Chapter 47: Everyone's progress
Raizel jumped from his chair and welcomed Kaelen with his arm around his neck.
"Where the hell have you been?" He roughed up his hair a bit as he jokingly asked.
"Ahahaha. I was practicing, man. I just took some time, that's all," Kaelen laughed as he responded.
"You sure took your sweet time," Rai said.
"Alright, alright. My bad, okay? What are you all doing here? Did you guys know I was coming back today?" Kaelen apologized.
"Yes, Teacher Long and Brother Hao told us you were coming back today, so we decided to gather to welcome you. You have to tell us what you've been doing specifically for it to take so much time," Thorin approached and tapped him on his shoulder while he explained.
"I see. Thanks, you guys," Kaelen looked at everyone with a warm gaze. His face paused towards Su Yao's direction. "Su Yao, you're here as well," he exclaimed slightly in surprise.
"Yes," the bashful girl nodded with a smile. "Welcome back," she added.
"Hm," Kaelen nodded also.
"Alright, guys, come and sit, let's eat and discuss, shall we?" Tang Hao, who was very much looking forward to eating, said.
"Oh, Tang Hao, you've lost some weight," looking at the chubby fella, Kaelen could not help but remark.
Indeed, the chubby boy was now noticeably slimmer. He had even grown a few centimeters, now standing at around 178cm, while not as tall as the other three boys, he was also considered tall for his age group. With his dark hair and blue eyes, he was becoming more handsome and had more of the allure of a prince.
"Of course! I've been training diligently here and with my uncle in the Sundering Tiger Mountain- I'm a prince of the empire after all, I have to represent my father properly," the latter puffed up his chest and spoke in a proud manner.
"Ahahaha, good for you, man," Kaelen walked to an empty chair next to Su Yao and sat, while Thorin and Rai regained theirs.
"So, tell us about your training. How was it?" Raizel asked first.
"It was great. Very tough, but I enjoyed it a lot," Kaelen answered as he took a piece of roasted meat from the table and munched.
"That's it? More details, bastard," unsatisfied, Raizel threw a piece of bread at him, demanding specifics.
"Ah," swiftly catching the piece of bread, Kaelen bites on it as well.
"Gulp. Delicious. Well, I started practicing the martial art Teacher taught me seven months ago. We went to his Azure Dragon Mountain, deep within the sect. Before we began training, me and Senior Apprentice Brother Hao, Master covered the entire mountain in his Everlasting Dragon Might, increasing the gravity inside it for the totality of the first part of the training period, which lasted about a week and a half.
"After which, I began my battles with the monster beasts Master had prepared for me to face. Oh right! First, I faced this guy…" Kaelen pointed at the cat-looking golden-eyed animal on his shoulder.
"Heh…" It was only now that everyone realized that there was an animal on his shoulder the whole time.
"Holy… was it on your shoulder this whole time?" Tang Hao almost jumped in fright.
"It's cute," Su Yao, who was sitting beside Kaelen, commented. She poked the animal's cheek with her index finger. The small leopard jumped on her chest in response.
"Oh…" the purple-haired maiden was taken by surprise from the assault but quickly calmed down, as the beast jumped from her lap onto the table and took a piece of meat.
"It's the Golden-eyed Shadow Leopard; it can hover between shadow and reality because of its attribute," Kaelen explained while eating.
"So, it might have been hiding until now," he added.
"Cool," Raizel said as he watched the animal eat.
"After I fought this one, I battled the Red-eyed Berserk bear. He was huge and very strong…"
An hour or so passed.
"And finally, it was the black-scaled flood dragon that I battled last, a heavenly beast in the top twenty ranking. It was at the peak of Profound Spirit stage, so it was more than a whole realm above me, who is currently at the 6th stage of Elemental Resonance, and it was ridiculously powerful at that level. We had a great fight that lasted a few days; finally, I won by beheading it with my spear. I took its body so we can cook it sometime; eating heavenly beasts of the dragon bloodline especially is a great tonic and can increase physical strength a lot, it can also refine the body and improve cultivation, so it would be a waste to just let it rot there. I have a few other carcasses from other beasts that we can cook." Eating, Kaelen recounted his experience during the last few months and finished with his last encounter.
Everyone listened as he spoke. While Thorin and Raizel's eyes blazed with fighting spirit, wishing to test themselves against powerful beasts as Kaelen did, Tang Hao, Su Yao, and Xue Qing all looked at him with a weird gaze.
"This monster actually defeated all those ranked earthly beasts and heavenly beasts while being a whole realm below and came back intact like it was some vacation," the three thought.
It was one thing if he fought one or two until he won during the six months, but to battle a dozen or two ranked beasts without stopping for six months and still manage to break through six stages is demonic behavior.
"So, how strong are you now?" Thorin asked, his ruby eyes blazing with the urge to battle.
Looking at him, Kaelen responded with a 'scoff'.
"My cultivation is at the peak of the sixth stage. My strength, however, should be around early Moon Spirit stage at full strength," he assessed.
"…"
"What about you guys, how did you spend the last seven months?" Noticing the silence, Kaelen turned to them for some stories.
"We actually received new masters about six months ago. I was received by Elder Zhu Lei and trained in his Thunder Mountain for a while. I then broke through Elemental Resonance soon after. I've now reached the 10th extreme - Thunder Eye of the element," Raizel answered first. His purple crystal-clear eyes changed as a blue lightning ring formed around his irises. "I can now clearly see all the lightning and thunder-attributed energy in the air; if I fight against someone who uses lightning energy, I can easily evade his attacks since I can see the path of energy."
"Oh!?" Hearing this, a light flashed into Kaelen's eyes. Elemental resonance was the last foundational realm with three extreme stages - Eyes of the element, Heart of the element, and Elemental brain. The first one gives you the ability to see your attribute in the atmosphere, making it very difficult to battle against someone who attained it. The second stage gives you the heart of the element; it's the only stage requiring a treasure to reach it, a source crystal heart, which is extremely rare.
However, if you have one and use it to fuse it with your elemental core, it will change your elemental qi to True elemental.Qi, a more powerful form of energy, about twice as strong as the normal version. Finally, Brain of the element requires baptism of the brain with the elemental origin of heaven and earth, increasing one's ability to comprehend the Dao related to the element.
"I wonder how useful Eyes of the elements is. I look forward to sparring," Kaelen said, full of battle intent. "What about you guys?" He turned to Thorin and Tang Hao.
"I trained under Master Feihu with Tang Hao, in the Sundering Tiger Mountain," Thorin answered. "I've reached the 11th extreme since I already had the source crystal hearts related to my attributes."
"Really? You are quite lucky then," Kaelen commented.
"Yeah, my sister gave them to me before she left, since they're extremely hard to find," Thorin explained.
Tang Hao, who was enjoying the food, lifted his head, grease and crumbs could be seen all over his mouth.
"Hmm, Source crystal hearts? Yes, those things are ridiculously hard to find, only my eldest brother managed to get one and reached the 11th extreme; second brother, on the other hand, only reached the 10th extreme. He will have to wait much longer to transform his elemental qi into elemental true qi. He was really angry about that; even my father was helpless about it. Truthfully, while the elemental true qi formed at later stages is weaker then for those who got it at the 11th extreme, it is not the only thing that matters, but the second brother hates being 'inferior' so," he said with a mouthful of food, bits of meat would fly as he spoke, making Xue Qing, who sat beside him, stare at him with disgust.
"Come on, cousin, don't look at me like that. Ahahaha, you must enjoy decent food," seeing the hateful glare, Tang Hao said without a hint of care.
"You pig; can't you eat with more decency?" the icy beauty complained.
"And you, Tang Hao. What cultivation have you reached?" Kaelen asked, while laughing at the bickering duo.
"I have already reached the Innate Spirit Realm, Xue Qing as well, by the way. She has also broken through the nine extremes, so she is considered a top talent. I only broke through seven extremes, but I have a special constitution, so I am still quite strong. Obviously not like you monsters," Tang Hao nonchalantly answered.
"Nine extremes? You mean talents that broke through the extreme stages in all three foundational realms?" Raizel asked.
"Precisely."
"Wow, Xue Qing, you're pretty strong then," Kaelen commented as he looked at the icy-eyed beauty.
"Hm. It's nothing, I still can't defeat Raizel who hasnt broken through nine extremes yet, so it's nothing to be proud of," she nodded, then shook her head to the sides.
"Snort! Comparison is the killer of joy! Why would you even compare to any of those few," Tang Hao could not help but comment.
Xue Qing only side-glanced at her cousin and said nothing else; she then stole a look at Raizel, an imperceptible light flashed deep in her irises.
"Seems like everyone made great progress, this is good!" Kaelen smiled. He gazed at the silent maiden next to him, who kept poking at the shadow cat.
"And you?" Kaelen said as he approached and whispered near her face.
Su Yao froze in place, her head taking a hint of pink. She turned to face the handsome boy.
"What?" She asked in a meek tone.
"Say, are you always so shy?" Pulling back a bit to create some distance, Kaelen couldn't help but ask in an exasperated manner. "I'm asking how strong you are?"
"I'm… I'm at… my cultivation is at the Moon Spirit Realm." As she said that, she lifted her small jade finger, and an ethereal silver light appeared around it.
"…" Kaelen's eyes widened while his mouth turned into an 'o' shape. Everyone else turned to look at her in shock.
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