Path to Transcendence

Chapter 765: Already Rich

Gin POV

“I don’t agree with this,” Yuna stated with a harsh frown.

Gin glanced over at where he left Julius. From what he could tell, the boy was still enjoying his time in the Starflower Meadow and was sitting there peacefully as he snacked on some food.

“Did you hear me, Gin?” Yuna said sharply.

He turned to her, his impatience slowly rising to the surface. “Yes, I heard you, Yuna. I am simply choosing to ignore you. You seem to forget that your opinion on this matter isn’t needed.”

Her face twitched as he said this to her. “Not needed?” she ground out.

Gin rubbed his temple. “What don’t you agree with? Is it his entrance into the Graveyard of the Falling Mountain? Or is it simply his general presence?”

“He’s a Tier 4. Just because he is apprenticed to a Tier 6 doesn’t require us to treat him like the second calling of the Ancestor,” she shot back.

Gin rolled his tongue over his teeth, hiding his building irritation. He looked over at the other elders and people gathered. Not surprisingly, they seemed to agree with Yuna. They didn’t seem to understand the reason for this either. Clan Dawnfield was a powerful clan; they had members within many of the Ten Great Sects.

This also meant that they were undoubtedly a proud sort of people.

However, this was also the same reason why there have been so many issues within the clan in recent decades. Too many people enjoyed waving around the clan’s reputation as a banner or, worse, as a weapon.

Yuna wasn’t as bad, to be fair. She was simply prideful and a little too conceited. But she was a talented member of the clan and was ultimately concerned with its reputation.

He couldn’t say the same of everyone else gathered here.

“You make it seem like his master is just some regular old Tier 6,” Gin said slowly.

“And you make it sound like we don’t have enough Tier 6s to challenge the Ten Great Sects themselves,” she pointed out with a glare.

He smirked at her. “Oh? And you’re able to speak on behalf of them? I didn’t think you had already advanced to Tier 6. I must have missed it.”

She clenched her jaw. She was quite young for her level, but she had been working to advance to Tier 6 for a while and was a bit frustrated by her lack of progress.

“Not yet, but soon,” she ground out.

“Well, until then, do not presume to speak like you would be the one fighting Lord Cain if it came to it. Not to mention if he decides to fight us, it won’t just be him we have to worry about.”

Yuna had a slightly perplexed look on her face. “What do you mean?”

Gin shook his head in disbelief. The woman's pride was astonishing. She barely knew anything about Lord Cain or what he’d done. She’d never cared for that sort of thing. She always cared about her own progression.

“Lord Cain has a wife.”

“And?”

Gin bit back a scoff. “Never mind,” he said, already walking away from her.

He wasn’t about to waste his breath on her anymore. It was clear she wasn’t about to listen and that she was only there to argue. She wouldn’t care if Gin told her about Lady Freya and that she thought of Julius as a son she never had.

As far as Gin was concerned, Yuna could go and annoy someone else. He’d just have to make sure that he kept a close eye on Julius. He didn’t want someone to piss off the boy like the idiot Soren had already done.

Varian had been very clear with his instructions. Treat Julius as if he were an honored guest of Clan Dawnfield and don’t let fools jeopardize the future of Clan Dawnfield. He also wanted to foster a closer relationship with the boy. Something that Gin agreed would be for the best.

It had only taken him a few seconds to determine this. His aura sensing was one of the best within the clan, and he knew the moment he touched the boy’s aura that he was special. Julius might have shrouded his aura well enough to fool the likes of Yuna and everyone else gathered here, but Gin was able to sense the subtle signs of a skilled aura shroud.

The trick wasn’t to look at the person’s aura and how it felt. It was to observe how a person’s aura influenced the mana around them. And Julius’s aura was so profound that even the mana around the boy seemed scared of him.

He was glad to see that at least Leander seemed to be making good progress with the boy. It was a blessing that Leander had learned at the Shattered Winter School for even that short period of time.

He ignored Yuna’s sharp tongue as he walked away. He didn’t think the woman or the people supporting her would actually do anything. Varian had already made his desire clear to them, and they would have to be outrageously idiotic if they wanted to piss off Varian. They might not understand what Lord Cain could do, but they knew what Varian would do to them if he got pissed off.

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He went over to where Leander and Phoebe were standing, talking to some of the airship's crew members. They spotted him, though, and quickly met him halfway.

Gin quickly activated his necklace, and a transparent barrier was erected around them. He also threw up an isolation barrier for good measure.

“Anything to report?” Gin asked Leander.

“He’s definitely Master Cain’s disciple. His kinetic energy feels just like his.”

Gin nodded; he already suspected as much. He didn’t have a kinetic affinity, but his aura was certainly powerful enough to garner the attention of one such as Lord Cain.

“What about his personality? Do we have to worry about him?”

Leander frowned. “You talked to him for a bit; what do you think?”

“I didn’t spend a few days around him. I want to know what you think.”

“I think he’s a good person. He doesn’t seem to hold much of a grudge against Soren and nothing against Clan Dawnfield. He is a bit… eccentric though,” Leander said hesitantly.

“How so?” Gin asked curiously.

“He has unusual habits and training methods,” Leander said with a complicated expression.

Gin hummed but ignored that bit. After all, if you were apprenticed to the Lord of the Shattered Throne, it made sense that you had a few particularities.

“But he’s not a threat to Clan Dawnfield?”

“Not at all,” Leander said firmly. “Well, unless we make him one,” he added belatedly.

Gin nodded to himself. That would be less than ideal. “I’ll handle the others. They should understand this isn’t the time to play their games.”

“What about his entry into the rift?”

“What about it?”

“Are you going to allow him to enter without supervision?”

“I don’t have a problem with it. But the others will make a fuss. I’m going to talk with your father, or the patriarch, to get his permission. They are both away from the estate, though, so I’m not sure how long that will take,” Gin said with a sigh. Why couldn’t Varian deal with this himself?

Why did he have to put this all on Gin’s plate? Such a selfish man, forcing this old man to help him with his problems.

***

Julius POV

Once Drasil was an engorged little meatball, he finally walked back to where Leander and Phoebe were waiting for him.

“Enjoy your time?” Leander asked curiously.

He nodded. “Yeah, it was nice and relaxing. How come you guys have such a large field of flowers and plants?”

“We mainly use the plants and various herbs for the clan’s alchemists and sometimes sell the excess to our allies. Clan Dawnfield has some really good alchemists and healers because of this.”

That sounded like a smart idea. More clans should do something similar. He didn’t see anything that resembled a garden or a field like around Clan Yoshu. Then again, they weren’t in the middle of the city, so there was a little more space.

Julius nodded and bit into another butter cookie. These cookies were from his lunchbox, so they were extra delicious. They were sort of like the old Danish shortbread cookies he had in his old world, but even better.

He’d already eaten quite a bit, but for some reason seeing Drasil cram much life mana into his tummy made him hungry again.

He suddenly looked over to the side when he felt someone tapping his shoulder. Phoebe had snuck closer and was looking at him pleadingly with those blue eyes of hers. She had seen him and his lunchbox during their flight over. He had made the mistake of giving her some food from it, and she had been watching him like a hawk ever since.

“Just one,” she said, inching closer to him. Her normally intense expression was now fixed on the cookie he was holding in his hand.

“I don’t think you’ll like these very much,” he said and quickly shoved the rest of it into his mouth.

She lifted her arm, almost like she wanted to snatch it from his mouth, but he was too quick for her.

“I’m willing to take the risk,” she said in a serious tone.

“I’m all out,” he said, lifting his hand and wiping the crumbs from his cheek.

“You have more,” she said with a glower.

“Nope, that was the last one.”

Normally he would have given her one, but he knew that if he capitulated now, he’d never be free of her. He knew the signs.

It would be like having another Aubrey hanging onto his shirt as she sniffed for food. He knew how dangerous a person like that was. Aubrey was like a bloodhound when it came to his lunchbox and would always know when he opened it.

“Don’t be stingy. Just give me a bite,” Phoebe insisted, poking him again.

He looked over at Leander for help, but the man was somehow already five feet away from them, not looking in their direction. His shoulders sagged, and he shook his head.

“Fine, but only one,” he said and handed over an extra cookie he had tucked into his pocket.

He lamented how easily he had given in with a sad sigh.

“Woo!” she exclaimed, then took the cookie with a grin. “So how much would you want for that lunchbox of yours?” she asked with a mouthful of cookie.

“It’s not for sale.”

“Are you sure? I don’t know if you know this, but my family is rich,” she said with zero shame.

“It’s soul-bound, so I can’t sell it even if I wanted to.”

She suddenly looked very depressed, and a sharp frown marred her face. “I know a person who could remove the soul-bound enchantment if you’re interested,” she offered.

He glared at her. “Would you sell it?”

“Hell no,” she said with a scoff as if she were insulted by the question.

“Then why would I sell it to you?”

“Because I can give you riches beyond your imagination,” she said with a serious nod.

“I’m already very rich,” he said flatly.

“Hmm.”

He let out a sigh when it seemed like she was genuinely stuck on that answer. He understood why people wanted his items. They weren’t the most powerful items in terms of combat, but they were some of the best utility items he’d ever come across. In fact, you couldn’t convince him that an item that created delicious food wasn’t the best item in the world.

“Hey,” she suddenly said to him with a much more solemn expression.

He gazed at her curiously. “Yeah?”

“Would you mind if you showed me some tricks for using your kind of kinetic energy?”

He opened his mouth but closed it, chuckling to himself softly. “Sure,” he finally replied after a few moments. He wasn't interested in selling her his favorite items, but he could definitely do something like this.