After returning back to their house, Quan left towards his own room while Ubel stayed downstairs to practice cultivation as always. Climbing the narrow stairs, Quan came in front of his room and stepped in.

He had a table made of rosewood facing the window, curtains darker than the wood covered the glass, and the crowded papers and notebooks scattered on it showered in the moonlight. A wardrobe, also of the same wood, stood next to his small bed with no content inside its wide interior. Quan looked down at his feet and saw the marks of the cold outside, his toes and heels had a stinging sensation, flashing with red of the frostbite.

He sat down on the chair, threw over his equipment bag on the bed after taking out some papers and an envelope. Quan ran his hand across the table and swept the materials away, let them fall on the ground then placed the envelope on the now empty desk. With great caution, he injected his Qi to the seal and it broke off, then turned into ashes that floated towards the open window with wind.

Quan took out the letter inside with the addition of long range communication talisman, a big tad different from the normal Teltal’s that had a range of a few kilometers. He put the talisman aside and opened the letter.

To the Combat Master, Herb Sage, and Hero Of Kryostria,

We wish the well being of you and all disciples of our sect in Yadratafos and hope to see you back again in our ranks after this decade’s Frenzy. Most unfortunately the request of the city lord, including you esteemed sir’s consent and approval, had been refused by the council of elders after a week of discussion...

After reading a bit further, Quan put down the letter and sighed. Of course, they would refuse. Even in a normal age, production of pills and herbs never satisfied the consumer groups. The policy of sect about the distribution and sales of the products also limited the investment of any noble family or a cultivator might intend to do. Workers of the herb plantations and spirit gardeners, including the laborers who processed these raw materials into pills for use, couldn’t apply to work without specific qualifications. So, sect’s dynamic workforce comprised of personas picked with care and, for sure, even for the large population it ruled the sect had a hard time satisfying the number required.

Quan also knew that many didn’t prefer to work in those areas because of the low wage and hard work. Only people who had no talent in fighting, smithing, forging, architecture, or even embroidery leaned to get into those works. He worked, for instance, about eight years in a hospital at Kryostria long time ago. Sect preferred mortals to act as doctors, which had been a quite confusing point at the start. And as the assistant of a mortal doctor, he also had a duty to bring the specific herbs or pills required to treat a special illness or wound. Inevitable it was, he saw how poor work conditions were and the attitudes of the region level taskmasters that touched the border of atrocity.

And it was also inevitable that a city as such laid into ruins.

The conclusion he had was, no help would be coming other than the support department. It could bring about some changes, but the course of this decade’s frenzy wouldn’t differ much. After shaking his head, Quan read the last bit of words, signed by the head of the support department and stamped with elders council’s mark, then burned the letter to the ashes. He also wrapped the talisman with his Qi and sent it towards the city lord’s castle atop the hill. In a moment, he heard the message of the city lord and talked about the result for a bit. He then bid farewell and cut off the communication.

It is disappointing to wait two weeks for this.

After standing up, Quan changed his red robe to a more comfortable white tunic in his ring, a kind that covered from his torso to the knees, and took out his sandals. No matter how powerful or resilient his body was, the pleasure and strength of recovery sleeping had still stood unmatched. He made his way to the bed and laid down. He looked up at the ceiling for some time, then closed his eyes. He felt tired and wanted to sleep as soon as possible.

But it proved to be impossible.

He felt a strong fluctuation downstairs. It brimmed with power, not enough to deter him but powerful to the point of shaking the house. The power, shrouded behind an aura seeping of death, spread to a hundred meters in no time and surrounding houses also started to tremble.

In an instant, Quan flew from his bed towards the living room and saw Ubel standing, his eyes closed tight, and his body covered with dark red blood. As he came in front of the young boy, he looked up at him and opened his red eyes.

‘’Senior master, help me.’’

*********

Ubel shook hard as his Qi went berserk.

He did not know what he did wrong tonight. After contemplating about some matters as always, he proceeded to meditate and practice cultivation but he felt something different. He felt some kind of shackles, like sharp blades, placed on his wrists and ankles and throat. He had an instinctive feeling that if he made a wrong move, although not in all seriousness, he could die. He also knew that somehow his body started to store more Qi than it could contain.

First, his meridians and passageways filled to the brim, then came his organs and blood vessels and bones. At last, his skin also started to consume and internalize Qi from the outside and his body overreacted.

On his skin, blood vessels vibrant with Qi turned into streaks of lashes and burnt from inside. His meridians trembled then cracked, slow but sure, and intense amounts of pain passed through his nerves. Ubel wanted to cry and shout from the pain, but it was so great that he couldn’t even open his mouth or eye.

Then he felt something appear in front of him. Someone, and for the first time, he could identify a presence. Something he couldn’t do before, an ability of some sorts. No, this was his premature third eye, but its properties seemed...quite different. But his panicked mind only responded with opening his eyes to the hope of salvation from this destructive moment.

He saw who it was, and his lips moved on their own.

‘’Senior master, help me.’’

*********

Quan nodded and grasped Ubel’s hair with a hand, then vanished altogether.

A minute later they both arrived outside the city, not far but not close either, and settled down in a patch of trees. Quan released his Qi and created a barrier to contain the fluctuations of the breakthrough. He himself felt horrified by the signs of the breakthrough and had to increase the size of the barrier to close a five hundred meter area.

Then he came in front of Ubel. This was strange. Second Qi destruction wasn’t that dangerous, and it never costed someone’s life. Both considering the level of power released from Ubel and the secret aura that gave him shivers, Quan knew something terrible had happened.

He opened his third eye and gazed into Ubel’s body. A wreck of this degree shocked him. Then he saw a small thing on Ubel’s neck. It looked like a talisman, or necklace as he couldn’t pick out its form. Tied to Ubel’s scape, with a rope not so sturdy but still resisted the destructive aura of the breakthrough, written the word Evil with an imposing red color, Quan knew he found the answer.

The aura that gave him shivers, made him fear for his life, and shook the residences around his own was this very thing. The more he gazed, the more fearful he felt.

‘’Ubel!’’ The most efficient way of communication right now was talking with Qi, not mouth, he decided. ‘’Direct all your Qi towards that necklace of yours. Hurry up!’’

Quan continued to examine as the Qi flow shifted from a revolution to a straight stream that ran to the necklace. The object, or the rock that looked like a normal pebblestone, absorbed whatever it received without any stop.

As time passed, beads of sweat trickling down the foreheads of both, Ubel’s complexion turned from deep pale to a more healthy glow. Still, the pain didn’t seem to go away and Quan finally had a chance to gaze at the necklace. Its color...differed from what he saw a moment ago. Unlike a gray pebblestone, its color was black. More like the black of the darkness rather than of the night.

At the same time, his eyes opened wide, a small sealing mark appeared on the necklace and flew towards Ubel’s head, then merged with him. A loud, booming sound shook the area and several trees next to them blasted into pieces. Some of them battered Quan’s own Qi barrier, some flew and pierced other trees and boulders. Yet, the most shocking thing was the aura of a pathfinder Ubel had.

I get it now!

Quan understood everything at the moment.

The way that led from Qi destruction to the Path Finding wasn’t a stage that needed Qi nor expertise in something. It marked a stage between an aimless idiot and an aspired immortal. Only people who had a clear image of their future, a power or strength they excelled in that suited to that future and felt their resolve to be strong enough could embark into the path that led to the essence realm. Yet, this wasn’t something one could do by saying I’m going to walk on the path of fire! Then proceed to the pathfinding. Their understanding, likeliness, and fondness towards the said path had to be at an incredible level to set on that path, and no individual other than a few rare ones could step right into it after Qi destruction.

Such as Ubel’s case. The Qi he gained from stepping onto the Path finding conflicted with the aura that tried to destroy the Qi to advance, and as a result, his body reacted in a strange way to deflect the destruction of the Qi. It gathered insane amounts of it to fight back, and the destruction kept growing till all of his flesh and organs became a battlefield.

It sounded quite horrible, but the real state wasn’t that bad. At least, Quan could cure Ubel’s wounds with a few herbs in a moment.

But for now, he had to do something.

Ubel opened his eyes and faced Quan, then looked down at himself. His body, blood, and dirt mishmashed with sweat seemed fragile but strong. Quan let him have a moment to inspect the changes, then spoke.

‘’Ubel, what path did you choose?’’ He wanted to ask this more than anything, even more than that strange artifact Ubel wore. Quan couldn’t recognize Ubel’s path. He didn’t know what the strange dark aura around him was, nor did he have any speculation to whatever it could be.

Ubel’s eyes darted around Quan for a moment again, then lifted his hand as he stood up from the ground. Quan heard a crack, then a single point on Ubel’s hand ceased to exist. It...broke the space. A single, needle-sized bit of space. What the hell?

‘’Ubel?!’’ Quan wasn’t aware that his mouth opened wide and his brows furrowed. Ubel scratched his head with the other hand, ‘’I’m trying, senior master.’’ he said then his eyes shined. ‘’I found it!’’

A surge of liquid appeared from the tiny space crack and overflowed. Like a river, a flood of dark water flowed then expanded into meters of size. Ubel’s face paled again, but the excitement didn’t die yet. The flood struck the surrounding plants and trees and stones, and when it disappeared after a few seconds all that left behind from the former things were drops of sticky water.

Ten meters around Ubel turned into a patch of grey, dark earth.

Even the brown soil died.

*********

‘’It is the path of death river,’’ Ubel conscious of the importance of the path he chose, told Quan. His robes dirtied, patches of gray earth and leftover brown soil that survived, a miracle, and his eyes, blue of the sea he longed for, shining like stars, he was well aware Quan could read all emotions he presented.

On top of that, he couldn’t discern what the other party felt. It didn’t seem like anger, nor happiness, far cry from surprise but not so close to a detriment gaze. He didn’t expect, of course, to understand what a single frown meant by a single glance. It mattered not, and wouldn’t, too, in the short-term he thought, so Ubel gave in.

‘’Shall we head back, senior master?’’ Quan, at last, gave a satisfying reaction. His mouth opened and closed a few times, not like one of the shock nor dumbfounding experience, but an attempt, or like a criminal at a trial, at clarifying something he thought to be false. And at this situation, Ubel could only think that Quan understood he lied.

Quan also stopped trying. He sighed, ‘’Let’s get back, I have to report this matter to the sect.’’ and grasped now stiffened Ubel’s hand, while the latter knew former felt the cold shiver passing through his body, then vanished altogether again.

This time Ubel saw the fast speed motions a path opener could achieve. Boris’ speed he experienced first hand, although as a mortal at that stage(He stopped inspecting for a moment to ponder why he referred his past self as a mortal) differentiating the extents of both didn’t prove to be difficult. And indeed, his nausea started acting again a few seconds in, to which he found strange he managed to resist it at his weakest state but it did not last more than thirty seconds.

The delicate timespan between the going out and in of Quan made Ubel grateful, far more than he had supposed, to feel, but not worth more than a bow down the waist. As Quan put him down in his room, Ubel found it hard to breathe and laid his back to the comfy bed’s side, but also made sure to face the window to alleviate the queasiness(He learned the word in medical lessons and chose to use it anyway, as no one could judge his thoughts and preference over words...or could)

In the minute he calmed down and pulled himself together, his face and feet regained their color and his cold shoulders and spine warmed up again, Quan stood rooted at one stop, gazing, making the young man uncomfortable, deep inside Ubel’s body. He knows I lied but doesn’t point it out. Why?

Once he recuperated enough energy to stumble, it also made him feel a bitter taste in his mouth, that, he used the third ability of the manual to reinforce his lie of the path, Ubel bowed down to Quan.

‘’I’m sorry for all the troubles I caused so far, senior master.’’ Actual remorse echoed out of his words. ‘’Wherever I went with you, trouble followed,’’ Ubel, through the now(Somehow) improved third eye felt Quan’s gaze on his necklace. ‘’I don’t have anything to compensate for your efforts, I can only apologize.’’

‘’No need to...repay,’’ Quan mumbled, quiet and slow like a hiss of a snake, and Ubel felt gratified, but the next sentence spoken made his scalp tingle. ‘’But I would love to take...or you to gift me that pendant.’’

‘’Senior master!’’ Ubel almost shouted and gave a deep bow, ‘’I don’t have anything to pay you back, I mean it with everything I have.’’ It turned into a helpless whisper, a plea, at the end. He did not want to part with it. He knew, from the moment he left the sect without checking the necklace, there had to be something wrong with his father’s treasured luck charm. And his grandmother, who spoke of his mother as a forsaken, and the Tulpar whom he could associate with the shadow behind his mother at his dream. If this thing had something other than a moral value, or spiritual and memory like worth, then he could only saw the choice of an artifact.

‘’Ubel, you are being selfish.’’ Quan criticized, not as low as a whisper, not louder than a heavy sigh.

‘’Selfish?’’ Stuck at his bow, Ubel raised his head. ‘’Why am I being selfish, senior master? Only because I want to protect something of no value from my parents, I am selfish?’’

‘’No,’’ Quan muttered and tried to put his hand on Ubel’s hair. Latter avoided, fast, and the trembling hand of Quan paralyzed at the air. Then he grit his teeth, ‘’You are right,’’

‘’Then-’’

‘’You brought trouble wherever you went. Do you know how many people could have died if Tulpar decided to slaughter us? Or if I wasn’t here tonight how much damage you would do to the disciples of the other sects? You are being ungrateful!’’

‘’What are you accusing me with, senior!?’’ Ubel shouted, his eyes red. Why did he feel agitated, even while knowing there was no reason for them to argue? They could have a peaceful talk like they had done for two years before, but why did it not work?

‘’I’m only trying to secure what is all left from my family! I’m being ungrateful? When did I do anything out of your order, anything other than your advice, anything out of your words? I treated you with respect because I knew you were a better person than all those simple, boring people at the goddamn mountain!’’

‘’Is this how-’’

Ubel’s body flew like a doll to the ground, crashed with a dull sound, and his eyes’ red lessened.

‘’You are being ungrateful because you are not honest with me!’’ Ubel stood rooted at the ground, then felt a slight pain at the sight of the shaking eyes of Quan. How pitiful one could be to make an old man, a figure like an older brother, a teacher saddened.

‘’You can lie about your past, or about your path. It all does not matter, but when you lie about your aim, your reason I can’t stand it. Real respect doesn’t come from the words or actions, it comes from the heart. I can see from your eyes, Ubel, young boy. You don’t trust me enough to be honest.’’

‘’I had been honest with you all the time, I did not use nor depend on the stupid elder-young system to gain your respect. With virtues and my knowledge, with my heart, I treated you. But you didn’t give me the same answer.’’

‘’All I ask for you is to lend me a simple necklace- no. Not a simple necklace. I want you to trust me enough, be open to me enough to lend me something so significant that you can defy whatever I say.’’

Ubel lowered his head. Out of shame, out of pity, out of anger. None could discern from the long bangs of his hair upon the pair of eyes that Quan used to evaluate the boy.

‘’I won’t report anything to the sect, I know the path you chose and want to walk on. I won’t judge, I will encourage you to walk upon such a path. You don’t need to worry!’’

At this point, both people didn’t even know what they argued about, nor cared. It all came down to a single point that uneased Quan the whole time they had been together. To a man who had no other family than his disciples, and to a boy who he thought to have no family nor home left, this conflict seemed inevitable, but at the same time, solvable through a simple mean.

Ubel, slower than a turtle, plucked the necklace from his throat. ‘’I have a promise to keep you and Gaobun alive,’’ Quan kneeled down in front of Ubel, then clasped his hand that held the pebblestone.

‘’Ubel,’’ He struggled to pick his words, as Ubel understood from the helpless expression, and blurted out at last.

‘’I have a promise to keep you both alive, no matter what. If it will help me keep you alive, then I don’t care if you get hurt or not now.’’

Ubel gave in at last. He did not utter a word. At this close, Quan saw the desolation and hopelessness. Not from the forceful coercion to give up, nor from the exhausting and pathetic words, he, quite certain, felt irrelevant to the conversation. It stemmed, unlike the emotions rising from the heart, out of losing a part of himself. That part of himself, Quan knew very well.

It was virtue.

Ubel’s slender fingers opened, his now paling arms trembled. With three fingers still holding, but the rope sliding down his palm, the tendons and muscles tensed like a leaping tiger’s maw to keep the thing to himself. But heart rules the body, mind rules the heart. The driving force of emotions kept his act unoccured, and the necklace fell.

The moment it touched Quan’s wrinkled hands, sparks of deathly white flew around. They stroked the walls of the room, flew towards the distant moon and struck Quan’s palm. They burnt and seared everything, and Quan, with a relieved smile, gave back the thing to Ubel.

Ubel peered at the deep wound of lightning on the now ashen palm, then at the pendant on his hand again.

‘’See? Now, this is trust.’’

Quan’s face seemed irritable, intolerable, and for the most part, sickening. Ubel stood up and without looking back and left the room, ignoring the ready waiting Gaobun at the side of the door, and got downstairs.

Gaobun, at the same time, looked inside and felt his heartbeat rise again.

‘’Senior master?’’ He called, and the old man fell down with exhaustion. Gaobun leaped in while conflicting with himself, Quan passed out with a smile of accomplishment, and Ubel spoke to his necklace like a lunatic to empty his mind.

For the trio, who had an unpredestined time together ahead of them, this exchange marked the start of a new kind of relationship.

A brotherhood, and a family.