that?' She wondered as she watched Lothur and Annaliese descend from Ice's back.

"Lothur... What about this beast? Isn't it dangerous?" One of the women of the council of that faction asked as she saw the great fox lying in front of that mansion.

"No, as long as you don't attack it, it won't do anything." He said. "That's what a Transcendent beast told me... But maybe it was lying."

Gulp!

Some of those people who were already about to pet Ice backed away upon hearing Lothur's words.

He laughed but said nothing. He just continued on his way beside Annaliese to enter that building.

Then, one of the young men humiliated before said. "Lothur, we already accepted your situation weeks ago, but to enter the faction, our leader must sign your entry papers. That way, there is no point in you demanding anything from us today that she is not here..."

"Hmm, papers? That's for the academy to make my entry into the faction official, but there's no need for that between us. I want to see the missions and information of this faction immediately." He said.

Factions also had books regarding cultivation and other areas of knowledge that were as or more valuable than those of the academy itself.

Why is this? Simple, these groups were made to compete, and some even became institutions or pillars of large organizations. So these factions needed to have ways of making their members stronger and smarter beyond what the academy could do.

As such, each faction had its library and information relevant to cultivation but also to life in the empire's society.

Lothur was someone who had always valued knowledge from the moment he arrived in this world, so he could not hesitate to want access to such things.

"That..." One of those people looked at the others, feeling in a tricky situation since the faction rules said they could not follow such orders from Lothur.

"Lothur, the rules created by Viktoria say we can't do that. Thus, you can't do that until she accepts you as part of us." Karen told him to avoid another of these people having to take a chance on him.

Annaliese then said. "Come on, folks. You know this discussion is pointless. My brother-in-law will get it done anyway, so what difference does it make to you to make him wait?"

The people there ignored Annaliese, and one of the men, someone who did not like Lothur at all, said. "Wait for your wife's order, or we will have to stop you today."

"You?" Lothur smiled upon hearing that man's somewhat aggressive tone.

Previously they had not used their soul powers properly to confront Lothur. So some felt confident they would not have as much trouble as they had if they had not been limited.

And in this situation, where he seemed to be demanding something from them, some of the more spiteful youths decided to stand in Lothur's way.

He had that beast, but so what? Was he going to use it to destroy the headquarters of his own wife's faction? They could not believe it.

So Lothur had only his powers left, which should not be enough for them to suffer much if they used all their abilities.

Lothur then asked. "What are you planning? Fight me? Again? Are you really pursuing that?"

"What? Didn't you already beat us once? So what's wrong with beating us again?" One of the level 11 men there said in a teasing tone. "If you beat us, no one will stop you from doing what you wish."

Lothur looked at them and said. "If that is what you wish, attack me. Then, when you are all exhausted, I will take what I am pursuing and go my way."

He then opened his arms after asking Annaliese to step aside without even taking the Elemental Staff since these people were too weak to hurt him.

Karen noticed this and frowned, not liking what this could mean.

"I'm not going to fight. I think this is a pointless, silly fight." She commented as she walked away to the same spot where Annaliese was standing next to Ice.

"Tsk!"

'What a coward!' One of the women there who was most annoyed with Lothur thought of this as she looked at Karen, feeling that this woman being Viktoria's right hand was an offense to her.

Then those opponents of Lothur activated their techniques, as they positioned themselves in his surroundings to prevent him from escaping, acting in concert as they had planned.

"Attack. I won't do anything this time." Lothur smiled as he gestured with his hands, making those youths even angry.

'Bastard! You're confident, so let's see how you handle this!' One of the men made spiritual roots emerge from the ground, running towards Lothur.

While his opponents made their spiritual attacks appear in the surroundings, the first one to manage to attack Lothur activated the main part of his ability.

"Devour, spirit roots!" He shouted with a smile on his face, imagining Lothur falling exhausted to the ground after a few fractions of a second.

Ice saw that and considered that all these humans must be idiots. 'Why are they doing this? Don't they know Lothur's real strength?'

But this fox could not deny that these humans were rather funny to look at and took advantage of the situation to have a few laughs.

It was used to the peace it had in its village and some occasional fights. So within a few hours of seeing Lothur come across several groups of humans who always strangely approached him, it could not help but find it all amusing.

Meanwhile, Lothur felt that little thing trying to consume his energies. Still, even without activating his defensive technique, he did not suffer even a little from it.

So he just stood there, waiting for the rest of the blows, with a smile on his face.

...