"Eh?!" The six-year-old girl froze, her struggles momentarily dimmed as Noire's words echoed through her mind like a broken record.
The old man's pupils dilated in shock even further. If he had shallow doubts earlier, he was now clear with his conjectures.
'He should be related to the higher planes...' The old man thought, but then he sighed in a self-deprecating manner before looking at his shocked 'granddaughter'.
By now, Noire also noticed an abnormality, the little girl seemed to be shackled in space-time, unable to move, as if she was a dysfunctional puppet.
Then, brilliant patterns of an ancient aura began to manifest between the little girl's eyebrows.
...
The little girl felt her vision dim out as an immeasurable amount of information began to flood into her mind like a raging tide.
Her pupils began to emit a bizarre amalgamation of hues that contracted into peculiar runes. Each rune gave a primordial aura, but the characters were written with a lost, unknown language.
Crack!
The little girl felt something snap open inside her mind, and it wasn't a pleasant experience.
The old man closed his eyes by now, avoiding looking at the youngster who crumbled onto her knees, held her head tightly, and then let out a crisp moan of pain.
The old man's body flinched, Noire took a step back from shock as his scalp shivered, "What's wrong?!"
Noire's complexion changed. The young girl's cries resonated and echoed through the endless room as if she was screaming from every corner.
Her body began to emit a translucent chromatic tinge. The old man simply didn't respond, as if he was deliberately sealing off his senses for the moment.
...
Within an unknown region of the boundless realm, two silhouettes emerged from space simultaneously.
When the two dropped onto the lush land, they were caught aghast for a plethora of reasons.
The entire environment seemed like a primitive landscape whereas trees and greenery stretched nigh-infinitely, the melodic chirping noises of birds coming from all around with an all-encompassing rhythm.
Then, there was the fresh fragrance of flora that embraced one's body, and the cool breeze of the rushing gales of wind.
When one would look up, they could see the iridescent rays of sunlight passing through the nets of the intertwined leaf and branches.
For a moment, the two forgot about danger and whatnot, the natural flavor had them spellbound.
These two were Anastasia and Yinfer, only when they looked around out of curiosity had they noticed each other.
"..."
The two of them were shocked speechless, confused, and then shocked some more.
Many questions popped up in their minds.
Even the indifferent and seemingly social distancing freak Yinfer had a weird light flash through her eyes.
'How?'
Was the common question between them.
Then, Anastasia furrowed her eyebrows to perceive the environment around her.
"This..." Anastasia mumbled in disbelief.
"What is it?" Yinfer asked, she noticed that Anastasia had her eyes shut for about ten breaths of time, and it didn't seem like she's going to open her eyes anytime soon.
Anastasia slowly opened her eyes, then in a low and clear voice, she said, "This place... My bloodline is steadily purifying through mediation."
Then, Anastasia looked around, if she was to guess correctly, this place had zero signs of civilization progression, a true primitive jungle.
By now, Yinfer also closed her eyes to meditate on the laws. Surprisingly, her bloodline was also improving.
Swoosh~
Unknowingly, the blood essence Yinfer had in her marrow began to react, glowing faintly like a beacon in the night.
Then, the ambient energy around Yinfer began to act up, drawing towards her body as if she had become a magnetic field drawing in this primitive energy.
Anastasia's eyes dilated as she saw the threads of energy condense into visible wisps of fog.
Recalling their current situation, Anastasia hurriedly called out for Yinfer.
"Stop!" She shouted, her eyes tainted with disbelief.
She didn't know the reason this phenomenon occurred, but she knew the last thing they need now is a grand show to attract unwanted attention.
Humans may not perceive this change, but she wasn't willing to bet that the natives of this mystic realm wouldn't notice such an abnormality in the weird energy.
Yinfer opened her eyes slowly, a flash of golden radiance swept through her deep azure pupils as she felt refreshed. The feeling left her a little speechless as if she returned to her mother's arms. But, she knew such a feeling was elusive and unreal.
Anastasia looked solemn as she stared at Yinfer in disbelief, 'This woman...'
Anastasia blamed it all on Yinfer's background as a royal phoenix, she had no way of knowing that Noire transplanted his blood essence into Yinfer's marrow, so she could only speculate about what she already knows.
"I don't know why we spawned together, and I don't know why Noire isn't with us. Still, we better switch locations because someone might have noticed us already." Anastasia said, trying to sound as friendly as possible.
Yinfer knit her eyebrows together, obviously displeased.
"What qualifications do you have to order me around? I'm fine by my own, senior brother will find me sooner or later." Yinfer replied with an obvious hint of disdain in her tone.
Anastasia clicked her tongue and frowned. If Yinfer didn't follow her, she has no choice but to follow Yinfer. But, she doesn't want to be led around by a child.
"You may be a Queen, but you're still far from being capable of moving around by yourself! Just stick with me so that I find us a good hiding spot!" Anastasia said, trying to not lose her temper.
If it was following Noire around, she wouldn't mind.
But, to follow a newborn chick just because of her status was absurd.
Yinfer snorted coldly, not even budging an inch from her spot, and said, "Oh? You're the last person I expected to worry about senior brother's companions."
"You..." Anastasia's heart sank. Inadvertently, her killing intent began to swell up from her heart along with her concealed depression.
She grits her teeth like a grinding disk as her body began to tremble lightly, obviously fighting against her primitive instinct to attack Yinfer.
Yinfer's eyebrows almost conjoined as she said, "What? a killing streak of three wasn't enough? You want to add one more?"
....
Inside the sealed space of the Evergreen Tree.
The young girl finally stopped screaming before she collapsed onto the floor, her body temperature dropping exponentially.
When the growling died down, the old man let out a heavy sigh as he looked at the young girl with pity in his eyes.
"She's half-alive half dead."
He then answered Noire's previous question and continued.
"As for me, I'm 99% dead. In fact, I'm only the projection of a remnant wisp of divine sense, the real me perished countless years ago,"
Noire was momentarily petrified.
Just a wisp? If a mere wisp was able to maintain supervision over a boundless realm for thousands of years, how strong was the real person?
Maintaining the stability of an entire sealed space array for thousands of years with less than 1% of his spiritual force, what kind of concept is that?
The old man seemed to guess Noire's thoughts, he gave out a dry laugh before saying.
"Young man, my current soul force is weaker than yours. But, my knowledge sea had a massive span of spiritual energy, it shouldn't be a problem to supplement the array a few thousand years ahead."
"This... This senior, what's going on?"
Although Noire had lived for thousands of years, his age is nothing but a drop in the bucket if compared to the old monster in front of himself.
This old man's strength was something unfathomable even for someone like Noire, he didn't know what to ask or where to go with the conversation.
He looked at the young girl first and asked, "What does senior mean by half-dead?"
"Oh? It seems that your priorities are a bit messed up, ho ho ho..."
"Well, she also has a remnant of a soul within her, but the body is that of a puppet. She has a loop curse implanted onto her knowledge sea, Yue'er will only remember herself as a six-year-old child. Whenever she realizes that something is off, be it intentionally or unintentionally, her knowledge sea will implode on itself and reset her memory all over."
"This..." Noire was speechless, he then looked at the girl with pity, she had to experience this pain every year?
"Wait..." Noire's pupils shrank, the old man seemed to notice his hidden speculations and nodded even before Noire could ask.
"Indeed, she's also been with me. At first, my heart couldn't withstand it. Even after hundreds of thousands of years, I still can't bring myself to watch as she goes through this ordeal..." The old man sighed.
This child of his Master had done nothing wrong. Alas, fate so wished to curse her as her father defied the heavens.