Chapter 569: Under the Gatekeeper’s gaze
‘So this is gate-keeping Santa Clause looking motherfucker is the reason why the zakos got iced last night?’
=Judging from the last known records of the zakos, that is indeed him.=
‘I see…hold up, isn’t he supposed to have some freaky cat-like aether puppet on him?’
‘Ah…interesting…’
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“Wait a minute, that thing I’ve seen father flipping out of boredom sometimes is some important identity medal for these guys?,” Zhen Jin asked his brothers.
All six of them gave their fourth brother a look that simply said one simple answer: “apparently”.
As Zhen Wang and Zhen Shi presented their medals to the Gate Elder, the bushy-bearded fellow proceeded to examine the medal of the latter with a critical eye.
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The Gate Elder proceeded to leap from his perch above the Zhen Clan gate and land in front of Zhen Shi with a surprising amount of control that seemed to oppose his physical build. Nary a dust cloud or debris was kicked up by the Gate Elder’s landing.
The elders of the branch clan couldn’t help but almost move into action the moment the Gate Elder landed in front of their father, but before they could even say anything, an intense pressure began to emanate from the Gate Elder.
A special kind of pressure that seemed to compel them to take at least several steps back out of a mixture of fear and respect.
The Gate Elder loomed over Zhen Shi with a critical eye, in the same manner a guard would have when a troublesome student finally returns to the academy.
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Zhen Shi had grimace/smirk on his face as he heard the Gate Elder’s comments.
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‘Alright, what’s the deal with those medals? I’ve never seen one of those before?’
=Do you recall how in your old world you had those plastic identification cards? The ones you had to replace the photo every few months or so?=
‘Yeah…’
=So no, you can’t steal someone else’s medal in order to sneak into someplace you shouldn’t be allowed in.=
‘Well there goes that plan…why do I feel like someone is staring at me?’
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Zhen Bao looked amused at Zhen Shi’s answer, that and the fact that the man was still able to stand up straight up.
‘So this is the man who eloped with the princess all those years ago, huh? The fact that he is still able to maintain such a rigid spine despite me using one of my favorite arts…good.’
As the Gate Elder of the Blessed Willow Manor, Zhen Bao learned many ways to subdue invaders and would-be visitors alike, all while maintaining a positively neutral expression throughout the whole process.
‘But now the question remains, how do your descendants measure up?’
One of his favorite methods was to make use of a minor Ethereal-grade aether art known as [Pressure Repellant].
This particular aether art allowed the user to generate a field of intense pressure around themselves, with its output being proportional to the quality of aether provided. In other words, the field effectively repels, or straight up crushes, anyone who is weaker than the user, with how far a person standing from the user determining how strong they are in comparison. The bigger the rank gap, the further the “comfortable spot” is.
It should be noted that this art isn’t used often in battle due to how slow it is to actually start up and the need to channel aether into the field for its entire duration. However, in a domestic gatekeeper situation like what Zhen Bao deals with on the regular, it was a godsend.
Not only did it allow him to keep people away from the gate and sometimes outright crush them, but it also gave him time to sweep his senses through them to see just how powerful they really were.
‘Huh…despite those three definitely being a higher rank than the other four, they all seem to be standing together…I guess despite being this old they still have potential? How interesting.’
When Zhen Bao first laid eyes on Zhen Shi’s seven sons, he could already tell that only three of them had managed to breakthrough to the Aether Grandmaster rank, but only recently at that, with the other four being fourth to fifth ringed Aether Masters. He had honestly expected to see a notable, physical, gap between the two groups.
However, much to his surprise, the brothers did not separate from each other, but it didn’t look as if they were holding each other up either. Instead, it appeared as if all seven of them were standing up against Zhen Bao’s pressure based on their own individual abilities.
Zhen Bao was impressed by the sight, if only barely.
‘Despite being born in such a resource poor environment, they grew up to be surprisingly powerful warriors with latent potential to boot. I wonder if they just need a good medicine or a trip through a high tier wandering ruin? Maybe both…hmm, I wonder how their children measure up…’
Having measured the worth of Zhen Shi’s children, Zhen Bao proceeded to sweep his senses towards the grandchildren to see if they were to be future pillars or horrible disappointments.
From what he saw so far…it was mixed.
‘Hmmm. The ones that appear to be the eldest grandson and granddaughter have the most talent, comparable to our low to mid-level elites…bright futures in their hometown, but not so much here,’ Zhen Bao observed.
‘The rest of them seem to be progressing like normal too, if nothing happens, they’ll probably end up being stuck at the Aether Master stage or Grandmaster stage for the rest of their…hold up, what now?’
As Zhen Bao swept his senses through the more “ordinary” scions of this branch clan, he couldn’t help but to notice one person that seemed to stick out, and not just physically.
Amongst the younger generation of the Zhen Clan branch, Zhen Liu stood out at being the only one there who had a mother without any Roaring Tide ancestry, pure Stampeding Bison. In laymen terms, Zhen Liu was mixed race…but that wasn’t why Zhen Bao was shocked.
‘What the fuck am I sensing? This is not the aura an Aether Master should have!’
The longer Zhen Bao kept his senses locked on Zhen Liu, the more and more wrong everything felt.
He initially felt that the man had the power of an Aether Master, but that it was of lesser quality than that of his more talented cousins.
However, upon closer inspection, he felt the quality was somehow…fluctuating.
One moment, it was weak yet abundant.
The next, it was strong yet miniscule.
And sometimes, it was everywhere in-between.
Odder still, it felt as if he wasn’t detecting one source of aether coming off of him, but several different types coming off of him at once.
Zhen Bao was so flabbergasted by the presence of such weird energy, that he almost fail to notice one very obvious exception about the boy.
The man didn’t look to be the slightest bit phased by his [Pressure Repellent].
‘Hold up, does that mean this kid is…no fucking way!,’ Zhen Bao cursed, albeit mentally.
The only logical explanation that this kid was able to resist his aether art was that he was at least several times stronger than himself!
But that’s impossible…isn’t it?
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‘Nah, I think he’s already freaking out over the fact that I’m resisting this shit…who knew covering my skin in a layer of [Chaos] would help me not develop early scoliosis…’
