Fast forward in time, and we have been here for several months.

It had been well over a year and a half since I first appeared in this world. It had been over a year since we left the tiny village of Startza.

A year since I had picked up a little girl called Sasha who was barely over 6 years old.

She was already nearing her 8th birthday and before she reached her 8th birthday, she would reach Rank 1 as a Mage.

Well, that was my initial assumption, but that time frame may have changed recently.

Nonetheless, she had gone through an incredible transformation, and it was not only her that had changed. I did as well.

Ever since the events that had happened with the Tzun Rei Sect, we had both changed.

I had begun to lose my innocence, the innocence one possessed when they grew up in the midst of peace. In this world, the innocence I possessed was something I planned to hold onto for as long as possible, because some changes were not worth it.

Sasha on the other hand had lost her innocence years ago, as a little child. The events of the Tzun Rei Sect had changed her views on life even more.

I didn't wish for her to mature so fast. I wanted to let her enjoy her childhood, but she had caused a death, she had caused a teenager to grieve over his father, and that had caused her to bring up her past.

In these months since that event, Sasha had cried multiple times. Some days she would suddenly begin crying for no reason, but her eyes were filled with stories full of pain. Some nights she would begin to cry in her sleep, her dreams turning into emotional nightmares.

I did my best to console her as much as I could, but every passing day made her lose a little more of her childhood as she matured at a ridiculous pace.

Her changes effected me as well. The pain I went through watching a little girl I had come to consider as my own daughter lose her childhood was heart breaking.

The quote 'Time healed all wounds' I had come to consider a sweet lie since time didn't heal wounds, it slowly made them fade away to hide in the recesses of your mind.

No matter how long passed, Sasha would forever have the memory of the events regarding the Tzun Rei Sect lodged deeply inside of her.

The Tzun Rei Sect had also changed immensely, considering it no longer existed. In its stead there now existed two entirely different sects.

The Rei Sect and the Goan Sect. These two sects while not having a relationship of hate, didn't have a close relationship either. It was complex relationship.

Since their split they had one battle with another sect in total, or would have if I wasn't there.

The opposing sect which was called the Dou Dou Sect, came to wipe out both the Goan Sect and the Rei Sect but instead taunted them for a full 15 minutes which had given me ample time to get there.

It seemed in the time it took me to get there, a total of seven large sects came in total. A multitude of smaller sects and groups came as well. Only two of the large sects wanted to wipe out the Goan and Rei Sects, while the other five and the smaller groups only came to watch.

But my appearance scared the crap out of all of them.

Most of them immediately tried to curry favour with me, but I couldn't be bothered dealing with those people. So I immediately told them my reason for coming there, and that nearly led to another civil war within the alliance that came to wipe out the Goan and Rei Sect.

I stopped it this time and let no one die. I also ordered that no one was to cause any trouble in Zedtx region, since this was what how the problem between me and the Tzun Rei Sect came into fruition in the first place.

Surprisingly, because of my order and recent actions, I had somehow turned into something akin to a guardian for the region of Zedtx.

All the clans in the area, whether they be small or large, all the noble families, again whether small or large would come to pay their respects to me.

It had become a pain in the ass, so I stopped allowing people to come visit me, but since I couldn't completely shut myself off, I had chosen Roman, the man who had become a confidante to me, to handle all people who came to visit me for whatever reason.

He was overjoyed with the news and immediately began to do his job. Excellently as well if I may add.

The bandit groups in the region as well as the rogue cultivators, also no longer caused problems. The bandit groups completely left for different regions while the rogue cultivators seemed to like my presence since unlike the other clans or what not, I didn't care whether they made homes in the area so long as they didn't make trouble.

My aura, or my lack of aura kept all the wild beasts which would normally attack this village away.

It seemed Zoras's scent, aura, of whatever the fuck it was really did protect me from the 'things' in the 'Forest of Silence'.

I'm so glad I never encountered anything in the forest, since who knew what the fuck lived in it.

That aside, the villagers had even upgraded the shack instead of just repairing it.

It went from being a shack into a tiny temple.

They completely remade everything from scratch.

It was ridiculous. I had become somebody incredibly important, while in reality any of the nearby cultivators could kill me with utter ease. Even my own disciple was far stronger than I was.

Nonetheless, my humble abode was no longer a humble seeing as how it was now a little temple.

It had three floors... well two floors and a basement.

The basement floor was where I set up a mini treasury as well as a bed for me to sleep. I also forbid Sasha from going down there. So I could sleep on my back for once.

All of this upright sleeping was killing my back.

The ground floor, which had a hall, a kitchen and a bath. This was where I spent most of my time, simply sitting in the little hall which could house at least 25 people easily and 50 or more people if we squished together.

Then there was the top floor, which had four bedrooms and a large central pavilion which oversaw the surrounding the region.

I who was almost never seen was called the 'Ancient Guardian' and it greatly hurt my mentality.

I was 23 and I was called 'Ancient'. No young adult wanted to be called that.

Sasha on the other hand almost always sat on the pavilion on the top floor meditating so she was usually visible. People had taken to calling her the 'Little Goddess'.

I agreed with that at least.

This girl was monstrous. She deserved the title goddess.

It wasn't just the village of Zetdx that had begun to slowly worship me, even other villagers had begun to as well.

They dropped off offerings to me and prayed towards me, but no one had the gall to ever enter the temple.

Even though I constantly told them not to bring me offerings since I was really running out of space in the basement and my rings, they continued to do so all while saying 'Apologies ancient guardian'.

I mean, I tried to get angry at them, but that didn't do anything except increase their reverence in me because in their eyes I was being 'magnanimous' for rejecting the goods that the villagers had secured with hard work.

The other thing that bothered me was that the people would come and pray outside my new abode. It was incredibly annoying for one, and my ego wasn't inflated enough to feel good about people praying to me.

I couldn't accept such a thing when I thought about what I really was. A slightly stronger human... well... a greatly stronger human.

In the end I had to forbid them from praying within my sight and that had managed to stop them until I learned why they had actually stopped.

The surrounding rogue cultivators and other small groups and people had come to form a group called the 'Guardian Faith'. It's other name was the 'Guardian Church'.

They begun to build small temples in the surrounding area in which they would pray to me.

In the 3 months since the Guardian Faith had been created, they had created a total of 13 temples.

I was now worshipped in a total of 4 village regions similar to Zedtx and 1 whole city. It was a small city compared to other cities in the area, but it was a city nonetheless.

I didn't know how to react to this.

How did I stop people from worshipping me? I hadn't even done anything worship worthy in the first place.

Sasha simply laughed off my anger saying that it was 'Only natural for the weak to follow the strong'.

I agreed with that, but couldn't they have done it in a more normal manner. Like create a sect or something. Why the fuck did they have to create a whole religion.

The one thing that kept me at least somewhat happy was that at least it would only be a small religion that would never grow too large.

---

Hey guys, Old Man here,

First of all, I'd like to say sorry for not keeping my promise of 1 chap a day, but I have a very good excuse for that.

A large tree in my front yard fell and dislocated the power cable and the internet cable. So while it took a mere day to fix the power, it too my Internet Provider 4 days to fix the internet. So it took me 5 days.

But the good news is, in that time frame, I wrote another 4 chapters.

So I have up till Chapter 24 written down. Yay!

So till I reach Chap 24, you'll get a chapter a day.

And like the doctor says, A chapter a day, will keep boredom away.

Nonetheless, Ciao!

Love and Peace,

-Old Man