Chapter 568: Blessed Willow Island
“What the fuck do you mean one of Paralust’s zakos is still currently active?,” Zhen Liu asked Logos and Pathos while doing his best impression as scenery, despite his surroundings being open space on a bridge. This surprisingly worked, but then again, it could also have been due to his family members being busy with caring for the aether beasts they brought in as gifts.
=Like I said milord, I think when you gave Razorstella that handful of zako marbles, you forgot to pick out the ones that the parasinner imbued with her…proclivities. I guess she was amongst the one summoned to spy,= Logos explained. =It should be fine though, since if you can find her and get within at least twenty or so feet of her, you’ll be to recall her.=
‘That’s…good to know actually. Guess I don’t got to worry about them inter-wait, what happens when someone tries to read the mind of a zako?’
=I can’t really explain this without using an analogy…have you tried to put a microphone up against a speaker? Think that, but the speaker is also releasing static noise at the exact same time.=
‘Oh…that’s unpleasant.’
=Indeed.=
‘Oh hush you,’ Zhen Liu retorted, ‘to be fair, I’m future proofing this name just in case.’
=Just in case?=
‘Y’all said that the chances of things like the creation of Paralust normally have a very low probably of occurring, but the shear amount of times that I’ve rolled those dice only to have it actually happen has gotten me paranoid. I’m like…80% sure I’m going to accidentally create the other seven deadly sins as a para-whatever, or maybe the virtues, so I might as well future proof the naming now and not later.’
‘Probably both to be honest.’
=Milord, Pathos, as much as I hate having to interrupt your comedic routine of verbal jabs, you should probably be aware that your cousins appear to be looking for you for something and are now walking right towards you.=
‘Oh shit, thanks for the notice.’
=You’re welcome.=
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‘So this is where he faffed off to…is he trying to do a repeat performance of the Prospector’s challenge?,’ Jin Fang thought to herself as she found her boyfriend standing and staring at the island complex’s walls like a dog staring at a flower.
She could kind of understand the sentiment due to all of the runes inlaid in it and the materials radiating a faint sense of aether…but there were more important things to attend to and Zhen Liu needed to be grounded in reality for that.
“Xiao Liu?”
“Huh? What? Oh, hey Jin Fang, what’s up?”
“Lady Zhen Yue sent me. One of the Crescent Bears we brought accidentally got something stuck in their teeth and someone’s gotta take it out before it becomes a bigger issue. She request you come to help keep the bear pinned down while she removes the offending object.”
“Pinned down? Not holding down?”
“Young Master Zhen Feng is helping out by sitting on the other claw.”
“Ah…aight.”
It was actually a very short walk to the cage holding the Crescent Bear for the two young lovers, but that didn’t stop them to at least converse and speculate about their estranged family’s island compound.
“So…did you expect your ancestors to have a whole ass island fortress or…,” Jin Fang asked.
“Honestly, it was either this or a castle overlooking a beach cliff,” Zhen Liu replied, “but that’s just speculation based on what I read up on Roaring Tide architecture and factions. Weird fact, this island fortress was apparently established before Willow Scale City was built and the plan was to originally make this island the center, until the builders found the bigger chunk of land a few miles inward. They still decided to name the city after this fortress though, so there’s that.”
“Huh…what’s this island call?,” Jin Fang followed up.
“Blessed Willow Island…I wish I was joking.”
“Wow…”
Despite how silly the name sounded, Blessed Willow Island was actually an accurate name for the place, due to the literal blessed willows trees that grew on the island.
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An excerpt from a history book titled: The Zhen Clan, the willows and the holy weapon..
…
…
Whether it was due to luck or outside forces is unknown, but what is known is that the conditions on the island that the Zhen Clan called home were just right to facilitate the growth of special willow tree aether plants that were filled with just the right amount of Luxari, Omni and Aquarii aether to produce an incredibly rare type of aether known as “celestial aether”.
Celestial aether is a type of aether that is known to be used to enhance the effectiveness of any and all support and healing aether arts, but can also increase the power of specific aether attack arts by at least three times as much…at least that’s what happens when it occurs in someone’s body.
In the case of blessed willow trees though, the celestial aether enhanced the willow tree’s wood in such a way that it causes it to become almost as hard as steel when processed correctly, while also being able to conduct aether and in some rare cases, amplify it, meaning it’s a very popular practice to make weapons and light armor out of the stuff.
Supposedly though, it’s also in the top twenty in regards to materials used to make aether puppets.
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“Apparently those willow trees were a major factor for the early Zhen Clan to secure their power base here in the Pearl Scale Empire, and now they grow them trees in a special greenhouse and not all over the island anymore,” Zhen Liu explained.
“Why would they do that?”
“Partially to cultivate the trees in a more controlled environment, partially to maintain a monopoly on the stuff.”
“Ah…are you sure it’s safe for you to be keeping your hands in the bear’s mouth like that?”
“Safe enough, but my fingers are starting to get sore.”
“I’ll be sure to massage them afterwards.”
“Thank you, darling.”
“Okay, will you two quit flirting?,” Zhen Yue interjected, “it’s already hard enough trying to find something stuck in a bear’s teeth, I don’t need it accompanied by the sounds of romance.”
“Agreed.”
“Stop acting cutesy.”
“Yeah, yeah…”
Immediately after arriving to assist Zhen Yue, it turned out that the Crescent Bear in question refused to open its mouth willingly, despite having something stuck in his teeth.
As such, Zhen Liu was transferred from “arm pinning” duty to “jaw opening” duty.
In order to make sure that the bear’s arm was secure though, Zhen Hai was looped in to help.
There were moments Zhen Liu regretted showing off his freakish strength off to his family…this was one of them.
“I keep telling father not to feed the bears braised meat, but does he listen to me? No…,” Zhen Yue grumbled as she pulled yet another piece of cooked pork from the bear’s teeth, “seriously, this happens every time.”
“Speaking of time, shouldn’t we be inside of the estate’s grounds at this point?,” Zhen Liu interjected, “didn’t that Zhen Wang guy say to meet us here at this time?”
“Zhen Wang is here,” Zhen Hai answered, “the issue is the gate. The elder in charge of it got delayed.”
“Seriously? Aren’t there like guardsmen or something that would normally just let us in regardless of an elder’s presence?”
“Not in our case.”
“Oh yeah…”
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“Must we seriously wait for this Gate Elder to let us in?,” Zhen Yan asked his eldest brother, “we’ve been standing out for a while and those guards on the turrets have been giving me a stink eye.”
“Patience little brother, patience,” Zhen Long replied, “besides, I think they’re more worried about father than us.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Standing at the very front of the Zhen Clan branch delegation, Patriarch Zhen Shi and his sons were standing and waiting for the gates to the estate to open.
Accompanying them was Zhen Wang, the assassin turned contact, who looked surprisingly nonplussed about the lack of a gatekeeper being present. Apparently, he was used to this.
“The Gate Elder is a… bit…flighty on the day-to-day, but when it comes to his job of defending the island he is very dedicated,” Zhen Wang explained.
“Ho there! Who stands at my gate?”
“See what I mean?’
As if to provide justification to Zhen Wang’s statement, the aforementioned Gate Elder finally made an appearance.
Once they confirmed that this was indeed the Gate Elder, Zhen Wang and Patriarch Zhen Shi both proceeded to pull out similar looking medals.
‘Damn I hope this thing is still good,’ Zhen Shi thought to himself as he stared at the medal in his hands.
“Well then…let’s see what happens.”
