"Are these spirits at your command?" asked I with unbelief what I had seen.
"Oh! You know that these are spirits..."
"Well, I know that you have 26 Legions of Spirits, but still, to see them in front of me with my own eyes is shocking for me..."
Gremory chuckled and replied, "Yes, these spirits are under my command. They are loyal to me and will do whatever I ask of them." I couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement at the thought of having someone powerful with me...
Yet, it was Gremory; I couldn't let my guard down completely. She was maybe one of the nicer demons, but she was still wicked and cunning...What I learned from my previous world was that demons didn't like to feel like slaves to humans, so as long as the demons felt the same as humans, they wouldn't rampantly attack me...
Gremory's face suddenly appeared in front of me and said, "You! amazing..."
"Why have you said that?" I asked.
"You know that ceremonial magic drains a lot of willpower and mindpower, especially to bring me into this world and have an exchange with me that surely drains you a lot. Still, you can stand after all of that...Amazing"
Gremory's words caught me off guard...I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me, my vision blurring as if the world were spinning out of control... It took a moment for me to regain my composure and steady myself, realising the toll that the ceremonial magic had taken on me...Yet, the world around me seemed to darken, and my thoughts became muddled...In a few seconds, my vision became blank...
....
I opened my eyes, and what I saw was a familiar ceiling...I realised that I had been transported back to my room...What!! My room!! At once, I got up from it...When I got up, I saw Gremory standing beside me...I looked at her, and she showed a sinister smile and said, "Welcome back. You must be wondering how you ended up here. When you have passed out, I tried to find your shelter or house--"
"And you use your power to seek my past..."
"You know it..."
"Of course, I know it; you can see the past, present, and future...Yet, you saw a past where this is not my house anymore, right?"
"Ah! You mean that woman..."
"Don't tell me, you-"
...
"TA-DA!"
She brought me to a room, where the woman of inner disciple lay down and was bound by ropes to the corner of the bed, with one spirit beside the bed. After seeing me, she kept growling with her mouth sealed with ropes.
"What have you done??" I asked Gremory about this.
Gremory replied with a mischievous grin. "Well, that woman didn't let me come to this house...So like you are seeing right now...I took matters into my own hands...It wasn't me; it was just one of the spirits who took her down...and made sure she wouldn't be a problem anymore...Now, you can finally have your house back..."
"It's bad...When you mess with her, you will mess with her sect..." said I.
"Ah, the sect you have explained it to me...It's alright; you will create it too, right?"
"Yeah, I know, but I don't want to mess with another first..."
Hearing our conversation, the woman of the inner disciple started to growl and become aggressive...
I took a deep breath calmly and said "*SIGH* may you remove the rope from her mouth??"
Gremory took a glance at the spirit, and the spirit removed the rope...
After the rope had been released from her mouth, she spat and shouted, "YU LEI!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!"
Gremory looked at me and asked, "Is that your name?"
"Yeah...That's my name..."
"I never heard that type of name before..."
"Because this world is on another side of the world, you will not see names like mine in your world..."
"IS SHE YOUR SENIOR OR WHAT?" asked the woman...
Again Gremory asked me, "What is this senior she said?"
"It's a term for an elder generation or an elder teacher...and junior is a term for a younger generation..."
Gremory showed a cynical smile again and said, "YES! I am his senior..."
"Cut it out; you are not my senior..."
Gremory chuckled and said, "I was just joking around. Well, it's fun to pretend sometimes, isn't it? You know what, Yu Lei, I am so curious about the power you told me earlier...Your sword and your scroll didn't manage to help me find the answer..."
Shit, so those are fake...I thought they were real...
Gremory's aura suddenly changed, and the room filled with an intense and mysterious energy emitted from her. She said, "Because the agreement had been sealed, I couldn't retract, nor could you...Yet, I need to know about this power...And your offerings couldn't answer it..."
Is she going to go rampant right here??
"So do you want to redo the agreement between us?" I asked Gremory.
Gremory chuckled softly, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. "Let us continue on this path...As you know about my power, I see something interesting will happen, and I smell some of the treasure scents that will come to us..." she replied, her voice filled with a mixture of excitement and determination.
"It means you have seen the future of mine; hearing you smell treasure scents, I almost forgot that you can know the whereabouts of treasure..."
"You want to obstruct me?" Her eyes fiercely stared at me.
I don't have any power to prevent her from doing that; for now, just let her be happy...
"Just, do whatever you want! At least you know what you are capable of." Helpless of me, I couldn't prevent her...
"Great..."
Gremory asked the spirit to bring the inner disciple out of the room...I followed them out of the house...When I took a step out of my house, I was shocked...The farmland and everything were gone; it became a vast training ground with tall walls and obstacle courses...It was a stark contrast to the peaceful countryside and dumb society that I had known in this world...
They brought the inner disciple to the centre of the training ground, where all the spirits of Gremory gathered around on the training ground seats...Gremory brought me to the place where there were two distinguishable chairs...Both chairs were adorned with intricate carvings and luxurious fabrics, and we both sat on the chairs...
I asked Gremory, "What are you trying to do with her?"
"Of course, to test this Qi power..."
"Test??"
Gremory clapped her hands, and one spirit came to the centre of the training ground...It used the inner disciple appearance...
"It is one of the Legion's leaders... So let's see again: how is this Qi power? Besides, before you were passed out, you couldn't watch it..." said her.
Immediately the atmosphere of the training ground became intense; all the spirits cheered and growled at the two people in the centre of the training ground...
The woman of the inner disciple shouted at me, "YU LEI!!! You know this is unacceptable, and you are well aware of the consequences, right?" Her voice echoed through the training ground, causing a hush to fall over the spirits...The intensity in her eyes matched the charged atmosphere as she awaited my response.
Yet Gremory was the one who responded, "NOW, YOU ARE TRYING TO SPEAK WITH GRANDMASTER!! YOU MAY PAY SOME RESPECT TOWARDS HIM!!" Gremory's voice boomed across the training ground...
A sudden, all the spirits chanted my name with the title of Grandmaster, "GRANDMASTER YU LEI! GRANDMASTER YU LEI! GRANDMASTER YU LEI!"
I said to Gremory, "You did that on purpose, huh?"
"Well, sometimes you need bait for higher power, right?" answered Gremory.
"YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, YU LEI!!" Shouted the inner disciple.
Opposite her stood one of the Legion leaders, whose prowess, skill, and power I didn't know. I didn't know which side would be better, but when Gremory said that, one of her spirits took her down earlier. It meant she was outpowered and out-skilled by the spirit of Gremory...
The spirit pointed a fiery finger at her, I saw a lot of sweat come from her…It may be indicated that she was scared at the beginning and knew she couldn't win this match…
With that, the battle began. She began to lean and dash forward with her blazing fist...Yet, the spirit didn't try to move or avoid her... Instead, it stood its ground, confident in its abilities. As her fist collided with its body, a shock wave and dust rippled through the air...The impact of the collision sent her stumbling backwards, momentarily disoriented...She quickly regained her footing, determined to prove herself against her foe... Now, she used her foot to launch a powerful kick towards the spirit's midsection, hoping to catch it off guard...As her foot connected with its body, the spirit remained unfazed...Undeterred, she swiftly followed up with a series of lightning-fast strikes, showcasing her agility and skill in an attempt to break through its defences.
However, as she launched another attack, she realised that her opponent's body remained unscathed, revealing an astonishing level of resilience and power...The spirit seemed to effortlessly deflect each strike with minimal effort, leaving her feeling frustrated and outmatched...She knew she needed to come up with a new strategy if she wanted any chance of defeating this formidable opponent.
While they were fighting, Gremory asked me, "There is a piece of question that I am confused about you, Yu Lei..."
It distracted me from the fighting, I asked her back "What is that?"
"How did you know about the ceremonial magic of Solomon? If you are from this world, where there is no trace of Solomon's power, even though there is no trace of systematic Abrahamic... So you can't know this ceremonial magic.." She looked at me with curiosity.
I paused for a moment, contemplating how to answer Gremory's question...Finally, I replied, "Well, it's true that the knowledge of Solomon's ceremonial magic is not from here, and there is no trace of it...But do you believe if I say I was from Solomon's world?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Maybe this is different from what you believe in as demons, but I am being reincarnated into this world, where my previous world was Solomon's world...That's the reason why I knew the ceremonial magic because I had read it..."
Gremory's eyes widened in surprise as he processed my words...She seemed to hesitate for a moment before asking, "So you're saying that you possess the knowledge of Solomon's ceremonial magic because of your past life in another world? How is that even possible? That's why I couldn't trace the ceremonial magic information in your memory..."
"You are asking the wrong being; I can't provide the answer; why am I in here, not in hell or heaven?"
Gremory's confusion deepened, her brow furrowing. "If you don't have the answers, then who does? And why are you unable to be in hell or heaven?" She questioned, her voice tinged with curiosity and concern.
As I met her gaze, a flicker of uncertainty passed through my eyes before I responded, "Perhaps there are forces at play beyond our understanding, ones that have brought me here for a purpose yet to be revealed."
...
While we were talking, I didn't watch the fight. Suddenly I looked at the condition of the inner disciple at the centre of the training ground; her condition was so bad that she was full of bruises and blood in various places. It was clear that she had been through a gruelling battle or a one-sided fight...Her breath became unstable, and her body trembled with exhaustion...
"You know that this match is not balanced and fair," I said, my voice filled with sympathy. "It seems that she has been dealt an unfair hand..."
"When you said about immortality and Qi power, surely I think she is Immortal..."
"No!! She is not immortal; she is just in the first realm or mortal realm; that's why she is the inner disciple.."
"WHAT!" her face was surprised and shocked after hearing, that she was not immortal.
"Her lifespan maybe 100 years more, but still, she is not an immortal being..."
"Well, 100 years is a longer lifespan for a normal human...Just wait a little longer; there will be something interesting after this..."
"Don't tell me! You want to provoke another with her...."
"Relax, I just want to observe a little longer, maybe..." She paused a moment and continued, "There will be another guest for us..."
After some long minutes, while she was getting beaten more and more, she was still breathing and unstable...I couldn't hold it anymore, watching her like that...I immediately stood up and looked at Gremory...But, she was showing a mischievous smile at the sky, as if she knew exactly what was happening. It sent a chill down my spine, realising that she had planned this all along…