Looking at the white dwarf flower, Old Dai simply gulped.
"Eira, please. I didn't come here for that matter. The reason for my coming is simply to tell you I have found the person you have been looking for…" Wiping the cold sweat on his forehead, Old Dai stated.
The eternal monarch pricked her eyebrows, and slight surprise could be seen on her face despite her obvious anger.
She did not yet sit back; she hovered in the air with an icy breath floating in between her fingers. Her aura made space behind her freeze, forming a mirror like surface of fragmented space. She looked at Old Dai with a poignant glare.
"What are you talking about? Daiwyn, I have no time to play games with you. I have been looking for someone suitable to succeed me for many years despite my best efforts I could not, and you are telling me that you found someone when obviously you were not looking for said person."
Old Dai let out a sigh of relief; it seems she still had a bit of conscience despite her anger.
"Precisely." He simply answered.
"Alright. I will allow you to speak of your reason in more depth." She said before descending upon her seat once more. The moment she sat, another glass of tea appeared on the table.
The two continued their conversation in the middle of nowhere, in deep space. As for the frozen white dwarf, I'm afraid it would take an innumerable number of years for it to unfreeze.
...
A few months back, but the same day in the True Martial Greatworld.
The hazy moons left their central place at dawn to the heavenly sun. Birds chirped in a sonorous and melodic manner to announce the beginning of another adventurous day on this great planet.
Specifically, inside the planet's greatest patch of green, a few teenagers could be seen waking up one after the other atop a gigantic white tree of odd allure.
"Owaaahh! T'was a delicious night of sleep, I feel reinvigorated for our journey." The first to speak was obviously Tang Hao.
"Are you now?" Another laughingly responded. It was Thorin, who was stretching his limbs with a smile on his face.
"I guess everyone is waking up." A soft, melodious voice that contrasted the vigorous voice of the young teen rang atop the tree.
Su Yao, who had also woken up, sat in a cross-legged fashion, apparently meditating a bit.
"Well, not everyone." This time again, a different voice sounded. Everyone else turned to a tall, purple-haired pretty boy with two blades hanging on his waist.
Raizel was looking at the only one still sleeping—Kaelen.
The latter was lying there with hands supporting the back of his head, peacefully asleep, an innocent expression at ease on his handsome face.
"Ahahaha, you're right." Laughing, Su Yao looked at the sleeping beauty, then around. Noticing someone wasn't there, she couldn't help but ask, "where's sister Xue?"
Now that she mentioned it, the other guys realized, indeed, Xue Qing was missing.
"Here!" Right before everyone began to worry, a voice came from below the tree, followed by a white shadow that appeared beside Tang Hao, who was not ready at all.
"Ahh!!" The latter screamed and jumped in fright.
Seeing his reaction, Xue Qing swiped a side-long glance at him.
"What is it, cousin, does the sight of me frighten you so much?" she said jokingly, yet with no hint of smile on her face.
Seeing it was her, Tang Hao, embarrassed, simply chose to ignore the taunt. "Hmph." Was his reply.
With her appearance, everyone else turned to Kaelen, awaiting his awakening, everyone but Raizel, who was still staring at Xue Qing. For some reason, he couldn't pinpoint why, but he felt she was different in more ways than one compared to yesterday. He approached her until he was a step away, amidst everyone's surprised gazes.
"Hmm…" He stared deeply at her for at least five breaths.
Anyone being stared at by someone so close would begin to feel shy, let alone a girl like Xue Qing, who was stared at by a pretty boy like Raizel, not to mention she had just realized her crush on the latter. Her pale ivory skin took on a pink tinge that turned deeper with each passing moment.
Finally, a light of realization flashed in Raizel's eyes as an answer came to mind.
"You broke through?" he asked in a clear voice.
It was only after he said that that everyone noticed a change in Xue Qing's aura. Indeed, because the latter had great control of her energy, it was difficult to notice unless she blatantly released it, but you can only have so much control, especially at early stages.
"Yes, this morning, while everyone slept, I felt a surge of strength out of nowhere and broke through three stages…" Xue Qing replied.
"What!? How is that even normal? Did you already consume the pristine heart roots?" Furrowing his brows, Raizel was not convinced and probed further.
It wasn't normal to break through so many levels in one night. Even more unusual was the fact that her aura was profoundly stable—not shabby at all.
"I haven't consumed the earthly treasure plant as of yet. The reason for my breakthrough…" She paused as she looked back at him with a slight blush, causing him even more confusion.
Seeing her look, Tang Hao's face took an ugly shift. He turned to Raizel, mad fumes gushing out of his ears. "You pervert, you dual cultivated with my cousin!?" he shouted in anger and shock as he jumped around, seemingly eaching to throw hands.
"Dual cultivated? Whatever that is, I was sleeping all night, we didn't do anything." Raizel shook his head as he kept looking at Xue Qing, waiting for her answer.
However, Tang Hao's comment made her blush to no end. She furiously turned to him and kicked him away.
"What the hell, you twisted mind!!" she didn't forget to shout.
She then exhaled loudly, thus regaining control of her emotions. Gazing at Raizel, then turning to Kaelen, she simply said, "Your grandfather passed by last night."
This surprised Raizel, who did not expect this reply at all.
"What? Old Dai is here!?" a shout erupted as Kaelen rose from the land of dreams.
He turned to look at Xue Qing and Raizel in confusion, his hair a bit messed up from the night's sleep. His bright amber eyes glowed with anticipation as he then looked around, only to be disappointed with no sight of Daiwyn.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Raizel didn't understand how that correlated with her breakthrough.
"Your grandfather came to us last night. I was still awake, so I greeted him. He told me to take care of you and gave me a gift… I believe what he gave me was an inheritance which allowed me to break through, but I haven't opened it yet; it should just be its residual energy." She explained calmly.
Raizel finally understood; however, he still looked unusually at her: 'To think grandfather would give her an inheritance… it's probably a very powerful one since he wouldn't keep useless ones—but why…'
"Did my grandfather say anything before he left?" He asked.
"No, we didn't talk much… well." She was answering but suddenly stopped.
"Well?" Another voice wanted to hear the rest; it was Tang Hao, who had rushed back after being sent flying.
Kaelen had also been listening intently. If Old Dai had appeared, he probably had something to say but left.
"Well, we did talk, but it had nothing to do with you guys, so I won't say." The ice maiden swiftly turned away with no intention of continuing.
Indeed, her conversation was quite personal; there's no way she was ready to announce how she felt yet.
"Oh, come on." Tang Hao complained.
Raizel was a bit surprised she refused to say but didn't think much of it. Since she didn't wish to speak about it, there was nothing anyone could do. In any case, if grandfather wanted to speak to them, he would've done it directly and wouldn't do it through her. So whatever was said between the two probably had nothing to do with them, so he wouldn't pry too hard.
He turned to Kaelen, who had also woken up. "Sleep well, princess?" he joked.
"Sure did." Kaelen picked his nose nonchalantly and blew it away after.
"Since everyone's awake, let's keep going then," Thorin, who had been silent along with Su Yao, finally said.
"With Xue Qing's breakthrough to the moon spirit stage, our strength is further increased," Kaelen said. "But this is still low within the inner circle of the Lower Wilderness, so let's stay prudent guys. Let's go."
That said, he jumped off the tree through a passage, and a few seconds later crashed on the ground with a huge 'thud,' leaving deep steps on the ground.
The others followed suit, and the six of them continued their march towards the next area of interest.
…
A week later.
Somewhere inside the inner layer of the Western Wilderness.
"Boom, boom, boom."
A huge, dozen-feet-tall red flaming rhino was clashing with a group of six teenagers, but only two of them seemed active. The beast's massive horn was almost a third of its entire length, like a towering bone pick. A red flame formed at its tip as it rushed toward a floating figure.
"Su Yao, it's coming!" one of the teenagers announced.
"I got it." The floating figure floated higher up. Around her, thousands of green and white light swords of energy formed in the sky. In a flash, the thousands became five, as they coalesced together into five weapons dozens of meters tall. Each weapon was more real than material weapons. Mystical inscriptions embellished the swords, making them look like divine armaments, an ancient atmosphere gushing out of each.
Surrounded by the giant emerald-colored elemental weapons, Su Yao looked like a flying goddess—simply spectacular.
In battle, her reserved personality left place to a serene battle state. She waved her dainty hand towards the approaching rhino, time seemed to slow down druing the picturesque scene and the five huge light swords immediately shone with a brilliant green gleam, they flipped horizontally and stabbed toward the rhino.
"Rwooshh!!!" The wind owled furiously with the passage of the gigantic sword auras.
"Boom!!" The rhino horn collided with the five swords of light, causing a massive explosion, mixing flashes of green and red energy.
"Cacha-crack." What ensued was the gradual breakdown of the poor rhino's horn, half of its long body disintegrating into tiny bone shards, but the five huge swords disappeared along with it.
"Nice, it has lost its weapon, let's finish it." In a blazing thunderous manner, Raizel came rushing with two sizzling blades in his hands.
The blades' bodies shone with a reinforced metallic gold sheen, whilst purple thunder coated the edges; they were extremely beautiful. But even more beautiful was how they were wielded. In a flash, a tyrannical blade intent erupted from Raizel's body, two huge blade auras formed around his short blades thus giving them much more reach.
The blade intent and elemental energies formed a white phoenix with purple and gold wings sizzling with purple thunder and metallic golden sheen behind his body.
"Thunderblaze Phoenix Dual Blade Art, Second Stance—Divine Feathers of the Thunder Phoenix."
The phoenix shadow's wings merged with the blade auras, and the terrible blade intent reached a climax as it grew twice its size with purple-gold feathers surrounding it. If obe listened closely, you could hear distinct tiger roars from the blade energies.
"Purple Tiger Maneuver, Aiyahh!!!" Raizel's body disappeared in a colorful flash as a very hazy purple gold tiger head formed aroud his build and reappeared atop the rhino. He swung his phoenix feathered thunder blades with mighty force.
With no suspense, the entire dozen-meter-tall rhino was slashed in two by the dual blades. The blades' auras continued on the ground, causing a massive explosion, leaving two huge blade marks on the ground.
A terrible blade intent emanated from the slash marks.