26 Chapter 26. Mother's family reunion

Under the clan head's provision, Leo, Aurora, and Lex were led to a large opening in the farthest corner of the clan's territory. Usually, in clans and other territories, the beautiful locations in the area would be located in the middle but here in the Decan clan's farthest corner was a beautiful ethereal clearing of land that filled with glossy fresh green grass that still had the essence of dew still peacefully lying on the top of the surfaces, absorbing the sun's warm embracing rays. Slicing the land in pretty much two, was a beautiful large crystal blue pond that laid there peacefully as the fallen leaves from a single beautiful cherry blossom tree slowly danced with the wind before finally landing softly on the water surface, creating small ripples, an epitome of peace and tranquility if you will.

In the middle of the serene large pond was a small flower field island with a simple two-story bamboo house built dead in the middle of the island which was connected to the shore by a large wooden bridge made from a series of clusters of tree root vines.

"Wow!" Aurora couldn't' help but exclaim in wonder as her eyes sparkled like stars as her attention was fixed on the sun's rays which were mesmerizingly reflected off the water surface.

"What an amazing place!" Leo also joined in the amazement.

"I had a feeling you kids would react like this," the clan head laughed with a big smile.

"Are we here?" Leo asked after seeing the house in the middle of the pond.

"Indeed, now let's go! I'm sure this will blow the old man's socks off! He hasn't been the same ever since Ava disappeared," the clan head excited spoke as he led the trio to the island.

Knock knock!

Silence...

Knock knock!

Silence...

An annoyed expression appeared on the clan head's face as he waited for a few seconds and then knocked again.

Knock knock!

Knock knock knock!

Eventually fed up, the clan head could no longer wait and he forcefully pushed the door open and walked into an extremely dark room as he disappeared from Leo and Aurora's view.

"Come on in!" the clan head smiled as he called the trio.

But just as they were about to enter, an angry frustrated cold voice of an old mature man suddenly boomed from inside the house "Aron! How dare you just barge in here! Do you have no patience?! I was about to come to open the door!"

"Uncle Alfred, I do have patient," the clan head spoke annoyedly but then he put on another face and excitedly spoke, "I have important news for you."

"Is it regarding your son? I'm not going to train him, don't even try it! I have no intention of leaving outside of this house for a while," the voice mockingly laughed.

"No, it's not that, plus you have rejected me a bunch of times already. I am here for a different reason," the clan head's voice rang out as he called the trio, "Come in kids! There's nothing to worry about!"

Silently, Leo, Aurora walked in slowly with Lex on Aurora's back sleeping. As they walked forward, they found that the whole room was actually quite dark but the things in the room were quite discernable. They found the clan head sitting on a large beige animal fur sofa and slowly joined him and waited.

Step... Step... Step...

A series of steps rang out in the room, breaking the awkward tense silence, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. And out from the light brown wooden stairs, an old man who looked around seventy slowly walked down and he was wearing a dark brown robe and had a very well-trimmed goatee on his wrinkled face. Immediately upon seeing him, Leo's brain started sending him caution signals and his face slowly turned to one of hidden shock as Leo found out that the energy that this man was silently radiating was so strong that even Leo with his killing intent out of control would probably not be able to defeat him.

"Who are these children?" asked the old man intimidatingly asked as no discernable expression appeared on his face.

"Even I don't fully know yet but you should find out for yourself. Here take this," said the clan head as he threw the badge over.

"This-" the old man spoke in shock as the words stopped coming from his mouth as he felt the texture of the badge. He immediately walked to the thick white curtains that were blocking the light and opened them, he immediately turned to the badge and took another closer look at it and out of nowhere, clear shiny heart-filled tears began to drip from his face as he fell to his knees.

"WHYY?!" he shouted out in anger loudly as a mysterious overwhelming invisible energy emanated from his body, immobilizing everyone in the house.

"ALL THIS TIME!! I've been searching for you and the only clue I find about you is this badge yet..." the old man could not finish his sentence as he silently sobbed, "...yet... Now it's too late..."

Another deathly silence descend on the scene as the old man laid there crying silently, "Wahh! Wah! Wahh! Wah!" the sudden cries of Lex broke out suddenly, interrupting the scene.

"What's wrong, Lex?" Aurora carefully spoke out as she immediately brought Lex to her front and began comforting him trying to get him to calm down. After a few seconds of being comforted by Aurora, Lex's loud cries immediately died down and his beautiful electric yellow eyes opened as he looked around the scene, not knowing about anything that had just happened.

"Ma...ma," a word seemed to come out from Lex's mouth as a very unclear young voice sounded.

"Huh?" Aurora was suddenly shot with surprise as she did not believe what she had just heard, "What did you just say? Say it again?"

Lex did not seem to pay any attention to Aurora at all as his attention quickly turned towards the old man and Lex's tiny warm white hand slowly poked out and pointed to a window in the old man's direction.

"Ma... ma," Lex called out as he began happily laughing.

Hearing Lex say the word 'mama,' Leo immediately turned towards him as happiness completely flooded his mind as his gaze handed on Leo. Seeing Lex pointing towards the window while calling out mama, Leo's body subconsciously walked over to the old man's side to look out the window.

And standing right outside the bamboo house was a large tall tall cherry blossom tree. Each of it leaves an extremely enchanting shade of pink and its branches flowed in all directions in a very artistic and majestic manner. Everything about the tree could be described as perfect, it's strong roots were firmly rooted in the solid grassy ground as abundant vibrant life energy was radiated by it.

"Mom..." Leo silently mouthed as he walked forwards jumping out the window and slowly walking towards the cherry blossom tree.

"Mom..." Leo whispered as he fell to his knees and tears also began flowing from his eyes as he laid there sobbing helplessly as grief and sadness filled his heart. What he saw from the window was a portrait of his mom, that was created by an expert who had exquisitely trimmed the branches and leaves to create a stunning almost identical picture of a younger version of his mom.

"Mama," Lex's voice once again rang out as the little infant reached out for the window. Not able to leave Lex alone, Aurora picked up Lex and took him out of the house to see the cherry tree. Upon reaching it Aurora put Lex down and gracefully sat down beside him.

"Mama," Lex weakly called out and he began slowly crawling towards the tree.

"Mama," he called out again as he slowly climbed to his feet with the help of the tree, and then he opened his arms and gave the tree an extremely warm hug.

"Mama," Lex happily called out as he smiled at the tree.

"Lex.." Leo subconsciously called out to stop Lex but then Leo also couldn't stop himself but his body began walking to the tree as he also reached out and gave the tree a large warm hug as he desperately tried to fight the tears that were currently welling up like a flood in his eyes.

"You have always been watching over us, I miss you so much, Lex misses you so much. Even my grandfather misses you. You must have known about this by now," Leo slowly whispered to the tree as if it was his mother.

Suddenly a warm surge of energy bloomed from the tree as it flowed from the trunks and root of the tree and into the bodies of Lex and Leo, directly flowing into their hearts. Feeling the warm satisfying energy, Leo felt like he was being embraced by his mother as an extremely comfortable feeling seeped into the deepest parts of his heart.

"I love you, mom. Keep watching over Lex and me, I promise to make you and father proud. We will rise to the top of this world and have many children for you to watch over, I pray that you are happy and are with father where ever you are," Leo silently communicated with the tree as a warm smile appeared on his face.

"You, are you the ones who brought this badge here?" the old man's voice rang out as he slowly walked out from the house, his eyes still red bloodshot from his tears.

"Yes, it was us," replied Leo as he gave the grand elder a bow.

"Where were you when she gave you this?" the old man quickly followed with another question.

"We were at the southern border of the Lapis Kingdom near the Ruby kingdom," Leo simply replied.

"Did she send you guys here to bring this badge?" the old man asked again.

"No, she told me to drop my blood on this badge and follow the arrow and it led us here to you, she said that we would meet our grandfather here," Leo slowly replied.

"Your little Ava's son?" asked the elder in astonishment as silent shock filled his eyes.

"Yes, me and this little baby," replied Leo as he pointed towards Lex who was still hugging the tree and seemed to have fallen asleep while lying on it, "I am Leon Areia and this is Lexus Areia. And that is my friend, Aurora Wellbloom."

"I can't believe it! After almost thirty years of losing contact with her, I never imagined that she would bear two sons and that I would even meet them, I'm so sorry for not paying attention, I became too heartbroken and emotional over seeing that badge once again," apologized the grand elder as he became full of smiles.

Hearing this, Leo found a good opportunity to explain everything and fully introduce themselves. He decided to begin with what his mother told him about what happened in the past and how she met Reon and how they settled down in the village.

When upon finding out Ava's master's plot, Alfred suddenly flipped as his aura of an over emission stage cultivator exploded as he shouted in anger, "That stupid bastard! The sect had told me that she had gone missing and died during a mission. I'm gonna kill him when I get the chance!"

And after explaining everything and reaching to this point, it took a few minutes for Alfred to completely take in everything and calm his heart down.

"Sigh… I am indeed very angry. But my grandchildren have come to visit me. Grandchildren I never knew. Here, you guys must be tired from your journey to the village. I've been such a bad grandfather. You will live with me in this house from now. Don't worry little ones, I will make sure to take care of you. It will be how I repay little Ava for how much of a failure of a father I was," Alfred happily spoke as he gave a slight smile.

He then turned to Aurora and he asked her, "Would you like to stay by Leo's side and be my adopted daughter?"

Hearing Alfred's offer, Aurora's heart began beating excessively and uncontrolled as she began to panic as happiness flooded her heart. Upon see the clan head and the grand elder, it had completely given her almost no hope of staying by Leo's side as there was a large number of boys that had approached her upon them arriving at the city. She would even go to being as low as a servant for Leo as Leo was the only stability and security that she had in her life right now. Seeing that she was being offered this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Aurora took a long time to calm herself down before happily nodding, "I would love to, grandfather."

"Great, hahaha! What a fateful day this is, let us celebrate, I will send your uncle Aron home and us three shall have a feast today," Alfred happily exclaimed towards the sky in joy as a large smile appeared on his face.

"Grandfather?" Leo suddenly called out.

"What is it, Leo?" Alfred replied.

"That tree, it was planted by my mom right?" Leo asked as he pointed towards the beautiful cherry blossom tree that laid there by itself in a large clearing with no tree near it.

"Indeed, this is the only thing I have the belongs to your mother. She planted this tree when she was five after she found out her talent and affinity. She always loved this place and she would water and nurture this tree every day but ever since she left, I've had to take care of it for her, when I found out she was missing, I realized that I had nothing that belonged to her except this tree and now this is what it's grown to after thirty years," Alfred replied as he seemed to be recalling a deep memory.

"Nevertheless, let's go feast! You guys must be starving!" Alfred energetically spoke as he walked back into the house.

That afternoon, Andy was the most interactive he had been in a long time. He helped the kids settle down, he cooked for them and started babysitting Lex. At the dining table, Leo and Aurora were happily gobbling up the food while Alfred was carrying Lex who was slowly dozing off into the sweet succor of sleep.

"Leo, Aurora, how old are you two?" he quietly asked.

"Aurora and I will turn six in three months," Leo replied as he swallowed his food to speak.

"Then have you started cultivating yet?" asked Alfred curiously.

"Yes, we have," replied Leo as he shoved another spoonful of food into his mouth.

"Impressive, to have started cultivation at a five-year-old from a village is quite impressive. Have you tested your element affinities yet?" asked Alfred again as he nodded his head in approval.

"No. The village did not have anything that could test it," replied Leo in a disappointed expression.

"Ok then. You are lucky, Sapphire city's affinity testing ceremony is going to begin in a week, I will register you guys and you can have your affinities tested there," spoke Alfred as a lightbulb suddenly appeared in his mind.

However, after learning that their father was a regular villager, Alfred had quite low hopes for the tiny duo as most villagers in the Lapis Kingdom's records would have talent at the green realm with some rare ones at the blue rank.

That highly eventful day ended with Alfred forcing and making sure that the clan head, Aron, did not tell anyone else about these kids for now and he planned to keep their identity a secret until the ceremony.