Chapter 2292: And so it begins I
While River was getting to know people, many also learned about him and Pearl. The news about his ancestor might be a big deal in the Land of a Hundred Rivers, but it shouldn’t have been a big deal on Mount Decius.
After all, Mount Decius received Golden Core cultivators from all the allied races, and considering the steady growth of all the noble races, not to mention the other territories, Golden Core cultivators weren’t really a big deal. That’s how things should have been - but they weren’t.
News had already spread - Karev Sunborne had a token to an immortal legacy of some sort. The other token belonged to an Oolin, so he wouldn’t be an easy opponent. However, it was exactly because the other token was with an Oolin that everyone was targeting the human. After all, everyone knew humans were weak.
To see now that a descendant of Karev, and one that hadn’t even reached the Golden Core realm just yet, had arrived at Mount Decius attracted a lot of attention. No one did anything untoward, however. No number of Golden Core cultivators were a match for the Watcher, so all they could do now was observe him, and find out if there was anything special about him.
Like this, four months passed. River used every leverage he could get to complete quests and hand over points to Pearl, until he eventually got enough feedback to reach the next level!
From a Knight Paladin he had now become a Justicier Paladin!
Soon after, the two of them reported that they were ready to go to the Upper Battlefield.
Once again, the Watcher appeared in person, and led them to an inner chamber within the palace where nearly a hundred other Golden Core cultivators were waiting.
Once the number reached one hundred, the formation was activated, and they were teleported away from these lands, perhaps forever.
Lex immediately noticed that the flow of time seemed to have changed. It had now stabilised around 60 times faster than a Major realm, which was about half the flow of time in the Land of a Hundred Rivers.
Relying on alternating flows of time between levels was a good way for the alliance to accumulate and grow lower level cultivators, and then filter them up slowly, making sure they constantly received fresh blood.
That was one of the drawbacks of the Midnight Inn - everything was at the same flow of time, which made it difficult for him to accumulate many high level cultivators. It was something he could try to fix later on.
Once the couple arrived at their new destination, someone led the entire group of one hundred Golden Core cultivators and gave them a seminar relating to the Upper Battlefield.
They were in a place called Fort Susa controlled by the Susa family of the Moon Elves.
The Moon Elves were a very prestigious subrace of the elves, and had extreme talents in certain spirit magics.
In the Upper Battlefield, the highest cultivation level was the Nascent realm, and everyone’s goal was basically to reach Immortality. However, while subraces aimed to simply reach immortality, the noble races aimed to be especially powerful among the immortals.
One, relatively easy way to do that was to find the legacy or inheritance of immortals left behind in the Upper Battlefield.
While they were getting that lecture, River and Pearl also got a new list of quests. Tens of thousands items were listed, which made them curious about how Cliff knew about them.
Could he have died in the Upper Battlefield? Or could he be one of the legendary immortals?
Yet that didn’t make sense, because he’d hidden so carefully in the presence of the Watcher, who they now knew was an immortal.
Whatever the case was, they had no intention of wasting their time here doing nothing. They wanted to complete their quests, grow stronger, and maybe find out about the mystery revolving around the Sunborne family ancestor.
They were going to...
"You have fifteen years to become immortals and move to the next region, or I’ll leave you behind," said Cliff lamely, appearing once again above the head of the Moon Elf giving them the seminar. "Also I’m going to give you one piece of advice regarding this place. Respect those deserving of respect, but do not become subservient to anyone just because they are from a noble race."
Lex did not elaborate. He was still observing the two, and wanted to see how they reacted to different situations. Their journey so far had been far from easy, but that did not mean they would be entitled to an easy future. When they had the luxury of learning from him, if they still allowed the difficulties that lay ahead to warp them, then he really might end their journey together.
After all, at this point, he was no longer deprived of energy. A second of absorbing energy here was better than a year of absorbing energy in the Land of a Hundred Rivers. There were many things he could do now, but he’d prefer to focus on working on his necklace for now, and using the young couple to acquire materials without leaving any of his own traces behind.
Before the two could ask any questions, Cliff disappeared, leaving them to focus once more on the Moon Elf whose inherent arrogance was beginning to show. Unlike the very noble elves the couple had met in the Land of a Hundred Rivers, this one was not bound by the feeble constructs known as laws and rules. He was bound only by his own strength and limitations.
Of course, compared to him, all of these new comers had a whole lot more limitations, as they were soon about to learn.
Eden, Isle of the Valkyries
Belle grit her teeth, not letting herself utter a single cry of pain as she used Divine energy to burn the corruption poisoning her hand. It was a grueling, agonising process. There were easier ways to remove corruption, and far less painful ones as well.
Yet she could not let herself take the easy route. Her entire life, she had never been allowed to show weakness. Her entire life, she could not afford to let her faults be seen.
Now, more than ever, as the only human among Angels training to become Valkyrie, she had to be strong. She had to be fearless, dauntless, the best of the best without question.
She repeated that thought in her mind a hundred times as she ignored the pain, right up until the treatment was complete. For the briefest of moments after that, she felt relief. Yet because she felt relief, because she could not hide her own weaknesses from herself, she was suddenly filled with anger.
"Stupid, damn Seraphim," Belle said with great irritation as she picked up her sword and barged out of her room. She was entitled to a break. Even in a war of this magnitude, she was entitled to a break after all she had done.
But resting was not something she had learned, even in her childhood. Clobbering others, however, was something she had been doing for a long, long time, and she wasn’t about to stop now.
