As events unfolded in the underworld, in the queen’s universe, on the small ascending planet called Pristine, the whale lazily emerged from the city formation to receive the guest.
He spotted a human elder with a young appearance waiting. Upon seeing him, the elder approached quickly, showing respect. In front of the whale, there was no trace of arrogance. Ruri was like a divine star in the family, and the whale was such an incredible figure that no one dared to show arrogance around him.
"I’ve come to bring the resolution of the meeting between the leaders of the four families," said the elder calmly, taking out a Jade Slip that floated towards the whale. "It has been decided that as punishment, Mr. Denil will have to undertake a mission requested in the divine world."
The whale received the Jade Slip, finding inside its coordinates and some information about a relatively nearby ascending solar system.
The elder continued: "In this place, a war is raging between two planets. This war has been going on for a thousand years and shows no signs of ending. All the other planets in this solar system have been implicated, and now the leaders of the two planets have begun to seek influence in the divine world. This has caused some discomfort in two divine sects, so the divine world has sent the families to find a way to end this quickly, even if they have to destroy both planets."
Alm and Bruno quickly sensed something wrong about all of this. On one side there was a planet dominated by the Harpy race; on the other, a planet dominated by orcs. Orcs were not usually savage and didn’t care much about nations and powers; they sought to improve themselves and become strong warriors individually. The harpies, on the other hand, were composed only of women; to reproduce, they needed to unite with other races with men, which made them more inclined to diplomacy; it was a matter of survival for their species.
"Both sides can’t reach an agreement at all," the elder continued. "But it’s not an impossible mission for someone like you. Just choose one side and finish off the other. The problem is, there’s no satisfactory reward for the mission, so, in the destroyed planet, you can take whatever you want from it." The elder explained, directing his gaze at the whale.
"As you can imagine, only people at the elder level could accomplish this mission, but you should be able to do it easily. As for elders like me... on a common ascending planet like that, there’s nothing worth the effort; this mission could take years and be an immense waste of time. So, no one wants to do it, but because we’re nearby, the divine sects practically forced us to resolve this."
The whale nodded emotionlessly, but Alm and Bruno knew perfectly well the real reason. A war was cruel, and after a thousand years of fighting, there must be an irreconcilable hatred on both sides. To conclude this, one side had to cease to exist; then, they would have to annihilate almost an entire planet. This would generate extreme karma that no cultivator wanted to receive... but for the two of them, it would be like dropping a drop in the ocean.
As it would take some time for the families to be able to shift the karma onto the branch families of the planet, none of the four wanted to get their hands dirty; so, the opportunity to delegate this came in handy.
"As you are still in mortal cultivation, to be fair, it was decided that you could take an assistant. There is no time limit, but you must prepare and leave in three days. The family will cover the teleportation of you to the location, and when you’re done, we’ll bring you back," the elder added lightly.
The whale nodded indifferently. "Very well. In three days, I will depart; it’s enough time."
The elder bowed, opened a channel back, and left after saying everything. The whale returned to the city calmly. As soon as he entered, Ruri appeared, looking at them anxiously. Both of them wanted to go alone on this mission; even Bruno thought it would be something impossible to resolve without shedding blood. But faced with Ruri’s clear intentions, they could only sigh.
First, they asked about Loeus, Corin, and Vuard; the three had to return to their families after two days. Then they asked about Kaiyka and found out that she was in isolated cultivation within the city. After being introduced to everything in the city, she received level-one mental cultivation and eagerly wanted to isolate herself to study it. She wasn’t supposed to leave anytime soon, so Ruri wasn’t obligated to return to the family with her being here. Taking her on the mission wouldn’t be a problem; if anything, the blame would fall on the high elder, who was her master.
"In three days, we’re leaving. It won’t be a clean job, so prepare yourself mentally for the worst," said the whale.
Ruri, however, flashed a radiant, satisfied smile. She had been feeling lonely within the family and longed to go on an adventure with them again. The two knew this and couldn’t bring themselves to push her away.
The whale wasted no time; he headed straight for the forest in search of Liumi. Whenever she could, she stayed with the Grassrunners, living freely, leaping through the trees that grew vigorously every day. Living like this was also a form of cultivation for her. Each day, she drew closer to the natural laws of the forest and, using her bloodline, merged and learned to better use her new abilities.
Alm and Bruno were a bit strange at first because they couldn’t feel the connection with Liumi in the spear. But soon, using their souls, they located her in a different location than expected.
She was in the city, in the herb field, precisely between the gigantic branches of the Nine Stars Tree. Alm and Bruno were at the foot of the tree’s roots, looking up. On a branch nearly a hundred meters high, lay that purple feline with closed eyes, meditating.
Liumi used her bloodline and merged with that tree, studying its primitive natural connections deeply. Alm and Bruno thought it would take Liumi a while to do that; it was something very profound that even very ancient divine cultivators would find incomprehensible. But now that she no longer had the limitations of her old body, her talents flourished as never before; she had already exceeded expectations and was striving to expand her capabilities rapidly.
They took the spear out of the inventory and called her calmly. With a firm grip on the spear, she opened her eyes, startled and saw them below; then she jumped and landed on their shoulder.
"Sir... this is a bit..."
She murmured with a strange look. Alm and Bruno didn’t mind; she would get used to feeling it over time. It was difficult to have a normal body before and now to be a weapon; them holding the spear made her feel like she was being touched.
Shortly after, the whale opened the spatial channel to their lunar world. Then they went to the secret continent. Almin, Rehvka, Thea, and everyone inside the chaos gem had been there for several days hunting.
They must have accumulated many resources by now, and it was time to return to rest and cultivate with everything. That group was their passive farming; while the whale dealt with problems and did something on the side of the families, they worked. It was good to have many people to divide the tasks.
Upon arriving on the continent, they used the arry to find them easily. Rehvka saw them and quickly grabbed the whale’s arm with a smile. "Master, we found it."
Alm and Bruno heard that and became curious. Rehvka continued: "We can already say that we’ve mapped out a third of the continent. Recently, near the center of everything, we discovered a lake... it’s very large, and as we approach its shores, an oppressive power begins to corrode the soul. It’s definitely the place where the Behemoth’s body is sealed."
Immediately upon hearing this, Alm and Bruno felt an instinctive urge: they needed to see that personally. At the same time, Almin and Thea approached along with a group of Onis.
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The whale looked at the Onis and nodded satisfactorily; they all possessed traces of the bloodline aura of that puppet. They were already unifying the two bloodlines and improving in great strides.
"Gather everyone, we’ll be back soon. I’ll quickly check the place." The whale spoke, and everyone nodded. Liumi left and went with Almin into the chaos gem; she had to take care of the beasts that lived there.
The whole region was safe and under their control. The whale moved quickly, without any worries, with Rehvka guiding them in a straight line. It took half a day for them to feel the impact on their souls.
Rehvka immediately stopped. They saw from afar the circular river. It wasn’t natural; it looked like a colossal crater as if a meteor had fallen there, and the waters accumulated inside. Despite the distance, Rehvka already felt his soul fragmenting and looked at the whale.
Alm felt a Yin connection with the lake and decided to take her along. The whale held her hand firmly and used his divine soul to connect them and protect her. Then, as they were about to take the next step.
"Master..." Rehvka murmured and looked at them strangely.
Alm and Bruno snorted, understanding. Then, they withdrew some of the power from their souls. They only shielded enough to prevent her soul from shattering; however, that power still invaded her and pressed fiercely, causing discomfort and pain as if thousands of needles were piercing her skin and body.
The whale kept advancing, while Rehvka beside him breathed heavily, with a satisfied face of pleasure. Alm and Bruno just pretended like nothing was happening and continued on.
As they approached the ’lake’ closely, the whale halted their steps. Within their core, something changed; it was the earth rune modified by the Behemoth, it seemed to be activated as if receiving a call.
’Well... he built this himself. It’s to be expected that he left a subtle connection with it alive, which adds to the body’s bloodline,’ commented Bruno, advancing quickly.
When they reached the front of the lake, Rehvka stopped in astonishment. She looked at the waters and felt a shock. "This isn’t water... it’s something primordial... with a very pure Yin..."
It was a mixture of Yin, Yang, and other primitive things. She completely forgot about the pain and pleasure she felt, and her eyes stared fixedly at those waters, entering into a deep meditation.
Meanwhile, the whale felt something different. Gaia’s blessing inside them seemed to be reacting strongly. Since they returned from the underworld, they always kept the blessing active, but the Gaia of this planet never reacted. They surmised that Gaia must have been used to seal the Behemoth; now, near the Behemoth’s body, this seemed to be a correct assumption.
’Young one...’ A voice echoed in their minds, it was Gaia speaking using the blessing rune of another Gaia as a connection. ’Thank you for breaking the second seal. Thanks to that, I gained minimal freedom and can communicate now.’
’Hm... you’re one of the keys to the correct seal?’ Alm asked gently.
’Yes, unfortunately, all my power is being used... I can’t help you much, but the Behemoth asked me to send a message.’ The voice sounded calm and seemed to possess a rather advanced intelligence, which surprised the two.
’The Behemoth said that thanks to you, he can see the world through your rune. He said you managed to use... a celestial miracle. This miracle is something connected to his primordial power and mine as well. If you use the little power he left in you, you can enhance the miracle’s ability.’
Alm and Bruno were excited by the information; this opened up many possibilities for the future. But currently, earning points to use the miracles and test this would take time.
’I understand, thank you. Well... take this. Maybe it’ll be useful to you, and you can help us.’
Bruno spoke and immediately sent the Dao of the Gaia God they had. There was no reason for this, with Gaia’s power being used to seal the Behemoth, they couldn’t put the Dao into practice; they could only study and understand. But instinctively, the two felt they should give it to her, knowing that these seeds for the future could bear fruit.
Gaia was shocked by what she received and couldn’t say anything. ’But one thing, could you separate some of the Yin from this lake?’ The whale asked, and the response came with a black sphere emerging from the lake and floating toward them.
’It’s not much, but I hope it’ll be useful. I’ll study this Dao deeply, I hope I can help in the future and reward you.’ Gaia said softly.
The whale put it in a spatial ring; shortly after, he handed the ring to Rehvka and pulled her away. She could take her time studying it in the future. Then they left, they only came to take a look, there was nothing to be done, and the system didn’t give them anything.
So they returned very slowly, while Rehvka savored every second holding their hands and sighing.