Sovereign of the Karmic System

The city had become so big, that many powerful individuals had decided to move in, and work as a secondary protective barrier for the entire city. The reason for them to do this, was simple and yet important.

To be rich and feared in the cultivation world was not something hard to achieve. If a cultivator managed to survive long enough to become more powerful than most other people, they would eventually get to experience that type of feeling. While an aspiration of many cultivators, this way of thinking had created an effect that, with time, would ultimately destroy everything that others had built.

That destructive event, were spoiled children.

In the millions of years of civilization, nothing had destroyed legacies as efficiently as unruly offspring had. Grown without present parents, these children would ultimately become comfortable with the idea of living an easy life granted by their rich and powerful families. This idea would turn into a sense of superiority that, most of the times, would lead them to poverty, or death.

The love for one’s child was not different between humans and cultivators. However, just like a worker who could not afford to abandon their place of work without taking a step back in their career, these cultivators were forced to ignore their children for the sake of their cultivation, and hope that their morale would lead them to the right path even without their parental support.

Grown comfortable with these ideas, the world of cultivation had abandoned any form of teachings of morale and camaraderie. Schools had turned into places where one could learn about the nature of cultivation, and Academies had turned into places where one would become familiar with the many types of mana, weapons, and types of cultivation.

This situation had spread through the entire cultivation world, and the only reason why it hadn’t devoured humanity, was due to the extremely long lifespan of the wisest and more powerful individuals.

What suffered due to this, were the families of cultivators whose destruction was caused by a spoiled child who had lashed off on the wrong person. The most lucky, would be able to find a good teacher that would instill some good sense into their children, but as the one generation after the other went by, these rich kids would lose the will to cultivate, and put an end to their family’s bloodline by dying at a young age.

All of that, however, had changed very recently. A few months earlier, a small group of people had appeared out of nowhere within Cato. Their first objective had been to start a business by selling essence spheres, but due to how saturated this rich planet’s market was, they had failed miserably. When this group of individuals appeared to be on the brink of bankruptcy, something had happened inside of one of the marketplaces of one of Cato’s major cities.

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Seven months earlier.

"I have heard that we are almost out of treasures to turn into spheres and sell, and that sooner or later, the academy will be left without funds." Said a young woman in her late teens from behind a group of five others.

After this young woman finished speaking, an extremely good looking young man long black hair, and that was walking in front of her, responded by saying, "This is why we are here. We will find someone to make a deal with, and help the academy out."

"If Master Kye finds out that we have left, we are done." Said the young girl with worry before turning to look at another girl, who was walking just ahead of her, and asking, "What do you say, Cynna?"

Without even stopping, Cynna responded by saying, "You have heard Finn.. Keep an eye out for small merchants."

After reaching Cato, what was left of Daniel’s group had struggled to get a footing into the already flourishing market. Groups with their level of resources were not rare in the core of the government’s commerce, and their promises could not match the weight of the names of their competitors. So, they were forced to lower their prices just to obtain enough resources to keep cultivating.

Forced to live noticing the worry in the faces of their teachers, the young students of Daniel’s academy had decided to take it upon themselves to help the financial situation of the group by looking for opportunities. The ones who lead this small group of students were Cynna, and Finn, one of Master Kye’s first students after his retirement. The rest of the group was composed by Fyro, the red-headed grandson of the master of the Scorching Anvil, Der’s daughter Mea, the quiet Riri, and the person who was complaining until now, her sister Miri..

They had spent the last couple of years learning everything they could from the vast knowledge contained within Daniel’s pocket dimension, and now that the academy was in danger, they had decided to lend a hand.

Unfortunately, for how good their intentions were, they were unsuccessful.

After a whole day spent searching, the members of the group had found themselves sitting on the benches of a large square, dispirited and tired. Their propositions had been refused immediately, and it did not seem like the merchants even cared about the lower costs or the quicker timings. Some of their unfruitful conversation, had given them the idea that, perhaps in Cato, the reputation of a company was more valued than the product they sold.

"Nothing. We’ve got refused by ninety merchants with just a hundred words. This is ridiculous." Said Miri, clearly annoyed by the situation. However, her words fell on deaf ears, as anything that was going through her mind was also going through theirs as well.

What got them out of their state of disappointment and worry, were the loud voice of a young woman surrounded by three young men. These three young men were extremely well dressed, while the girl was in simple clothes, and appeared to be a simple worker of one of the nearby stands.

The three were not acting aggressively, but backing the girl against the wall had made her nervous, reason why she had started to speak louder. She was clearly annoyed by the attention she was receiving, and not being able to walk away was making her more mad by the second.

"Why are you yelling?? I have just asked you to come and have a drink with me!" Said the young man who appeared to be in the lead of this little group.

"I have already told you! I am working, stop bothering me!" Said the girl before trying to push through. However, the two young men that were standing next to them were too close, and the girl ended up tripping over one of their feet, falling on the ground.

When she fell on the ground, instead of landing on solid rock, the surface underneath her turned into a soft layer of fertile ground and long blades of grass, which softened her landing. Right after, a hand approached the girl’s accompanied by a young man’s voice which said, "Everything alright?"

The girl, clearly embarrassed from the fall, immediately grabbed the hand, and let herself be pulled back on her feet. It was only once she was back in a standing position that she noticed the good looking young man that had helped her up.

Finn’s attractive features left the girl unable to formulate a proper sentence, who instead mumbled some thanking words.

This reaction had been instinctive for Finn who, uncaring about the effect that his appearance had on other people, had simply gotten used to giving a helping hand ever since the brief time he had spent in Daniel’s presence. This way of life fit him very well, as he was willing and happy to help whenever he could.

"What the hell do you think you are doing? How dare you touch my girl?!" Said the leader of the trio of young men in anger. From his words, it sounded like the girl was his property, and that even helping her out, was an insult to him.

Finn ignored the love struck looks of the young girl or Miri’s annoyed expression, and instead turned to look back at this young man, and said, "You were too slow in helping your girl, so I did it. Maybe you can reflect on your mistakes."

In the middle of the crowd, just a few meters away from the commotion, a middle aged couple was quietly browsing through the wares of a shop that sold essence gems, when the husband turned his head in the direction from where the loud noises came from, and said, "He is causing trouble again.. That damn idiot. If he gets into trouble, I’m not helping him this time."

The woman was clearly worried about the man’s words, and she showed it by turning to look at him, and asking, "Is he in any danger?"

"No. The kid he is bothering is at a lower level of cultivation.. I really hope he has a stronger brother or something. Maybe he could scare that idiot into behaving properly once or twice."

Visibly annoyed by her husband’s words, she responded by saying, "Can you stop that? I hate when you treat your son like a bother. Don’t you think he realizes that as well?"

"I just want him to be a decent human being.. At this pace, when we will be gone, he will follow us the day after." Responded the husband before turning to look back at a lightning gem, and saying, "Take this one, lightning is the essence he has the highest affinity with."

What this man hadn’t noticed, was that along with the young man that his son was bothering, there was another group of young cultivators. If he could have seen them instead of simply feeling their presence from afar, he would have been able to notice the similar attires, and guess that they belonged to the same group.

Regardless, help was not required, as moments after helping the girl up, the angered group of three decided to give a lesson to Finn, only to end up lying on the ground with no injuries. Finn was holding his still sheathed sabre, whose tip he had used to knock down the three of them. His reaction had been instantaneous, and came with the full extent of his power. However, there was no killing intent behind his attacks, as he had no intention of killing.

If the three young men had decided to not underestimate Finn, and attack at full force, there would have been no way for him to achieve what he had just done. Now, Finn was standing in front of the three, who were currently holding the hit parts of their bodies, and screaming in pain.

"You b-bastard.. Do you even know who I am?" Said the leader of this small group before shouting "DAD!"

The call was immediately answered by his father, who appeared at the edge of the observing ground before anyone could even notice he was there.

"Dad, that bastard! He struck my ass with the tip of his sword!" Shouted the young man in indignation. He was clearly embarrassed by the whole event, but he was too angry to care.

The observing crowd knew who these people were, so they turned to look at the young man’s father, and expected for him to get his son out of trouble like he was used to, but instead of doing that, the man looked at Cynna, Fyro, Miri, Riri, and Mea. He then turned to look at Finn, and asked, "Why didn’t you unsheathe your weapon?"

Finn did not need to think about an answer, and instead recited a mantra almost by memory, "Stick to a moderate reaction, or expect excessive consequences."

"Wise. Did your father teach you that?" Asked the man after showing a faint smirk.

Finn’s father had actually taught him a similar notion when he was a kid, but in a literal sense, he could not give credit to him. So he decided to tell the truth by saying, "It’s the first thing we were taught in the academy."

The visible spark of interest inside them man’s eyes was lit brighter than ever, but for him to be convinced, he needed more. So he asked "Is that all?"

"I don’t want to cause trouble for my teachers." Responded Finn, slightly confused about why this man was asking him these questions. This confusion, however, only became bigger as the grin on the man’s face became larger and larger. He then approached him, and after putting an arm around his neck, he said, "Tell me more about this academy.."

Similar thoughts went through the mind of numerous other cultivators within the crowd.