The dazzling light appeared before Luriel in a matter of seconds. Instinctively, his body utilized almost all of his mana to defend his body, aiming for the slight possibility he might survive the incoming attack.
Looking at the blurred image of Hans in front of him just before the impact, he put his trust in him and closed his eyes. Hans will protect him.
An unknown amount of time later, he woke up to warm sunlight illuminating his face, reflecting on his now open blue eyes. Taking a look around, he realized he was moved away from the battlefield in a deeper part of the forest.
'There's no devastation in sight, I must be quite far from the battle. I need to look for Hans. Wait… this feeling?'
Taking a close look at his body, Luriel was shocked to feel his cultivation has improved. Although he was out of mana, its capacity was improved quite a lot.
'Peak of the 4th stage Broken Vessel'
His eyes shone with a delighted glow but he shook off the unnecessary thoughts. He needed to find Hans.
His eyes slowly scanned the surrounding forest and quickly located the tallest tree around. The problem was, he was very weak now without mana.
He could still climb the tree with his physical body alone but it would take significantly longer. Not that it mattered, though.
He struggled on the way but managed to reach the top in 30 minutes, give or take. Slowly walking onto a branch, his gaze landed on a ruined part of the forest nearly a kilometer away.
'Shit, the fight has ended! No, wait, Hans probably won! The enemy had various internal wounds, there's no way he could fight back.'
After convincing himself everything went fine, Luriel slowly descended the tree and carefully made his way through the forest. To his surprise, there were no beasts in sight. Most of them had run off during the collisions of mana caused by the battle.
Finally setting foot on the ruined area, Luriel frantically looked around but couldn't any trace of neither Hans nor the beast tamer. Out of nowhere, his survival instinct alrerted him of a threat. He subconsciously hid behind one of the trees, not even daring to breathe.
As expected, he sensed an enormous amount of mana closing in on him. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before. The previous clash of auras looked harmless in comparison to this one. The pressure was suffocating and revealed blatant hostility, the only reason he was still alive was because it wasn't aimed at him.
In just a few seconds, the owner of that pressure arrived, hovering in the air. It was an old man with long white hair and a spiky beard wearing sky blue robes similar to Hans'. The only difference was the addition of golden clouds engraved on them.
His black eyes, covered in a mysterious glow, looked at the ruined battlefield. Shortly after, another figure emerged and bowed to the old man.
"Third elder, we haven't found any traces of Prizal or our assassin."
"No need to look anymore." The old man's hoarse voice replied. "I used spiritual detection and couldn't find anyone. They probably killed each other and were eaten by beasts."
Spiritual detection was a spell that focused on mana. If there are any cultivators around, he would be able to sense the excess mana gathered in their body. The reason he couldn't detect Luriel was simple- he didn't have pathways and he was out of mana.
Well, he did have some mana but it consisted of tiny particles randomly scattered around his body, giving the elder the illusion it was ambient mana.
"Report to the second elder! Prizal had most likely used the ancestral spirit and has disintegrated in a similar fashion to that of the seventh elder."
"Yes, sir!"
The subordinate quickly flew off into the distance. The third elder was about to leave as well but stopped instead, his gaze sweeping past the area Luriel was hiding. He felt something was off but couldn't figure out what exactly bothered him. In the end, he decided to trust his ability and left as well.
They disappeared in a flash, leaving behind Luriel who was shaking uncontrollably. After confirming their absense, he took deep breaths to calm himself down. The passive pressure those people released had left a dangerous impression on him. He had a feeling it wasn't merely the difference between one major realm.
'That old man must've been a Tranquil Sea realm cultivator.'
The overwhelming amount of mana alone was more than enough to kill him a million times over, he took a mental note to never confront such a being unless he was strong enough to even barely survive. His legs felt weak as he laid down on the ground to rest. His mind shifted to the conversation he'd overheard.
'There are no signs of life in the area? No cultivators? They were searching for Hans… whose side were they on, his or that man? More importantly, is Hans…'
His body suddenly froze, even his breathing had become stagnant at that moment as his fingers started trembling. As much as he wanted to convince himself otherwise, the evidence pointed in only one conclusion, Hans was probably dead.
Without any prior warning, a foreign yet familiar energy emerged from his body, basking the area in golden light. The scattered light slowly came together, condensing into the shape of a young man in his late teens. His long golden hair swayed in the wind whereas his eyes calmly looked at Luriel.
It was a projection of Hans.
"Luriel, it's been a while, probably a few hours after I'd died." Seeing the twisted expression on Luriel's face, he continued with a smile. "No need to get all emotional with me now, it was bound to happen, really. Since I used the ancestral spirit and all that bullshit. Honestly, it was such a pain in the ass."
The current Luriel however, simply looked at him with a tearful yet blank look without signs of life except for the shallow rise and fall of his chest. Evidently, he wasn't in the mood for conversation, but Hans wasn't expecting one to begin with.
Having inherited the knowledge of his late grandmother, Hans knew many things he previously didn't and intended to pass some of it on to Luriel.
"My time here is limited, so I'll sum up all the important stuff you need to know. The first is… how you became a cultivator despite not having the pathways to show it."
Luriel's body twitched ever so slightly and he slowly leaned a little closer to listen. Although his state of mind wasn't exactly good, he decided to listen to his senior's last words.