Hi this is the fourth chapter of the week. BEFORE you read the chapter I want to say that I'm standing behind everything I write. Everything philosophical that is written in this novel is something I believe in. This said, I often also o not follow this believes and I often regret it. But I still believe this to be the true way and I would really want to hear your oppinion on the ideas I include into the novel

Chapter 70 Black Tear

Jeane blankly stared at Zes in front of her.

This was the most powerful person in the entire realm? A somewhat normal core disciple of the sect?

Of course since she was living inside of the sect, she also knew all the promising geniuses in it and amongst them Zes was the genius she had payed the most attention to. After all he had an understanding towards the soul cultivation that was in no way inferior to her fathers. Also the recent events concerning Sola and the following at the casino made Zes's reputation to skyrocket.

But even though he was quite dazzling within the disciples of the sect, he after all was still only a soul liquid stage Illis. No matter how much he had comprehended or how many techniques he had, how could he even compare to her father? Where the heck was this guy a peerless expert? Jeane's thoughts were in complete disarray.

In fact she even gave her father a glance to see, if this was just a joke or some weird move to get her married to this guy.

The patriarch naturally noticed the glance and inwardly thought:

'Can't really hold it against her, now can I? If I wouldn't know better I would also feel played.'

But not only the patriarch noticed Jeane's glance, Zes also saw it.

"Seems like your daughter isn't really convinced, is she?"

A grin was on his face. The patriarch could only sight.

"Isn't it understandable? How can any normal person accept your monstrosity? Not anyone is like you and exceeds at only 30 everything that ever excisted in this realm."

"Ah, you're right. I forgot that I have to think from a normal person's standpoint."

Both young man suddenly started to laugh out loud. At the same time Jeane only noticed a certain part of her father's sentence.

"W-wait… th-this guy is more than 30 years old? How the heck is he looking so young?"

Zes blankly looked at her. Then he turned back to the patriarch.

"Women!"

"Ha, you're right. Even when the world is collapsing, a woman will only care about her appearance."

"Oh, I have actually witnessed this with my own eyes."

"Really?"

"Jup, it was 13 years ago, the day you guys came over. I ran around trying to escape, as some old hag was applying mascara to her face. As she was doing this a demon came from behind and just bit of her head, while she was still applying it. Truly hillarious! Hahah."

"Hahaha."

While the two of them were once again laughing about this strange event, Jeane felt shivers going over her body. How could they speak so easily about death and the lives of people?

After all, she was only 4 years old when she crossed over to this realm. She never experienced any hardships or slaughter, as she always lived protected inside of the sect. She hasn't witnessed the murder of billions of humans and didn't see the demons feasting upon their bodies. To her, killing was something bad you shouldn't do.

As for Zes and the patriarch? They both had changed their view on death long ago. After all, one of them was a thousands of years old monster in the skin of a teenager, that single handedly built up a great sect. The other one was a thirty plus year old immortal, that shouldered the responsibility for his whole race. Furthermore it was this person, that was responsible for the perishing of every single deity stage expert on the world! If he wasn't used to killing and death, who else was?

Because of this, their views on this story, that seemed to have come from another world was as different as black and white. To Zes and the Patriarch it was nothing but a humorous anecdote, something to laugh about. To Jeane it was something horrible that she couldn't even imagine in her mind.

"Hahaha…haaaa. Ok this is enough for me. Zes, if it's ok with you I will leave you two alone and get back to my obligations in the sect."

The patriarch politely excused himself.

"But of course! I'm sure the two of us will gave a good time together."

Zes nodded, also being polite. But then a small evil grin appeared on his face.

"And don't forget to visit your small fishes tonight. They are already missing you."

The patriarch's face instantly turned scarled red, making him look even younger.

"Y-you... How did you know?"

"Just guessed it, after I saw them. After all, they are all female, right?"

Flabbergasted Jeane switched between her father and Zes. Even though she was a rebelling girl that was pretty skewed, in this aspect she was completely pure. So naturally she didn't understand what Zes and her father were talking about.

"Father, what is he talking about? Fishes… Does he mean the small fishes in the pond you personally made? What's wrong with them?"

The Patriarch froze under Jeanes questions. Slowly he turned around to Jeane and said shuddering:

"Ah, it's nothing. There is nothing wrong with the pond. Absolutely nothing. Believe me, everything is ok."

He threw an angry glance to Zes who couldn't hold his laughter and his face turned purple out of shame.

"Ah, I just remembered, that I have to do something very important. I'm sorry, but I have to leave now. Have fun."

The patriarch hastily squeezed out and turned away. But Zes was merciless.

"Oh, what is it that you have to do?"

The patriarch eyes turned pleading. He quickly said:

"I-I neeeeed toooooo. Ah right, I need to inspect the formation in the core sect. There might be cracks inside of it."

It was a clear excuse to get away. The formation in the core sect was made out of the best materials and the patriarch himself had spent moths to carefully set it up. The likelyhood of there being a crack was smaller than the chance of being bitten by a shark (smaller than the chance to be killed by a falling coconut).

Zes finally found mercy and just flatly smiled at the excuse, as the patriarch quickly ran away.

Jeane on the other side did not quite understand what had happened to her father.What she understood was, that she was now alone with Zes, the person she was supposed to seduce. The man her father called the strongest in the realm.

She stood there, not knowing how to proceed until Zes finally helped out.

"Let's sit down then. We can't let the tea go cold, can we?"

He said with a charming smile and indicated Jeane to sit down on her chair. He too sat down on his own. It was only now that Jeane remembered the etiquette. Flushing a bit she quickly proceeded to take the small can of tea and poured it into the two small cups. She explained:

"This tea is called thousand year green tea and it is extremely rare. Fortunately father was able to obtain a small tea tree and grow it in this garden. The thousand year green tea is famous for it's taste and the effect of cleansing the mind. In fact many Illis use it to cleanse their minds before breaking through."

Zes nodded appraising. This tea was really excellent. Zes could already feel the unnecessary thoughts and feelings fade away and his mind completely cleared up. A bright smile appeared on his face, as he took a second gulp.

Jeane felt kind of happy as she saw that Zes was pleased with the tea. After all it was the tea her father had searched for and used quite a bit of ressources to acquire. To see that Zes was honoring his efforts with his reaction, was making her strangely happy.

"So, I wonder what kind of hobbies you could have?"

Zes directly dropped any formalities, but Jeane didn't really mind it. She disliked the efforts it took to carefully consider the own words and it was much more relaxing to just speak casually with each other. Furthermore, Zes was the one with more status so even if she disliked it there would be nothing she could do about it.

"Oh, I have only few real hobbies. For the most part I'm reading books from the human era and enjoying the nature."

Jeane immediately answered with a prepared answer. There was no way someone like her would be as boring as to just read and enjoy the own garden. In truth Jeane was often playing around in the inner sect and she even had her own gang there. Of course she was the leader of it and in certain parts of the inner sect everyone would know the gangs and its leaders reputation.

But this was already everything they knew. No one knew who the leader was, not even the members of the sect. This was because the leader always wore a mask and hid his aura. But this mysteriousness about the gangs leader only made it more popular and she had quite a few people underneath her.

Of course this was nothing she could tell Zes, a person she was trying to seduce. After all who wants a girl that was leading a gang?(Well I would take her either way(still have no girlfriend))

Zes naturally saw right through her lie. Even though he had only seen her for a short time, from what he had already seen, he was able to guess what kind of girl she was. And to be honest the only thing he felt right now was…. amusement. To him right now there was nothing that could threaten him in any way, so the only thing he could pursue was amusement. And what is more amusing than a girl that was playing the hard leader? After all, to Zes everything that was happening inside of the sect could only be called a mere way to spent his time.

There were no really important things that would need his attention, there were not even any deaths that would result out of some conflicts. To Zes that had lived ten years of his live constantly trying to survive while cultivating, this lifestyle was truly nothing more than a game.

Soon the two of them found new themes to talk about and the more they talked the more they found out about each other. Slowly both of them could roughly tell, just what kind of person the other one was and their talk became more and more relaxed.

Jeane found herself actually liking Zes. Not the type of liking, that would be considered as love. It was just that she liked the way Zes was behaving and his character that was not bound by any worries. In fact she was also a bit envious.

'How come that he has no worries and no bad feelings that are bothering him?'

Who doesn't want to be free and unrestrained by anything? Of course even Jeane, that loved both her father and the sect also wanted to be like him and in recent days she felt more and more that the sect was putting an invisible restrain on her.

Jeane was just pouring new tea into Zes cup as her hand suddenly trembled and the tea spilled onto Zes's purple core disciple robe.

Jeane hastily apologised and quickly took a piece of cloth to wipe at least a bit of the tea of. But as her hand touched Zes, an incredible reaction happened.

…………………………….

…………………………………………

……………………………………………………

He got a boner.

(No sry, that was a joke.)

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Suddenly on Zes forehead a black tear appeared. At the same time emotions suddenly started to flow from Zes into Jeane's mind.

Pictures of slaughter, killing and misery entered her mind. A child crying before it abruptly stopped and a fountain of blood appeard. People running through streets, closely tailed by jeering demons that showed their teeth with blood stains still surrounding their mouths.

Men roaring as they jump towards the demons in order to give their loved ones a moment to escape. Their bloody end and the slaughter that happened afterwards.

Scenes of absolute helplessness and hate, flashed in grey colors. Faces appeard and faded before her mind as she saw their cruel deaths.

But suddenly there was another color than grey. This time everything was in color. A female demon holding a man by his head. A woman and her son lying a few meters away, bathing in their own blood. And a young man standing a few meters behind, helplessly watching as his fathers head exploded in the hands of the demon.

The scene flashed. Now the same young man was flying in the air. Hate and sorrow on his face. But suddenly, the emotions all vanished, only to be replaced by coldness. Eternal, everything freezing coldness. A wave with his hand and thousands died.

Jeane trembled uncontrollably. More and more emotions poured into her, filling up her mind.

Sitting infront of her, Zes was also completely taken out. Sweat was rolling down in beads as he trembled. Fear and sorrow visible in his features. The black tear on his forehead became even clearer than before and now it seemed as if you could just wash it of with a hand.

Slowly, figures started to appear behind Zes. They were grey and black, only distinct shadows. It were the same figures that appeared the day he had fought the kun clan patriarch. The souls and memories of humankind.

But opposite to the figures back then that were mad of hate and sorrow, the figures and shadows now were completely composed. There was no hate, no sorrow. There was only patriotism.

Patriotism towards their whole kind. The resolve to give up anything to make their race big again. Patriotism is nothing more than the feelings towards the thing one believes in. It doesn't have a nation, nor race. Patriotism is also following your own rules, always going your own way. To never falter, even if your believes go against the world.

Patriotism is the only thing that can really make one die a fullfiled live. Because what can be more satisfying than to live your life like you see it fit. To never regret anything and to do everything the way you feel it's right.

Don't misunderstand. It is not what you want to do, it's what you know to be right. It's not enjoying your life but forcing yourself to do the things that you believe that have to be done.

If you really do this, what can be more fulfilling? What can create a greater bound than the link of hundreds, of thousands, of millions, of billions of believes?

Nothing! There is nothing that can beat it.

As Jeane opened her eyes, she saw it. And what she saw would change her live.