It seemed Eun-jeong was going to find out the validity of that theory this day. The goal was to bolster up the boy’s body with her aether, she hoped that his body would be able instinctively use the aether-filled with as little of her will as she needed to control it-to better resist the encroachment of the madness.

  Zhao Bing watched as the impossible began to occur as soon as the elder laid her hand on his nephew, the fire around the boy began to grow. Well before the monk elder had entered his ice fence, Gabriel’s flames had been growing consistently but only in quantity, that meant nothing to them. It was as simple as the more aether Gabriel released, the more flames were created. But now, the flames were growing in quality. Before a stranger might have mistaken his nephew for a more experienced aether user but the flames were most definitely still in the fourth tier but now they were clearly rising beyond that-and still growing the longer Elder monk Eun-jeong placed her head on his head.

  The fifth tier? The impossible had just happened in front of elder monk Chen’s eyes, he had just borne witness the youngest individual to transition from the fourth tier to the fifth tier, the boy felt a year or two shy of twenty, and if his guardian was to be believed, he had done it in less than a day. And the craziest part of this situation was that, it was not yet over, the boy was not done. His aether was still growing steadily in tier. Was, what ever this was, going to carry the boy to the sixth tier. The thought brought a frown to his face. Time was still a factor when advancing through scholarly tier, maybe not as set in stone as it is in the novice tiers, seeing as proper dedication could affect the time-frame but this was crazy, the whole scholarly tier in one day. This was an impossibility occurring before his eyes.

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  Elder monk Eun-jeong winced when the pain came, the boy’s face had eased up when she had began giving him her aether and she had thought the plan was working. Then the most impossible of things had stolen her attention and she had let it. Gabriel’s body was producing its own aether, her soul sense had locked-on to the process of it and she had refused to look away because within, she felt, laid a clue to her next awakening. She had hoped if she studied the image enough, if she absorbed the process enough, she could hope to get some form of enlightenment and the road to sage hood would reveal more of itself to her. So when the pain first came she ignored it, what injury was worth considering in the face of a chance to awaken to sage hood.

  “Foolish girl, the door to sage hood is not so easily peeked at” a lady appeared suddenly beside the elder monk Eun-jeong, one tap on the forehead and her hand dropped limply from Gabriel’s head. “And not without consequences.”

  Zhao Bing felt the lady takeover one of the pillars that made up his ice fence and obliterated it into specks of his aether and it felt like a firm punch to his gut. From the space she had just created, he watched her walk out carrying Eun-jeong and her staff-branch. She wore modern comfort clothing and wore her hair in a simple style, the only things that stood out, were the cherry blossoms in her hair and the way her eyes shown in the sunset, nobody could mistake it, those were the eyes of a sage.

  “Master” Elder monk Chen gave her a standard two fists salute.

  “Sage Enduring Blossoms” Zhao Bing greeted as well

  The lady gave him a small nod while moving towards Zhao Bing “you and yours have brought a great trouble to my doorstep, the least you can do is hold my disciple.” And she off loaded her elder monk into his arms.