Chapter 26: Months Go By

After getting to know better the new state of mind he achieved by breaking through the third state of meditation and hearing all that Laivien had to say, Zax contemplated how he should spend the reminder of the day, since tomorrow he could finally return home.

No matter what, Zax concluded that in one he will not be able to find another spark of light. Thus, he decided to invest in time by completing in one go the Intermediate phase of the Soul Binding formation.

After Zax inspected the scripture of the formation, with his new level of perception, he uncovered practically the whole Intermediate phase of the formation. His level of understanding of it became so vivid that a wave of relief washed over Zax as he thought about the spiritual knowledge his subliminal mind gathered from the scripture of the formation, and how much correct it was for him to be meticulous and cautious when he lightly appreciated a few of the pieces of spiritual knowledge.

Where it to appreciate all the spiritual knowledge his subliminal mind gathered, he would have limited considerably his achievements with the Soul Binding formation. At most he could have hoped to complete the Intermediate phase of it.

Now, though, Zax's conscious mind fathomed not just the Intermediate phase, but also the entry to the Advanced phase.

Within the scope of a mostly sandy landscape with barely noticeable black buds of vegetation, the naked body of a young teen stood tall and smiled, with an expression similar to an emperor overseeing his vast and prosperous thousand kilometers empire, even though the young teen's land was a trifling radius of eighty meters.

Naturally, that young and naked teen was the manifested physique of Zax, atop his Inner Panorama.

'It doesn't matter anymore, hahahah!' Zax laughed. 'The formation still has to be erect at an appropriate distance from the soul, but with this recent breakthrough I can now create the pieces and pile them up wherever in a radius of thirty five meters from the soul'.

Accompanying this realization, the original number of eleven Soul Binding formation rose to twenty three in but an hour. With this, Zax truly completed the Intermediate phase of the formation and the proof was the number of the formation, which could not go above twenty three before breaking through the Advanced phase.

As for Zax's comprehension of the Advanced phase, the last phase of the Soul Binding formation, it was not deep, but sufficient to know where to start. While the Beginner phase of the formation required an understanding of its structure and the Intermediate phase embarked on the discovery of the proper place to root its foundation, the Advanced phase preached for proficiency. For the Advanced phase of the Soul Binding formation, Zax had to recreate the seventy one pieces that build up the formation, each with its own unique touch. As to what followed ... that would be the perfect from of the Soul Binding formation.

Completing the Intermediate phase of the formation took less time than Zax anticipated.

'My body did not feel fatigue when reaching the pinnacle of the Intermediate phase, but going for the Advanced phase is still too early. The twenty three formations, the power of seven should be comparable to the soul of Intermediate phase second level Core Master. All twenty three, I wonder if I can momentarily bind the soul of a Beginner phase third level Core Master or perhaps a Peak phase second level Core Master'.

Zax speculated that with the Soul Binding formations he erected, although his bodily cultivation still cannot match a second level Core Master in a serious fight, if he will manage to land a single hand on his opponent and transmit the formations, then landing the other hand with the explosive power of the Kinetic Force would be a child play and the death of possibly a third level Core Master!

Of course, Zax was wholeheartedly aware that to get the shortest end of the stick was much more probable if his opponent will give him the benefit of the doubt. Beating the supercilious founder of the Dernalder family did not arouse the slightest feelings of grandeur in him.

'Until I will resume cultivating the Seven Stages Of Bodily Refinement, I can only hope that my future opponents will rely on close quarter combat'. With this, Zax chances of winning against a stronger opponent would be the heights.

Leaving his sea of consciousness, a serene expression adorned Zax's face. The constant state of Warood Meditation was precisely the reason for Zax's calm.

Zax saw Laivien quietly resting her doe head beside the violet stone, lightly touching it. He presumed that she was either cultivating her soul or watching the members of the Martial household in the Essence Cave and the adjacent cave.

Regardless, she looked peaceful so he did not interrupt her.

Rising to his feet, Zax abandoned thoughts of further training. Although he was interested of how now that he reached the third form of meditation it would feel to appreciate the entity's spiritual knowledge in the violet stone, he was worried that upon checking it out he will submerge himself in a long session of training that will make him forget about returning home tomorrow. Also, knowing how much his Master yearned for him to diligently keep training and uncover all bottlenecks of insight, he was not sure that he trusts him to pull him out from the violet stone in time of departure.

Hence, Zax looked for the young Krikitories. Though the little ones were mostly learning from the adults and doing mild works, at certain rare time, when Zax took a break from his training, he would go find and play with the energetic young Krikitories. The adult Krikitories, on the other hand, were not satisfied with the human juvenile who taught their younglings all sorts of mischievous behavior, but being aware of his status, they could do nothing but let it go.

...

Time passed. Days, weeks and months gone by.

Between the day he cultivated the Intermediate phase of the Soul Binding Formation and his fifteenth birthday, Zax's daily routine, whether in Kingdom Earth or Valgarel, was more or less free from eccentric changes.

As far as his time in Kingdom Earth passed, starting with the most unexpected thing, the day Zax made his second return from Valgarel with his Master. Upon arriving home and seeing his parents he received both surprising and startling news. To make a long story short, while Zax was away, training, news of his fight with Livai and vice principal Mizuri's revelation of Eden Formation's Pearl spread like wildfire in Kingdom Earth and, as a result, the name "Zax Zel" now reverberated in every household from the low to high class.

What happened next, following the moment this news were made public, many people began to speculate again about the annihilation of the Dernalder family, to connect the dots and figure that most certainly it was Zax who had conflict with, formerly, one of the five great families of El-Eden.

Still, no inquiries were made in order reaffirm those speculations, especially due to Zax's status. It was actually quite for the opposite. While Zax was in Valgarel, many heads and founders of high class families, organization, Martial schools, etc ... visited and paid their respect to Zax's parents in various ways.

Poor Marco and Laylen did not know what to do with themselves. With each passing day their dream of normal, humble household and modest livelihood was getting farther and farther. If they dared to blink once they could find themselves living life of luxury in a five acre estate with more maids and servants than their entire extended Zel family.

Fortunately, representative of Eden Formation and the Dauch family accompanied the couple throughout their bewilderment.