Chapter 30: Distress And Cohesion

Third morning of the forced immigration.

Zax watched as his relatives and friends woke up and got out of their tents while Zechariah allocating time for quick preparation before breakfast.

Despite not being famous in the commoner’s circle, as a prominent son of one of the three big families of Kingdom Earth, the Takeda family, among cultivators there were quite a few who still remembered the young promising prospect who vanished couple of years ago. Some of these cultivators were precisely four of the seven in the convoy. For this reasons, in addition to his genial temperament, Zechariah was chosen by Bonjier to manage most interactions with the little over hundred and forty people under their care.

‘The sleeping curfew lasts from nine to five in the morning. In this period of time they disparage in the crowd to their families’, Zax inspected the seven cultivators, frowning. ‘But the instant it comes to an end the discord begins... ‘

Of the seven cultivators, Zax knew three. Other than Anet and Zetsa, there was his childhood friend, Weysey Inoki, who was also part of his group of eight during the Great Earth’s Core Pursuit event and now, to Zax surprise, as used to proclaim ... Peak phase, C level Mist User, Core Breaker!

Two of the remaining four cultivators were a pair of twins in their late twenties, brother and a sister, advanced phase Core Breakers. They apparently were distant relatives of his that recently made a breakthrough from the Peak of the D level Earth’s Core Holder and since then were received by the same Mor, a cultivator of a high class family who helped them overcome quite fast the Beginner and Intermediate phases of their new level.

The sixth cultivator was actually at the Advanced phase of the Mist Master level, a gray haired, hunchbacked grandma. As it so happen, she was the relative of another of Zax’s friends from the Great Earth’s Core Pursuit, Mi’s – who by the way was consistently accompanied by anther of Zax’s friends, her husband, Merly and a three years old toddler with pigtails. Though they did not talk about it, Zax could still deduce that Mi’s grandmother had a sorrowful story behind her. She was a Mist Master with a five hundred years lifespan, yet looked like she is half foot in the grave. Zax could not judge her age for certainty that she lived that long, but from the gruesome old wound on her back, he was sure that she didn’t and in her past suffered an injury that drained her life force through the years, from which she had yet to recover.

The last and seventh cultivator was, most astonishingly – from the perspective of New Earth’s native – at the second realm, Intermediate first level Core Master! He was a middle aged man who few years back married Serah’s – probably Zax’s closest friend – aunt. A formerly reclusive expert, who fell in love and decided to hide his Martial achievement in order to live normal life with his new wife.

Zax did not think much about the guy’s decision, but a remark that Xiao Kirin in the open channel of their communicator, made him wonder, as well as revaluate him.

In Xiao Kirin’s opinion, the first level Core Master either chose to settle down, or more probable, was merely indulging himself in love and passion that could only be expressed toward a unique significant other and will mostly definitely resume his training when his wife will reach old age and die.

“Reclusive experts who lived long enough and still have thousands of years ahead of them would often change ambience to purify their state of mind”. Xiao Kirin noted at the time of the conversation, along with stating that her preferable preference was to seek another cultivator for a spouse. To which her husband, Gadgel, only smiled wryly, as if feelings were not part of her consideration, which was not truth, but still sounded like it.

Getting back to Zax’s attention on the seven cultivators, his line of sight fell on the woman by the Core Master expert, Kade’s side. His wife initiated and led the discord among the seven and a tight group of the people in their midst.

In essence, her issue was with Zetsa. Since they all were forcefully converged and ordered to depart from New Earth, it was Zetsa who calmed the tensed and received the deference of the group as a whole. Kade’s wife and Serah’s aunt, Linda, argued that everyone listened to Zetsa because most people were either part of the Zel or Walaow families and those unrelated who followed suit were only exhibiting herd mentality – “Because they don’t have a reliable cultivator to rely on in their situation” – at the very least she had to sense to pick her words carefully, to avoid giving the impression of inciting a disturbance that would involve their thirteen “wardens”.

In Linda’s opinion, sure Zetsa was a remarkable person with great powers, but her husband did not fall short from the young Miss and if mentioning his much longer life experience, was more apt for the task of representing everyone in talks with their “leading guardians”.

As far as Kade’s desire to be the one at the forefront of the one hundred and forty or not ... well, initially he did not care and also felt confident when he met the renowned Zetsa, after being brought by several black suited experts to the pathway to the world even he had never believed of stepping into. However his feelings to his wife were not trivial thing, as a matter of a fact, in ever day gone by he became, beyond his control, more infatuated with her. Due to this, despite realizing that his cultivation was inferior to Zetsa’s, he took the pedestal beside his wife.

If Xiao Kirin would have known the depth of his fascination to wife in his heart, she would have declared on the spot that her second assumption was the correct one. That a cultivator such as Kade, investing and staking a long term, resilient relationship on his next breakthrough.