Watching Zack leave the house elder Grey sat quietly on his chair.
"Sigh. Just hurry up a bit. There is not much time left for me."
He murmured to himself, Zack did not hear him and went out.
Zack got back home. It was already evening and he had some free time.
He asked his wife if there was anything they needed home and went out to buy it.
His mind was occupied with meditation and how to solve his problems. It was not like it was hindering him. If anything, as soon as he started his meditation focused on the mind he noticed that his advancement proceeded faster than before.
He felt much closer to the spirit energy in the surroundings and controlling it became much easier.
...
The next few days continued as usual without any changes. Zack spent his time divided between his job as a teacher, learning under his master, hunting in the forest, and spirit training.
Finally, Zack could not hold it and asked his master for advice.
"Patience, That's what my advice is."
Zack lowered his head embarrassed, "But master, it is getting harder and harder to proceed further. At least give me some advice."
Elder Grey looked at his and sighed.
He put down his teacup, "You are attached to success far too much. The only thing you focus on is an achievement and not how to achieve."
"Learn to detach yourself from things."
Zack pondered his words but soon became confused. He did not voice his question and spent the time asking him answers regarding all his studies.
His days passed like the wind.
Jude would return from time to time to see his grandfather and mother and also to pay respect to their teacher.
Even though elder Grey did not teach him as a disciple he took him as his master.
When Zack turned 26, he became 7th level spirit walker. Whereas Jude already began working on his spirit master advancement.
The advancement into spirit master would've been an extremely difficult task if not for the spirit cleansing he received from elder Grey.
Spirit cleansing showed its effects most when advancing from spirit walker to spirit master.
Knowing he was that far behind, Zack spent even more effort on his meditation. But the only result he got was more distraction.
In these few years, he fulfilled his mother's wish and had two children.
The first child was a daughter. His parents were a bit disappointed at that but did not voice their thoughts.
They were looking forward to having a son to inherit their family.
It was much difficult to raise daughters in this small town than boys. But then again he had a pretty decent job and could afford it.
As for the second child, turned out to be a son. This time it was Zack who was much disappointed when he found out.
After spending his time with his daughter, he was much happy because she spent more time with him learning different things than her mother and grandparents.
He did not have much hope for his son after seeing how the town's little boys spent their time jumping around the town.
He immediately raised his opinion about how his daughter would not marry outside the family but the other way around.
His family members did not oppose him knowing how much he loved his daughter.
Now his daughter was 4 years old and his son just turned 2. And he could already see the future of his son running around the town with other trouble makers.
Elder Grey spent his time inside the house and his small garden much more now. He noticed how his master woke up late and talked about unrelated subjects from time to time.
He asked his wife to take care of him when he was not around. He did not want to worry his master too much so worked harder in his training.
Finally, when he turned 32, he took the 10th step on his spirit walker path becoming a 10th level spirit walker.
Jude already became spirit master and started to serve as the king's royal protector.
When he brought the good news to his master he was already having a hard time getting out of bed.
Under his master's instructions, he took him outside into his small herb garden.
After getting him to the reclining chair he made some tea for him.
He sat down on the ground just like he did when he first started learning under him.
Elder Grey took a sip of the tea made by him, "Still not as good as I aspect."
His voice was a bit shaky and low. But even now it had an invisible power that Zack respected.
Zack was embarrassed hearing that. He was an adult but even now his master reprimanded him on the smallest of things.
When his master started to struggle walking around he asked how he made his tea and made it.
Since then he would hear him say he was not good enough no matter how careful he was.
"Sigh. Now, at last, the time has come."
Zack shook slightly hearing him but dare not interrupt him.
"Over the years I've kept telling you how your path is different than others and mine. Now it is about time."
"Even though you spent more time than I predicted it is still within the boundaries."
Zack knew that it was because of the mental meditation delay that he was still far behind. He spent much more time training the past few years, even ignoring his beloved daughter.
"Spirit masters have many paths and as we speak even more will come to be and become lost in the ever of time."
"Those are not important to the current you, however. The path you will be taking is something not many would walk but those who walked it were some extraordinary individuals."
"Spirit masters gain power beyond the mortal's imagination, but at the same time there are times those very powers become shackles binding them."
"But how could they tolerate being tied down by their own powers? So they simply discarded them."
"Of course not everyone can have the will to do so. And they adapt and break those shackles slowly themselves over time."
"The ones who discarded their powers called themselves Spirit Breakers for they broke the spirits binding them. And the ones who spent time breaking those shackles slowly kept the name Spirit Masters because they acknowledged themself as the such, who kept the shackles and mastered the spirits."
"That is not to say the spirit breakers were different than the spirit master. Both of them were the same and one."
Zack listened carefully lest he forgot anything. He read many books about the world of the spirit masters and had heard about many paths.
But this was the first time he heard anything about the spirit breakers meaning his master did not have any intention to tell him about them till now.
"But even freedom has a price. Just because they willed it, did not mean they were invincible."
"You will figure out the difficulties soon, so I won't waste my time."
Elder waved his hand slowly shattering his whole concentration.
"Spirit breakers also included others such as those that lost their powers for a multitude of reasons, were injured to an extreme degree or had other similar situations. But at the end, they were all spirit masters."
"Some of the advanced civilizations were made by these spirit breakers simply because of their unique thoughts and ideals. But if you remember my words I've told you before, 'People have different answers and if you do not accept them, conflicts become common'."