Within the world of the red sun, Willard sat down meditating on the feeling he got from the red sun. The more Willard thought about the more he was certain that the red sun wasn’t a star, but rather the genesis of some energy. Within this red world, the concept of time seemed displaced. To Willard, he had spent over a hundred years wandering this strange world and then regaining the memory that explained how he got to his current situation. In the mortal world, less than two weeks had gone by. After spending what seemed like an eternity to anyone, Willard gave up on understanding the red sun. Instead, he decided to continue cultivating that red energy. “No use in forcing myself to understand something beyond me. It should be more beneficial for me cultivate instead.” Willard sat in a meditative posture and started cultivating the red energy.

*************

Life went on as usual in Marquis city. A rapid change was sweeping through the city. The formerly dormant Gerret household had risen to one of its highest states since the founding of the city. All the remnants of the great family were swept through by both the Gerret and Marquis households. All the leaders and high-ranking members of the great families were all publicly beheaded. All the family members were hunted down and exiled to the northern and western battle front. No one was spared in this cleansing.

Within Marquis city, a horsed messenger was riding through the inner city. His target was the Gerret household. Arriving in front of the Gerret household, the messenger couldn’t help but sigh in surprise. The current guards of the Gerret household had heavy armors on and stood in an imposing manner. The messenger couldn’t believe these were the same Gerret guards. From his memory, the Gerret household was a noble household on the decline, but now the atmosphere was different. He couldn’t help but breath heavily as he approached the gates.

He timidly spoke to the guards before he came off his mount, and walked towards the direction one of the guards had pointed. As the messenger got towards the main entrance of the main mansion, the doors opened up with two warriors walking out. The warriors both glanced at the messenger once before looking elsewhere and continuing their walk. Before the messenger could take a step into the mansion, he noticed another set of guards standing beside the doors. The messenger approached them and relayed the same message he gave the guards at the gate.

One of the guards lead the messenger directly into the main house and instructed him to wait. Moments later, the current master of the Gerret household, Jayesh, walked out. “Greetings house master. The city head has instructed me to hand you this invitation.” The messenger said respectfully as he handed Jayesh a scroll.

**************

At the marquis household, a grand celebration was being held. The leader of the house  was currently present in the mansion. He was having a conversation with one of the guest as he caught a glimpse of Lyon. As he saw Lyon, the smile on his face was replaced by a sense of anger. After hearing the stories of Lyon’s reaction, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of shame and anger. How could his heir, the current future leader of the city, be that cowardly? This wasn’t something he could hide or deny, it was public news at this point. Whenever he saw Lyon, the angrier he got. “Useless! I am to blame for all this. I have given this child way too much freedom and privileges that have made him this way.” He thought before moving his gaze back to his guest.

The giant doors that lead to the main hall where the celebrations were currently ongoing, cracked opened. A figure that wore military attire slowly walked in. Standing directly behind this figure stood a young slender man. Everything about this young man seemed noble and divine. His attire was golden, matching his hair, and his slender figure was well fitted to this attire. The figures were Jayesh and his son Sebastian who had finally joined the celebrations. As both of them walked in followed by high ranking warriors of the Gerret household, the entire hall became silent. How could they not be? The current Gerret family was at one of its highest status since its founding. The Gerret family had almost single-handedly beaten more than half of all the forces within the city. They had shown a might that capable of rivaling smaller kingdoms, given the fact they were able to fight against a saint and still survive.

“Jayesh, welcome,” the leader of the Marquis household said with a bright smile on his face.

“Florence! It’s good to see you again.” Jayesh responded.

“This time around, my Marquis family owes you a great debt. If the heavens are fair, I shall someday repay this huge debt.” Florence Marquis said with an honest expression.

“Haha. You shouldn’t worry about simple matters. Have you forgotten the bond between our families, the oat our ancestors swore.”

“That’s right, the ties between our families transcends this city. But this time, we are all in your debt, or should say in the debt of your son Sebastian,” Florence said smiling towards Sebastian.  

“You flatter, city head!” Sebastian said respectfully.

“It is no mere flatter young one. A good father produces a good son. It seems I failed in my duties,” Florence said turning to look at Lyon. The atmosphere of the entire hall changed a little after they heard those words from Florence. None more so was under more pressure than Lyon who was a little startled as he heard those words from his father. Lyon could not help but feel a sense of rage burst through his mind. “This ******* Sebastian must be taking pleasure in all this. I swear to the heavens I will pay you back a hundred folds. No, a thousand folds for all this shame you have brought to me.”  Ever since Florence had gotten back, he had not said a single word to Lyon, but in the presence of Jayesh and his son, Sebastian, Florence had not only reprimanded Lyon, but he had done so in a self-deprecating manner. All that serve to fuel Lyon’s anger even more. All Lyon could think of was ways he could make Sebastian suffer.

Florence stared at the ugly look on Lyon’s face for some time, before nodding his head disapprovingly. He knew he had always favored Lyon, leading to his son’s current character. Florence sighed for a bit before he turned to face his guest. “I have an announcement to make,” Florence said while he stared at his guest. “From today henceforth, I relinquish the title of future city head from my son Lyon, and banish him to the northern borders,” he said with a slight pause. Looking at everyone’s faces, Florence could see the apparent shock he had caused.

Every single person present that had heard those his words were stunned. This was the first time he had raised the topic of the next future head to the public. No one was more shocked than Lyon himself who was getting banished. Lyon was speechless for a couple of seconds as he processed what he had just heard. It was one thing for him to lose his position of the next city head, and another to be burnished to northern borders. He knew within a couple of years, he could win back his father’s approval and get back his position. But for him to be banished to the northern borders was true torture. He would have to fight for his life on a daily basis protecting their borders against the warmongering northern continent. The northern borders had the highest fatality rate of all the conflict regions within the continent.

“Also with a heavy heart, our very own primero knight, Sir Allan, would be leaving our Marquis city and embarking on a cultivation journey. He would be vacating his position as the primero knight to roam the continent.” Florence said ending his announcement. Allan who was currently standing at a corner of the hall with other guest had a gentle look on his face. The remaining guest all turned and stared at the primero knight. This was a man that had gained the complete respect of the entire city. He had been diligent in his duties and had never taken advantage of his authority. Even his current living standards were of lower splendor as compared to most warriors at the elemental energy level. He was someone who was truly respected by every single citizen of the city.

Florence comments were like heavy explosions that rocked the entire hall. First, he had banished his son to the northern borders and immediately following that, he had announced that the primero knight was leaving the city. “The city head is too fierce in his punishment.” Sebastian thought as he looked towards Lyon’s side. Although he had never really gotten along with Lyon, he also had nothing against him. Sebastian might have felt less sympathy for Lyon if he knew exactly what Lyon had been thinking of doing to him.  

As the banquet continued, more people made their way to Allan and offered him praises. Some gossiped as to who the next primero knight was going to be. While others spoke about Lyon’s punishment. Lyon quietly made his way out of the banquet. He was currently in a state of utter panic. He was currently trying to figure a way out of being sent to the northern borders. Given the severity of his punishment, he knew there was no way he could talk his father out of sending him out of the city.

******************

A couple of months had passed since the banquet. Lyon had already joined the northern army at the border. Allan also had left on his cultivation journey, searching for an inspiration to break through to the saint level.

Within the Gerret household, Willard was still on a bed unconscious. His breathing had improved a long time ago. His breathing had a rhythmic tune to it, one that eluded everyone that periodically came check on him. After Willard had gained a basic understanding of his current situation and red sun, he had almost exclusively spent all his time cultivating that red energy. A couple weeks back, while he was cultivating, Willard had noticed the strange energy could be compressed to a more liquid form. Although he noticed that, he still hadn’t been able to compress the red energy from its current ethereal form.

On this day, Willard who was currently seated in a meditative position opened his eyes. “Finally, I have been able to condense a single drop.” He said with a little smile. “Time to investigate this drop.” Willard got up and walked towards the single drop he had condensed. It took him an enormously long time and a large amount of red energy to condense this single drop. As he inspected the drop that was floating in mid-air, Willard couldn’t notice a single thing different from its previous form, except for the obvious liquid nature of the red energy.

After carefully scrutinizing it and still no result, Willard gave up on observing the drop. He reached out with his right hand to grab the drop of the red energy. As his hand made contact with the drop of red energy, the red energy immediately got absorbed into a corporeal body formed by his soul. His body had a red glow, almost as if the red energy was forming an extra red layer of skin around his corporeal soul body. At this moment, a different form of energy was flowing through Willard’s body, it was something formless, in the aspects of elemental relation, but still possessing a strange sense of majesty. In the real world, the formal dull coloration of Willard’s skin was rapidly changing to one full of life. As all these changes were happening, Willard noticed his soul was rapidly getting nourished, the red world he had previously been stuck in, was also rapidly changing. After his battle with Svecko, Willard’s soul had been seriously injured, which lead to his eventual coma, but at this moment, his soul was repairing itself with frightful speed. The red world that was full of nothingness finally broke to give way to different colors. The moment this happened, Willard opened his eyes in the real.

Finally, his soul had recovered.
“How long has it been?” Willard said as he stared at the empty room.

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