Back in the Barren Settlement, Soho, Sander and two other Stream Realm cultivators were keeping watch from the four cardinal points of the village.
One Stream Realm cultivator was left below the settlement in order to watch over the rest of the Clanspeople.
Soho's son, Alexander, was fuming at this moment.
"Arrrgh!! How could that stupid slave steal my moment?!" he lamented to his mother and brother.
"My dear boy your moment is yet to come." soothed his mother, Serena. "Becoming Clan Chief is merely a step on the ladder for you." she said, almost fanatically.
She was a peculiar woman. Incredibly strong within the few Lake Realm cultivators and very distinctive in the way she treated people. Anyone close to her could expect her unconditional support and attention. Anyone else was given the coldest shoulder and the most intrepid indifference.
As a mother, she was doting to her sons equally in general, but generously rewarded accomplishments. The two brothers, Alexander and Adam, seemed to have been blessed with the same talent as their father.
In fact, it seemed like Alexander's was even higher.
Soho and Adam had both reached the Puddle Realm by the age of eight. Alexander had reached it before turning seven. Soho had only been 25 years old when he reached the powerful Lake Realm. At age 18, Alexander had just broken through.
As far as the Clanmembers knew, this was a world record.
That was also another reason why nobody in the settlement had voiced their objections to the breach of the ancient decree. They hated to admit it, but they could understand it.
"I hate that the ceremony was interrupted" confessed Alexander. "I can't help but feel like we're never gonna resume it..." he couldn't help but say.
"Of course we'll resume it honey" consoled his mother.
"Yeah right!" interjected Adam. "I bet you're relieved you're not gonna be the Clan Chief. Everyone knows you're scared." he said to push his older brother's buttons.
The provocations succeeded as Alexander didn't answer with words but with an attack. If it wasn't for Serena's quick action, the young Adam could have been injured.
As the family interacted in a way that wasn't different from their usual, the land where Raider had originally disappeared from started trembling ever so slightly.
It was subtle at first, such that only an expert in the vicinity could've noticed. In seconds though, the trembling escalated to a powerful tremor until a figure burst out of the ground with a tremendous gust of wind.
Even after the figure emerged the wind kept sweeping the area. It kept the body afloat, about ten meters above the already regenerated ground.
It was as if no one had ever entered or come out from the abyss, except there was now a floating person surrounded by massive gusts of wind above the barren land.
Naturally, this was Raider using the power of the left radius he had picked up from Master Bones' skeleton.
He felt like a new man, smelling the fresh outside air, feeling the wind against his face, the chill of the night on his skin. He took a look around himself and admired the view from this new vantage point.
He could see the Barren Settlement, about a kilometre in the distance where Soho and the Stream Realm cultivators had yet to detect any anomaly.
The bone in his hand was vibrating with power and... excitement. Raider could clearly feel the bone longing to go towards the settlement. However what it wanted to do there exactly, Raider had no idea.
Just as Raider made up his mind to go towards the settlement, a gust of wind evelopped him like a cloak and carried him in that direction.
In an instant he was outside the protective formation.
The wind was blowing against the shield formed of natural energies, causing it to become visible under the stress.
Raider obeserved this as he was being carried by the wind. He was aware of the formation's existence but had never seen it actually take physical form. This gave him an idea of how powerful the wind he was now wielding was.
This idea was shattered as the wind tore through the magical barrier in just a few seconds.
There was no flashy light or loud sound, the wind just pierced through the barrier and destroyed it thoroughly.
Soho and the other three cultivators standing guard only realised what happened after it already had. They couldn't even pinpoint the point of origin of the formation's collapse.
They could ,however, feel the tremendous wind blowing against them, and by turning to look in that direction, they could make out an indistinct figure floating among scary looking gusts of wind.
The three Stream Realm cultivators weren't able to discern any details about the figure, but Clan Chief Soho being a full two realms above them, in the Sea Realm, was barely able to see through the wind enough to have a slight doubt about the identity of the figure.
He just couldn't possibly fathom such an answer.
"Show yourself" commanded Soho, using his cultivation to increase the volume of his voice.
In the past, such a sound would've instantly killed Raider. Today, the wind cloaked around him formed a soundproof screen preventing the sound from reaching him. He couldn't even hear what Clan Chief Soho had said.
Raider simply observed the clearly empty village below them and the fighting formation the four cultivators adopted while facing him.
He might've been an uneducated slave before, but he had still spent his entire life in the Barren Settlement and knew quite a bit about the Clanmembers' culture, cultivation methods and fighting techniques even though he could never partake in any of them.
He could naturally see that the people in front of him viewed him as hostile.
It was at this point he realised he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. He had not thought things through.
He remained silent and motionless, afraid that a sudden move or thought might provoke a powerful gust of wind and accidentally start a fight.
Contrary to his intentions, his silence only served to intimidate the four cultivators. The three Stream Realm cultivators were even sweating from nervousness.
"I said show yourself!!" boomed Soho with even more power than before.
Even the three on his side felt pain from the pressure of his voice.
Raider, on the other hand, still heard nothing. He could see that the Clan Chief was saying something but couldn't hear what it was.
After half a breath of time, Clan Chief Soho shot a meaningful look at Sander who in turn exchanged looks with the other two Stream Realm cultivators.
An instant later, the three of them flew out from behind Soho simultaneously and in coordinated trajectories. As they moved, they performed hand gestures in sync and each shot a large beam of water towards the wind-cloaked figure.
Before Raider could even react, the three beams of water slammed into what seemed to be a wall of wind. The water was scattered into mist which shrouded Raider in even more mystery.
Without even waiting to see the outcome of their attacks, the three cultivators continued to perform hand gestures in sync with one another and ended their movements by each pointing towards the other two.
A vortex of water formed in their centre and very quickly expanded to dozens of meters in diameter before almost instantly shrinking down and shooting towards Raider as a single water bullet.
The power it carried was immense, more than any single Stream Realm cultivator could take and it arrived before Raider in the blink of an eye.
However, before it could even hit the wall of wind, the force of the gusts around Raider more than doubled and stopped the bullet in its tracks. The water quickly dissipated into mist under the shocked and despaired looks of the three Stream Realm cultivators.
Even Clan Chief Soho couldn't hide his astonishment.
After dissipating the two attacks, Raider felt ever more conscious of the power he now possessed. He knew full well what Stream Realm cultivators represented in their village. They were second only to the Clan Chief.
Yet he was now able to just watch as the wind he wielded easily rendered useless the attacks of not one but three Stream Realm cultivators. Even their combined power seemed small in front of the screaming gusts of wind.
At this point, Raider felt conflicted. On the one hand, starting a fight was not his intention. On the other, finally being able to stand up to the Clanmembers for the first time in his life - and the most powerful cultivators within the Clan on top of that - made him feel something he had never felt before.
Freedom.
He felt incredibly free.
He knew escalading the fight would not do any good but he didn't really want it to stop yet.
The Clanspeople below ground had no idea of what was going on. Most were gathered in groups of friends and or relatives and talked in hushed voices amongst themselves.
Some were convinced nothing was happening, others were afraid. The only exception was Alexander, Adam and Serena. They were still talking about the ceremony, arguing, consoling, absorbed in their own little bubble.
It felt like they were isolated from the collective spirit floating in the protected area.
The Stream Realm cultivator keeping watch over them was the one named Gregor.
Gregor was neither man nor woman. They were one of the most recent recruits into the Clan and had been banished from their home for not conforming to one of the binary genders.
The Clan had welcomed Gregor and they were now the most powerful cultivator in the settlement other than Soho.
They had always been an outsider, observing others from a distance but not being able to take part.
At this moment, Gregor was sitting in the middle of the underground area and watching over their people. They could see the disunity between the Clanspeople and their leaders and couldn't help but wonder what would happen if a powerful cultivator had truly come.
Gregor adored the Clan. They loved the settlement. They had never been accepted anywhere like they had been here. But as time passed, the darkness of the Clan slowly seeped past the halo of first impressions.
The most apparent exemple of all being Raider, the slave.
Gregor had started growing conflicted about the Clan but couldn't bring themselves to do anything about it.
Above ground, the four cultivators were growing restless. The figure still hadn't uttered a single word and nothing they had tried so far, be it intimidation or actual attacks, had worked.
Raider on the other hand had finally found the resolve to speak up, only to realise the soundproofing of the wind went both ways. He had no idea how to control his power yet and couldn't make himself heard.
After a few breaths of standstill, Soho gritted his teeth and pointed in the air above him.
Suddenly, the mist around Raider left behind by the previous attacks churned and gathered in a vortex above Soho's finger.
The three Stream Realm cultivators could feel the moisture for hundreds of meters around being pulled toward this single pointed finger.
This was one of their Clan Chief's most powerful attacks.
A full breath of time passed and the body of water above Clan Chief Soho had become immeasurably large. One couldn't see from one end to the other.
It was like a sea was floating above the Barren Settlement, only, the settlement seemed like an ant compared to it.
It was fortunate that the Barren Settlment was truly remote. Otherwise, even if nobody knew of their existence and location before, someone would've definitely noticed the giant sea floating in the sky.
All of a sudden, Soho opened his hand and clenched.
The entirety of the floating sea contracted in the blink of an eye and entered Soho's clenched hand.
His fist started glowing with a bright azure light and visibly carried the full weight of the sea in it.
Soho roared and shot forward towards the gusts of wind.
He wasn't fast but carried incredible momentum. The air and wind seemed to make way for him like for a king.
Raider saw this and panicked. He reflexively waved the bone in his hand in front of him as he closed his eyes.
He heard the shrill of the wind and nothing else.
There was no explosion, so scream, no shockwave.
Just wind.
...
...
...
Raider opened his eyes slowly and what he saw left him terrified of his newfound power.
Gusts of wind were still surrounding him and maintaining him afloat and that was a good thing because the ground below him had been ravaged by the wind leaving no place to stand.
A good tenth of the settlement had been razed to the ground in a straight line. As far as Raider could tell, nothing but gashes into the rocky canyon remained. One could see a formation spanning underground, probably protecting the underground hiding place.
The three Stream Realm cultivators had been blown away from the settlement and were lying on the ground hundreds of meters away in three different directions.
Soho was still in the air about ten meters away from the wind-clad Raider, uninjured. Nobody but him knew if he had been pushed back or if he had jumped back himself.
It had taken Raider a single attack to cow those four cultivators who just earlier this day towered way above his reach.
However it didn't feel like this was the same day to Raider. He felt like he had been reborn. He was living a new life. Everything from before was like memories of a past life.
The one to break the silence was Soho.
"Thank you for sparing me.", he said blandly.
"Raider..", he added tentatively.
At this moment Raider really wished he could land and dispel the gusts of wind so he could have a discussion with the Clan Chief, and this was exactly what happened.
The wind gradually receded as Raider was gently dropped at the origin point of the destruction on the ground, where the ground was still stable.
"Clan Chief.."
"I didn't mean to destroy the village...", Raider said after a short pause.
"So you ran into quite a bit of power, huh" said Soho as he landed next to Raider and turned his head towards the gashes in the ground.
"I did," said Raider as he clenched the bone in his hand a little "and I'm not giving it away.", he declared as a not so soft breeze blew by almost in response to the words.
"Cool down no one's talking about that yet." said Soho with a chuckle.
"We're not talking about it ever." said Raider with a pout as the breeze blowing by started circling around them and getting colder.
"Do you intend to take over the village now that you have this power? Know that it won't be easy for an inexperienced brat like you to beat me into submission.", threatened Soho domineeringly and releasing some of his cultivation base power.
They stared at each other for a while.
The breeze and the cold covering them seemed to suppress the pressure coming from Soho such that Raider wasn't feeling any of it. Soho was gradually increasing his power output but Raider simply felt nothing but the chill wind.
"Who needs to cool down now? Jeez." replied Raider forgetting about etiquette at this moment.
"You're so power hungry! I could literally obliterate you all right now for treating me so badly for my whole life but all you care about is whether I want to rule the village in your place?" Raider blurted, finally letting out 12 years of steam.
He was preparing to say more when Soho cut him off.
"Treated you badly? We gave you water, food and shelter. We kept you alive even though you can't cultivate. We gave you things to do in a world where there was nothing you could do."
"Keeping me alive as a slave is what you did!" interrupted Raider this time.
"You've kept me here for twelve years as a slave when you don't even need one! I have half a mind to destroy this entire place right now, I'm sure I could do it!" Raider roared as the wind around him picked up.
Soho panicked a little bit and was ready to jump to action at any time.
"But I don't wanna hurt anyone.." Raider continued in a calmer tone as the chilly wind toned down as well. " You have kept me alive for twelve years after all, and some people in the Settlement are actually nice to me. I'm not gonna destroy the whole place that's for sure."
"But I'm not going back to being a slave!"
"So what do you want?" asked Clan Chief Soho curiously.
Raider might not have known how to answer earlier but now he did.
"To be free. I want to be free."
"To be free huh?" repeated Soho. "We can surely arrange that, but we can't really let you leave the village since you'll give away our position."
"I thought Clan members went out on trading missions and stuff, I want to do that, I want to travel." Raider announced.
Soho kept silent so Raider continued.
"I won't tell anyone about the Settlement and I promise I'll come back. You can send someone with me to make sure."
"Fine." relented Soho. "Who do you want coming with you and when do you want to go?"
"Who found me and brought me to the settlement? I want that person. And they can bring one more person they want."
"That's Gregor. They should be happy to do that." smiled Soho. He was happy to have the only person who could come close to him in term of fighting prowess sent away on a trip, the sooner the better. "And when do you wish to go?"
"I want to go now, as soon as possible."
"Very well" smiled Soho, "Sanders, informe Gregor they are to select an attendant and escort Raider wherever he wants to go immediately"
"Yes Sir" replied Sanders as he rushed to the underground hideaway.
It didn't take long for Gregor and a teenager to arrive at the spot where Raider and Soho were waiting.
Soho said a single sentence to Gregor, repeating his instruction to escort Raider wherever he wanted and withdrew to the underground with the other two Stream Realm cultivators.
"So, Young Master Raider.." said Gregor amicably, turning their head and smiling, "where to?"