A white form with a tinge of red soared through the forest carrying two little guys on her back. The speed of it was nearly that of a sound."Wow!" Ryuu"s cheerful exclaim echoed.
The two forms on the back of a spirit beast were Ryuu and Tenko, that form beneath those two, isn"t it just Akashiro in spirit beast form?
"Oh? You like it?" Akashiro teasingly questioned the excited little boy on her back.
"Of course! The vast scenery flashing by us as we move almost at the speed of sound, how can I not like it?" Ryuu said.
"Haha, silly boy. Hold on tight, it"ll get b.u.mpy a bit." Akashiro said as she jumped from the cliff edge in front of them.
"Holy s.h.i.t! Aaaaaahh!" Ryuu"s little scream escaped as he saw the height from which they were falling.
"Aaaaaaa ... I hope you know what you"re doing mother-in-law!" Ryuu transferred his thought, as the wind was obstructing normal communication.
"Brat, you really have the courage to doubt me hah!" The fox said as three pairs of wings which manifested just now flapped gently, making their falling forms come to a stop.
"Oh boy! That was scary!" Ryuu said, pondering for a while before continuing: "Mother-in-law, since when did you have wings and furthermore six of them!".
"Why wouldn"t I have them after cultivating for so long?".
"Would I get more wings as well if I reach your level?" Ryuu asked curiously.
"I don"t know, you should probably ask your soul spirits when you reach that realm." Akashiro returned.
"That realm? I would be able to communicate with my soul spirits?" Ryuu"s curiosity got stimulated.
"I"ll tell you about it another time, right now we"ve gotta go to my separate s.p.a.ce in order for you two to fully recover, then your suffering will begin," Akashiro said in a cold tone, sensing her child"s soft breath and energetic Ryuu. "My daughter, you really had the courage to do what I couldn"t. Mother will give her all to make you two happy." Akashiro thought her look venturing to one of the visible planets in the sky as if remembering something from the distant past.
"Ah, but Tenko did nothing wrong! Why does she have to be punished with me? Mother-in-law, that"s unfair!!!" Ryuu"s unsatisfied murky voice echoed.
"Hah, you really have the nerve to talk back. Fine, I"ll tell you. Since you two little devils are one soul now that means you share everything, hence you will share the pain and suffering together, share joy and happiness, share everything. And no more questions for today, you are annoying me!" Her irritated voice entered Ryuu"s ear ash she sped up even more.
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"What is this s.p.a.ce, mother-in-law?" Ryuu asked.
"This is my own sub-plane. Although it"s small, it all belongs to me. Akashiro said proudly.
"Ooh, separate plane?" He asked.
"Yes, everyone can have theirs when they reach the peak of cultivation. Also, your own strength and luck determine how vast and diverse this sub-plane will be." She added.
"Um. I can"t wait to see how ours will turn out!" Ryuu said excitedly.
"Ours?" Akashiro thought, "He really is worthy of her. Tenko, you picked the right guy!" her thoughts drifted.
"Mother-in-law, what is that?" Ryuu asked pointing a finger in the direction in front.
Just as Akashiro wanted to answer, she quickly thought of something "Ahem!... Wait until we come then you will see! Kuku ..." she said.
"Mother-in-law that"s not fair!" Ryuu"s unsatisfied voice echoed.
"Hahaha, brat how"d you like a taste of your own medicine? Akashiro said raising her head with a tinge of arrogance in her eyes. "Hahaha, payback feels nice!" she thought to herself.
"Muuu... fine, I"ll take it as payback for before." Ryuu said while pouting.
Not long after, the three of them arrived at their initial goal. While they were traveling, Ryuu was checking out surroundings amazed by how big this lesser world was. What made him even more stunned is the question of what cultivation has his mother-in-law achieved in order to make an entire sub-plane like this.
This lesser plane was connected to the main plane by s.p.a.ce-time array which was in the core part of the forest. The hard part was not maintaining it, rather it was its creation. To create a lesser plane one had to have a ma.s.sive amount of energy, something as a core and a lot of luck as to what would turn out from it.
"Mother-in-law, I have one serious question which needs to be attended to as soon as possible." Ryuu said with a completely serious voice.
"What is it, you sound like a grandfather almost scared the heck out of me. If I didn"t know about your previous life I"d think you are a genuine monster." Akashiro said.
"Mother-in-law, how much has this and any of these worlds progressed?" Ryuu continued, disregarding what Akashiro said a moment ago.
"In what aspect?" She asked, noticing the intellectual weight of the question that Ryuu asked.
"I mean, how far have humans reached with exploration, science and technology?" Ryuu clarified his question.
"I never thought a human would ask such a question. A lucky mother-in-law I am for you to be my daughter"s lover." Akashiro said reminiscing about something in the past.
"Brat, since you asked such a question now you will have to listen to this old lady"s lecture for quite of years until you leave my side. It"s not too late to revoke your question and save yourself from my ranting you know ..." Akashiro said with melancholic voice giving off an impression that her words were honest. But were they? Of course not, can there really be a chance like this every day for spirit beast to talk with humans about such a complicated matter.
"Come on, it"s not like I don"t know how hard it is when you have n.o.body to talk with and understand your words you know..." Ryuu instantly refused her previous offer. "I love listening to your rant, mother-in-law. If I didn"t, who would except for your daughter. Come on I"m getting impatient quickly open up." Ryuu said in a gentle tone.
At this moment, Akashiro"s opinion of the little guy on her back quickly soared breaking through the skies. "If I was in your place, I"d do the same, dear daughter of mine." Akashiro thought to herself.
"Ryuu, I will have you seriously take responsibility for my daughter from now on. Also, stop calling me mother-in-law it"s making me distant from you. From now on, call me just Shiro." She said.
"Sure, Shiro." Ryuu said without hesitation.
When Akashiro heard that, her body as if electrocuted by lightning immediately came to a stop and appeared in human form standing in front of a little guy holding a little girl in his arms princess style.
"Ryuu ..." Shiro said as she stepped forward gently closing the distance between herself and Ryuu. When she arrived in front of him she directed a lovely look full of warmth and emotions as one unique scene followed.
"!?" Ryuu was shocked with what happened as he found himself and his lover now in a tight warm hug of a pretty girl in front of them.
"Thank you..." Shiro whispered in his ear as two little tears escaped her eyelids rolling down on his little shoulder.
"Shiro, you..." Ryuu wanted to inquire what"s going on but quickly realizing the problem, he just silently responded: "It"s okay, now you have one more brat to worry about you, Shiro.".
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In a simple looking house, there was a small four-person table laid on the ground. It wasn"t of regular table height, instead one would have to sit with legs crossed in front of it, as two forms currently did. Not far from them, on the bed, there lay a little girl comfortably sleeping covered with a silver blanket - the one Ryuu picked up when they were back in his home not long ago.
The little guy in front of the table sat across a young beauty, leading a conversation.
"So, how is the current situation on the planets of both spirit beasts and humanity?" Ryuu asked the girl in his opposite.
"The situation greatly varies from planet to planet. For example, our current planet is called Flora and it only recently began developing as we are yet in the beginning stages of society. At least that"s what applies to the spirit beasts. While that is our situation, your Humanity is a bit more aggressive with their progression hence why they started hunting us for their own selfish needs. If this goes on for another thousand years I"m afraid that the balance of the ecosystem will be permanently and irreversibly ruined. If you two do become of high influence in the human world, I"ll have to trouble you with helping us avoid this major threat." Shiro said while drinking gloomy blue substance, an Ice Flower Tea. It had a chilly taste like mint and looking at crystal clear blue color with a gloomy tinge caused one to feel peace. That tea was pleasuring both, for watching and drinking.
"So it"s like that, sure enough. How about human technology and development?" Ryuu asked sipping a similar bluish substance like Shiro.
"That ... I don"t know what that precisely is but if you are referring to the tool you used back there they are far far away from that level. The current humanity here is still working with hammers making spirit energy enhanced armors and weapons. The main field they are working with are swords, bows and arrows, and axes." Shiro said rea.s.suringly.
"How strong are those weapons and armors, do they have a name and what makes spirit power enhanced ones different from normal?"
"Strength eh? There are few extremely strong but those are not on this planet so we will leave them out. Now, about here. Well, the strongest sword can, let"s say, slash the two-tone boulder in half without damaging it, the bow could probably pierce my skin as for the armors, they could block one hit from either of those without effort." Shiro said.
"Oh, that"s a bit weaker than what I expected." Ryuu said.
"Ah yes, I forgot. There are artifacts from ancient times and although old, they are several tens of times stronger than the items I just mentioned. If you get lucky to enroll in Heavenly Star Academy, you might get a chance of seeing it. It"s their keepsake, as for other artifacts, I don"t know since they are scattered across the world with only a few being found in the last 100 years." Shiro added.
"Hmm, I think I understand the wider picture now. What about cultivation? Ryuu asked, remembering what he forgot to ask but was clearly a very important topic.
"That"s the stronger point od this planet. There are loads of cultivators while non-cultivators are less than 1% of humanity on this planet. But they are not entirely unable to cultivate, it"s just that their soul spirits are either weak or non-cultivatable." Shiro said, her eyes brightening up several points as she added: "Of course, we spirit beasts are a lot better at it, the strongest of us being old around a hundred thousand years."
"And you?" Ryuu asked curiously.
"So we came to that point, eh? I just barely broke through the ninety-thousand barrier, so I"ve got another ten thousand years of peaceful life, hehe." Shiro said proudly.
"That means that in ten thousand years you"ll achieve the same level as our two ancestors?" Ryuu asked.
"No, no. Far from it. Your two ancestors are also our ancestors. They"ve genuinely reached million years of cultivation but didn"t ascend to G.o.dhood for some reason. If I want to reach their level it"ll take a long long time."
Ryuu got shocked upon hearing what Shiro said. "Million years? Those two have lived for a million years? Ah, I can"t wait for them to wake up I have so many questions to ask..." Ryuu thought, devising a little plan of what he"d ask them once they wake up in a year.
"Shiro, then how old are my soul spirits?" Ryuu thought of this critical point.
"... I don"t know." Shiro said lowering her head. "You"ll have to ask them yourself when you reach that realm." Shiro answered.
"Which realm?" Ryuu asked because he forgot to inquire about the ranking system in this world of cultivation.
At this time, a soft voice came from their side, interrupting their talk.
"Hngggh, where am I? Ryuu, where"s he? Did he get better? Mother?" Tenko began making a fuss as soon as she woke up.
A form suddenly hugged her, stopping her mad barrage of questions.
"I"m here, my little fox. Don"t worry, I"m completely fine thanks to you." Ryuu said in melancholic voice pleasant to ears.
.....