An old man with grey hair and beard stood majestically on the winged bird as he swept his gaze towards the crowd.
"Father!"
"Grandfather!"
Hruth and Furiana both exclaimed. Almost everyone was surprised by the appearance of the old man.
"Greetings to the Patriarch", Everyone respectfully cupped their hands and bowed to show their respect. There was reverence in their tone and eyes. The old man nodded and executing a foot technique, he swiftly and cleanly landed on the ground then he waved his hand and the winged bird turned into a golden light and shot towards the palm of the old man and disappeared into it.
"Rise", the old man casually said and his gaze landed on Althea. Noticing the old man's gaze on her, Althea took a few steps forward and bowed, "Althea greets Great Grandfather".
The old man sized up Althea with a complicated gaze seemingly surprised by the form of address Althea just used but then his gaze soon rested on Furiana who was standing beside her. Connecting the dots, light dawn on the old man. "Father, this is Althea, daughter of Furiana and our granddaughter", Hruth came forward to give an explanation.
Nurith Baro, the Patriarch of the Baro clan went into seclusion thirty years ago leaving all the responsibilities to his son, Hruth Baro in hopes of breaking through to the Monarch Level. He is the only senior-level expert in the Baro clan. During his youthful days, he was considered a prodigy whose name spread far and wide in the southern regions.
"so, it turned out to be my great-granddaughter. Come let me take a good look at you", Nurith expression relaxed and a warm smile appeared on his wrinkled face. Since he was cultivating in seclusion for the past thirty years, he was clueless about the happenings of the outside world.
"It was you who caused the upheaval in the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth!", asked Nurith Baro.
Althea turned her head towards Hruth pretending to be confused. Not letting down Althea, Hruth step forward once again and explained the things that happened earlier. "Althea is only a child and she was not aware of it and before we could enlighten her, father had already arrived", said Hruth with a tinge of pride in his tone. It was obvious that he was very proud of Althea at the moment.
Nurith nodded his head as he looks deeply at Althea as if trying to figure out something.
"Grandfather, it's been so many years since we have seen each other why don't we sit and chat", At this moment Furiana who was standing at the side said with a smile on her face.
"Father, Furiana is right. Let's head to the front hall", Hruth also voiced out.
Nurith whose gaze has been fixed on Althea from the start shifted his gaze towards the crowd and ordered, "Today's matter, no one is allowed to spread outside the clan, understood!"
With that, the crowd dispersed. Regarding the commotion caused by Althea, no one would dare to divulge it outside the clan since the Patriarch had ordered. But from today, one thing was sure, Althea is no longer the trash from before. Althea followed them to the front hall, including the Elders of the clan. After reaching the hall, Nurith inquired about the current situation of the Baro clan and recent happenings in the southern region since he had remained aloof from the outside world for thirty years. After sending away the elders and other clan experts, only four of them remained in the hall. Nurith cold and detached expression relaxed and started to chat with his son and granddaughters. Nurith briefly came to understand Althea's life too. But he still showed interest in Althea because as a Senior who had experienced the vicissitudes of life he knew that someone capable of causing an upheaval in the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth cannot possess an inferior innate talent.
After a while, Nurith sent away Hruth and Furiana while Althea was made to stay back.
"Come with me", Nurith stood up and left the main hall. Althea silently followed behind him. After traversing through the garden, they came to the secluded area. In a distance, there was a small courtyard. Limestones paved the pathway and blooming flowers swayed right and left. There seem to be nothing wrong with the courtyard but Althea was different. One look and she knew that there was a formation. Sure enough, when they came close to the courtyard, Nurith waved his hand and a golden light shot towards the courtyard but it didn't go to the courtyard but was stop midway causing the ripples of spiritual energy to appear on the empty air. Soon, instead of a courtyard, there stood a cave.
Nurith turned to look at Althea and raised his brows. She was standing obediently behind him with calm composure. Normally, shouldn't kids would be surprised after witnessing this type of scene! Well, normal kids would be surprised with their mouths gaped wide but Althea is not a kid, beneath her immature look hides a woman who had experienced life and death. Althea still maintained her calm composure, she had already seen through the formation. The formation set up here was the same deception formation but of a Senior level. It could be seen that a Senior level expert set up the formation.
"Follow me", Nurith spat out those two words and strode inside. Althea quietly followed in. The mouth of the cave was ten meters high and roughly around twenty meters in width. Going inside the cave, Althea found that the spiritual energy inside the cave was ten times denser than it is on the outside. There was nothing inside the cave, only a futon was placed in one of the corners. Probably it was used by Nurith when cultivating.
"What do you think of this cave?" asked Nurith with mirth in his eyes.
"The spiritual energy here is denser than it is on the outside, cultivating here would cause one's cultivation to improve by leaps and bounds", Althea answered.
"Indeed, apart from the dense spiritual energy, can you sense something else!", asked Nurith.
Althea slowly spread out her divine sense to probe the cave. Her divine sense soon covered the whole cave and after a minute, Althea's pupils constricted, and walked towards the wall in front of her. Nurith looked at Althea who was walking towards the wall and a satisfied expression appeared on her face.
Althea lifted both of her arms and placed her palms on the stone wall, her heart beating fast,
'This… how can it be here?'
_____________________________
Author's Note: Thank you to...
•Light_ray
•The_Abyss_Returner
•Brian_Kallio_9241
•blacey
For the gifts.
....
Author's Nonsense: I know you guys gonna curse me for throwing another Cliffhanger...
*hehe*
Anyway, things gonna get more interesting from ch 50.. ∆.∆/