As the Disciple carrying Elder Dragon Fang walked out of his sight, escorted by Vala, Solara leaned over to whisper in Cain's ear.
"You know that the Elder is going to make you pay for that, right? Calling her over and forcing her to endure being petted for hours at a time is not something that such an esteemed Cultivator will easily forget and forgive."
"You've got that right. I think that next time she is here, I will offer to teach her the Evil Eye technique. If looks could kill, she would have burned me to ashes today." Cain agreed.
"And you did it anyhow?" Solara asked, startled that Cain had noticed but hadn't changed his course of action.
"Of course. As Luna said, she is very soft. Plus, even a super serious Elder like her needs some pampering now and then." Cain chuckled, then turned to the crowd.
Cain looked up at the crowd, who were all eager to try to catch his attention since the last request hadn't challenged anyone's Sect directly. They also realized that this Elder had been working all day and had given far more benefit than most were willing to share, so the show would surely be coming to an end soon.
Their fears were confirmed when Cain spoke again. "This will be the last one that I have time for today. The others will have to wait until I find the time again."
"When will that be? Do you have any timeline?" One of the Cultivators in the back asked.
"I can't say for sure. I need to train my Disciples before I will have time to hold another demonstration. I am sure you all understand keeping the Disciples in line is the duty of every Sect Elder." Cain responded.
That made sense to all of them, and though his disciples seemed well-behaved, they had been snacking on sandwiches and pastries for hours now without spending any time in meditation, a waste of valuable time in the early stages of their growth.
Being their only Elder present, it was up to Cain to keep them progressing, and letting them slack all the time would reflect poorly on him when they returned home. Most of the crowd assumed that they were just a visiting Sect, too small for their own camp, and not a solitary Cultivator who had inexplicably taken in a half dozen Disciples.
That thought would be enough to make many of them laugh out loud. Wandering Cultivators tended to be either extreme eccentrics, focused on a single task that they hadn't accomplished, or criminals who couldn't remain in one spot. Therefore, it never occurred to the crowd that there were no more members of the Forbidden Treasures Sect.
"To make this more fair to those gathered here, everyone needs to write their name on a piece of paper, then place it on the table in front of me. I will have one of my Disciples pick a slip, and then I will try to fill that request." Cain suggested.
That got a lot of attention from the back of the crowd, who thought that they had little chance today since nobody would want their Sect's techniques recreated, and they weren't close enough to be directly called upon.
One after another, the gathered crowd came forward to put their names on the table in a procession lasting nearly half an hour until finally, the flow of Cultivators either dried up or those in front of them blocked any potential additions.
"Good news, everyone, we are ready for the draw. Now, we will have the lovely Miss Luna, whose fingers are sticky with fudge from her most recent snack pick a name." Cain declared, earning himself a look of annoyance from his daughter before she licked her fingers clean.
Luna leaned over the table and swept her hand through the collected names twice, thoroughly shuffling them and tossing a few unfortunate ones to the ground before she delicately picked one from the top of the rearranged pile and handed it to Cain.
"Elder Shang of the Divine Phoenix Sect, please step forward," Cain called as he read the name on the slip.
Elder Shang looked exactly like Cain thought a venerable Elder should. Long white hair, a Fu Manchu mustache with a braided beard that reached below his ribs, and a slightly hunched posture that was clearly an affectation hiding the powerful body under the crimson robes.
"I am Elder Shang." The old man greeted Cain politely, clasping his fist in a traditional greeting.
"Today is a fortuitous day for us all. But I believe this final request of the day might be a bit more daunting, even for one with your varied knowledge. One of my Elders has made a grave mistake while cultivating and has destroyed his cultivation potential. I wish to find the lost Divine Phoenix Resurrection Skill to reincarnate him so he may begin over."
Cain searched for a moment and realized that he didn't know any such skill. He knew various ones that did the same thing, reincarnation as a child, with the same potential you were born with in your last life, but not that one.
So, he resorted to the basic tactic of all Puppet Masters and Summoned a Divine Phoenix into a merger with him.
That wasn't the same thing, their reincarnation was a bloodline ability and not a skill, but it might do the same thing.
[Phoenix, do you know how to do that?] Cain asked, recalling the question so the Divine bird knew what he was talking about.
[That's not reincarnation. It is regression. You can find it under my Spirit Rank skills.] the Phoenix explained.
Cain looked it over and found that it was indeed there, restoring a body to an earlier state and recovering its potential to what it was born with. It could be done with a single drop of blood, so in a way, it was a reincarnation, but not in the eyes of the Phoenix.
[Or the stupid man could have asked politely for a single drop of blood and recovered from the damage that he did to himself.] The Phoenix laughed in Cain's mind, sounding more like a happy crow than a divine creature.
[Stupidity should be painful. Maybe he will make fewer mistakes in his second life.] Cain agreed, then took out his pen to begin the work.
"The skill you seek is called [Regression], and it can restore a living being to a childhood state from even a drop of blood. That is a Spirit Rank skill and not an easy one to make. Did you consider asking the Divine Phoenix that guards your Sect to donate a drop of blood instead?" Cain asked.
"The Elder offended the Divine Guardian a little over five thousand years ago, and it hasn't forgiven him yet." Elder Shang explained, and a few of the bystanders' eyes lit up in understanding, now knowing who he was there to help.
Cain had thought the haughty bird simply didn't see the man as being worthy of a second chance at life, but for someone from the Divine Phoenix Sect to actually offend a living Divine Phoenix seemed like an incredibly poor judgment call.
"Are you sure they deserve a second chance? I mean, they did offend the Divine Guardian." Cain asked.
Elder Shang chuckled and stroked his beard. "Honestly, no. But I have been sent by my Sect Master to find the skill to perform the reincarnation anyhow."
"In that case, can I substitute a less sensitive skill? I know some that won't offend the Phoenix, and you can use them instead." Cain offered.
Elder Shang was unable to believe what he had heard. "What sort of skill could emulate the Divine Phoenix's legendary power?"
"Well, we have a few options. [Dark Phylactory] will create a new body for you upon death. It will even look just like the original and start out as a child, needing to rebuild its power. In function, it is similar. Or we have [Eternal Bloodshed], which will bring him back as a young adult and save him from rebuilding the base stages of his cultivation." Cain offered.
Elder Shang shook his head. "An Undead skill would be unsuitable for our methods, but what is the second one? I have never heard of it before."
Cain read the description and realized that it came from Carnage, the Legendary Wrath Demon, as a blessing for worthy opponents that he killed so that he could find them and kill them again later.
"It belongs to the Wrath Demons," Cain replied simply.
The Elder shook his head. "No, that one is definitely out. The Sect Master would never let an Elder learn Demon skills."
Cain thought for a moment, finding the other skills that he could find were almost all undead skills, some with Elemental secondary traits. Even [Regression] was a form of Undead Skill with a heavy Fire Elemental influence.
Cain was about to agree to make the Regression skill if the man could come up with a sufficient payment when the piercing shriek of a mighty beast cut through the air, and a red flaming orb crashed to the ground beside Elder Shang, revealing a small girl with hair made of feathers.
"Don't even think of it, old man. I told you, the Divine Phoenix Clan won't help him until he has made amends." The girl informed the crimson-robed Elder in a very serious but childlike tone.
"Please forgive him, Lady Paula. He didn't mean it, and he has spent millennia trying to make up for his mistake." Elder Shang begged.
"No. He called my feathers ugly. I won't forgive him so easily." The Phoenix declared, and the audience gasped.
Not even they would dare to say something so idiotic. Any novice disciple of the Divine Phoenix Sect should have known better, much less an Elder.
[Why not curse the man instead? The Phoenix Blessing is under the control of the Phoenix, so she could just make it activate every time he reaches the Immortal Realm instead of every time he dies.] The Phoenix in Cain's mind suggested.
[Simple, safe, and surprisingly bloodthirsty. I like the way you think.] Cain responded.
