This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
One Goal, Three Journeys
“Magic is not something you can learn in a short time.” Gle said lazily, “Since you didn’t continue to meditate in these past few years, there’s nothing I could teach you, because it would be pointless. It would be better to let that Daylight guy go by himself, and you would be a burden to him even if you go.”
“I meditated every night. EVERY-NIGHT!” Kaiser emphasized, “And it’s the special meditation technique found in your house, so it allowed me to use advanced magic spells such as White Bomb and Levitation. But the former could only be used once every three days, and the latter, when used, gives me an intense migraine the next day. I also can’t seem to learn lower level or normal magic spells.”
Gle seemed more intrigued about something else, “How did you find my house? It’s in quite a secretive location, and if it weren’t, the bastard Dragon Emperor would’ve already robbed it. So it couldn’t possibly have survived until now.”
Kaiser grunted, and took out a pentacle necklace from within his collars, “This is the reason. I’ve told you before, I was tricked into being the sacrifice in the arena. That day, after being exiled, I noticed when a blood fell on this necklace, it emitted light. The thin light kept pointing in some direction. Since I had nowhere to go, I had no choice but to follow the light.”
“Who knew, it led me straight to your home.” Kaiser snapped, “It even made me cut myself. I bled almost a whole bag of blood before the damned door let me in.”
Gle raised his eyebrows, “It’s because your bloodline is rather thin. My eldest daughter is your grandmother, so only one eighth of your blood is mine. It’s already a miracle it only took a bag of blood to open the door.”
“Stop going off-topic.” Kaiser said with dissatisfaction, “Tell me quickly, what is wrong with your special meditation technique? When I first found your notes about magic, I was so happy, thinking one day, after I learn all of this, I could rescue my sister. But in the end, the result was horrific.”
“Haha, you are quite lucky.” Gle suddenly burst out laughing.
Kaiser suddenly had a foreboding feeling, “What do you mean?”
“I did not invent that meditation technique.” Gle’s face suddenly seemed a bit darkened, “When I was in Aklan Academy, I had some disagreements with the Magic instructor on the first class, so I never went to his class. I dug the method up from the library there.”
“I just grabbed it randomly, but I had no idea it was no ordinary explanation. To this day I have no idea who left it there, it was a certain Magician’s research, and supposedly it was ten times as effective as normal meditation.”
“Ten times?” Kaiser asked back in disbelief, “Really?”
“Yes!” Gle said lazily, “But only if you’re still alive after going through with it, otherwise, no matter how many times the effectiveness, it would be nothing.”
Kaiser seemed shocked, “What are you saying? I don’t understand?”
“Meditation costs a great deal of spiritual force. When you meditate once, it equals someone else doing it ten times. Then by meditating ten times per night, your spiritual force will be ten times more than others. What do you think will happen?”
Kaiser heard, and he felt numb in his spine. To leave the Dark Street, and to rescue his sister, he had at least seriously practiced Magic for a while. Of course he knew what could happen: if spiritual force increased too quickly, then the result would either be going crazy, or his head would explode.
Kaiser touched his own head, and it was still there! Couldn’t he be crazy? It can’t be, right?
Seeing Kaiser stupidly touching his head, Gle seemed to have found it amusing. He snickered for a while before he said,
“That’s why I said you’re lucky. Everyone in my family is natural prodigy for Magic, and their abilities to handle spiritual force have always been extraordinary. Nevertheless, as far as I know, the only person who could handle this meditation was me. Everyone else who had tried it, either almost died, or have gone almost crazy.”
“Of course, now, you’re also someone who could handle it.”
‘I really am quite lucky.’ Kaiser thought as he touched his head, but then he thought something was wrong.
Kaiser asked hurriedly, “Wait, if we’re trained the same way, why are you so strong and why am I so terrible?”
“Terrible?” Gle grunted, and said, “Other than Gle family members, White Bomb was something only senior Magicians could use. Do you know, senior Magicians are mostly old geezers in their seventies or eighties?”
“Can they only use it once every three days too?”
“Well, no.” Gle answered honestly, “If training to the age of seventy only gives you one Divine Fireball every three days, who the heck would want to be a Magician?”
“Divine Fireball?” Kaiser asked blankly.
Gle explained impatiently, “It’s what you call ‘White Bomb’. Shut up, and fire one so I can see.”
Kaiser didn’t dare to say no. He obediently raised his gun, and began an incantation.
Gle frowned a little, and the gun in Kaiser’s hands began to glow. As he completed the incantation, a Divine Fireball shot out of the gun into the sky. It quickly flew through the air, then disappeared without a trace.
Kaiser looked towards Gle, wondering what kind of comment he would make, but Gle was still raising his head and looked towards the direction in which the Divine Fireball flew. Kaiser saw Gle looked serious, so he didn’t dare to interrupt his thoughts. Kaiser had no choice but to sit down and wait quietly.
Half an hour passed before Gle lowered his head. His face was still expressionless, which made Kaiser feel a bit scared.
“You are indeed an idiot!” Gle swore the moment he opened his mouth.
“W-what did I do?” Kaiser didn’t know what he had done wrong.
Gle pointed at the sky, “Your Divine Fireball took an entire thirty minutes to explode. Do you know what it means?”
Kaiser shook his head. How would he know what it meant? He didn’t even know they exploded at all. For all the times he had used it before now, he had only seen it pass through things, and had no idea where they went.
Gle explained coldly, “A normal Divine Fireball should explode the moment it touches something, rather than exploding thirty minutes later. Because if you had to wait half an hour before exploding, it would no longer be a Divine Fireball, bit a highly compressed Divine Fireball instead.”
Kaiser asked with hesitation, “Highly compressed? Shouldn’t it be even more powerful?”
Gle suddenly got angry, and yelled loudly, “I omitted words, idiot. You compressed more than thirty Divine Fireballs in one. Even senior Magicians couldn’t possibly do something like this.”
“So, I’m really strong?” Kaiser opened his mouth. So he’s actually more powerful than a senior Magician?”
“To an ordinary person, really strong, and really stupid.” Gle said with disdain.
“You used every last bit of your spiritual force to compress these thirty Divine Fireballs, and of course you wouldn’t be left with enough force to control such a Super Divine Fireball. As a result, it has to be shot in a straight line. If your enemy were to avoid such a linear Super Divine Fireball, you would be left without any spiritual force and become a sitting duck.”
“Control it?” An idea dawned on Kaiser, could it be… “Super Divine Fireballs could turn?”
“It will turn if you make it turn.” Gle glanced at Kaiser, “But of course, only if idiot like you has enough spiritual force to control it.”
Kaiser’s jaws dropped. ‘My god! A turning Fireball?’
“Right!” Gle suddenly remembered, “This must be why, your spiritual force grew too quickly, and I didn’t teach you, so you had no idea how to control your force, which result in your magic being extremely unstable.”
Other than Gle secretly praising him, everything else he said was a blur to Kaiser. But Kaiser thought it was fine, because what’s important was how they could resolve the problem.
He asked hurriedly, “So what should I do?”
Gle thought briefly, “Practice, and this.” He raised his right hand, and there was an emerald on his palm.
“With this?” Kaiser’s eyes widened; the jewel he found on Liola?
“This belongs to Maylee. She’s the best Alchemist I have ever known. Do you really think something she made would be an ordinary jewel?”
The perfect emerald reflected in Gle’s blue eyes, while a smile formed on his lips: a smile which previously made Liola’s expression change, and was now creeping out Kaiser.
“Catch.” Gle threw the emerald casually.
Although he feared for his life, Kaiser had no other choice. He fumbled to catch the emerald, then carefully carried it.
Kaiser knew nothing of Alchemy, but he knew full well it was never a leisure activity. In fact, every material used by Alchemists were extremely dangerous, and explosions were a common occurrence.
It was a blessing from their ancestors if the explosions didn’t spread corrosive material everywhere, and it was a blessing from other people’s ancestors if the explosions didn’t carry poison that would spread for miles. Rumors had it, prices for land and houses near Alchemists were all scarily low.
“Use your spiritual force and control a bit of magic element, then pour it into the jewel.” Gle said lazily.
Kaiser did as asked, and the emerald suddenly exploded with light. Kaiser, who had been surprised when he first saw it, covered his eyes and moaned in pain. It was a long while before he stopped and finally escaped from the status of being legally blind.
Kaiser suddenly realized his surroundings had changed significantly: from the rays of light shining in through the window, a few balls of light the size of fingernails were floating in the air. The wooden table and chairs were also emitting a faint yellow light. When he walked up to examine it, he realized there were small yellow balls of light on them.
Kaiser looked inside the teacup on the wooden table, and saw many blue balls of light floating in the tea.
Sunlight were white balls, wood were yellow balls, water was blue balls… Kaiser had an epiphany.
Gle did not give any explanation, and instead he said lazily, “I’m going to take a nap. Before I wake up, you have to use magic of different colors as paint, and put a picture together. If it looks ugly…”
Gle laughed coldly, “You will be responsible for whatever happens.”
Kaiser widened his eyes. ‘Use element to put together a picture?’
He yelled hurriedly, “Wai—…”
Before he even finished the simple syllable, Gle’s figure faded, and disappeared in front of Kaiser’s eyes. No one knew where he went to take a nap, and left Kaiser behind, who only had half a clue; he was so frustrated that he wanted to pull his hair out.
He didn’t know how long Gle would sleep either. Kaiser secretly prayed he would sleep for a really long time. At least, he knew he loved sleeping, so he believed, as his ancestor, Gle must also be a sleepaholic.
“Fine, d-drawing can’t possibly be hard for me.”
Kaiser murmured, digging through the magic knowledge he had taught himself: spiritual force could control the magic element present everywhere in the world. The stronger the spiritual force, the more magic element could be controlled and, of course, the magic spell used as a result would be stronger.
After having thought about it, even his ancestor said his spiritual force was enormous, then it shouldn’t be hard for him to put the magic elements in a picture, right?
Kaiser took a deep breath, and decided to start with the most stable element: earth. He recollected the way he used spiritual force during the casting of a spell, and gathered the element of earth.
Under the control of Kaiser’s spiritual force, the element of earth moved as expected: a large quantity of earth elements suddenly rushed into the room, and they broke the normal flow of elements into chaos. The collision of the elements in the air caused a series of fireworks in the air.
Kaiser had no idea it would end up like this. He quickly hid himself under the table, and covered his ears. After a while, the fireworks had finally finished, and Kaiser carefully climbed out from under the table.
His surroundings looked terrible: the walls were covered with fist-sized burn marks, the teacup and tea pot on the table had already broken into pieces, and even the table under which Kaiser hid just now, had suddenly broken two of its legs, then crumbled into wooden planks.
Kaiser had a feeling this would’ve happened. When he was practicing magic before, he had countless encounters like this. He had never been successful with the lower level magic, and it would usually end in destruction. Had it not been born with the element of fire, he might not have even be able to use fireball.
[T/N: In archaic beliefs (and often in martial arts novels), there were 5 elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth; each creature was often believed to be aligned to one of these elements. So Kaiser was born with an attunement to fire.]
“If my spiritual force is really powerful, why do I always fail?” Kaiser sat depressedly in the ruins.
“Wow! What happened?”
Suddenly someone spoke, and Kaiser was surprised. He turned around to find Void slowly getting off the ground while sweeping off the planks on him.
As soon as Kaiser saw Void, he snapped, “You surely are a deep sleeper. Even though the world was exploding around you, you were still asleep!”
Void seem shocked, and asked, “Exploding? What happened? How did I fall asleep, did I get drugged?”
“Something like that.” Kaiser answered casually. He didn’t want to give himself more trouble by explaining magic to people of this world.
“Then… where are everyone else?” Void knew Kaiser was in a bad mood, so he asked carefully.
Kaiser was still frustrated with his magic. But to him, he could think and talk at the same time. So while thinking about magic, his mouth never stopped; he explained everything thoroughly.
Luckily there weren’t much to talk about: he explained Liola was Silver Moon, and now got caught by the Leader, so he must beat Liola in three months with the help of Daylight, or otherwise Liola will die, so he was now frustrated with controlling his own power…
“I understand.” Void knitted his eyebrows. Though he wasn’t familiar with the quiet Liola, he didn’t have any bad impressions of him. When he heard Liola was an Assassin trying to repent, how could he not help?
“Tell me, what is up with your power?” Void wanted to help, “Taoism is also quite a mysterious power; perhaps there are something common with them.”
Kaiser hesitated briefly, then explained in detail, “My power is called magic. The world is filled with a power known as magic element, and although your world has far less of it compared to mine, it has enough for magic usage. To drive these magic elements, one must use spiritual force, which is…”
Void got more and more confused. It felt like Kaiser put a stick in his head and began to stir everything together, and he no longer understood anything.
Kaiser glanced at Void, and probably knew he didn’t understand. But it didn’t matter to Kaiser, since he didn’t really have any high hopes. It would be ridiculous to ask someone with a sword to help him with magic.
Kaiser continued his thoughts. If he couldn’t paint a magic picture before Gle woke up, perhaps he wouldn’t have to worry about whether Liola dies in three months, instead, he’d be in hell waiting for Liola.
“Master said, no matter how you put it, every power is a path leading to the same thing…” Void said hesitantly, “Judging by what you said, spiritual force sounds like Ki, magic elements… are sort of like your arms and legs. We use Ki to bring agility and strength to our arms and legs, much like you use spiritual force to use magic element.”
This did seem familiar. Kaiser stared blankly for a moment, then began to listen intently to what Void was saying.
Void took a moment to collect his thoughts, then continued, “So what you’re saying is, your spiritual force is very powerful, but you can’t use it to its fullest extent. It’s like if we were to give a child powerful Ki, but he doesn’t know how to use it. Instead, he might overexert his Ki, and break his own arms and legs and become crippled as a result.”
“Then how do you resolve it?” Kaiser asked hurriedly.
Void scratched his face, “Teach him slowly on how to use Ki. At first, let him exert a small bit of Ki, and get used to the feeling of Ki filling his limbs, then increase it slowly…”
“A small bit… use magic element to paint….” Kaiser jumped up as if hit by lightning and yelled loudly, “I understand now!”
Void seemed to be shocked, and asked stupefied, “Understand what?”
Kaiser touched his head with embarrassment, “I had thought more spiritual force was always better, so I use all my power to use magic every time. But because the strength of my spiritual force, I always end up with a big explosion or turn fireballs into super Divine Fireball.”
“But now I understand. My problem is the amount of spiritual force I use. It’s the reason why Gle wants me to use magic element to paint, because he wanted me to control a minute amount of element to draw, so I can learn to control my spirit force.”
Kaiser’s mouth was wide open, he hadn’t thought the devil would have such bizarre ideas. Had Void not been here and coincidentally reminded him, he would’ve thought the devil was trying to make things difficult for him.
As soon as he thought of a way, Kaiser immediately began to act on it. He attempted to use a miniscule amount of spiritual force to control a bit of water element. Slowly but surely, the water element began to move bit by bit. At the same time, it didn’t seem to affect any other element.
Kaiser was so excited that his heart was beating out of his chest. He put down the water element, and reached out his devilish claw at earth element… no, reaching out his spiritual force. As expected, earth element slowly moved to water element’s side, and stayed there obediently.
“Great! I did it!” Kaiser cheered loudly.
“Oh? Congratulations.” Void smiled blankly. He could neither see nor sense the elements, so he had no idea what Kaiser meant. But since Kaiser did say so, Void assumed he was successful.
Kaiser sighed, “Luckily I have the jewel from Auntie; this jewel actually allows me to ‘see’ the element, this is just too mystical! If I couldn’t see it with my eyes, I wouldn’t be done so quickly.”
“What should I paint?” Kaiser thought. A light flashed across his mind, ‘This one!’
Kaiser began to paint carefully. He had no idea, Gle already appeared while yawning, and he glanced at Void coldly.
Kaiser put on the last bit of fire element and clapped, “Finished!”
Gle poked his head over, and surprised Kaiser. He examined it with narrowed eyes, “This Guernica by Picasso is not bad, it does look like it.”
“Picasso?” Kaiser scratched his head. He had no idea it was drawn by Picasso, because he knew nothing of paintings. It was just something he had seen on Meinan’s clothings.
He asked skeptically, “Isn’t this painting called the Last Supper?”
‘L-last supper?’ Gle slipped a bit, and with his lips twitching, he examined the painting. He saw twisted bodies, warped faces, and some of them don’t even look like humans. No matter how he looked, it looked more like the Spanish Civil War. If this were the last supper… then there was only one possibility: this little runt’s painting skill was worse than a three year-old!
“Last Supper?” Gle asked with narrowed eyes.
Kaiser immediately felt something wrong in the air, and the devil’s ambience was already spreading in the air.
He answered solemnly, “I’m just kidding! What is the Last Supper anyway?! You know, I’m a big fan of Pikoso, especially the Spanking Civilian Work. For his work, I could even give up the Last Supper… assuming there will be midnight snacks.”
[T/N: Intentional misspellings]
Gle examined Kaiser with skeptical eyes, whom looked back firmly at him, without the slightest hint of a blush for his lies.
Gle didn’t really want to punish Kaiser, and instead touched his chin interestingly, “Since you’ve already learnt the basics of controlling your spiritual force, we will be training next.”
“Training? No problem, you can be as harsh as you want!” Kaiser thumped his chest and promised.
Gle laughed slightly, “Don’t worry, it won’t be harsher than Li’s; that method was a bit high with the mortality rate. I still look forward to your fight with Li, so I don’t want you to die first.”
Kaiser’s hand on his chest suddenly stopped, “H-how high is ‘a bit’?”
Gle tapped his face with his finger, trying to remember, “I think I caught about six to seven hundred children. After training for a few months, those without innate talents were thrown out, same with those who were crippled during training accidents, and of course those who died. After twenty years, only Li remains.”
‘699 out of the 700 were thrown away, so the mortality rate was 99.8%. T-this was just “a bit” high?’ Kaiser’s arms and legs began to shake. Would he… also get thrown out… after three months?
* * *
“Master, which way do we go next?”
Daylight yelled back anxiously at his master. Wanyuan was one who had seen just about everything and faced every dangerous enemy. Despite never sitting on such a fast-flying Dragon, he didn’t seem any different other than his face being slightly pale.
Yulie, however, had already given up any etiquette of a lady, and desperately held onto Daylight’s leg. Little Grass also gave up the dignity of being an elder brother apprentice, and held onto his master with both his hands and feet.
Little Baolilong was sitting blankly on Flame’s head. As much as it loved flying, without Liola on its back, to Baolilong, flying had lost its appeal.
“We’re almost there! The mountain range in front of us is our destination.”
Wanyuan said loudly, his trembling voice seemed to be intertwined with surprise, “Good apprentice, fly over slowly. The surrounding is beautiful. Cultivation of the mind is just as important to anyone who studies Martial Arts, and we don’t have to rush like this…”
Daylight looked ahead, and surely enough, there was a mountain range entrenched in clouds. Without saying anything, he commanded Flames to do a diving rush.
As for what Wanyuan said about cultivation of the mind, he ignored completely. Even Yulie or Little Grass’s screams could not interrupt Daylight’s determination to get to Divine Medicine Valley as soon as possible, to find a way to increase his strength, how could Wanyuan’s calm voice stop Daylight?
When Flames’ giant figure appeared above the Divine Medicine Valley, it caused quite a rumble underneath.
A dozen or so men and women with straw baskets beneath screamed as they ran every which way, obviously being terrified of what was happening.
The houses made out of bamboo in the Valley also began to shake, as if they could fall at any moment. The people within the houses also ran out, and glared at Flames with widened eyes.
As soon as Daylight saw the people in the Valley, he thought they must be the people of Divine Medicine Valley his master had talked about. He immediately commanded Flames to land in an open area. After receiving the command, it went down directly into the Valley.
Since the people underneath had already ran away, it wasn’t afraid of stepping on any humans. As for their belongings, such as places to hang their clothes, they were as meaningless as grass to Flames, so it stepped right on them.
As soon as they landed, Daylight yelled excitedly, “Master, we’re here, let’s begin with the training!”
Wanyuan’s head was covered in layers of sweat, but at least nothing like Little Grass or Yulie. They practically fell off the back and began to show their appreciation by kissing the ground.
Nevertheless, Wanyuan did prefer to have his feet on the ground. He jumped off Flames’ back with elegance, and as soon as he did a rude comment came behind him.
“Old Rock, what’s your problem?! Bringing such a large monster to my Divine Medicine Valley to cause troubles. Are you trying to bully me because I don’t have many people here?”
Wanyuan turned to find a middle-aged man with a ruddy face and a wide hip. He looked exactly like a farmer with his crude clothings.
There was a gathering sickle on his waist, and he had a large bamboo basket on his back: so large, it was the twice the size of anyone else’s. There were a dozen or so young men and women behind him, and they were all looking at Flames with apprehension.
“God of Medicine! Old friend! How could I dare to bully you? Even if no one is here, all your strange medicine here would drive me crazy.”
Wanyuan laughed loudly. He knew very well had he not been God of Medicine’s good friend for many years, there probably be a few hundred types of drugs being thrown at them.
Although the people of Divine Medicine Valley were passionate about medicines instead of Kung Fu, with the help of medicine, their Kung Fu was actually not any worse than any other factions in the Martial Arts world, not to mention they all carry dozens of drugs for defense. There weren’t many people in the Martial Arts World who would want to trifle with them.
God of Medicine walked in a full circle around Flames, and examined it carefully, then praised it,
“Such a beautiful big thing. It’s so majestic and mighty, calling it a demon was actually belittling it.”
He turned and looked at the only person who looked still composed — Daylight. He asked, “Little guy, is this big guy yours?”
Daylight nodded, “Yes, it’s my Dragon. It’s name is Flames.”
“Dragon, hmm?” God of Medicine habitually patted his bamboo basket, and looked like he was deep in thought, but he didn’t seem to refute Daylight.
God of Medicine asked Wanyuan with an objectionable tone, “Old Rock, there’s definitely a reason why you’re here. Every time you’ve been here at the Divine Medicine Valley, it has always been because of something troublesome. Spill it! Why are you here this time? Don’t tell me you came here just to let me see what a Dragon looks like?”
Wanyuan cut straight to the chase, he pointed at Daylight and said straightly, “In three months, make his power comparable to Silver Moon’s.”
God of Medicine stared blankly, then asked back, “The very same Silver Moon Assassin from Shalong Hall?”
Wanyuan nodded, and God of Medicine practically screamed,
“Impossible! Silver Moon is a prodigy in Martial Arts unlike any I’ve seen, and he has received special training. He’s always living between life and death. Having that kind of power at his age, let alone seeing it, there hasn’t anyone in the history of Martial Arts who would even come close.”
Daylight felt deeply depressed upon hearing, not because he wasn’t comparable to Liola, but instead worried that, in three months, if Liola dies because of his failure, Daylight would never forgive himself.
Nevertheless, Daylight was not the type to stay depressed. Even if everyone told him he did not even have the slightest hope, he would still do it without ever turning back.
Wanyuan glanced at his apprentice, and saw his frustration and despair dissipated in the blink of an eye, what replaced those negative emotions was surprisingly an even a more intense look of determination.
Wanyuan was quite amazed, even if Daylight’s innate talent didn’t match Silver Moon’s, his will was unmatched. Perhaps some day, he could be a match to Silver Moon? But due to the lack of time… Wanyuan sighed, for his apprentice, he planned to put in everything he had.
“Didn’t I find a Millennia Ginseng and asked you to help me process it?”
God of Medicine frowned, “Millennia ginseng is mainly used to increase your longevity and return you to your youth. It’s also the best medicine to treat wounds. Even if a person is hamstrung or have internal organ damages, it could be used to revive them. As for its effect on power, it has some, but it’s nowhere near Millenia Snake Pill.”
Wanyuan said freely, “Okay! Then the Millennia Ginseng is yours. Do whatever you can to help my apprentice.”
God of Medicine looked deeply surprised, “Old Rock, didn’t you spend over a hundred years to find Millenia Ginseng? You gave it to me a decade ago, and now it’s almost done being processed, you are really willing to give it up?”
When Daylight heard Wanyuan had spent so much effect on the ginseng, and was willing to give it up for a new apprentice; he felt tears in his eyes, and gratefulness in his heart.
Daylight interrupted, “Master, Daylight will train hard, no matter how harsh the training is. Please don’t abandon your years of effort because of Daylight.”
Hearing his apprentice say this, Wanyuan felt warm in his heart, but on the surface he solemnly denounced, “Your master is talking, apprentices have no right to interrupt. Go stand on the side!”
“But…” Daylight anxiously tried to stop Wanyuan.
“Silence!” Wanyuan yelled even more loudly.
Daylight was anxious, but at the same time he didn’t want to disobey his master. In that moment, he was helplessly standing still.
He looked at brother apprentice Little Grass, with anxiousness and pleading in his eyes. Little Grass didn’t seem to understand, and tried to comfort him, “Don’t worry, master will definitely prepare you to defeat Silver Moon in three months.”
Wanyuan nodded at God of Medicine, “I’ve made up my mind. Please help my apprentice.”
God of Medicine looked at Wanyuan, then at Daylight, and began to laugh, “Old Rock, Old Rock! No matter how rare your Millenia Ginseng is, I think I could probably make a substitute in a hundred or so years, but your strange apprentice isn’t someone who comes by so easily. How about this?! You let your apprentice tell me his story, and if I’m happy from listening the story, I will help you however I can!”
Daylight heard him and was ecstatic. He said hurriedly, “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you anything, please don’t take anything from my master.”
God of Medicine looked at Daylight, and saw his face was filled with anxiousness and sincerity. He patted his bamboo basket and said, “No wonder Old Rock likes you so much. Other than people in wicked factions, who wouldn’t want an apprentice like you?”
God of Medicine actually made Daylight laugh bitterly. Going by what he said, wouldn’t Liola and Kaiser, who was on the evil side, hate him?
God of Medicine hurried again and again, so Daylight began to tell his story. Although he hadn’t been with Liola and Kaiser from the start, he had heard the story before.
Since the people hearing the stories were all from this world, they were already surprised enough when Daylight said they were from another world. They kept asking him about the other world, and seemed to not be very interested in the actual story of the Assassin Silver Moon.
Daylight had gotten thirsty from talking too much, and he had to often drag the topic back. He even had to explain magic, Knights, Maxuns, etc.
While its master was busy telling a story, Flames was also having a headache because, every time Daylight mentioned Liola’s name, Baolilong would start bawling on top of Flames’ head, and it looked pitiful with its small body.
Flames desperately tried to comfort Its Highness, saying things like “You will see Liola in three months”, but Baolilong’s cries got even more intense, “Papa, won’t come back, or you will get killed!”
Flames was speechless. Despite having confidence in its master, the difficulty of the task at hand was incredibly high. It knew full well the power difference between its master and Baolilong’s master was astronomical. It would be very difficult for them to close the gap in three years, let alone three months.
Both the storyteller and the listeners had their attentions attracted by the sound of Baolilong’s cries. Everyone examined Baolilong with a frown, and Yulie even wanted to go up and hug it to comfort the cute little guy, but she was afraid of getting anywhere close to Flames.
Baolilong slid down from the Dragon’s neck, and with its chubby legs, it ran up to Daylight. It asked desperately, “Daylight will become very very strong, right?”
Daylight nodded seriously.
“Daylight must beat papa~!” Having said this, Baolilong held out its little fist.
“I will defeat him!” Daylight promised seriously.
Hearing Daylight’s promise, Baolilong wiped away its tears, and yelled loudly, “Baolilong will go find papa! Tell papa not to become stronger, or Daylight can’t win against papa.”
Daylight was shocked, and said hurriedly, “You’re going to go find Liola? You know where he is?”
Baolilong tried to sense for a while, but it seemed to be uncertain as it pointed in a direction, “Over there?”
Seeing Baolilong’s large eyes filled with doubt, Daylight laughed bitterly, “I thought Dragons could usually pinpoint exactly where its master is? Or is it because Baolilong is too young?”
‘Master! It’s not because Its Highness is too young, but because there is someone interfering. This interference is quite strong, perhaps it’s from the Leader.’
‘Is Gle interfering?’ Daylight thought briefly, and it was definitely possible.
If Gle wanted them to fight each other to death, they must not want them to look for Liola, right? And there’s no way for Gle not to know Dragons could find their master, and thus he could be interfering.
Daylight wanted to try explaining to Baolilong, but as soon as he turned around, Baolilong had already transformed and ready to take flight.
Daylight yelled anxiously, “Flames, stop it!”
Flames immediately rushed up. Being older than Baolilong, its body and strength was slightly greater than Baolilong’s, and it was how it stopped Baolilong so it wouldn’t disappear into the air. Its flying ability was nowhere comparable to Baolilong, as it was the child of the Sacred White Dragon.
Although uncertain where papa is, Baolilong didn’t seem to care. It desperately struggled, hoping to quickly go find papa. This made it hard for Flames to hold him, despite being slightly stronger, but the difference wasn’t much, especially since Baolilong was using all of its strength to struggle.
Everyone looked with shock at these two giant Dragons entangled, and the ground felt like an earthshake. Those timid ones had already ran off, and the only one remained were just God of Medicine and Wanyuan, whom were both in awe.
Daylight ran up and yelled, “Baolilong, don’t be like this. You can’t possibly pinpoint Liola’s position, and you can’t see anyone in the air anyhow. No matter how far you fly, you may still not be able to find him.”
Hearing Daylight, Baolilong stared blankly for a moment, then stopped struggling. But after thinking for a while, it used a Dragon roar with determination, “Baolilong will walk!”
Then, it actually stood up, and even carried Flames on its back.
Seeing the spectacular scene of a Dragon carrying another Dragon, Daylight didn’t know whether to smile or cry.
He went up to stop it, “No, if you go like this, as soon as you go, people will attack you.”
Baolilong shook its body, and Flames fell from its back. Then it turned back into a small child, and said with determination, “Baolilong will go find papa.”
Seeing Baolilong was really about to walk away as a 5 year old child (while naked), Daylight wanted to go up and stop him.
Baolilong pouted its face, and spit out a bolt of electricity as it yelled, “You’re not papa! You can’t touch Baolilong.”
Daylight had little time to react, and as he was about to be hit by the bolt, a figure jumped in front of him and yelled, “Your Highness, please don’t be mad. Master didn’t do it intentionally.”
Baolilong probably also knew Daylight was just worried about it. But as a Dragon Knight, Baolilong thought Daylight should know not to touch another’s Dragon.
Baolilong stood still though still pouting. A figure also walked to Baolilong, and took it up into its arms. Strangely, Baolilong didn’t seem to resist at all.
The figure slowly turned around. It looked like a young person of about fifteen or so of age, and it had an elegant face. Its golden eyes seem to suggest a sense of maturity a person of this age shouldn’t have.
One could call it a young man, but it had no characteristics a male should have, or one could call it a young woman, but its chest was flat, and it had no breasts either. It had a head full of long and dense red hair, reaching all the way to its knees, covering its naked body.
“Flames…” Daylight sighed in relief. Luckily Flames was there, otherwise, not being able to touch Baolilong, Daylight really didn’t know how to stop it from leaving.
Since Flames hadn’t matured, and therefore had no gender, the people standing by didn’t know where to put their eyes on its naked body. By this point, Yulie had already tilted her head with a blush.
Daylight, on the other hand, carelessly walked over. He had already seen Flames in its human form, but Flames’ capacity to maintain human form was a bit low, and therefore could only transform into a person for a short time. It was also difficult for Flames to maintain in this form, so it usually preferred not to.
“Master, since you will be training, how about I take Its Highness to find its master?” Flames suggested.
Daylight seemed shocked, “You can turn into a human for a long time now?”
Flames nodded, then explained, “With some effort, I could probably do it for five to six hours. When I’m sure there’s no humans nearby, I could take Its Highness as a Dragon, and if there are people, I will take my human form.”
Daylight thought with a frown. Flames and Baolilong would indeed have nothing to do while he’s training, so it would be better to let them to find Liola in the meantime. If they really do find him, Daylight could use his telepathy with Flames to talk to Liola for a plan.
Besides, Daylight had faith in Flames. After all, Flames was older, and it was mature by nature, so it should be able to take good care of itself and Baolilong.
Daylight then nodded, “Okay, you take Baolilong to look for Liola. But if you don’t find him, come back ten days before the duel at the latest.”
“Yes, master.”
Flames nodded seriously, then turned around to leave. As a Dragon, it had nothing to pack. This world was filled with forests and grasslands, so food could be hunted on the way.
“Flames!” Baolilong yelled.
Flames answered reflexively, “Yes, Your Highness?”
Baolilong looked with skeptical eyes, “What about clothes? Papa said I can’t go out without wearing clothes?”
“Did he?” Flames looked at its own naked body, and tilted its head, “It should be fine? I don’t have a gender yet.”
Baolilong nodded somewhat understandingly. It didn’t care, since Dragons never wore clothes. After deciding not to wear anything, the two “people” happily resumed their journey to find papa.
“W-wait!” Daylight tried to stop them, and he began to regret. Perhaps letting these two “people” walk out like this wouldn’t be a good idea…
* * *
“A bit stronger, and faster with the fireballs.”
Kaiser continued to sustain the headache resulting from overexerting his spiritual force. Every fireball he shot, he felt like someone was breaking his head open with an axe, but White Bombs continued shoot out from his gun one by one.
Gle’s cold voice beside him felt like it was coming from afar, almost to the point where he couldn’t hear. The only thing in his mind now was, three months, three months…
‘Liola was too strong!’ This was something Kaiser had never thought he’d hate so much. He even hoped Lancelot was here, so he could seal Liola again.
Eventually, darkness fell before his eyes. But Kaiser used the edge of his gun and slammed his thighs, forcefully using the pain to drag his consciousness back. Another White Fireball shot out from the barrel of his gun.
As Kaiser yelled loudly, a larger-than-before Fireball shot out into the sky. It then exploded like a giant firework in the sky, as if it was being juxtaposed with Kaiser’s odd declaration,
“Damn! It’s not your time to die!”
* * *
Daylight was naked, and soaked in a large, wooden barrel. The barrel was full of nauseating slime, and any ordinary person would want to vomit and get as far away from it as possible.
Daylight, however, didn’t seem to smell anything. He sat cross-legged in it, and exerted the Ki he just learnt around and around his body. Signals of exhaustion came from his body, and overexerting his Ki made him feel pain in every nerve in his body, but he continued to sit like a statue. There was no pain on his face, instead there was only unequalled determination.
A middle-aged man sitting next to him looked out the window, then said, “The effect of the medicine is gone. Go train outside. I’ll tell you when the next barrel of medicine is done.”
Daylight opened his eyes slowly, and nodded to the middle-aged man.
Jumping out of the wooden barrel, Daylight grabbed his shirt and pants to put them on. He didn’t seem to even notice the disgusting slime on him, and he didn’t bother even washing his hand, because he didn’t have the time.
He stepped out of the medicine room, and quickly walked to the yard. Wanyuan was leisurely sitting on a bench. Without even looking at Daylight, he pointed his pipe at the four bags next to him, then resumed smoking leisurely.
Daylight quickly tied those four bags to his four limbs, then ran up the hill without even looking back.
Wanyuan looked as Daylight ran away. He tapped his pipe, then said to Little Grass next to him, “After supper, you go find something even heavier.”
Hearing this, Little Grass said with a long face, “Master, those bags were already filled with iron. If you want something heavier, then we’d have to buy gold.”
“Then buy gold.” Wanyuan tapped his pipe again.
* * *
‘Where could I find Anise?’ Liola walked into the Bandit Mountains without any reason or logic. He believed, the place where he first arrived in this world was where he would find the answer he had been searching for.
No matter how much area the Bandit Mountains spans, Liola walked through all of it step by step. His body was not tired, but his soul was more tired than the twenty years of training he had received from Gle.
On one hand he desperately wanted to find Anise, on another he felt uneasy. This dilemma made his soul feel even more tortured.
“Promise me, you won’t kill anymore, okay?”
‘Anise, if you’re the White Dragon, you have no reason to ask me not to kill, right? After all, didn’t the White Dragon want me to kill the Dragon Emperor, right?’
“I lied to you, the necklace can only allow one person leave…”
‘Then, how did Yasha go with me? Anise, would you give me an explanation?’
Yandi quietly followed Liola and looked at his back, then into the sky. The intense sunlight had a color similar to Anise’s cream hair. She began to talk towards the sun,
“Sister, please don’t lie to him…”
* * *
The three people who arrived here together, went on three different journeys, all in pursuit of the same final result.