Arthur's eyes widened in shock when he read what she had to say.
He asked just to be sure that she didn't make a mistake, "War? She wanted war?"
"Please tell me we are not going to war with the other four sects right when the Red and Blue Fire sect is about to invade. Wouldn't we be weakening ourselves and reducing our chances of victory that way?"
She replied, "She didn't get what she wanted. That's why she was so angry with Void Claw earlier."
Arthur was surprised again. He said, "You don't mean to say Void Claw was the one who refused to let her have her way."
She said, "No. But Void Claw had a hand in the denial of war. Every golden core elder had a hand in it. They all left the sect and went into hiding. So she couldn't force them to fight her war."
When Arthur heard this, he realized something. What he realized made him ask, "Are you saying the mission that all of them are on, and why they couldn't attend the council hall meeting in person, is just a sham?"
She replied, "That's exactly what I'm saying."
Arthur said, "I see. A lot of things make sense now. I was wondering why two new golden core elders were the ones sent on such an important mission. Now I know that it is because the ones that should have been sent were slacking off somewhere else."
She said, "Yes. Every one of them ran away and refused to be present for the exchange program, so we had to do their job. But it seems that Void Claw will still be present for the final stage of the exchange program. I bet he is willing to come because he can run away from her if need be."
At this point, Arthur chuckled and said, "You were right to make us discuss this matter here. This is not something that Lady Evergreen would like to hear at all."
She said in agreement, "If I were her and heard this, I would also be pissed. Fortunately, we have the Sect ID card, so we can discuss in safety."
Arthur nodded to himself as he texted, "We also have the oath we swore to the sect that will ensure that she can't kill us. If we were in the Black Bones sect, I doubt we would have anything to save our hides after pissing off one of the patriarchs of the sect."
The two of them shared some laughs. Then they ended the conversation.
The conversation they had on the sect ID card wasn't a long one. It was over by the time he arrived home and ran into Roar.
The big golden dog was very happy to see him. He howled and jumped around in excitement. Then jumped onto Arthur and asked him to carry him.
Arthur humored him because they hadn't seen each other in a year. He even gave Roar gifts.
What he gave Roar was a large, juicy bone of a rank 4 beast. The bone was that of a femur, so it was very long. And because the bone was from a giant beast much bigger than Roar, the bone was nearly as big as he was.
The bone was so large that Roar couldn't get a good bite of it. Despite the large size, Roar liked it very much and couldn't stop talking about how great it was. He liked the challenge very much.
Arthur said to him, "If you advance to the fourth mortal coil, then you will be able to get this kind of bone anytime you want. You can just enter the green forest to get it."
Roar said, "I see what this is. This is your scheme to get me to work hard in cultivation. It won't work."
Arthur rolled his eyes at the lazy dog. But he still made one last attempt to encourage Roar.
He said, "If you don't advance, your lifespan will be limited to 150 years."
The lifespan of dogs isn't as long as that of humans, so instead of the 250 years that humans at the third mortal coil can live up to, dogs usually live for around 150 years before they die of old age.
But Roar wasn't too concerned about his lifespan. He shrugged his large shoulders and said, "I don't mind. I'm not even 40 years old yet, so I still have a lot of time on my hands to enjoy myself. You don't have to worry about me."
With this failure, Arthur decided to give up on him.
He said, "Take care then. We who have a bright and long life ahead of us still need to work hard and cultivate."
Roar gnawed on the large bone while saying, "Let's just hope that you don't die early. If someone were to kill you, your long lifespan won't matter."
He had a point. So Arthur said in admiration, "Is it me, or have you gotten smarter while I was away?"
Roar continued to bite the large bone as he said, "Maybe I've gotten smarter because I have seen through life. After you left, I had a lot of time to think. What I thought about most of the time was whether you would return or die out there."
"After thinking about that for a long time, I realize that I didn't want to ever be in a situation where my life and death were uncertain. I realized that I don't care if I live a long life. I just want to live a good, enjoyable one."
Arthur sighed and said, "Then I wish you good luck in your endeavors."
Roar replied, "You too."
Arthur knew then and there that Roar's path would end there.
He had some hope in the past that Roar would change his mind. But after hearing what Roar just said, he decided to give up completely. So he left Roar with a heavy heart.
Fortunately, he had something to cheer him up, so his heart wasn't heavy for long.
The formation breaker said to him, "I will never leave you, father."