Chapter 575: The Zhen Clan Leaders
=[Not now!]=
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*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt your regularly scheduled chapter to do a brief history lesson on the Zhen Clan’s leadership.
While it is not mandatory to enjoy the story, it does provide some context on what follows after.
We now return to your regularly scheduled reading.
*Bing-Bong*
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Since it’s founding, the Zhen Clan of Roaring Tide has had a total of three leaders, each ruling for a little over a century each.
The first was the founder, Zhen Shao, who also established Willow Scale City around the time he had established his clan. Granted, it was known as Willow Scale Town at the time of establishment.
Zhen Shao had managed to reach the vaunted rank of Aether Saint in his lifetime, but he unfortunately died in a physical sense due to one of the many wars the Pearl Scale Empire had participated during its existence. That being said, his spirit is supposedly still lingering in the battlefield in which he fell all those centuries ago, but nobody wants to go near the place due to the aether in that area being a bit…testy. That and the all of the undead monsters running around, empowered the grudge of hundreds of thousands of fallen soldiers and millions of civilians but that is besides the point!
The Zhen Clan had made multiple plans, multiple times, in order to try and retrieve their ancestor’s lost spirit, but they all ended in failure due to the aforementioned undead monsters.
The second leader was Zhen Situ, who was also known as the Great Invigorator.
He would be the man who would go on to turn Willow Scale Town into Willow Scale City as well as establish the Zhen Clan as the premier trainer of would-be heroes, generals and warriors of all makes and cuts throughout the Pearl Scale Empire, through the rare feat of “anchoring” a wandering ruin to the Blessed Willow Manor’s location.
On a side note, unlike his predecessor, Zhen Situ is still alive and well, albeit, he’s ancient as all hell.
That being said, he had made the decision to step down as leader of the Zhen Clan some time ago in order to pursue the path of cultivation more thoroughly.
When he was last checked up on, the man had managed to reach the very limit of the Aether Overlord rank, and just needed one last little push to break through to Saint.
As to whom Zhen Situ left his position for…its kind of hard to describe her well without listing off the titles she had earned during her tenure as the Zhen Clan’s leader, and all of the battles she had participated in.
The Inked Goddess of War.
The Patchwork Demoness of Judgement.
The Painted Warlord of the Blessed Coast.
…
That Crazy Tattooed Bitch…
…
These titles and many more are used to describe the current leader of the Zhen Clan: Zhen Xun Tian.
And while she is only at the peak of the Aether Emperor stage, she has proven herself time and time again as being a force of nature…
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This made for a rather unusual sight, as while the branch clan was composed of men and women and youngsters of varying ages, the person they were bowing to looked no older than a young woman in her early twenties. If anything, this scene depicted people bowing towards a princess or a young lady of high standing…granted, the aforementioned young lady had all manner of tattoos on her body depicting a variety of warriors and monsters, all of which of were moving across her skin.
Of course, none of the branch members noticed this little quirk…except for one.
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If one were to observe her tattoos at this time, they would notice the ones around her eyes starting to move and glow ever so slightly.
As the branch clan members kept their heads bowed and hands folded, the leader of the Zhen Clan decided to walk up to their bowed forms in order to get a better look at them…at least that’s what she told the elders protesting.
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(Un)surprisingly, the branch clan reacted rather poorly to these comments…well…they would’ve anyways.
In the face of someone like Zhen Xun Tian, they had no choice but to keep their heads low and their voices quiet. That being said, they were still agitated by the comments and Zhen Xun Tian picked up on this.
A smile formed on her face as she picked up this sentiment, pleased that her obvious provocation worked.
‘Well, good to know they’re willing to stick up for their family…,’ Zhen Xun Tian mentally noted as she looked over the group.
In terms of spirit, she was rather pleased with what she saw.
Even though they could clearly tell they were outmatched, they were still willing to go down swinging if it meant protecting their honor as family.
It was a good thing they had this going for them, since in terms of raw aether power they were rather…lacking.
Aside from the three notable Aether Grandmasters among them, the other four sons of Zhen Shi were merely Aether Masters of varying degrees of strength. While she could sense there was some level of potential to them still, she could feel it was stunted due to an obvious lack of cultivation resources and formulas that weren’t completely compatible.
‘Then again…it is rather impressive that they’ve managed to get this far despite their lack of resources out their in the frontier,’ Zhen Xun Tian thought to herself as she looked over Zhen Shi’s sons one last time before moving on to the grandchildren.
It was here that Zhen Xun Tian became marginally more impressed.
If only slightly.
The leader of the Zhen Clan proceeded to stare at the scions of the Zhen Clan,
‘Oh my! A pair of Aether Masters this young? With formulas this compatible? Marvelous! Magnificent!, These two will have a bright future indeed!,’ Zhen Xun Tian noted to herself with excitement.
As the proud leader of the Zhen Clan, it brought Zhen Xun Tian a lot of joy seeing young warriors brimming with unrealized talent and potential that could be used to reach heights both imaginable and unimaginable.
In fact, as she looked over the rest of the younger generation of this “branch” clan, she could tell that the lot of them were brimming with potential, but were simply limited by the lack of proper guidance and resources. But unlike their fathers, they weren’t stunted…yet.
‘With the proper training, they can probably be turned into warriors that could shake up…huh?’
Zhen Xun Tian had been walking and observing each of the scions individually, keeping notes about the type and quality of aether they were releasing, as well as any emotional notes that were mixed in.
For example, the oldest scion gave off an aether aura that was clearly of Aether Master quality, a mix of Aquarii and lightning with heavier lean on the Aquarii side, and just a hint of pure heroic recklessness. In essence, he’d be right at home with the other hot-heads of the clan.
But when Zhen Xuan Tian came upon this one scion, this young man standing in the back of the group with presumably the youngest of Zhen Shi’s sons, and clearly the only one among the family to be of mixed heritages…she was stumped.
‘What the fuck am I sensing?’
The thing that stumped her was the fact that this boy was clearly the strongest amongst his peers, she could sense the Grandmaster aura coming off of him.
But such a thing shouldn’t be possible, since she couldn’t detect any flow of aether throughout his body.
In fact, she could sense that the boy had no channels.
‘How the fuck did you…hold up…’
The longer she stared at the bowing boy, the more her senses picked up something…strangely familiar.
‘I know this aura…’
