As it turned out, no, she wasn't.
"Don't worry!" Myria laughed. "I'm not shameless enough to impose on you. I'm aware that I have not yet married into the household, so it would be presumptuous of me to start living with you. I already have my arrangements, so I will be living in a rented apartment for the time being."
"If you need any help, feel free to ask us," mom said, eager to secure a daughter-in-law. I tried not to cringe once more.
"Sure! But for now, I will be accompanying Jun Wen to the Huo Yan Valley." Myria looked firm. "Don't worry, uncle and auntie. I'll make sure he returns safely. And though I don't look like it, I'm a pretty strong cultivator myself."
She raised a hand and conjured a raging bubble of water in her palm, as well as emanate a forceful qi aura. Dad nodded approvingly.
"Peak Yellow rank, at least."
"That's right."
Despite my parents being impressed, I inwardly noted that Myria hadn't progressed much in the last couple of months I had seen her. The last time we met, she was also about peak Yellow Rank. I guess she had to spend more time dealing with politics and family than training. Of course, it was also unreasonable to expect her to suddenly increase her cultivation realm in just a few months. I just happened to have the system helping me, plus the tournament a week ago was a huge motivating factor. Not to mention the resources I earned as rewards from there.
If I hadn't obtained the high-grade spirit stones, I might not have broken through to Mystic rank yesterday.
"All right, but be careful." Dad regarded me sternly. "Jun Wen, you had better take care of your girlfriend when you're in Huo Yan Valley. You know how dangerous that place is."
"Yeah."
Myria looked as if she was going to protest and claim that she would be the one taking care of me, but she thought the better of it, especially after a cursory glance in my direction. She must have noted the difference in strength, however subtle and concealed.
Smart girl.
"All right, you had better rest for the journey tomorrow then." Dad rose to his feet. He smiled. "For tonight, let's have a welcoming dinner for Myria."
Skipping over the details of the sumptuous meal at a restaurant (apparently, we went to the Qin family's restaurant to eat, but fortunately Qin Ying was out that night to train), I was on the train and heading to the west the next morning. Myria was seated beside me, peering out of the window at the blurry scenery.
"I never thought the surface world would look like this," she said in wonder. "The endless skies. I always heard about it, but I didn't think it was so…open. So vast. Almost more so than the ocean."
"Yeah, I guess."
"And those are clouds?"
"Yeah." I nodded, glancing at the fluffy cumulus clouds hanging above. "They are condensation of water hanging high up in the atmosphere. I guess they are kind of like the ocean in that sense."
"Heh…I would like to see them up close one day. If it's possible."
"We'll have opportunities in the future. when we go overseas or a faraway province, we can take a plane, and you'll get to see them up close. In fact, we'll be flying among the clouds then."
"Oh!" Myria clapped her hands. "I can't wait!"
She also marveled at the buildings and cityscape that flew past as the train sped along the tracks. Her eyes widened each time the train slowed to a stop at a station, pressing her face against the window.
"I didn't think humanity could spread across the land like this. Back in Atlantis, our city was isolated to…a single region. But here, the buildings are everywhere. And they are shaped so differently. So rectangular, so cuboid. I thought they would be domed shaped like ours. But they are so…tall!"
"Yeah, well…" I scratched my head. "We don't have to deal with tremendous water pressures here on the surface, so we can build them higher and not worry about the structures being crushed by the immense weight of the ocean."
"Heh…yeah, I feel so much lighter on the surface. Much faster." She swung her hand and waved it about. "No sense of resistance against my movements. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I like it."
"Yeah, I think you're used to water resistance, having lived in Atlantis all your life. It's completely different up here."
"Oh, the train is moving again! This isn't the stop?"
"Not yet. We're going far west. It'll be another thirty minutes or so before we reach our stop." The train ride was supposed to take an hour, and we were already halfway there. So it shouldn't be too long.
As the train sped by, the scenery slowly started to change. Spending most of her time staring outside, Myria noticed the transformation.
"The city's gone, replaced by…forests. They're so different from the forests in the ocean."
I didn't know they called the seaweed, coral reef and myriad of plants growing on the seabed a forest too. But I simply nodded.
"Yeah, very different."
"The weeds are so tall! So…straight! They almost look like buildings!"
"Those aren't weeds. They are trees. This being the surface, they aren't subject to water pressure and stuff, so they can grow really tall, and they don't have to be flexible. There's no need for them to bend to the currents, so yeah. They have…entirely different ecosystems there. Um, look." I rummaged for my smartphone and used the Internet to find online encyclopedias about forests and trees. "Each tree is itself a living habitat for countless organisms."
"Heh…that's so fascinating." Myria glanced outside. "And…those huge things behind them, they are mountains, right? They look similar to the peaks in the ocean, but…they have this white stuff on top."
"Polar caps. Snow. It'll take a few months, but you'll get to see snow soon."
"Snow?"
I sighed and called upon the power of the Internet once more to find the relevant articles. It was easier than trying to explain it to her verbally. "Oh, and we'll be heading to a similar place, but instead of mountains, they will be volcanoes."
"I've heard of volcanoes. We have those in the ocean too."
"Yeah, undersea volcanoes. They are common, especially in the Pacific Ocean." I nodded. "The infamous Belt of Fire just by the Rising Sun Nation. My mom would tell me and Jun Hai about them, and I think some of her research delves into undersea volcanoes. Especially after the, uh, rift, when the undersea volcanoes became homes to spirit beasts."
"The rift really changed everything, didn't it?" Myria sighed and leaned back in her seat, feeling a little tired after her excitement all day. I nodded somberly.
"That's right. And the Huo Yan Valley is among one of those regions that were transformed the most after the interdimensional rupture and the advent of spirit beasts."
"Interesting."
That wasn't the word I would use, but she had a point. As the train slowly approached our eventual destination, I shared a few more articles with her with my smartphone. Time flew by, and before we knew it, we had to alight.
"Here it is." I stared up at the signboard featuring the name of the station, Lie Yang Station. It was built near a town right on the edges of the mountain, but I didn't plan on staying near the town. Instead, I went straight for the volcanic region that was about five kilometers away.
About a three-hour journey on foot. We should make it to Huo Yan Valley before sunset, by my calculations.
"Is it me or is this place blistering hot?"
Myria wiped the perspiration from her face as she struggled to keep up. There was a dirt track that led out of town and toward the valley, a place usually traversed by people visiting the valley, and less often, vehicles that ferried supplies. Mostly motorcycles, given how narrow the road was.
"Yeah. We're drawing near a volcanic region. The heat will be intense. It's similar to undersea volcanoes. have you been near one before?"
"Once. Yeah, the waters there were boiling." Myria nodded, mopping her forehead. "But this is a more…dry heat. I didn't expect to feel this uncomfortable."
"Spread your qi aura about your body and use it to protect yourself from the temperature. It might be a bit more spiritually exhausting, but it'll help you against dehydration and discomfort."
For a marine person like Myria, used to living in the cold depths of the sea, she probably wouldn't be used to such a harsh and hot climate. I felt sorry for her, but I did warn her yesterday. She claimed that she was prepared to follow me to the depths of hell if necessary, but it appeared that she still underestimated the task.
It took us a while to climb over a hill, but I paused when we reached its peak to stare down at the valley below. For a moment, I was awestruck by the breathtaking sight.
Atlantis had its own beauty, but while the sight below was brutal and horrifying, it had its own elegance.
Volcanic rivers streamed all over what looked like isolated but massive pockets of rocky land where a miniature city had been built. Boiling lava churned and bubbled, forming huge lakes, upon which arcane machinery dipped into, tempering vast quantities of spirit ore and metal or drawing the geothermal energies from the spiritually rich volcanic bedrock.
Human workers scuttled about like ants, laboring as they operated machinery or carried materiel from one place to another, making use of their own cultivated strength rather than vehicles. In many places, the houses had been converted into open workshops, with blazing furnaces and blacksmiths hammering red-hot metal into shape with sheer force.
Never mind the magnificent sight, I could breathe in the potent, fiery yang qi that saturated the entire place. My lungs almost felt as if they were on fire.
"Amazing…I've never seen anything like this before."
Beside me, Myria was blown away by the scenery. She stumbled, and I caught her before she could slide down the steep slope of the hill. I nodded and patted her hand.
"Yeah, me neither. I mean, I did see the photographs on the online brochures and various websites, but actually seeing the Huo Yan Valley in the flesh is a completely different experience."
"How can anyone live here?" Myria wondered, coughing as she choked on the inflammatory qi. "I feel like I'm going to collapse any second here, and I've only been here for about two or so hours. How can they…not only live here, but be so active?"
"They've acclimatized to the environment here," I explained with a shrug. "And you shouldn't feel too bad about it. I bet, if you throw any of these guys into Atlantis, they will probably succumb in an hour or two too because they are not used to an aquatic atmosphere, even if you teach them the breathing technique. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses."
Honestly, the only reason why I could learn the underwater breathing technique that Myria taught me was because of my affinity with the water element in the first place. If I was like Qin Lie or Xiao Yan or Mo Fan and only had affinity with lightning or fire elements, I probably would have failed to master the underwater breathing technique quickly and drown.
Speaking of Qin Lie, I wondered if the people living in Huo Yan Valley were part of the Armament Sect. Whoops, wrong story. It wasn't as if I was living in the Spirit Realm, after all.
"Well, let's not stand here." I gave Myria a slight, encouraging push. "Let's keep going. The sooner we reach Huo Yan Valley, the earlier we can rest."