Death… and me

Chapter 739: Surprise

After heading back into the valley, Rean then looked at the World Swallowing Cedar and asked, “What about Celis? Should we leave or bring him inside the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm?”

Celis already heard what happened through Kentucky, so he immediately answered, “Why? Can’t you do such a thing by yourselves? I told you before. I have no need for battle experience, and I know what I need to do to cultivate. In fact, now that I’ve returned to this stage, I’m being even more thorough, fixing some mistakes I made in the past. Just leave me here unless you’re sure you’ll be in a precarious situation.”

Rean, Roan, and Kentucky didn’t mind. They only asked to see what Celis wanted to do. After all, it was true that Celis could keep cultivating while they were on the move. It wouldn’t be as good as the four of them cultivating, but it was better than nothing. “Alright, then. We will leave you here. Take care of the kids, Celis.”

Celis agreed as he said, “Sure, just go already.” 

Still, there was one thing that bothered Rean. “We’re all leaving except for Celis. What if someone comes while we’re out? Celis is still in the Initial Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, after all. If someone similar to Gulan comes around, there won’t be much Celis can do.”

Roan pondered over it for a bit before saying, “You said that the formation can definitely stop anyone in the Nascent Soul Realm, right? Other than Gulan, there shouldn’t be anyone else. In any case, we can’t stay here forever to look after the kids, not to mention that we can’t put them in the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm anymore. In a situation like this, one can only hope.”

Celis already began to lose his patience, though. “Why are you still here? Stop worrying about what can’t be done and just go. Humans are so complicated.”

Kentucky agreed with Celis’s sentiments, saying, “I think so too.”

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response, replying with, “Well, so be it. Let’s go.”

Kentucky then bade farewell to Celis before Rean and Roan jumped on his back. Not long after, they left the valley and disappeared in the distance.

Rean then looked at the map, trying to calculate the time necessary to arrive there. Of course, as always, he kept his Spiritual Sense and Light bending skill active. “No wonder they gave this area for us to take care of. It’s only three days away from Koran Forest and still in the Tribes’ Zone. Sure enough, that would be the best place.”

Roan nodded, saying, “That’s not all. The region they put us in charge of is full of mountains and high peaks. It’s the perfect stage for a Demon Bird to battle. It seems like Phex chose this place with Kentucky in mind.”

Rean couldn’t help but laugh, responding, “Hahaha! That also means he doesn’t care about the two of us at all.”

“Obviously.” Roan shrugged his shoulders as he said, “Phex cares about Kentucky, not us. Why should he give us an easy time? Besides, we’re humans. He has no reason to consider our well-being at all. You could say that this is a battlefield made for Kentucky to train.”

Kentucky was quite happy after hearing that, saying, “As expected of another Divine Demon Beast.”

Rean then calmed down before sitting on Kentucky’s back, shrugging his shoulders as he said, “Oh well, we have three days on our hands until we arrive. Let’s not leave all the work for Celis alone.” Soon after, he took out several Rank Three Spirit Stones and began to cultivate. While inside the valley, there was no need for these stones. But now that they were outside, the stones finally gained meaning again in their cultivation.

Roan agreed with Rean’s idea and took out a few Rank Three Spirit Stones before cultivating. And just like that, three days went by in a flash.

Rean’s group could finally see the Celesgal Volcano. However, it did not mean that they were close. This region carried the volcano’s name because of how prominent it was. Even though Rean’s group was a few hundreds of kilometers away, they could still see its outline. That’s just how big it was. 

However, they didn’t pay much attention to it before heading to the southeast side. However, it didn’t take long before Rean noticed a very strong Spiritual Sense touching his Spiritual Sense bending skill. Fortunately, they were at the very border of that Spiritual Sense, so Rean could still bend it.

“Definitely Stage Seven Spiritual Sense, not far from Stage Eight,” Rean said with a serious expression.

Of course, they were already expecting something like this. “That’s a good thing. As long as it’s here, neither side’s top experts will intervene.” Soon after, Roan asked Rean to turn the skill off. “We can’t suddenly appear too close to that Stage Seven Demon Beast’s Spiritual Sense. Stop bending his Spiritual Sense so that he knows we’re coming.”

Rean nodded before both his Spiritual Sense and Light bending skill were deactivated. Sure enough, the Demon Beast responsible for watching this area looked in the twins’ direction as it thought, ‘One Rank Five Demon Beast and…two humans. So that’s the group Senior Phex tasked me to keep a close eye on.’

As Rean and Roan got closer and closer to the area marked on the map, they noticed quite a few Zasfins and Demon Beasts battling on the ground below. There were also some Stage Four Demon Beasts fighting against Core and Soul Fusion Realm Zasfins in the air. 

“It seems like the fights have already started at the lower levels,” Kentucky commented as he watched things from the skies.

Not too long after, Rean’s group landed at the top of one of the mountains. There, they could see a few other groups of Stage Five Demon Beasts. There were also three beasts at Stage Six. As expected, they immediately looked at Rean’s group. Or, to be more precise, at Rean and Roan, who were humans. 

One of the Rank Six Demon Beasts couldn’t help but say, “Oh, it’s already very rare for a single Nascent Soul human to appear, and now there are three of them. That’s quite interesting.”

The other two Rank Six Demon Beasts nodded in agreement, also finding that sight quite peculiar.

However, Rean and Roan were more surprised by what they said as they simultaneously said in surprise, “Three Nascent Soul Realm humans?”

As if hearing the twins’ words, a man with a large greatsword on his back moved forward, out of the demon beast ranks. In the end, Rean, Roan, and the man couldn’t help but look at each other with surprise in their eyes.