Hannah watched in ecstasy as her mother's body inflated bit by bit like a balloon!
The paleness on her mother's skin being slowly replaced with vitality and rosy complexion, as if blood suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Her mother's white hair being slowly replaced with black color, pushing the white hair away as it grew below it. The pores on the scalp that had long turned shiny suddenly opened up imperceptibly, black hairs suddenly protruding from those pores one by one.
Ceceada looked at this changes and couldn't help but be shocked by the power of Sun Palm.
He really didn't expect such leap on the qualitative effect of the skill, but seeing it can only make him swallow his saliva.
At this point, he is not even urging the mana by forcing it out of his core, he's just letting it flow naturally through his meridians towards his palm.
Not only did the upgrade make Sun Palm more easier to perform, it also reduced the consumption of mana!
Aside from that, Hannah who already moved away from the effects of the Sun Palm suddenly felt her body becoming extremely comfortable, her thin limbs slowly inflating like a balloon on the right place.
The area of effect also got larger!
Seeing all these things made Ceceada think of a famous quote from the Sun Fist skill book that he always considered as BS:
"Mana is everything."
But right now, it makes sense. Such a simple quote singlehandedly validated all of the things that Ceceada is seeing right now.
Looking at the mana being absorbed by the body and serving as nourishment for the body, he can only think that the actual nourishment actually is just mana in different form!
'Everything is made up of mana!' Ceceada closed his eyes in eureka, enlightened by such a simple thing.
Although this enlightenment that he is experiencing right now looked nothing out of the ordinary, understanding such fundamental principle will be essential for his future growth!
Right now, he can see various applications of this skill in the future due to this enlightenment. Whether it is for healing himself or others, he can only see benefits.
'With this skill, won't I be virtually immortal?'
Ceceada thought of this momentarily but shook his head right after and said in his mind, 'It is too early to say.'
He is too inexperienced to know what will happen, not even seeing the real world yet.
For all he knew, martial artists in this world are not stuck on this planet. The capable and strong enough can escape the planet and traversed through the empty space and visit other planets, unlike on earth.
Those powerhouses who can do that are all considered gods in their eyes!
They have various skills and physique much, much more better than Ceceada... yet, they can still die for various reasons. No matter how strong they are, in the vastness of the the space, they are just like everyone else.
Thus, Ceceada thought that it is still too early for him to judge his future.
Hannah looked at Ceceada who is seemingly in a trance, making her wonder on what he is currently thinking.
She looked at her mother, seemingly overflowing with energy. Her mother looking at her, with eyes showing emerging vitality.
"My child..." Her mouth suddenly opened as she uttered these words, longing evident.
All these years, she is aware of everything that happen. Yet, she is no different from a dead person who can't do anything more to help her child.
Everyday, her daughter will tell her happy things throughout the day while taking care of her. However, she is very aware of the sadness hidden in those words.
Hannah's eyes got blurry as she heard these words... all these years of hard work finally paid off, her mother is awake!
The comfortable feeling of the Sun Palm served as catalyst for her to move forward to her mother, tears swelling up her eyes.
"Mom..."
She kneeled in front of her longing mother and immediately hugged her tightly.
Sobbing filled the atmosphere as Ceceada watched everything silently, letting them enjoy the moment.
After a while, the Hannah's mother looked at Ceceada with thankfulness, "I do not know how we will repay you."
Hannah heard this and nodded, agreeing to her mother's words.
"You don't need to. I'm just happy to help," Ceceada said sincerely with a faint smile.
They chatted for a while, livening up the atmosphere in the house.
Suddenly...
"It's nice knowing you."
Whoosh!
After a while of laughing and talking together for a while, Ceceada felt that he already fulfilled everything that he need to do and it is already getting dark, he bade them a simple goodbye and left in an instant without waiting for their reply.
Seeing the sudden disappearance of Ceceada, Hannah felt sad, but her mother consoled her with a sentence that she heard from Ceceada in their conversations.
"Don't cry because it ended, smile because it happened."
Hannah suddenly remembered this and smiled, looking at the place where Ceceada disappeared, embedding his figure in her mind.
However, at the place where Ceceada left, they can see a faint, yellow reflection.
"What is that?"
Hannah's mother who can now stand with ease, looked at it to inspect and got closer...
There is a gold coin!
In this world, a gold coin is worth 100 silver coins and a silver coin is worth 1000 bronze coins!
With this much money, a family of four won't have to worry about food for a lifetime!
Placed below the coin is a simple note on a piece of mana paper, "Never tell anyone about this."
...
Sun Sect.
It is already dark in the sect and the ambiance seems bleaker that it used to.
Inside a luxurious hall of a 100 meter temple, various dozen stern old figures can be seen.
"You're telling me that the person who hurt my son is actually a disciple of my sect?"
An old man sitting on the highest and largest seat asked in an calm and indifferent manner, eyes closed, as if he didn't just talk about his son being hurt.
Looking down from the highest seat, one can see the thirty elders of the Sun Sect, gathered in a single place.
When they heard this, all gazes in the hall fell upon on just two elders, wearing relatively ordinary robes compared to other elders around them.
"Y-yes master, we suppose!" The two elders harmoniously said while their body shook in fear when they heard the indifference of the old man.
They are Elder Mino and Rene who are being probed by the sect patriarch - Jared Burn!
Hearing their response, the other elders sneered and disdainfully looked at them in an instant, doubt is not even an option anymore as they think these two elders had gone insane.
"Idiots! Do you know what you are saying right now?! Do you think a main disciple can be beaten by a disciple under your care!" One of the elders said in an instant.
"Tsk Tsk. I cannot grasp why we let these two elders preside over an entire field..." Another one said in disappointment while shaking his head.
Sounds of murmurs and disdainful comments filled the hall when they heard the Elder Mino and Rene, thinking that they are just trying to get into the bandwagon.
They didn't even consider the possibility of such statements as they think that there is no way that a main disciple is getting beaten by a disciple of the outer field!
Even if the patriarch himself said this to them, they will at most think that he is just showing signs getting old. That's how ridiculous it is for them.
"Tell me who bribed you to say that," Jared Burn said carefreely, pacifying the murmurs around the hall in an instant, but rendering the ambiance silent and cold.
Elder Mino and Rene looked at each other while shaking, not knowing what to say.
Seeing this, Jared Burn released some his aura of Elemental Formation Realm and pressed lightly on the two elders!
"M-Master, we did not get bribed! We can ask the outer disciples to testify to our statements!"
Elder Rene said in a hurry when he noticed that it is getting harder to breathe, feeling like his knees are about to give up due to the aura of Jared pressing on them!
Jared Burn heard this and immediately stopped the aura from pressing on them, making the two elders heave a sigh of relief. He still doesn't believe them, but he think there is no reason for them to lie.
Even if they do lie, once his son, Auster Burn, wakes up in a few days, it will all be revealed!
At this point, he can only wait.
"Thirty minutes at most," Jared Burn said without any orders, but gave a deadline.
Although Jared Burn didn't tell them to do so, the two elders immediately left the luxurious temple and went to the outer field in a hurry.
They have at most thirty minutes to bring some of the outer field students to the temple, wishing that they can run much, much faster. Even blaming their parents for not giving them wings!
Looking at the sect master eyes, the other elders didn't say anything and just waited.
After about twenty seven minutes, twelve students can be seen entering the hall with the two elders.
Seeing them enter, all the impatient gazes of the elders immediately landed on the students, some are dead serious, angry or suspicious.
Jared looked at the students with indifference, as if all of this had nothing to do with him, but this simple action made all the students shake in fear.
Seeing all these legendary figures looking at them with probing eyes, they can't help but swallow their respective saliva intermittently as they walked forward.
They won't even think of being in the same room with these legends, especially Jared Burn. But right now, they can only curse in their luck for making their first introduction with these figures as bad as it can get.
Right now, they are walking to a sound amplifier formation at the center of the hall. Although walking towards it seemed really easy right now, it seemed like eternity is passing by each step.
When they finally entered the amplifier formation, they didn't dare to immediately look towards Jared Burn, thinking that they might offend him.
Jared didn't ask them anything instantly, waiting for them to initiate.
No students wanted to be interrogated first, but the silence is becoming deafening, and Elder Mino prompted one of the students to step forward a bit, although not needed.
"This lowly disciple meets the elders and the patriarch!"
The student shouted in reverie as he bowed towards the elders and kowtowed in front of the patriarch, hitting his forehead on the cold floor tile, making light thuds in the process.
The other students saw this and is about to do the same thing, but the eerie voice of Jared Burn sounded in their ears.
"Tell me everything you know," Jared Burn indifferently said, his eyes showing no emotion.
The student who is the first to initiate heard this and recounted everything that he remembered about Ceceada, even giving certain context about his background, how did they treat him throughout all these years and what he looked like.
Specially emphasizing the consecutive breakthroughs of Ceceada in his narrative, while other students nod unanimously every time he tell something.
"That's all I can remember, patriarch..." The student finished with a lingering voice.
Hearing all of the context about Ceceada, the student who supposedly managed to beat a main disciple, an sect elder immediately said in an impetuous manner, "What a liar."
The elder still obviously doesn't believe any of the story, thinking that all these students including the two elders are bribed by an outsider of the sect.
The elders are all having a hard time sleeping last night, thinking about the countless treasure they lost. The red sword is more than enough to account for a third of the entire sect's total worth!
Jared Burn didn't listen to this elder and said to the other elders directly, "Find Ceceada Apex. Dismissed."