Above The Sky
Chapter 105 - 105 100 The Flowing Time and Belief

105: Chapter 100 The Flowing Time and Belief 105: Chapter 100 The Flowing Time and Belief Heart-stopping moments and surging tides are always in the minority, life gradually returned to calm.

As the Natives fell silent, South Ridge regained its peace, and with the contractions of the four core Native tribes, many small and medium-sized Native tribes chose to submit to Harrison Port, accepting restraint, and trade between the two parties recommenced.

And this time, control was entirely in the hands of the Imperial People.

Through exploiting the Natives, Harrison Port enjoyed a brief period of prosperity, and even with a significant reduction in trade with the Imperial Center, it did not slip into economic recession.

City reconstruction gradually unfolded, leaving aside other impacts, Ian thereby gained a considerably long period of development time.

When the Natives and most of the Harrison Port guards had gone to station themselves on the western side of the river for the future New City District foundation, his activities around the port carried not the slightest danger.

Because of his identity as a Spirit Energy User, whether it was guards or the Guard Squads, they all turned a blind eye to his actions, never needing to report whenever he left the city, not to mention any possible difficulties he might encounter.

Training, real combat, hunting, a delicious meal—this was Ian’s daily routine during this time, and under Teacher Hiliad’s increasingly stringent and effective training, the boy absorbed every bit of experience taught by his teacher like a sponge rapidly absorbing water.

Time flew by.

In Terra Year 767, due to changes in the Western Region frontline, the trade routes from the provinces of the Southern Territory to Harrison Port were altered.

Under Viscount Grant’s momentum of victory over the Redwood Natives, the Grant Family in collaboration with the Nanling Provincial Governor planned a new trade route, creating a trade core with Harrison Port-Nauman City as the main nodes, and shifted the development focus towards maritime transport.

A fleet of large ships set off from the far southern ports, heading for Canaan Moore and Whale Song Cliff.

In Terra Year 767, March, the fishing season of the Southern Sea arrived, with large schools of fish returning to the coast to spawn.

The major storm six months earlier had certainly inflicted a severe hit on the surrounding ecosystems, but precisely because of this, many large predator fish species had not yet restored their populations, and the recovery trend of the economic fish stocks was far better than anticipated—a bountiful harvest the following year was already foreseen.

The Fish Harvest Festival proceeded as normal, with Ian and Teacher Hiliad, as well as Elan, whose aftereffects of Sleep Powder had almost cleared up and could now run around the ground, happily participating in this traditional event of the Southern Sea.

They purchased a brand-new fish cutting table, Hiliad chopped off fish heads, Ian deboned and removed the innards, and the cheerfully smiling Elan was responsible for tossing the prepared fish meat into the blessed Holy Water Bucket for marinating.

The family, in joyous spirits, worked alongside their neighbors to process their assigned portion and even received accolades from the local Bishop of the Huai Guang Church, His Excellency Lorisun.

Bishop Lorisun, with the ecclesiastical name ‘White Mist,’ is an old man who appears to be over sixty years old.

His kind eyes and benevolent expression, his untidy hair and beard, are not due to sloppiness but because of his ascetic vow of ‘self-reliance.’

Forget cutting his own hair, this ascetic monk, who even Viscount Grant would respect, even weaves his own clothes.

He never parades around pompously when he visits other South Ridge villages for inspection but instead blends in like a refugee to observe.

Although he’s a very traditional and kind-hearted grandfatherly figure, Ian always remained cautious around him—because his Spirit Energy told him that despite the Bishop’s smiling face towards everyone, he treated everyone from Imperial People to Natives ‘without favor,’ neither love nor hate, shining upon the world equally like the sun.

The most dangerous people are not the wicked, for they have desires and can be divined.

The most terrifying are the crazed and those without desires—because their thoughts cannot be understood nor guessed at.

Not just that, Ian also noticed that Teacher Hiliad also didn’t like to stay long with the Bishop, deliberately and proactively avoiding the old man.

Even though the other was only a Second Energy Level ascetic monk.

“Were they acquaintances from the past?

It doesn’t seem like it…”

Thinking this, Ian did not question his own teacher.

Moreover, he also noticed something that made him quite uneasy.

The morning after the Fish Harvest Festival, Ian, surprised, found that Hiliad was still in the house when he got up to prepare breakfast.

He hadn’t gone out to search for clues to the Southern Sea Ruins as usual, but was resting in bed instead.

After hearing Ian’s waking movements, the old knight also woke up, seeming perfectly normal, and greeted Ian with a smile.

The boy didn’t think much of it at first, assuming his teacher was probably too tired from scouting too late the night before when he actually had a rare good sleep—until that afternoon when Ian finished his training and was ready to take advantage of the unusually good weather to air out the quilts, he was startled to find that his teacher’s bed was covered in many fine ‘scales.’

These were the delicate micro-scales shed from Hiliad’s skin, shining brilliantly in the sunlight.

“Scales always shed, just as ordinary people also slowly renew their skin layers,” Hiliad explained when he returned home.

Ian knew that the other was telling the truth, but still felt a subtle unease.

Life continued.

In Terra Year 767, mid-May, Ian encountered a wild boar while out training.

With the results of his recent training, while the beast was resting, rolling in the mud, he used his control of sand to block its nose and mouth, suffocating it to death, and claimed his first hunt as a Sublimator.