NOVPUB’Wait a minute... Razorstella. If my senses are correct, I think your direction is where the Undertow Kingdom is located. That right?’
[It is, director. Do you want me to swing by in that direction?]
’Please do. I’m getting a feeling in the pit of my stomach that there might be more than meets the eye in this situation.’
[Huh? How so?]
’Misdirection is one of the best ways to hide your true plans. Besides, the last time the matriarch was here, she mentioned how she found the Fallen was talking to an old turtle kaijin. And with what Logos and Pathos said about there being a bunch of grave robbers with stolen parts...’
[It’s safe to assume that the Fallen might have developed a craving for the living version.]
’Exactly.’
...
<<Well, with that out of the way...Xiao Xun Po!>>
<<Yes ma’am?>>
<<Is my tattoo kit in the hold?>>
<<It is.>>
<<Hand it to me. I’m gonna pass the time doing something productive.>>
<<Of course, ma’am.>>
"Why was she staring at the three of us while she said that?," Zhen Feng asked Zhen Hai.
"Kind of obvious, ain’t it?"
It took less than a minute for Zhen Xun Po’s arm to suddenly pop out from the inner portion of the [Radiant Ark Serpent] and hand over to his mother, a small kit containing a variety of needles, several small hammers and ink bottles that all the scions could sense were radiating high levels of aether.
<<Eenie, meanie, miney...you!>>
"Huh? Bah!"
The next thing anybody knew, Zhen Xun Tian had zoomed over to the ship of the branch scions, and had surprised Zhen Feng to the point of knocking him over.
Before he could fully fall over, however, Zhen Xun Tian made sure to catch him. Not only that, but she had also moved fast enough to grab a pair of stools and set them up in such a manner that Zhen Feng was forced into sitting directly in front of Zhen Xun Tian. He also had his body turned so that his back would face in her direction.
Once they were bottled settled in, Zhen Xun Tian unfolded her tattoo kit.
"Tell me something, my dear grand nephews. Have any of you ever gotten a tattoo before?"
"Uh....no," Zhen Feng admitted.
"I never got one," Zhen Liu.
"I think my older brother did," Zhen Long answered.
At the mention of this older brother, Zhen Xun Tian suddenly paused from her task in order to dig into that statement.
<<Older brother? You mean there’s a whole generation of you kiddos that I don’t know about?>>
<<It’s nothing too dramatic,>> Zhen Long answered in Tide Tongue, for the sake of etiquette. <<Zhen Xing and I both have older brothers that are about five to six years older than us. They left home awhile back to expand their horizons and figure out their own fortunes. We haven’t heard back from them in a long time.>>
<<Ah, that old issue,>> Zhen Xun Tian nodded in understanding. <<Well, at least the age difference between you siblings isn’t as exaggerated as that old lizard’s offsprings! Xiao Liu, you wanna know how big the age gap is between your fiancee and the Emperor’s oldest?>>
"I’m just gonna hazard and say...two hundred?"
<<Try three hundred! That old lizard might as well be an old goat with how much of a weakness he has for pretty women and handsome men.>>
"Huh."
<<But, back to the tattoo,>> Zhen Xun Tian said as she refocused on to the tattoo kit and Zhen Feng’s back. <<Y’all know that we’re about to go head to head with the Fallen Clan soon, right? You kiddos ever had to kill another person before?>>
"Yes,", all three scions answered simultaneously.
<<Good.>>
The frontier was a harsh and cruel place that demanded strength from both bandit and pioneer alike.
In the early days of the Zhen Clan’s development, Patriarch Zhen Hai and his wife, Bai Hua, took on bounty hunter jobs to supplement their income. This practiced extended to their children, and their children’s children. Eventually, it became an unspoken rule that core members had to turn in a bounty that demanded someone to be dead.
Incidently, Zhen Liu fulfilled this requirement when he came back from the dead.
’Course, I didn’t actually kill him myself,’ Zhen Liu mused.
Regardless of his own musings though, Zhen Xun Tian had only brought it up so that she could segue into a more pertinent topic.
The reason she was about to give them all tattoos and/or tramp stamps.
<<The Fallen were about to face are probably gonna be the nastiest pieces of work this side of the sea. You’ve all dealt with them back on my home turf, but down here is a whole other ball game.>>
"Spoken from experience?," Zhen Liu asked, knowing what the answer was probably gonna be.
Zhen Xun Tian nodded in response to the question.
<<Back when my father was in charge, we came down here once we figured out that the Fallen had been hiding down here. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take them out or figure out their base at the time. It was a pyrrhic victory. More or less.>>
"Hmm."
Zhen Liu couldn’t help but notice the wistful tone in Zhen Xun Tian’s voice, however, he knew better than to bring that up. Especially when she had a series of needles and hammers at the ready and aimed at Zhen Feng’s neck.
She wouldn’t kill him, but it would definitely hurt.
<<Anyways, since this is probably gonna be a penultimate fight, we need to squeeze out every possible advantage we have until it’s go time. Meaning all of y’all get the privilege of getting one of my aether tattoos imprinted on your skins. Be sure to show your gratitude properly, because my tattoos have been sought out by many nobles and nomads alike.>>
"Oh...sweet."
"What’s an aether tattoo?," Zhen Hai asked.
At this question, Zhen Xun Tian looked positively aghast.
<<What has Xiao Shi been teaching all of you? How do you not know what an aether tattoo is?>>
"To be fair, we were taught what it was," Zhen Feng answered. "It’s just that the amount of aether tattooists in our hometown can be counted with a fist. So..."
<<Irrelevancy bias, got it,>> Zhen Xun Tian nodded in understanding. <<Well then, consider this moment a practical refresher course...also, I just realized I am using the wrong canvas for this. Xiao Feng, turn around. This tattoo is going on your stomach.>>
"Huh?!"
What followed after this statement was about five minutes worth of screaming before Zhen Xun Tian forgot to give Zhen Feng a cloth to bite down on.
It didn’t help much.
________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter to provide the readers a short, yet detailed, explaination of what aether tattoos are exactly.
...
Every sect and clan worth their salt know how to establish an aether array or two.
Giant formations of concentrated aether rich materials that are designed to manipulate environmental aether to perform various effects ranging from simple deterrence to cultivation amplification to outright obliteration.
However, there is a subcategory of aether arrays that has its own storied tradition and history: aether tattoos. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
It’s a known fact that trying to apply an aether array to one’s body was a really really stupid idea, due to that aformentioned environmental manipulation effect and the average scale of an aether array needing to be about the size of a table at least. Cultivators in the past who tried to apply arrays to their bodies usually ended up exploding due to aether overload or...other fucked up environmental issues.
Aether tattoos, however, are essentially aether arrays that can be safely applied to a person’s body due to being a lot smaller, drawing their aether from the user and having less of a material cost. Additionally, they could be reused with little to no cool down time vs normal aether arrays.
The trade-off is that the average aether tattoo was a lot weaker by comparison to your average array.
That said, aether tattoos were a lot like aether arts, treasures and everything else a warrior uses, meaning they were highly dependent on their user’s power level.
If you give an [Snake Scale Armor] tattoo to an Acolyte and a Grandmaster, the Grandmaster will have the stronger defense.
Speaking of Grandmasters, there’s an interesting effect that can occur that is dependent on when an aether tattoo is applied to a person.
At anyone pass the Grandmaster stage, when the [Regalia] forms, the aether tattoo will simply be another tool in the warrior’s toolbox.
Applied beforehand though, can cause the [Regalia] to take on characteristics that were not initially projected.
As one can imagine, there is a furious debate on when one should acquire aether tattoos, if at all.
...
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter, thank you.
*Bing-Bong.*
________________________________________
<<And...done! Who’s next?>>
At this exact moment, both Zhen Liu and Zhen Hai basically pointed at each other as the volunteer, while Zhen Feng was foaming at the mouth while passed out on the floor.
On the plus side, the tattoo came out nicely.
