Five weeks prior...

Looking back at the past two years, if there was, explicitly considering, something worth of mention and being remembered, then Ubel was most certain that it was the existence of the two men and a woman, whom he grew up to feel gratitude.

Browsing through the memories like the pages of a book, whilst gazing up at the small rock on the horizon the sect considered a home, he realized how empty his heart was. There was no remorse, nor grief nor longing. He felt nothing, other than the slight annoyance at the inconvenience of the difficult and hazardous way of associating different people of different customs he and his company expected to meet, and this situation deeply troubled him.

Was he really alone?

He wondered, why he didn’t feel the same thing when he left his home. His real home, his dad and grandma. Was it because they had the greatest impact? Or was it because of the blood running through his veins? He clutched the small pendant on his neck. After cleaning and good care of continuous two years, which he felt to be the longest years of his twenty two years, it still had the same texture and dirt. The red stain and oak like outer-skin of the pendant had another luster, however, for reasons he didn’t know. And certainly he could have checked upon what this thing held in secret, if there was, but his heart did not give up a memory this valuable to the hands of another.

Only he could clutch and stroke this, his heart ordered.

After the Cindersnow mountain was no longer visible, he let out a deep sigh. The sea and the air still had the same air of despondence and brilliance, how did these two extremes meet in here? Now that was a worthy question, or so he thought. What was the source of this exotic, or perhaps eccentric would be more applicable, Ubel thought, scenery anyway? Nothing, he could derive nothing.

‘’Sorry for the little hump’’ Quan’s voice reached his ears at the exact moment Ubel’s eyes shined with a strange light, seemingly piercing through the mystery behind the creation of these opposite poles; but sadly, and with deep regret, was his focus not broken he might had a chance to glimpse upon that.

These are all my assumptions, aren’t they? He knew what he was dealing with.

Still, the golden crane’s little shake was enough to awaken him from the dreamy slumber. That was when he realized their altitude. They were high above, higher than the clouds that intercepted his sight, which laid the bare body of the vast sea with all its perks visible to his soul and heart.

He let out another sigh and looked back. Quan still focused on the road ahead, his new shaven bald head reflected some of the lights that fell. Surprising both to himself and to Gaobun, Quan looked more masculine without any hair. However, he much preferred the elegant and delicate air of a scholar the long hair spread, like a tree sprouting its flowers for all creation to see their beauty.

For the Gaobun, his eyes still looked as muddy as ever. His gaze reached past the clouds and the sea, they pierced through the membrane of reality and reached into a state of perfect elevation. Or we call it, dreaming...

At this state of mind, productivity and imagination of a individual, regardless of their identity, race, culture, and fundamental composition of their being, increased all the way to the zenith. It could last a split second, or for a lifetime for immortals. For mortals? Only a few hours that felt like a second.

So Ubel knew better than anyone else to not to awaken this dreamer. No matter how sweet or torturous it could be, a kind of enlightenment one could gain from this was immense and was, most probably, highly frowned upon to disturb, as this state was anything other than easy to access.

Back to my business I suppose

Since his focus was also broken, Ubel had no more desire to pursue some complex thought lines. Instead, the one thing he was most fond of right now was the state of his depression. His small research and the tips he gained from other Senior Masters paid off a little a while back.

Guiding the Qi through the meridians to the tip of his fingers, he created another depression. Although he couldn’t step into Qi Destruction yet, his Qi capacity and proficiency on controlling it was improving constantly. This, in turn, enabled him to try some new ideas and improve his past assumptions on how to use depression efficiently.

First thing he realized was, rather than depression, Death River Qi itself was not that flexible. In term of Qi density and amount, it differed from most of the manuals. The high density of Death River Qi did not allow the user to act in high speed or counter with fast attacks, but the exaggerated amount of Qi from it was enough to compare with early Qi Destruction cultivators.

What did this mean? This meant his dream of a homing depression was no longer possible. Although the ability itself was like a flowing substance and could change trajectories with small difficulties, when changed in nature, like his attempts at changing the shape/size/density of it, these lax laws seemed to bend against his will.

This is why they said no one attempts to modification.

Manuals were like divine commands, they possessed strict lines of rules and had the cultivator stick inside those lines without any question. Or else, a situation like his would occur, it seemed. But wasn’t this too inefficient? Of course it was. Without any freedom of choice and use, the variations were quite limited. This was a huge flaw in Ubel’s eyes. But who knows? Maybe elders and other super strong people knew the reason for it.

This doesn’t concern me, so screw it.

But none could stop him from trying out. Why would they stop anyway?

Looking deeply at the depression, which was created by his innate Qi and supported by the outside Qi of the world to be steady, Ubel stretched his hand. Although the decay aura was noticed by the both personas at his back, none paid any special heed to what he was doing.

He started the work right there. The depression started to get longer by a centimeter each second, and with each length got more slender. Its form also got more unstable and broke apart from time to time. Beads of sweat fell down from his forehead as the length of depression reached to five meters, then disappeared without any trace.

Releasing a sigh, Ubel thought of what he could do with it. Most certainly, if he could hasten the process of stretching the depression and control its shape without breaking any part, then it could be quite useful against a huge bulk of enemies. But his non-existent military experience told him he was quite far from any real fight.

After recovering some mental stamina, since he had nothing to do left and wasting away his time seemed pretty remorseful, Ubel continued on with his training.

*********

Since the crane reserved by the Quan had its own share of intelligence and obeyed the orders of the bald man(Ubel didn’t know what to call Quan anymore, so bald man seemed like a good option whilst thinking) there was no real need for him to control it continuously.

‘’Any hunger?’’ Quan asked and turned back. The back of the crane was pretty wide and long, so much that it was enough to sit down six man size of Boris without any cramping. Alas, it wasn’t the perfect place to sleep, as Ubel tried to nauseous effects first hand. As Quan came in front of the duo, one talking about his first impression on his junior’s use of the ability, other listening attentively to the senior, he waved his sleeve and placed a lengthy tray.

‘’Well, yes senior master!’’ Both men’s eyes shone with a fervent light. ‘’It has been about a day since we left. I didn’t really eat anything meantime.’’

‘’I really agree,’’ Ubel added, as the one with the weakest resistance to hunger, ‘’All I had was a small snack and all.’’ Quan sent a slight smile and took out the fresh meat and wine from his ring. ‘’I also haven’t, so it seems fit to have a meal together.’’

Gaobun and Ubel sat around the tray and clasped their palms for a moment. Quan looked at them as they muttered about blessings and fealty to Brynhildr for her generosity, then looked back at him. ‘’Go on,’’ He said and looked down on his hand, then reached out to a chicken wing.

Although the meal started awfully quiet, once Gaobun started to talk about Ubel’s attempts on depression Quan’s interest piqued up. Then it turned livelier as Quan took the leading position in the conversation, while the disciples listened to his somewhat reasonable and arguable points together with the food.

‘’Decay, corrosion, or flammable type of abilities tend to last longer than their counterparts,’’ Quan mentioned, taking a swing of the wine in his hand. ‘’Such as the Ash Canyon’s manual or Death River manual, both have quite an advantage over others in terms of density of Qi and stability of their divine arts.’’

‘’But the biggest setback on these two are the limits. The advancement relies on either extreme effort or extreme understanding of the concept manual revolves around. Ash Canyon fares well in this when compared with the latter. Death is just...unknown.’’

He stopped at that point, then laughed off the awkwardness. ‘’Well, this means Gaobun’s way is much easier than yours, Ubel. You need to work pretty hard.’’

‘’I know senior master,’’ Ubel replied, ‘’I know.’’

‘’By the way, senior master,’’ Ubel abruptly asked, ‘’What is your path?’’

Quan looked at the skies, then to the furs of the crane, and answered.

‘’My path is...of voice. My path treads wherever I want it to go.’’

‘’I lead my path, and it leads me. This is why I call it this way.’’

‘’Path Of Voice, root of our every first.’’

Ubel kept silent. Not for the image of a man, filled with solitude from the lack of love and attention, or, perhaps mostly, from the nonexistent driving force beneath his words. He kept silent for he lacked the same things, both emotions and the drive.

What was the drive behind following such a path?

Da-dadya?

Wha-!? Mother! Ubel spoke! Ubel really spoke!

Root of the firsts, but which ones? The first call of a name? The first request of a help? Or the first call of death?

Dad?

They call me, son.

What? Who are they?

Haha, who knows? They call me...just like you.

Is the voice unknown? Why the death is not known? May a sage tell, please a wise one tell me, Ubel pleaded to himself.

When hunting, fear as much as your prey does.

Why is that, dad?

Who can say you won’t feel the same? No one. Bloods of hunt are the same with us, they flow.

Dad?

Can you stop the flow? Can you feel the death? Can you understand!?

Dad!?

Why don’t you understand? Why? Why? WHY CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND DEATH!?

‘’UBEL!’’

Ubel opened his eyes. There was no meal in front of him, nor there was his father. Gaobun was stiffer than any other person he saw, and Quan was blazing with an aura of rage and fear.

‘’Don’t open your eyes! Don’t look at that thing’s wings!’’ He commanded once more and Ubel, right before closing his, noticed Gaobun’s tight shut pair. Darkness once more fell like a curtain. But this time, it was different.

‘’Don’t look deeply into those memories,’’ Quan said and tried to control the berserk crane. They shook and shook as it became harder to hold on. Ubel glanced at the so called memories in front of him. All lined up like a pond of water, he could see reflections of his past. But danger was immense and his mind trembled enough already. He had no intention to further endanger himself.

‘’Senior master?’’ He inquired, ‘’What happened?’’

‘’Tulpar’’

‘’Tulpar?’’ Quan ceased talking. Ubel felt how wrong the situation was at the moment. His own hands started to feel bitter cold. Then the feeling of frostbite spread out to his back. This wasn't a magic. This was the tingling of his scalp. This was fear.

‘’Almighty Beast God, why is the necessity to cause fear and trauma to my disciples!? Did we do a heinous crime against the honorable?’’,

Then Uble heard the cause of his irregular dream.

‘’Clouds and sea alike are mine. World is my nest, so why should I ask for permission? What necessity you ask? My will! Is that a reason not enough, pilgrim?’’

‘’For your majesty, every reason is enough of a excuse. Even the lack of a reason! But one shall not forget, some excuses may not be acceptable for the Giant.’’

‘’Feza, you mean?’’ Beast god fell silent for a moment. ‘’You stray traveler, consider your pitiful self enough to worth of Feza’s attention?’’

‘’Not me, exalted one.’’ Quan said, then a silence ensued. There had to be happening something between, but his blocked vision couldn’t help to understand what it was.

‘’That is indeed...I will mercy for this time.’’

‘’Then,’’

‘’But that boy shall look at me in the eyes.’’ Quan moved to talk, Ubel heard, but got cut off instantly. ‘’For my excuse is that boy itself. None can refute if I kill you three right away, even with that handwriting, ambassador.’’

Quan let out a sigh and turned around. ‘’Gaobu-’’

‘’Ubel it is, look.’’

All three gasped at the same time. What do I have? He questioned, but alas, couldn’t guess what the answer was. Ubel felt no more fear, for what reason he didn’t know, but this lack of emotion was terrifying enough. Yet he steeled himself like of a brave warrior before war, and let out a breath. ‘’Ubel, go on.’’ Said Quan at the same time. Then he opened his eyes.

There stood the gigantic horse. Body painted with the blue of the sea and darkness of the night. Its eyes sparkled, accompanied by the crimson stars of the universe. Wings the same as as moon’s brilliant blood light, scarlet color blazed with the winds behind its back.

Clouds bowed down under its steps and sea crackled with anguish below his stare.

There stood the most exalted of the beasts, progenitor of the four legged animals, and the last descendant of Draconic God.

Onesiphorus, or as she is called, Tulpar The Beast God.