Chapter 167 - "Oh, Relax"

HINOHARA, 3 PM

"Hello."

"Hey."

"Hey man."

Fumio is greeted by Kotone, Yoshiko, Yori, Akane, Ahdem, and Havvah as he joins the group at the peak of the hill.

"Where's boss?" He asks everyone as he puts away his flying sword.

The group has received messages from their communication tokens from Red.

This being the first time that they are gathered in one place per Red's orders, they are all interested and are imagining in their minds what is about to happen.

Fumio, Kotone, and Yoshiko, especially are curious. Not only because they rarely met Red in the past two months, they are also the most senior disciples among everyone.

"Not here yet." Ahdem says.

"Here you go guys, while we wait." Havvah says before pulling out coffee cups from her storage ring, and handing them out to the group.

"Thanks, Havvah-sensei." Yori nods in thanks at Havvah.

"Thank you, Havvah-sensei." Akane does the same but in English.

Fumio, Kotone, and Yoshiko also nod their silent thanks.

"Haaa… It's tough to become friends with you all." Ahdem sighs helplessly, looking at the respect and caution that the younger cultivators are giving him and Havvah with just their eyes.

"I know. It's just coffee." Havvah shakes her head.

Even the simple gesture of her giving them coffee pulled out respectful gestures, which she and Ahdem find ridiculous.

"heheh…" The younger cultivators can only sheepishly or meekly laugh at the two's words.

Since January, after they all came back from their breaks, they all got to know Ahdem and Havvah more as they have often seen Ahdem and Havvah in the past two months, and they have come to immensely respect the two.

Not only because they learned that the couple were their very, very distant ancestors, and are the living cradles of mankind, the couple also became their mentor figures.

Kotone and Yoshiko, who got their own garden bases like Fumio, started collecting treasure fragments through the same method Fumio used.

While most of the treasure fragments they collected did not have owners, a significant number of treasure fragments had. Thankfully for them, they had Fumio to concoct knock-out and truth powders for them to figure out which treasure fragment owner is good or bad.

All of the treasure fragment carriers they met however, were not good people and just like Fumio, they were also forced to order those treasure fragments' carriers' demise.

While they had an easier time than Fumio in ordering their demon gardeners to kill, it does not mean that they were not affected by guilt and conscience.

Thankfully for them, they had Ahdem and Havvah to provide them counseling and it made it easier for them, to eliminate evil people.

Fumio meanwhile, while he had gotten more comfortable eliminating evil people, that was and still is not the same when it comes to good people.

In the past two months, his fears of treasure fragment carriers who are good people coming to him finally happened. He has met a total of two carriers in two separate occasions who he considered either good or redeemable people.

Thankfully for him, he figured out Red's hint on what to use to deal with those people; the Memory Effacement Potion.

Just like its name suggests, it erases memory.

To be more precise, the consumer of the potion will have their memory for a maximum of four hours before the potion's consumption, erased.

Fumio would knock his target out with the knock out powder, and he would inject the unconscious target with the potion. He would then carry the unconscious target at least a hundred kilometers away from his hill, making the target wake up not knowing how they ended up waking up at an unfamiliar place. 

He thought of using the same potion to the treasure fragment carriers who are evil, but because he got used to eliminating those types, he chose to eliminate them fearing that they would cause further harm in the future.

"Yori-san, Akane-san, you folks still haven't dropped the -sensei?" Fumio asks the dancer couple.

"No." Yori shakes his head.

"It's hard. I don't you about you three, but it just doesn't feel right to us." Akane explains.

Not only were Havvah and Ahdem counselors and therapists to Fumio, Kotone, and Yoshiko, they have also become teachers to the younger cultivators.

The younger cultivators have been learning general hand to hand combat and general swordsmanship from the couple.

With the couple's hundreds of thousands of years of experience, they know more than just a thing or two about fighting.

Fumio have also been learning practical modern medicine from Havvah.

Another reason why Fumio now has a stronger stomach when it comes to killing and death, was because Havvah had him dissect almost a hundred cadavers so far, for more visceral experience of the human anatomy.

He asked once where Havvah got so many cadavers and he found out that those cadavers were acquired by Red. He can only wonder how Red acquired that many bodies of both the superiori and the non-superiori.

Yori and Akane also learned how to fight barehanded from Havvah and Ahdem.

They however, did not learn general swordsmanship from the old couple unlike their senior cultivators.

Instead, they learned spearmanship, archery, and throwing weapons.

Akane focused on archery.

She was taught by Havvah how to make her own bow and her arrows from modern materials, and how to shoot correctly while maintaining her comfort in doing so.

Yori meanwhile, focused on spearmanship and throwing weapons, learning everything he knows from the subject from Ahdem. Ahdem also served as his regular sparring partner.

"I would be calling them 'sensei' too if that title isn't already taken." Yoshiko tells Fumio.

"Huh… What does that make me?" Fumio chuckles.

"What would that make us feel, Fumio? Someone who kicked our asses calling us 'sensei'? It's good  that you never changed how you talk to us." Havvah tells Fumio.

"With how you've been kicking my ass lately, I'm thinking of no longer addressing you and Ahdem-san with '-san', but with '-sama'." Fumio shrugs.

"Haaa… it's not fair." Kotone sighs to the side.

Ahdem and Havvah also got their senior cultivators' respect due to their cultivation.

Even though they started cultivating later than their seniors, who have only started consolidating their True Seas for two months, they are currently the most advanced, both having consolidated four True Elixir Seas.

Compared to the couple, Fumio who started the earliest who started consolidating true seas five months ago, has consolidated three and three quarters.

Kotone consolidated three and one third, and Yoshiko consolidated three.

Even if the couple limit themselves to the levels of their senior cultivators during sparring, their experience in combat is enough for them to dominate.

"Well. Nothing's fair." Fumio shrugs.

"Yori-san and Akane-san already has consolidated three True Seas even though they don't use… boosters." He says.

"What boosters?" Akane and Yori look at Fumio in curiosity.

"Ah…" The rest of the cultivators meanwhile, nod, knowing that Fumio is referring to the Spiritual Energy Crystals.

"I'm not at liberty to say. Boss will tell you two someday anyway." Fumio shrugs in reply to the couple.

"…" The couple can only drop their curiosity.

"Talking about boosters. The kids already started bathing in the poisons and the herbal baths at 100% concentration since two weeks ago. Taishiro was the last one to start." Yori relays.

"WHAT?" The others, except Akane who has been taking care of the children with Yori, are all surprised.

They know how painful Red's concoctions are, having all used them in their own hell training.

"Yes. They also soak for much longer." Akane adds.

"Well. Judging on how not worried you two look, I'm guessing the children are fine?" Havvah asks.

"They are." Yori nods.

"It's crazy. But they got used to the pain." He chuckles in amusement.

"Are you sure?" Havvah asks for certainty.

"Yes. Taishiro even dubbed the baths as 'crazy mouthwash water'. He said it feels like how his mouth burns when he once tried to gargle mouthwash, only worse and on his entire body." Yori explains further.

This assures the group.

They know that Taishiro is scared of pain the most out of the children so if he is fine with the pain, then the other children find the full concentration poison and herbal baths, at least tolerable.

"Mouthwash… Hah!" Ahdem chortles at the comparison, his pleasant sounding laugh removes the last worry that everyone have regarding the children's safety.

"*sluurrpp* ahhhh." Akane finishes the last drop of her coffee with a refreshed sigh.

"By the way, why did Kichirou-sama name his coffee shops 'Of Eden'?" She asks the group.

"Heh-heh." Fumio chuckles as he looks at Ahdem and Havvah. His simple action make the others who are not in the know look at the couple.

" Eden, or to be more exact, 'Garden of Eden'. It's what the Yehudists and Salvation Religion used to call the place Ahdem and I first lived." Havvah explains.

"It's where the word 'paradise' came from." Ahdem explains.

"Ohhh…" The cultivators, except Fumio, are in awe at the revelation.

"Boss' garden hills and his farm in the treasure dimension can be considered as 'Eden' of our time." Fumio explains.

"Even though Kichirou-san's gardens are very small, I have to admit, they look as if they are small pieces of the original Eden." Havvah explains.

"It's funny." Yoshiko smiles, amused.

"The menu too. 'Cappucino of Eden', 'Espresso of Eden', or 'Mocha of Eden'. It's like Sensei saying 'this coffee is of my gardens.'" She connects.

"It's clever…" Kotone, Yori, and Akane are surprised that the odd name of Red's café chain has such meaning.

"It's not that clever." Red says, suddenly appearing.

"Sir."

"Buddy."

"Sensei."

"Kichirou-sama."

All sorts of greetings come his way.

"How are you all?" He asks the group.

The group only answer 'fine' and 'we are well' as they know that despite rarely meeting Red in the past two months, his demons who they spend a lot of time with when not training, always report to Red.

"Good." Red nods.

"It's obvious that you're all curious why I've gathered you all here today." He starts.

"…" The disciples lean forwards in interest and caution.

From what they know about Red, they suspect a few reasons why they are all gathered.

Kotone suspects that Red will give them something. Fumio suspects that they will be given a group task.

Yoshiko, Akane, and Yori are excited that Red might teach them something.

And Havvah and Ahdem suspect that they will be tested.

"Oh, relax." Red chuckles in amusement at the group's reaction.

"I've only called you all here so that you can witness something that you all will go through IF you reach my current level.." He reveals.