Before Adam started to purify his body, he wanted to walk around and see if there were any spirits in the area. Although the water spirit had been rather lax with Adam, the wind spirit he had encountered was rather eccentric and nearly threw him out of the place!

Adam's initial search of the area did not produce any results. There were a few lizards and snakes running about, but no spirits could be seen. Adam decided to place that question aside for now and tried to find the best place in the canyon for him to purify the death essence in his bones. Adam spread his elemental sight down into the ground and followed the thrumming pulse of earth essence towards its center. The source of all this humming would likely have the highest concentration of earth essence in the area.

It didn't take Adam too long to find the center. However, he was astonished by what he found there! A few tens of meters underground lied a slumbering earth spirit! The thrumming pulses were directly coming from the spirit! If the thrumming could be called the heart beat of the land, the spirit would most definitely be the heart!

"Amazing!" Adam muttered to himself.

The earth spirit was connected in a unique way with the earth essence surrounding it. The connection was very subtle and hardly noticeable but Adam could tell it was very strong! Adam thought that if he could connect himself to spirit essence in a similar matter, controlling the spirit essence would almost be as effortless as breathing! Still, Adam could not tell how the earth spirit had formed this connection. To replicate it would be difficult to the extreme.

Adam watched the spirit for a small time to see if it would stay asleep or wake up. If it woke up, he of course wanted to speak with it. If it wouldn't wake, then he would not go out of his way to disturb the spirit. If the thrum of earth essence Adam had followed here was spread in every direction, the spirit had control over a truly frightening amount of earth essence. If it woke up on the grouchy side, Adam had no idea if it might suddenly lash out at him. Adam doubted he would survive any attack from a spirit as strong as this one.

After a time, Adam finally decided to choose a spot close at hand to begin the purifying process. He chose a spot that was further away from the spirit so as not to disturb its sleep. Adam sat down in his chosen spot and began to concentrate on the earth essence. After a long time of concentration, Adam actually couldn't produce any results! Compared to wind essence or water essence, earth essence was incredibly hard to control. At the very least, wind and water were constantly moving and giving Adam examples of ways he might control them. The earth essence in the canyon, however, was completely still. There was nothing around that Adam could use as an example to actually control the earth essence to seep into his bones! Adam had even tried to use the spirit gathering formation. Even if it he couldn't make it specifically pull in earth essence, there was still plenty around for it to gather. Unfortunately, the gathering formation was too inefficient. As much earth essence as there was in the area, the formation couldn't gather enough at a time to actually allow him to purify the death essence in his bones. The death essence was too pure to be affected.

Adam gave a displeased frown at this new development. He had never had this issue before. With nothing else to do, Adam stood up to walk around the canyon. He had to find something, anything, that could help him. Adam walked around for a few hours, again with no results.

Adam leaned against a broken rock on the canyon floor and sighed. He knew earth essence could be controlled and made to move. He remembered back to the demonic bear he had found near Hessler. He had followed the spiritualist Dane to kill the bear. Dane had used a spirit formation to cause the ground under the bear to distort until it exploded! Adam couldn't remember how Dane had done it though! He couldn't remember how the earth essence moved to accomplish such a feat.

Adam once again sighed. As he did so, there was a sudden sharp crack sound that entered his ears! Adam suddenly looked up and spread his elemental sight over to see a rock fall down the side of the canyon! Adam then cursed to himself: “Damn!”

He had been too busy sighing to actually see how the rock broke free from the canyon wall. If he could see how earth essence behaved when this happened... well at least the earth essence should be moving rather than being still. It should surely be the first step for Adam in understanding how to control earth essence! However, rocks fell off the canyon wall at chance. Adam couldn't expect them to fall constantly for him. Adam would have to hope for the luck of having a rock fall close by him while he was paying attention to the canyon wall... Adam couldn't help but curse again. Just how long would he have to wait for this to happen?

It took Adam three whole boring and monotonous months before he had finally captured the full process of the falling rocks with his elemental sight. Adam picked up on how the earth essence weakened between the rock and the canyon wall until the point where it simply fell off. From the way Adam saw it, it was like the earth essence was flowing away from the outer layer of rock to go deeper into the canyon walls. This formed cracks and weakened the outer rock layer until the point where parts of it were falling off. Adam believed there was more to it than what he had so far discovered, but this was as good an interpretation as he could get with his current understanding.

With this knowledge, Adam was finally able to make some progress. Before, Adam could only hear deep tones that were played slowly when he listened to the earth essence. It gave off the feeling of being strong, steady, and immovable. None what he listened to could help him learn to control the earth essence. Now, however, he could finally detect the subtle flow of earth essence. Even as strong and immovable as it was, it was slowly receding deeper and deeper into the rock. Being able to understand the song of the earth essence as it flowed, Adam finally had something to work with!

Over the following two months, Adam did constant experimentation with this receding flow of earth essence. It was incredibly taxing for him to control the earth essence as it required him to play tones that were deep, slow to move, and incredibly long. Still, Adam was actually able to control the flow! At first, he could only make it so that the flow receded faster than it normally would. On Adam's command, he could cause rocks across the canyon wall to break off and fall to the ground! Not an incredibly useful skill, but it was just the start! Adam's goal was to understand how the earth essence was flowing away to the point where he could actually make it flow back! If he could fully control the flow so it would go in any direction he chose, Adam would finally be able to control enough earth essence to start his purification again! At the end of the two months, Adam was finally able to reverse the flow. It was sloppy and imprecise when compared to the natural receeding flow of earth essence, but Adam was still able to make it flow to him! Enough that he could finally begin to purify his bones!

Adam was unsure of how long it would take him to purify with earth essence. It only took him two years to purify with wind essence before he couldn't continue further with it. It took him five whole years to finish with water essence! Even though the time taken was more than doubled, he had actually only purified the same amount! If it kept taking longer and longer for him to purify with the different types of spirit essence, would it take ten years or more to finish with earth essence? Then past that, what about fire essence? Did he also need to seek a source of life essence too? Adam wasn't even sure how many years he had left to live. If he could even finish purifying himself during whatever time he had left. Still, Adam wasn't about to give up halfway. All he could do is put those negative thoughts to the side and push forward with what he had now.

Five lonely years quickly passed. The last two times, Adam was at least able to talk to spirits so he had never been so lonely as he was now. He still had a long way to go before he finished purifying with earth essence. The only pass time Adam had was his passion for music and his experiments with controlling the flow of earth essence. He had improved his imprecise methods, but they still weren't perfect. Beyond controlling the flow, he had yet to find a way to actually control the earth essence to do anything useful. He could form wind blades and summon water, but the earth just stayed still!

Adam had continually gotten closer to the slumbering earth spirit as he purified himself. Getting closer to the denser center of earth essence made it easier to purify his body. He had also yet to see any reaction from the spirit as he purified his body so Adam believed it to be quite safe.

Adam had recently started to experiment with a circular flow of earth essence. Instead of having the earth essence flow in just a single direction, Adam was trying to make it flow in both directions through a circular pattern. When he experimented with it on the canyon, he didn't see much of any type of reaction. This was both good and bad. Good because he was actually able to establish a stable circular flow. Bad because he was uncertain of what effects this circular flow might truly have on the environment. Adam wanted to use this circular flow to hopefully purify his bones at a faster pace. He wanted to not just shove the death essence out with the brute force from pushing earth essence in, he also wanted to pull it out by using the earth essence already in his bones.

Adam glanced behind himself with a weary look. The effects of purifying his body had become more pronounced on the environment. When he thought back to it, he realized that when he was in the wind valley, the plants around him actually had stunted growth compared to the rest of the valley. This would have been the death essence he had pushed out of his body effecting the plants. Occasionally at the lake, he had also noticed the plants around him getting sickly and quickly dying. He hadn't thought about it too much, but now it was much more pronounced. Behind Adam there was a track of death following the path he had taken as he got closer to the slumbering spirit while purifying himself. There was just some dry brush around, but it was noticeably blackened and wilted where he had been. Even where he had started five years ago had yet to recover... Adam felt worried about the long term effects he might be causing. This also made him worried about actually using the circular flow to help purify. The flow had to go somewhere and it would go into the ground while taking the death essence with it. What would happen if the death essence reached deep underground? Adam was unsure of the answer.

After a long while of debate, Adam finally decided on a method of testing to find the answer. He would use the circular flow in the area where he had first started purifying five years ago. That was where the lingering death essence was the weakest and would cause the smallest impact if anything would occur.

Adam created a circular flow that would start at the surface of the ground and reach around ten meters underground. As Adan examined the flow and watched the surroundings for any effects, nothing bad seemed to happen! The death essence was moving from the surface to underground and was being thinned out in the process. Adam even thought that he might be able to restore some balance in the area by using this method and help it heal from his presence. Then... the slumbering spirit started to stir!

Adam's heart leaped as the ground started to tremble and rocks fell down the canyon walls! An earth quake tremor was felt far and wide as the spirit stirred! Then... everything seemed to quiet down. All Adam could hear was his beating heart as he shakily stood while wearily glancing at the spirit deep underground. Rather than waking up, it was more like the spirit was turning in its sleep. Considering the timing, Adam was certain that his flow had disturbed the earth spirit!

Adam slowly and carefully walked away until he was a couple hundred meters away then he slumped to the ground. The earthquake and falling rocks were certainly scary and jarring, but that wasn't the reason for Adam's current state. He looked down with disbelief. When the spirit stirred, Adam could clearly see the earth essence connected to the spirit stir with it! All the earth essence in the area was moved around! With all Adam's efforts, he could only control a simple flow of earth essence that essentially would make rock brittle or hard. The spirit, however, could actually make the rocks move! A few things had shifted underground and Adam was suddenly presented with an example of how to use earth essence! If he could figure out the secrets behind it, it would not only help him purify his body but he could potentially form a piratical use for controlling earth essence like he could with wind or water! While all this was fascinating and helpful, there was a terrifying backdrop to it all. Adam became certain that the earth spirit could literally turn the land upside down if it so wished!

Ever so careful to not disturb the spirit again, Adam started to purify his body while using what he saw the spirit do as a basis for more experimentation.

Another eight years passed before Adam finished purifying with earth essence! Adam had managed to not disturb the spirit a second time. If he had, though, he might have gained more insight into controlling earth essence but he was not willing to risk it.

Adam joyfully started his journey back. He had not forgotten his promise to Alyssa. Thirteen years had passed since he left her with her uncle. By now, she would be around nineteen years old! “I wonder if she still remembers me?” he thought.

Adam enjoyed the journey back. After leaving the canyon area, there was so much more life everywhere and the sounds from the spirit essence around him was no longer full of those long deep tones that were at the canyon. Rather they were full of a multitude of various sounds and tempos. It was like comparing the playing of a single tuba against and entire orchestra.

Adam was now standing taller than he had before. He no longer needed to lean over his walking staff, since he had purified enough death essence out of his body and could maintain a stronger physique. He probably didn't need to keep his staff at all now, but kept it out of habit. He no longer looked so scrawny either. As Adam filled his belly with many fruits and all types of game he could catch, his frame filled out. He still had wispy white hair but he looked much healthier, younger even, than he had before. As Adam walked along, he practiced what he had so far learned in using earth essence. Occasionally a small stone would suddenly whip up out of the ground and whistle through the air for a short distance.

What Adam had figure out was essentially to pump a rock full of earth essence from a single direction. It was like impacting the rock with a ton of force making fly from the ground! It was incredibly crude and simplistic, but it worked. Adam simply didn't have the knowledge to create the same type of connection as the earth spirit had with the ground. If he could, he was certain he could make entire mounds of earth move! Whether it would be a boulder tens of meters in diameter or even a small hill! Adam was certain it could be moved if he only knew how to do it!

As Adam approached Clemence, he started to feel something was off. As he sniffed the air, it was heavy with smoke. If he could see, he would have already seen the smoke before he smelled it. Adam worried: “Wild fire through the farms? Or maybe...”

Adam immediately sped up his pace. No longer acting leisurely, he utilized wind essence to pick up his body's weight and help speed him up faster than he could have ever run on his own. As he sped down the road, Adam was constantly shifting his elemental sight around. He passed through the first few farms on the outskirts of the farmlands. The workers all seemed to be cowering inside their homes. Some of the homes were partially smashed and Adam could hear a few of those who were cowering woefully calling out for their daughters and wives... there were a few dead bodies to be found too. Adam seethed with hatred as he hissed: “Bandits!”

The bandits were likely raiding the farms for hostages. Most people considered their wives and daughters the most precious out of their family members so they were the ones taken. The bandits could also 'play' with them in the mean time as well. Most of the farmers likely would not have enough money to pay whatever the bandits asked for the ransom. Instead, the bandits would demand the ransom from Clemence itself. They would put the city in a tough spot. Pay the bandits and loose a hefty amount of taxes that had been collected or let the bandits keep the hostages at the expense of the faith that its citizens held in it.

Adam hurried as fast as he could to get to Gerald's farm. Unfortunately, there were many bandits along the road. There were even a few caged wagons being pulled by horses that were filled with hostages! When Adam saw this, he couldn't just turn a blind eye to it.

Adam reached out and used his new found abilities with earth essence. There were plenty of pebbles in the road and the bandits suddenly found that they had a life of their own as the flew off the ground! Adam was unable to put enough force behind the pebbles to make them instantly kill all the bandits. The pebbles were too small and fragile and would likely turn to dust if Adam tried to put that much force into them. So Adam had to get a little creative; he aimed for various weak spots on the bandits. He tried to shoot the pebbles into the bandits' eyes, up their nose, or even their groin! Anything to impact their fighting ability. A few well placed shots had instantly killed a few bandits. As for the remainder, Adam swiftly charged in with his staff and quickly dispatched them with well placed flourishes!

Everyone in the caged wagons looked at Adam with wide, shocked eyes. They had never seen such a display before. And it was performed for them by an older looking man wearing a blindfold! Adam ignored their gazes as he stretched his hand to the lock on the cages. The lock was made of iron. Iron was made of extremely dense earth essence. Using the flow of earth essence, Adam made the latch extremely brittle by making earth essence recede from it. It was then a simple matter of reaching out his had and pulling on the latch to make it break! For Adam, this was as simple as breaking a twig. To those already shocked onlookers, it was as though Adam had just broken forged iron with his bare hands!

Adam didn't have the time to lead them to safety. All he could do was make sure the bandits in the immediate area were dead and to set the hostages free. Without even sparing a few words to them, Adam immediately continued on down the road. Most of the hostages were women and more than a few of them had torn clothing as the bandits had gotten a little to 'friendly' with them. At least it didn't seem that the bandits actually had the time to rape the poor women. Still, Adam didn't want to see Alyssa even ruffed up even a little by these filthy bandits. He had to hurry as fast as he could!

Along the way, Adam had to stop a few more times to deal with bandits and free some hostages. After what felt like an eternity of making his way there, Adam finally arrived at Gerald's farm. What Adam saw with his elemental sight made his heart freeze with shock! Everyone was dead or dying! There were still some bandits standing in front of Gerald's house. Beside them lied the dying form of a woman. Adam didn't want to believe it, but the scar on her arm was too familiar and proved it without a doubt. That scar was the result from her injury when her parents were killed by bandits. It could be no other than Alyssa!

“Why the hell did you kill her?”

“Hey, her damned husband was the one who pulled a knife on me! How am I supposed to know she wasn't going to do the same?”

“You're a fucking idiot, you know that? You are the one who caused this whole mess! We had to kill the whole lot of them and a few of us even died! I am definitely not working with you in the future.”

As the bandits talked in heated voices, they did not notice Adam nearby. Before, Adam only had a seething hatred for what the bandits were doing. Now, something deep and dark was boiling inside of Adam. A deep desire to kill erupted from him. Not even his hatred for Luxom from when he was young could compare to what he was feeling now. His very bones felt like they were writhing gleefully as they felt his desire to kill and fed Adam even more dark emotions! Adam knew that the death essence in his bones was somehow responding to his desire to kill. It was dangerous to let it go unchecked, but Adam didn't care right now. He presently only had one desire ringing through his mind: “KILL!”

Adam didn't use wind blades or rocks from the ground to kill the bandits. Alyssa might be caught in the crossfire and Adam still had the presence of mind to not put what few moments of her life was left in danger. Instead, a roar with the concussive force of thunder issue from Adam's mouth as he suddenly charged at the bandits! Before they could even react, Adam had both his feet planted on the ground next to them. As he swung his staff, he used the flow of earth essence to force a ton of weight through his body and into his strike! His body creaked and it felt like he would burst as his staff hit the first bandit. The bandit's body crumpled into a V shape around Adam's staff before shooting off and sailing through the air! The bandit flew for a full fifty meters before smashing onto the ground and rolling for another twenty! What was left of the bandit was a twisted mess of flesh and blood with bones sticking out in places. The rest of the bandits eyes were bulging, unable to believe this sight. Whack, whack, whack! Adam sent the rest of the bandits off with one hit each. One of the bandits even crashed through a few rooms of Gerald's house before being lodged in one of the walls!

Adam's chest heaved as he breathed heavily. It was not from effort, but the desire to kill more! The bandits were too soft. They couldn't even take a single hit! Adam had no way to vent his desire to kill! He needed something with substance to crash against and destroy!

Then a weak voice came to his ears: “U-uncle Adam?”

Alyssa's voice suddenly snapped Adam out of his drunken rage to kill. He quickly quelled the gleefully writhing death essence in his bones before suddenly collapsing to his knees by Alyssa's side. Pain wracked his body as he began to feel the full effects of pushing a force of earth essence equivalent to a tone of weight through his body. With a hoarse voice, he croaked: “Alyssa.”

Ever since Alyssa's birthday when Adam had wondered if having a daughter was supposed to be like that fun day they had, he had subconsciously considered Alyssa as his surrogate daughter. They had only spent around six months together, but that was more than enough. Seeing Alyssa lying on the ground with a pool of her own blood forming around her, Adam couldn't help but being struck with frustration and sorrow. For all that he was and all that he had been through, now at the time where he needed the power to save Alyssa's life, he was utterly useless!

Alyssa flashed a weak smile at Adam: “You said you'd come back and here you are... can I ask a favor of you?”

Adam could only weakly nod his head. Alyssa's soul was already seeping out from her body. In just a hand full of seconds, she would be dead! Alyssa moved her body a little. She had been curled over something, as though protecting it. She pulled out a young infant from her protection. “This is my son Segen. Could you please find him a good home like you had done for me?”

Adam was so full of rage and the desire to kill earlier that he had not heard the muffled cries from the baby that Alyssa was protecting. Now, however, the baby's cries resounded like thunder in Adam's ears. Adam shakily brought his hands out to hold Segen. “O-of course.”

Alyssa smiled. With a weak breath she started to say: “Than.....”

But nothing more was issue from her mouth as her body slackened. Tears streamed from Adam's eyes. He watched as Alyssa's soul dissipated and her true soul disappeared Silently he cursed: “Damn this rotten world!”

Adam wanted to rage and curse about why this world had to have so much fighting and death, but he couldn't stay for long. He was now weary and weak. He wouldn't be able to fight any bandits in this condition and he still had to protect Segen! Adam brought his staff up and heavily leaned on it to try and lift himself up. Crack! Adam faltered as the staff broke! Adam gave a sorrowful glance at the staff. It had been partially reinforced with spirit essence while he had done his purification. It was something that had happened naturally instead of under his control. It wasn't that strong, but certainly stronger than a normal staff would be. However, it seemed he had stressed it too much by battering those bandits with a ton of weight from earth essence behind it.

Adam shakily stood up and carefully stumbled over to the next farm. He manged to convince the residents to let him and Segen in. Adam stayed there until the bandits finally left. While he was resting, Adam took the time to once again set up a protective film of spirit essence around his bones. The death essence in his bones was dangerous. After finding out that they could make him fall to a crazy rage, he began to realize it was far more dangerous than he had originally believed.

The bandits only had a few hours from the start of their pillaging before forces from Clemence arrived. The outskirts of the farms were a ways from Clemence itself and it took a while to organize a force that could effectively combat numerous bandits who were holding captives.

After the bandits left, Adam left the farm to go to Clemence. Segen was still too small for any large amount of travel. He also required milk, which Adam did not have. Adam decided he would have to stay in Clemence until Segen was old enough for travel. As Adam walked down the road, he removed his blindfold. There were too many people who had seen him save the hostages. Adam hoped that now that he no longer had his staff, had removed his blindfold, and stooped himself over a little, it would be enough for people to not recognize him. If anyone asked him how he could move so well even though he looked like he should be blind, he decided he would reply: “I can still see a little. It is just enough to move around.”

Before too long, Adam arrived at Clemence. The place was abuzz with worry after the bandit attack on the farms. Adam made his way to the inn he and Alyssa had stayed in when they first came to Clemence. It was here that he was going to stay until Segen was old enough to travel.