"Come on move your ass"
"Ah, fuck!'
On the upper deck, Michael was carrying a 300kg log on his shoulder and walking from one end of the ship to another through the knee-high snow on the floor. All of his muscles were screaming as even in the cold weather, he was sweating like he was walking in the desert.
Despite his suffering, she was hitting him with a stick every time he slowed down. One could see zigzags of red lines on his fair back. During his training, she was a completely different woman. After training, although he would drink a healing potion to heal himself, she would massage his back, pour him coffee and care for him like a perfect wife.
Her care for him during the daytime was absolutely worth all this pain in his mind.
"You're such...a...bitch" Yet, Michael couldnt help cursing when she attacked him with a stick again.
"What did you call me?!" she was laughing yet she put on a mad face just to make him walk faster to avoid getting hit by her. She didn't love or take any pleasure in hitting him, it was part of training before she could actually teach him the secret fighting technique she inherited from her mother. Gaya's mother's father created this technique himself while Gaya's mother fused a few other techniques and Gaya was trying to perfect the fighting technique.
Before the tournament began, she wanted to teach him the fighting technique so he could beat all the fighters in the tournament. After walking the 50th time carrying the 300kg log, he finally completed the set. He was exhausted as he wanted to immediately lie down on the snow yet he had a lot of other workouts to do.
"Good, let's work on your kick" she lifted his right leg. He adjusted his body not to fall down while his left leg was on her shoulder.
"Leg work is vital to what I'll teach you soon. Now, lift it higher" she was lifting his leg higher and higher to the point he began to feel excruciating pain between his legs.
"keep it still for thirty minutes"
It has been a week since he started his first training. This was the second most painful week he ever had, the first one was when he was training with Spectre back on earth.
"So you did this when you were training?" he asked Gaya who was sitting on a pile of snow.
"I'm not a puny human so no, I didn't" she retrieved her snacks from the space ring. She had enough snacks to feed an entire family of five for a whole month.
"You know, you should learn how to cook," Michael said while trying his best to keep his leg higher.
"Why is...thot?" words barely escape her biscuit-filled mouth.
"As if yo...know...hob..to cook "
"Fo your information, I do know how to cook" Michael proudly said putting his trust in the system. If push comes to shove, he would become a star chef himself. After all, personally cooking was more romantic than buying from a restaurant.
"Really?" she swallowed everything in her mouth, gawking at him in surprise.
"Then, I'll learn"
Meanwhile down in the crew member quarters, Captain Lars was lying on a bed. He was drowning himself in rum as the crew members surrounded him, they were gossiping.
"Be they still doin' it?"
"yeah, I'm afraid that there lad might die before we 'and them o'er to the buyer"
"that lass be a fuckin' dominatrix"
"Why be they trainin' anyway? it's not like 'avin' muscles would save them after they cross the void line"
"why would they even go to the southern continent? if I born in the northern continents an' be able to cultivate, I'd stay the fuck out o' a place where I cannot use me powers"
"Cultivators be evil shites. They do evil shite every single day like grabbin' a piss. Jolly thin' they 'ave a guardian guild to put them in the leash, just imagine a gentleman o' fortune ship with cultivators fer the crew"
"don't forget about the void. If it wasn't fer the void, the northern kings would 'ave long conquered the southern continent"
Captain Lars dropped the empty rum bottle to join the conversation,
"Ye got it all wrong men. The void line isn't savin' the southern continent from the northern continent, it's the other way around. The southerners make northerners look like a pissin' little child when it comes to doin' evil shits. Slavery, constant massacres, piracy, organ trafficking, experiments on poor bastards, an' a shite load o' other evil things. Oh, I forgot about the corruption, if ye 'ave gold coins, ye can do anythin' an' bribe anyone. Them senators be just pirates livin' on the land"
"Speakin' o' gentlemen o' fortune, Cap'n, I 'eard some powerful kingdoms in the Awor continent puttin' to the sky a naval unit to clean up the pirates. Licky aft on pirate cove said other continents might call these pirate destroyers"
For a few moments, the crew quarters went into silence mode.
"Another reason fer me to retire. I'm too old to deal with new shits" Lars sighed,
" Cap'n, what about us?"
"After sellin' the two cultivators, we'll split the gold an' go our separate way"
"I'm plannin' to join a pirate crew, I always wanted to be a pirate"
"I'm goin' to the pirate cove an' drink to death"
"I just want to travel"
The crew started to discuss their future endeavors after selling Michael and Gaya to the one who called, the buyer. The cultivators would lose their connection with arch energy or any kind of energy after crossing the void line and become mortals like them, these crew would use this to sell them to the buyer. Neither the crew nor the Lars knew what would happen to those they sell but they didn't care for them as much as they did for the gold coins.
****************************************
Meanwhile, in Pen Town, Noah's house was lit up brighter than usual. The house sparkled with various colored light stones. The house was decorated as the house was on earth during Christmas time. The house was filled with laughter and happiness.
Diana was sitting on the far end of the oak table, looking at her family and the countless delicacies on the table. A giant teddy bear-shaped cake took most of the space while on the top of the number, one could see the number 22 made of sparkling material.
The table was occupied by all the Winston family members but it was the two sitting on Diana's left side and the one sitting on her right side at the table that got the most attention. The one sitting on Diana's left was a young girl in her mid-twenties, she had raven black hair, a perfect jawline that made her extremely beautiful. Her hazel eyes scanned everything and everyone in the room calmly. A tiny black mole above her lip enhanced her beauty even further.
Despite her calm look, she was the strongest in the room, Core Strengthening stage level 10. She was Noah's big sister, Rowena Winston, the holy maiden of Skyhall.
The golden babaroo Norvin was jumping around the table, picking every delicacy he could before jumping onto Alicia's shoulder. Maisy was enjoying the fried turkey leg while trying to catch Norvin to pet.
At the table, Natalia was laughing with a golden-haired youngster, Andrew Winston. He was completely cured after Michael gave him the antidote for the poison and healed the star pox. Amelda was running around, bringing more and more food to the table despite Butler Samuel's strong disagreement with her doing all the work that should be done by him.
Amelda waved off Samuel as she came to Noah carrying a huge chunk of juicy golden meat slice.
"Why am I not seeing an empty plate birthday boy?"
"Aunt, no!" Noah shouted but Amelda already put the slice of meat in his place, ruffling his hair playfully.
"Take mine too" Sabrina used this opportunity to pass the slice of meat on her plate to his.
Everyone laughed seeing Noah's helpless reaction.
"Lady Diana, may I bring you another grilled fish?" Samuel asked.
Diana was looking at her family but one could see her mind was somewhere else.
Except for Amelda, no one knew what she was thinking.
"Mom" Rowena placed her hand on Diana's shoulder. Yet Diana seemed not to have noticed Rowena or anyone else, she just kept staring at the 22 at the top of the cake.
"Lady Diana" while she was staring at the cake, a guard covered in snow entered the room. Only now, Diana's gaze turned away from the cake. Looking at the guard, she almost stood up
"Young Master Ghost has left the Sunrise sect to enter seclusion, Lady Diana. No one knew where he went" the liveliness that appeared in her eyes vanished away after hearing the guard's words. Her eyes almost welled up but she was able to control them from rolling out of her beautiful eyes.
"It's my fault. I should have invited him back at the auction" Noah sighed.
"It was either wait for him or save a village from a rogue cultivator, Noah. I think you made the right choice" Alicia said, her voice contained a tingle of coldness.
"It's unfortunate, I wanted to thank him for saving me" Andrews shook his head.
"And I wanted to save him for saving mom and Sabi"
"Didn't you say he was at Core Formation level 3 when he's here? I wonder what kind of cultivation method he's using to breakthrough this fast" Andrew spoke while many family members gasped in surprise. His cultivation speed was compared to Rowena herself.
"Did you search everywhere?!" Diana raised her voice. This day wasn't only Noah's birthday but also her other son, Dean's also known as Ghost by the world. She wanted to see her son again on his birthday yet the disappointment was turning into pointless anger inside her.