Story 9 - Nothing Bad Ever Happens at the Alchemy Convention (7)
The three of us had a pleasant discussion on the Dao of Alchemy. Since we were out in the open, our discussion attracted a crowd of curious alchemy nerds who, when they heard about the topics we were discussing, listened in with rapt attention. At first, it was just one or two. But they sent secret sound transmissions to their friends and more joined them. Eventually, the crowd beca so large that security had us move to an open rest area near the main lecture hall.
We were in the middle of discussing a problem White Lily had when dealing with a generic healing dan for Nascent Soul realm cultivators when a cultivator was brought out of the main hall by the rarely-seen Alchemist Association’s physician. The injured man clutched a calligraphy brush that had sohow been stabbed into a spot near his eye and couldn’t be removed.
A small team of security followed Brush Guy while roughly escorting a man who covered his face with his hands, as if trying to avoid being recognized.
Several stragglers followed behind them, gawking while eating spiritual lon seeds. I noticed Alchemist Graceful Pear Blossom, who I had seen in my past life. She was an uninhibited gossip and a dramatist. If anyone could tell us what happened, she could.
“Fellow Daoist, can you tell us what went on?”
Her eyes lit up. “You want to hear it?”
“We all do!” soone in the crowd called.
She gestured with her bag of seeds to the guy covering his face. “I overheard Onyx Brush talking about how excited he was to listen to the Azure Pill Saint’s lecture. But he had to leave his place to greet a senior. When he returned, that man,” she moved her bag toward the guy with an ink brush wound, “Alchemist Immovable Stone, had taken his spot.”
She then held up a finger to forestall questions. A big showman’s smile appeared on her face. “The two argued.” She showed us her left side and waved her fan in anger while pretending to be Onyx Brush. “‘I arrived first.’”
Then she moved so her right was more visible and crossed her arms, acting like Immovable Stone. ‘‘Well, you weren’t here when I arrived.’”
She used a technique to create an illusory image of herself, which stayed behind when she moved right again. With a sword-like jab of her fan, she pointed back toward the lecture halls and glared at her double. “‘I only left to greet a senior.’”
Her double with the crossed arms tilted her head up, acting just like an arrogant asshole. “‘I don’t believe that this is your spot.’”
She placed her hands on her hips. “‘Are you really going to be this unreasonable?’”
Her clone narrowed her eyes. “‘You can’t make this stone roll!’”
Then she addressed everyone. “And that was when it happened. The normally genial Alchemist Onyx Brush, who had been genuinely looking forward to the Azure Pill Saint’s lecture, snapped.”
With a twist of her wrist, she held her fan up and jumped forward toward her illusory double, stabbing her near her eye with her fan. Then her stab victim vanished.
“He stabbed him with his brush, of all things?” soone in the crowd asked.
She shrugged. “It happened in anger! It’s probably a spiritual tool since it seems to be stuck near his eye. Regardless, I don’t think Alchemist Onyx Brush will co back to the convention next decade.”
“But Alchemist Immovable Stone was also in the wrong,” another person pointed out.
One of the blue-and-orange-robed attendants walked over and bowed to us. “Esteed Alchemists, the association has decided that Onyx Brush and his Alabaster Eagle Clan will forever be unable to join our convention. And, while Alchemist Immovable Stone’s Three Thunders Sect can join us, he will be banned from any convention the association puts on in the future.”
She paused, allowing the crowd to ruminate over the serious consequences of doing sothing horrible on convention grounds. And, that they didn’t just kill these troublemakers off ant that the association was daring these clans to try sothing so they could show them getting their ass beat.
Many people in the crowd shuffled their feet or looked away from the attendant’s stare.
“The association has asked to remind you that Nothing Bad Ever Happens at the Alchemy Convention.” Then she turned to leave.
Well, that was fucking unusual. Frankly, it was so rare for sothing like this to happen that I could imagine everyone secretly talking about this for decades after.
Before the Con attendant could get far, a powerful Immortal Bone Creation man stepped in front of her. He had dark brown hair streaked with gray and his eyes were a bright blue — likely from his cultivation technique. A sycophantic retinue stood behind him and another attendant closely followed him.
The crowd grew completely silent and several of the people tugged on their friends’ sleeves to get them to pay attention to the man.
“It’s the Azure Pill Saint!” a girl whispered to her friend while looking at him with fanatic eyes.
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