At around three in the night.
At the border shared between the Great Joint, the Great Breath, and the Great Line.
In the moonlight, with a muscular standing behind her, Fabby was standing outside the skill hall, looking at the building in awe. In front of the mountainous structure, she looked like an ant. Not just its size, but the aura it gave off was pulse-quickening.
Outside the entrance was a chubby pot-bellied old man in a violet cloak sleeping sideways on the reception desk, with his hand placed under his head.
“E-Elder Pandaar…” she bowed.
A mild red energy rose out of his back and shape-shifted into a panda. “First-timer, huh. Name?”
“Fabby. Fabby Estacio.”
Unlike inner disciples, outer disciples didn’t have individual training rooms to practice. So the first one to come could stay there for the rest of the day. No questions asked. Fabby had to wait outside one of the rooms on the top floor of the practice hall. At around four o’clock, the room was vacated, and then she entered. There was no ceiling inside. She particularly chose this room because of that. It was hundred meters wide in every direction, and the boulders there were partly destroyed due to being practiced upon. There were trees, rocks, boulders, and a small waterstream that connected the rooms. Overall, the atmosphere was akin to that of a garden, though she was inside walls. Without waiting, she took the scroll out in haste. As told, she sent her drive in
At around three in the afternoon, Fabby came out of the training room. “Where am I getting it wrong?” while walking, she was still thinking about it. “Why can’t I make a simple chain? The layers one and two were hard, but this layer three has eaten my brain. I don’t want to get stuck here for long.” Seeing the frustrated expression on her, a pointy-nosed adult dressed in blue approached her when she was alone at a corner. “Why are you in such a bad mood, young lady?” Fabby was startled upon seeing his robes. It was a master. “M-M-Master, do you know me?” “Of course, not,” he smiled gently. “I saw the worry on your face, so I came to ask. That’s all.” A flood of warmth spread through her heart when he heard those words. G
At seven in the night.Edgar and Bontu had been tailing Kane since morning. He didn’t wear the green scarf at any time, and he didn’t show any signs of making deals with people either.“This guy looked so dull since the morning,” Edgar kept his eyes on Kane like a cat would on a little lizard. “Did someone from his family recently die or something?”“From what I’ve seen, he’s always looked like that,” Bontu was nibbling on a mulberry leaf. “But looks can be deceiving, you know. By the way, where did you buy the palmyra sprouts? They were superb.”“I didn’t buy them. I found them on the way while I was returning from the eastern shore,” said Edgar. “He’s entering the wood
The next morning.Edgar woke up only to find himself sleeping next to Bontu in what seemed like an open garden. And to his shock, Kane was asleep on the other side of Bontu. All their wounds seemed to have been taken care of.Edgar just noticed that in the distance, an old man was fishing in a pond, sitting on a rock like a sturdy tree. Though he couldn’t clearly see the face, he remembered that attire. It was Gavin.After tying up Kane to a tree, Edgar then went to the pond.“I was expecting you to wake up,” Gavin said without even looking back. The pole-holding arm was absolutely still.“I… I didn’t get to thank you last time in the discipline hall,” Edgar bowed more than just a li
Gavin cooked deboned fish soup and made six bowls of it. He put four bowls outside the house and kept staring at the skies.Soon, some crows came and filled their bellies and satisfiedly cawed a few times before they left. Only afterward, he started eating from his bowl.Helia arrived there and bowed. “High Elder, the assassin was from Metal Panthers.”“That’s not a gang from this region, is it?” he gave her the sixth bowl.“Yes,” she took the bowl and sipped some soup and crunched on a fried piece of fish. “It’s surprising that he managed to slip through our perimeter defenses and enter the sect’s grounds.”“Did you find out who sent him?” Gavin fi
After seeing his reflection in the water drop, Edgar was greatly surprised.The water drop had a form that wasn’t permanent. Its shape would fit the container it was in. It didn’t maintain its individuality in a group either. It could mix with other water drops and lose its identity. It could be absorbed by the skin or the ground. This made Edgar wonder if the water drop he was seeing was in its original form or not. There was no such thing as a complete water drop. One drop would merge with another, and together they become one. That was the water’s property.But then what about Drive? He thought.Whenever he released Drive, he felt like he was in a hot pool, but then he could breathe like a fish would in water.Though he didn’t feel uncomfortabl
In the evening of the same day.Unlike Bontu, Edgar didn’t hunt the fish or swim in the pond. He simply floated on the surface, his eyes looking up at the sky. He was trying to constantly and smoothly release the drive from his back to keep himself floated. He could do it normally, but he was trying to use drive to pull this off, and he was succeeding.“I was wrong. All this while, I’ve been totally thinking in a wrong way,” Edgar thought. “The tiny gaps in the fabric doesn’t really matter. What matters is knowing how you’re affecting things. As long as I’m clear with what I’m doing, the drive does what I ask of it.”About a minute later, his body started dipping into the water. “A little over three minutes is my current limit.”
Three days later.Edgar was sitting at the bottom of the pond. He slowly released his drive, creating only a minute disturbance, but it was more than enough to alert the nearby fishes; they swam away.Helia was also sitting at the bottom of the pond at a different spot, about twenty meters away from Edgar, but her drive leaked out so smoothly there was no disturbance around her, and fish swam through her drive without a problem whatsoever.Edgar eventually swam to the surface and looked frustrated. “What’s gotten into her? Since yesterday, she’s been copying my moves and showing off that she can do it better.”Helia also came to the surface and observed Edgar.“There she goes again.” He flo