Chapter 0183

Tempest woke up with an intense pain in her head. She swore she was going to take precautions next time she meets the spirits in her sea of consciousness.

“Tempest, you are awake!” Graden’s voice called from outside the barrier Tempest placed around her.

Tempest stared at Graden, wide eyed and confused. After a moment, Tempest yelled, “Graden’s ghost, I’m sorry you died. I swear I’ll avenge you. I’ll burn paper money for you. I’ll do whatever you want but for god sakes, don’t come closer!” Tempest curled herself into a ball and made herself look as small as possible. If Graden didn’t know she was afraid of ghosts before, he does so now.

Tempest’s fear of ghosts was all due her sisters. They like horror movies. A lot. The freaking horror fest they put her through was hell on her nerves. It was already hard enough to cope with the strange phenomena happening to her, now they want to add another unexplainable spiritual aspect her already messed up life.

They didn’t see it that way. Popcorn nights, cheap movies and making fun of the actors making stupid decisions. Tempest didn’t see the fun in that. The others did, but not her.

“I’m not dead you silly twat.” Graden replied dryly.

“But I saw the madman slice you.”

“He is a space cultivator. Instead of killing us, his attack transport us to a different place.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Really, really?”

“Really, really.”

“Really, really, really?” Tempest asked for the third time.

“Really, really, really.” Graden answered for the third time.

After getting the confirmation, Tempest did something she normally wouldn’t do. She took down the array protecting her and ran into Graden’s arm. She proceed to bawl her heart out, “Wahhh. I thought you guys died under the hands of the madman. It was so scary. He was so strong. He nearly killed me. His sword was so close to my throat. If Cardis didn’t help me in time, I would have died.”

Tempest didn’t realize how much the fight affected her nor did she realized how much she valued her teammates. It happened too fast for Tempest to process their supposed death as she was too busy trying to survive herself. Afterwards she was too angry at Cardis for intervening too late then she had to speak with her spirits.

Once all the pressing matters were resolved, the presence of an alive Graden toppled her emotional fort. Tempest cried her eyes out.

Tempest crying has never been like those main characters in a drama, silently and beautifully. Tempest cried like the kid she is, all with dripping tears and snot.

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Graden rolled his eyes at Tempest’s dramaziation. He was alive and in front of her wasn’t he! There was nothing to cry about. Still, Graden was gentle enough to let Tempest cry, unbothered by her mess she left behind.

“There there. I’m here aren’t I?” Graden soothe her.

“What about the others?” Tempest asked after she shed enough tears to soak the front of Graden’s shirt.

“They are alive as well.”

“What happened?”

Graden didn’t know what to say as they themselves don’t know much. There were plenty of speculation but it all remains that, speculation.

“We’re only guessing at this point.” Graden said.

“A guess is better than nothing.” Tempest retorted.

Graden smiled sweetly before he explained what happened to the rest of the team.

“Starm, Li Ming and I cast our most powerful spells so we could buy you and Fenix time to run. As you can see, we did nothing to the madman. He could have killed us with his attack, but he didn't. Instead he teleported to the same place where he teleported Bei Ting Mao, a large clearing slightly deeper into Emblemic Mountain Range. Fenix soon followed. She was teleported onto Li Ming, where she proceed to glomp Li Ming for water mana.

“We waited a bit longer for you to show up. During that time we discussed the motives behind the madman’s actions. Actually it was more like Bei Ting Mao rambling his thoughts. Ever since he had lost to his inner demons he always wanted to know how to -”

“Hey wait a gosh darn moment! Bei Ting Mao fought against his inner demons and lost? Why isn’t he insane then?” Tempest interrupted Graden’s narrative to clarify her confusion.

“Bei Ting Mao fought his inner demons and lost but before his inner demons swallowed him up and take over, his spirits intervened. They ate his inner demons as a snack and told him about his potential to cultivate the heart as his immortal path. Ever since, he had an interest with inner demons, namely how one can win them.”

“Ah, I see. Given his history and potential, I wouldn’t be surprised his inner demons show up.” Tempest said casually. “The spirits can do that? Eat inner demons?”

“Yes they can.” Graden answered.

We can eat your inner demons. Love and the feelings of the heart are the basis of a mage’s cultivation. Obession, hatred and jealousy have no place in true love. We would never tolerate an outsider coming between us and our mortal, not even their inner demons.

“Do mages suffer any potential backlashes? Cause cultivating as a mage seems too easy peasy.”

Graden gave Tempest a sour look. How easy does the silly little brat think it is to cultivate as a mage? If it was easy as she made it out to be, there would be more mages than any other cultivators out there!

Ventus also answered the Tempest’s question as she sense the it was directed more towards her rather than Graden. Most of the problem a mage experience is trying to increase their cultivation rate. Not all spirits love their mortals as much as we love you Tempest. They give only a small portion of the mana to their mortals and keep the rest. Therefore, most mages can’t control their cultivation speed. Furthermore, mages need to learn the underlying laws of their elements. You have to learn the language of the spirits before you can communicate with the spirits. Our language is very complex. It is trying to decipher ancient Egyptian without the Rosetta Stone.

“Hmph,” Tempest grunted, “Then what happened?” The last part of the sentense was directed towards Graden.

“After we realized you weren’t going to be teleported, we started to make our way back to the guild. We figured you’d head back there and meet up, except we couldn’t find or tails of you so we separated to search for you.”

“How long was I gone?”

“Not long. Just over four days.”

“Four day? I was out for that long?”

“That’s long it was since we last saw you.” Graden searched his mage robe for a bit before pulling out a weird contraption. “I need to tell the others I’ve found you. They will come to us once I release the signal.” Graden explained then launched the fireworks.

Temepst hugged Graden and said, “Thanks. Thanks for caring.”

“We are a team. This is what teammates do.” Graden returned shyly.