Not everyone had had Juliet’s charisma nor Lucius's uncaring attitude while recruiting people.

“Joe, did you find anyone?” Linda asked.

“I… one girl,” he scratched his head, embarrassed.

There hadn’t been many people in St. Peter to start with, and Joseph had never been very popular among the students. Those whom he had been friends with preferred to go along with Juliet. Only a girl, Louise, had accepted to be part of his team; to be more precise, she had come to him and asked about it.

“Uh, Joe, this girl might be interested in being your Dao Companion!”

“Excuse me, miss Linda, a what?”

“A partner, Joe! Maybe she wants to do the deed!” Linda giggled, really enjoying teasing the kid.

“What?” Joseph spluttered. He had had a couple of kisses during games with girls, but that had been the extent of his experience with girls.

“Come on, Joe, she probably fancies you!”

“Oh, that’s wrong! She should be in my team only if she wants to learn something from me!” Joseph said with frustration.

“Well, maybe she wants to learn the waltz?” Linda winked at him.

“The waltz?” Joseph asked, confused, falling head-on into the trap.

“The waltz, the exotic dance, the horizontal tango. Come on, Joe! Earth must be repopulated. The poor girl has to start somewhere, right?”

Joseph became so red that Linda feared he was going to have a stroke. To avoid the situation, he finished packing a few clothes and ran outside.

“Kids these days act all smart, and they can’t even take a little teasing,” Linda laughed to herself.

…

Jacob was looking at the variety among the various teams. However, what surprised him the most was that Joseph only had one person, a tall girl sporting a trekking outfit.

Isn’t that Louise, our classmate?

He didn’t remember much of the relationships among other classmates, but he was pretty sure that Joseph and Louise had not been close in his past life.

Louise looked happy and mellow.

She looks a bit too soft for her to come on an expedition. But it’s the same for Juliet’s group…

There was basically half St. Peter, all the most courageous and rebellious kids, hanging from her lips on Juliet's side.

“Juliet! Have them fall in line!” Jacob shouted toward the girl. “And make them shut up!”

It was like looking at a school trip group. They were so loud that Jacob felt his hands itching.

Come on, old goat, they are kids. Teach them with patience.

Marcus came over with equally loud adults soon after, and Jacob really felt the need to smack someone across their face.

Thankfully, Geneva’s small group, Marina’s and his Aunt Linda’s, were quite reserved.

It was quite amazing how everyone had managed to get very similar people.

Marcus, the conspiracy boomers.

Lucius, the misanthropes.

Geneva, the fighting-obsessed crazies.

Marina, the cold but straight types.

His aunt...

Aunt Linda was the only person who had had actually to drop people off. And it hadn’t been easy. She had gathered teens, young adults, even a few proper adults who followed her as ducklings did with their mother.

“Matriarch!” they all bowed in synch, a clearly practiced move.

“Disciples!” she boomed with a Qi-empowered voice, “today your first real test begins! First, we have to find the Alchemical Garden entrance! Then, immediately notify the others if you think you did! The path to Immortality is filled with traps and hidden dangers; be careful, and you shall overcome every bottleneck and tribulation you’ll face!”

“MATRIARCH!” everyone bowed again and shouted with all their might.

“Mpf,” she snorted, unsatisfied with her little cult, and every single one of them twisted in place, afraid of her.

“Your aunt is the weirdest person I’ve known so far,” Geneva’s voice came from behind.

She was wielding the Bloody Halberd, the weapon they had retrieved from the temple. She had been practicing non-stop, and whenever she wasn’t practicing, she would be out killing Demonic Beasts or following scouting groups.

Among all the people present, Geneva was the one who had developed more fighting experience.

“We scoured the forest multiple times already, Jacob.”

“Your scouts are still green, Geneva. They have been in the woods for barely a month. And look at the other people. It will be a good experience, especially for those who never fought a Demonic Beast so far.”

“I was thinking that we could put on a display for them,” he heard the edge in Geneva’s voice and raised his eyebrows.

“What were you thinking of?” Jacob asked.

“A little spar?”

Jacob looked first toward the woman at the Mantis realm, then toward the rest of the kids. Now, the fact that he was strong and taking many decisions was an open secret. So he might as well impress some of the newbies.

And he was curious to see what Geneva could do now.

“Sure, why not. Take it easy on me, kid,” Jacob said with a grin.

Geneva was probably the strongest person when besides Juliet and Helena. Some people even thought that she might be the strongest of them all, but that was just because they didn’t know any better.

“People!” Geneva shouted with a murderous tone, “shut up! We will provide a sparring demonstration for you all. This is the level that you should reach before you go yapping around!”

Jacob spotted Andrew, Geneva’s husband, on the side. He had been talking with his wife until a moment ago, and he now looked much happier than before.

Well, that’s good, Jacob thought to himself.

“You and Jacob are going to spar?” Juliet was confused.

“She wants to see how good she got with her new Martial Style, Juliet. But, don’t worry, we’ll try and not get hurt,” Jacob said with a laugh.

After recovering and healing all of his internal wounds, Jacob had finally gotten back to his top condition.

“Oh man, that short kid is going to get killed,” someone said from the crowd.

“I know! Look at him. Have they been starving him or something?”

“I don’t know why Geneva should fight the little peep.”

“Maybe she wants to encourage him?”

“Isn’t that Jacob, the kid’s with the guts disease or something?”

Uh, not everyone knows about the open secret.

But many people were instead silent. Those were the ones smart enough to notice that all the strongest people of St. Peter looked at Jacob when someone asked a question, and they all talked to him with the utmost respect. Some had also put two and two together after seeing him order around Marcus and Lucius.

“Come on, Jacob, let’s see how rusty you got after a month,” Geneva gave him a crazed smile.

Well, let’s see what a month of preparation for new battles did to me, then.

Jacob put his hand on his forearm and pressed on his acupuncture points.

A reddish aura appeared around him.