"Ok, seriously, what do we do about him?" Ares pointed at the hatch that was being banged on from the opposite side by the old pervert. "I don't want him in this house but if it means letting him roam free across the sect and causing trouble then letting him go isn't a great option either."
Yulo sighed and scratched his head. "Yeah, Tai is a bit of a problem isn't he? I like to use the cultivation chamber down there too but that means letting him out so I never feel comfortable during longer sessions. I have to ask Rud to keep an eye out on him and make sure he stays in the house. It was fine when only I lived here but it's only natural you wouldn't want that right? I did say he was the uncle that showed up to family gatherings before but, in hindsight, he's the kind of uncle you wouldn't want anywhere near your family..."
"Do we really have to keep him in the sect? He just seems like a massive fiend not worth putting up with." If it were up to Ares, he would have gotten rid of him already.
"I mean not really. If you absolutely must you can kick him out but it doesn't feel right considering how much effort he put into this sect. It wasn't exactly doing well before he came along. Personality aside, though it's hard to ignore, he was pretty respectable when it came to doing paperwork... Though we had to lock him in a room and have Rud supervise him to make sure he didn't sneak out and go around asking female disciples for backrubs... Then again, that was far more tame than the times he asked for front-rubs..."
"What are your thoughts on castration?" Ares unlocked the hatch, threw several Flashbangs inside the staircase to purify the demon, and shut it again. The old man screamed 'my eyes' over and over again as he fell down the stairs once more. "Bellona has a cleaver in her spatial ring and she knows how to use it." Ares had seen her commit indescribable horrors to that one young master from Isaz back in Remmy's restaurant and the memory was never going to fade. "Better yet, why did you even ask me to look for longevity enhancing resources for this pig? Couldn't we just let him die off and make the world a better place?" Ares was really regretting handing over the survival violet he found in Xasca.
"Again, he really pulled the sect out of its slump. I hate to say it but he worked hard... When he was actually working anyway. Actually, now that I think about it, all three of us have very different styles as sect masters. You are all action based, and would rather move about to solve issues than sit at a desk. Tai is the complete opposite, he can handle mountains of paperwork as he's fuelled by his desires, and only ever moves directly when he's trying to peep into women's baths. I'm in the middle somewhere. I didn't give up on cultivation but I didn't use it outside the sect, sticking to prophecies of the future to navigate troubles that would have caused the sect grief while also sorting documents here and there." Three different generations of sect master, three different approaches. Ares was a bit radical in terms of how drastically he was shaking up the status quo but things were looking promising under him so there was nothing more to say about his methods.
"That's great and all but I can't help but feel like you're getting sidetracked. Competent sect master aside, I think we need to get back to discussing his personality some more..."
Flashbang Flashbang Flashbang
Peppering the old pervert with punishment here and there brought Ares much joy. It was a shame he didn't hear the sound of bones breaking as Tai fell down the stairs but, alas, he was still a cultivator near the transition realm so he wouldn't suffer anything major from something so minor. "I don't want Tai in my house, categorically, and I don't exactly want him in the sect either. I've just taken over so if I let that wrinkly beast out my reputation will take a serious hit. I don't want all the female disciples and elders to think I'm accepting of some rampant pervert prowling the sect."
"I guess there is a solution... But Rud's not going to be happy about it."
"When is Rud ever happy? I would rather make him upset than have to deal with Tai. Rather, I'll give anyone who can handle Tai in my stead a raise."
"Alright then." With a nod, Yulo exited the house and began walking over to the edge of the hill. Ares and Enyo followed him, with the former making sure to Flashbang the old man a few more times before locking the hatch, and watched as Yulo leant over the brick fence and cupped his hands in front of his mouth. Yulo channeled some mana into his voice and yelled "RUUUUUDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!" This was probably the loudest Yulo had ever been in his entire life, he wasn't one to shout like this. Perhaps because of how unusual it was, Rud, or one of his many clones anyway, showed up almost immediately at the bottom of the hill. "PREPARE THE MAXIMUM DETENTION FACILITY!"
Ares could only just barely hear Rud curse like a sailor but he was really going at it down there. His swearing tirade was followed by a loud sigh, resignation, and a slow march to go inform his other clones about the order. Specifically, it was the disciplinary Rud that was going to have to bear the brunt of the command. Ares, curious about this facility he was previously unaware of, directed a questioning glance and raised eyebrows towards Yulo who gave an explanation.
"I mean, it's fairly self explanatory right? We have normal prisons, for disciples who act up, thieves, and various other criminals, but we also have a cell designed for the most troublesome of captives. We don't use it often anymore, it was originally created for holding prisoners of war with high status like that of a general or anyone of noble birth, but it does come in handy when dealing with Tai. Rud must have realised why I was asking him for this favour so naturally he's not looking forward to having to put up with Tai and make sure he doesn't escape."
"Escape? Surely if this detention facility is as impressive as it sounds there should be no need to worry about that?"
As Yulo's head shook, he rubbed his tired eyes and stretched his limbs a little. "You'd think so right? We used to put Tai in the regular prisons to keep him at bay but he got good at breaking out due to how often we shoved him in there. He's a bit like a rat in a maze in that he always seems to find his way out eventually. Locked rooms, prison cells, nothing could hold him back after a while as he got really proficient at slipping through various cracks. Even now we don't know how he does it so we have to keep a constant eye on him, even in the detention facility, lest he sneaks out. Honestly, I'm amazed he hasn't already broken through the hatch..."
"Bah! of course I have!" As if on cue, Tai appeared behind Yulo and pat him on the head with a wide smirk. Ares was a mixture of agitated and impressed. On the one hand, he was starting to realise how annoying this old man really was. On the other hand, getting out of the locked hatch was worthy of respect in its own way. Still, Ares recognised that a slippery pervert was a disastrous combination and his resolve to get rid of Tai only doubled... "Hey, it's the pretty lady again! So, about my last request..."
Squash
This time, Enyo took action herself and flattened Tai with a barrier. He was crushed on the floor and his limbs were spread out such that he took on a running man shape. If somebody drew a chalk outline around him it might look like a crime scene. Not much minding if he turned it into one, Ares was tempted to end Tai's existence right here and now. If it weren't for the fact that Yulo seemed reluctant to allow it Ares didn't mind solving the problem for once and for all!
"Gah! Guh... Ah, mmm..." Noisily groaning, Tai was fidgeting under the barrier and trying to shift his way out of the barrier. Credit where credit was due, he came pretty close before Enyo summoned more barriers to lock him down. Had she left it as is, Tai might have been the first person to ever escape her barriers. It wasn't even magic, he was just a fully determined roach. The sooner he broke loose the sooner he could perv on women again. Though his source of unparalleled energy was worrisome it was impossible not to be awed at his determination... "Uh... You know... Maybe this isn't so bad after all? Getting crushed... By a pretty lady... Is its own kind of reward..."
"Ok, that's enough of that." Ares refused to let this farce carry on any longer and any respect he had for this oddly talented weirdo was long gone. Enyo removed her barrier and Ares lifted Tai with his telekinesis, hovering him over the edge of the hill.
"Hm? Oh, hey! Look! I can see Rud from here! HEY RUD! IT'S ME! YOU REMEMBER ME RIGHT!?" Tai's friendly wave was met with more incoherent cursing from down below. "Haha, it's good to see old friends again. Hey, fake sect master..." Calling out to Ares, and arbitrarily deciding he wasn't the sect master he claimed to be, Tai failed to realise he wasn't in a position to be making demands. "... Let me go see Rud! Put me down there at the bottom of the hill... But do it gently! We're really high up after allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!"
With a forward throw of his hands, Ares chucked the old man over the side of the hill and mercilessly sent him rolling down it. Without sparing him another glance Ares walked away, dusting his hands and satisfied to be rid of that intolerable cretin. For the first time since meeting Rud, Ares felt some sympathy towards him for what he was about to put him through. Still, Ares really didn't want to deal with Tai himself, he had more important things to be doing. Like Yulo said, he was an active sect master / cultivator so he didn't have time to babysit that old man day in, day out. "I can't pretend that meeting didn't sour my mood somewhat but, overall, I'm really pleased with the house." Preferring not to mention Tai anymore, or even waste brain space thinking about him, Ares moved on and got back on track to the main reason he was even here.
"You switch gears fast." Yulo shook his head and decided to take a leaf from Ares' book, ignoring the hassle that was just dumped on Rud. Tai wasn't powerful but he was hard to pin down and kill so the chances of him not surviving that fall down the hill were slim. Though Yulo felt somewhat bad about putting Rud in this position it was either that or letting Ares kill / excommunicate Tai. "Well, when you're done looking through the house, I'll show you to the treasury. As for the house, you can start moving in whenever."
"Thanks but what about you? You said you weren't leaving the sect just yet right? Do you have somewhere to stay?"
"During my travels I found a neat treasure that functions as a portable house. It's called the Brick By Brick." Yulo flicked his wrist and a two metre tall, commensurately wide, square of layered bricks appeared out of thin air from his spatial ring. "It doesn't look like much but there's a lot of spatial magic involved and, believe it or not, there's an entire house, with all the works, inside that brick booth." Yulo poked a brick that was slightly darker than the rest and the front side of the brick square crumbled into the floor, revealing a mostly wooden interior that was far larger than the exterior would have anyone believe. There was an entire ground floor, open kitchen, lounge, fireplace, and so much more than could be seen just form the entrance. This was really an entire house and, actually might even be better than most. For something portable it was quite an incredible luxury. Yulo shut the front door and chuckled lightly. "In addition, it blends in well." Sure enough, depending on the angle Ares looked at from, it camouflaged well with the brick fence behind it.
"I once used the Brick By Brick during an assassination mission in a rich merchant's residence. I put this treasure up against a brick wall near the back of the merchant's mansion and peacefully rested in it for three days and nights with the target none-the-wiser. My prophetic magic told me exactly when the merchant would be taking a stroll right by my secret hut and I simply leant out my front door, broke his neck as he passed, and dragged his corpse inside the building. The guards were clueless and the ensuing week long hunt for the perpetrator netted them zero results. I think the guards themselves were ultimately blamed for the disappearance of the merchant because there was no other plausible explanation. It must not have helped that I eventually dumped the body in a bush nearby afterwards. When they found it they pinpointed the location as being along the path the guards patrolled regularly so for it to not have been found until then, combined with the merchant disappearing under their watch, heavily signalled their involvement. I wasn't trying to frame them, really, but it just sort of worked out that way. Context clues all pointed to the guards from every angle so they were tried and hung." Yulo was an adventurous sort before he became the sect master so it was interesting to hear about some of his heyday deeds. "Fun fact, one of my lady friends happened to be the person who hired me to kill the merchant in the first place. They were business rivals and the merchant had been using some rather unscrupulous means to get an edge over her." Reminiscing fondly, Yulo smiled at the thought of one of his partners. Ares and Enyo both could empathise with him because it wasn't that long ago Ares disappeared for a spell to go on his own journey to Xasca. Even then that separation duration was only a drop in the bucket compared to how long Yulo had been away from his partners.
"Might as well go see the treasury now, I guess?" Ares had no real reason to stay here any longer so he wanted to get a move on.
"I'll stay here with the others." Enyo chimed in and started walking back towards the house. "I think everyone really wants to move in as quick as possible so, though you'll be busy, we'll probably get started hauling stuff over. We have plenty of spatial rings so we'll make it work somehow." Not having Ares' limitless Primordial Blade storage meant it might take a few trips to get everything moved from their current house but the excitement of living in this fancy house was palpable. Everyone was running around and having a blast, as far as Enyo and Ares could see through the windows, so there was no reason to delay their move just because Ares wasn't able to lend a hand right now. Ares originally assumed it would take two or so days to move in fully but, given how pumped everyone was, they might get it done by the end of tomorrow. Ares had no issues with this, if anything it meant he'd be able to come and rest here as soon as he was done setting up his new additions to the sect.
"Alright, if there's any issues let me know." Realistically there shouldn't be anything troubling them but Ares was more so concerned about the weasel Tai sneaking his way out of prison and heading back here. His fixation for women meant he was obviously quite taken by Enyo who was easily the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Ares wasn't sure if it was necessary or not but he'd have to set up some runic traps to keep him at bay on the off chance he tried to come back here. There was also a chance Tai would want to use the chamber again, to try and break through to the transition realm fully, but he'd lost that privilege the second he made it obvious he was a disgusting human. As Ares was leaving with Yulo, he put up some rough groundwork for defensive mechanisms with his annihilation magic and left it at that for now. The mechanism was simple, it would send out a an explosive pulse that pushed intruders off the hill, but that was good enough for an early prototype. It's not like Tai could fly, his cultivation base wasn't high enough for that, so just 'relocating' him with a 'gentle' 'shove' ought to suffice. Ares was more worried about Tai falling on the heads of disciples than he was about Tai himself so he made a mental note to put a sign at the bottom of the hill that would read 'beware of falling perverts'.
Yulo and Ares made their way down the elevator and through the sect, eventually winding up at a remote location but one heavily guarded. To Ares, this place looked quite serene. There was a small lake with a large rocky outcrop behind it and a waterfall overhead. It seemed like this was the classic 'cave behind the waterfall' trick that everyone and their mother was familiar with. It wasn't exactly a well hidden treasury but there was probably nowhere else to put it. This was the only place with any space for such a large vault so the sect just had to make do with it. Plus nobody had even attempted to raid the treasury in over thirty years so it's not like they needed to be on high alert or anything. There were plenty of hidden traps and elders stationed nearby so unless a peak transition realm expert arrived there was no need to worry. Anyone strong enough to break through forcefully wouldn't escape Yulo's notice, and subsequently his fists, so this place was ultimately impenetrable to any Sheryashkan not granted permission to be here.
Ares was led behind the waterfall and down a winding, cavernous path until the two wound up in front of a large steel, round gate. Yulo fiddled with it for a bit and it opened with a sharp burst of steam spraying off to the side. Yulo would have explained to Ares the various security mechanisms but doing so would take up time and he couldn't be bothered. Rud knew it all too so he was putting that responsibility on him down the line. It was already good enough that Yulo was taking time out to show Ares around; he wanted to go and nap after going through the draining ceremony earlier.
"Wow, this place is bigger than I thought it would be..." Unbale to help but compare the goods in here to the goods for sale, Ares had assumed there wouldn't be anything of note within the treasury. Most of the stuff here wasn't at a calibre that would leave Ares drooling but it wasn't subpar either. There were some resources with strong auras and treasures with dangerous sheens. He couldn't help but wonder what all these Knick-Knacks were but, ultimately, they weren't for him to touch. If he really wanted something, he could technically take it but it would be frowned upon for the most part. At the very least, Ares would have to trade something of equal value in order to take something out. That being said, there was, at first glance, nothing he was interested in. Rather, Ares had veered off to the side and found a blank wall that was perfect for what he wanted to do next. Yulo wandered over after him and noticed Ares carrying a yellowish orb of some kind that he didn't recognise.
"What's that you've got there? If you want to place something withing the treasury you should always notify the Rud clone out front first." Ares and Yulo had passed by said clone earlier but he was, unsurprisingly, asleep and so they didn't bother him as it was just a quick tour and nothing more.
"This? It's not a treasure or a resource," Ares said with a grin. "You can think of this as a seed; one that can plant a new friend of sorts, one who's going to help oversee the treasury and sect."
"A friend?"
"Yep, his name is Tom Tom."