NOVPUB[Wait a minute,I just realized something. Frosttusk, you’re currently with the maestro. Can you be a dear and-]
[No, I will not strengthen the active connection so you guys can see the inside of the matriarch’s inner sanctum through my eyes.]
[Oh come on! Why not?!]
[For starters, it would involve me circulating aether and if I do that in front of an Aether Emperor of all people, they’d definitely notice. That and I want to enjoy this hot springs a bit longer in peace, thank you.]
[...you get very sassy when you’re heated.]
[I’m always sassy, I’m just too cold most of the time to show it.]
[Boo.]
[Hurricroak quit trying to spy and help with the clean up effort. We need you to pulverize some rubble.]
[Fine...wait, why aren’t Lacerage and Arachnidame helping with this?]
[They’re on rescue duty.]
[Ah.]
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<<Oh don’t sound so shocked. You must have noticed that something was off about this old patch of ink, right? If not with your eyes, but definitely with your sixth sense. Well, your specific sixth sense I suppose.>>
<<What are you talking about? Your tattoo looks...wait a minute...>>
Following Zhen Xun Tian’s suggestion, Zhen Liu did not just look at her back tattoo with his naked eyes. Instead,he did as suggested and infused a bit of [Chaos] into his eyes. That’s when he saw what she was referring to exactly.
<<Ah...that’s what you mean.>>
On the surface, Zhen Xun Tian’s back tattoo looked very much like a kraken done in a very stylized manner. If Zhen Liu had to give it a specific style in mind, it reminded him of the Polynesian style of tattoos he had seen once or twice from a lifetime ago. Unlike those style of tattoos though, there were a lot of unfilled, negative spaces that appeared in the pattern that Zhen Liu had initially attributed to being a purely stylistic choice.
That wasn’t actually the case though.
With [Chaos] on his eyes, Zhen Liu could see that the kraken tattoo was actually incomplete.
Like a half drawn circle or a mosaic pattern that was missing several blocks of a specific color, Zhen Xun Tian’s Kraken tatoo was missing...something.
Zhen Liu just didn’t know what exactly.
<<I’m not entirely sure why my tattoo came out this way,>> Zhen Xun Tian continued to explain, <<but it hadn’t been too detrimental to my cultivation development...until now that is.>>
Believing that at this point her back tattoo had been shown off enough, and she wanted to go back to soaking, Zhen Xun Tian settled herself back down to her original position in the hot springs. Once she was settled, she began talking again.
<<Looking at me, sensing my power, you can tell that I’m an Aether Emperor, right? Would you say I’m a peak Aether Emperor?>>
<<I mean...I saw that giant [Avatar] of yours twice now and it was horrifyingly powerful when it showed up. So...yes?>>
<<A flattering answer, but no. I’ve actually been stuck at the fourth ring for a number of decades at this point. And it’s all due to my incomplete tattoo.>>
<<Huh? What do you mean?>>
Instead of doing a long winded explanation to get her point across, Zhen Xun Tian decided to show Zhen Liu what she meant instead.
<<Observe, I’m going to try and condense my fifth ring, now.>>
<<Eh?>>
Zhen Xun Tian simply lifted her hand and presented her palm towards Zhen Liu’s direction. As she did, the surrounding aether began to grow turbulent as Zhen Xun Tian began to circulate her own and invigorate her formula.
<<Huh...guess this more visually impressive than just meditating I guess...>>
Before Zhen Liu’s very eyes, visible motes of aether the size of golf balls began to manifest and gather in a space directly in front of Zhen Xun Tian’s hand.
At first, everything appeared to be going normal as Zhen Xun Tian began to condense aether into forming the fifth ring of her current level. However, at the halfway point, something weird started to happen.
<Oh my.>
=Ah...so that’s what happening.=
<<Wait a minute...I recognize this feeling...>>
Well, in Zhen Liu’s case, it was weirdly familiar.
At this point in time, Zhen Xun Tian had managed to condense her aether into a half formed ring, an arc to be completely accurate, but she was starting to struggle.
Zhen Xun Tian’s hand literally began to shake as if she couldn’t physically condense anymore without exerting great effort.
It has actually gotten so unstable though, that the half-formed ring itself began to vibrate and shake until finally popping like a firework.
Zhen Xun Tian let out an exasperated, expectant sigh at the sight, a clear sign that she had gone through this before and had essentially accepted it as a part of her life. It was a sign that Zhen Liu used to have not too long ago.
<<And there you have it, my dear descendant. I am unable to condense my fifth ring because->>
<<Something’s interfering with the condensation process,>> Zhen Liu interjected/said in a tone that implied he knew what exactly was going on.
<<Precisely,>> Zhen Xun Tian nodded, pleased that she could just use the truncated form of her explanation of her troubles. <<And for a very, very long time, I was unable to determine as to why I was unable to do so, until you showed up and explained this whole [Chaos] phenomenon to me.>>
<<I see...>>
This exact moment was all Zhen Liu needed to understand why exactly Zhen Xun Tian wanted to talk to him alone like this in the first place.
Zhen Xun Tian’s Kraken tattoo had the ability to gather, condense and use [Chaos] in a manner not too dissimilar to Zhen Liu’s own methodology with the seal on his left hand. The main issue though was that it was incomplete. This meant that it had the tendency to, for the lack of a better word, leak.
Everytime Zhen Xun Tian tried to condense her aether into a ring, the ring necessary for her to take the next step in cultivation, the kraken tattoo on her back would react in the process.
The same manner in which Zhen Xun Tian gathered aether into forming the ring, her back tattoo would attempt to gather [Chaos] and add it to the ring.
The issue with that though is that [Chaos] and aether don’t mix too well. In a more colorful way to look at this moment, Zhen Xun Tian was trying to build a sandcastle made of baking soda, while an outside force wanted to add a moat made of vinegar.
What Zhen Xun Tian needed at this moment was someone or something that could help to either stop the vinegar moat from being added, or figure out a way to implement both without causing a reaction, which is where Zhen Liu came in.
Zhen Xun Tian figured that if anybody could help her with her...special problem...it would be somebody who seemed to be able to wield the power that had been causing her such a weirdly beneficial headache. It didn’t matter if he was younger than her or even her great great great grand nephew, she knew when it was necessary to take the loss and humble herself when necessary…in her own way.
<<So what do you say?,>> Zhen Xun Tian repeated. <<I make you my disciple, I teach you the methods of aether tattoo making, well, in your case [Chaos] tattoo making, and you help me fix the kraken on my back. Sounds like a good deal if you ask me.>>
<<Well, you are the one who’s proposing it in the first place.>>
<<Guilty as charged.>>
<<Hmm.>>
In all honesty, this particular deal was practically a no-brainer to Zhen Liu.
Not only would he be able to secure a powerful backer in the form of an Aether Emperor, but he’d also be able to pick up some new skills in regards to how to leverage the stuff in different ways. Hell, he could probably use those newly acquired skills to empower both his immediate family and his kaijin.
There was just one thing he needed to address first.
<<When my family and I first arrived here, you promised to help wipe away the slate of my grandfather’s crimes depending on how my cousins and I did in the competition. Are you going to keep that promise?>>
Zhen Xun Tian had a funny look on her face as soon as Zhen Liu brought up this matter to her. Zhen Liu had no idea if this expression was out of contempt for that aforementioned promise or surprise at this lack of trust in her. Evidently, it was going to be the latter.
<<If there’s anything that you should know about yours truly, is that I am a woman who keeps her promises above all else. I might be known as the Crazy Painted War Devil, but I will never deceive anyone. Besides, I don’t think you need to worry about your family’s "crimes" being forgiven by me.>>
<<Huh? Why’s that?>>
<<Because your family has already earned their reputation in spades.>>
