Bright green eyes looked at me. I could feel that Goddess Rhongomyniad recognized me despite this being our first meeting. We continued facing each other in silence for a short while. Her gaze never left my face.
-"I finally met you."
-"You seem to know me."
-"Yes. I know you quite intimately."
-"How?"
-"You are of great importance to me, after all."
-"This does not answer my question."
-"I got to know you in a similar way you got information on me."
-"Somebody was trying to make divination on me half the year ago, was it you?"
-"Indeed."
-"But we prevented that. How could you still get something out of it?"
-"This is something I can't tell you."
-"I thought so. Sigh."
-"I want to cooperate with you, Yue."
-"How and why?"
-"I know that your world will meet calamity in the near future, and I want to fight side by side with you against it. As for why, I will keep that secret as well."
-"Why should I believe you? No one would throw themself in danger for nothing."
-"You are the last person to judge people on that issue, Yue. I have my interests, of course, and I can promise that those won't harm you."
-"I can't simply believe your words."
-"Then how about a contract between us?"
-"On what terms?"
-"I shall use my whole power to support you in defending your world, and in exchange, you will join my force in a position I see fit."
-"Impossible. I'm already part of the force, and I won't leave it."
-"This... You shouldn't be part of any force at that time..."
-"Your knowledge of me seems to be not so precise as you thought."
-"No. There is something wrong. Yue, can you follow me?"
-"Why?"
-"Something has changed. I have to know if one of them is interfering again."
-"Something, them... What are you speaking about?"
-"No, that being still had them hidden at this moment, never mind. How about a union of our forces?"
-"This is something I can't decide on my own, and we don't have an understanding of our forces. For now, how about we establish a channel for communication?"
-"I'm all for it."
-"Good, then I'll have someone pass you the method of contact. For now, I have to return."
-"Wait..."
teleporting myself out of that world into Chaos, I started observing it from outside, hiding myself and wanting to find where the Goddess Rhongomyniad came from.
She stood still for a good minute after I left, and only after that did she move. She stomped the ground in annoyance and used some technique to teleport. I was able to trace where she teleported to but didn't follow her, feeling that I would be easily found if I went after her.
My avatar in Hold also observed what had taken place through screens in the World Compass, trying to see if I had overlooked something about the strange behavior of Goddess Rhongomyniad.
-"I don't understand. From the data gathered, she is supposed to be almost emotionless, and yet she behaves like that..."
-"Are you sure that your Divination is correct?"
-"Yes. I triple-checked as it was important. Any idea why she acts like that, Roman?"
-"Love at first sight?"
-"If you have no idea, say it straight."
-"Hey! Knowing you, it is possible. Unlikely, but still."
-"Can you try to monitor the place at those coordinates?"
-"Let me see... Yes, but I will have to be careful to avoid detection."
-"Then do so. Try to gain some more information on Goddess Rhongomyniad and her force."
-"I'll take care of it."
-"You want your rings back?"
-"No. I want to leave it all behind me. You can use them as you see fit."
-"OK then. I'll reforge them into something later."
Leaving the World Compass, I walked to the [Grand Library]. Finding the place where knowledge from Nobu's world was, I started looking for anything that could help me understand the situation that had just taken place.
I also sent the recording of my talk with Goddess Rhongomyniad, along with relevant documents on the subject we compiled, to the rest of the decision-makers in Hold. Loki decided to be responsible for contact and relations with Avalon, which was their official name. I asked her to keep me in the loop on the situation and continued my stay in [Grand Library].
In Chaos, I traveled back to the Shen Meng. Only a few hours passed between my leaving and returning, so she had just finished meeting with the heads of various forces. My arrival surprised some of them, but seeing that Shen Meng recognized me, they didn't make a move.
-"Everything went ok?"
-"Sigh, It never goes ok."
-"By your quick return, it shouldn't be so bad."
-"I was able to not incur punishment this time, but I may have encountered something more troublesome."
-"Well, it's good that nothing went wrong."
-"That's true. So what do you need me to do?"
-"I want you to create a permanent channel between our worlds."
-"So it came to this. Can you lead me to the place where you want the portal to be placed?"
-"Please follow me."
Under the lead of the Mansion Master, we arrived in a ruined realm in between all Nine Galaxies. This place was chosen as it was outside of the influence of any forces, and thus, we could take control of this land with no problem.
Of course, the fact that it was a wasteland with no spiritual energy or resources was not a mistake. This was to show that while we were not under them, they still held power in this world, and we couldn't do anything about this.
After fully understanding this place and receiving from Shen Meng a plan on what this place is to look like, I started getting to work. Everyone gathered outside this realm, looking at what we would do next. Some of them proposed to help, but Shen Meng told them not to worry.
The first step was to revitalize the realm. To do this, I summoned my Deer Battle Spirit. When it appeared, the aura of Abundance permeated the surroundings, bringing life back to the ruins.
The power showed by my Battle Spirt was much greater than Cultivators from this world expected. This made them understand why, despite my lower Cultivation, both Shen Meng and Soring Feather treated me as equal, if not even referred to me in some situations.
Plants started slowly appearing, soon turning the once barren wasteland into a meadow. As I made the Deer walk around, trees and other vegetation started growing. In a few minutes, the entire realm turned into a wild forest.
Completing the first step, I now had to make this place fit for Cultivators. To do this, I will create natural formations to make this place a Holy Land. I opened my eyes and took out Oath of Silence to help with detailed control. My tails appeared behind me as I used Authority of Origin with my full strength.
I started placing Spirit Runes all over the realm, binding them with nature to carefully build formation. During this process, countless Elementals were born and found a place on the land, elevating the Spiritual Energy higher with each moment.
I worked for six hours, but in the end, I created a formation that turned this small realm into a place that could rival the best spots in Nine Galaxies. Be it natural treasures or rare plants, you could see them wherever you looked.
Now, it was time to do the main point, the portal. Because it had to connect two points with Chaos between them, only one possible power could create it. Under the astounded eyes of spectators, I took my false Aeon state by drawing upon Path of Trailblaze.
Focusing fully, I slowly connected two points and started building a tunnel. With every passing minute, it grew in size until an hour later, it was enough. Combining Authorities of Void, Reason, and Origin with my runes and the tunnel, I created a permanent gateway.
It was an impressive artifact, able to endure the power of Chaos and connect points in different worlds. I decided to name them Way Stones. It wasn't a flawless creation though, as the amount of energy required to teleport was big enough, so even a strong force of this would only be able to send a few thousand people before bankrupting itself.
This was somewhat mitigated by the formation I made before, as enough energy could be generated to allow one person to teleport every five days. This was sufficient to make sure that the operations of this outpost wouldn't be affected.
The last step was infrastructure for people who will live here. As the easiest step, I simply used the Authority of Reason to create buildings. After a total of a little under ten hours, I was able to terraform this entire realm and create an outpost for the Sect that would not be taken over easily.
Returning to my human form, I waited for Shen Meng to arrive. She came quickly, allowing me to explain the workings of some things here. Other spectators also came here, but few were interested in this place, and they would rather talk to me.
Not wanting to waste my time on them, I teleported back to Sect, leaving Shen Meng to deal with the aftermath. In Sect, I continued to train my formations, as after creating such a complicated array like before I got some instructions on what to improve.
For the next few days, nothing interesting took place, only some minor situations such as disciples for other Cultivator world, which we decided to call Ausra world, arriving to train in Sect. This normally wouldn't be even noticed by me if not for Ling Sheng'er coming to my courtyard to talk.
-"Yue, you should be careful."
-"Why? I believe that after showing my strength, no one would like to be my enemy."
-"That for certain, but they would do anything to gain your favor, especially the disciples, that they send are often close to people at the top of the forces."
-"So, honeytrap? Thank you for telling me that. I'll keep my distance."
-"No problem."
-"What about you, though?"
-"I..."-Her red face quickly gave away that she was also instructed to approach me.
-"I see. Well, I don't care to be honest. Do what you want, but be warned that I'm happily married."
-"Bah! I'm not interested in you like that! Well, at least I don't feel such things for you yet..."
-"Good then. Do you have some other questions?"
-"Yes. I wanted you to teach me those runes you used."
-"While I would like to teach you, you are unable to utilize them."
-"Why?"
-"Those are Spirit Runes. I created them in a way that makes them usable only by True Spirits."
-"Then if I have a contract with True Spirit like you, would I be able to use them?"
-"Limited in some ways, but yes."
-"Then can you help me establish a contract with True Spirit?"
-"No."
-"Please, help me."
-"Impossible with your current soul strength. If you Cultivate well and learn Divine language, then I will help you."
-"Truly?"
-"Yes, but work hard for it."
-"Of course!"
Ling Sheng'er ran from my place, presumably to start Cultivating some soul techniques. Shaking my head at her youthful vigor, I continued my research.
At the same time, in Hold, I finally left the [Grand Library] in defeat, not being able to find all that I wanted about Goddess Rhongomyniad. Some Knowledge that I read contradicted her behavior during our meeting, but as only truth was stored in [Grand Library], this meant that her behavior was abnormal during our meeting.
I caught up with Loki, who explained some of her talks with the Avalon. She confirmed my suspicion that Goddess Rhongomyniad, for some reason was interested, if not outright targeted me. Loki also told me about other major members of Kinght of Round Table Goddess Rhongomyniad led.
-"The more I look at this, the more troublesome it seems to be."
-"Yup. And I can tell that for whatever reason, everyone there holds you in high esteem as if they personally saw your deeds."
-"What do you think we should do with them?"
-"Gather more info for now. I suggest you visit there and confront whatever is taking place head-on later."
-"Direct way, huh? But you may be right that overthinking all of this is not a great way to solve it."
-"How about inviting them to the Festival?"
-"For the Festival of Progress? We can do this, but they will need supervision."
-"They would understand that. I'll send them an invite for the four days later."
-"Thank you."
-"Don't mind it. I have one more thing to talk about."
-"What is it?"
-"About the marriages that will take place in the near future. Both Dr. Mei and Kevin, as well as, Otto and Kalen, decided on their dates and want you to preside over them."
-"I'll do so, but you seem to have something to say on that."
-"I won't stop you, don't worry. What I wanted to talk with you about are your ceremonies."
-"I thought of holding a private ceremony with each of the girls."
-"That may be the best way. We can't have so many public marriages of the emperor."
-"I feel sorry for them, but if I wanted to make more public weddings, the prestige we build so hard would plummet."
-"This is the life of a ruler."
-"I picked some dates, here check in if those are all right."
-"Most are in the green. I will give you an answer later about the remaining two, as they closely fit some things."
-"Thanks."
-"I'll be going then."
As Loki left to return to her office, I walked toward my own workshop. Inside, I started doing some experiments on the Ten Rings of Solomon, or Solomon Seals, as they are also known. The first thing I noticed was a strong affinity with Divination.
Even though Solomon's identity was destroyed, those rings retained some of his characteristic powers, especially in clairvoyance and magic. Those rings were the best catalysts I had ever met, easily beating Oath of Silence in that field.
The downside I detected was that they were not under my control. I could not become thier owner, thus I could exibing only fracture of their power. The only possibility was to use them as materials to forge something different, but this was too much for me right now.
Living them aside, I decided to spend the rest of my time before the Festival working on formations, as those were most important to make my other project possible.
I stayed mostly in my workshop for these three days because everyone was busy before the Festival, so no one had time to come to me. Those days passed in the blink of an eye, and soon, I found myself waiting with Astraea and Ningguang for Goddess Rhongomyniad and her escorts to arrive before we would go for the Festival.