Chapter 34: Plans For The Future

Abandoned.

There were no exceptions. Be they his father, big sister, lover, after Troel said his peace, everyone returned to their new homes in Green Snow village, leaving Zax behind and with justification.

A long time passed before Zax made the tiniest movement after watching the backs of all those he disappointed vanishing. Snow accumulated atop him. As he understood the magnitude of the grief he caused, his heart palpitated and he could not master the bit of power to shelter himself from the snow.

There was light in the window of his parents’ and sisters’ abode. He could use his Soul Sense to probe whether they were waiting for him or not, but he felt like it would be a cowardly act, hence he chose a lesser cowardly act and turned away, in departure.

...

Huland prepared accommodation for him in the village, but Zax preferred to be far and secluded until his heart will be settled.

He dug a cavern in one of the snowy mountains and sealed it with a giant boulder, as he used to do in his closed doors sessions before venturing to Ercas Mir.

Regulating his breath helped pacify the sea and sky encompassing his Inner Panorama. When silence prevailed, only one question occupied his mind.

‘What to do?’

The moment he asked himself a flow of accompanying thoughts emerged. Queries and solutions he rearranged in order, once they appeared, and began to muse over their usefulness.

‘It sums up to strength’. Was the first, rudimentary understanding he made. It was not a new realization, but it came up late since it was not the almighty solution to all of his concerns.

‘To honorably earn their forgiveness, I can no longer stay away’. It may deter his Martial path, but his loved ones severed their roots because of him. It was his responsibility to be by their side as they adjust to their new lives in this new world. Then, he could hope that they will find solace in his efforts to make amends.

‘This means that from this day forth, to train I will have to find a way to combine the secular life style with the difference routes of my cultivation’. The future results could only be imagined as lacking, in comparison to what his achievement could be, should he maintain the typical habits of most cultivators. Moreover, he could also not hope to expect some novel enlightenment along this road, like Kade, since his experiences were much less, even though they were on a higher scale. At best, he can explore insights and notions he had not fully comprehended.

‘Soul, body, sixth bottleneck of insight and dark attribute bodily maneuvers’. Zax assembled all the things he concentrated on for his cultivation. ‘As far as my soul goes, I can’t break through to the third realm before comprehending he sixth bottleneck of insight, otherwise I will lose my qualification for Legacy Of The One’s Path’. It was one trouble off his mind, but the rest were the real problem, anyway. ‘For a long time, now, I have this hunch that there are familiarities between the sixth bottleneck and the dark maneuvers. I can’t sit for a long periods of time trying to perceive the sixth bottleneck, it would be more efficient to set it aside for developing the dark maneuvers and only when I’ll reach a threshold I should check to see if it got my closer to the sixth bottleneck’.

Getting two subjects down, his soul and the sixth bottleneck, Zax was the opposite of relieved. He knew that he is too optimist about his decisions. Still, his mind was made.

‘Lastly, my body and cultivation in the Three Stages Of Hyper Physique. After absorbing the thousand kilograms of dark attribute’s essence, as well as a hundred kilogram worth of additional dark attribute’s essence or a matching amount of dark attribute energy, my bodily cultivation will have to halt at the second stage, until Grandmaster will verify its completion. As for the benefits of the second stage ... with understanding of the attribute being the main source of power at the highest levels, I gather the second stage will only supplement my abilities a little, primarily as a sturdier layer of defense during confrontations with fourth level Martial Mortals’.

In other words, soon he would be left with just the dark maneuvers to train in.

‘It’s too little’. As this order of priorities ideally corresponded with his desire to reestablish his presence in his loved ones’ lives, it also took too much from his Martial path that Zax was influenced by a since of dread regarding future implications. ‘I can do this’. After some thought a solution dawned on him.

No more training, but studying and experimenting!

‘I have no concrete specialty in formations and weaponry. Till now I was merely lucky for having a unique soul that was capable of executing what it learnt and a body strong enough to compensate against weapon wielders. I’m more comfortable as a brawler, so weapons are not something I’m truly eager to pick up. In contrast, studying formations and not just employing handwritten techniques, will solidify my knowledge in the field and if I’m both lucky and dedicated enough, I might be able to support from the front Grandmaster creation of the Three Stages Of Hyper Physique’s third stage’.

At last, a smile crept on Zax’s face. He will ask Huland to supply him all the material he could gather about formation study and split it to different levels of thought. He will accept even stuff about mist energy formations. He will be unable to experiment on them, but who knows? The hypothesis behind them might possess related points to soul and bodily formations.