"The Starforge Clan is a formation clan. My father was the fourth son of the Clan Leader, while my mother was from another prominent formations clan," Adam began to explain.
John raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, as Adam's status was far higher than he had expected. In fact, it was the same status that he himself had in the Fenix Clan; the grandson to the Clan Leader..
"Was?" John asked, as Adam was referring to his parents in the past tense.
"My parents died when I was ten," Adam replied calmly, although it was easy to tell it was still a sore spot.
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," John replied.
"It's fine. It's been seven years since that day, so I've come to terms with it," Adam replied.
"Anyways, the Starforge Clan has a unique selection system for the next Clan Leader. There is a sealed away ancestral grounds, which tests those qualified to enter. The only qualifications are to be a direct blood descendant of the previous Clan Leader, as those with that bloodline are the most compatible with the Starforge Clan heirloom, as well as being below the age of twenty five," Adam explained.
"The ancestral grounds only opens up when the previous Clan Leader dies or is near death. At that point, the ancestral grounds open once more to those qualified to enter. The trials in the ancestral grounds tests all that enter for their formations talents and compatibility with the heirloom, and only one is selected by the heirloom itself at the end to become the next Clan Leader."
"The heirloom is sentient?" John asked, surprised to hear such a thing.
"In a way," Adam replied. "It has a small portion of our Clan Founders soul and blood sealed away, as well as a small portion of all the previous clan leaders as well. Thus, the knowledge in the heirloom, as well as its might, increases with every generation. It's why those from the direct bloodline have the best compatibility.
Anyways, the previous Clan Leader, my grandfather, was becoming sickly. He had been alive for thousands of years already, and his death was fast approaching," Adam continued. "As such, his children all knew that he would die in the next few decades, and began to have children to participate in the next Clan Leader selection trials."
"My father, who was considered to be the most talented formations expert in the clan other than the Clan Leader himself, taught me everything he knew. With his blood flowing through my veins and all his knowledge imparted into me, I was fast becoming the most talented formations user amongst the qualified youths," Adam explained, his mood growing sullen.
"But then something happened to your parents," John spoke up.
"How did you know?" Adam asked, his voice slightly surprised.
"It's not hard to guess," John replied. "You said your parents died when you were young, and now you say you were the frontrunner to become the next Clan Leader. If I'm not mistaken, I'm guessing that your parents did not die of…natural causes?" John asked.
"No, they did not," Adam replied. "On the way back from visiting my mothers clan, they were attacked by a large group of powerful beasts, something called a beast tide. I'm not sure of the specifics, but…only parts of them were discovered afterwards, just enough to identify them."
Both John and Adam fell into silence, one in contemplation and the other in grief. Adam's gaze shifted back up to John, and could tell he was deep in thought.
"Why? Do you think there's something strange about it?" Adam asked.
"Maybe," John replied. "How strong were your parents?"
"Strong," Adam replied, his grief replaced with pride. "Although he was the youngest of the four children of the Clan Leader, he was the strongest of them all. His cultivation was at the Half-Step World Expansion Realm, and he was amongst the top ten strongest cultivators in the entire clan."
Adam's chest puffed out with pride as he talked about his father, as if he had momentarily forgotten his previous grief. However, reality quickly came back to him, and his sullen attitude quickly returned.
'Half-Step World Expansion is even stronger than my Master. That level of strength is not easily overwhelmed…and a beast tide that just happens to overwhelm the path his parents were traversing on?'
John fell into deep thought once again, while Adam stared at him in silence. After a short while, John gazed back at Adam. He was almost sure that foul-play was involved, but had no proof to back up such claims. As such, he decided to bury the subject for now.
"So what happened next?" John asked.
"After my parents died, I was mostly left to fend for myself. However, my father left me a great inheritance, a book of all his knowledge. With that, I was able to self-teach myself further so as to not delay my formations training," Adam continued. "After my parents' deaths, I was basically treated as an exile at that point, and the only person showing me care was the Clan Leader. However, he was extremely sickly, and so could not do much for me. Still, I persevered, and raised my formations expertise and talents as much as possible.
I still remained at the forefront of my generation, equaled by only Kadin, as I wanted to do right by my parents' memory and legacy."
"Whose Kadin?' John asked, as he had heard that name earlier in the day.
"The son of the Clan Leader, or interim Clan Leader I should say," Adam replied. "He's eighteen years old, only a year older than me."
"Interim Clan Leader?" John asked.
"The previous Clan Leader, my Grandfather, was deemed unfit to rule as Clan Leader, due to his continuing health decline. As such, his first son was appointed interim Clan Leader until my Grandfather dies. However, it seems as though my Grandfather is still alive, something I'm sure is agitating both Kadin and the interim Clan Leader quite a bit," Adam explained.
"However, I'm more than certain that if my Grandfather is still alive by the time Kadin reaches his early twenties, they'll make sure his death comes swiftly. With the requirement to enter the ancestral grounds being below twenty five years of age, the Interim Clan Leader will ensure the realm opens before Kadin exceeds that age," Adam explained, his voice becoming slightly angered at the thought of his Grandfather being murdered.
John fell into a silence as he took all the information in, before another question popped up into his mind.
"So how did it end up that you were exiled? If your grandfather is still alive, and seemingly cares about you, how did that come to pass?" John asked.
"Because I was framed, and my grandfather is sickly, both health wise and mentally," Adam replied, his voice going cold at the thought of what had happened. "All the power was in the interim Clan Leaders hands at the time."
"Six years ago, the heirloom, which was in my grandfather's possession, suddenly went missing. The clan was overturned for the heirloom, but it was not found. Eventually the interim Clan Leader had the idea of searching everyone's spatial rings, and so everyone was gathered for inspection. I'm sure you can guess the rest," Adam explained, his rage simmering as he thought back to that day.
"They searched your ring, and just happened to find the heirloom?" John asked.
"Naturally," Adam replied. "I was framed for the theft of the heirloom, and exiled by the interim Clan Leader to the Yuan Continent. Theres a derelict branch of the Starforge Clan there, the Fenks Clan, which is almost unrelated at this point. They raised me after that. Everything happened so fast, and I was only eleven at the time, so I didn't even know how to make sense of it all…"
Both Adam and John fell into silence again, which lingered for some time as Adam dealt with the feelings he had repressed for so long.
"After my initial bout of grief, I figured I would just enjoy life as much as possible while I wasted away on that continent. Eventually I decided to join the Heavenly Lightning Sect, and that's when I met you. You know the rest."
Silence filled the room again, while John thought over everything he had just heard. It was quite a lot of shocking information to take in. At the same time, the small things he had noticed about Adam suddenly made sense.
'Adam always seemed to have enough spirit crystals on hand for everything, and had far more formations knowledge than what he should have had for someone from the Yuan Continent. He also brushed aside the question of his parents and lineage when I asked about it back in the Yuan Continent. I always thought something was off, but now it all makes sense. He must have been playing dumb regarding the Divine Martial Continent in order to seem less suspicious back then.'
John thought over such things for a while before another question popped up in his mind.
"I just don't understand one thing," John chimed up. "You knew about the Starforge Clan, so why were you so surprised to see the members of the sect today? Shouldn't you have known they were going to join the realm opening, and expected their presence?"
"No, because the Starforge Clan is a neutral power, and is not part of the Honorable Alliance," Adam replied. "Which is why I was so shocked to see them."
"A neutral power? They don't need the protection of the Honorable Alliance? Just how strong is your clan?" John asked.
The powers of the Honorable Alliance had joined together to form a united front against the Forbidden Alliance and the other races. A neutral power would quickly be overwhelmed by those other powers, unless they had the strength to protect themselves.
Adam stared at John, his gaze a mixture of pride and resentment.. "The Starforge Clan is the strongest formation clan on the continent, and one of the strongest powers overall."