NOVEL NEXT 233. Talks With Richard Pt. 1 (Book Four)
Eventually, after roughly two more weeks of daily strikes of cataclysmic lightning, it ended. The mermaid Immortal showed herself once more and informed me that Lidaz would soon complete his breakthrough. The hard parts were gone, and all danger was now behind him. The only thing he had left to do was consolidate his gains and officially step into the Immortal Realm, all of which should take no more than a day.
She was right. Not even a day later, I could feel it from here, a presence so heavy, so mighty, that it almost forced me to my knees. It spread around the planet for the briefest of seconds before vanishing like a tide receding back into the ocean.
There was no doubt in my mind that it was Lidaz. For just a moment, he allowed his presence to bear down on the planet. Of course, the mermaid Immortal had input regarding that as well.
"That is to be expected. It will likely take him quite some time to not only understand his new realm but to get his powers and newfound strength under control.
"Though it is impressive that it only took him a few seconds to rein in his presence, it sometimes takes others weeks, maybe months, before they are able to forcibly bring their own presence under control so that they do not disturb others.
"Of course, this is not even about protecting the weak but more so about hiding oneself and not offending someone else. For there is no weaker Immortal than the Immortal who just became one."
"Oh, he is on his way here."
I could not feel whatever it was that she sensed at the moment, but I took her word for it. Only a couple of seconds later, I could sense him. In fact, it is probably inaccurate to say that I sensed Lidaz. I simply felt a blur of Qi rapidly approaching before a man practically crashed down in front of me, a small crater forming where he landed.
In that crater was a man on his knees.
"I humbly greet the Patriarch, and I apologize for my earlier infraction."
He looked mostly the same as before, except now there was a subtle air of superiority that coated his features. Prior to him, all the Immortals I had met were already Immortals when I met them.
Lidaz was the first person I had known before he became one. Although his appearance did not change much, everything around him felt starkly different. Perhaps it was because he was still trying to figure out how to keep it all under control, but it truly felt oppressive. And I suppose he was apologizing for that earlier moment when his presence spread across the planet.
"There is no need to apologize for that, Lidaz. I am just proud that you were able to advance and become an Immortal. Good job, and hopefully I will follow you soon. Though there are quite a few things you have missed. Spend some time catching up with your fellow clan members, then come find me when you are done."
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"Yes, my Patriarch. It will be done."
And with that, he went off to do as I asked, which meant the countdown to leaving Earth had officially begun. There was not much else stopping us from departing. The mermaid Immortal was still around, so I relayed that to her. It would be a matter of days, perhaps weeks, before we were ready to leave. She acknowledged that and then disappeared.
I also told my fellow Planetary Lord that she could now prepare to join us in the coming days, giving her time to get anything she needed in order before we had to leave. In the meantime, I went and found Richard. I had already spoken to him since this all began, but it was mainly to let him know of my intentions to leave and to make him the City Lord of Black Cove City.
It was not much of a talk. It was not the right time. Well, that is not true, there was time, I just was not in the right frame of mind to sit down and have a talk with Richard about anything other than work related matters, which is what him becoming the City Lord was.
I did not want to have this conversation within the confines of an office. It did not feel right for that, so I invited him on a little journey. Nowhere too far. We simply traveled to a location in the middle of our continent where I once saw a herd of horses galloping and grazing across wide open plains. It felt more fitting.
Richard was surprisingly still in the Qi Refinement realm and was not able to keep up with me. I was not going to sit there and wait for him, so I quite literally picked him up and bolted toward the location I had in mind, letting him down softly on the ground before plopping down next to him myself. Of course, there was nothing wrong with him, but he still had a complaint.
"You know, you could give a man a warning before you pick him up and fly away. I am getting too old for this."
"Well, if you had advanced to Core Formation when you were supposed to, I would not have had to pick you up."
"Not everyone is obsessed with cultivation like you are, Raizen. Some of us are a bit more focused on life. I have children now. I do not have time to manage a city, be a husband and a father, while cultivating day in and day out without reason.
"Getting stronger was once a necessity, but that is no longer the case. There are plenty of people within the city who are stronger than me and have managed to reach Core Formation. Even among the Planetary Force you created, there are plenty of Core Formation cultivators.
"Me reaching the same level does nothing for me, at least not yet. I have not stopped my cultivation journey, but I am not so hungry to pursue it in light of other things. And if you were to walk the streets of your city or any other city on this planet, you would realize that for the majority of the people here, that is the case now.
"That is something you helped to achieve, Raizen. You brought safety and stability to the planet. You brought jobs, money, and connections to the multiverse. You have given us things to not only live for but to strive for and work toward.
"People will never be able to live their lives the way they once did before this began, but people can live a life of normalcy once again, or relative normalcy. People can get jobs, earn a respectable paycheck, pay their bills, which are not much, and start families. They can even take vacations. Because of the Council you created and our ability to travel through portals between every city, we can see Earth like we never could before.
"There are at least two resort like locations on Earth right now, and there are plenty of talks within the Council to build more. That is what you have brought to Earth after the Tutorial, Raizen, a world where not every single soul has to cultivate with their life on the line just to survive until the next day. That is what we have, and I will do my best to make sure it is maintained, at least in Black Cove City."
…
"Hm….well, I suppose that is one way to look at it."