Chương 81: BEING UNDERESTIMATED IS ANOTHER SOURCE OF STREN.

***On Planet Gieă, In the Outskirts of the Continent 'Eclipse of the Oceans', Chingford's Academy's Master Hall..

*** Swordsmanship Master Gifren Chen Office..

"This disciple's name is Marien Lee and the commotion began because I learnt that the other disciple sitting next to me had taken my sister's life..", Marien Lee says calmly while pointing to Navi without looking at him but Navi remains silent to his claims as the Master continues his questioning.

"How are you sure he took your sister's life when he is nothing but a thirteen years old kid with little martial training?, Do you have evidence or witnesses?..", Master Gifren Chen calmly asks with a cold blade of doubt in his tone.

"There were witnesses, infact four witnesses to his murder but he also killed them all!.", Marien Lee responds with venom in his tone while Martial master Gifren Chen couldn't help but calmly raise his brows to such absurd claims.

He is a Sword Master and has coached the Swordsmanship morning class that Navi takes a couple of times. A young kid training amongst adults isn't hard to spot and with features as unique as Navi's orange eyes and ink-black hair, he isn't easy to forget either.

The Swordsman's Martial Master knows well that Navi has just recently begun Swordsmanship training at the beginning of this Martial term(A week ago) and he also knows that, well.. Navi's a kid.

Half of the disciples in here are too cuddled up to have ever truly seen the flowing blood of a beast talk-more that of a person. There have been cases of fainting, shock and lots of vomiting during practical lessons done in the wild.

The Martial master knows well that as Cultivators, blood and killing should come naturally to you but he also knows that all Cultivators need time to truly accept and become one with this harsh fact but now, someone is telling him that a kid not only killed his sister but also killed four other eye-witnesses!.

With a very open mind, the Master calls.. Bullshit!.

"If the Witnesses were killed then how do you know he is the killer?..", The Martial master dutifully asks even though he is already internally finalising the case as either an upsetting waste of time or another case of a Martial disciple frying a bit of his brain after trying to take in mana for the first time. What does he know, the blabbing youth in front of him might not even have a sister!.

"I found their corpses..*Gulp*.", Marien Lee says while gulping emotionally as the Martial master's face crunches up a bit at this strong and emotional claim.

"..After nine days of not seeing my sister, I couldn't take it anymore and I paid a huge price to hire a tracking master and his Wild dog. With their help, I was able to track my sister down to his house.", Marien Lee says and Master Gifren Chen could sense the emotions building in his chest thus forcing him to listen a bit more attentively.

"At his front door, the Tracking dog sensed a lot of dried blood and on the inside, it sensed even more blood belonging to different people!.", Marien Lee says while Navi finally turns to look at him with indifference still on his face.

Who does this Marien Lee think he is to invite himself into his house without permission?!.

Navi's heartbeats slows down once more but he proves to have a good hold on his emotions as he looks forward at the veil once more while Marien Lee continues his story.

"I found out that most of the blood at the entrance was my sisters. *Gulp* And Tracking with the blood, I found where my sister and four other people were messily buried. *Takes deep breath*,.. The Slash mark across their rotting corspes and light armours were most likely from a Claymore sword which he specialises at and his light smell were on their rotting corpses!", Marien Lee says with his body now trembling from rage as he barely stops himself from shooting a glare at Navi who is sitting next to him.

Hearing this story, Martial Master Gifren Chen couldn't help but lightly frown as a picture sets up in his mind though one thing didn't just seem to fit into the picture to him, Navi!.

If it was someone else, someone bigger, older and probably talented enough to have sensed mana then the picture the master's mind is painting would be nothing short but perfect yet, all the master has got to fit the killer in the story is a twelve and half year old with a one week experience with swinging wooden swords and a four month journey of having been introduced to martial arts!.

It just doesn't make sense that someone like this is capable of killing!.

It makes even less sense that someone like this somehow pulled off a five against one when even the most talented beginners in the Academy's grounds would desperately struggle with a held back three against one spar-and these people were much older and tougher!-.

Giving out a light breath, the netty veil hides Martial Master Gifren Chen's figure but not his movements as he turns his gaze to Navi and then he asks..

"Do you know what could have caused this misunderstanding?..", Master Gifren Chen calmly asks while Navi eloquently replies with salutations.

"Master Gifren Chen, this disciple's name is Navi and I know the cause of this situation. Twelve days ago, on the day the Martial term ended I was on my way home only to discover I was being stalked. It took a bit of thinking but the intentions of the stalkers were clear, they wanted to take away my wealth and then silence me permanently.", Navi calmly explains while Master Gifren Chen gives a small nod as a clearer picture comes to his mind.

Cases of disciples performing cruel acts like this was anything but uncommon. These disciples needed money for the Academy which is their only hope at sensing mana and ever truly stepping into the border separating cultivators from mortals(Taking mana into their bodies).

Unless absolutely necessary, the Academy turns a complete blind eye to such acts as the world of cultivation is strictly survival of the fittest. There are only winners and losers and no such feeble things like victims and villains. Infact, thinking of it in this direction then the fact that Marien Lee's sister is involved in such things means he(Marie Lee) is also most likely a part of the flock.

Nobody knows what horrible things they had done or rather 'he has done' as people like this have activities that range from robbery to murder to kidnappings and sometimes even viler taboo things like r*pe and worse. Some of them don't even do it for the money but rather just for the thrill of tramping on the weak!.

With the picture of what had taken place becoming clearer, the martial master continues to listen to Navi.

"Discovering their plan early, I formed a counter attack plan in my mind. They struck my home at night and I defended against them by.. killing them all.", Navi calmly explains much to the sudden surprise of the master and to the visible anger and grief of Marien Lee who lets out a small pained groan as he lightly trembles.

"How exactly did you kill them?..", Master Gifren Chen asks calmly with an obvious bit of doubt in his tone. He obviously didn't care much for the lost lives.. infact, good riddance in the master's opinion but he is curious about how Navi could have pulled off such a brutal feat. The fact that the kid didn't sound even a tiny bit remorseful also intrigued him.

"They were sloppy due to the element of surprise, they didn't take me seriously and they were separated. I had the advantage of a pepper bomb that took away the most valuable assets in a battle, Sight.", Navi explains while casually undermining his own strenght with the lie of a pepper bomb. -One's strenght no matter how tiny or great should always be vastly underestimated by your opposition because being underestimated is sometimes another source of strenght.-, his mother had taught him that.

Master Gifren Chen looks at Navi for a couple more seconds while not exactly believing or doubting his words and then he turns his attention back to Marien Lee.

"How do you propose this to be settled?.", Master Gifren Chen calmly asks as per the regulations of such an incident. He didn't care much for the deaths and killing but the fact that Navi had left sloppy ends means he would have to bear the consequences no matter if he's in the right, wrong or somewhere completely outside the box.

"With his life, with his bones marked by my spear, with his blood in the dirt and with the world watching as he pays the price of killing my only blood!.", Marien Lee says with everyone in the room feeling the determination and cold killing intent in his voice.

Unbothered by Marien's ill intents directed towards him, Navi calmly collects new information about Marien from his words. -'So he's a Spearmanship disciple.'-, Navi ponders to himself with zero shift in his expression.

"If you want a death duel then the Academy would reinvestigate and decide whether or not to grant you one. Given the evidence and the confession made, you would mostly likely get the go ahead and.. as the defendant in this case you have no voice to refuse the duel if granted.", Master Gifren Chen says while calmly looking to Navi's calm figure through the netty veil. Obviously, the other half of the master's sentence was directed to him.

"Refusal to defend your honour and duel to death would earn you a dishonourable execution. Both of you are to return to your spaces and await re-summoning. The next time an uncalled-for commotion is caused by either of you two would be your last time in these Academy's grounds. Is my message understood?!..", Master Gifren Chen says calmly but his words comes very heavily.

"We understand Master..", Navi and Marien Lee both say calmly with small forward bows but Master Gifren Chen ignores their petty gestures as he soon continues speaking.

"Both of you wouldn't be allowed out of the Academy till everything regarding the duel is decided. You can both take your leave.", Master Gifren Chen commands.

Both disciples bow once more then rise to their feet before quietly exiting the Master's office and presence.