Character description Anna:

Anna has straight black hair that cascades down her back. Her face is stoic and heroic with strong angles. her green eyes have a hidden fire behind them. She has a thin frame and lightly tanned skin.

The boys suck in a cold breath. Franklin questions, "really? It doesn't look dangerous."

"Yeah, there won't even be anything to bury or soul to reincarnate," Elanor confirms with a nod.

"Wow," The boys say in wonderment.

"We'll be that strong to in the future!" Roy exclaims.

Elanor frowns and glares at the bush on the hill and transmits, "See this is why you shouldn't teach people whose potential is gone. They will only feel despair when they learn the truth."

John sighs and responds, "Even if you say that… We've already talked about this. They won't survive in this place if they don't cultivate."

Elanor rubs her head in frustration and then with a swipe of her hand, she shatters the solid energy she'd created. She looks at the boys and shakes her head, causing her long blond hair to fly about. "Listen, you shouldn't compare yourselves to others. It'll only lead to pain. After all, you are all far too old to start cultivating."

The boys look at each other with perturbed expressions. They are still kids after all, how could they be too old. Franklin then asks, "We're still pretty young, though right?"

Anna sighs behind him as she climbs to her feet. She walks behind him and puts her hands on his shoulders comfortingly. "It's true, I'm sorry I couldn't provide you the correct upbringing," Anna laments.

Franklin looks over his shoulder at his distressed mother and says, "all the adults are cultivating so I don't think we should be too old. I'm only thirteen how can it be too old?"

John ruffles his branches, remembering his youthful struggles. He then sends his voice to out, "It has to do with potential. If you're a genius, you enter foundation stage before five. If you are skilled, you should reach it around five. Reaching foundation stage by eight is average. Beyond that and you'll be sent away by your clan or forced to be a servant."

"How can you tell potential by age?" Louis rejects, "There are plenty of people who only show skill when they grow older."

Elanor shakes her head and reaches out towards Louis an unseen force latches on to him, pulling him over. Elanor drapes herself on his shoulder and says, "Listen kid potential has nothing to do with skill."

Louis struggles to throw off his captor to no avail and asks, "Then what is it?"

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  John steps in to answer, "Did you know that Elanor here is around the same age as Anna here?"

"What really?" The children exclaim in surprise.

Laurel pulls on Elanor's dress while looking up with wide eyes, "Big sis bully old?"

Elanor's face freezes before she lifts up the little girl with one arm. "Look here I'm not old. I'm s.h.i.+ning with youth got it!" she lectures.

"Un," Laurel nods.

John continues his explanation, "she's not wrong. When did you enter the foundation stage?"

"You shouldn't compare yourself to me. How many times do I have to say it?" Elanor responds with embarra.s.sment, "but alright, it's your fault for asking. I was born in the foundation stage. I had an entire eon of a large clan's wealth put into me before my birth though. My mom says if she were any weaker, I would have ripped out of her stomach like beasts of old," She giggles.

John begins to sweat; he'd thought she'd be some scion based on the way she acted but never to this extent. "Indeed, that is a bit extreme, isn't it? But this will demonstrate what potential is even more distinctly. The word potential, when used in reference to cultivation, is based on the locked in age. As you all know, cultivation extends your life. It's also well known that youths learn better and their body develops during this period. The thing you might not know is that cultivating also makes you age slower."

Franklin looks at the full-bodied Elanor. While she doesn't look as old as his mom, she definitely looks like she's aging correctly. Elanor smiles at the boy, eyeing her up and again says, "You shouldn't compare yourself to me."

"That's right, her clan is well known for body manipulation. Even in my time, you couldn't trust what you see. I would guess without body modifications you wouldn't look much older than our little Laurel there?" John adds.

Once again, everyone is blown away their jaws. .h.i.tting the floor. Elanor jumps out and shows off her body. "Perhaps, but I'm fully functional! It's just too bad no one can handle me," she jokes with a wink.

"Ahem, The point is that the higher the cultivation realm you can reach during this growing period, the better," John explains, "You will have a body that is better able to utilize energy, and you'll have a better understanding of it in general. As an example of someone without skill in a clan, I didn't reach foundation until nine. After that, I ended up devoting my life to gardening. It's a tough pill to swallow, but I suggest this route for all of you. If you find a path, you want to follow it won't be so depressing to know you won't soar into the heavens."

Anna claps her hands together and says, "Alright, everyone is tired. You all shouldn't worry about the future and run home to wash up for lunch." With that said, they all broke up to help with lunch.

Later that evening Anna climbs the hill to visit John. As she nears him, she bows slightly.

"Come and sit," he says while patting the ground near him with a branch. Anna nods and sits next to john. He then asks, "What brings you here?"

Anna brings her long legs up to her chest and leans her chin on her kneecaps as she looks out at the setting sun. "Is there truly no future for the kids?" she asks quietly.

"Some of them have talent Laurel if she survives has a good chance of being picked up for her diviner's eyes. Donna is still young and will probably reach the foundation stage in a year or two. She also seems to have an affinity with the demonic beasts so her future as a beast tamer is pretty good. But I guess you're most worried about your son…" John pauses and considers, "it's hard to say honestly. He is too old, but the future is not certain." He then shakes his leaves, "Know that for someone like Elanor being the most powerful is something she takes pride in. For her to not be strong is the same as not existing. She has a lot riding on her. Not reaching the heavens for these children doesn't mean not having a future. Too many get stuck on that idea and thus miss out on opportunities and new paths!"

Anna takes in the bush's words as she watches the orange sunburn the horizon. "Being strong is important for the emerald family too. Perhaps my next child will be like Laurel and soar in the heavens?" she whispers to herself. "How strong is that woman anyway?"

"Elanor? I don't know to be honest. When we first met, she was just in the foundation stage, and now she appears to be at the Obelisk stage. However, I think she must still be hiding her true strength. So far, we've only seen her use physical strength. Even when she took on the tribulation lightening, all she did was throw her body in front of it," John explained to Anna.

Author note-

I won't jump around the bush. It's as some have guessed when I reach the end of this arc I will be postponing writing on this novel. However the good news is that I will once again be back on a regular release schedule. I will be going over my reasoning behind this below it will be quite long so feel free to skip if you want.

First the main reason is because I originaly wanted to write the Ascension of the Emerald Family (previously name Iron will reaches for the heavens) I stopped writing it because this novel became popular right away. This was just a fun prompt that I was going to do for a hand full of chapters but before I knew it I had hundreds of readers. This is not to say that I don't enjoy this story but the problem comes with the chain of events of me writing it.

Some may know that this orriginaly was just supposed to be a comedy. The gist of the joke was that a guy reincarnates as a bush he wants a peaceful life but s.h.i.+t keeps pulling him in. After Joe and Elanor I was running out of ideas with just the two of them so I brought in the village. While it was always in the same world as Ascension of the emerald family this is where it became linked through Anna. I began to think of telling a story about the age between the other series of novel in modern day I have planned.

From here my mind thought of all kinds of cool things these new characters could do and be and how they connected to the unwriten story. But this caused the plot to become merky and lose focus. I've felt this for awhile and people have complained as well. I wasn't able to get out of it unfourtanatly. This has made me not enjoy writing as much. I do have a plan to break out of this in the next "book" but for now I need to slug through this.

I have plans on how to make this book better and I will do them as I work on Ascension of the Emerald family. Basicaly it involves removing a lot of content and adding more John and character conflict. I've created a poll asking how you'd like to see this done on Royal Road.

As to why I'm going back and restarting Ascension of the Emerald Family is three fold. One I also really want to write that story it will be epic and exciting. Secondly I'm the only one who gets the references I've thrown in all the parts that I'm like oh snap no one cares about since the other novel doesn't exist. Third I've read a lot about prequals being bad and Ascension of the Emerald Family isn't suppose to be a prequal lol.

I've been battling with depresion and writing is part of me trying to deal with it. Getting something out there was very healthy for me but all these issues were dragging me down. I hope everyone understands and well Ascension of the Emerald family is a more adult story I hope you all will give it a shot when I start releasing it. Sorry for causing trouble.