It took a moment of awkward silence before Arima crouched, covering his face, and taking on a defensive posture while abruptly whispering out, "Watch out!"
Shocked, everyone looked at him as if eyeing an idiot. Recently, as everyone in the group shared a common sense of crisis and developed this mutual bond, they have gotten close to each other in a way or another, it could be said that the diversion of strength wasn't put in the equation when they quarrel or converse.
Lady Feng was the first to realize what exactly Arima is wary of, thus she couldn't help but laugh softly as she covered her little mouth.
After some contemplation, Kirin didn't know whether to laugh or cry before explaining the situation to the bewildered Queen and Anastasia.
"When Noire and Arima first met, Noire's 'Primal Predator' caused a buffer in sound barrier breaching, catching Arima off guard with an explosive soundwave from close proximity," Kirin said.
Oh!
The two of them gasped in realization before giving Arima a weird look for a moment, which didn't last long after hearing Lady Feng's deduction.
"Back when he single-handedly slaughtered over two thousand disciples, he also seemed to move without making a sound. Now that I think about it, perhaps..." She then sucked in cold air.
Perhaps this was Noire's way of telling them that if so he wished, he could kill them before they've realized it if he really wanted revenge, and they shouldn't worry about the water under the river?
There's no way to confirm, but just maybe.
If Noire knew what their assumptions were, he would facepalm in disbelief. What he did was simply testing his 'Nine Interstellar Steps' to estimate the rate of Qi Essence consumption in comparison to the previous 'Primal Predator'.
'Primal Predator' is a movement technique that focuses on the distribution of potential energy through the muscular structure before spontaneously converting said energy into a burst of kinetic, amplified by a portion of Qi Essence in varying quantities to perform a quick movement.
Depending on the density and magnitude of one's essence, the greater the effect. Usually, one's essence isn't condensed enough to perform such a taxing movement skill, but since Tianshi inherited a fracture of Noire's bloodline essence to temper her own, she was qualified to make some minor breakthrough in studying the skill to a certain degree of accomplishment.
Now, Noire fused a movement technique that is derived from the concept of space-time manipulation and 'Primal Predator' to accomplish double the results with half the effort. Meaning, Noire doesn't necessarily breach any friction-based boundaries, thus one can describe the movement as phantom-like.
'No sound due to the lack of interactive friction.' Noire thought to himself after he finished his mental assessment of the new technique.
Of course, the fabric of space isn't as solid as that in the upper heavens, therefore Noire's accomplishments in this technique will be limited to minor successes.
- - - -
After phasing through the decorated halls, not paying the slightest attention to the symbolic architecture, ornamented emblems, fascinating scripts of ancient tales that spoke volumes of this Palace's past, current, and even some subtle hints of prophecies and divination, Noire hurriedly arrived inside a room with a peculiar interior.
The walls and the ceiling were paved in a way that gave the illusion that the room itself is spherical in nature.
Subtle illusion arrays were active to keep the scenery in the room with a touch of starry sky aesthetics.
A dazzling shooting star would erratically cross over the walls now and then, making one feel insignificant in size and value when compared to the phenomenons of the cosmos.
Noire didn't care about any of that, his vision was locked onto ice attributed blocks of jade that are designed for cryo-sleep.
Each of the beauties laying on top of these jades had a translucent layer of ice creeping on top of their smooth skin, just like the snow-white beauty in fantasy tales.
'Eternal serenity, huh...' Noire thought as he took gentle, inaudible steps forward.
The placement order from left to right is Yue, Tianshi, and Ning'er.
Each of them wore a Palace dress tailored to reflect their main attribute before their death, they looked like innocent maidens taking a pristine nap rather than deceased girls.
After taking what seemed to be the heaviest and longest breath of his life, Noire exhaled whatever arrogance and pride before he bowed deeply, expressing his gratitude, appreciation, and sentiment.
Creak~
The door to the room opened slowly as if whoever wanted to enter didn't want to disturb the least, but it was futile.
It was Kirin and Anastasia.
They tiptoed inside only to be thunderstruck by the scene ahead.
Noire lowering his head so deeply that his long strands of hair caressed the black floor.
Time seemed to be at a standstill, the visual impact of three maidens laid motionless and a man which had a peerless beauty bending his body in a perfect 90°, also motionless.
Seeing this, Anastasia had yet another surge of guilt well up in her heart.
However, she wasn't alone at this, even Kirin felt a trail of moisture taint her pale cheeks, her vision growing misty and blurry, yet the visual impact left her petrified in her place.
After a cup of tea of time, Noire proceeded to sit in a lotus position without bothering to lift his head until he was seated, then brought three sets of incense burners.
He seemed to be placing some mysterious inscriptions over the incense burners, a calm five minutes passed, and only then did Noire finish.
A soothing fragrance filled the room as Noire ignited the three incense burners spontaneously, and a heartwarming scene then took place.
The smoke ascending from each incense morphed into an incorporeal image.
By Yue's bed, the smoke morphed into the image of her seated in a bathtub, commanding a small army of ducks, an enchanting innocent smile stretched across her face.
By Tianshi's bed, the phantom displayed Tianshi and Noire walking side by side under the shade of verdant trees. Holding hands, her small frame almost glued to his.
By Ning's bed, a gray image of a woman chasing after a male figure walking in a sea of corpses ahead, the woman had a content smile as she followed.
The pair didn't know what to make of what they're witnessing. Not only them, even the remaining Phoenix Maidens in the throne room who displayed Kirn's POV on a projection screen.
At first, Kirin was supposed to try and solicit a relationship with Noire and request a favor in the name of the Phoenix Palace.
Even Anastasia had similar thoughts in regards to her bloodline, but what she wanted to inquire about the most was whether her daughter had lived in happy moments by his side.
That day, the entire Palace was pin-drop silent as Noire went through his ceremony.
Half a day later, both Anastasia and Kirin left the room leaving Noire behind, and he didn't move an inch till three whole days and nights had eclipsed over the horizon.
- - - -
Noire didn't hurry to leave the Palace, he isn't a dense idiot.
He could pretty much guess that the Phoenix Household is in dire need of help, and he could pretty much speculate that the matter is related to the sealed room.
Still, he didn't rush them, he simply found himself a room to meditate and cultivate with Qi crystals as he waited.
And so a full two weeks went by before someone knocked on Noire's door.
"You may enter," Noire's voice resounded.