[Three Bonus chapters! Special thanks to @Ricky_D_Reader :) ]
Dyon started awake, sitting up so quickly that the felt a wave of nausea. His eyes blinked, adjusting to the bright lights that surrounded him.
'Dammit.' Dyon panicked slightly. He couldn't remember exactly what happened, but he knew that him losing consciousness was not a good thing. For one there was the beast babies he was supposed to be monitoring. Although they were gone now, he still saw them as his little siblings. Then there was the promise he made to the Flaming Lily Sect disciples. Even though he didn't care about them to the same extent he did his beast companions, that didn't mean he felt okay leaving them high and dry.
Looking around, Dyon finally realized what the bright light that was forcing him to squint was. It turned out that he was still in the silver mountain and the oddly shaped rainbow rock was shining just as much as before.
"You shouldn't sit up so quickly." A soft and sweet voice filled with worry came from Dyon's side. It didn't take him very long to realize that it came from Madeleine.
Dyon shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut in hopes of wishing away his blurred vision. "How long was I asleep?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Not that long. Just two days. Your body recovers very quickly." Madeleine looked down, a bit ashamed. She had tried to use her flame's life characteristic on Dyon, but she found out very quickly that it was too weak to be of use. Dyon relied on his own vitality to heal himself, while she only helped by making his sleep a bit more comfortable.
Feeling Madeleine's sadness, Dyon reached out and grabbed her hand. "It's not your fault, even I can't heal my body alone properly. I was relying on this special energy I found before, but I ran out of it a long time ago…"
"Special energy?" Madeleine asked in curiosity.
"Mm. When I was awakening my constitutions, I was lucky enough to choose the constitution that was originally stolen from me at birth, so I connected to its world quicker than normal. There I…" Dyon coughed, suddenly feeling very embarrassed.
Madeleine had been there when he came back out half dead and covered in beast dung, but he never actually explained what happened. As expected, Madeleine fell into a fit of giggles after practically squeezing the story out of Dyon.
"I've read books on these special energies…" Madeleine said after a few moments. "I hear that there's a branch of Magic that focuses on tapping back into these ancient energies. They believe that their secrets are still hidden within our meridians and that conventional energy is just an amalgamation of those energies coalesced into one. However, I haven't had much time to study Magic. Still, no one has really succeeded on the Magic side of things, but there's been some progress on the Curse side."
"The curse side?"
Madeleine hummed in acknowledgement. "Poison Masters have found some very corrosive and dangerous energies in their studies. But, aside from them, the only other energies that deviate from the conventional path aren't ones we've discovered, but ones that exist naturally. For example, devil qi has survived to this day in small forms. Soul energy is another example, but that one is a special case."
Dyon nodded. Soul energy not only existed in free form, but we also had the ability to convert conventional energy into it by using Soul Path Cultivation Techniques. It was likely that it was because of soul energy that Magic Masters believed they could create such cultivation techniques for other types of energy. It was an intriguing idea, to say the least.
Thinking to this point, Dyon couldn't help but think back to Loki's faith seed, still hidden within his Soul Tome. He wondered if a Magic Master who had transcended had made any headway along that path…
Either way, Dyon didn't mind it too much. Learning Magic would have to wait for now. At least, it would have to wait until he finally gathered the necessary materials to build himself a clone. In fact… Other than killing God Goldeen, that was his second top priority in this Golden Flame Realm.
He had a third goal as well. The requirements for this one were far more stringent: To find the materials to rebuild his Master's body. Not only hers, but the valley spirits as well. However, Dyon didn't know if even this place had what he needed.
While he only needed comet grade materials for his clone, moon grade at the most if he wanted to use the technique to perfection, if he wanted his Master to be reborn without side-effect, planet grade materials were the lowest requirement. One could imagine how difficult such a task was… The only material of this grade Dyon had ever seen was presented to him by a half-step transcendent. Their value was obvious just by this simple fact.
Taking a deep breath, Dyon swept his divine sense over the agreed upon ten thousand kilometer radius and couldn't help but cringe.
Of the 53 Flaming Lily Sect disciples, only half were in any sort of relatively good health. Of the other half, they were almost all suffering devastating wounds. In fact, six of them were on the edge of dying any moment. They wouldn't hold out for more than a few more days.
ραпdα---nᴏνa| сom Dyon sighed. 'At least no one has died yet…'
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Alright, let's go help your fellow disciple sisters, then we can deal with all of this."
...
After a few moments to recovery, Dyon and Madeleine headed off to save the Flaming Lily Sect disciples. Seeing their faces, the disciples that had been despairing finally sighed a breath of relief.
Dyon didn't apologize, he believed that that would have the opposite effect. It was better if they thought he wasn't perfect so that they wouldn't rely on him too much. This pressure would also allow them to grow.
Still, Dyon found it interesting that the six who were the most injured all had the same story. Apparently they had noticed the Sky Castles and attempted to make a move on them. But, they were rebuffed by various cliques who had 'claimed' them. One was controlled by the Sapientia Guilds, another was controlled by the Golden Crow Sect, and the last was the battle ground of the True Gods. No one dared to enter that last one except for peak celestials.
It seemed that True God Hydra had broken through to the celestial realm and had a massive battle with True God Tatsuya. Although True God Hydra lost in the end, True God Tatsuya didn't monopolize the castle. Instead, he simply say that if you were strong enough to cross his barrier, you could enter. Needless to say, many failed miserably.
Dyon raised an eyebrow. Dragons were arrogant beyond belief… 'Sharing is caring' wasn't exactly one of their philosophies. But then Dyon understood that he likely realized that he needed to take a step back as well.
No matter how powerful True God Tatsuya was, he was still too weak to defeat a Peak Celestial. He saved himself from some embarrassment by allowing those powerful enough to enter the castle. At the same time, those who entered would respect his status as a True God and not act too flagrantly.
Of course, not only had Dyon felt the presence of these sky castles, he believed there were likely more than three. After all, what were the odds that his divine sense, despite its limited range, would just so happen to pick up on all of them?
There was another more curious matter as well. This wasn't the first time this world had opened, yet they were all still so eager about these castles despite the fact that there were so many treasures to be had on this ground here…
As though seeing through Dyon's thoughts, Madeleine giggled. "Not everyone can see any and everything within fifty thousand kilometers like you. To them, the ground is a massive unknown, filled with dangers that might or might not have rewards. But, the castles are known commodities. There are dangers, but they always have analogous rewards."
"I see…" Dyon mumbled. By now, he and Madeleine had finished treating the Flaming Lily Sect disciples and had once more entered the silver mountain. Dyon had reached out his mind toward the celestial beast babies as well, but he didn't go to them.