The first Order of business was to meet the elders of the temple and ask for permission to stay for a prolonged period of time and their help with delivering their child.
There was no reception waiting for them and the monks were no strangers to visitors, every once in a while, a different character came to speak with the supreme elder of the temple and then leave sometime after.
The moment Riddick landed, the ground shook for a moment and at the same time Remulos regained his form and Hennessy was instructed to keep herself in check. The group then assemble and followed Bato straight into the tallest looking temple were Giant pillars that looked like scrolls and could be rotated stood by the entrance and a massive gold statue could be seen through the door.
The oldest of the monks stood with his eyes close at the base of the golden statue and two rows of monks with attires different to the ones the disciples training in the courtyards were wearing sat in a praying position like waiting for enlightenment to drop from the heavens.
Niu didn't stick around and immediately took Bai towards his old cave in the middle of the mountains leaving the temple behind.
The main Elder looked like he was 1000 years old and if his real age was to be reveal it would not be of the mark by much. Rahz was very sensitive to other people's levels and he could tell that the tiny old man had actually broken through the barrier set by the realm and was now level 55.
"Amazing!!" said Rahz under his breath.
It was the first time Rahz encountered anyone outside the scope of his knowledge of the realm and without thinking he said out loud, " You don't use God Runes?"
The people that were trying to get enlightenment opened their eyes to look at the tiny elder by the based of the statue and for the first time in years they saw him opened his eyes. The eyes of the elder were as blue as the sky and if one looked closely, people could see a light that shone with an abundant life force.
"Amitabha, The great ancestor gained Enlightenment and in doing so, he managed to see the hideous creatures that resided inside the Rune of Awakening on his body and by using his Ki he was able to destroy it. Since that moment on, the Temple of the Rising Sun does not worship any gods and we look ourselves as a vessel that can grow by accumulating the energy around us"
Rahz was impressed that the ancestor of the Temple was able to figure out the truth via enlightenment and created a force that belonged only to the realm. The only problem Rahz saw was that the monks isolated themselves instead of doing something about the problem they were facing. The method they used to train martial arts was also different to the method Rahz thought his students, the Temple of the Rising Sun converted the energy of the Realm into Ki or Chi that they incorporated into their martial arts.
It was a very specialized version of the energy manipulation of the realm, they were really good at Transformation and Emission and the way they thought their disciples was something like; this is how you build Ki in your body and then through he martial arts you released it like this in set ways. The majority of the monks in the temple trained very hard in order to increase their vessels through meditation, martial arts and a process called meridian enhancement. The combination of their training allowed them to increase the size of their vessel and thus increase their levels.
Rahz on the other hand taught his students the way to manipulate energy to change their bodies entirely and let them choose what they wanted to specialize on so they could develop their on style. He taught them Emision, transformation, reinforcement, conjuration and manipulation and how to combined them into an outcome.
"How can our humble temple be of assistance, Chosen" said the supreme elder.
"We would be really grateful if we could stay until my wife gives birth to our child and maybe a portal to one of the major cities if is available"
"The temple does not deny a helping hand to anybody and it would be our honor to help somebody so close to nature as yourself"
"Thank you, Great Elder"
Rahz looked at the elder for a second but he didn't want to get down to business right away so after exchanging a few more pleasantries they said their goodbyes and turned to followed Bato to the guest building where they made themselves at home.
The decorations of the courtyard were very simple but they brought peace and happiness to the person looking at them, one thing that made the team extremely surprised was that despite all the disciples training in the temple none of their shouts reverberated through, instead all they had was peace and quiet.
"Please feel at home guys…I'll be back a bit later so we can go to dinner together, oh and please no alcohol no meat while you are here"
Jazz had his leather pouch close to his mouth and with a frown said, "No even a sip?"
"Nope"
It was torture for Jazz but after several pair of eyes lock on to him, he put the pouch away and sat on the floor looking towards the sky with vacant eyes.
"Don't worry buddy, later you can go down with Xiao to adventure outside the temple and have all the boozed you want". With those words Bato left while the team settle in their new home.
A couple of days passed in a flash and the team was getting used to their new life in the temple.
Elune rested while Riddick and Rahz went around the Courtyards joining in the monk's martial arts training and sometimes they listened with confused expressions to the Elders talk about the ultimate realm of the mind and the stories about Bato's realm Item, The Pearls of Enlightenment.
There were eight Beads that look like black pearls link together forming a circle that could be worn as a necklace and the key element of their powers was to empower the user with enlightenment over what was possible in the realm.
Rahz had seen two of the bead's abilities when he met Bato outside the temple. One was the ability to change its shape into a weapon that was literally indestructible like when it became a rope and the second ability was to provide Enlightenment on what the threshold of the human body could be, enhancing Bato's physical progress enormously allowing him to move at incredible speeds distorting space to a little degree.
The third Bead was a defensive skill called The Siddhartha's Aegis which encased the wearer in a divine light that stop all damage for a couple of seconds and was specially lethal when combined with the Karma bead.
The fourth bead was called the bead of the harmonious path allowing the monk to harmonise with his opponent and steal a skill used against him. The Harmonious Bead would allowed the monk to enter enlightenment and use it to his maximum potential.
The master of the elements imbued Bato's attacks with elemental magic making them more lethal and even giving him the ability to heal minor wounds using the natures element.
Heaven's Punishment was the six bead was a detrimental skill that took away all the 6 senses of the person it affected and success depended on the will of the individual. The person affected by the skill would just see a dark space all around them without the ability to feel any external stimuli.
Karma was the seventh bead and allowed Bato to create a link between him and the attacker deflecting all the sensation of pain to the person link to him for 10 seconds.
The last bead was, Spirits of the Realm which created clones of different elements that would attack Bato's target with the same skills as the original infusing their own element. The Higher the level of Bato, the more beads he could activated at the same time and since it was a realm item as long as they were in the realm, Bato could use the skill time and time again as long as his body could tolerated the stress generated by them.
Rahz was impressed by what he heard and couldn't wait to fight Bato and polish his skills against such a formidable opponent.
While he was thinking about fighting Bato, Rahz realized that he had no seen the sleazy monk since he took them to their guest house and upon asking a few of the elders Rahz learned that Bato usually spend his time in the back side of a temple training and that only very few could visit him.
Rahz thanked the elder and with a little dejected feeling went back to his wife.