*Ting*

As the elevator opened up, A white-haired young woman walked onto the eighth floor of Long Manor. She had finally been released after 3 phases of interviews with the old monsters at the Academy. Yet, they refused to share any details with her regarding the missing tribe and the bone monster. She did still manage to find out its name, "Nyogrok”.

“Who is responsible for naming all these monsters? They should be fired.”

Long Yu mused to herself, breathing in a large amount of the clear, breezy air. The eighth floor of the manor was hundreds of meters above the ground, causing a gentle breeze to always flow in the hallway.

She could only laugh at the absurdity. She had left her home in order to cultivate and get stronger, but now the only thing her heart yearned for was the gentle breeze on the Long Manor. She walked into the familiar hallway that filled her with nostalgia, humming to herself.

Soon however, she paused, catching a black figure in her peripherals. Ying Mei was feeding the unconscious Long Tian very gently, as if scared that she would hurt him. Her way of feeding resembled a mother feeding her child, causing a smile to creep up on Long Yu’s face. She smiled mischievously as she floated silently behind Ying Mei.

“HAH! You are still babying this despicable guy!”

.

She exclaimed with an animated face, however, Ying Mei ignored her as if she were air, causing the smile on Long Yu’s face to freeze.

“Let me guess, He cooped inside his lab, forgot to eat in time, and kept chewing on those tasteless tablets? Can't expect anything better from this loser”

.

No reply again. Long Yu felt the veins on her forehead bulge.

“Why are you here? His room is on the 9th floor.”

“Doom patrol is restoring it”

A soft, melodious voice finally replied back, causing Long Yu’s blue pupils to constrict. Doom patrol only came out when the Ministry of Disaster Control was required to control some extraterrestrial matters that could not be contained by The order.

“What?”

Ying Mei finished feeding him, gently wiping his mouth as she stood up.

“Your sense of humour is the same as ever, Lady Yu. Or were you perhaps under a rock since yesterday?”

Long Yu looked surprised at the sarcastic and rude Ying Mei. The big sister Ying she knew used to have a temper gentler than water. Although she used to get annoyed at her poking at Long Tian before, she would never use this sort of tone with her.

“You have become ruder since I left, big sister Mei. Technically, though, I was actually under a big rock, getting questioned inside a dark room by a bunch of old geezers.”

Ying Mei was speechless at her response. She brought out a piece of jade from her spatial ring and threw it in her direction.

*Whoosh*

This is

A static video transmission of the starry night floated in front of Long Yu.

The Illusory Ray of Yin! This is why they left in such a hurry!

The video only played for a minute or so, and as soon as the starry sky left, the rest of the footage got censored. Long Yu felt her skin creeping after realizing what had happened, looking at Long Tian in concern.

“He saw it?”

“Bishop Yosef purified him, so he should be okay.”

Listening to Ying Mei, Long Yu sighed in relief, smiling mischievously again. She kept nudging at Ying Mei’s shoulder.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Did things progress between you two? Huh? Huh? HUH? Reveal Thy Secrets, m’lady”

A resigned Ying Mei grabbed Long Yu by the face, pushing her away in annoyance. Long Yu felt the raging Qi from her, her face breaking into a smile in realisation.

“Congratulations on breaking through.”

Ying Mei nodded and smiled back.

“You seem pretty close to Second aspect yourself.”

“Still a long way to go, I am stuck at the doorstep of Aspect Two.”

“MEOW”

A black cat was sitting beside Long Tian’s head, snarling grumpily at the popping veins on Long Tian’s forehead. It quickly stopped the raising vein using it’s front paw.

*Tap*

However, another vein popped up. It hissed and quickly used its other paw to suppress it.

*Tap*

*Pop Pop*

*Tap tap*

*Pop Pop Pop*

“MEEEEEEOWW!”

“Stop it, Xiao”

A pair of jade hands stopped it from causing havoc, resulting in a series of angry cat noises in the room.

****

Long Tian found himself in another dream. He was standing on a floating island above the clouds. Looking at the bunch of small children running out of the large metallic gate.

““Papa!””

A pair of kids, no older than seven, ran at him. Adorning their petite bodies was a purplish-white metallic uniform. The girl quickly jumped onto her father’s arm.

“Papa, papa, you know what happened today? I beat up that bully Ryan.”

“What?!”

“He jeered at me, saying that Alex Walton was better than you.”

A speechless Long Tian stared at his daughter, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Her large, purple eyes were filled with anticipation as she awaited his praise for her tremendous achievement. Long Tian gently shook his head and rustled her shiny purple hair.

“He’s right, My princess. I am nowhere near Sir Alex in terms of achievements. Also, you should not hit your classmates.”

Her purple eyebrows formed a frown as she pouted, refusing to speak anymore. Long Tian only laughed at his naughty daughter. However, he soon felt another disappointed stare focus on him.

Shit

A smaller boy was staring at him with a hint of complaint on his blue eyes, looking away as soon as Long Tian stared. Long Tian stared at the child who looked like a smaller version of himself, and cradled him in his other hand with a smile.

“Leo, I am sorry. Your father was a bit busy.”

Leo looked sad, just grabbing onto his neck tightly. Long Tian looked at his son’s teary amber eyes, aware of his fault. It was supposed to be parents meeting day, and their mom had asked him to come in her place, as she was going to be busy. However, Long Tian couldn’t come in time.

A small flying bug floated in front of him, producing a hazy screen from it’s blue eyes.

“Shang Tian”

A purple haired woman in heavy armour popped up on the screen, sitting in a small white chamber that looked almost cramped.

“Yes, my queen. What order do you have for this mortal servant of yours?”

Shang Tian teasingly stared at his wife, causing her beautiful face to break down into a smile as well.

“I miss you guys.”

"We miss you too, mom."

“I know”

The father daughter duo spoke out simultaneously.

“You are supposed to say, ‘I miss you too’, you dumbass.”

He just laughed at Ria's complaint, pointing at the small girl cradled on his left arm with his head.

“You know, Bella goes after you. She beat up Ryan today, apparently because he compared me with Sir Alex.”

“HAHAHA! Well, deserved. You did well, my girl! Give him an extra punch next time. That kid is super annoying.”

He looked speechlessly at the screen. Ria Ambert quickly looked at Leo, who seemed to be uninterested in speaking to her, just grabbing onto Shang Tian’s neck silently. Realising what had happened, she turned angry.

“You dumbass, I can’t rely on you for one simple thing. What’s your excuse for not coming in time?”

“Sir Alex abruptly gave me a call.”

His expression turned sour as he remembered the final words of Sir Alex Walton. The last 4 words kept ringing inside his head. He was not sure what the Lab Eighteen held, but for Sir Alex to be so cryptic about it, there must be some sort of earth-shattering secret there, something that had led to Sir Alex mentally breaking down over the last decade.

“A meeting, of course. Another meeting with Sir Alex Walton. Why are you always like this?”

Long Tian put the two children down from his arm, commanding the white bug like device to convert to second mode. It twisted and transformed into a pair of earphones, flying in his ears

“Ria, Sir Alex is no more.”

Ria Ambert’s elegant face showed a dazed look of bewilderment at his small whisper. This was not the kind of excuse she was expecting to hear. To the human race, Sir Alex was not a mere scientist, he was more of a prophetic figure, with some major religious groups hailing him as the “Son of God’. Some of the groups even considered him to be 'The God’, who had come down to earth to free the human race from their mortal shackles.

“This is no time to joke. The news portals across the Virgo superclusters would have gotten wild if that were the case”

However, she knew that Shang Tian was not one to joke about stuff like this. She stared at Shang Tian, quickly realising the seriousness of the subject matter.

“Are you alright?”

She spoke in a gentle voice, knowing Shang Tian treated his teacher as his own parent.

“Yeah”

“Sir Alex Walton lived for an insurmountable amount of time. No amount of bio-mental therapy or mental healing techniques has worked on him for the past few years. You know, living for millions of years probably damaged his psyche too much. Be happy for him, as he is finally out of his misery.”

“Ria, I have been alongside Sir for the longest. Sir Alex did not go mentally unstable like the media would make you think. He discovered something.”

Something that probably should have been left alone. Something so momentous that it broke his understanding of reality. And now it’s up to me to decide.