exchange of thoughts

 The bartender cleaning a bar interjected "thank the sect for that too my friend, it seem they want to live a lasting impression on us. It has been there for half a month just floating above the city but it did help with the gangs who are so scared of making them mad they are holing up in their dens.

We sometimes see carriages being pulled into the docs full of young masters who want to get into the sect."

I said "Well life is good for the few lucky ones. What can we do but just die toiling our whole lives while they live like kings for hundreds or maybe thousand years. Life is truly no fair huh."

The bartender now fully engaged with our conversation instead of other customers blabbering agreed with me with a hint anger in his eyes.

The older man sitting next to me "being ignorant is a bliss they say you kids might envy this people but I don't. You see you only hear about their strength and longevity but forget that what they had to give up to achieve it.

Nothing is for free in this world kids they might live longer but how do they spend it most of the time they are holed up meditating in a room alone for years at a time to receive 'enlightenment' and miss what the world had to offer by any seeing resource and fighting over them to death.

Most the cultivators you see in the world are just strong people who just live life an animal going where their instincts told them with no sense goal in mind just chasing more strength.

In a sense they are no different to worker who have no ambition and work to get their salary and spend and repeat.

They are in a rat race like the workers it is just that the cultivators while is a little bigger for cultivators."

A conversation that started out as a friendly bar side banter turned onto world philosophy debate which attracted other drinkers whose were seeking a meaningful talk about their life like a therapy but had no way of vent their frustration.

With giving me a moment to replay an even older man who seemed to be in his late 60 added 

"It is the rat race what frustrates me but the costly options that are there if you want to get out of it which might not be possible for many."

The bartender didn't like the way this was going 

"Even then there is still hope and if you can't yourself then change your environment. Some people are placed at a wrong environment like 'a flower being planted in a desert'.

 The best thing you can do is go to a place that gives you an advantage over others because being a mediocre man is like 'being a tree in the forest of axes' the only thing that awaits you is dying to be warmth of other people."

The straw hat guy exhaled "shish your idea isn't entirely wrong but that won't work for most people who have golden shackles that bind them to their place be it family and work, even the cultivators aren't spared from this in the form of sects."

Being the only teenage man who is the youngest here I wanted my idea of the world to be heard so I could get criticized for my shortcomings 

"in my opinion people get blinded from the beginning as they say 'a war horse isn't the fastest horse or the strongest stud but the one who goes the farthest' people see their surroundings and see the easiest way to get ahead without realizing the price they will have to pay to get there in this way.

And when the road comes to collect the tax they scratch their heads like monkey who doesn't know where to go and the path becomes a wheel and we change into the rats.

If they were brutally honest with themselves they could have avoided other people's paths and try to focus a goal even if a little could get them where they wanted.

Other people might get there before you but with time will they outlast you. That is the reason few succeed in life be it mortal or immortal.

If you start early you get better result but you still can change your course to the path your heart tells you even if it takes you a little longer. Cultivators have a major advantage in this with time to 'out-strategize, out-improve you will eventually out last many' 

I don't know about many things but I know a good question can give you much more info than a good teacher."

The people who thought this was a conversation with just the bartender and the straw hat was surprised by the thoughtful comments the young man made about life where most were wet behind the ears.

The straw haw posed the question "did you forget about the golden shackles?" 

Ken simply replied 

"If you wanted to avoid them you should have asked good questions before you took the path that brought them but we are all humans and make mistakes.

In this case the best thing you can do first acknowledge and learn how this came to be the second is set minute goals that changes your path by a few degrees that is enough to stretch the shackles and the longer you wait the more the shackles loosen.

There might be golden shackles but I don't believe there are everlasting shackles."

The straw hat didn't respond but just quietly chewed my words other people around as didn't wait for him but carried on with their own questions.