745 Orb of Life
The capital city of the Honorable Alliance, Alliance City, sprawled for nearly one hundred miles in each direction, appearing more like an empire than a city. As the bastion of the Honorable faction of humanity, it was one of the most powerful locations on the Divine Martial Continent.
Surrounding the city was a powerful formation, which covered everything from the ground below to the sky above, making it so that the only way into the city was through the main gates unless one launched an all out assault on the formation unless one powerful enough expended a great amount of energy to get through it.
In the sky at the outskirts of the city, a man suddenly appeared before this very barrier formation. His gaze shifted down towards the ground miles below, and gazed at the main gate of the city, which currently had thousands of people lined up for inspection to enter.
The man scoffed at the sight and reached out with his right hand, which flared with incredible power for a brief instant. His power slammed against the barrier, sending a shockwave through it as it fought back against his power, while a hole opened up within the barrier for the briefest of instants before closing.
After doing this, the man lowered his hand and hovered in place, as if patiently waiting for someone’s arrival.
Flash!
Another figure instantly appeared before the man, the Alliance Head, who hovered on the other side of the barrier, obviously altered to the newcomer’s presence when he had attacked the barrier.
The Alliance Head sighed as he saw who had arrived.
“Astral Emperor, is there a reason for you attacking my city’s formation barrier?” the Alliance Head asked curiously.
“To alert you, naturally,” the Astral Emperor replied calmly as he gazed down towards the city’s busy entrance far below their feet. “Surely you don’t expect me to enter your city in such a lowly way.”
“Had you given me forewarning that you would be arriving here today, I would have naturally welcomed you personally,” the Alliance Head replied.
“Then I must apologize for my unannounced intrusion,” the Astral Emperor apologized, but his tone contained no remorse at all as if his words were mere formality. “I had planned to arrive here in two weeks when your trial realm was supposed to close, but it appears that the realm closed much sooner than expected?” he continued, his words clearly trying to pry into what had happened to cause the realm to close two weeks early.
The Alliance Head saw through this, and didn’t bother to entertain explaining things to the Astral Emperor. While he was not antagonistic with the Astral Emperor, he was also not friendly either. The Astral Emperor was a powerful cultivator of the human race, and would be a very strong ally for the Alliance, but despite repeated efforts of forming an alliance, the Astral Emperor always refused.
As such, the Alliance Head didn’t feel much warmth towards the Astral Emperor, despite them both being human cultivators of the honorable cultivation pathway.
“The realm did close early, although we are not sure of the reason. Now, will you entertain this old man with the reason for your arrival?” the Alliance Head deflected the question and asked his own.
“You should already know the reason for my arrival,” the Astral Emperor replied calmly. “Nothing happens in this city without your knowledge, and even something as trivial as my runaway daughter entering your trial realm should have not escaped your eyes,” he said, his voice still calm but containing a slight bit of frost to it.
“Your daughter? I had no idea she had entered our realm,” the Alliance Head replied, feigning shock at the matter. However, his acting was quite bad, as if he were teasing the Astral Emperor on purpose by feigning obviously faked ignorance.
The Astral Emperor narrowed his eyes slightly as he stared at the Alliance Head, and remained silent for a short moment as the Alliance Head smiled back at him as if nothing was wrong.
“Regardless, my daughter managed to run away and sneak herself into your ancient trial realm,” the Astral Emperor eventually replied. “I can tell she is in your city now, and I have come to retrieve her. Hopefully nothing happened to her inside the ancient realm, or else…” he said as his voice trailed off, obviously as a thinly veiled threat against the Alliance.
“Or else?” the Alliance Head repeated, his smile never leaving his face for a second. The Astral Emperor stared at the Alliance Head for a short moment again before smiling back, as if his words just uttered never happened.
“Ah, well all that matters is that my daughter is safe, and I have come to retrieve her. Surely you will allow me to enter your city to get her, will you not?” the Astral Emperor asked.
“Naturally,” the Alliance Head replied as he waved his hand, and a large hole opened up in the formation barrier. The Astral Emperor quickly slipped through the opening, at which point the barrier closed behind him once more.
“Since you seem to be in a rush, I won’t keep you occupied,” the Alliance Head said, his words indicating that he wanted the Astral Emperor to fetch his daughter and then leave.
The Astral Emperor gazed at the Alliance Head for a moment before nodding in compliance.
“Naturally,” he replied and prepared to move.
“Oh, and do be sure to not cause a ruckus in my city,” the Alliance Head said warmly, his smile never leaving his face. The Astral Emperor scoffed but didn’t reply as his body flashed, disappearing from sight.
…
“What is this?” John asked curiously, although he had a decent idea of what was held by Laia at the moment.
The object was a golden orb, which flowed like it was made of liquid. It was held together in an orb by a thin layer of Laia’s Qi, and it gave off an aura of incredibly potent vitality.
“It’s an orb of the condensed essence of my Dao of Life, as well as some of my vitality,” Laia replied, revealing the shocking truth of the orb she held in her hand.