The Chieftain surveyed the shocked faces of everyone in the room with a gentle smile. “I’m sure you all know about how I left the tribe in my younger years.”
The commanders nodded their heads.
“While I was out in the world as a young man, I stumbled upon an old woman whose strength is far beyond my comprehension.”
The burly man spoke, “Chieftain what do you mean by outside of your comprehension? You’re the smartest man we know.”
“We are but frogs in a well and you all know that. What you don’t realize is just how big the outside world truly is. That’s going off track now. What she told me was a prophecy. She mentioned how, far into my future I would chance upon a young man who could help me reach the limbo realm.” The Chieftain’s eyes looked toward Raja Kint. “I believe this boy is the prophesied one.”
The Red-Haired man says, “I’ll give him props for his array skill. But he hasn’t even achieved limbo realm himself.”
“Does it really matter what you think? Whether you like it or not I’m helping the Chieftain.” says Raja Kint annoyedly.
The commanders switched the conversation afterward as Raja Kint went back to his house.
Once home he sits down and closes his eyes. No matter what they say or want. My cultivation is still the priority. For now, I need to focus on my cultivation. Plus I can already feel that I’m close to the next stage. I still have a few pills and plants from the academy.
Suddenly he notices his cultivation speed has changed. Has my cultivation speed increased? But, how? Could it be because of the stars, the earth law, or maybe my ki is awakening? Urgh, well it’s good anyhow.
Raja Kint pulls out the last of the plants and pills and ingests them. To his disappointment, they don’t provide much help due to his cultivation.
Later that night soft rapping sounded at his door. Raja Kint opened his eyes and walked toward the door with wariness.
“Who’s there,” He asked.
“An old friend,” Sounded out a soft, familiar voice.
Raja Kint opened the door to see Odayakana Shizen. She hugged Raja Kint, his face pressed into her breasts.
“It’s so great to see you again Raja! And you’ve grown so strong so fast.”
“Yeah.”
“Here I brought some food so that you can tell me about your adventure so far.”
“Could you let me go now? It’s getting a bit hard to breathe.”
“Oh, yes, of course.”
Finally separated Raja Kint took deep breaths to steady his breathing from being nearly suffocated. Odayakana Shizen grabs a large leaf carrying food within wooden containers. For a few hours, Raja Kint shared what he’s experienced since the coliseum.
The sunlight awakens Raja Kint as he gets up from sleep. I ate so much food that I fell asleep shortly after she left. He chuckled to himself as he went back to cultivating. A short while later knocks sounded at his door.
He opened the door to see the Chieftain.
“I thought you all weren’t meeting for a while longer.”
“I’m here for matters about the limbo realm. Prepare yourself quickly and follow me.”
Raja Kint went back into his house grumbling. “This early and he’s already hounding me about this.”
Once ready Raja Kint set out with the Chieftain. Arriving at the Chieftain’s house Raja Kint noticed how normal it was. The two entered and Raja Kint was surprised at how ordinary everything was. Then looked toward the chieftain in front of him. Now that I think of it, ever since I came to this tribe the Chieftain has only ever shown a great temperament and breadth of mind. Soon they enter a bedroom and the chieftain weirdly pulls a random vine.
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“Step to your left,” Says the Chieftain.
Raja Kint steps over and watches as the floor opens up in his previous spot. The Chieftain took the lead and the two walked down spiral stairs. Once they reach the bottom Raja Kint sees lit torches illuminating a two-room-sized area. On one wall is a stack of books, near the books is a table with haphazardly placed papers.
“You can always come down here whenever you want. These books are the knowledge of predecessors who have sought a way to the limbo realm. Those papers are my current knowledge.”
Raja Kint walks to the shelf with excitement in his eyes. After all, before cultivating he was a knowledge seeker.
“Now that you’ve seen this we can leave now.”
Raja Kint hurriedly said, “Wait, Why?”
“We have to decide what to do with you for the war. After today you’ll be free from these meetings.”
Raja Kint frowned but couldn’t do anything about it. Right now he was feeling a near uncontrollable urge in his heart to learn. The Chieftain also noticed this strong curiosity and wondered whether it was good or bad.
After the midday strategy break, the Chieftain brought Raja Kint over for the afternoon meeting.
Michalis Shizen said, “Raja we need you to show us how to create your array. But expanded to cover the entire tribe.” He points toward a map in the middle. “The green colors are our village layout. You can use the blue color to display how the array needs to be placed. We will use this with our arrayists to create this array.”
“Sure, it won’t be as good as when I did it before. But if you have enough people it’ll still hold out to any attack under the limbo realm. Also, will I be fighting in this war?”
The burly man chuckles, “You have array skills but combat too? Come now, you have too much life to live.”
“You should know I’m far stronger than I look. Plus, I want more combat experience.”
The lean, short man says, “If you want to die young then so be it.”
Raja Kint furrowed his brows, “You should set me up for a fight with a soldier from one of your teams.”
The commanders all raised an eyebrow.
“This is talk for the future, go finish the array planning as soon as possible.” says the Chieftain.
Raja Kint nods his head, takes the paper and sits in a corner. If this was any other array I would be out of luck with expanding it to fit a tribe. But this is the array made personally by my mother. An array that I’ve spent much time studying.
The hours ticked by and the commanders left the room as night fell. Raja Kint stayed continuing to figure out the best way to set up the array. “It’s a tight squeeze but if this house could be moved a bit more southeast. And this one moved a bit more north. Fill in the ground so it’s even and plant the array making sure that nobody messes the lines up. Then this could work, maybe I can expand it slightly beyond the village as well.”
Raja Kint stayed up all night figuring out the array. When the commanders walked into the room they saw Raja Kint asleep in the same spot he was yesterday. None woke him and continued as usual. Raja Kint eventually woke up and looked at the map with a beaming smile. Haha, I fell asleep after finally knowing how to lay out the array. Now that I’m awake I’ll hand it to them. Huh?
Raja Kint saw food placed on the left side of the table he was working on. Immediately he ate the food and picked up the blue-dyed wood. The Commanders and Chieftain noticed the action and watched as Raja Kint finally began laying the array out. They couldn’t help but peek over his shoulder.
Raja Kint didn’t notice them as he was entranced for an hour before sighing and stretching. While stretching his head back, breath from the long-haired, green-eyed man hit his forehead. Causing Raja Kint’s eyes to widen. At the sight of 9 men standing over him.
“Uh… why are you all so close? Don’t you have things to talk about besides watching me? Or maybe you’re impressed by how talented I am. Well, you haven’t seen anything yet! Hehe.” Raja Kint’s grin showed his ego on full display.
The burly man said, “You’re one cocky brat, all you can do is scribble some lines down well.”
“Wait until you see me fight.”
Post midday break the group of ten arrived at Michalis Shizen's elite troops practice field.
They prepared an outer ki realm fourth stage as his opponent. As the elite troops are only made of men who are at least a fourth stage outer ki realm.
The man looked at Raja Kint with ridicule. “You can’t be much older than my boy and yet you feel confident enough to fight me?”
The men behind him laughed as Raja Kint just stretched his body. Michalis Shizen said, “Just use your full cultivation, we want to see how strong our young arrayist here is in combat.”
One of the men chortled, “So much talent in arrays, why even waste time on combat young man.”
“Combat is more fun than placing down arrays. Anyways, I’m ready so don’t blink.”
Raja Kint sprints toward his opponent. The man sprints forward as well. Once within range they both throw punches. Within the first three punches thrown Raja Kint connects to the man’s face forcing him back three steps.
“Ho-How is this the strength of a second stage!?” The man said with shock.
My inner ki realm tenth stage is truly amazing. I used none of my outer ki realm cultivation for that. And even then I held back on the punch.
“Wait, are you some type of body refiner?”
Raja Kint chuckled, “You were talking so amazingly earlier. Come back and let’s fight some more.”
The man harrumphed as he became serious.