106 Calm before the Storm III

A group of kids below the age of ten are properly lined and each holding a wooden sword. With their foot forward and under the guide of their teacher, they slowly lift their swords upwards then explosively make a vertical slash striking the empty space before them. Each strike would create a swish sound causing the sweats in their arms to be thrown outwards and with the sun just about to rise, the beads of sweat would be illuminated by the sunlight making those beads look like sparkling gems glittering as they fall to the ground. Though all of these kids are expected to fail during selections and become cultivators, it is not a reason not to try.

Nuir III just arrived on the village square and smiled on the groups of kids as he approach a bamboo hut where a middle-aged man is sleeping.

Hya! Hya!

Nuir III turned around and looked to his side. A two year old boy with no pants is holding a stick is trying to emulate the older kids as he played with a dog. Nuir softly laughed at the little bed wetter who probably ran away from his mother after throwing away his pants and is now proudly showing off his little birdie.

“Hey! Why are you not wearing any pants? Do you want me to wake up Uncle Clay to circumcise you?”

Nuir made weird faces as he watched the little boy ran away with his butt. It is a classic prank the villagers would use to scare little children.

In the mean time, the middle-aged man who was peacefully sleeping on the hut opened his eyes upon hearing the noise. It is none other than Clay who was drunk last night. The yield on his first major harvest earned him 800 crones he felt rich for the first time in this world and celebrated with a few friends. Before passing out from too much alcohol, he recalled how everyone was picked up by their respective wives except for him. He insisted on drinking more before sleeping on the hard bamboo bench.

“If you have a wife, she will pick you up no matter what. Too bad you want to stay single and be feasted on by mosquitoes.”

Clay got up and grabbed a cup and filled it with the fruit juice left from last night.

“Aahhh.. . Keep talking like that and I’ll throw up on your face.. . Arghh… What’s with the morning greeting?” Clay looked at his cousin as he ignored the hangover.

“My wife convinced mother that we should hire a private tutor for my second son. I came to speak with the sword teacher for recommendations. They really want him to become an outstanding Alchemist and it’s hard to say no this time.

“Lucky me, I’m not married.”

“It’s his birthday next week. Will you come?”

Clay agreed and their conversation went on until the group of kids were done with their sword training.

Clay watched his cousin approached the sword teacher. He felt relieved his cousin still has a mindset of a farmer despite growing up with a silver spoon in his mouth. He sympathizes on his nephew though. Barely could think for himself and his future is already decided. Just how unlucky his nephew will be growing up chasing his parent’s expectations.

“Exactly why I don’t want to pursue cultivation anymore. All that awaits is bad luck.” Clay thought to himself. Whenever the world reminds him of his past life, he would focus on toiling and socialize like the rest of the villagers. He believes that one day he would forget and truly move as long has he will never entertain the longing that once trapped him.

Clay would still occasionally have nightmares about gruesome piles of dead bodies and he has this premonition that those dreams will become a reality once he cultivates and this is the primary reason he wanted to embrace a simple life.

On the other hand though, he felt guilty he could not play the role of being a good uncle. Two months ago, his cousin and sister in law had an argument about their son becoming a cultivator. After all, his nephew has an Elemental Affinity Score of 5 and though this score is negligible in the cultivation world, this score is a cause for celebration for a village that had not spawned a cultivation talent for more than a century.

Clay distanced himself but was helplessly involved during their fight as his cousin would sleepover if they have a big argument. The wife wanted to secure a Human Class Essence Flame they can nurture as early as now in preparation until his nephew turns five. There are strict regulations about rearing Essence Flames especially for a family with no background and his cousin refuses to use his connection with the Elvens causing their fight.

Clay is opposed to the idea that his nephew’s future is being decided without allowing the child to grow up and choose his path on his own volition however, he knew he won’t be able to influence his sister in law to change her mind especially her aunt. But for him, he believes that if they should do something wrong, they should at least do it correctly.

He saw the list of prospects on where they will be obtaining Essence Flames which prompted him to do his research and to his surprise, even Essence Flames are categorized based on its strength. Seeing that they plan on having his nephew integrate with the weakest Human Class Essence Flame, he wanted to take this opportunity to play his role as a good uncle for once.

He plans on nurturing a stronger Essence Flame within Human Class category and from his research, he found information about Lievrem Flower which is endemic to the south. It is a floral type flame and though it is not the strongest, it is many times better than his cousin’s selection and could grow within a short period of time provided there is abundant Qi. Besides, he expects that he can nurture it easily with the help of the mysterious energy produced by a Psuedo Spiritual Vein made from a beast’s cultivation circuit.

Since the couple’s fight two months ago, Clay already anticipated that his cousin will eventually gave in to his sister in law’s dreams of having their son become a cultivator and an Alchemist at that. He thought, “Who in the world would even want pills when technology could concoct potions or solutions ten times more efficient than those half baked candies?”

He once inquired as to how much would it cost to buy and deliver the flower but he found out that it would cost him a whooping one thousand crones. He called the company and asked them for a stalk or seedlings of the flower but he was refused. Since no one would agree to deliver him a seedling, he decided to travel to the south himself.

Clay continued walking and instead of going back home, he detoured northwest of the village. At least ten kilometers northwest is a dense forest and it is not strictly a restricted area but the villagers would often avoid passing through or visiting it as to not disturb the simple ecosystem that managed to survive through time. It is everyone’s responsibility to maintain the lush greenery a part of their binding agreement with the Elvens.

He had an aerial view of the village when he rode the Airship during his first Gitlangan Festival and although it was not long because he had to entertain old man Baran, he noticed gigantic rocks lying not far from the village. Their positions seem to indicate a portion of pentagon shaped isolation formation and at first he was not interested until two months ago he had to look for a secret place to nurture an Essence Flame.

Clay asked the village head and he was given a map and the route he must take as to not attract or disturb any nearby magical beasts. Back at Gar Wahgar planet, he once meandered dangerous forests so walking into the breathtaking dense rainforest near the village was not new to him.

Two months ago, when he got to the area where the gigantic rocks were lying, he discovered multiple underground caves buried within the rocks and when he further explored the area, he realized that the caves were once bunkers. And after thousands of years of being abandoned, the underground shelters had been covered in dirt. There are no buried treasures but he did find multiple broken pieces and random parts of an Isolation Formation.

Clay retrieved those pieces and was able to salvage functioning parts and constructed a crude Isolation Formation. From his estimate, as long as there is no sudden burst of or energy fluctuations beyond the strength of a Core Formation expert, then two underground caves will remain unnoticed.

The first shelter has naturally accumulated water and formed a forty meter wide lake. It’s about less than two meters deep and there were unfamiliar aquatic vines. This is where he planned on nurturing the aquatic flora until it produces the Essence Flame. For the second shelter, it had a similar space and a height of fifteen meters and after installing a few lamps, he made a garden of Natu Fruits which he will then used to nurture Scorpion River Prawns which will end up becoming food for the Essence Flame.

After twenty minutes of walking, Clay arrived at the base of the gigantic rocks and entered his secret shelter to which he was greeted with a dense air of Spiritual Qi. Clay walked and ignored the Qi concentration and picked up ten Natu fruits then went the first shelter and threw them into the pond.

The fruits sank but before they could reach the bottom of the water, bone claws grabbed each of the fruits and were slowly eaten by the growing prawns. Clay activated his Godly Eyes to confirm the cultivation level of the prawns and smiled when he noticed how fast they have evolved to Tier Two Beasts.

The prawns’ meat even if the beast has not evolved to a Tier I Beast is still a great sustenance and a booster for growing children and if the villagers knew he is nurturing prawns to become Tier II Beasts just to become a fertilizer for an Essence Flame Flower, they would probably kill him for wasting such a precious and scarce meat.