“By this point in time, our population had started to grow slowly. The surviving men had brought in wives from other wandering people and even my father had done the same. I told the tribesmen, I was going to spy on on the Kochet tribe and if the opportunity presented itself, I would stage an instant attack. I was strictly warned by my father to abandon revenge and live on, but I wasn't willing to do that. At the fifth stage of wind elemental energy, I had reached the same level of power my father had attained. There was no one within the tribe who could stop me. So I continued with my defiance in pursuit of revenge.” Aorah said before taking a slight pause.

“Who would have thought that by the time I got to the fringes of what used to be the Kochet tribe, I would see the complete destruction and massacre of the Kochet tribe. I did not feel a sense of joy, but rather the exact opposite feeling. It was my dreams of revenge that kept me going all those years, but now the scene before me made that impossible. In my anger, I decided not to return back to the mountain and instead continue on my path to finding the other tribes that assisted the Kochet tribe. It took me three years in my journey to find a remnant of that battle.”

“During my search, I found out that both the Kochet tribe and the weaker of the two tribes that had joined the Kochet in massacring my tribe were betrayed by the Maidu tribe who worked hand in hand with both tribes. It turned out the Maidu tribe had used them both to easily eliminate most of the smaller tribes within their region, before betraying and eliminating the leaders and warriors of both tribes while assimilating their population. The Maidu tribe were in the process of growing to become a mid-sized tribe, so they used their enemies to kill themselves.”

“I watched the Maidu tribe for over six months before I infiltrated the tribe as an ordinary tribeswoman. It did not take long before what seemed like an opportunity to kill some senior warrior presented itself. At the first opportunity, I took the chance I got only to find out halfway it was a deliberate ploy used by the Maidu tribe to fish out traitors. There quite a few others who had the same idea as I did. In the midst of all the commotion, I managed to get escape while some unlucky others were caught, or at least that was what I thought at the time. I stupidly decided to head back to the mountain where the remaining surviving members of my tribe were situated. Unbeknown to me, a squad of the Maidu warriors was tailing me. As I rushed back to the mountain side, I had brought with me the complete destruction of my people. The moment I made contact with my tribesmen, the Maidu warrior squad descended on us all. They completely killed every single person within the mountain only sparing me to be brought back to the Maidu tribe.”

“In the end, I had brought the true end to my people. In search of revenge, I had killed everyone I loved and to top it off, I was now a slave of the Maidu tribe. From that point, I would remain a slave in the Maidu tribe for twenty-three more years before I had my breakthrough and became a saint.” Aorah said before she stopped speaking. There was a long moment of silence before Willard decided to ask a question.

“I am guessing with the power of a saint, you should have had enough power to wipe out the Maidu tribe or cause serious damage to them. So what did you end up doing?” Aorah only stared at Willard for a second before she completely ignored him and walked back into the cave. Willard, on the other hand, sat where he was and continued stargazing.

The next morning, Willard resumed his normal training. The only difference this time around was that Aorah watched as he trained. “Interesting. His usage of the earth element is very profound. This child is truly talented. It is just a pity.” Aorah lamented as she watched Willard train. Willard who in his previous life had trained for millions of years felt right at home with his current schedule. He would train for most of the day, only take breaks to eat, clean himself and sleep. Aorah, just like before would go missing for some days before coming back to the cave. One thing remained constant, which was Nana’s presence in the cave. All she had to look forward to was cooking and watching Willard train.

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Within a blink of an eye, time flew by and two years had passed. Willard was already twenty years, while Nana was sixteen years of age. She had grown a little, increasing just a couple of inches in height. She was no longer the little antisocial girl who sat off in the corner. She had grown to a young teen of sixteen. She had also started pursuing the path of a mage like her teacher. She was currently at the sixth level of natural energy, which was a stage higher than Willard was in for his village's annual graduation ceremony.

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As Willard trained, Nana watched every motion he took. Over time, her disposition to Willard had naturally changed. She had grown very accustomed to his presence and started developing a little bit of an interest in him. Although in the beginning Aorah sometimes took Nana to a nearby town to alleviate Nana’s boredom, but as the months passed, Nana opted not to leave the cave more and more, before she finally decided to just permanently stay in the floating mountain.

Willard's training had been progressing at tremendous speed. In two years, he had reached the eighth level of earth elemental energy. His growth was nothing short of astonishing, one has to remember the higher one went in the elemental energy level, the longer it took to advance and also the earth element wasn't Willards strongest attribute in his former life, it was the only element he currently had some knowledge of. But Willard's speed had been utterly world shattering. Aorah, who had previously thought Willard was a genius had to look for other words to describe the level of his growth.

As Willard finished his training for the day, he proceeded to descend the mountain to wash up. Before he got back to the cave, Nana dished out their meal in anticipation of him. Willard ate with a gratified smile. Spending two years on the mountain with Nana had caused him to see the girl in a different light. Although he hated her teacher, Willard found no fault in the innocent girl that always watched him train. Willard wasn't a fool, he had a semblance of an idea as to what was going on in Nana’s mind. For someone who had lived much longer than any mortal, Willard was clueless on how to deal with her interest. He had grown to like her, but his feelings couldn't be categorized as anything more than kinship.

After his meal, Willard started cultivating for the night. He sat with his legs crossed as he meditated. Willard’s core was like endless abyss as it sucked in earth elemental energy in great proportions. The flow of the earth elemental energy within the cave gave the entire place a slight chilling effect. Time flowed as usual as night slowly turned to day. Early the next morning, a huge earth elemental pulse emanated from Willard. Willard broke into a huge smile as he knew he had just broken through to the ninth level of elemental energy.

Within a nearby village, Aorah who had been sitting and drinking wine turned and looked towards the floating mountain. “How can he advance this fast? This is a little troubling.” Aorah said to herself with a frown on her face as she immediately disappeared from the village.  Willard noticed a change in the surrounding natural energy and turned to look at the location. “So you came? I am guessing you can no longer take your chances in waiting.” Willard said as he slowly walked out of the cave.

“You are truly gifted. I am afraid you are correct, I can no longer watch you grow. Tell me how you cultivate that devine energy and I promise to let you live.”

“Hahahaha.” Willard laughed loudly. His laughter echoed within the cave, waking Nana from her slumber. Aorah gave Willard a side glance before she released her sound domain. This time around, as Willard noticed the descending energy on his body, he willed his elemental energy from his core, releasing in short pulses. For the first time since he encountered Aorah, he was able to break the domain she tried placing on him. Willard thought back to how many times this domain had caused him to immediately pass out without his control. Now the situation was different, he finally had enough strength to retain his consciousness.

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Author's Note:

Thanks for reading. If you like the story and would like to help the author, please donate or share the stories. Every little bit helps. Also, all further releases will first be posted on Silva’s Library before being updated anywhere else.

Thanks,

~Devine_Exodus