Kara woke up, once again blushing as she fell asleep sitting in a chair with her head on Aria’s bed and her arm linked with his. Although she has yet to get used to sleeping this way, it was her idea… You see, just like Aria, she really likes the feeling of cultivating. Unfortunately, she can only use her cultivation technique after she begins the journey to the second level. So, in the meantime she has to be touching Aria, who can even cultivate in his sleep, and she didn’t want to fall behind. Although the two are close in cultivation now, if she slacks he might get ahead. While she won’t admit it, neither will Aria, both of them have similar fears since they are sort of the only reminders the other has of their family and have become each other's closest friends and support.

Standing up, Kara shoved Aria off his bed as she shouted, “Uhg! Aria why are you always sleeping in? It’s the same with snoring, you snore so damn loud!! We have to be at the tea shop soon, quickly shower so we can leave!”

Groaning, Aria woke up on the floor and drowsily replied, “I can’t help the snoring… I have sleep apnea but my machine disappeared along with Earth. Just go back to your room and I’ll knock on your door when I’m done showering out back.” He really dislikes showering in this hotel. He has to go out back to a room with a big tank of water on the roof that slowly trickles water onto him. There’s no water pressure or temperature control.

An hour later, Aria and Kara could be seen, hand in hand, walking into a rundown tea shop near the docks. Upon entering, they saw Lisa and Liam with an eager look on their faces and a large backpack full of clothes and other items. Old Jia looked frustrated while arguing in a corner with the three old men that previously barged in the tea shop and, upon seeing the two walk in, he pointed to Aria and said, “He’s the guard. Go annoy him with your problems you old bastards. Let me just sell tea and die in peace.”

The moment he said that, the three old men ran over to him and started yelling, “How dare you think you can take our daughters with you! Do you really think you can keep them safe? What, you plan on taking them in the water to assault them? No, this isn’t enough. You aren’t enough.”

Out of sheer annoyance, being the non-morning person that he is, Aria seemed to forget his social anxiety for a moment and grumbled, “Dammit. I was woken up early to deal with this shit? Did I ask for your daughters to join me on my journey? No, that old fart Jia made the decision without me. Do I need to touch your daughters? I haven’t even seen them! Maybe they are ugly as hell for all I know! Damn dude, they might be ugly, annoying, or a multitude of other things and protecting more people is nothing but a hassle anyways so let's just decide now that they aren’t coming with us. Does that work for you?” After saying that he walked over to a table and mumbled, “Kara we really need to find coffee in this Tower… I don’t know how long I can handle mornings without it.” Kara sat down while trying to hold in a laugh as she saw the ugly expressions on the face of the three old men.

“Old Jia, let’s get going to the boat. Kara and I have to reach the second level within 11 months and I don’t want to risk any delays in case something delays us during the trip.”

“Aria, stop being dramatic. We both know you just want to go back to sleep.” Looking towards the old men she said, “Don’t worry. Him and I have been sharing a room for a week now yet he hasn’t touched me because he’s an awkward loser so he won’t touch your daughter’s. Bad news is that neither of us are good at cooking so that’ll be up to your daughters to do.”

As soon as Aria heard her say that, his face turned red, he stood up, and calmly walked into the backroom. Behind him, Liam came running saying, “Big bro you really get to sleep with the pretty big sister? That’s not fair! You have to give your little bro some advice,” upon hearing that he took off running into the backroom faster to get away.

___________

A few hours later, Old Jia sorted out the issues the three old men had and everyone was sitting down on a table in the teashop planning out the route on a map. This was the first time Aria and Kara were seeing a map of part of this world (Other than his tablet map of the city) and they were surprised to say the least. It wasn’t a paper map, but a deep purple colored gem known as a “Memory Jade”. The higher quality the memory jade is, lighter the color is. A cultivator can use their qi to engrave large amounts of information or images onto a jade, much more than can be written on paper. This information can be viewed by holding the jade and sending your will into the jade or, for those under the Nascent Soul Realm, they can infuse qi into their finger and drop a drop of blood onto the jade to form a connection that will last about five minutes. Aria was extremely surprised to find out that will is something only those in the Nascent Soul Realm can use yet he already had some but he decided to keep this a secret and used the blood method instead.

Upon viewing the map Aria realized that, although this world is extraordinarily old, not much of it can be found on maps shared to the public. In this case, the three old men only shared the routes to two cities north of them on the maps with Aria and Kara. The three cities were very different in culture and available travel for the future. The first city, Volkesh, is north-east of Ishland. It’s on the south-west side of a continent with an active volcano and a high population of fire-related cultivators. The island’s volcano has a large amount of fire elemental energy and became the home of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator who prevents the volcano from erupting by absorbing a large amount of the fire element energy. The other city, Natesh, is north-west of Ishland and is located in a massive island chain with more cities to the north. Natesh is on an island about 50 miles in length and 20 miles in width. The island has a saltwater river flowing from the west side of the island about five miles inland. It’s also full of massive trees and forested areas. Natesh mainly consists of water and nature element cultivators.

After looking at the map, Old Jia glanced at the old men and said, “So, Lisa and Liam’s parents went to Natesh and it’s my understanding that Aria and Kara want to reach a second level city but don’t particularly care about the city they go to. As such, the boat will be going to Natesh, does that work for your daughters?”

The leader of the three nodded, “My daughter, Marg uses water type techniques and plans on cultivating water elemental energy so that works for her.”

The shorter of the other two said, “Sure. My daughter has always loved nature and focused on healing type techniques which is a specialty of those on Natesh.”

“My daughter likes to craft and use metal-based techniques so neither city is more suited than the other for her. Actually,” As the third man spoke towards the leader of the three, “Dirk, your family is the only one with a branch on Natesh. Us two old fogeys only have branches on Volkesh, so, can our daughters stay with your family branch? We both want an assurance that they will be treated well.”

“Come on, us three families have been working together in this city for years because we are great friends. I’ve already written two letters for this occasion in case we chose Natesh. Give these to your daughters,” spoke Dirk as he placed two letters on the table. “The letters make it clear that your daughters are close friends of mine and are to be treated just as my own daughter.”

Old Jia spoke, “Alright, Alright. Now that you all settled that, let’s get down to the dock. I’m giving Aria my spirit boat that runs on elemental energy and qi. It’s Aria and Kara’s job to guard the boat and power it with elemental energy as they cultivate. The siblings will use their qi to direct the boat since they have training on boat travel and can follow the map. Your daughter’s will cook and collect parts from monster’s killed during the trip. The trip should take about six months if powered by elemental energy.”

__________

When they reached an empty spot on the dock, Old Jia rubbed the ring on his right hand and an interesting boat came out. From the outside it looked like a wooden, two story houseboat from earth, however, there were green and blue lines covering the bottom, sides, and top of the boat. The deck of the boat had a sitting area with a few couches and chairs while the inside had a kitchen, three bedrooms, and a bathroom room. The interesting thing is that the kitchen had an oven with a stovetop and a sink that works with qi into them and the bathroom had a toilet that cleans itself with qi. You put low jade in them for power and then just inject a small amount of qi to trigger the formations that allow it to work.

“Uhm…” Aria stuttered, “O-O-Old Jia, I appreciate the boat and all but… There are only three rooms but seven unrelated people. How do you suggest splitting the rooms?”

Giving a knowing smile, Old Jia said, “Hahaha. The youth of these days, getting all riled up over little things. That’s for you all to decide but I’d recommend waiting until you leave the dock to decide lest those three old bastards get angry.”

“Old Jia, why would we be angry?” Squinting his eyes, Dirk said, “What aren’t you telling us?”

“Ohhh. It’s nothing but a trifling matter,” laughed Old Jia. “Aria was just a bit concerned that there’s seven people but three bedrooms on the boat.”

“WHAT?!” Shouted the short one of the three. “This has to be sorted immediately. I won’t tolerate this scoundrel sleeping in a room with my daughter, none of us three will allow that!”

“H-h-ang on seniors. I never had that intention, that’s why I wanted to clear it up with Old Jia before we left…” grumbled Aria.

“I wanna stay with my sis! We’ve always been together.” Said Liam.

“Yes, I can stay with Liam,” agreed Lisa.

“Us three can stay together in a room even if it’s a tight fit,” said Marg. “You’re Kara, right? Want to stay with us? Might be a bit tight but it’s alright since we weren’t originally in the plan for the boat trip anyways.”

Stuttering embarrassedly, Kara said, “Uhm. I-I-I need Aria for my cultivation so… we’ve shared a room for a week and a half already…” Her words were a bit shocking to Marg and the other two.

“Hey sis Kara, I’m Sky. Are you sure? You know, no offense bro Aria, but he isn’t the most attractive guy. You could so do better, you two aren’t…” Blushing, she continued, “dual cultivating are you?”

“No! No, no, we aren’t. It’s hard to explain but he can help me cultivate faster. No, no, no we haven’t done that!” Scrambled Kara.

At this point Aria’s face was flushed red in embarrassment. Annoyed stomped off onto the boat saying, “Dammit! I’m in charge of your safety and, Kara, I help you cultivate faster yet you guys are calling me ugly and acting like being intimate with me would suck right to my face! Fuck, I’m going to chose a room for myself and the rest of you can figure it out yourselves. Sleep in my room if you want, sleep on the damn deck if you want.”

Sky’s face flushed a bit as she said “Woah. Listen girls, I’ll take one for the team and stay with him. Never met someone with such a contrasting personality…”

“Sky!” Her father yelled, “What in the hell are you saying? You sure as hell aren’t staying in his room!”

“Dad! I’ve never shown interest in anyone before and the first time I do you want to stop me?” Pouting, she ran to the boat and said “Good thing you aren’t coming on the boat then!”

Sky’s dad looked at the other two girls and practically begged, “Girls, help me out. Please keep her away from that Aria guy.” Then he tossed a spatial pouch to Marg and asked, “Marg please give this to her. It has some cultivating resources and weapons for the future.”

After that episode ended, the other two old people also gave a spatial pouch of resources to their daughter’s while Old Jia gave one to the siblings. As everyone parted ways, Kara went up to Old Jia and thanked him for everything, especially the cultivation technique, before getting on the boat herself.