While following Lin Feng, Hai and his group noticed a peculiar thing.
Although not so perceptible at first, they could see slight and almost imperceptible fluctuations in the air, like just the vague outlines of ripples.
Elena who noticed it turned to Chang Hua with an intrigued gaze.
"Madam, what are those?" She asked while pointing at the fluctuations.
Chang Hua smiled bitterly at being called "madam" by one of her nephew's women, but shrugged it off and answered her question.
"Actually, the Paradise Palace is bigger than what most people think." She commented while smiling a bit and pointing forward.
The group turned to look forward and saw that they were going to arrive at the innermost area soon.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Bing Qing questioned while feeling that there was something more to it.
"Look closely." Chang Hua said and right after, Lin Feng seemed to vanish into thin air.
"Wha-" Bing Qing widened her eyes when she saw this.
"Space distortion!?" She exclaimed while feeling her head getting lighter just by imagining the astronomical amount of mana or resources necessary to maintain such a thing.
"Well, actually, all this mountain is under a space distortion field." Hai commented while coating his eyes with mana.
Chang Hua turned to him with an "as expected" face before facing forwards again.
After a few seconds, the group suddenly felt a strange sensation as if passing through something sticky.
Then, the scenery before them changed completely.
There was no more inner-most area on the top of a mountain, but a beautiful and humungous cave.
The cave was so big that it might as well be as big as Hong Kong or another of the remaining cities.
It had several floating lanterns illuminating the cave's walls and ceiling while the city inside it had its own neon lights, holograms, and lanterns that made the city seems lively and vibrant.
"Now, this is quite a surprise." Hong Li-Wei commented while looking around.
"Huh?" She felt something beeping in her pocket and picked up her phone.
Hong Li-Wei widened her eyes in surprise when she saw that there was no signal of the Nexus Net in here.
"Wha-" Before she could say something, Chang Hua chimed in to explain.
"In this place, we are out of the Nexus Net's range." She explained to them, and as a result, earned strange gazes from everyone except for Hai and Kryn.
"What she means is that we aren't on Earth anymore." Hai added with a carefree face while inspecting the cave's walls.
"An asteroid, maybe?" He commented aloud and earned an exasperatedly face from both Chang Hua and Jia.
"How is this bo-, man, always able to guess things correctly?" Jia couldn't help but ask her milady.
Chang Hua just shook her head and moved the platform to follow Lin Feng who was going towards a castle right in the middle of the city.
The castle was the most eccentric thing that the group has seen to date.
It had the walls of a medieval western castle, the towers in a pagoda-like shape, half of the interior that seemed like a military base, and the other half being that of a high-tech lab.
"I don't know if it's rude to ask this, but is that supposed to be something we should look up to?" Hai asked with a strange face. This is strange even for him.
Chang Hua just shook her head to indicate to not worry about such things and moved the platform towards one of those pagoda-like towers.
While they were getting closer to this castle or whatever that is called, Hai's eyes narrowed slightly.
He felt like someone was looking at them, or more specifically, at him and he looked to seemingly air.
He felt the gaze vanishing right after.
'It has been quite some time since I found someone like that.' He thought while awaiting what was to come. And he couldn't stop a smile from inevitably forming on his lips.
After Chang Hua landed the platform on an open area of the pagoda-like tower, a team of people dressed in white clothes from head to toe, swiftly approached them and cast some magic on them while also using some devices to conclude the process they were doing.
After barely a minute, they nodded toward the group and went away.
Chang Hua nonchalantly started to walk towards a double door at a distant corner of this open area while gesturing for everyone to follow her.
Lin Feng had already landed before them and gone through the checking process, so he was waiting for them besides that door.
"Hurry up. Don't make the palace master wait." He hurried the group when he saw them walking so leisurely like that.
When the group heard his words, they felt annoyed at him, but they were already somehow expecting it, so they just shrugged it off.
However, the only one who reacted to his words was none other than Hai.
"Hai?" Kryn suddenly asked when she noticed that they were falling behind.
Chang Hua and the others turned to look at Hai and they nearly laughed when they saw him.
Hai started to walk slower than before, like an astronaut in the moves.
"…" Lin Feng said nothing when he saw this scene. He just felt several veins bulging on his forehead.
Hai didn't pay attention to him and kept walking like that for a whole minute before eventually arriving at the door.
He couldn't play around too much as he didn't want to delay the group too much, so he eventually stopped playing and simply appeared near the door.
Lin Feng felt his blood pressure raising when he saw how fast Hai could have arrived at the door, but chose to walk like that. However, in the end, he said nothing and knocked on the door.
"You may come in." A womanly voice comes from the other side, prompting Lin Feng to push open the double door.
When he pushed it open, the group saw an area that supposedly shouldn't be on this tower as the design and structure of the room before them was way different from this pagoda-like tower.
'Another space distortion?' Hai wondered inwardly while walking inside following Lin Feng.
After the group entered, the door closed behind them and vanished.
Looking around, the group saw a big luxurious room with a wooden floor, windows without glass panels, and a wall with ¼ of it being wood and the rest being white material.
The ceiling was the most attractive thing, though.
The ceiling was what appeared to be a starry night sky.
It was possible to see the stars clearly and they even seemed to be moving.
"I see that you like my room." The same voice from before was heard by everyone.
Turning towards the open door on the side, everyone saw a woman standing in the garden with her back facing them.
Walking towards the door, the group stopped before entering the garden.
Then, Hai blinked his eyes in surprise at the scene that unfolded before his eyes.
Both his aunt and Lin Feng took a few steps forwards and respectfully bowed to the woman.
"Elder Chang Hua greets the palace master."
"Elder Lin Feng greets the palace master."
They both said in unison while cupping their fists and bowing their upper bodies.
Although surprised, Hai quickly woke up from his stupor and observed the woman who just turned around.
The first thing he noticed was her pointy ears, much like those of an elf.
The second thing was her deep blue hair like the ocean gave a feeling like looking at the sea itself.
Then, Hai noticed a few shiny blue scales around her body and her slitted, reptilian-like golden eyes.
Those eyes gave Hai a feeling of being looked upon by a predator or something similar.
'A dragonborne.' Hai's smile nearly broke when he guessed her "race".
It's his first time seeing someone from "that" race.
Apex.
A mysterious race that few know of its existence and even fewer have seen one in their whole lives.
This race is composed of individuals who can absorb someone's powers, magic, vitality, and everything else.
The more they absorb, the more powerful they grow.
And there are some of them who are born with a "race" that they will ascend to once they have absorbed enough.
Among all the possible races, a dragonborne is one of the rarest as dragons are legendary beings.
Hai only knows of a few dragons and all of them are owners of mega-corporations. Thus, someone who has any blood of a dragon or a relationship is extremely rare, and this is not talking about dragonbornes.
"Oho…" The woman muttered with a huge smile while looking at Hai.
Hai felt his body wanting to react to her gaze like it was begging him to run away as fast as he could.
However, in response to this, Hai looked her in the eyes and smiled.
"Chang Hua, your nephew is an interesting guy." She said before noticing that they are still bowing "Oh, you two can get up now. Thanks for the good work."
Both Chang Hua and Lin Feng stopped bowing and went back to their positions.
"I'm Akame, the palace master of Paradise Palace, and as the handsomeness incarnate over there should already have noticed, a dragonborne." The woman commented in a carefree tone like she didn't just drop a bomb on the group.
Chang Hua smiled bitterly at the palace master's behavior. She was always like that; it was difficult to know when she was serious or when she was just joking around.
"Bing Qing." Bing Qing said while doing a small courtesy bow.
"Oh? Ai's daughter, huh?" The palace master commented after hearing Bing Qing's name.
The mentioned part flinched when she heard Akame's words, but chose to not comment on it. It's not the place nor the time for it.
"Stella Cruenta-Anima." Stella introduced herself right after.
"Oh, a Cruenta-Anima." Akame commented with a slightly curious gaze, but nothing else.
Stella's eyebrow twitched when she heard how nonchalantly the palace master was when mentioning her family.
Akame then turned to look at Hong Li-Wei and Elena.
"Hong Li-Wei." She introduced herself briefly before falling silent.
"Elena, young master's maid." Elena did a formal bow with a small smile on her lips.
"Maid, huh? I will pretend I believe in you." Akame commented after looking at Elena for a slightly longer period of time than the others and then looked at Kryn.
"And you, little phoenix?" She questioned while paying close attention to Kryn.
"Kryn." She said with her usual expressionless face.
"Huh." Akame nodded before looking at Hai.
"Hai, the handsomeness incarnate as some may call me." Hai said with a small smile while looking her in the eyes.
One thing to note is that, aside from Elena and Kryn, nobody else looked Akame in the eye when talking with her.
And Hai was the only one who actively maintained eye contact with her.
Akame smiled when she noticed his unaffected gaze and she chuckled.
"You are interesting, boy." She commented before averting her gaze to Lin Feng.
Lin Feng's body flinched and he started to shiver slightly.
"Lin Feng, you may go now." She commented while doing a shoo gesture.
Surprisingly, he didn't express anything but a tinge of relief and quickly scurried away.
Now, with only Hai and his group in her garden, Akame looked at them one by one before looking at Chang Hua.
"Little Hua, it only takes me to avert my eyes for a second and you already turn into a woman." Akame said while shaking her head with mock sadness on her face.
Chang Hua who heard those words felt her body heating up and her face getting red, but she tried to maintain a calm composure.
"Palace master, I-"
"You don't need to tell me anything, I know that you are already at that age. The one in which you will hog anyone to marry you before you turn into an old hag." Akame nodded to herself as if she had just stated a universal truth.
Chang Hua's face started to twitch and she took a deep breath to calm herself down.
'Huh… she is good.' Hai thought while observing their little interaction from the side.
While Akame may seem easy-going, Hai has observed that she sometimes subtly controlled the conversation's flow and the other party's emotions a bit, so as to conduce it to her desired direction.
Also, Hai has noticed that Akame is strong.
She should be around Lake rank with how much his body was wanting him to react.
'Though, I'm more interested in what techniques she uses instead of her power.'
While a rank higher than him, Hai wasn't afraid of Akame's power. After dealing with that higher being, his sense of fear of an enemy seems to have been broken completely.
And while he doesn't know if he can defeat her as she seems to have lived for at least a few thousand years, Hai is sure that he at least won't die so easily.
Akame suddenly stopped talking and turned to look at him again.
This time, however, she had a huge twisted smile on her face.
"Boy, you are tempting me. Don't blame me if I end up eating you~" She said while clenching and unclenching her fist.
In response to her, Hai only smiled.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
-----------------------------------
A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
So, what do you guys think about this chapter? Mainly about Akame's first impressions.
Comment what you thought about this chapter. If you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.
Another thing: Please give your feedbacks. I want to know what you guys think, if there are things that could be better or if I could have done something in a simpler manner. If you could also leave a review, that would help me to understand what you think about the novel in general, so it would be really helpful.
Also, join our Discord community, there you can interact with other readers or with me in case you have questions or ideas about/ for the novel.
Discord server: https://discord.gg/NZV2EtdJY8
(The link is also on the novel's synopsis).
...….
Power Stones' rewards:
100 Power Stones = 1 bonus chapter;
200 power stones = 2 bonus chapters;
500 power stones = 3 bonus chapters.
...….
Also, check out my other novel: Accursed Dices.
That is all for today, thank you all for reading! 🍷😎