He asked her with a frown, "What does your hunting problems have to do with me? If you want me to hunt a beast at the second mortal coil with you, you can forget about it."
She replied with a snort. "If you wait and let me finish what I was saying, you will find out."
She continued, "So as I was saying. I don't like the uncertainty and danger concerning the hunting. But then I heard that a group of people has been entering the green forest to hunt together."
"Beasts at the second mortal coil usually ignore weaklings at the first mortal coil. They would only attack when they are hungry, which is not often. But that might change if humans enter its territory as if they are going to war."
The more Arthur heard, the more his eyes twitched. He was beginning to understand that he might be in big trouble, and instead of his mother coming to warn him, she came to take advantage of his mistake.
She continued smugly, "So I've been coming here these past few days hoping to see one of the beasts get lured out so that I can fight it without being surrounded. Unfortunately, my plan hasn't worked yet, so I decided to kick things up a notch, as you say."
He asked her, "I've been asking you this question for days now. You would always insist that you were bored and came here to see me. What changed today? Why are you telling me the truth today?"
She laughed and said, "I am telling you now because there is nothing you can do to stop my plan anymore. I finally got the python-attracting powder that I want and sprinkled it on one or two of your students earlier before they went to the forest."
She whispered to him, "I decided to stop waiting passively and make active moves in order to get what I want. Hence, I came earlier and used one of your students as bait."
Then she laughed and said, "Now that they are in the forest, there is very little you can do about it. You don't know who I sprinkled the powder on and where they are in the forest. You can't even reach out to them. You will have to wait for them to come out on their own."
"Even if you could somehow communicate with them, the best you can do is to tell them to retreat all at once. The movement of so many prey at once will surely attract a strong beast. So the best thing you can do is wait and let the snake-attracting powder do its job."
"Don't worry. The powder is special. It will only attract a snake beast at the second mortal coil. Their movements are usually huge, and I will be able to hear it. You will also be able to hear it and will be able to escape."
"Of course, your student with the powder won't be so lucky. Maybe many of them won't be so lucky either.*
He sighed and said, "No wonder you complimented my dojo earlier and praised its usefulness. It turned out that you did that because it was akso useful for you."
She shrugged and said "Don't be so optimistic. Your students can still turn out to be useless and my plan fails. I don't want that to happen, but I won't be surprised if it does happen."
He gritted his teeth and said, "Should I hope that my students are good enough for your plan to work or inadequate for your plan to fail? You leave me with no way out. Either way, I am going to lose something."
She shook her head. "That's not true. I left you a way out when I didn't come earlier. I have been having this problem for a year now, but I didn't take advantage of your students because I know that they are very useful to you."
"But now that you have almost acquired all the hunting points you need for your preparation for the next regional exam, I felt that it was time for me to take advantage. So I care about your needs too."
"I also told you my plan and didn't leave you in the dark. I didn't need to do that at all and certainly didn't do it just to gloat and make you angry. I told you because you are powerful and have a great future, and I respect you."
That caught him off guard a little. He looked at his mother strangely and said, "I didn't expect to hear that from you. I didn't think you were so considerate."
She chuckled and said, "Why? Because you think I am too proud and selfish, or that I can't ever be honest?"
"If thay is what you think, then you are wrong. I am proud, but there are a few people that I respect. One of them is your father Augustus. The other one is you."
He still couldn't believe it, so she said, "Don't be surprised and don't underestimate yourself either. Maybe you don't know your own potential or what others think about you."
"You are a 14-year-old boy, yet you managed to defeat the pressure of other dojos and open a dojo where you teach mana techniques for free. That is an absurd achievement."
She chuckled when she said that. Then she said, "There is also the fact that you've been distributing bread in the city for more than three years. You never missed a day. I don't care about that, but I have to admit that it is quite something."
"What I do care about is that your chances of getting into a sect and getting into a good one are almost certain. With your potential, I am willing to bet that you will definitely reach the third mortal coil."
"Maybe you will even go further than that. It is why, as a fellow cultivator, I respect you, and I look up to you. As your mother, I am proud of you."