About half-an-hour later, Lucas found himself standing in the familiar training hall of the Town Lord's Manor together with his mother, father, Aunt Sasha, and Uncle Charles.
This group of 5 had been gathering here quite frequently over the past half-year, so there was nothing unusual about them being present; however, the sixth person in the room was undoubtedly a new and unexpected addition.
After dragging Lucas away from her shop, Farah had grabbed Drake while he was haggling with a merchant caravan from Herald City, and Anna from the theft arrest she was making, and all but forced them to come with her as she led them to the Manor where she also called over Charles and Sasha.
The whole time, Farah barely said anything, which wasn't unusual, but her tone and demeanor allowed none of the other adults even the slightest leeway to object. It was frankly quite surprising for Lucas to see, especially when his Uncle Charles, nominally the strongest and most important person in Redwood Town, obediently followed after a mere town butcher.
Lucas had long suspected there was something special of Farah, and the events of this morning had basically confirmed those suspicions. As for why this grumpy, middle-aged woman commanded such authority, Lucas felt he would soon find out.
Anna, Drake, Charles, and Sasha were all looking around at each other, wondering why they had been brought here. The fact that Lucas was also present gave them a pretty good hint, but they couldn't be sure yet, so instead of asking anything and potentially giving away information they would rather not, they decided to wait for Farah to explain.
Fortunately, once she had confirmed that they were alone and no one outside was listening in, Farah turned to the group and spoke, "Lucas is a smart and hard-working boy. I often see him training himself, and the effort he puts in far surpasses what is normal for a kid his age, so I can just barely accept the fact that he has reached the Second Step of the Body Tempering Realm..."
Before she could continue, the other adults in the room gasped, with Anna grabbing her son and asking pointedly, "Is that true, Lucas? Did you really break through? I thought you promised us you wouldn't secretly start cultivating!"
"That's right, Son!" Drake spoke up in a scolding tone, "We told you how dangerous it is for you to start cultivating too soon, and you gave us your word you wouldn't try to do so!"
Seeing the looks of anger, hurt, and concern on his parents' faces, looks that were mirrored by his aunt and uncle, Lucas didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He knew that while they all seemed mad at him, it was only because they were worried he had done something reckless, but he really hadn't gone behind their backs or cultivated in secret, it was all just an accident!
Lucas felt that the best thing he could do right now was to explain everything, but he couldn't do that either with Butcher Farah present. The whole reason he was able to break through was because of the Unarmed Foundations Art acting like an enhanced version of the Focused Breathing Art, but all knowledge of what the Unarmed Foundations Art was capable of was supposed to be kept a secret!
While Lucas was struggling to find a way out of this mess, he was thrown a lifeline from an unexpected source, "Don't worry about him. He's fine. Better than fine, in fact."
Lifting their heads, the 4 other adults turned to the middle-aged butcher with Charles taking the initiative to asked, "What do you mean by that, Senior Farah?"
*Bam!*
"Little brat! I told you not to call me 'Senior' so casually!" Farah scolded.
Lucas was gobsmacked by this development.
Butcher Farah had been a good 5 or 6 metres away, yet somehow, she managed to cross that gap so quickly that his eyes couldn't even follow her. What's more, she had delivered a sharp smack that caused his Uncle Charles, a First Step Core Formation Practitioner, to kneel down and clutch his head in a pose almost identical to how his Big Sister Eris looked when his Aunt Sasha used her fist of love to educate her.
Glancing around, looking for answers, Lucas was again stunned to discover that only he looked surprised. His parents were both shaking their heads lightly, as if exasperated, while Sasha was rubbing her forehead, like she felt a headache coming on.
Taking over for her incapacitated husband, Sasha asked in a respectful tone, "Senior Farah, we trust your judgement in this matter, but can you please explain it to us?"
After shooting a last glare at Charles, Farah snorted before snapping sharply, "Explain it to you? I'm here to get an explanation from you!"
Letting out a long breath and calming down, Farah continued, "Lucas reaching the Second Step Body Tempering Realm ahead of time is certainly surprising, but its not unprecedented. I don't know how he did it, but it's obvious that he isn't suffering any negative side-effects, so you can all stop worrying about that. His level of control over his new strength is also superb, to the point where it's almost impossible to tell he broke through at all."
Pausing here for a moment, Farah's brow scrunched up, more than normal, and declared in a much lower tone, "What I can't understand is how the Hell he managed to open his Soul Sea and reach the Second Step Sea Establishment Realm as well!"
For a time, there was silence in the training hall, with no one seemingly able to comprehend what Farah had just said.
"Well, does one of you want to explain this to me?" Farah pressed the issue, obviously unwilling to just let the group of 5 remain mum.
It wasn't until prompted like this that Charles, now having recovered from the blow he had suffered to his head, asked in a dumbfounded tone, "Lucas reached the Sea Establishment Realm? That's can't be, can it?"
"You're telling me none of you knew?" Farah asked back, now even more incredulous than before. She had long noticed that something odd was going on with Lucas, and that Anna, Drake, Sasha, and Charles seemed to be helping him cover it up.
To anyone else in town, Lucas' oddity would have been impossible to detect. Ordinary people might have noticed him acting a bit different, but after a near-death experience, that wasn't really unusual.
Farah, however, was no ordinary person, so signs others had missed had been obvious to her. In the end, though, she had chosen to ignore it as it didn't seem harmful in any way, and she figured it was none of her business.
Only this morning, when she clearly sensed the lingering fluctuations of Soul Qi coming from outside her shop, did Farah become aware of just how outrageous the situation really was.
Forgetting for a moment that Lucas was only 9-years-old, the mere fact that he had somehow opened his Soul Sea before forming his Core should have been impossible! At the very least, Farah had never in her lifetime seen, or even heard of such a thing happening.
Body Tempering, Vein Opening, Core Formation, then Sea Establishment, that was the natural order, unalterable by any means. The very notion of someone skipping over the two middle Realms of the Grand Mortal Realm was akin to saying a baby had learned how to run before they could stand.
It was nonsensical to the point of absurdity.
"So that's how it is…" Lucas, however, was enlightened and finally understood what had happened to him. He suspected that his unique situation was somehow related to the accident he suffered, which would make more sense than thinking he was some kind of random anomaly, but how it all related was a complete mystery to him until now.
"You know something, brat?" Farah didn't miss the low mutter from Lucas and quickly asked.
"Uh…" Lucas, now in an even more awkward position than before, didn't know how to respond. Butcher Farah had always been good to him, and she had never done anything that would indicate that she would try to hurt him, so he didn't want to suspect her of ill-intent, but he also didn't want to act carelessly with his secrets.
Making up a story would probably be the best thing to do here, but that wasn't exactly Lucas' strong suit. On top of that, with how sharp Farah's senses were, and how knowledgeable she seemed to be, some half-baked lie obviously wouldn't work.
There was also the issue of lying to someone who seemed genuinely concerned about his well-being.
It was an awkward dilemma.
Not knowing what to do, Lucas unconsciously looked to his parents, hoping for some guidance from them. Unfortunately, Anna and Drake were also at a loss.
Farah had been one of the first people Anna and Drake had gotten to know when they arrived in Redwood Town; and at that time, even Charles' father Edward had maintained a respectful attitude towards this woman.
As for why the former Baron Newton would show such deference to a mere butcher, neither Drake nor Anna had asked. All they knew was that Farah liked to keep a low profile and didn't involve herself in anything related to the politics or administration of the town. As long as she could peacefully run her shop, Farah appeared content, and the leaders of Redwood Town had no issue with this arrangement, so no one tried to disturb the status quo.
The room fell silent again as the tension in the air became almost palpable. No one present wanted to take a step back and compromise, but none of them wanted to advance forward either, leaving the entire situation hanging.
"Lucas," Sasha suddenly called out.
Desperate for any kind of lifeline here, Lucas whipped around and promptly responded, "Yes, Aunty Sasha?"
There was a look of struggle on Sasha's face right now, as if she was engaged in a fierce debate with herself; but eventually, she sighed and said, "I think it's for the best if you explain what you can. There's no point trying to conceal too much at this point."
"But…" knitting his brow, Lucas wasn't quite sure what his aunt meant. What exactly was he supposed to explain, and how much was he supposed to conceal?
"Haa…" Farah let out a long sigh, breaking the tension slightly before saying, "I won't force you all to explain. I understand that whatever is going on here involves some secret that you want to keep, but while that might be fine if Lucas never leaves Redwood Town, as soon as he steps out into the wider world, he won't be able to conceal the abnormality of his condition. At least, not without the proper training."
Immediately, Anna, Drake, Charles, and Sasha frowned. All of them were well aware that Lucas would never be content just staying in this small backwater town for the rest of his life. There were far too many things the boy wanted to do, far too many things he was curious to explore.
Anna and Drake were never planning to stop their son from leaving home to see the outside world. Both of them had done something similar in their youth, and they had thought that with Lucas' maturity and profound knowledge, he would actually be much safer and less reckless than they had been back then.
However, it now seemed that a big complication had arose.
Still somewhat hesitant, Anna decided to ask, "Ms. Farah, exactly what kind of danger would Lucas be in if his… condition, was to be exposed?"
Pursing her lips, Farah thought about it for a moment before replying, "Only masters at my level or above would be able to tell for certain that there's something abnormal about Lucas, and it's not like there are that many of us in the Redwood Kingdom. However, that also means that if he's discovered, he won't have any ability to resist no matter what they want to do to him."
Pausing for a moment to let her previous words sink in, Farah then said in a solemn tone, "If Lucas was found by someone well intentioned, it could be a great opportunity for him. Being taken as a Disciple of a powerful Cultivator and trained to become a powerhouse wouldn't be out of the question… But if he's discovered by a more unscrupulous individual, being swiftly killed would probably be the best outcome, with torture or experimentation to uncover all his secrets being a far more likely fate."