Chapter 54

Zzz… zZz…

A light crackle of electricity sounded out in the room, accompanied by some flickering of light. Light shadows danced erratically on the walls.

Jannie smiled, an emotional mist of water forming in his eyes. In his palm in front of him was a small ball of yellow crackling lightning. The fluctuating discharges of electricity in the ball lit up the dark room and illuminated his overjoyed face.

It had been a full week since Zairen had prescribed him the heart protector treatment pills. Since then, although he had been initially doubtful, he had dutifully followed the specified regimen, not forgetting to take a pill every morning and night.

To his shock, by the second day, traces of his spirit energy had already came back. In a fateful moment the second night, he had attempted to channel that spirit energy - and succeeded! After that, he continued to improve by leaps and bounds. With each day that passed, he seemed to improve dramatically, his spirit energy coming back stronger and stronger. At this point, a week later, he seemed to have recovered almost a tenth of his original strength. Based on the rate of previous progress, he reasoned that it wouldn’t take more than a few months to train back to his previous state.

He didn’t know where Zairen had gotten those mystical pills, but they were absolutely shockingly effective. Jannie had been so shocked by his improvement that at first, he didn’t dare believe it. Initially convincing himself that he had been hallucinating, for a full day, he didn’t let himself any feelings of joy. Three years of conditioning had taught him to not be overjoyed too quickly.

But then, as the days passed, and the reality of the situation sunk in, the emotions finally came - and they came at full force. Over the next few days, Jannie could be called an emotional wreck. Jannie had never cried and laughed so much in his entire life. The sense of gratefulness overwhelmed him.

But who could blame him?

He had sunk to the lowest lows, became the trashiest of trash. Yet now, he had been elevated once again to see the light! Now, he had a light in the distance - hope!

In every spare moment that he wasn’t frantically training, he still found himself channeling his spirit energy over and over, just examining it tearfully, as if he didn’t, it would go away - as if it was a fleeting mirage that, if not maintained, would disappear.

An unexpected giddiness soon sunk into his bones‍. Quickly, interspersed between emotional moments, he found himself randomly smiling, and oftentimes could not help but do a random skip. He was too excited! After finally fully letting himself believe that his returned spirit energy was, in fact, real, he became so happy and full of energy that he didn’t sleep for three whole days, busily immersing himself in that world of meditation and training once again.

As he improved, he was completely flabbergasted at how easily he was regaining his old spirit energy manipulation skills. It was like he he was picking up right where he left off - after a few shaky tries, his intuition and muscle memory took over, allowing him to use his spirit energy like he had never taken a break at all.

His improvement was so good, that at times, even a week later, every day he was still surprised! In the first place, he would have never had expected that if he was actually able to be cured. Yet, even in his wildest dreams, he had not dared imagine that he would be even 1% back to his previous peak in merely a week, much less 10%!

Logically, especially since his spirit energy had remained untrained and stagnant for three whole years, if the treatment would have worked at all, he figured he would maybe have to be held back for a very long time, gradually training to finally return back to his previous prowess over a period of many grueling years. In the only example he had heard of someone recovering from a serious meridian injury, even over many decades they had never been able to regain back their previous strength. Yet, his strength was returning much quicker than expected - the progress was extremely steady and fast!

It was truly an emotional experience. Even now, every time he channeled his spirit energy, he would inevitably feel mist form in his eyes. All of the events of the past three years would flash before his eyes like a movie.

Three years of being called trash. Three years of feeling useless, like he should just disappear. Three years of hopelessness.

Now, his soul had returned. He wasn’t useless - he could cultivate again!

And it was all made possible by one mysterious little boy named Zairen.

Any time Jannie thought about it, he couldn’t help but feel emotional. This little boy had given him his life back! It it weren’t for Zairen and his amazing prescription… would Jannie have ever made it out of his rut? There wasn’t supposed to be a cure for injured meridians!

However, he would also lightly chide himself. If only he had listened to Zairen earlier, and taken the prescription right away - then he would have been even further along by now. Why did he delay? At this point, he had all but completely forgotten about his previous mistrust of Zairen.

A strong sense of loyalty and comradery began to form in his mind. He was very aware that Zairen had done him a huge favour - he had no obligation to extend an arm out to help him, but he did. Thus, to him, Zairen was now a trusted comrade, a friend among friends. If Zairen asked him a favor, he would immediately do it.

However, he also began to ponder the ridiculousness of it. Zairen was a seven year old child… how was it possible that he possessed something that was able to do what even the most experienced doctors couldn’t?

Initially, he had been too emotional to think about things like that! But now, a week later, this fact finally started to puzzle him. In his mind, Zairen was becoming an extremely powerful and mysterious enigma that he wouldn’t underestimate again. The more he thought about it, the more he developed a sense of respect toward him that transcended age and initial impressions.

What were his origins? How could he be so amazing at such a young age? The young boy possessed the purest spirit energy he had ever seen, and he was also just casually surrounded by two young spirit affinity geniuses as well, as if they were common! And the mysterious elder he knew… how was it possible for him to have casually refined pills that healed meridian wounds?! It was unheard of!

“Senior Jannie! Senior Jannie!” At that moment, there was a knock at the door, and a loud voice sounded out from outside.

“Horace?” Jannie quickly extinguished the lightning in his palm and looked toward the door, raising an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Have you heard?” Horace took the cue and opened the door. Entering the room, he was visibly excited. “The news about Captain Janor!”

“Captain Janor?!” Jannie’s attention was instantly captured, and his eyes suddenly lit up. He immediately inquired further: “What news? I haven’t heard yet.”

“Just recently, she sent out a city-wide notice,” Horace explained excitedly. “Since she became Captain, this is the first time she’s sent out a notice. It must be important!”

“Notice? What notice?” Jannie immediately asked. This fact instantly captured his attention - Captain Janor’s skills were incredibly famed. Inwardly, he couldn’t really imagine what she would want to send out a notice for - anyone she wanted to get she could likely obtain in a moment’s notice.

“She’s looking for someone,” Horace explained. “The description is of an expert pill-refiner expert who is short of stature and tends to wear a black cloak… do you know anyone like that?” He looked up at Jannie.

Jannie paused to ponder for a moment, and then answered: “No…” He pondered for another moment. “That’s kind of strange, isn’t it? Why would Captain Janor send out a notice looking for someone like that? Isn’t she good friends with apothecary Shen?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought as well,” Horace rubbed his head. “In Rain province, there are few with higher credentials.”

“Mmm,” Jannie agreed. “Who knows. That’s interesting though. It must be important since this is the first time in her career that she’s used her status to send out a city-wide notice.”

“That’s not all!” Horace suddenly looked up again. “Tonight, she’s also auctioning off a limited amount of injury-healing pills at the Golden Rooster Auction House! It’s going to be a grand event, open to all! Apparently, the pills were made by this mysterious pill-refiner she’s looking for, and they are remarkable!”

“Really?!” Jannie’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he instantly became visibly excited. “Wow…! The Golden Rooster? We have to go!” He rubbed his chin excitedly, clearly holding in his jubilation.

“Yes! I thought you might agree!” Horace said smilingly. “I’m curious to see what the whole deal with this pill-refiner is.”

“Yeah!” Jannie clicked his tongue excitedly. “It must be big deal. How long has it been since Captain Janor last stepped into the spotlight?”

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“Look, dad! You see it? Look! Look!”

Finn’s excited voice rang out within the governor’s apartment.

“Yeah… yeah…” the governor nodded with a stunned expression.

“Whoa! Cool!” Alivia looked over and remarked. She raised her hands and gave an enthusiastic round of applause.

In Finn’s outstretched hand was a small, dynamically moving little dirt golem. Every time Finn would twitch his hand, the golem would dance back and forth.

This little golem was completely different from the static little dirt cloud figurine Finn had created the previous week. This golem was a lighter color, more solid, and actually moved around fluidly. Just looking at it, it seemed to be on a completely different level.

Looking on was the whole gang - the governor, grandpa Dinran, Zairen, and Alivia.

After a week of constant cultivation and study, the children had begun to miss their caretakers - they had seldom been away from them for so long. Thus, they traveled back to the governor’s apartment to pay a visit, and killed two birds with one stone by also proudly flaunting their skills. Neither the governor nor grandpa Dinran had seen what they could do yet!

First, Alivia demonstrated her fire dragon, and now, Finn was demonstrating his recently-learned earth skill, dynamic earth!

Grandpa Dinran and the governor only stared at the displays with wide eyes. What were they seeing?! Only a bit more than a week had passed, and they had progressed this far?!

They could only shake their heads. Some things in this world were beyond their comprehension.

Yet who could have known, Zairen was secretly even more shocked - Grandpa Dinran and the governor didn’t fully understand just how insane Alivia and Finn’s accomplishments were. They assumed the arts they practiced were just ordinary-level arts. But Zairen knew - these arts were extremely high level, and were especially hard to practice! Ordinary people, even with the right elemental spirit affinities, wouldn’t be able to practice them.

Every day in the past week, all three of the Bindan village kids had all dutifully attended classes and then intensely trained. In the beginning of the week, Zairen had passed on the more advanced arts to them, the Hell Dragon Fire Art and Great Golem Earth Art, so Alivia and Finn especially had been enthusiastically training and immersing themselves in the arts, asking Zairen whenever they had questions.

However, their progresses had been much faster than Zairen could even imagine.

Every day, he became more and more freaked out. Every time he thought that maybe Alivia and Finn would settle down in a more normal, constant state of progress, they would shock him again and again, progressing in their cultivations at almost ungodly rates.

Just two days ago, just five days after receiving her new art, Alivia had already broken through the first level, or ‘fire dragon fist’. It was so fast Zairen almost thought he had lost his mind and was seeing it wrong. He had checked time after time to see if maybe Alivia had rushed through it, and hadn’t actually fully established her proficiency of the move. Yet, her move was startlingly perfect - there were virtually no flaws, exactly as described in the art.

Yet, just the very next day, Finn broke through the first level of his art, called the ‘dynamic earth,’ with the same level of proficiency. At that point, Zairen was starting to think maybe the scrolls he had given them contained defective arts that were too easy to learn. Yet, after double checking… they were the right arts. These were arts that were supposedly the most difficult arts, arts that even some geniuses could never progress very far in… and they were completely breezed through by Alivia and Finn, as if they were reading through simple cooking manuals.

Although it was true that these first steps were the easiest in learning the art, and usually only took somewhere along a monthly time scale to grasp, these were top-level arts! Even the first steps weren’t supposed to be easy at all! Alivia and Finn could easily match up to even the top geniuses of Zairen’s previous life.

At this point, Zairen didn’t really know what to think. He had never really ever seen anything like this before. If it was just one genius child, it would be remarkable. But two? Both so godly talented? He didn’t even have to give much guidance, they would just learn quickly on their own.

Even Madam Sue would give them occasional praise, and she rarely said anything positive.

He was now contemplating putting Alivia and Finn on better, more structured programs meant for more advanced students, ones 15 years old and older. Zairen had only started rigorously doing such a program when he turned 12. Yet, at ages 8 and 9… soon, they would probably be ready for it already.

“Great job, kids!” Grandpa Dinran smiled and gave a thumbs up. In fact, he didn’t have the context to fully understand how talented Alivia and Finn were, but he had some inklings. Of course, he was proud. These were his kin, and he loved to see them grow up and thrive.

He was glad they came to visit. Over the past week, now that they had left Bindan Village, Grandpa Dinran had suddenly found himself stagnant - there wasn’t much for him to do! Now that they weren’t in Bindan Village anymore, he didn’t have an herb stand to run and absorb his time.

Thus, to pass time, he stuck with what he knew - he would take walks through the local market, passing by different herb venders, inspecting the competition. In the following weeks, he planned to purchase seeds and begin to grow his own herbs again, in hopes of eventually once again establishing an herb stand in the local market to provide for himself. Although that was his plan, he knew it was a much harder task that it looked on paper. The competition was rough here - everyone had high skill in herb-nurturing. Or else, how would they get business in this crowded, fast-moving city? Further, there wasn’t much space for him to grow anything. He planned to bring some potted plants into his room in the apartment, but there was limited space. Further, this was the governor’s apartment. Although the man was seldom around, it was still bad to act as if the place was his. Grandpa Dinran was, after all, a visitor.

“Thanks, Grand-uncle Dinran!” Finn smiled cheerily. Ever since he had gotten close to Zairen and Alivia, he felt he could consider himself related to the family, especially since Zairen had become his master.

“Finn, you’re growing up so fast,” the governor gave a light disbelieving sigh as he strode forward and patted Finn’s head, finding that his head was taller than it had been before. “Once you overtake me, don’t forget about this old man!”

“What are you talking about?” Finn was incredulous, rushing forward to give his father a hug. “I’ve matured now, and now I understand. Children always have to take of their parents, especially after they’ve sacrificed so much to them! Don’t worry father, I’ll carry you up along with me in my path to glory!”

“Haha…” The governor gave a light chuckle and rubbed the back of Finn’s head. It was amusing how confident Finn was - it was almost like it was guaranteed that he would reach the top, achieving immeasurable greatness.

Peering at this interaction from her peripheral vision, Alivia also strode up to Grandpa Dinran and hugged him as well. “Don’t worry grandpa, when me and Zairen become the top people of this continent, you’ll be right there with us too!”

“Hehe… my little Alivia has ambition!” Grandpa Dinran smiled so wide his cheeks creased. “I’ll wait for the day.” He glanced toward Zairen, who also strode forward to give him a hug. “You too Zairen. I’m sure for you, it’ll be easy.”

Everyone laughed at the scene and reminisced. In the back of their minds, all of them had a thought: in the years to come, they would look upon these scenes with happiness.

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When the three returned to Black Cloud School gymnasium, the school was in a fervor.

“The Golden Rooster! Wow, really the golden rooster!”

“Hehe, it’s been a while! So excited!”

“Man, I wonder what kind of stuff they’ll be auctioning? It’s been a while since there was an event like this.”

Zairen, Alivia, and Finn looked around, a bit lost. What had happened to make everyone so pumped up?

“What’s going on?” Alivia tapped on the excited Yinry’s shoulder and asked.

“Oh hey, Alivia, you’re back!” Yinry turned toward her and smiled. “There’s a big event tonight. The Golden Rooster, one of the biggest and grandest auction houses in the entirety of Sunrise City, is holding a grand event! Everyone is invited, even commoners! Usually, it would cost a few low-grade spirit stones to even enter, cutting anyone without wealth off. Wanna come?”

“You gotta come!” Horace turned toward the returning students and shouted out excitedly. “Usually, we would go spectate at some smaller, no-name auction house. But tonight, there’s an event at the Golden Rooster! None of us have been there; it’s too high-end!” He turned his gaze toward Finn. “Especially you, my brother Finn, a fellow legendary earth-bender, you should come!”

Hearing about the grandeur of the event, Alivia and Finn nodded excitedly. “Yes, let’s go! We gotta go!” They turned toward Zairen. “Let’s go, Zairen!”

Zairen let out a small sigh and also smiled. In actuality, he was also interested. What kind of event would this be, with such a high level of anticipation? And what kinds of things would such a high-end auction house sell?