As Jax was the fastest of the flying magical beasts used to pick up the three separate teams, Lauriella and team one were the first to return.
Seeing that familiar mountain range appear in the distance, Ace and the others subconsciously allowed their bodies to relax.
Even though their last few weeks since escaping the Dark Alliance’s territory had been peaceful, and that with Lauriella and Jax there, they didn’t have to worry about their safety, due to everything that had happened to them over the last six months, they had conditioned themselves to always stay ready for everything.
But Yin-Yang mountain was home to them. It was a place where from the very bottom of their hearts, they believed nothing would or even could happen to them. It was their safe place.
Lauriella could only sigh at that reaction. As one of their instructors for over five years, she’d had a front-row seat watching all of them grow and mature. She hated the fact that they had been through so much on their own, but she also knew that, unfortunately, this was just a part of growing up in such a cruel world, especially with talent like theirs.
“Dammit!” Ace grumbled to himself.
“What is it?” Amira asked curiously.
“I thought that with the increased power of my soul, I’d finally be able to use my [Observation] without that shitty old fart sensing it, but both he and Aunty Arianna sensed it.” Ace snorted unwillingly.
“You used your [Observation Haki]?” Lauriella asked in disbelief. “I didn’t feel a thing!”
“Yeah, my [Observation] can’t be sensed by those with spiritual essence near or less than my own, and after the barrier broke, the power of my soul is about the same as a newly promoted saint,” Ace explained casually. “But the souls of those two freaks are apparently still vastly superior to mine.”
As he said that, the looks on the faces of Lauriella, Amira, and even Julius became weird as they looked at the dark-haired teen. The exact same thought running through each of their minds ‘You’re the freak!’
But before any of them could respond, they were interrupted by the soft and enchanting voice of Arianna. “Welcome home, children.”
“Master!” Amira shouted as she leapt off Jax’s back into her master’s doting arms. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too, Mira,” Arianna replied as she held her youngest disciple in her embrace so she didn’t fall to the ground almost 100 meters below them.
Floating in the air beside the reunited master and disciple, a dark-skinned man stood on the air as if it was solid ground holding a gourd of alcohol in his hand and a glaive strapped to his back.
“Looks like you didn’t waste these last six months after all, brat,” Aiden said, a telling smile suffusing his full lips as he stood leisurely in the air studying his disciple in great detail, casually taking a swig of his alcohol every few seconds.
“You have no idea,” Ace replied with a fiendish smirk as he flicked his wrist, summoning the glaive from his newly acquired interspatial ring before disappearing from his position, appearing directly in front of the alcoholic that was his master. “Allow me to show you!”
“Mmh, not bad,” Aiden nodded when he saw Ace wield his glaive using the fused state of wielding. “But you’re gonna have to do *hiccup* much better than that if you want to force me to draw my glaive.”
Ace watched as his master calmly blocked each of his strikes with his bare hands, a feat that would typically require one to be a saint-level warrior, but Ace was anything but surprised. He could clearly sense the imposing might of mother nature being infused into his master’s hands, strengthening it.
“You didn’t think that a simple increase in realm and the comprehension of the fused state of wielding was the limits of my improvement these last few months now, did you?” Ace asked with a smirk as he shocked all the adults as he was able to, somewhat similarly to Aiden, kick off the sky as if it were solid ground.
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“Ooh?” Aiden murmured as he was forced to draw the glaive on his back to block his disciple’s next attack.
“Impose?” Arianna said, stunned by Ace’s display.
“That’s nothing,” Amira replied with an enchanted smile as she watched Ace fight.
“Is that right?” Arianna asked with a teasing smile, making Amira bury her head in her master’s side to hide from the embarrassment.
‘Looks like their relationship has finally started to show some progress,’ Arianna thought to herself as she smiled at her disciple’s adorable reaction before turning back to Ace. ‘Still, just what happened to him over the last few months.’
Ace’s comprehending ‘Impose’ is impressive, but more impressive was the fact that, despite not being anywhere near as skilled with it as Aiden, the strength Ace was able to bring out when using impose was far more than one would expect from someone who’d just stepped into that boundary.
But the most shocking thing to both Aiden and Arianna was that they could clearly sense that the barrier surrounding his soul had disappeared, and Ace was now a mage of the third rank.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard Ace tried, the difference between him and Aiden was too big. Despite only using the physical ability of a warrior at the fourth rank, Aiden was able to dominate the fight.
Thinking he’d seen everything from his disciple by that point, Aiden decided to bring the fight to an end, thrusting his palm at his disciple’s sternum.
Despite his ability to now use foresight, Ace was unable to block or dodge this strike.
Still, as his palm was about to make contact, Aiden was surprised to see the smirk on Ace’s face, and that surprise turned into a sobering shock as he watched Ace’s body become intangible as it turned into fire.
Ace had expected Aiden to be surprised by that particular ability, and he was ready to take full advantage of it.
“[FIRE FIST]!” Ace roared as he sent a large fiery fist crashing into the chest of his master.
“HAHAHAHA, I FINALLY DID IT! I FINALLY LANDED A HIT ON YOU, OLD MAN!” Ace roared with laughter.
He knew that even with his recent improvements, the difference between him and Aiden was like the difference between heaven and earth, so when he saw the only damage done was burning the upper half of his white robes, revealing his perfectly sculpted chest, he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to him was that after almost six years, he had finally landed an attack, even if it was technically a surprise attack.
“Congratulations,” Aiden replied after finally getting over his shock, a teasing smirk hanging on his face. “I never expected this, but as your master, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you of the added dangers you now face without the barrier.”
As his voice waned, Ace suddenly felt the world around him start to spin, and his consciousness begin to fade.
Part of what made Aiden such a monster in the first place was the ridiculous power of his soul. The only ones whose souls surpassed his were the four deities on the continent.
With the difference in spiritual essence, Aiden was capable of crushing Ace’s soul with a mere thought, but as he was his disciple, Aiden just wanted to teach the dark-haired youth a little lesson for being so cocky.
By the time Ace had regained his bearings, he was casually being held over the shoulder of his master, who was using his free hands to take consistent swigs of his alcohol.
“By the way,” Aiden asked as he turned to look at Carter and his pride of lions. “Who are they?”
The saint-level Bloody-Eyed Mane Lion could sense that Aiden was clearly only at the peak of the ninth rank. A human too weak to ordinarily spare a second thought over, but as their eyes met, the mid-ranked saint-level magical beast felt its fur stand on edge, warning him of danger.
As something of an overlord in the mountain range of magical beasts, there were very few creatures capable of making him feel like that, but without a doubt, each and every one of them was a beast at the peak of the saint realm.
Then there was the woman beside him who was simply unfathomable to him.
He couldn’t help but thank god he hadn’t killed Ace in the end. If he had, there would’ve been nowhere on the continent he would’ve been able to hide.
“The black-furred lion over there is a Divine Beast, and also my beast partner – Leonel,” Ace stated proudly as he rolled off Aiden’s shoulder, not wanting to be carried like that in public. “The big one is his father, Carter. And the others are the rest of their family.
They agreed to relocate so that they could stay close to Leo.”
Neither Aiden or Arianna was shocked when Ace said Leonel was a Divine Beast. In fact, with the power of their souls, it would be a wonder if they couldn’t see it, but they were still surprised by the fact that this Carter fellow actually agreed to relocate willingly.
It was no secret how little magical beasts thought of humans, and that disdain only became more intense the stronger they became. Still, it didn’t take them long to figure out that Carter was likely betting the future of his pride on Ace, who may as well be considered a humanoid Divine Beast at this point.
“Ace, come with me,” Arianna said gently as she carried her disciple back towards the peak of the Yin-Yang Mountain, no longer paying Carter or his pride any attention. “I have something for you.”