When Asher reached the door, he lightly knocked.
"Come in," Rose's voice came from inside.
Asher opened the door and saw Rose sitting at the study table in her room, with an ancient-looking box in front of her.
Asher pulled out a chair from the side and sat down beside Rose in a very familiar fashion.
"What is this, Mom?" he asked curiously, looking at the box on the table.
Rose didn't answer him. Instead, she asked a question, "Do you know why Henry came to see me today?"
"Isn't it for something called Life Spring? By its name and your conversation earlier, I think it is something that could prolong one's life, right?" Asher asked doubtfully.
Rose nodded while fixing her eyes on the ancient box in front of her.
Upon seeing this, Asher's complexion changed drastically. "Don't tell me that Life Spring is inside this creepy box?"
Rose knocked on Asher's head and said angrily, "Do you take your mom for a liar? If I say I didn't have that Life Spring, then I definitely don't have it."
Asher rubbed his head and asked, "Then why are you staring into that box so intently? Isn't it equal to saying that 'Life Spring is inside this box'?"
Rose's mouth twitched. She forcefully rubbed Asher's hair into a bird's nest and said, "I was looking at it because I got this thing inside the same mountain which Henry was talking about earlier."
Asher fixed his hair back to normal and asked, "What really is this mysterious cave you're talking about?"
"Oh, that's a long story, dating back 200 years. At that time, I was a hunter who was part of the most famous team of my time, the Phantoms. One day, we came to know about a floating mountain appearing above Flower City."
"As hot-blooded as we were, our team also rushed to Flower City to look for a treasure hunt along with many others from different parts of Celestia."
"But the situation was different from what we expected. At that time, a beast tide took place without warning. Although this tide was soon suppressed by the combined efforts of all the powerful cultivators gathered there, still most of us were exhausted and injured."
"In the end, most people didn't choose to enter the floating mountain above as there was a large quantity of flying beasts circling the mountain like soldiers. So, if you wanted to enter, a fight was inevitable."
"Even then, many people chose to risk it. We were one of them."
"We fought the beasts for more than 8 hours and finally entered the mountain. It was then that tragedy truly fell. As soon as we stepped into the mountain, our cultivation was sealed, making us equal to normal humans."
"To add salt to the wound, the entire mountain was filled with ferocious monsters, happy to welcome us as their snacks."
"Many of the cultivators died like this. That was the first time in my life I truly felt despair in my heart. At last, only around 100 of us were alive. After constantly running and fighting, we eventually reached a lake that had water as clear as glass."
"For us, this was a heaven-sent opportunity as all of us were out of breath due to our bodies now being only slightly better than normal people under the suppression of our cultivation."
"But just as we reached the lake, its surface started to wriggle in an unnatural way. Before we could even react, the entire lake transformed into a giant creature resembling a slime."
"The water in the lake transformed into tentacles and attacked all of us. Those who were touched by the tentacles dissolved into nothingness and became part of the lake. Over 100 people died with no way to resist."
"Even I was almost killed, but as the tentacles just touched me, our team captain used his body to protect me and pushed me away from the range of the tentacle. Thus, I somehow escaped."
"After that, I was the only one left alive on the entire floating island. For about a year, I lived in the depths of the island like a hermit, all alone and heartbroken. One day, when I woke up from sleep, I found myself falling to the ground from a great height."
"I was terrified at that time, as I only had the strength of an ordinary person. But then I discovered that the divine essence in my body was no longer suppressed, and I safely landed on the ground."
After Rose stopped speaking, Asher asked softly, "But didn't they say it is some type of cave? What's with this floating island? Are they related?"
Rose sighed, "I myself only learned about this after many powerful people came forward to question me about the floating island. It turned out that, on the day we stepped into the island, the entire island simply vanished into thin air as though it had never even existed."
"Later, a true god-level cultivator found out from some ancient manuscripts that this island is called the Kal Mountain Cave, and it belonged to the primordial god of creation, Kal. According to the myths, he is the creator of the magic that we humans use now and the strongest god Celestia has ever seen, second only to the White Demon God."
"But what made things really messy was the fact that, according to the legends, at the depths of this mountain, there is a clear lake called the Life Spring that can easily increase a person's lifespan by more than 300 years upon consumption."
"So, the rest can be imagined, right? I was like a caged bird under the encirclement of cultivators at the level of true gods from all sides. Those old bastards even openly discussed in front of me the idea of extracting my soul for obtaining more information on that floating island," Rose said with a bitter smile.
Asher looked at Rose curiously, as a true god is an existence at the highest level of cultivation, someone who could simply shatter an entire mountain with a wave of their hand. Rose escaping under the watch of all these powerful people was nearly impossible....no, it was absolutely impossible.
Rose seemed to know what Asher was thinking. She lightly smiled, "It was your idol, Draven, who saved me back then. He convinced all the powerful people back there to not pursue this matter anymore."
Asher's eyes brightened upon hearing Draven's name, "Did all the true gods agree to Senior Draven's words right away?"
Rose laughed, "Yeah, most of them agreed. And those who didn't agree were beaten black and blue until they did."
Asher slapped his thigh with stars in his eyes. "As expected of Senior Draven , still as domineering as ever." He then thought about something and asked, "By the way, Mom, how did you know Senior Draven? You never mentioned this to me until now."
Rose rolled her eyes, "Who said I know him? The one I know is his wife, Senior Elena. We used to be fellow students back then. But unfortunately, my talent was not as good as hers, and in the blink of an eye, we became people of two completely different worlds.
"But she still lent me a hand when I was trembling under the gaze of all those true gods. And there's nothing to be said about Senior Draven. For him, what his wife needs is a command that he will achieve at any cost."