"Is... is it broken?" Alistair broke the agonizing silence, his voice cracking slightly.
Sensing that Alistair wanted to check the Orb, Dylan withdrew his hands and allowed Alistair to hold it.
Alistair quickly leaned over the table, touching the glass sphere with a trembling hand. Instantly, five bright lights and one faint, flickering spark ignited at its core, proving that the mechanism was still perfectly functional.
This only meant one thing: It wasn't broken.
It was just entirely unbothered by Dylan's touch.
"How unfortunate..." The City Lord's enthusiastic, wide-eyed gaze instantly withered. The calculating glint in his eyes vanished, replaced by a sudden, cooling indifference. The "shark circling prize-winning koi" had suddenly realized one of the fish was just a common stone.
"There has to be a mistake. Somewhere..." Victoria frowned, her sharp eyes scanning the dead orb and then looking up at Dylan's face.
Unlike Alistair, she didn't look down on him; instead, a deep sense of confusion took over.
"How could someone who commanded such an otherworldly presence, who spoke with the quiet confidence of a veteran scholar, possess absolutely zero spiritual talent?" It didn't make sense.
"Big bro? Why aren't the pretty lights turning on for you?" Scarlet asked, her innocent voice cutting through the thick, awkward tension in the room.
She tugged at Dylan's sleeve, tilting her head. "Did you squeeze it too hard? Try doing a magic trick like Big Sis!"
"Unfortunately, it seems that the orb doesn't respond to me. It only reacts to special people like you and Big Sis Victoria." Dylan tried to make Scarlet understand.
"What?! Then, there must be something wrong with it! You are the most special person in the world!" Scarlet protested with a pout, her arms crossed as she sat in the chair grumpily.
Dylan let out a quiet, internal sigh, slowly withdrawing his hand from the cold crystal. The contrasting warmth of Scarlet's small hand against his sleeve grounded him.
'Zero stars. Not even a single spark,' Dylan thought, a wry smile touching the corners of his lips.
'No matter. If I don't have the talent to cultivate, then the standard power-fantasy route is out the window. But a lack of Innate Energy doesn't mean a lack of options.'
His mind, sharpened by years of corporate strategy, market analysis, and navigating ruthless cutthroat environments in his past life, immediately began shifting gears. In the business world, when a product fails to launch, you pivot instead pf sitting around crying over spilt milk
'The need for an individual to manage the logistics outside cultivation will always be needed.'
If he couldn't become a powerhouse of martial might, he would have to become the mastermind behind them.
'I can simply just be a top-level merchant and build my own business. Hire guards with high cultivation and eventually climb the top of this world.'
After all, even the strongest emperors and immortal swordsmen needed someone to manage their empires, fund their resources, and orchestrate their logistics.
He looked up, his expression entirely calm and devoid of the despair Alistair expected to see.
"It seems," Dylan spoke, his voice cool, steady, and perfectly cordial, "that the heavens have chosen to distribute all the talent in our family strictly to my sister."
He turned his gaze directly to Alistair, watching the City Lord's subtle shift in posture. "I apologize for wasting your time with my test, City Lord Alistair."
Alistair cleared his throat, leaning back into his chair as the obsequious warmth completely drained from his demeanor, returning to a stiff, purely professional formality. "Ah... no need for apologies, young friend. The heavens are fickle. To have a ten-star talent and a twelve-star prodigy under one roof is already a miracle that defies the destiny of our entire country. It is only natural that balance must be maintained somewhere."
The unspoken words hung heavy in the air: You are the price paid for your sister's genius.
'As expected of an opportunist. I thought you would be a great person at the very least but in the end, you're just a greedy man who will fawn the strong and sneer at the weak.' Dylan, of course, sensed this obvious change in behavior.
But he did not feel the need to even address it since he did not have the right to do so. Ultimately, in this world of cultivation, might makes right.
Dylan, unfortunately, is a wastrel in this aspect as shown from the result of the test. So he understood but he also made a vow, 'While an understandable decision, I will make you regret this decision.'
'Unfortunately, I can no longer hide Scarlet's talent since she revealed it. I might as well just capitalize on that.' Dylan realized that with Scarlet's extraordinary talent exposed. He can still continue forwards with the proposal.
Dylan finally spoke as he proposed, "Though it seems that it is as I have feared earlier, I may not have inherited the talent that I had in my reincarnation. This meeting ,however, brought to light an unprecedented ten-star talent in the form of my sister. I believe that the recipient of the proposal should be my sister instead."
Dylan knew that he was taking advantage of his adoptive sister but considering that he was someone who can't even cultivate, he had to maximize any leverage that he has.
"Hahaha, I was of the same mind! As they say, great minds think alike. We can simply move forward with the proposal through Scarlet." Alistair let out a hearty laugh.
He looked at the young Scarlet as he said, "Would you be willing to be my master, little child?"
"What do you mean by that, brother?" Scarlet looked at Dylan for some clarity.
"Scarlet, it seems our uncle here is misunderstanding something. I'll talk to him first."
Dylan asked for a clarification, "Master? I believe we have some misunderstanding as to what will happen here, City Lord. Your previous suggestion was merely to unilaterally support me with the condition of helping the city whenever it is in danger. How did it suddenly turn to becoming my sister's master?"
"I merely wanted to further improve the benefits of her. Seeing as your sister has yet to formally start her journey of being a cultivator, I simply wanted to offer her my guidance. I believe that within this city, no one can boast as much strength, experience and influence as I have. Therefore, I firmly believe that I am the only person capable of guiding Scarlet to her fullest potential." Alistair argued with his credentials.
He was a regional lord, lauded by millions of people, with influence to control over the local sects within the city. He also commands hundreds of thousands of soldiers with the city's five armies. He was also the strongest individual in this city as well as a Half-Saint!
"City Lord, you-" Victoria did not expect such words to come out the mouth of the kind City Lord. His demeanor seemed to have visibly changed towards Dylan after the revelation of his talent.
Dylan met Alistair's gaze, his eyes narrowing slightly as the ruthless precision of a veteran corporate strategist took full control of his expression. "Guidance, City Lord? Let us be entirely accurate. A ten-star talent is not merely a gifted child. As you've said earlier there have only been nine-star talents recorded in text, she is a historical anomaly."
He then stood up and started walking around the guest area. "Once word of her existence leaves this room, the grand sects of the Imperial Capital will urgently send representatives in haste. Once they arrive, don't you think that the will actively compete to offer her sacred-grade resources, protection, and manual techniques just for the mere privilege of hosting her?"
Dylan stopped behind Scarlet as he further argued, "As her loved one, I want to secure a the best future for my sister possible. I address this with the utmost respect, I would rather my sister be "guided" by the top sects of our country rather than a regional lord. By demanding a formal master-disciple bond right now, you are attempting to monopolize a national treasure for the sake of personal greed and the price of mere regional patronage."
"You..." Alistair's smile faltered, a sudden sheen of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. He could not refute the facts he had just stated since it was highly likely that those prestigious sects would go to war to secure for a ten-star talent like Scarlet.
Dylan turned his head slightly towards Victoria and involved her, "Lady Victoria, as a scion of the True King Clan, Cross Clan, I believe you would the true weight of the capital's grand sects. I ask you as a neutral witness in this matter."
He added, "Is it standard practice for an unprecedented prodigy to bind their lineage to a local city lord before even evaluating the empire's grand stages? Or would an arrangement like that be considered a massive insult to her destiny?"
'I never would have thought that he had this level of awareness and intellect...' Victoria caught the sharp, calculating genius in Dylan's demeanor. He was entirely correct.
Even when faced with the reality of having no talent for cultivation, his absolute lack of fear and masterful control over the room's leverage made her admire this man even more.
Stepping forward, she looked down at Alistair with an unyielding, freezing authority. "He is entirely correct, Alistair. Forcing a master-disciple bond on a ten-star talent under these local conditions is an act of blatant greed. If the high elders of the upper realms discover you tried to bottleneck her growth to serve your own territory, the consequences for this city would be catastrophic."
She went back with the previous proposal to support Dylan's argument further, "The original proposal which was to unilateral material support in exchange for her future goodwill is the only safe, reasonable arrangement you are qualified to make in light of the level of Scarlet's talent."
'He even involved Princess Victoria... She has the backing of a True King Clan and a talent that far surpasses Scarlet. With the princess' as a witness, I cannot go through with my plans of rearing a generational heavenly genius.'
Realizing he had been utterly outmaneuvered and cornered by both Dylan's logic and Victoria's heavy political weight, Alistair swallowed hard, his ambitions completely shattered.
"Yes, yes, I understand, Princess. It is as you have said. We shall go forth with the previous arrangement then." He hurriedly signed the official decrees granting Scarlet unrestricted access to the city's resources under the original, non-binding terms, desperate to keep at least a loose thread of connection to the future powerhouse.
"May I ask for one small favor. May I get free access to the City Library, City Lord?" Dylan wanted to get another bonus from this entire discussion.
"Indeed, you may. Just present this to the Librarian and you will have unlimited access to the library." City Lord Alistair did not mind presenting him with a City Lord's Token as it was merely a minor privilege.
Dylan got up and said, "Thank you for the hospitality that you have shown. We shall now take our leave."
"Thank you very much for coming!" Alistair stood up and shook hands with Victoria and Scarlet but not him.
His eyes were hostile towards Dylan who had foiled his plans just now. The amicable City Lord was no longer no where to be found. It was as though he forgot that it was due to Dylan that he was still alive.
He became spiteful and wanted to exact revenge upon Dylan as he left, 'I will make your life a living hell, Dylan!'