No one had expected the little lord to react in such a manner!
Theodore threw the little lord hurriedly aside and it began to float in the air on a small red cloud.
It began to inspect the shack in disapproval.
Duunim frowned and Melissa covered her lips in shock, her eyes wide.
Theodore though was no stranger to the foul mouth of the machine spirit and warily cast his gaze at the sky.
Should even a speck of dark clouds gather above this place, he would flee without hesitation!
Tribulation lightning was no joke.
Cultivators that did not die on the battlefield or of old age always risked death by encountering tribulations in their path to immortality.
Upon growing over a cultivation level of eight, any further attempt at a breakthrough required the cultivators to pass through tribulations.
The cultivators of ages past believed that the heavens were smiting the impudent mortals for defying them by cultivating.
Such superstition had been mostly debunked among the people when scientists discovered, that the lightning striking a cultivator during his breakthroughs was caused by the incredible amount of energy these cultivators had accumulated.
The lightning was simply the world's attempt at equalizing the spiritual energy.
Once a cultivator reached these late stages, the world would attempt to try to accommodate the cultivator and the resulting friction would take the form of spiritual energy lightning.
Spiritual energy can easily move through solid matter and so too could this lightning.
It was incredibly difficult to avoid because of this and even if you somehow isolated yourself from spiritual energy, you would only delay the equalization process.
Once someone survived a tribulation, a fine balance was achieved between the cultivator's energy and the world around them.
Accidents in cultivation could sometimes result in this balance being broken and one would likely get annihilated if caught unprepared.
Despite these long known scientific truths, the old superstitions about the heavens smiting the impudent and impure remained deeply rooted.
Many philosophies still worshiped the will of the heavens and told stories of evil people getting killed by lightning to scare children into behaving.
Clearly, it had worked wonders on Theodore who was by all accounts, a virtuous individual.
He thought of most fiendish behaviors as wasted time that was better used on cultivating.
Perhaps, even he would agree, if people called him a cultivation maniac but it did not bother him at all.
Every ounce of his power and the benefits he gained from it were all because of his cultivation!
A fact that he knew well and had engraved upon his soul.
A few seconds passed and Theodore felt the growing horror in Duunim and Melissa.
The two looked awfully pale and the butler was staring at the little lord, and Theodore understood that something terrible had just occurred.
The little lord was currently unaware of their true location and had incorrectly assumed that a shrine had been build by Theodore in an attempt to worship his wisdom further.
This could not have been the place that he had dreaded, considering who they were supposed to meet there and insulted by the quality of the shrine, he had voiced out his concerns.
"WOOSH!"
A large, semi-transparent fist made of mana appeared in the sky, instead of tribulation lightning and snatched the little lord.
"What the f***!? How dare you treat this little lord this way?! And the way you control your mana!"
" Absolutely atrocious, how it could be so close to correct and yet so unrefined!"
"How the f*** do you expect any good results from this s***? Humph!! Unhand me at once!"
"If you apologize with enough sincerity, I might lower myself to educate you on mana control, barbarian!!"
With shouts of insults and complaints, he was dragged straight into one of the windows of the little shack by the mana fist.
"WHACK!"
A loud slapping sound could be heard and the little lord flew out, taking a section of the walls and the roof along with him.
Coming to a stop not too far away, he was nonetheless embedded in the ground, steam rising!
"…"
Silence and serene peace returned to the island for a brief moment and Theodore's group did not dare to make a sound.
The expelled little lord had taken out much of the supporting structure of the little shack on his way out and it soon completely collapsed.
"CRASH!"
With a loud noise, the shack began to collapse in on itself and Duunim and Melissa took several hurried steps backward.
Theodore did not want to be left behind and did the same.
"BOOM!"
A loud mana explosion followed that completely disintegrated the shack!
What looked immensely odd, however, was the fact that the explosion had somehow been frozen midway!
Rubble and dust floated in the air around what was once the shack.
It had begun to accumulate and flew over to where the little lord had been planted in the ground.
The rubble and dust began to assemble into shape around him and a large arrow took shape, which pointed at the machine spirit.
Trapped in a makeshift cage below the arrow he was securely contained.
The words "Obnoxious shit head" were spelled out on the arrow with exquisite handwriting.
"Ha ha ha, how's that, you fucking idiot? Have you figured out where the fuck you are yet?"
A burst of laughter came from inside the cloud of rubble that still floated in the air.
Theodore found the voice enchanting and charming had its owner not sworn like a sailor and displayed enough power to level a city blow without breaking a sweat.
"Crash!"
The rest of the rubble fell on the ground and Theodore laid eyes on the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life!
She was tall, with waist long silver hair and eyes with the topaz blue color of machine mana!
Her nose was petite and her young face could have easily caused a catastrophe if the playboys of the world would learn of it.
She wore a white frilled dress and was holding what remained of a bottle of blue glowing liquid.
As she had been drinking from it when she destroyed the shack, it had left her dress stained.
She looked at Theodore with unrestrained curiosity and he felt immediately seen through.
Her level of cultivation seemed immeasurably deep and the pressure she unconsciously gave off saturated the area.
"You are Theodore?"
The woman still held eye contact with Theodore and asked with a weary tone in her voice.
She threw away the bottle and snapped her fingers.
Her dress was immediately freed of all stains and she closed the distance between her and Theodore in an instant!
Her sudden disappearance and following reappearance startled Theodore but he still held eye contact with her, even up close he stood his ground!
A smile broke out on the woman's face when she saw this and she laughed again.
"Ha ha ha I like it!, Truly the one I have been waiting for!"
"You show no fear! Is it because I'm not scary enough or because you have seen worse?"
"Never mind that, I suppose I should introduce myself then."
"My name is Turia, the first of Turia. Turia for short. I welcome you to my island."