When Grey was done reading the text, he changed his attention back to the floating lotus and walked towards it.
'Seems like I can finally awaken my fire element', he thought.
With the awakening of his fire element, he would have five elements. Had it been previously, he would have thought he would only need to comprehend the Light and Darkness element to have all elements, but now, he didn't know how many elements there were.
"I remembered you said the Space element was one of your innate elements, which other one do you have?", asked Grey who stood a few inches away from the lotus.
'I have four in total, Space, Darkness, Lightning, and Fire', the cat replied.
"Oh, four! That's quite a lot", Grey replied.
Although the fact that the cat had four elements was quite shocking, he didn't brood too much over it. After all, he was about to acquire his fifth element.
'Actually, I think there might still be one more. But it seems like I'm not strong enough to awaken it yet', the cat said while placing its little paws on its face like a human does when thinking.
"Oh! How strong are you currently", asked Grey curiously.
'Around Late Rank three, I think', said the cat.
"Rank three? Magical beasts have ranks?", Grey asked.
He had never heard of beasts having ranks, they had always used the same system as humans, well, according to the books he had read and also from how everyone in the empire calls their system.
'Of course. Are you from a small town or village?', the cat suddenly asked.
It felt Grey knew lesser compared to it that had just been born. Since Grey had been in the world for a while now, it was unexpected he knew nothing about the Space element, and now, he didn't know how Magical beasts were ranked.
Grey almost tripped when the cat asked him this question, he also felt like someone from a backwater place due to what was happening. It was quite embarrassing that he had to learn about these things from a cat that had just been born.
But he couldn't be blamed, this was the first time he was hearing about them, and he couldn't pretend he knew about them just so he wouldn't embarrass himself. As long as it was something new, he always wanted to learn, even if it meant learning from a newborn cat!
"How are beasts ranked?", he averted the cat's question and asked his own.
'It's just like the human cultivation system, only, unlike you humans, we have ranks instead of planes', explained the cat.
"There isn't much difference in the cultivation system then. It's just a change of name. This means, according to your rank, you're at the Late stages of the Arcane Plane", said Grey.
'Arcane Plane, is that the third plane for humans?', asked the cat.
Grey nodded.
'Yeah, you could say that', the cat said.
"So do you have a name?", asked Grey.
Other than what the cat told him, the only thing he knew about it was that it was male. And he only found out when he was studying it the first time.
'Void', said the cat.
"Void? Who would name himself Void?", Grey chuckled.
He knew this was the name the cat gave itself.
'That's a great name, it fits my magnificent features perfectly', Void said proudly while sticking out his little chest.
Grey laughed seeing how the little guy stuck out his chest trying to show his 'features'.
'What's your name?', Void asked after some time.
"Grey", replied Grey.
'Grey? Who names himself after a color. And to think you had the guts to laugh at my name' Void laughed on hearing Grey's name.
Grey looked at Void speechless, shaking his head, he once again placed his full attention on the lotus.
"Time for an upgrade", he laughed lightly.
He was quite expectant towards acquiring a new element, his strength will not only increase but his plane also. And there was a chance he might acquire the rare blue flame the expert spoke about.
This wasn't the first time he was hearing of blue flames, compared to normal red flames, it was almost two times stronger. It was just like the black lightning the crocodile he fought had, it was stronger than the normal silver lightning he had.
He stretched his hand towards the lotus, and the lotus suddenly opened up. The lotus had nine petals, at the middle of it was a nail-sized blue flame.
Grey was shocked by how small it was, but he could also feel how strong its energy was. Compared to the lotus, it was almost four times stronger.
'I don't think I'll be able to fully absorb the energy in one cultivation session. I'll just refine it now, and not only awaken my fire element, but also breakthrough. I'll slowly absorb the rest of the energy later', he thought before reaching for it.
When he made contact with the flame, its warmth spread across his hand, before moving to the other parts of his body.
He took it and sat cross-legged, looking at Void who was staring at him with pleading eyes, he sighed before waving for him to take the lotus.
Although if he were to be the one to refine the lotus his strength will increase further, it didn't hurt to allow the little guy to take it, besides, he had already taken the best treasure which was the flame. Also, from the looks of it, the little guy will be staying with him from now on.
Getting the go-ahead, Void happily leaped towards the lotus, opened his mouth, and swallowed it instantly, like he was afraid Grey might change his mind.
He laid down close to Grey, snuck a glance at him, and spat out a single petal which he slowly started absorbing.
Grey who was still staring at him was surprised when he saw Void spit out one of the nine petals. He thought Void swallowed it completely.
'Seems like this guy has somewhere he stores things, but where? I'll ask him after I break through', thought Grey.
He also went into a semi-conscious state and started refining the flame, even Void had started cultivating, so why delay any further?
And so, one human and one cat started cultivating.
………
While Grey and Void were cultivating, things had started heating up at the ancient paths. The paths intersected with each other, so the people were starting to meet up as time slowly went on.
They had all been on this path for almost five hours now but still hadn't reached the end. Some of them had gotten great treasures, such as rare plants, essence stones, elemental weapons, and even techniques, but most of the techniques were of the fire element.
At one of the paths, a youth could be seen running quickly towards what looked like a castle.
'It's stronger here', the youth thought while staring at the castle.
The youth was none other than Jonas. Since he entered into the ancient paths, he had not stopped for one minute and had been following a 'call'.
From the time he saw the light, he suddenly felt a sense of calling from it. This was why he hurried towards it as fast as he could. Even after the light had died down for some time, he could still feel the call.
After entering the ancient paths, he didn't bother about any other thing and just focused on where the call was coming from. Now he had finally found it, it was from this castle.
'Why is it calling me?', Jonas asked himself.
This was a question he had asked himself over and over again, but he still couldn't come up with an answer. He didn't know what he might find in this place, but he knew it wasn't something that would harm him.
Steeling his mind, he slowly disappeared into the castle.
…….
"Uh! People are fighting up ahead", a soft voice said.
The owner of the voice slowly walked towards where the sounds of battles were coming from. It was ahead anyway, so there was no way the figure wouldn't see who was fighting unless the figure decided to turn around.
Boom! Bang!
A figure slammed into the wall by the side.
"So this is his full strength", the soft voice said.
The owner of the voice was Alice, ahead of her was the Darkness Elementalist, and he was facing off against two youths. One in the Third stage, and another in the Second.
He had injured the one in the Second stage, and was currently in a heated battle against the one in the Third stage.
The fact that he could fight against two people of this caliber and not only gain the upper hand but was about to kill them, was nothing less of a testament to how strong he was.
Alice initially had no plans of stepping in but looking closer, she recognized both youths, they were from the Lunar Academy.
Although she was still in the Second stage of the Origin Plane, her true strength was no weaker than those at the Third stage, and she is even stronger than some of them.
Sensing someone else walking into the battle scene, the Darkness Elementalist turned and looked in her direction.
"I'll advise you don't interfere with this, little lady", he said coldly.
"I don't meddle in other people's affairs. But you see, they're my friends", Alice smiled lightly as she walked towards both youths.
Now it was three against one, although one of the youths was injured, it didn't mean he still couldn't fight.
The Darkness Elementalist looked at them with an icy gaze.
And the path fell into silence.
Alice was waiting patiently for his decision, if he wanted to fight, then, she had no problem with that. She hadn't fought someone this strong anyway, so it will be a test for her.
Both parties faced off without anyone showing any signs of backing down.
