After learning that Emmy's grandfather was one of the only three Cultivators in the entirety of the Black Forest, Ethan and Scarlett were quite nervous. Even though the little girl said that the man was kind, who knows?
The cave fell into silence for a long time, and just as the couple was mulling over, leaving Emmy here and moving out to see how everything pans out, a dirty old man jumped into the place. The sound of the air being sliced immediately attracted Ethan's gaze, and soon enough, he saw the old man, too.
Elderly Hungjun, as Emmy had told the name, was old. If a wrinkled oak tree bark was compressed down to the size of a palm and then carved into a face, that would be Hungjun. His green eyes and bald head didn't help him stand out from that first impression, either.
More than anything, his palm-sized self seemed like a mountain; he was jumping from one wall to the other like a grasshopper, but each of his jumps made little cracks appear on the obsidian walls. One had to remember that Ethan and Scarlett now had bodies as weak as insects and they couldn't even lift up a leaf easily.
In addition, Ethan was startled at how fast the man appeared beside them and wanted to immediately teleport and put distance between them. Yet, the same sensation appeared once again, just like when he had seen Gu Yuntian; his Teleportation powers had become practically null. Unlike Gu Yuntian, though, the old man seemed more like the Spirit Formation around the Wall rather than a forceful overtake of authority over space.
Ethan fell silent. Without his Heritage powers, he was indeed… weak.
Just like how the Spirit Formation resisted his dimensional travels, he could sense the space, but it was broken in all angles, as if Hungjun was a field of gravity by himself, bending all of the matter into himself and, in accordance, space. Did all cultivators have this passive field around them that blocked teleportation?
That… certainly wasn't good.
The elderly landed beside his granddaughter and looked at her for a second in relief before looking back at Ethan. His green eyes reflected Ethan's image for a second before he barked, "Another Outsider from the Otherworlds?" Eyes a bit dangerous, Hungjun looked at his granddaughter.
Ethan felt his nerves grow taut. Can Hungjun see the Dimensional Marks he left on Emmy? If so, he had a feeling that he'd be dying soon, along with Scarlett. Thankfully, though, the old man only nodded and patted the smiling girl's head before turning to the duo. Scarlett was also fumbling behind Ethan.
She had wings; if anything, she could carry Ethan into the air, and Hungjun probably wouldn't be able to reach them, as he had no wings. But there was a delay in all of that—turning her Butterfly Wings ability on, carrying Ethan, moving out of the cavern, flying up. The elder was fast enough to catch them before that happened.
It didn't help that she didn't even understand what they were saying to get a sense of the situation.
"Calm down. I wouldn't kill you for no reason unless you are obviously harmful to us…" Hungjun snorted. "Come, Little Emmy, let's go. These people seemed to have made you cry. Do you want Grandpa to punish them a little?"
"Grandpa," Emmy was much more cheerful than earlier. She shook her head, "These humans were kind to Emmy, and the Big Sister is even a Spirit Race like us…um… Even though she looks like a… human!"
Ethan frowned to himself and had the urge to take hold of Scarlett's hand, but he didn't. If shit hit the storm, he could help her escape alone, at least.
The Elderly's gaze pierced onto Scarlett like two green fire orbs, and his expression changed slightly. These two… He frowned. "What Spirit Race? They are just Otherworlders with a Heritage from one of the Supreme Sects. They are lucky it was me who noticed them first instead of the Storm Dream Patriarch. He had wanted to research on them for a while now."
Ethan felt his heart skip a beat.
He forced a smile, thankful that the cultivator couldn't sense his Dimensional Marks at least, and asked, "Senior, may I know why you could so easily tell us apart? I don't take it that I and the woman beside me seem so different from normal humans since… Emmy seems to have seen us as one. Do we have a spotlight on us?"
"Of course, it is obvious." Hungjun snorted, continuing: "People from other worlds often arrive here. In my 120 years among the living, I have seen four of you, 'Inheritors of the sects talented enough to absorb Heritages thrown at them by god-like cultivators.' All of you have this aura of looseness around you once I scan using my Divine Sense.
"Moreover, the fact that your body size is that of a human while you only have as much body strength as my Emmy is proof enough. You both are from a lower world who absorbed the Heritage of one of those supreme sects, am I right?"
Ethan was. Hung Jun was absolutely right. Ethan had absorbed the Heritage of Dimensions, cast out by the Dimension Sect to scout cultivators from the lower worlds, and Scarlett had absorbed the Heritage of Devour, supposedly of another sect that Gu Yuntian had briefly mentioned.
It was so obvious? THey had some kind of Aura around them?
He was feeling a bit lucky that he had encountered Emmy, and by virtue this old man.
Ethan also noted the word 'Divine Sense.' Maybe it was something like his own ability to scan Scarlett's power—the ability of all Royal Heritage Awakened who could see into other people's powers. If it was so, that meant the old man already knew what Scarlett's powers were. Maybe even his own.
Gu Yuntian hadn't warned him about any of these, and he had yet to read all the books in his possession. So cultivators… were indeed scary beings.
Maybe it was because the Heritage powers were not yet his own, as Gu Yuntian had warned. It would probably not be so obvious once he ate a Pill of Comprehension… He shook his head inwardly, blaming himself for thinking of something that was unnecessary for his current situation.
He should handle this old man the way he should be handled.
"…Yes. We are inheritors of Heritages," Ethan replied hesitantly.
The old man chuckled and let Emmy jump onto his back. It was a weird sight to see a palm-sized creature carrying a finger-sized one—while both looked exotic.
"Don't be so stiff. Being chosen by those sects is a thing of great fortune." He shook his head. "Just the fact that your sect-mates would soon arrive to save you out of this hell is of great fortune."
Ethan refused that statement in his mind. The Dimension Sect was already nonexistent, being annihilated and all, while the Devour Sect was apparently a hostile force against their own inheritors. So, no one was coming to save them.
He also noted the way the old man coined this Black Forest—Hell. If a native calls their home that, it would surely be for a reason.
Yet, Ethan was confident—
No, he shouldn't be too confident, seeing the first cultivator he encountered had so easily suppressed them. He said with a sigh, "It is indeed our fortune to be chosen by such a high-standing Sect. Senior, we have a lot of questions regarding this world, and… can we have a lengthy conversation, if you don't mind?"
Hungjun looked at Emmy. "Should I help them, Little Emmy?"
The little girl nodded her head.
Ethan sighed inwardly in relief. He should remove that Dimensional Mark when he gets the chance. At least for now, Hungjun was not hostile. He could give them a lot of valuable information and teach the common sense of this world.