Xiaoxia was still speechless a few hours later, as they entered the sanctuary of Gu Di’s wife. It is more remote than expected, and no one will easily find where it is.
Situated halfway up the mountain range, the climate here is comfortably cozy. It was early autumn in the crater, but nevertheless, still a stark comparison to mountains in other parts of the world. These mountain were bitterly cold at this altitude.
They were on a gradual incline, and getting there was not as tiresome as one would expect. It was abundant with top soil, another characteristic not usually found at this height. This made the trees and other vegetation grow in abundance, although less dense and congested as compared to where they were fighting.
Xiaoxia had seen various mountainous areas on the island continent of MeisterSchloss, and most of them have steep slopes with little soil. This made the landscape on those mountain ranges bare and inhospitable.
This is also true for the outer side of the current mountain range, which unlike the inner side, was strip bare of soil and rather steep.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” Xue Er announced, as they approached a barely maintained structure.
It was a simple looking cottage, tucked between a trickling stream and a few large basaltic boulders. However, once they entered the front door, it was nothing less than amazing.
To Xiaoxia, it seemed he have walked into a dreamland.
The scene that spread out as far as his eyes can see, contained endless meadows with small grazing creatures. The vast blue skies were filled with white puffy clouds, and sweet melodies filled the air from birds of many species.
In a distance, a majestic structure rose over the horizon. It was so high that it’s spires reached the clouds. It was unlike any structure Xiaoxia have ever seen or read about.
“Huh?! How come? Where are we?” Xiaoxia finally spoke.
Even though he have learnt many things along the years, this was something really unexplainable. There was nothing in the books and literature he studied, that indicated any semblance of this.
Looking quickly back where he came from, he could still see the mountain side from what looked like a door shape hole.
It closed behind the moment Jay stepped through, who has now recovered partially. He took a while to recover and regain consciousness, and by the time he did, it was almost noon.
With the few hours it took them to get here, it should be about mid afternoon, but this does not seem to be the case presently. In this place, there looks to be only one sun, and from its relative position in the sky, Xiaoxia guess it was around the eight or the ninth hour in the morning.
Turning to look at Jay, he found an expression mirroring his. It looks as if it was Jay’s first time here too, and he was looking everywhere.
“This Xia Er, is the 7th Void,” Gu Di informed him.
“As usual, this idiot haven’t given any information, how like him,” Xue Er interjected.
“So you rather I tell everyone, and become busy attending to gazillions of guest who would definitely come?” Gu Di replied with a wry smile.
“Just shut up, you know what I mean!” Xue Er almost shouted.
“Okie dokie! Not a single word more from me,” Gu Di’s promised, but his wry smile only became bigger.
Over the journey to Xue Er’s place, Xiaoxia just could not fathom how it was possible that as decrepit as Gu Di is, he found a woman willing to accept him. No doubt they do not look like it, and she is currently angry at him for being missing all these years, she is still his wife.
He knew beauty was only skin deep, a popular saying learned in the Academy, but it was really stretching it for Gu Di’s case.
Gu Di is basically a hobo, with no regards paid to his personal hygiene or grooming. He was wearing the same old piece of robe, that Xiaoxia noticed on many occasions over the years. As far as he knew, that robe has never been washed.
Splotches of dirt, stains and grease covered the entire robe, but weirdly enough it did not smell. Xiaoxia suspected Gu Di to be using some designer fragrance to negate the odor.
And as usual, Gu Di’s hair was in a mess, and he constantly scratched areas of his body not meant to be scratched in public. On top of all these, he was extremely relaxed to the point of being complacent and absent minded.
It brought shivers to Xiaoxia thinking back to the first year, when Jay admitted numerous times that Gu Di somehow forgotten where he left Xiaoxia to train.
Forgetting may seem trivial, but it was not, when the areas Xiaoxia was left in happened to be in the middle of the wilderness infested with wild beasts. It didn’t help that the nearest civilization was their hidden dwelling, a little more than 50 leagues away.
The final nail to the coffin, was Xiaoxia only had a flint, Ki powered hunting knife and canteen. He was not given any navigational tools, and the only instructions he received, were to defend himself and make it by the end of the week in the vaguely given direction of the hidden dwelling.
The only saving grace, was when it comes to cooking, he is a totally different person.
“Now tell me why you have brought these two here?” Xue Er asked, as she brought something out from within a sleeve.
“All in good time dear,” Gu Di replied.
“You better tell me later when we reached, or I am going to kick you out!” Xue Er warned.
“Hey! I may have neglected you over these aeons, but I will never lie to you!” Gu Di exclaimed with a fake look of hurt on his face.
That look somehow seemed strangely familiar to Xiaoxia, then he realized Jay have pulled this off many times in the past. It is now obviously apparent that Jay have learned to mimic Gu Di’s style over the thousands of years they knew each other.
“No! Before any of you start any discussion, I want to know what is going on and where we are now!” Xiaoxia interrupted loudly.
The day’s turn of events, nudged him into a more aggressive attitude. In any normal circumstance, he is usually calm and composed, unless someone or something stepped on his proverbial tail.
The confrontation with the assailants, and his two life and death battles, would be considered more than just stepping, it was more akin to crushing his tail.
“Spunky aren’t we youngling? Sure I will, if he doesn't tell you,” Xue Er noted his outburst and volunteered, looking smugly at Gu Di.
Gu Di was not even listening, as he seemed lost in thoughts.
“You can? How would you know what happened to us earlier?” Xiaoxia asked curiously.
“All in good time youngling,” Xue Er replied, much to the annoyance of Xiaoxia.
It was the exact same thing Gu Di said to her earlier.
“Now come, gather around me and stay still,” she ordered them.
No one saw fit to argue and just listened to her. Once they gathered around her, a faint warm glow begun to surround them, and shortly after, all four vanished from the spot.
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The moment they arrived, Xiaoxia felt the air knocked out of him, as he gasped for breathe.
It was not spatial movement, this he was sure of, it is more similar to something he discovered about 4 years ago. But even that did not knock the breathe out of him, this was definitely more extreme.
“Argh,” Jay grunted, obviously feeling its effects as well.
“Phhooooooooo!” Gu Di let off a large breathe, looking a little green at the edges.
The only person not looking worse for wear, was Xue Er.
“How? Isn…”
Before Xiaoxia could ask more, Xue Er seemed to have read his mind and answered,
“There is no interference field in the 7th Void, and what brought you here is not spatial movement. You there, the one called Jay, I will fix your arm later. But before I go any further, I want Gu Di to explain things to me as he promised.”
Everyone turned to look at Gu Di expectantly, but at this time, his attention was elsewhere, and he was oblivious to their looks.
“You have done some nice things to this place, it has changed so mu… Why are you all looking at me?” Gu Di cut short what he was about to say and asked.
“Senior you promised Dasao you will explain things to her,” Xiaoxia offered.
(AN: Dasao means older brother’s wife, it is a respectful term used for an older married woman, when one is close to the husband. This is not factoring age, as it would be rude to call her a grandmother or similar, since women can be offended by this.)
“Oh that, hmmm, well Jay here has been with us for four thousand years, and he crossed the threshold of certain information being restricted to him. On the other hand, Xia Er here, has similar abilities to you, not exactly the same, but very close,” Gu Di informed her.
Xue Er nodded, and Xiaoxia guessed from her looks, that she knew about Wuming. At the second part of the sentence, she looked straight at him with a look full of questions, which made him feel rather uneasy.
“Similar abilities to me? How so, he is not even one of my kind,” Xue Er asked.
“Well seven years ago, there was an anomaly, I am sure you felt it too. Our young friend here is the cause of it, he is able to teleport not by spatial movement or foot technique. On the other hand, the Ki attack of a Grandmaster Realm Upper Tier, that hit him directly at his heart, did not even kill him. He somehow instantly healed the wound and countered with a beam energy that stretched for thousands of leagues,” Gu Di replied succinctly.
“Yes the whole Void felt it, but how is this possible, he is not even a Mythical Being!” Xue Er exclaimed.
“I know, he could even use cloaks meant only for our race. In the meantime, can’t you fix my arm now?” Jay agreed and smiled happily at her.
He was informed by Gu Di earlier, that there was someone that will connect his arm back. That person happens to be his wife, which made Jay even more intrigued.
Much to Jay’s dismay, Xue Er was not paying attention to what he said. Instead she was looking closely at Xiaoxia again, this time she carefully observing his features.
“Height above normal, but not extremely rare, sharp chiseled features, sandy gold eyes … hmmm … quite rare, nose, ears and everything else about normal. You looked like any person in the world, above average at most, but how is it you have such powers?” she said in detail, then asked Xiaoxia.
“I am sorry Dasao, it is a question that never came to my mind. I guess it is heaven-sent,” he admitted.
“But there is something I think it’s time to show Senior, Jay, and even you,” he added.
At this, Gu Di’s eyebrow raised a notch, and Jay also looked at him curiously. Xue Er, not knowing what to expect, maintained her usual demeanor.
Approaching a full length opening in the wall, Xiaoxia could see they were brought somewhere high above ground. He suspected it was the tall structure that rose into the clouds, but he is currently not concerned about that.
Raising his right hand, he pointed his right index finger slightly above the horizon, and concentrated for a moment.
Abruptly, an intense golden beam shot out from his fingers and covered an incredible distance in a split second before slamming against what seemed like a barrier, thousands of leagues away.
The beam burned brightly from a concentric focal point in the center, which was about an half an inch in diameter. But due to its intensity, it made the beam visually look about twenty feet in width.
Xiaoxia immediately began to have flashbacks when he employed this skill, it always happens when he was training it. When that occurs, he could envision being in someone’s body, looking at a strange foreign world.
However this time, the outburst of energy was totally unexpected, and as a result, the images were more intense. It blurred the lines between reality and dream, and he could see images superimposed onto the ones in reality.
This skill and the teleportation manifested again, due to the stupidest oversight in one of his wilderness training. He almost got himself killed at that time by wild beasts, but after decimating the pack of vicious creatures, the skill and teleportation strangely remained unlocked.
Moreover, unlike the previous occasion, the beam was extremely tiny and he did not lose consciousness after it happened. He tried unsuccessfully to reproduce it for some time, and even though months passed by, he still labored towards it.
When he finally managed it, it was well after a year of trying.
It appeared then, as it did when it saved him from the wild beasts, as a tiny barely visible beam that could only reach less than a hundred feet away. He could also teleport only a few feet, and this took plenty of effort and Ki, hence he trained sparingly to avoid being unable to protect himself in the wilderness.
This was the reason why he could never have imagined it to be magnified to such an extent from then, and Ki was still continuously rushing out of him like a burst dam.
“Stop!! You will destroy the Chaos Barrier!” Xue Er screamed out.
“Huh?!” Xiaoxia muttered, still muddle headed and under the effects of the flashback.
“I SAID STOP!!!” Xue Er screamed in his mind.
The scream rravaged through his entire brain, stunning him immediately and knocking him unconscious.
When he woke, he was still a little sore from the stun and puzzled, but he could tell from the shadows, that a few hours have already passed.
“What happened?” he asked groggily.
“Sorry, I had to hit you with a psionic attack. It was either that, or risk creating a hole in the Chaos Barrier. You do not need to ask what it is, how I did what I did or where this is, I will explain all these now. Once I do, I want you to tell me what happened to you in the past seven years, the other two could only tell me so much,” Xue Er told him.
Xiaoxia nodded, there was nothing much he can say at this point.