The Fire MOTH of the Previous Era left numerous legacies. Among them are dozens of shelters hidden as pseudo Bubble Worlds. They possess the power of the Sea of Quanta but exist within the physical world. Its best function is to become a shield against imaginary energy—the attack unleashed by the Herrscher of the End is one such example.
It is the reason why some of the shelters survived from the Previous Era.
One of the shelters housed the World Serpent's HQ. It is located beneath the oceanic plates of the pacific ocean. The strong honkai emission from the ocean alone conceals most traces.
They were able to go under Schicksal's radar for so long purely because of it. Another part is them not choosing to do major actions until one month ago.
Today, the corpse of the judgement-class honkai beast Chiyou was brought inside. Gray Serpent made this decision after witnessing one surprise after another.
Welt Yang's improved strength is but one of them. He still hasn't forgotten about Shi Tian who managed to deal with the ELF Kevin within a minute or two. It possessed nearly ten percent of his true power.
As for whether there is something wrong with Chiyou's corpse, Gray Serpent has no choice. It is an open scheme. They hadn't encountered any attack within a month. It is either they take the corpse or not at all.
Given Kevin's diminished strength, he needed Chiyou's corpse to recover the majority of it.
Nonetheless, the World Serpent has someone they can rely on.
"It is done."
The white-haired woman's soft voice resounded in the empty room. The level of honkai emission coming from her is enough to constitute a strong minor eruption. She will kill everyone around her—mortals and Valkyries alike.
Gray Serpent remained unaffected due to his mechanical body.
With a nod, the woman, Misteln Schariac, left. She returned back to her living space—a subspace within the imaginary space. It is extremely similar to a stigma space she can manipulate at will.
Immediately, a scene was recreated.
She was called by Gray Serpent to deal with any mind-based powers inside Chiyou's corpse. Misteln agreed and faced someone within it:
Shi Tian.
His flat expression mirrored hers. His blue cape fluttered as he pointed his finger towards her. A stream of multi-colored light attempted to come at her, only to be halted at the last second.
Everything is ultimately a replay of what she faced. Misteln used her overwhelming power to erase Shi Tian's mental imprint in one go. Now, she wanted to review it.
The multi-colored light began to break down into smaller single-colored strings.
Blue, red, green, violet, indigo, orange, red…
To her surprise, no matter how much she cut things out, a new "color" emerged. It was simply endless. When all the primary colors appeared, the secondary colors did. Then the tertiary, followed by the quarterly colors…
Misteln was only able to simulate up to the eighth order before the replay dissipated. No matter what she does, she could not simulate the true weight of the Dao Shi Tian displayed.
Recalling Gray Serpent's words as well as a certain Flamechaser's experience, Misteln made a conclusion.
"Coming from another world…"
*****
Elysian Realm.
It is essentially a special space constructed with the help of a certain magician's technology. The heroes of the Previous Era, the Flamechasers, stored their 'memories' and 'selves' inside this space, intending to use it to pass down knowledge and ideals to the next generation.
To the World Serpent, it is a heritage space that tests one's strength and mentality. Each Flamechaser has a space of their own, and it is up to them to give the trial takers/trainees the said trials and rewards.
Now, a Flamechaser is questioning Gray Serpent. Her short stature did not tone down her chilling aura.
"...Where did this come from?"
"It is a sample acquired during one…"
He narrated the events honestly because of one reason: she is his creator.
The genius from the Previous Era, Mobius, created a sentient biological life known as "Gray Serpent". Any attempts to replicate his creation ended in failure. As such, he is one-of-a-kind in Mobius' eyes.
During the past two months, she did nothing but to "test" the samples she received from Gray Serpent. The latter took the initiative to send it to her. Not even Jackal was able to decipher its secrets.
'A girl from the outside world? That shouldn't be the case…'
Mobius was confused by the sample's origins. It came from Seele and Bronya. One of them was tested to have a Natural Stigma while the other has none at all. Both of them showed exceptionally high honkai adaptability.
From there, it was easy to deduce that the invisible "foreign substance" within them is correlated to honkai adaptability. It is also tied to the "superhuman strength" comparable to the MANTIS of the Previous Era—super soldiers genetically enhanced with honkai beasts' genes.
It is easy to be engrossed with the possibilities this new "substance" offered.
'If we had this before…'
Unfortunately, it is destined to be nothing but an idea.
"Get me in touch with him."
"I am afraid…"
"Stop acting. Just send one of your avatars over."
"...Understood."
*****
{"Did you see it?"}
"..."
{"You did."}
Seele fell silent. The reason for her earlier daze lay in Shi Tian—to be exact, the hickeys that partially showed up on his shirt's sleeves.
His casual clothes are made of early second grade fabric. Moreover, it will take an instant for Shi Tian to notice someone "peeking" straight to his clothes.
Unfortunately for him, Seele managed to notice it with her eyesight alone.
He also let his guard down and did not erase the traces after being suddenly kicked out. His mind is still in a mess at that time, thus overlooking several mistakes.
These ended up turning Seele's mind in a mess.
She wasn't dumb. He and Kiana became closer during the past month. Though they do not act intimate, the fact they could understand each other by gazing alone explains a lot.
Seele still had some hope… until she saw him today. It wasn't noticeable much, but when she came closer, she sensed Kiana's unique presence. It was something that couldn't be removed by any cleansing spell. It requires a breath-removal spell that specially hides cultivators' auras.
That could only mean he is with Kiana.
Seele recalled the romance books she read.
Holding hands in the sunset.
Sitting together in a swing.
Laying the head on one's shoulders.
Eating together.
Confessing love.
Hugging and kissing.
…
Kiana did everything she wanted to do with Shi Tian.
She lost.
Before she knew it, Seele locked herself inside a treasure chest. It is her previous place of comfort. She used to lock herself up whenever she wanted some peace. Ultimately, it is a part of her cowardly nature.
Her former determination was gone. Replacing it is a plethora of doubts.
'Can I do it? Steal him from Sister Kiana?'
'Will he look at me?'
'He never saw me as a partner…'
'I can't do anything.'
"Hick… I… I…"
Seele let out the worst cry of her life.
She can no longer form any coherent sentences. Not even her other self attempted to interrupt it.
Just then…
{"..!"}
Seele's other self felt a strange resonance. The extreme burst of emotions of a Foundation Establishment cultivator manifests externally. Yet, there wasn't any sign of it.
All of them poured onto Seele's stigma space instead.
Rumble-!
Her other self felt the changes clearly. The rampant mental power broke the Natural Stigma's "locks" one after another. It allowed Seele to access the stigma's full power—matter reconstruction.
{"Stop—!"}
The next moment, Seele disappeared from the face of the Earth.
*****
A/N: Bonus chapter. Anyways, this is also a turning point (story-wise and Tian's potential harem life-wise).