Chapter 747: Destination: The Burial Grounds of Countless Experts!
The Phoenix Tail Stone orbited around Avril, like a pretty green spirit. It drifted easily and at high speeds, making the already enchanting beauty seem like a fairy. In fact, the Phoenix Tail Stone’s aura and Avril’s were highly complementary.
Xia Fei and Oro were dumbfounded. Only several minutes had pa.s.sed; could Avril have subdued this Immemorial Mystical Armament in such a short time?! It was as if there were some things in Avril’s body hard to grasp. Furball had felt uneasy after seeing Avril even for the first time despite being a distinguished Holy Beast, often being miserably toyed with by her. Now, even the Phoenix Tail Stone had easily submitted to Avril. There was simply no logical explanation to all these strange phenomena!
Taking two quick steps, Xia Fei came to Avril’s side. He noticed that the corners of her forehead was full of beading sweat, and that faint makeup she wore was already spent. Her chest was heaving in short, ragged breaths. She looked like she was down a size, looking very exhausted.
“Why were you gone for so long?” Avril adjusted her long hair as she asked.
“It wasn’t long at all, only a couple of minutes.”
Avril looked skeptical. “That’s not right. Little Phoenix and I have spent almost twenty-four hours getting to know each other! How could it have only been a few minutes?!”
Xia Fei was stunned. He thought back on the grueling experience he had gone through when he was subduing Peac.o.c.k Blue, and it seemed that he had suddenly been transported to some secret place, where there were mountains, water, air, et cetera. Standing proudly atop the mountain was the universe’s most obstinate weed.
Peac.o.c.k Blue had only crawled up Xia Fei’s arm after spending a long period of mental torture. Xia Fei seldom wished to mention that terrible experience, as Peac.o.c.k Blue seemed to have peered into his very soul. The bluegra.s.s at that time was like a wise G.o.dly ent.i.ty, who stared at him with cold, piercing eyes, constantly asking him harsh questions that touched upon human nature itself.
This was the method the Immemorial Mystical Armaments used to choose their masters. People who were fated would be given the chance to encounter the armaments, which would repeatedly peer into their hearts to decide if they would follow them.
Looking at Avril’s weary face, Xia Fei had a sudden realization. “Quick, tell me. What exactly happened after I left?”
Avril recalled her experience. “After you left the room, I made my way over to this strange rock. It’s shaped like a wing and very beautiful, so I wanted to pick it up to play with it, but how should I know that I’d find myself in the middle of a barren desert when I next looked up? It’s very cold and desolate, with hardly even any sign of life anywhere. That rock just rested there, all quietly, with countless strange-looking rocks.
“I sensed the rock’s lifeforce and felt its loneliness, so I sat next to the rock and chatted with it.”
“You chatted with the rock?” asked Xia Fei, feeling mildly surprised.
“That’s right. Though it didn’t make any sound, it was able to send messages straight to my head. It kept muttering, ‘I can’t go back; I can’t go back’. That’s why I consoled it by saying that it must live on no matter what. Later, I began telling it about myself and you—how we got to know each other and how physically far apart we were. Also, I mentioned how you often found yourself in trouble, always disappearing without a trace, but none of that stopped us from being together.”
Xia Fei was speechless. He could tell that, though Avril had not verbally expressed it, she was resentful toward Xia Fei’s stubborn habits of disappearing and getting himself into trouble. Actually, he could not blame her for having such feelings. Any girl with a mercurial temperament would have long abandoned Xia Fei, yet Avril was able to support him all the way, which was a testament to how deeply she felt for him.
“What happened next?” Xia Fei asked.
“Next, I chatted with it for a very long time, even wanting to take it away, but it refused to leave, seemingly resistant toward something. Later, we competed, but it’s too bad that it didn’t have my patience, so it ended up following me off that desert.”
Avril was wiping sweat off her face as she narrated.
Xia Fei smiled. “I understand everything now. Go and take a shower. Even your makeup got all messed up.”
Avril covered her face with her hands as she hurried back to her room, with the Phoenix Tail Stone quietly following her.
Oro sighed. “So that’s how it was. Originally, I thought that Avril had a very easy time subduing the Phoenix Tail Stone, but it turned out that she had actually worked very hard for it. Seems like your act of heaven defiance and forcing the Phoenix Tail Stone to remain behind has been effective. At the very least, Avril now has a powerful helper by her side, and you won’t have to worry about her safety the whole day.”
Xia Fei nodded. “In any case, I already have Peac.o.c.k Blue, so there’s no way for me to harness the Phoenix Tail Stone. Leaving it to help protect Avril is indeed the best solution I can come up with.”
Avril was Xia Fei’s most cherished person in the entire universe; likewise, she was the one whom he worried about the most. Though she was far too kind a person and may be unable to use the Phoenix Tail Stone much, it would still be decent if used to defend herself. Risks still existed despite the reigning peace in the Law Realm, and while it was fine for Avril not to attack anyone, she could not be without any means of protecting herself, either.
Oro pouted. “You have twenty days. Since you plan to engage in restorative training and also impart psychokinesis to Avril, it won’t be an easy task.”
Xia Fei chuckled. “I haven’t had an easy time ever since I stepped into s.p.a.ce these few years. It’ll be fine.”
Oro burst out laughing. “Actually, you’re already recognized as a young master of the Skywing Clan. You can bring Avril over to live a fairytale-like life there, even without needing to strive so hard like this.”
Xia Fei firmly shook his head, with a l.u.s.ter in his eyes. “I won’t be content until I see what the Cosmic Gate looks like.”
Oro was promptly surprised, solemnly stating, “The Cosmic Gate is the biggest secret in this universe. Not even I have seen it before. It seems like this goal you’ve set for yourself is a little too high.
“Legend has it that whoever controls the Cosmic Gate can become the master of the universe itself. I have no way of determining the validity of this legend. While I did have plenty of comrades-in-arms in my life who gave it their all to get near the great gate symbolizing the ultimate power, each and everyone of them failed without exceptions.
“Sometimes, I just can’t make sense of it; how come a mere gate can become the goal everyone chases after? Will something amazing occur the moment someone crosses it? No matter how mysterious it is, there’s no need for anyone to just put their lives on the line like that.” Oro somewhat crestfallenly mused. Even an expert of his caliber felt a sense of helpless belittlement toward the mysteries of the Cosmic Gate. If the universe was designed like a pyramid, then the Cosmic Gate would be the apex of this pyramid! Anyone who stood atop could smile proudly upon their achievement as they looked down on the entire universe, becoming an unparalleled existence!
Xia Fei’s interest was piqued when he heard this. Each time the old demon lord talked about the Cosmic Gate, he would always be listening intently to every word.
After a pause, Oro hugged his head in his two hands and did his best to feel a little more comfortable while lying in his ice coffin.
“Actually, there’s another name for the Cosmic Gate, and that’s the Gate of G.o.ds and Demons. Though the two peak forces are called the G.o.d Race and Demon Race respectively, they’re actually still very far off from the real G.o.ds and demons of legend. Even someone who has cultivated to the point of immortality like I did won’t reach this level of deification!
“It’s said that the moment an average person steps through the gate, they can become a G.o.d or a demon, able to transcend beyond the fetters of life!”
Not only Xia Fei, even Oro yearned greatly for the Cosmic Gate. Alas, it was just that this goal was truly too unrealistic, and that there was no way to get a glimpse of the truth. Either man could only settle for legends, learning some inconsequential little nuggets of information, which was neither true nor false. However, a fact recognized by all in the circle was that the Cosmic Gate symbolized the greatest and most mysterious object in all of the universe.
“While you indeed have the guts for wanting to have a look at the Cosmic Gate, a goal is but one thing. Whether you are capable of putting the effort necessary in achieving this goal is another. For now, just think of how you can join one of the two peak races,” Oro muttered to himself, his eyes in a daze after having his thoughts aroused by Xia Fei.
…
Twenty days went by quickly. Xia Fei had concocted quite a lot of drugs for himself to nurse his body back to health. Avril’s psychokinetic strength was also on the right track under Xia Fei’s tutelage, though she was a lot more interested in the Phoenix Tail Stone, having even given it a nickname, Little Phoenix.
Oro was left somewhat speechless; a dignified Immemorial Mystical Armament could actually be referred to as Little Phoenix by Avril. If word ever got out, who knew how many experts would be beating their chests in dismay? People had desperately searched their whole lives for an Immemorial Mystical Armament, yet Xia Fei had just gifted one to his sweetheart on a whim. This act was practically a world of difference in comparison to others!
The work on the t.i.tan was still ongoing. Even the tireless Mechs would waste countless hours and effort to construct such a gargantuan s.h.i.+p; if this important task were to be given to the Panhuman Alliance, there would practically be no way for them to imagine this mammoth task being completed.
Sentinel G.o.ddess Sophie and Phantom kept pouring their hearts and minds into the research and development over how machinery and soul could be fused together. The responsibility of overseeing the construction of the t.i.tan had, thus fallen onto Dimsky’s shoulders, the top engineer of the Mechs. Sophie had even allowed him access to her own database, which the old Mech was over the moon about.
After all, Sophie was the daughter of Radix, the king of Mechs. The average Mechs never even got the chance to see so much high-level data. Actually, Xia Fei’s pharmacology had been influenced by Sophie, which was a good example of just how plentiful the amount of data she had in her database.
The mystery behind the Cobaltis, once the number-one tech species in the universe, who had once designed the t.i.tan superwars.h.i.+p, was slowly being unravelled. Why were the Cobaltis so insistent on such a wars.h.i.+p that could possess the strength to resist Law Powers? No one had any idea regarding this question, and as their progress on the work continued, Xia Fei would one day solve this riddle. All he could do before that was wait.
With the wanted order rescinded, Avril and Xia Fei were of course safe now. However, there was no way for Avril to head home and take a look, for her Ethereal ability’s destructive force still persisted. As such, unless Avril could flawlessly control the extreme lethality of her soundwave ability, she would only cause disasters if she went home.
Through video-call, Avril reported her safety back to her family, stating that she would return after some time. With Warstar and the superfleet around and the Law Emperor Seth ready for dispatch, they could readily send Avril back home when given the order.
Xia Fei’s Quantum Holdings, under Charlie’s guidance, had already become a mega-conglomerate in the Panhuman Alliance. The power it wielded was of no equal; if one claimed that Quantum Holdings was number two, there was no one that would dare claim number one!
The most immediate benefit of this was how Earth, having been seen as a backwater planet of no significance, rapidly rising in importance in the Panhuman Alliance. At present, Earthlings could hold their heads high proudly and call themselves Earthlings no matter where they went—an unimaginable sight and pride that was impossible several years ago.
This was all due to the efforts Xia Fei had put in, so Earthlings all remembered him fondly. It was just that catching sight of the elusive Xia Fei was not easy, for he would always be on the go.
After packing up his luggage, Xia Fei bid both Avril and Sophie farewell before setting off on another journey.
This time, his destination was the burial grounds of countless experts, where countless aggrieved souls roamed, the Ancient Battlefield of G.o.ds and Demons!