Zen woke up. He swung his feet off the bed and yawned. Shibi climbed onto his shoulder. He smiled at the Scorch Ape and rubbed his head.

“Another day, hey Shibi?” Zen said.

He got prepared and by the time breakfast rolled around, he had bathed and was wearing clean clothes.

He walked to the front and saw a collection of bags in front of the door. Shibi came off his shoulder and studied the bags.

Jun Nee came by, adding more bags to the collection.

“Shibi!” she patted Shibi on the head.

“Jun Nee,” Zen said, wanting to ask her what was going on with the bags.

“Hey, Zen’er!” she said.

“That is Master Wang to you, girl.”

Zen and Jun Nee froze at the voice to look at Jao, who walked towards them.

“Ah, forgive me, Master Jao.” Jun Nee said, bowing to the elder. “Forgive me, Master Wang.” She bowed to Zen.

“Good and do not forget your place, girl.” Jao said. “Now, get the rest of my bags.”

“Master Jao,” she bowed and rushed off.

Zen looked at his grandfather in confusion before he bowed. “Morning Grandfather.”

“Morning, Wang Zen.” He said.

“These are your bags?”

“Of course!” he said as if it was the most obvious thing. “I am leaving after all. I would need to go with all my possessions.”

Zen was surprised to here this, “Grandfather is leaving.”

“You did not think I would stay here forever, did you now?” he said. “I was only here to support my daughter in her time of need. But now… now she does not need me to be here. She has adjusted well into her role as City Lord and The Black Mark has been quiet for the past 2 months. I can now go back to my own businesses which are waiting for me.”

“Oh!” Zen bowed. “It is sad to hear that you are leaving. You will be missed, grandfather.”

“Bah!” Jao scoffed. He studied the boy for a bit. Zen stayed at the bowed position for a little longer. He then straightened up and looked at his grandfather in confusion.

“I was wrong about you, Wang Zen.” Jao said. “ You have a little more Jao in you, a little more of your mother in you than I thought. You keep that up, and you will be a great person.”

“Thank you, Grandfather.” Zen said.

Shibi hopped onto Zen’s shoulder.

“And please sign a contract with that beast,” he said. “It is very unkempt for someone of high society to have a wild beast about.”

Zen resisted the urge to remind his grandfather that he was a commoner and therefore not really in high society but he held his tongue.

“Master Jao,” Jun Nee said, bringing down the last of his possessions, “That should be the last.”

“From all of the rooms in the mansion?”

She bowed, “Yes, Master Jao.”

He produced a high quality storage stone. Touching the storage stone caused a force to warp all those belongings inside the storage stone. “Now, I shall say goodbye to my daughter.”

Jun Nee and Wang Zen bowed as he left the house.

She sighed in relief.

“Yeah,” Zen smirked, “you can say that again.”

She smiled at him, “hopefully things will be less intense now.”

Zen joined his mother. She was holding a large sheet of paper which seems to have schematics of a building on it. Speaking to one of the builders, she was pointing out sections of the mansion. The man left.

“Mommy!” Zen said.

“Hey, Kiddo! Hello Shibi!” She patted both of them on the head.

“The repairs seem to be going well,” Zen said, looking at the people working all around.

“Yep!” she said, beaming in happiness. “I’m going to strengthen the west section, have a little outpost for better security. The mansion will be better than before. It needs to be, if it is going to be our home.”

Zen nodded. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Sure, train hard and become an Earth Elementalist to move things along.” She giggled.

“I could do it.” Zen said.

“Well, then, go.” She said with a smiled. “My ZenZen will need to be strong. You are after all the son of a City Lord.”

He nodded and hugged his mother. “Okay, Mommy, I go to train.”

“Or, wait.” She produced a storage stone. “What you want is here.”

“Thank you, Mommy.” he bowed.

Zen sat on a desk, outlooking the mansion garden. Of all the garden’s this was the most expansive, with a collection of different coloured flowers, amongst the deep green and flying multi coloured insects.

The boy could not appreciate this beauty for he was fully focussed on writing. There were books on either side of his desk that he used to reference while he wrote down on brown parchment with a black stone that glowed red. The stone and parchment were what was contained within the storage stone his mother had given him.

He wrote and concentrated more than he had ever done in the past, even in the libraries of Goixi Academy. He often wondered what the people he had met there were doing, how they were. His cousins, Jao Cong and Jao Fuu, his roommates Deng Ai and Ao Li, his rival Chen Jian and the girl he loved Xue Shaonue.

He hoped one day, he might get a chance to meet them again and fight a few others. Sadly, he knew it would not be soon. For Zen knew that his days at Goixi Academy were over. He was needed at home and he felt there was nothing left for him at the academy.

He had to laugh a bit, wondering to himself what his father or Master Daomeng would think of him if they knew he was dropping out after all the underhanded things they did to get him in. Hopefully they would understand why.

He finally finished writing on his parchment.

“Shibi!” he called out.

Shibi came to him. He smiled at the Scorch Ape. Shibi was truly his closest companion, his greatest friend. He had been with him through thick and thin, from the beginning and he was still with him here and now. Though he knew he still had a long journey to go, he was hoping his friend would still be by his side.

“Shibi, I wrote out a contract here, for you and me.” Zen said.

Shibi hopped in excitement. “Zen and Shibi will be bonded. Shibi happy to have a contract with Zen!”

“Shibi, it won’t be like the regular Master beast servant.” Zen said. “I’ve never thought of you as my beast or your master. You’ve always been my friend… my brother.”

Shibi tilted his head in confusion.

“The contract is what is called a Peer Contract. We sign this and we will be bonded to each other. Servants to our combined goals and… if any of us believe that we are not serving each other’s goals, that we are not comrades and allies, we can break the contract.”

“Shibi will never do that!” Shibi said.

Zen nodded. “Then we will be bonded forever, cause I would never do that too. So, let’s sign?”

Shibi nodded.

Zen produced a knife and made a small cut on his thumb, allowing blood to seep out. He handed the knife to Shibi who did the same.

They both looked at the contract, and pressed their blood thumbprint to the parchment and it came to life! Blue light erupted from the contract and engulfed the two lifelong friends!

END OF VOLUME ONE: PATH TO COMMONITY