Zhen Liu sat on the floor of his room, resting his chin on the open palm of his right hand. His other hand was currently busy with manipulating the virtual interface of Nepherage and the arts list of the Library of Nowhere.
'[Echoing Knuckle], [Mineral Barrage], [Golden Lotus Platform]...gods above, I keep forgetting how many arts were inside that library. How am I suppose to thin this list down?'
Following his parents advice, Zhen Liu figured it would be prudent to modify Nepherage's abilities to make her team fight oriented as opposed to being a one woman army. The only problem was that there were about several dozen choices he could make and they all didn't seem to be good ones.
'Maybe I'm approaching this wrong,' Zhen Liu thought to himself after reaching page six of the support arts list, "Instead of going generalist, maybe I should try to go for ways specifically tuned to my cousins and their fighting styles?'
Zhen Liu dismissed the interface for the time being and began to recall his memories on his soon-to-be teammates/cousins, Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue.
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Zhen Hai - The First Young Master
The first thing that came to mind when Zhen Liu thought of his oldest cousin was the words: justifiably arrogant asshole. Because while Zhen Liu wasn't a fan of Zhen Hai's arrogant demeanor and cocksure personality, he unfortunately had the ability to justify it.
The first son of the first elder Zhen Long, Zhen Hai had quite a few advantages in comparison to his cousins and peers.
For starters, he was literally the first child born in Zhen Liu's generation by a full two years, meaning he got first dibs when it came to training resources and a headstart in terms of being taught things such as arts, stances and aether beast knowledge. Evidently, these advantages weren't wasted, as Zhen Hai had a lot of potential in terms of cultivation.
On the day of his coming-of-age ceremony, it was discovered that while his aether capacity was about average, his aether expression had incredibly high purity levels. The fact that it was Aquarii nature as well made him a prime candidate to inherit the patriarch's own aether formula, [Abyssal King's Grace].
With all of these advantages, Zhen Hai managed to breakthrough to Acolyte Fifth Ring at the tender age of sixteen. However, he had since been stuck at the Acolyte level for three years, but not due to lack of trying.
From what Zhen Liu could recall, the [Abyssal King's Grace] formula was a conditional type formula. These types of formulas were very strong when cultivated, but they all required an additional "something" that the practitioner needed in order to advance in level.
In this case, Zhen Hai needed the heart of a powerful aquatic type aether beast.
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'Not exactly easy to find in the middle of a desert biome. Unless there happened to be a wandering ruin full of fish aether beasts,' Zhen Liu mused. 'Zhen Hai's the overly aggressive type when it comes to fighting, kinda like a shark when blood's in the water. Zhen Yue on the other hand...'
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Zhen Yue - The First Young Mistress
If Zhen Hai was a raging A-hole, Zhen Yue was the exact opposite of that. Coincidentally, she was born only a few weeks after Zhen Hai was born.
As the first daughter to the second elder, Zhen Hou, some of the clan members had a few... assumptions about how'd she act when she grew up. Zhen Hou, while respected, had a bit of a reputation for being remarkably brutish and a touch crass. Many people feared that any children of his would end up being smaller, possibly stronger versions of him. Zhen Yue, however, turned those expectations on their heads.
Cultured, cool, refined and a delicate beauty, Zhen Yue lived up to the meaning of her name quite well. The fact that she also had the rare lunar aether expression was either coincidence or fate, and Zhen Liu wasn't sure which made more sense.
Lunar aether expression was rather rare due to having the condition of being able to express both Caligos and Luxari aether in a 3 to 2 ratio, but those who had it could become rather powerful warriors regardless if the cultivated a Caligos or Luxari formula, but incredibly powerful if they had a lunar formula from the get-go.
Luckily for her though, the Zhen Clan happened to have a single lunar formula called: [Totemic Maiden].
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'An all-rounder formula with a basis on mastering forms and arts in relation to the "totemic beasts": Jaguar, Rabbit, Pangolin and Owl...I'm not entirely sure why it's these nocturnal animals specifically, but I can appreciate the balance of it all. Too bad she doesn't have enough arts to maximize each of her forms. Unless...'
Zhen Liu briefly entertained the idea of getting some arts from the Library of Nowhere and bringing it back for his cousins to use for the upcoming challenge. While he couldn't use his ring to make copies of the arts in the library for his cousins to use, the ring didn't work unless he was modifying Nepherage and no way in hell he was showing that off to his family members, he could still make the trip to the Jade Lake and go deep diving for a bit.
'Granted that would involve Tiny and Mini helping me get there and right now they're in maximum lazy mode.'
Zhen Liu had initially planned to bring Tiny and Mini back to the Jade Lake and check out the Library of Nowhere a few days back, but his family had other plans in mind.
The moment Patriarch Zhen Shi heard of the fourth rank Raijin Hippo and her calf being kept in the family stables, he immediately cleared most of his schedule and did everything in his power to try and get them to join the family. Which in this case involved a lot of high quality foodstuffs and a spa day. Last Zhen Liu had heard, Tiny and Mini were being treated to a super high quality mud bath made with Deep Mine Spring Water, crushed Thunder Emeralds and ashes from a Cyclonic Evergreen. The price tag on using all of these goods was enough for Zhen Liu to make two kaijin.
'Well, at least they'll serve as a heavy hammer for the Clan so it ain't too bad I guess.'
Before Zhen Liu could muse further, a knocking at his door caught his attention.
*Knock, knock*
"Come in."