Clan Lecture

The sun peaked out and started to burn the sand in the desert again. However its rays were still blocked by the shield of fire, protecting the town to give it a cool morning.

Leon had reached home and was lying in bed. He didn't have any time to sleep or nap.

Sandra knocked on Leon's bedroom door. "Wake up Leon, you have the lecture in ten minutes, you have to get ready."

The door opened and Leon was standing there ready. "I already woke up and got ready mom. Don't worry I'll leave in a minute."

Sandra watched in amazement then worry, 'is he actually possessed? he has never woken up by himself before!' she thought.

Leon shook his head while looking at Sandra's expression. Her expression told him everything he needed to know.

He took out a bag that held around 5 gold coins. He hung it to his waist and left the house. At the door he shouted "Bye mom! Bye dad!"

Outside his house he saw other people leaving their homes. The two houses next to his, both had two similar aged boys leave. They saw Leon and stopped talking, and whispered something to each other.

Leon couldn't hear them from where he was standing, so he activated the slaughter qi to enhance his ears, his eyes turned red to show it's activation. He eavesdropped while walking away.

"Look that cursed boy is going to the lecture again."

"I know, why does he even try? Everyone know's he's a cripple, he can't become a summoner, yet he is still attends the lecture."

"I think he'll be expelled from the Clan after he fails awakening at the next awakening ceremony."

"Right, the only reason he's still in the clan is because his father is an elder- sh*t he's looking at us, do you think he heard us? Let's leave."

The two boys walked away. Leon had stopped walking and looked at them. What they said interested him, "So people think I'm cursed and crippled?"

"Their conversation was quite informative. As I only have my memories until the age of 5 for this life."

"I can see why they think I'm a cripple, it makes sense with how unstable the soul space was, I wouldn't be able to form a soul seed and would never be able to become a summoner."

He nodded, "I guess they also think I'm cursed... wait no, I clearly am." The needles of lightning still trying to pierce his neck came to mind.

"That lightning bolt that struck me and my mother on the day I was born can also me another reason to think I'm cursed. It not only crippled my cultivation, it cripple my mother's as well."

Leon thought the situation was funny, "In my past life I was a heaven's favourite, I remember hearing 'Rise of the Fire Continent', 'Most talented person on the continent', 'Future Fire Emperor' every time my name was mentioned."

"Now I'm just some lowly cripple living at the edge of life with a weak body, that will be soon thrown out of the Clan. Life really is full of surprises."

The boy smiled as he walked towards the place of the lecture, "I have to say the heavenly lightning did do me a favour this time. Other then my parents no one will bother caring about me, it makes moving around much easier."

"Being born too talented isn't any different then a curse in the Fire Continent. The continent isn't strong enough to protect its talents." Leon whispered, this was something he learned through experience.

It was the disappointing truth, in this day and age, if a nation births a talent above a certain level- Someone talented enough to cause a rise of the nation- the talent would be assassinated by the neighbouring nations. They would stop each other from growing stronger, at the moment they had reached an equilibrium where no one had the advantage in a war. But the moment it was broken the nation with the power advantage would start taking over the others.

Leon arrived to a large open area filled with chairs and a stage built at the front. Leon looked to see only two three of the seats were left. Everyone had already arrived. Many turned to look at Leon sitting down at the last row near the corner.

He put his head back and started to rest.

"Since I've been given another chance I shouldn't waste it, things have already changed since my past life. My body has turned to that of a trash. I still haven't awakened my soul book as a twelve year old. I'm already behind from an average Summoners point of view. Not to mention my past self."

"Every cloud does have its silver lining, I know the Clan like the back of my hand. It'll be easy to get resources and skills."

"What I need to focus on is to completely combine with my younger soul. If I do that, I should be able to completely stabilise my soul space and form my soul seed." Leon stopped thinking and looked at the stage. The lecture was starting.

On the stage a young handsome man walked up. Slick red hair, tall, nicely dressed and a charming smile. He wore a white gown with Flamesmith and Junior head written on the back. Everyone turned to look at him as he reached the middle of the stage.

Leon remembered him from his past, "I met him a few times in my past life, he was one of the more talented clan members, but he still wasn't talented enough to become junior head. Hans was still much more talented then him, did something happen to him? is that why he isn't junior head?"

"Hello everyone, most of you already know me but for the newcomers I'm Pace Flamesmith." The moment he said that Pace ran his hand through his hair and smiled. It wasn't that he was showing off, rather he did it reflexively to fix his hair that were ruffled by the wind.

Leon honestly felt that a few of the girls in the audience were about to faint. He wondered why this Pace was so different from the one he remembered, "The butterfly effect?"

Pace continued, "Summoning teacher level elder Raymond Inferno will be teaching us about cultivation, everyone give him a round of applause." Everyone started to clap for him, even Pace as he walked off the stage. The elder walked up with a walking stick in one hand. His hair gray and skin wrinkled. He got on to the stage.

Leon didn't focus on the elder, his gaze followed Pace. Pace seemed to notice and smiled, he waved and then pointed at the elder to tell Leon to listen to the lecture.

Leon nodded but didn't bother listening any more. He went back to resting with his eyes closed. The elder looked around he stopped to look at Leon for a second then started.

"Let me ask you all does the ocean surround the land or the land surround the ocean?" His voice boomed out.

Five people raised there hands. One of them got on there chair and jumped to make sure he got the elder's attention. The elder looked at him then chose the one who raised his hand first.

A boy with glasses. He got up band pushed his glasses with two of his fingers. You couldn't see his eyes because of the light reflecting off but you could see the confident smile as he stood up and and answered.

"Elder I would like to respectfully say that the question is very vague. Since you didn't specify which ocean I'll try to answer for all of them. An accurate map of the continents hasn't been made, but the general position is known. So from that we know that the peaceful ocean on the eastal coast of the Fire Continent is likely to be said as surrounded by land. It should be where the Fire Continent ships exports to the light and wind continent. The rough placement of the light is said to be north, it's said it be one of the largest continent as well. Then we have the wind continent at the south bigger then your average continent as well. That is for the peaceful ocean.

Now for the vengeful ocean. It's the most dangerous ocean, with barely anything known about it. It's also why most maps are incomplete. But it is likely because of the placement-"

Cough.

The boy with the glasses who didn't seem to want to stop, heard a cough. He looked at the side and saw Pace telling him with his eyes to quickly finish. They didn't have all day. He understood and nodded.

The boy with th glasses cleared his throat and continued, "...So each ocean has a different answer.

If we take all the water in the world as one big entity and the land as one as well, we can answer the question in another way to answer this would by focusing on the fact the world is a sphere. As spheres have three dimensional it is much more difficult to tell what is surrounding what since from every direction we might see a different orientation of the water and land. From each point of view of the planet the answer could be different."

The old man looked at the boy who's tireless mouth looked like it was about to continue for another hour. He wondered why he choose this boy in the first place. "Well he was the first, but that didn't mean I had to pick him."

He then looked at the boy still excitedly jumping on his chair. "look at that boy still jumping on the seat. Look at his face and smile, he's in his own world. He probably had a very short answer. I should have chosen him."

Cough. Cough. Pace at the side signalled to end it, his eyes a lot more fierce.

The boy with the glasses signaled that he understood again.

"Looking at the fact a lot of the world is unmapped or at least the information isn't made public, I'll draw my conclusion from the latest 'public' findings from Summoing Master Holler, who has figured out that seventy percent of the planet is water. The fact that most of the world is water, I would say the ocean surrounds the land.

I didn't give my full answer but it should be enough to answer your question Elder Raymond. My policy has always been answer with everything and you'll find the right answer in their somewhere." He sat keeping the smug smile on his face.

The elder looked at the boy and said "Are you Rosalina and Mathews child?"

"Yes, those are the names of my parents."

"I see where you get it from. They have taught you well."

"Thank you." The boy wanted to stand up and give an exaggerated bow, but the next thing made his stutter.

"But you're still wrong."

"What?!" before the boy could protest the elder chose the boy who was jumping on his chair to answer.

"Me! Forget everything Clyde said my parents told me that across the Peaceful ocean there is a another continent. And on the north and south as well. So this means there are continents on all four sides. So the Land surrounds the ocean. Aren't I right?" He clearly hasn't heard what the boy with the glasses said, and seemed to be in his own world.

The elder looked at the boy. "Sit down. Both of you are wrong. Does anyone else want to try?"

The audience looked at each other. And started to discuss the answers with the people they were sitting next to. Soon many people shook their head as they couldn't think of anything, there knowledge was limited to what the boy in the glasses and the boy jumping on the chair had said, and eventually everyone quieted down. So in the end no one raised their hand.

Leon woke up, he felt things were getting interesting and wanted to see what the answers was.

"I don't think the water continent has been 'discovered', that should still take decades to happen. Did he read a book written by some from the Soul Scryer Clan? They are the only ones that would bother to mull over such questions. If he does have an answer I should ask him where he figured it out from, and somehow get that book. Although I plan on destroying the Soul Scryer Clan, a book written by one of them can never be simple."

The old man shook his head in disappointment.

"Fine I'll tell you... Who cares! So what if the ocean surrounds the land and so What if the land surrounds the ocean. Will understanding this make the ocean bigger or the land smaller. No! Are you going to go to fish and tell them you are better then them because you have more land, No! So it doesn't matter. You should forget stuff like this and focus on your cultivation. At high enough cultivations you could flip the land and empty the ocean with a hand gesture. The heavens would bend to your will..." Most of the kids had stars in there eyes as they listened to the old man.

The kid with the glasses wasn't convinced though.

Leon felt like he had wasted his brain cells. His opinion of this elder dropped, "that's what I get for thinking a Summoning Teacher would know something about this world."

"So a lot of you will be going through the awakening ceremony in three months. Remember that the clan will always be there for you no matter what..."

Hearing a chuckle the elder stopped and looked at the source. Everyone turned with him to see Leon holding his hand to his mouth trying to stop himself from laughing. Leon had been curious about the lectures so he came to watch it. After being disappointed it was time to leave, by being thrown out.

"What's so funny young man?"

Leon took a deep breath and his eyes turned condescending as he looked at the elder. "No I just thought the blatant hypocrisy was hilarious."

Everyone turned silent. If the chuckle made them look at Leon the words out of his mouth made them wide eyed.

Pace who was standing near the stage and had stopped paying attention to the speech and was talking to one of the people that had helped him set up everything. But he was surprised to hear the sudden young voice cut the atmosphere. He turned and started running to the source.

The elder Raymond noticed that it was the kid he had seen sleeping earlier. He didn't get infuriated, he convinced himself that he was too old to get mad at a child. "What do you mean by that?"

"Simple. I think you should stop with the pretense and just say that if you awaken a trash beast you will be trash, if you awaken a talented beast you'll be a heaven's favourite and don't awaken a beast at all by he age of thirteen you'll be exiled from the clan. I think we all understand that strength is all that matters, so you can stop trying to build patriotism through your crooked-"

Pace grabed Leon and covered Leon's mouth with his hand. "Elder, I and my brother here would like to apologise. He was bullied when he was younger so has a very sharp tongue. I'll take him somewhere else to cool off."

The elder had turned a bit angry but hearing Pace he calmed down. "His name is Leon yes? So he is the trash that I have heard about. I understand you can leave."

Pace who was leaving while dragging Leon away, stopped and turned "I'm sorry elder but my brother is not trash. I agree with everything he said and think you should move on with the lecture and teach us something of value rather then waste our time with your mystic questions."

He then left.

The elder a bit surprised at first turned angry. The audience was now confused wondering what to do. The boy with the glasses at the front got up grabbed his stomach and said "Sorry elder, I really have to go to the restroom." And then left as well.

Everyone stared at the boy as he took a few steps, stopped holding his stomach and walked away.

The kid who had been jumping on the chair said to the person next to him "I think he's lying."

"No kidding idiot." The person next to him retorts. The girl then gets up and said "Elder Raymond, I'm sorry but I feel sick so I'll be leaving as well." She left too.

Finally the audience didn't know what was happening so someone else stood up "Elder, I..."

"Shut up! Another one of you ask to leave, I'll throw you out of town from here myself!"

Everyone quieted down. The kid that had been next to the girl was already on the floor crawling out of the audience. He was caught as he left the area with the chairs, sensing that he had been spotted he froze.

The elder and the kid stared at each other.

"Just get out of my sight." The elder said mentally exhausted.

The boy got up and ran away scared.