Chapter 18

Turning four

Sai spent the next day working on moving the river closer to his house. He completed nearly sixty steps that day. He continued along this course of action until he was confident that he had moved the river over exactly one kilometer. This had taken nearly three months with Sai not working every day on it.

Sai had also begun really working on his house. After he had finished with the river, he had alai finished making a spare bedroom. He had only given the reason of “just in case” to his parents when they had asked about it. Sai had also reached the eighth level of the elementary realm at this time, on par with his expectations. He had expected to reach the ninth level in about six more months. The biggest change Sai had was his strength had more than doubled. He was almost at the sixth elementary level of martial cultivation. He had joked many times that he would be the strongest person his parents had ever seen.

Over four months had passed living in their new home. Sai was very proud of it. He had recently begun to solidify the earth that formed it into rock as well as use animal pelts as carpet. His parents weren't happy about it at first, but Sai had tired then together with leather strips and the deed was already done. He had killed no small number of beasts large and small to make this carpet, he had wanted to keep their feet warm.

At one point, Sai had even went as far as using a few trees that were shaped and had many similar properties as bamboo for a bed. He had first swallowed it into the earth then shredded it with magic, finally, he wove it together into a seamless bed that was much more comfortable than a rock bed that his parents had already used for many years.

Sai had even found a way to make glass, so his home now had light, but it wouldn't be exposed or open. He had first used river sand then he crushed it and ground it even more finely. Finally, Sai with the help of his mother had created an extremely hot fire and turned the fine sand into glass. Sai then dumped it into a pill of water on the side of the river.

This project had only taken a few hours, however Silent went a bit overboard and made almost one thousand windows. Even while creating windows for his home and using the other windows to create a greenhouse, he had many hundred extra. Sai continued to play around with these. He told his parents that he is trying to insulate them, but they had never heard the word insulation, no any derivative of the word.

Sai knew that his parents had many questions for him, and similarly, they knew that Sai wouldn't answer any of them. They had a semi-spoken agreement that neither would speak of why Silent knows all of these things.

At the end of these few months though, Sai had finally turned four. He was still barely half the age that people normally would start learning magic or cultivating in general. In this sense, Sai was already several years ahead of most people who were his physical age and about the same level as many people of his previous life’s age.

Even though Sai was so powerful already he had felt that he was still progressing slowly. Sai knew the concept of putting in hard work, but he also knew the concept of trials making a man or breaking a man. So, Sai had felt that after seven months on the run, it was time for him to go on his first adventure.

At the end of the day, Sai and his parents were eating dinner. Sai decided to bring it up, “Dad, mom, how would you feel about me going on an adventure?”

“Isn't it a bit early for that?” Lilith asked, her eyes liked worriedly toward her husband.

“Before you go out on an adventure, you need to know many things. The first and most important is that you are not the strongest thing out there. There are monsters out there, magical creatures, the likes of which rule this world through might if you meet anything stronger than you, you will die and be left workout a body to even bury.

“Next is that your body is weird. Most magical cultivators bodies are only a single level weaker than their magical cultivation. Yours however is four levels weaker. This is probably because of your age, but either way, you will be at a disadvantage since your body is weak and small. You will be more vulnerable to larger or stronger enemies. That shield of yours might not protect you.

“The third thing, your adventure can only be the distance you can travel in fifteen days. This means that you must be back here every thirty days. While I would love to go with you, it would only hinder your growth and stagnate mine. But I expect to see you back here every thirty days or we will have to go out and look for you. This would be a really bad thing since your grandmother really does need someone to take care of her.”

Sai was very excited the entire time his father spoke until his father had threatened to abandon his grandmother to find him. Sai was determined at that time to make absolutely sure that his grandmother was taken care of. “I understand, I will absolutely be back within thirty days.” Sai made sure to remember everything his father told him.

“You're just going to let him leave?” Lilith was truly angry. She had felt as if her husband was serving their child up on a silver platter.

“Yes. If he was any other child, he would ask the same thing and proceed to play in the yard. Our son can move rivers, he can do things that we never thought were possible. Our house is warm even in the cold season because of his ingenuity. Most adults don't have this kind of ability. Our son will become great Lilith, we just need to let him go out to do so.” At the end of his father's speech even Sai was teary eyed, Lilith had broken down completely at the final sentence and allowed for Sai and his father to comfort her.

In the midst of their comforting Sai had heard an odd groaning sound. He turned his head and looked to the side. He had seen his grandmother there before, but this time, she had actually stood up and began to limp towards the three. Her legs creaked incessantly. Her voice was just a series of groans. Her atrophied muscles liked like they would give out at any second.

After ten extremely small steps Sai had recovered from the shock of his bedridden grandmother crossing the room. Sai ran over to her quickly and opened his mind up for her to speak to him.

“What are you doing? You're going to get hurt,” Sai warned. His grandmother made a series of gagging sounds, she looked as if she was a bird preparing to feed it's hatchlings.

“I..” Sai’s grandmother began “Ha-ha-hav. I. Have. A. G-gi-gift.” She stuttered and choked on every word. Sai was extremely worried despite his grandmother’s intentions being happy ones. She touched Sai directly on the center of his forehead with the tip of her finger.

As she did this, the frail old lady that Sai spends most of his days talking to while working began to dissolve. Her feet dissipated as of they were blown away. It looked as if a painting of his grandmother was slowly being erased, centimeter by centimeter. “I am...Wi-with Y-y-you.” Sai’s grandmother said when she began to have her legs completely dissolve.

Tears welled up in Sai’s eyes. He had spoken to his grandmother about many things, in fact, she had known about his past life even. He really didn't want to lose the only person he could speak to. However, Sai didn't know what to say until his grandmother’s entire body was nearly gone and Sai could see something odd happening.

A bright glow began to emit from his grandmother’s head. It was very bright, it nearly blinded Sai, like looking into an eclipse. When her body had finally completely disappeared, this light was all that was left.

The light swiftly drove toward Sai. It could move much faster than he could react. It clashed with the skin and bone on his forehead it rattled his brain. Sai opened his mouth to scream and the light found its entrance. It shoved its way through his open mouth and then it merged into his head.

“Sleep child, I, your grandmother have given you a precious birthday gift.” The voice echoed in Sai’s mind and he fell over, completely asleep on the floor.