Chapter 99: Burial, Nine Sea Gods Trial 6

Chapter 99: Burial, Nine Sea Gods Trial 6

Word count = 1500 on 10/20/2023

After Xue Tie tore out the heart of Tang Chen, the Sea Gods trial rune showed up and glowed. Bo Saixi's body shakes as she states.

"By protecting me, he has taken my place in the trial and thus with his demise, you passed." Xue Tie cares not for her words as his death mark glows for a moment. He then responds by saying.

"Take the others to heal up, you can come to the Clear Sky Clan for the barrier, we will resume the trials afterwards." He says with finality and spreads his wings to fly away with Tang Chen's body.

The high priestess can only follow his words to collect the unconscious pillars and bring them back to Sea Horse village to recuperate as she is lost in thought. It is only when she arrives in her own home that she finds water flowing down her face. She looks in the mirror to find that she is crying over how her destined man has died before her.

On the other hand, Xue Tie takes one single full day to arrive back at the Clear Sky Clan. The guards initially move to stop him but halt upon seeing the dead old man in his arms. Especially after being exposed to the ancient 'hero' of their clan. They are well acquainted with him. The former Patriarch of the Clear Sky Clan, Tang Chen.

Xue Tie speaks in a solemn voice, "Bring Tang Hao here. We must have a funeral according to the Clear Sky Clan with the highest honors". Tears begin to stream down the 2 guards faces as well. They begin to rush back while Xue Tie slowly walks up the mountain that the clan had built their foundations upon.

It is a few minutes later that Tang Hao and a few new elders which includes his older brother and little sister, Tang Xiao and Tang Yuehua. Even though Yuehua cant use any spirit rings due to being stuck at the 9th rank. Tang Chen had made her an elder of the clan as he wished that she would take an active role in being the mother to all the unruly children of the clan so that they may adopt the proper behavior and etiquette befitting of the Clear Sky Clan.

The trio all see Tang Chen's body in Xue Tie's arms. Tang Yuehua covers her mouth in shock as tears begin to break through. Tang Xiao nervously asks "What happened?"

"A death befitting a warrior that only a future god can deliver" His simple words shock the trio, especially after feeling his spirit power and finding he is only level 1 but is clearly able to fly along with the deep threat their instincts tell them about him.

Tang Hao can only take up Tang Chen's body from Xue Tie and begin to bring it to the clan home. Xue Tie instead spreads his wings once more, taking flight. "Ill get your kid so that he may acknowledge the clan while he is here. He is his godson and great grandfather after all." Tang Hao pauses for a bit in deliberation but nods. Xue Tie takes a minute to make a round trip while collecting Tang San. He tells Ah Yin what happened and she also wants to go, so with no other choice, he escorts both of them to the Clear Sky Clan. This takes 2 days since Xue Tie wants to respect Tang Hao's wife by not randomly touching her. Even if it brings them faster to the clan. As such it takes them 2 days to return and the land has changed.

Paper lanterns have been hung up. Various pictures of the younger Tang Chen and that is just the outside. The inside is sparsely decorated and instead they are providing the practice of Shou ling. A practice where loved ones and family would watch over the deceased body for up to 7 days, taking turns each day. Mourners may come forth to provide offerings of things like food or incense. Xue Tie learned that Bo Saixi had already arrived and volunteered to take on the 4th day of this mourning with Tang Hao, Tang Yuehua and Tang Xiao taking the first 3. Ah Yin and Tang San join Tang Hao.

Tang San is taught how to acknowledge his ancestors and officially joins the clan much more earlier than the story. Overall, the days go by quite slowly and Xue Tie has time to ruminate on his actions and how he should continue forward. He has some plans which are already in motion but needs to figure out how to publicly introduce them.

The last day goes by and Tang Chen is buried in the clan's ancestral grave. Xue Tie bids everyone goodbye and begins to fly back to the Sea Gods island. It takes the High priestess a bit longer to return as she is not too quick until she arrives by the sea itself.

"Your 6th trial consists of collecting the Aquatic Crown of Poseidon from the bottom of the ocean. You must accomplish this without harming any sea folk like the 2nd trial and I can only tell you that it is within 300km (186.4 miles) of the Training Grounds. This is an exact value. The crown is also hidden so as to prevent sea beasts from stealing it. " She explains and Xue Tie nods, taking flight once more. With no restrictions on him except the fact the crown itself is hidden, it should be possible to find it after some time. Sea Beasts would typically be the most difficult part of the trials but Xue Tie has already proven he can handle them since even the high priestess has referenced what he did during the second trial.

Xue Tie gathers his death energy and gives death to all normal spirit energy in the local 5k ft [1] range through a wave tactic. This would ensure that something that would belong to a god would leave behind divine water essence as that would not be killed. If it does then Xue Tie would look down on the crown. His hunch was correct and it is in the last region that he looked. It is at the very edge of the territory, to the point that is more than halfway to the main continent. Xue Tie shakes his head as if he was aware that he could have collected it ahead of time.

Unfortunately he has no solution for the lack of foresight as he doesnt want to break space time continuum by making a silly attempt to grant death to a certain future or past to try change things.

Shaking his head of his thoughts, he dive bombs the ocean to quickly reach the bottom of the land where he finds the spiritual remnants of the crown. Shaking of the dirt, he finds a simple blue and silver tiara that he brings back to the island to give it to the priestess so that he can pass the 6th test.

********************

[1]= 300km = 98.4k ft which means that Xue Tie needed to repeat the process roughly 19 times to cover the whole area

Also I've discovered a new intrusive thought.

It's the idea of temporarily replacing my original bleach story idea with a new one where Cheems and his bonk stick get sent to bleach. He was selected as the champion of gods of purity to cleanse the bleach world due to the fact that the 40k goddess of corruption-Slaanesh has found a way to access the bleach world. Her first target were the mindless hollows which has led to many soul reapers getting corrupted rather than killed after being 'graped' by the hollows. Cheems must use his signature weapon the Bonk stick to cleanse Slaanesh's corruption and repel her.

Tags: No harem, Action, Supernatural, Bleach, system

"Perfectly Balanced Adventure In Bleach" -A Computer science student of modern day dies abruptly and his soul encounters a being known as the God of Balance. For its own amusement, it has selected this person to be reincarnated in another world along with 3 'UNIQUE' wishes that differentiate him from all others reborn through various gods.

Tags: Action, Adventure, Magic, Reincarnation, System, Romance

So the poll will be the original idea of 'Perfectly balanced adventure in Bleach' against 'Bleach: Corruptive Combat'.

Regardless it will be a while before I start to publish as any attempts to work on other works will slow down or hamper this story and we are already in the last volume as long as I don't go deeper into other stories. The only way to change ge that would be to further extend my publication extend past every 2 days. Such as once a week like many others. That would allow me to multitask the two stories (this and one bleach story)