There goes my life of pretending to be a normal guy in the city, I look at the red-haired brat I carry on my shoulders. And I wonder if what I'm doing can be considered kidnapping? Whatever.
I think this is a good time to get back into action, as good as any other.
But I know what I'm going to need to hide the brat, until I study the techniques they gave me.
One word, connections, which I've managed from bad to worse over the last few decades.
Fortunately, there's a place where the boss owes me a lot more than the other way around, Stargazing Tower. I saved the chief's life there and even helped found the place.
After three hours of running and jumping mountains at subsonic speeds, I wanted to go up to transonic speeds but I have to be careful not to injure the girl, I start to slow down miles from a city of medium proportions.
I still stop on the nearest road after all, going in with the unconscious girl on my shoulders is asking for trouble with some nosy guy, and as carefully as possible for me I put the girl down, this one that was surrounded by a green field of plants as shallow as grass. and bushes, there is no better mattress.
I sit on the floor about five feet from her, and start meditating, synchronizing my mind and breath with the power I want to use at the moment: plants.
After a few seconds I lie down on the grass, my breath follows the rhythm of the wind currents and my body in sync with the grass, I close my eyes, and feel everything that the flora in a radius of 500 meters is feeling.
My mind soon forms a picture with information from my extra sense of the roads, animals and people in contact with any kind of plant life in the area unfortunately the city is not in range at the moment.
"Hmm"
Looks like the girl is waking up, great so I can get into town without too many questions, sleeping on the grass is fine but not having a good drink to enjoy even a non-alcoholic one is torture.
"Where are we?" She asks as soon as she wakes up "Where is Yanan?" Another question in the sequence but soon she shuts up, the reality of what happened must have hit her by now.
I think I'll wait for her to calm down before asking about the techniques...
Three minutes, she must have calmed down by now, no? Whatever.
"Now, there's no good way to put it, but aside from the fugitive life you once seemed to lead, most of your allies are now as isolated as you are or have kicked the bucket."
Hearing this the girl stares at me for a few moments, probably angry.
"You could have finished off our opponents there, couldn't you?"
So that's what she was thinking, yes but not in the state I'm in.
"Not everyone, newbie."
If it wasn't for the techniques, and I'd finally found a clue as to how I got here, I'd be tempted to ignore you too.
"Newbie, what do you mean?"
"Have you forgotten the agreement my newest assistant? Get up you spent the last few hours sleeping while I carried you but you will walk to the city, we will stay a maximum of two nights in the cities we pass through until we reach the Stargazing Tower."
It's been a while since I've seen the old star, I hope he has increased his collection as he is one of the few helping me with my 'research'.
"How long before we get to this tower?"
Was that what she was thinking? speaking of time I think when we arrive he will be getting ready to call his next tribulation.
I wonder how much tribulations the brat would survive, first? Almost guaranteed. The third is probably when she's going to have her limits tested.
"Ten days more or less, if the trip goes smoothly, obviously." I look at the girl, she doesn't seem to have any reaction despite asking about the time of the trip, I think she just wanted something to occupy her mind for now.
"If you've got your thoughts in order, let's go."
The girl nodded in agreement, and we started walking, at humanly possible speeds, towards the city. Unfortunately because of the distance I had previously stopped this kind of speed means it will take a while to get there.
Normally I would have no problem ignoring my companions, this time she's supposed to have to work for me, because of a messed up situation the least I can do is interact with her as if she were a person.
"About such an order, I've heard of the clans that are part of it, but not even rumors about the order, how did they manage it?"
I asked, an act that was in no way influenced by discomfort with the situation.
"Considering your strength you must know about the eleven worlds and the divine realm correct?" The girl asks me with discomfort clear on her face, I knew I wasn't the only one! No, I wasn't uncomfortable with the silence, ever!
About the worlds there are thirty-three actually, but the other twenty-two are at least strange, and the barriers stop acting just like walls but add a filter that seems to look for specific conditions to allow the passage.
"Yes, the eleven galaxies separated by some sort of barrier that warps space and time, and the world in which beings who merged with the natural laws of the world, deities, reside." I responded with the most widespread facts on the subject.
Merge with the laws and become a god over such a fraction of creation, the part that intrigues me has always been the fusion reminds me of how some beasts become stronger, I wonder if the similarity is why some are said to be 'divine' .
"Are you explaining the obvious to whom?" Mingten, the brat asks.
"Just checking if we're talking about the same subject." I answer without showing the insistent irritation on my face.
"Okay." She responds with some suspicion "Do you know that the Divine Realm is destroyed, or do you want to check with some inside information of yours?" Does she have good intuition or is she just resentful about the previous conversation?
"No, that's exactly what I remember the Divine Realm is fragmented and scattered."
I give the answer without delay.
"Exactly, fragmented, and it is in these fragments that our bases are, while the clans were created to have contact with the outside."
Hiding in shards of the God Realm is nothing new, but making five facade clans is a bold move that seems to have worked, so far.
The shards generate their own pocket dimension, and it's only possible to enter them with the key or by sheer force, the latter is unlikely so this gives me the answer to how the order is in this state: betrayal.
Disgusting.
"The choice of these clans was not without reason I imagine, so why these five?"
I ask this time to distract myself, betrayal, those words bring back memories, too many memories.
"The decision is quite old, so I only know what was told to me as the reason. Before the discovery of the eleven worlds the forces of humanity were divided between the western and eastern alliances, Braighte and Feldar were middle families of the western alliance and at the time our best contacts within the same after a while they were assimilated into the Order, the other three clans Wang and Meng performed the same function in the eastern alliance, finally the Su clan was originally formed by blood relatives and apprentices of the founder. "
"In that case, wouldn't the Su be the main family, and the other four just branches with specific functions? Besides, who do you think you're teaching a history lesson to?" I asked.
"Excuse me, but I wasn't sure the Great Kaz knew about trivial matters like world history."
Saying one of the most false excuses, and I've heard many, and sarcastic ones I've ever seen, she replied.
Has she lost her fear or is this her way of dealing with the loss of her confidant?
"This 'great' Kaz, has a keen interest in world history, eleven worlds, and beyond." I responded with the same amount of sarcasm. "Now, do you want to answer the question from before?"
"Okay, I answer" raising her hands in surrender Mingten replied "While the Su were indeed in a privileged position within the Order, they were not the main or core family as we call it within the Order." She stopped talking briefly, "The core members were adopted from the other five families chosen by sheer skill in different fields, and for their descendants, sometimes referred to simply as bloodlines, stay in the core is guaranteed for three generations, if after three generations no one with a skill level equal to or greater than the original selected does not emerge, a new member is adopted from the five families and becomes the heir of the bloodline."
What an interesting system, they probably only managed to make it work in the beginning because of the charisma and strength of this supposed founder.
We finally got close enough to the city walls to hear the noise of people talking and moving around, and without verbally agreeing the girl and I started talking about more common topics until we reached the gate, the guards asked for some copper coins to leave us enter, I added a few extra so they wouldn't ask too much, and the guards clearly accepted. I don't know if he has to pass the bribes on to anyone, but if there is a chance they'll try to investigate us and I honestly don't have the patience to deal with street thugs and corrupt officials, if they snoop around too much I'll just get rid of them, I have plenty experience in making curious inconveniences disappear in silence.
We asked for some directions and soon stopped at a decent inn and each went to their room.
In the simple but clearly well-kept bedroom, I sit on the bed and take the coin Yanan gave me from a pocket in my waistcoat.
The coin is too big to use as money, on one side is a bagua, the eight trigrams, drawn in high relief on the other side an eye with two pupils, both symbols related to luck, hmm? Even though bagua is more related to heavenly mandate and feng shui it is still about some form of luck... I think.
Despite having messed with Divination a bit, the fact is that it was never my strong point. What I'm good at is exploring Synchro's basics and extrapolating its uses, that's my forte, and a decent talent in the forge.
But clearly the coin doesn't use the principles of sync, recreate, and amplification that Synchro normally uses.
In today's eleven worlds there aren't many powers that don't use Synchro as a base, but at the height of the God Realm the gods' powers originated from the act of merging with something symbolic, considering whoever gave me this coin to be a holdover of the powers that the so-called deities used it is very likely, but there's a reason why Synchro is the power that remains in the world today: adaptability.
I take five regular coins out of my pocket and they float and spin in the palm of my left hand, I calm my mind, and feel the heat of my body, it would be faster if I had fire but I will use the amplification principle with my own body in the absence of flames.
From my body I feel each mineral that shares the compounds of the coins in my hands, and I make both groups vibrate at the same rate as the heat in my body increases and is mirrored in the five coins.
The coins soon become liquefied metals, I change my body sync to 'ten coin path' coin and the liquid metal that floated in my hand gradually becomes a copy of Yanan's lucky coin, unfortunately I couldn't completely recreate it the powers that were inside the coin, but it's enough for me to practice the 'Ten Coin Path'.