On an island spanning only a single mile made of dusky dawn-colored sand with a few beige banana trees and coconut trees littered across the sandy surface. The odd island exuded a distinctly peculiar aura that was hard to pinpoint, yet oddly felt strangely demonic in origin.
Upon this island, at its sandy edge, was a young man with a head of fiery red hair sat cross-legged with bare feet, his gaze focused on the rising pillar of light in the far-off distance. Shui Fengbao murmured indistinguishably to himself in a soft voice. The Child of Fire's aura had made great changes recently. The light in his eyes was extremely fresh. It contains the essence of time and vestiges of its influence. His cultivation base had risen! Now at the Temporal Eye Phase, the Child of Fire was certainly stronger than ever before. Within his dantian was a hovering seed of a Solar Star formed by the Neo-Dawn Star-Seed Pill at the highest quality possible. It was extremely tiny, yet its exuded aura was not to be underestimated despite its nascent state.
From behind him, a silhouette quietly snuck up on the distracted Child of Fire. They stalked closer with a restrained breath, their hands reaching out toward his neck.
"Ha!" The silhouette exclaimed, grasping Shui Fengbao's shoulders.
"Oh?" Shui Fengbao seemed to have been woken by the cold slender fingers grabbing his shoulders, turning slightly to see an alluring countenance of a woman. Her facial features of great beauty were accentuated by her bluish hair with grey highlights and those star-pupils within her eyes. She had a slender physique, a narrow and unbelievably huggable waist, and a dainty pink tail that was exceptionally fluffy looking. It was hard to resist touching it.
If Wei Wuyin was here, he would immediately recognize this woman! She was the Celestial Race's Chosen who had narrowly escaped from Shui Fengbao on the first day of the Evercrown Ceremony. He had inadvertently allowed her to escape with her cultivation base after violently destroying her physical body, a mistake that he had set himself out to rectify.
The young woman gave a joyous smile as she sat next to the distracted Shui Fengbao, offering a pair of pinkish coconuts. They swished with every movement, containing copious amounts of milk within. She pouted as she eyed the geyser of light.
"Are you going?" She asked as she easily and skillfully split apart the coconut without causing any milk to spill. The milk had a pinkish hue to it, slightly thicker than typical milk found in coconuts, and the flesh inside was jet-black with bits of bigger specks littered throughout. She drank from its edges, clearly skilled in doing so as not a single drop was wasted.
"I would but..." Shui Fengbao hesitantly replied as he thought about his Star Seed and unstable cultivation base, signs of his most recent breakthrough. Eventually, he heaved a slightly depressed sigh filled with dejection. "Mae Min-Ji, what do you think I should do?" He asked the Celestial Race's Chosen next to him, Mae Min-Ji, all while equally opening a coconut and drinking its milk. The techniques of the two were extremely similar with Mae Min-Ji harboring slightly more familiarity.
"What you 'should' do?" She thought about it for a long moment. "I think you should do what you want to do. Isn't that what you did with me?" When she said that, there was a little mirth and self-mockery within her tone.
Mae Min-Ji was a member of the Radiant Empire. Not only that, Wei Wuyin had keenly identified her as a Blessed. She had barely escaped from Shui Fengbao after being ignorant of the menace that was the Ascendants in this competition. For weeks she was chased all over by this so-called Child of Fire, barely escaping each time.
Eventually, she got into trouble as an Evil Sentinel had caught her in a formation. She believed herself a goner for certain right then and there, likely about to experience a tragic fate of humiliation, pain, and death as her cultivation was extracted and her entirety was erased, but Shui Fengbao had miraculously arrived.
She didn't have any good impression of this mortal hunter at all, but she at least believed that the young mortal would slay her swiftly rather than have her experience humiliation before her death. However, the young man didn't kill her on the spot after spending all that time hunting her.
Instead, he gave her a pill.
It was an extremely precious pill-a peak Ever-Rebirth Pill. Moreover, he provided her with a strange pellet that mimicked a field of time that Earthly Saints created to expedite the cultivation of their disciples in the World Beyond. She swiftly regained her body in a few months. Moreover, there were no deficiencies.
She had regained her body. When she left the field of time, Shui Fengbao had shockingly extracted her newly fresh heart right then and there! It took her so off-guard that she didn't know what to do as he pulled it out from her chest with a blazing grasp, searing a hole in her torso.
When she tried to escape using her tail, Shui Fengbao was prepared this time and isolated in a torrent of flames. She then realized this intent as he gave her another pill! He established another field of time! She immediately realized his intent!
This young mortal was going to obtain ALL seven hearts required to open that container from a single person! Moreover, she couldn't refuse because he might very well just end her on the spot! She began to panic instantly, but her heart was extracted a full two more times before she, in her exasperation, demanded he tell her why he was wasting resources and taking her hearts in such a humiliating manner!
But his reply had left her utterly flabbergasted. "I need to acquire seven hearts from an Ascended being." When he said this flatly as if it was the most normal thing, innocently with his head cocked to the side, Mae Min-Ji realized the misunderstanding!
The container's condition was to obtain seven hearts from a Soul of Mysticism Realm cultivator. This type of formatting of a sentence caused this misunderstanding. She roared that it was from 'any' Soul of Mysticism Realm cultivator! Not from a single one, but Shu Fengbao gave her a look as if she was an idiot.
Her exasperation was so intense she contemplated detonating her Mystic Soul right then and there and ending it all. Moreover, Shui Fengbao was adamant that it needed to be from a single source. In the end, Mae Min-Ji vehemently said that wasn't the case! The two argued for quite a while until Mae Min-Ji had an idea dawned on her! She suggested they make a bet on the truth since he was so confident.
This caused Shui Fengbao to be taken aback. But with his pride on the line and his intelligence in question, he agreed. If he won, she would be his slave. If she won, then she had to repair her body with another pill and let her go! In her lifetime, she had experienced all sorts of near-death encounters and oddities, and almost always she survived by the skin of her teeth or some godly fortunate event. She believed this was the case too, as she'd force Shui Fengbao into an oath and free herself.
But Shui Fengbao said he didn't want a slave, and that he would never own a slave in his life. This was simply his principle. Despite her attempts at getting him to agree, she decided to change it because, just like him, she was absolutely confident that she was right!
So she said that she'll be his wife.
However, the Child of Fire knew that taking a wife was a serious matter and flatly refused. She could only settle for agreeing to be his concubine. The thought caused Shui Fengbao to recall Xue Yifei, and his eyes lit brightly at the idea of having his very own concubine like His Majesty. He agreed after some deliberation.
The two ventured back to the container.
And shockingly...
The container was indeed from a 'single' Ascended being!
A SINGLE ONE!!
If it was from just seven separate Ascended beings, why would Shui Fengbao get so angry and frustrated despite his power? He definitely didn't fear any Soul of Mysticism Phase cultivators from the World Beyond with his strength and means. Just the way he fearlessly fought against Mae Min-Ji and hunted her for countless miles was a clear sign of that.
This was also why he had a sneaky suspicion that Wei Wuyin was within that container because only an extraordinary Alchemist or an abnormally powerful cultivator who was willing to sacrifice their lifespan could open such a ridiculous container. This was why he cursed at being merely a Realmlord. He simply didn't have access to such powers.
At first glance, it seemed like an incomparably easy task to fulfill, but after one looked closer, it was the most difficult condition imaginable. Fortunately, he had a few Ever-Rebirth Pills that his Majesty had given them all for their subordinates or their own needs.
Mae Min-Ji was utterly, indescribably, and unimaginably stunned as her solemnly sworn oath took effect, emanating from the depths of her soul-upon verification, she had lost the bet. It was so incomparably swift that she was like a statue for half a day, trying to digest how she had lost...
Considering Mae Min-Ji was now his concubine, Shui Fengbao was a man of honor and would never bring deliberate harm to his woman. He decided to abandon the entire task then and there. Moreover, he had run out of Ever-Rebirth Pills. Even if he decided to find another Soul of Mysticism Phase cultivator, he could only obtain five hearts using this method, and he'd have to sacrifice his singular transcendent version to reach that point.
He refused to do that. He did, however, have four of Mae Min-Ji's hearts in his possession.
"..." Shui Fengbao awkwardly chuckled at her response. He did what he wanted with her, hunting her down relentlessly and repeatedly taking her hearts. He slaughtered the Evil Sentinel not to save her but to use her to open that container. In a way, he was extremely brutal to his now-concubine.
Shui Fengbao firmly decided: "Yeah, you're right. I'll go after the fragments have been fully merged. Even if there were some scary individuals there like the Valkyrie and Brother Yao there, I'd never live it down if I didn't go and at least fight." This entire venture was to be a honing event for the Ascendants, and he refused to back down from anyone.
"At the very least," Mae Min-Ji sighed, "you have the resolve of a proper husband." If her husband didn't even want to fight for opportunities or face challenges for greater gains, things she had faced and fought for her entire life, she would...
...fortunately, she didn't need to.
To think it was to a mortal though. The saving grace was the fact that he had comprehended Fire Heart Intent and harnessed traces of the Law of Fire, so this gave her some relief that he had the potential to become a Mystic Overlord at least. Moreover, he was oddly wealthy in resources. That was a plus for any ambitious cultivator.
[Author's Note: A little 'what has the Child of Fire been doing lately' interlude chapter. Honestly, this was meant to be before the Valkyrie long arc but I had misorganized some chapter arc notes. So it might seem out of place. I ask for forgiveness.]
