Shin took slow, patient steps down the familiar path of his manor. Along the corridors, there were huge murals coloured in gorgeous shades by the Lantis Republic's best painters. Scenes depicting Shin's early childhood in the Frie Clan, his first battle with Lukman in the Summit… Finally, the scene that brought fantasies to everyone's mind, the moment where Shin bested the Celestial River to trigger the most absurd Spirit Evolutions of all time. So many of Shin's memories had been pulled out from the recesses of his mind and placed straight on the walls of his manor. And none of it was his doing!
The manor was solely built using the money of the Lantis Republic. Initially, Shin wanted to fork out the money by getting a loan from the Highgarden Duchy, but the oceanic superpower vehemently rejected that claim. If Shin was to owe anyone money, it should be the Lantis Republic, the place where the Celestial Dragon was worshipped.
Other than the training facilities, gym and library, everything else in Shin's manor was added in by the Lantis Republic, mainly the Longyu Clan and Longyu Tian. They wanted Shin to feel as comfortable as he possibly could in this land. In some ways, they had achieved that goal. The orphans, now known as 'Shin's Family' by the executives of the Lantis Republic, were now first-class citizens of the superpower nation. Just like the young heir himself, they were given access to the best resources, the best teachers, and were even given luxurious accommodations wherever they went.
It wasn't just Ella and Emma, the twins known as the Blizzard Fairy Sharpshooter and the Glacial Fairy Markswoman. Ryner and Lia, both water-elemental Spirit users, were assigned the best teachers the Lantis Republic could afford. Elyse and Fionn were in the final years of Imperius Academy; thus, they couldn't just leave the Himmel Empire willy-nilly, but they were given a Royal Guard whenever they visited. Max was pampered as well. The young man was being trained as a merchant by Elrin's Zedcris Conglomerate, and due to his relations with Shin, Max was chosen as an ambassador by Uncle Terlus himself to start a new branch in the Lantis Republic.
The only one from the orphans that didn't step foot into the Lantis Republic was Jacob, who had ties to the Himmel Empire's government as a researcher and developer. Though, if Jacob wished to change his allegiances at any time, the Lantis Republic was willing to accept him with open arms. That was how much the High Council and the Eight Clans of Water wanted to please Shin.
'Hah… I really don't deserve all of this...' A cold sigh escaped from Shin's lips as he walked by the murals. In the end, he only wanted to become stronger for two reasons. The destruction of the Black Masks and his eventual ascension to the Immortal Realm. Those two opinions hadn't changed one bit. If he could snap his fingers and swap everything out, Shin would do so in a heartbeat.
Shaking his head, Shin calmed himself as he approached a familiar stone chamber. There weren't many facilities in his mansion that he liked, but this cultivation room was one of them. It was three metres tall, ten-metres wide and twenty-metres long. Boasting an array of Aether Crystals, each one possessing dense elemental energy brought over from every corner of the globe, the cultivation chamber was the best place for any single person to train. If not for his busy schedule, Shin would most likely spend half of his waking hours within the chambers.
Alas, he wasn't here to cultivate today.
The massive doors were pulled open with a smooth pulley as the gears started to churn within the door. A dense fog tickled Shin's ankles and cooled down his rising temperature. He was feeling quite nervous about the deed to come, but at the same time, a bubbling sense of anticipation was gathering within his soul. The lights of the chambers touched his face, and all of his pores opened up. Vasts amounts of spiritual energies permeated into the youth's body, enriching every single fibre of his being.
Shin was instantly intoxicated. Water elements… Mind elements… Light elements… Space elements… and most importantly of all, the time elements flowed into his very soul. It was absolutely surreal. The rainbow of colours striking Shin's body each time he entered. Shin could never get sick of this feeling, no matter how many times he walked into this chamber.
"Shin, you're finally here!" A familiar adenoidal voice was the first to call out to Shin. Standing at a full head shorter than the man himself, Lady Seph hopped forwards as a smile broke her face. As a Spirit Venerate, the blonde woman no longer aged on the outside. She could alter her looks to seem as young or old as she wanted. Though it didn't matter to her, Shin quite liked Lady Seph's motherly looked and requested that she remained that way. Also, her good looks had helped her gain many alliances with the Lantis Republic's elites so the Divine Healer never once went back to her elderly appearance.
Shin closed the stone door and answered with a raised eyebrow, "Master? You're here as well?"
"Haha, how could I miss out on my beloved disciple's ascension?! Not to mention, you're making history as well!!!" Lady Seph beamed. All ten of her fingers were restlessly spasming like she was playing the piano and it took all that she had to hold in her desire to break out in song and dance. "You're about to achieve something that has never been done in the long history of the Healer's Association! A feat that was only theorised and never brought into fruition! I wouldn't miss it for the world!!!"
"I'm beginning to think you're looking forward to my spiritual ability rather than me breaking into the Spirit Lord realm," Shin sighed as he dropped his shoulders.
"Hehe, that I won't deny!" Lady Seph was always a direct person. She didn't lie about her ulterior motives. "So, you'd better succeed! If you do, I'll make sure the Althea and Raphael fast-track you to become a Divine Healer!"
"Master! I hadn't practised in years!" Shin retorted. The young man still had his Intermediate Healer's license. However, due to the events following Ariel's death, Shin hardly used it at all.
Furthermore, his healing abilities were still incapable of matching those Senior Healers and Registrars, let alone Elder Healers. For Shin to be given the Divine Healer title after inventing a new ability… That was an insult to all of their hard work.
"You don't have to be an Elder Healer to become a Divine Healer, Shin! As long as you contribute to the Healer's Association in a significant way, the council of Elder Healers will give you that title!" Lady Seph reassured the youth. "The hereditary opuscules that you produce will be worth millions of gold ingots once you master that ability! Even if I don't recommend you to become a Divine Healer, I'm sure Raphael would push for it anyway!"
"Master..." Shin had to resist the urge to slap his own face. His Master was more excited than he was!
"Seraphim, that's enough..." Before the blonde beauty could continue even further, a soft voice echoed out from the side. Shin's head immediately snapped in that direction, seeking salvation from the owner of that voice. Untouched by time, Longyu Tian's appearance remained the same as it was three years ago. She didn't grow a single wrinkle or pimple, which was surreal, to say the least. Even her rich black-hair was void of any greys that would show her actual age. "You're embarrassing yourself."
"Saint Tian, you..." Lady Seph glanced over her shoulders, betrayed by the woman's words. Harrumphing, a sharp rebuttal was shot back, "Well, I wasn't the one that was prancing back and forth, muttering 'where's Shin' for the past five minutes?" Lady Seph nonchalantly exposed the esteemed Spirit Saint.
Longyu Tian's face fumed, and steam whistled out from both her ears. "Shut it, you bloody bookworm! I doubt that you actually care about your disciple! You're probably only here to see the world's most powerful healing ability instead!"
"Oh, ho? And you think you know Shin better than me? Me? The Master that trained him since he was ten?!"
The two continued to butt heads like ferocious elks locking horns. One was a Spirit Venerate, the other a Spirit Saint. They were both dominant Spirit Users, and their words could move armies and stop governments. However, they weren't above childish bickering.
'It's because their personalities are too similar...' Shin noted as he face-palmed.
From the first day that they'd met, the Divine Healer and Saint of Time were like explosive firecrackers. They just couldn't get along no matter how many times they interacted. Small issues such as who should train Shin for the day would be blown out of proportion, and they would be ready to wage war against the other if need be. And whenever they were in this state, there was only one person that could stop them.
"Master, Aunt Tian… I don't think that this is the time to be fighting..." Shin got in between the two bickering women and gently separated them. "Today is supposed to be a joyous day! Let's not ruin it!"
"..." Lady Seph continued to stare daggers at the Spirit Saint, but ultimately, she agreed with Shin's words. "Hah, Shin not only have you become stronger, but your sweet-talking has also become more and more smooth… No wonder Kanari is head over heels over you," the blonde healer scoffed while folding her arms.
"That I agree with Seraphim," Longyu Tian surprisingly took her opponent's side. "You shouldn't be learning how to talk like a sugar daddy! Pay more attention to your cultivation!"
'Weren't the two of you at loggerheads literally just a few seconds ago?!' Shin cursed mentally. The two just couldn't make up their minds. Whether they were the best of friends or the most bitter rivals.
"Whatever, let's just carry on with the session, shall we?" Fortunately for all of them, Longyu Tian was more interested in what was about to come. "Shin, show me how much you've progressed with the Time-Element."
"Ah, yes!"
Before the main event could begin, the Saint of Time wanted to see how much Shin had progressed since their last session. In the three years, the young man had various mentors, each one teaching him about how to identify and absorb the different elements. While the Celestial Dragon could incorporate any elements under the sun, it did have its preferences. In sequence, they were the Water, Light, Mind, Space and Time elements.
Shin didn't need any help regarding the water elements. He'd spent fourteen years cultivating in that very element. For the others, he needed some assistance. Light was obviously taught by his very own Master. A Spirit Venerate possessing the Iofiel Angel? It didn't get any better than that. The Mind-Element was quite tricky, though. In the Lantis Republic, the number of cultivators with the Mind-Element could be counted with the fingers of one hand.
Shin couldn't get the help of a Spirit Venerate or Saint for the Mind-Element, but he did have Kanari and Jingyu Taiyi. Often, the pair would rotate their shifts, in hopes of giving Shin as much of a varied opinion as possible. That way, using his own comprehension ability, Shin would be able to create a method to absorb the Mind-Element that was tailor-made for himself.
For the remaining two, the Elements of Space and Time, they were both taught by Longyu Tian. Yes, the Saint of Time didn't possess the capability to sense the Space-Element, but no one else could as well. At the very least, Space and Time possessed some connections to one another, so Longyu Tian could give a much better-informed opinion than anyone else in the world. But for the most part, Shin was just learning how to utilise the Time-Element from Longyu Tian.
Hummmmm…
Shin nodded and immediately got to work. His Spectre Soul opened up like a leaky faucet enabling a dense grey aura to spill out from Shin's body. Each passing second seemed to have transformed into a minute and not in the figurative sense. Among the three of them, a second was a minute within Shin's domain. Locked away from the outside world, it was hard to tell. However, a bead of condensation that fell down from the roof was moving in slow-motion. And it wasn't done. Within the domain, Longyu Tian could see the water droplet slow down until finally… It came to an abrupt halt. Shin had done it. He had harvested the Time-Element well enough now...
Satisfied, the Saint of Time applauded. "Alright, that's enough!" That was the cue for Shin to release his mana. The domain rapidly entered the young man's body as he fell straight onto the floor. Shin was heaving, desperately trying to catch his breath. That brief action wasn't easy. It took all of his concentration and precise mana-control to pull-off, but the important thing was… Shin had done it. He'd passed the test that Longyu Tian had set for him.
"Good!" The black-haired woman continued to praise Shin. "It must've been hard, trying to manipulate the Time-Element. I can see that you've worked hard."
"Of course, Aunt Tian!"
The Saint of Time continued to smile. There was no doubt in her mind that Shin was able to succeed. Thus, she had long taken out the manual that Shin had personally devised just a few months back, in preparation for his promotion into the Spirit Lord realm. "Here, I made some revisions. If you follow them, you should be able to learn that absurd new ability that you'd come up with."
"Thank you!" Shin took the blue book and hugged it in his chest like it was his most cherished baby. Finally… It was time to learn…
'Finally, I can learn 'Restoration'!!!'
✵✵✵
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