As time flew by in in the 7th Void for Xiaoxia and the others, less than a few hours went by in the outside world.
They were currently in transit to an exit, that will lead them to somewhere within the outside world. This in turn, is just a short walk to another entrance which will lead to another Void.
Gu Di’s in-laws and children, were not living in the same void as Xue Er. They are in another void with a much denser time dilation field.
Xiaoxia found out that in terms of measureable age in the World of Yuan Zhong, Xue Er was much younger than Gu Di, and even Jay. According to the official calendar, she around but not yet 3,000 years old.
But this is not the actual number of years she have lived.
She spent a third of her life in the other Void, before shifting to the 7th Void. This other Void, has nearly 8 times the time dilation when compared to the normal world. This meant she was about 8,0000 years old, when she moved.
Since the 7th Void has 4 times the dilation, it means the balance 2 thirds of her life spent there, equates to another 8,000 years.
In total Xue Er has been living for around 16,000 years.
The time dilation effect was something that really intrigued Xiaoxia, the possibility of having more time just by being in the Void is a tempting reason to stay even longer.
What Gu Di said earlier, about him not wanting to leave when he arrived was very true.
Unfortunately, Xue Er gave Xiaoxia the bad news,
“It may be tempting to live here for the rest of your natural life, but you are not a Void Being, and there is no way you can stay here for more than a few months.”
She went on to further explain that the meeting with her father, will give more details into all the questions he has.
However, her father was not an easy man to make an appointment with. Thankfully, because of their familial relationship, the chances were much better compared to others.
He is a revered seer in the Void, and usually seers do not meet with just anyone. The seers knew many answers to the mysteries in the Void as well as the world, since information has been passed down from master to disciple via a technique called soul-connect.
Xue Er went on to explain that soul-connect, involves something akin to the higher cognitive brain functions, but is much more complicated than that. Only seers and potential candidates possesses this innate ability.
The ability allowed a seer, to basically impart his or her life skills and knowledge to their only disciple. It can only be done once, and once done, the seer will no longer retain any memories or powers.
This is also one of the main reasons, why it is only done in the final days of the seers life, before he or she leaves for the afterlife.
The benefit of this, is that all skills and knowledge passed down from seer to seer, is just as fresh as it have been since the distance past it was gained.
There were many lines and sects of seers, and Xue Er’s father, belongs to a line of seers that has been around since the 9th Era.
He has the collective knowledge as well as skill set of all his predecessors, and it is believed that whatever knowledge his lineage has, way exceeds those of Wuming.
“Besides, this is why Gu Di is not letting you guys stay here for more than 3 months in actual real world time. It is also the reason why he himself doesn’t spend a prolong amount of time in the Void, all non-Void beings have a tendency to lose their minds here,” Xue Er explained a little more.
Thought it was a simple explanation, Xiaoxia have hoped for a bit more.
“You said earlier, that you can sort of explain what is happening with me. Maybe you can give me a rough idea, nothing too in depth, since your father is going to do that. At least it is a sta…” he responded halfway, before his attention was diverted.
He was distracted by the giant wolf like thing, who was looking at him with an expectant look. It was tagging along with them, as they travelled on strange looking mounts that looked like overgrown fowls.
Due to the tremendous Ki required, Xue Er was not able to transport the four of them the thousands of leagues to the point of exit. Hence they needed to travel via mounts to an airfield, where there were airships for hire. It was roughly 40 leagues from where Xue Er’s tower was.
In the meantime, something was nagging at Xiaoxia’s mind, and in the past hour or so, he was becoming more aware that somehow he was losing focus on the giant wolf like thing.
While it was not apparent at first, his brain is starting to reject the suggestive aura from the creature, that is making it unnoticeable.
“More Ki crystals?” Xiaoxia asked the giant wolf like thing.
Even though it could not speak, Xiaoxia mysteriously knew what it wanted.
Grumbling a little, he took out a few pieces of crystals and threw it one by one at the giant wolf like thing. It jumped playfully and snatched each piece precisely in mid-air, surprisingly making no sound or even ground tremors when it landed.
“Sorry for the distraction, can you please tell me now?” Xiaoxia directed his attention back to Xue Er.
“No problem, I was trying to find a simple way to tell you what I suspect is happening,” she replied.
The other three, still did not suspect a thing, and were not alarmed or intrigue by the giant wolf like thing. It’s aura is still working as intended on them.
“The Void is the origins of forms and types of Ki in the world, it is also where Void crystals comes from. While absorbable Ki here in on another level compared to the outside world, it still cannot compare to the magnitude of unabsorbable Ki here. Don’t get me wrong, when I say unabsorbable, I mean for us living beings, not for non-organics or other life forms,” Xue Er said, taking a pause to think then continued.
“Now Void Crystals are one of those non-organics that can absorb these unabsorbable Ki. It also creates a phenomenon, where Ki crystals are made. When this occurs, they somehow cross the boundaries of the Void and appear in the outside world,” she added.
“I suspect, you somehow have abilities similar to a Void Crystal, and your ability to absorb Ki, is not only limited to what can normally be absorbed. This is what makes your power ridiculously overpowered here in the Void,” Xue Er further enlightened him.
“At the end of the day, this is just the fundamentals laymen explanation. It is rough around the edges and doesn’t explain a whole lot in details, but you did mention you wanted a rough idea,” she concluded.
“Then what about that giant wolf like thing?” Xiaoxia asked, somehow he finally managed to do so.
“Huh? Oh that? I don’t know, never thought of it, not worth explaining anyway,” she finally brushed off the question, treating it as if it was minute and trivial.
Seeing her reaction, Xiaoxia became a little more suspicious.
Besides Xue Er’s nonchalant attitude towards the giant wolf like thing, Gu Di and Jay were just as oblivious to its presence.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Whenever Xiaoxia’s mind was lucid enough to brush off the aura’s influence, he would approach Gu Di or Jay and talk about the creature. But whenever he did it, it always seems like they did not realize it was there, till it was actually mentioned.
Even as he was thinking this, his mind slowly lost grasp of what he was thinking, and soon his thoughts drifted to the surroundings. It is after all, a very beautiful place.
The giant wolf like thing, looked closely at Xiaoxia, respect shown clearly in its eyes. In its existence even before the birth of mythical, humanoid, and racial beings, it have not met anything that could brush off the suggestive aura to camouflage its presence.
“What impressive mental capacity! This pup is really special,” it thought.
**********
It is a little over 4 days since Xiaoxia went off to do his stuff, and the four girls were now on a remote island far from the city of Paiza.
The island was about 59 leagues in length and 37 leagues in width, with an active volcanic mountain range rising 29 thousand feet above it. The mountain range dominated the central part of the island, and ran from one end of it to the other.
It is now totally void of any natural resources, long since stripped away by mining corporations. The saving grace, is that it still have plenty of flora and fauna.
Not having natural resources, did not matter to the girls, as it made this island much cheaper than the other hundred thousand or so out there.
This island is called S14-A91, now owned by them. They could change the name if they wish, but chose not to, as the cost was astronomical.
Naming the island, cost even more than the island itself. It was something no one could understand, and yet no one even bothered to asked why.
The girls have actually wanted to take out sufficient money from Xiaoxia’s universal spatial bank, to purchase the weapons and perhaps some other parts and equipment for the World Cup.
Unfortunately, the shady technician made an error and withdrew the entirety of its amount at one go.
Therefore after buying the stuff they required, they somehow got into a discussion about the future, which ultimately led to talk about the balance of the vast wealth they now had.
One thing led to another, and suddenly out of the blue, a decision was made to purchase an island to train in.
It will be the base their future Sole Plate guild, and the girls were already actively recruiting potential members.
“How much do we have left?” Meiling was asking Cailing.
Besides being the most capable fighter among them, she was also really good at accounting.
“Well, after the purchase of the required stuff and this island, we have a little over half of it,” Cailing replied.
“We need to be in the top 50 to be able to earn back what we spent, if we include sponsorship deals and other advertisement revenues, somewhere in the top 75 to 80 should be sufficient,” she added.
“But we can’t get lower than top 50 this year, or our current major sponsor will dump us. It won’t be easy to find another so soon,” Meiling responded.
Just at this moment, Carol and Jane approach from the south, they were out exploring the island.
“Heya Lings!” Carol called out.
(AN: meiLING, caiLING, so Carol called them Lings)
“Word!” Cailing returned the greeting.
“Hi,” Meiling replied, and added, “So how goes everything on the south side?”
“Like what they said, the south side has a respectable size residential area. Most of the buildings are really run down, but that is to be expected, since it was centuries ago they were abandoned. But those are only for the tall apartment blocks, as for the houses where the higher management once lived, they are still sturdy and fit for living,” Jane replied.
She is their expert technician, and she knew beyond just sole plate modification and repairs.
The island they purchased, even cost less than the weapons they were going to train and use in the World Cup.
It was abandoned close to 8 centuries ago, after all the natural resources have been bled dry from it. No one wanted to buy this island or even make it into a resort. Thus the price hit rock bottom.
There were many factors which led to this, and the first, was due to the residential area. There, most of the tall structures were already near the point of collapse, and just clearing them away will be a huge cost.
Secondly, the underground tunnels that once led to the rich deposits of natural resources, crisscrossed and spanned the entire island. It made the underlying ground very unstable, and extra cost will be needed to stabilized these areas.
Lastly, the island was among the outer ones, and it was not as protected as the inner islands, who were safe from severe weather systems, or the occasional tsunamis.
All these made the chance of getting a buyer minuscule, but it was different for the four girls.
They grew up on an island similar to this, which was another abandoned mining town. However there the population was much denser, as it was very close to a major fishing city.
The 4 of them did not care about these stuff, since they had sole plates, and could always avoid poor weather, and dangerous unstable grounds. The only thing they cannot avoid, is getting the place up and running.
“The Spatial hub is running very low on power, we need to replace it with a new Ki generator. I calculate another 3 to 4 times of usage before we are stuck with flying back where we come from. In the meantime, of all the sturdy houses, I earmarked ones which will fit us perfectly,” Jane informed the other two.
“And we need to get this shifting all done as soon as possible, or we can’t begin training when that boy returns,” Carol added.
The other girls nodded, they really tried not to think about it, since they have shamelessly used almost half his money.
They continued to remain quiet after this while looking at each other, when Meiling finally broke the silence,
“When he returns, we must apologize immediately. I know over these few days we have been avoiding mentioning his name or talking about it, but he is going to be in our team, so we better just get it over with at once.”
“Okay let’s not waste any time, we need to go back and prepare all the necessary things to move!” Carol interjected, trying to change the subject.
Cailing and Jane just smiled impishly at her, giving a ‘I know you know’ look.
Carol just rolled her eyes to the sky, while thinking, “I must put an end to this, no point tormenting him or myself on something that will never bear fruit.”
With this, she flew off towards the island’s spatial hub, followed by the other three, as they made their way back.