"Hey, what was that thing you gave to me when I was sleeping?" Void suddenly asked.
"That liquid? If I recall correctly, old man Gerald called it a Resurgence Liquid," Grey replied after a while.
"Good, I want that," Void said.
Grey tripped when he heard this, not expecting Void to demand for the liquid he had been searching for all this while.
"I don't have any, besides, I gave you some not too long ago," Grey replied.
"It's not enough, don't you want me to recover completely?" Void asked while staring at Grey with his big black eyes.
"I'm not falling for that," Grey said emotionlessly, looking at Void straight in the eyes.
"You're heartless, who can say no to me? I'm such a cute little guy," Void snorted coldly.
"I almost died, venturing into the Magical Beasts' forest to search for that liquid, and I still couldn't find it. I was only fortunate to see it when I was leaving the forest," Grey said with both hands folded in front of him.
"The Magical Beasts' forest? You went there without me?" Void asked.
"You were sleeping, and besides, technically, I did take you along since you were in my ring all this while," Grey replied.
Void's expression suddenly changed when Grey spoke of his storage ring, but he quickly hid it. Unfortunately, Grey sensed that something was wrong when he noticed the slight change in his expression.
"Void, what did you do?" Grey asked slowly.
"Nothing, so… where are we?" Void quickly changed the topic.
Grey's expression fell when he saw this, without even waiting for anything, he quickly sent his spiritual senses into his storage ring. His eyes widened when he saw the state of the ring.
"You thieving cat! Where are they?" Grey asked while pointing at Void.
"I have no idea what you're speaking about," Void said while looking around, clearly avoiding Grey's eyes.
"All the herbs and essence stones are gone. You're the only one who can enter this place, spit them out!" Grey said.
All the herbs he gathered while he was in the Magical Beasts' forest was nowhere to be seen. Even what was left of the essence stones in his storage ring was gone. Void was obviously the only culprit.
"I just woke up, I needed a lot of energy. If I didn't absorb them then you would've been dead," Void hurriedly explained.
Grey stared at Void's small protruding stomach, he suddenly remembered the first time he saw Void. Almost all the fruits he acquired were eaten by the small guy. Now once again, Void had done it again, this time, eating even more than the first time.
"You… *Sigh* forget it. Come let's go back," Grey shook his head.
He couldn't scold Void since he knew he needed the energy, but he only felt upset at how Void didn't even ask for his permission.
"Go back to where? I can sense a treasure here," Void said with glittering eyes before looking around in confusion, "Wait, where are we?"
"The Magical Beasts' forest," Grey replied.
"This is the Magical Beasts' forest? No wonder I can sense treasures around," Void exclaimed.
"Wait, how powerful are you now?" Grey asked.
He recalled the Jaguar Void killed was at the peak of the Early stages of the Overlord Plane. Since Void could kill it easily, it meant he was at least in the Early stages of the Overlord Plane.
"I'm a Rank Five magical beast now. Wait, how come you're still so weak?" Void declared proudly, before staring at Grey in confusion.
Grey threw a glance at Void, not even bothering to answer him. He had been so focused on getting a cure for Void that he completely left cultivation by the side. If not for the red lightning orb he absorbed, then he would've still been in the Seventh stage of the Origin Plane.
"The Early stages or the Mid stages?" He asked.
"I just broke through, so I'm still in the Early stages," Void answered.
"How come that Jaguar couldn't fight back?" Grey asked.
Although he didn't see the fight, he knew Void was the only one who attacked. And he clearly heard Void bragging while he was attacking.
"It's a low leveled beast, of course it would freeze in awe when in the presence of his daddy," Void said proudly, puffing out his chest.
Grey rolled his eyes when he saw how Void was acting, even after being asleep for so long, he was still the same.
"Wait, you still haven't answered why you are able to talk," He said.
"High leveled magical beasts gain the ability to speak once they get to Rank Five, this is common knowledge, how come you don't know about it?" Void replied, not forgetting to mock Grey at the end of his statement.
Grey almost wanted to punch Void, but he knew he wouldn't be able to catch him. He had problems catching Void while he was still more powerful than he was, much less now that he was weaker. It's already a good thing that Void didn't decide to find problems with him.
"Come on, let's go for the treasure," Void said excitedly.
"No, there's no telling what we will encounter in the deeper parts of the forest. There was a disturbance in the forest a few weeks back, it's still starting to go back to normal, but we can't be too sure what the current situation is like," Grey rejected the idea immediately.
Since Void was fine now, he wanted to head back to Lapis City. The reason he's going back is not because he didn't want to go to the other continent, but because he couldn't without the essence stones.
The only way he can acquire a large amount of essence stones is either he stole it, sold some things, or borrowed from old man Gerald.
Old man Gerald was still in the city, he was sure of that.
"Come on, stop being a scaredy cat. Let's go get that treasure! I can sense it, it's shiny…" Void tried convincing Grey fervently.
On hearing that it was shiny, Grey was more certain that they weren't going to go search for whatever the treasure was. Something must definitely be guarding it, something powerful.
The only thing that likes shiny things as much as Void are Dragons. Although the chances of seeing Dragons this far out in the Magical Beasts' forest wasn't high, it wasn't zero. Grey couldn't even start to imagine what the situation would be like if they were surrounded by a pair of Dragons.
"Stop being a wussy," Void said.
Grey immediately turned around, not bothering to answer him. Now that Void could speak out, there was no end to the troubles he would cause.
"Hey, stop there," Void called out.
Grey continued walking away.
Void turned to look in the direction of where he could sense the treasure, and the direction that Grey was headed.
Just as he was about to complain, he sensed something from another direction. Two things, in particular.
One was a powerful aura he didn't want to see, the other was a strong spatial undulations.
"Hey, there's a spatial undulation coming from that side," Void suddenly appeared on Grey's shoulder, using his small paws to show Grey the direction the spatial undulation was coming from.
"Yeah, I'm aware of that. Actually, that was where I was headed, but you've unfortunately used up the essence stones," Grey explained.
"Oh, where does it lead?" Void asked, curiously.
"You wouldn't believe it," Grey said, refusing to tell Void where it led.
"I would, come on, tell me," Void started pestering.
"If you behave properly, I might just tell you before we get back to the city," Grey said with a smile.
"But… I'm always well behaved. When have I ever behaved improperly?" Void asked.
"That time you stole that shiny thing from that Dragon, when you…" Grey started to count the problems Void had caused since they knew each other.
"Those can't even be counted as me causing any problems. Did you die?" Void asked.
"No, but I nearly died," Grey replied.
"So did I, so we're even," Void said.
"You can't use just one event to write off all the things you've done before," Grey said.
"Of course I can, I just did. Since I'm the latest victim, I have the upper hand," Void said.
"You're crazy. We'll be going to a city filled with treasures people suffered to get from the Magical Beasts' forest, please, try to leave them in peace," Grey warned beforehand.
If Void were to head to the city, the chances of him stealing from the entire city is very high. Given his current strength, no one would be able to even sense when he stole their treasure, much less being able to apprehend him.
"Come on, I wouldn't take a thing," Void said.
Eight hours later.
The duo appeared in Lapis City after casually strolling through the Magical Beasts' forest. With Void's current strength, Grey didn't need to fear anything as they walked back.
