On this day, the god of destruction and chaos was in an especially good mood. He had triumphantly returned from the eighth to the ninth heaven. He had completely established his prominence and might, gaining himself a well-deserved reputation. He sat on a blazing throne basking in his flames and glory. All of a sudden a queer thought flew across his mind, an image of a woman with big blue eyes. The woman had had what could be described as an everlasting brightness surrounding her. She smiled at Thanus and said, “Be good my son.” Thanus was a little confused with the vision in his head. As he slowly thought about, his facial expression started changing from a joyous one to that of sorrow. He finally remembered who that lady was, his earlier surrounding that blazing with fire quickly withered to that of complete darkness.
“Mother,” Willard said as he suddenly jolted up from his sleep. To his surprise, Willard noticed he was in a dark cave. He stared at the bandages around his body and noticed his clothing had been changed. As he took a deep breath, Willard had a strange look on his face. He noticed something odd with his natural energy. Willard immediately attuned his senses to observe his current cultivation level. He was surprised to notice he had finally stabilized his natural energy basis. He couldn’t figure out or explain what had happened, but he currently at the tenth and final level of natural energy. The entire situation seemed extremely strange to him, but he couldn’t deny this was to his advantage. ‘What happened to me?’ Willard questioned in his surprise. Suddenly, another thought sprung into Willard’s mind. He concentrated again and this time at his elemental energy core. “The fourth level,” Willard exclaimed in complete astonishment. “How did this happen?”
Although Willard couldn’t explain the sudden growth of his natural energy level, it was something he could somewhat accept without much thought. His amazing increase in elemental energy was a complete surprise to him. Even with all his knowledge, he couldn’t explain how his sudden increase in elemental energy had happened. Willard got up from his laying position and proceeded to walk out of the cave. The bright sun blurred his vision for a couple of seconds, but he quickly regained his eyesight. In front of the cave sat Nana who was gleefully dangling her legs off the edge of a cliff. “Where are we?” Willard asked in a croaky voice.
“Ah. You are awake. That’s strange, teacher said you were going to be out for much longer.”
“Nana, where are we? And where is your teacher.”
“She said she had a few errands to run and that she will be back in three days.”
“You still haven’t answered where we are?” Willard responded in an irritated manner.
Nana waved her hand in a calling motion to Willard signaling he should come towards her at the edge of the cliff. Willard slowly walked towards the edge of the cliff, and as he approached the edge, he was stunned by his immediate view. “We are at the legendary floating Havanas of the Maley kingdom,” Nana said with a smile. Willard was still in shock as he looked around. There were several floating mountains all floating high up in the sky above the clouds. Willard could occasionally see fragmented clouds drift close by. Willard had to admit that the scene before him was quite a lot more mystifying than anything he had ever imagined in the mortal world. ‘My previous knowledge of the mortal worlds were seriously lacking.’ Willard silently thought to himself.
Regaining his original composition, the look on Willard’s face changed. Willard thought back to the scenes of his mother’s death and what happened afterward with Aorah. “You should think of your leaving your teacher if you want to leave longer in this world. Someone like her will certainly lead you to your death.” Willard said with a little disdain.
Nana’s facial expression quickly changed from one of absolute joy to an utterly cold one. She glared at Willard as she approached him. In a swinging motion, she tried slap his face, but was met with a terrifying pressure from Willard that halted all of her movements. As the pressure persisted, Nana fell on her two knees. Seeing the dejected and complete discomfort on Nana’s face, Willard withdrew the pressure. Nana slowly got up and walked towards the cave. “You know nothing about the life teacher has lived. Stop talking as if you are better.” Nana said before she entered the cave.
Willard ignored her comments and continued to stare at his surroundings before finding a place to sit. He calmly took off all the bandages and started descending the mountain. After a couple of hours, Willard returned back to the cave. Nana had started a fire and was making something to eat. Willard sat down with his legs crossed and closed his eyes. Since there was nothing for him to do at the moment, he decided to cultivate. A couple of minutes into his cultivation, Nana called out to him as she brought a bowl of stew to him.
“I made rabbit stew.” She said as she was handing him the bowl.
“Teacher said you are quite the cultivating genius. She doesn’t usually praise people like that.”
“What level have you reached,” Nana asked trying to get a conversation started with Willard.
Willard looked at Nana with a confused expression. It wasn’t that long ago that this same girl had been vexed and tried to hit him. Did she already forget about all that? He couldn’t quite understand Nana’s behavior, but ultimately he gave up trying to figure it out as her constant banter continued. “Are you listening?” Nana questioned as she constantly pried for a response.
“Tell me about your teacher.” Willard finally said in response to all her questions and remarks.
Nana paused for a second as she thought of something. Nodding her head, Nana responded; “Teacher was born a princess of one of the warring northern tribes known as the Ferry tribe. She grew up during the chaotic warring times of the north. A great calamity fell on her tribe, which lead to the total annihilation of everyone she knew and loved. Ever since then teacher has been wandering the world.” Willard was surprised with Nana’s response. He wasn’t expecting her to even divulge a single thing, but she had given him a quick overview of the entire situation.
“What calamity fell on her tribe? When and what exactly was the chaotic warring times of the north?” Willard asked in confusion.
“I don’t know what calamity exactly, you would have to ask teacher about that. How come you had never heard of the warring times of the north that happened over a hundred years ago?” Nana responded.
Willard was surprised to hear that the chaotic warring times had occurred over a century ago. That meant that Aorah had to be at least a hundred years of age. That was shocking to him not because of the age itself, but because of Aorah’s childish tendencies. ‘How can she be this old and still play to those dirty tricks? How can her view on this be this simplistic?’ Willard questioned inwardly. Willard thought back to some of the actions Aorah had taken during their trip together. He particularly remembered how Aorah had deceived a group of travelers out of their possessions. It was clear that Aorah took those actions as some sort of past time or hobby. For someone of her status and age to constantly play those tricks on people made Willard feel she was a little childish. He also remembered Aorah’s intervention with the bandits, which made him particular curious with Aorah’s objective.
- N/a
