While Alaric took his time engaging with the white-haired dark elf, whose unrestrained enthusiasm proved both charming and overwhelming, Tian and Oliveria found themselves engaged in a more subdued discussion, pondering the recent events that had occurred before them.
"The boy is quite the talent. He reminds me of you when you were much younger, just a little bit less expressive than you were at that time."
Hearing this, Tian laughed quietly, with a trace of nostalgia on his features. "I hate to admit it," he continued, "but he is far more gifted than I was at his age. Back then, I was still struggling to make sense of the world. I roamed around without a purpose until my dear master found me.
One could even say it was fate that brought us together." The last bit was said with a hushed voice, but was caught by her.
"You never talked much about your younger self. You always seem to dodge the topic whenever it is brought up. Why is that?" She asked calmly while she observed the interaction between young Eva and her new 'friend.'
From their perspective, the interaction between them was rather slow; the conversation between Alaric & Eva, which seemed to have started a few short seconds ago, stretched to 5 minutes, and this was them suppressing their innate perception of time.
This perception led to a pronounced divide between higher-stage practitioners and those at lower stages of cultivation. The advanced practitioners, often preoccupied with their own elevated experiences and achievements, found little motivation to engage with their less experienced counterparts. The slower pace of the lower-stage practitioners made it difficult for them to connect meaningfully, as their progress and understanding of cultivation concepts were not on par.
As a consequence, interactions between these distinct groups became increasingly rare. The gap between the realms of cultivation widened, leaving many higher-stage practitioners to believe that the effort required to overcome this divide was not worth it. While some might choose to interact with lower-stage practitioners as a means of improving their own patience and understanding, many considered this strategy inefficient. After all, there are certainly more effective methods available for cultivating patience than the challenges posed through engaging with those who are still in the early stages of their journey.
"There is not much to talk about." He replied curtly, slowly stroking his beard out of habit.
Seeing that he really had no intention of continuing that conversation, she decided to change gear.
"So, now that he has won, will you tell me what his flaw is? I want to know if it's something that can be managed," she furrowed her eyebrows slightly. From her extensive research on the other blessed individuals, she had come to a troubling conclusion: some of them posed a genuine threat to society if left unchecked. The rapidity with which a blessed individual's powers grew was alarming; their innate flaws could easily turn them into adversaries of civilization itself. The thought unsettled her as she deliberated the potential consequences of these powerful beings losing control over their darker instincts.
Tian, still stroking his beard, responded slowly with a grim tone, "It's quite troubling. I don't yet understand the full scope of this flaw. All I know is that it establishes a connection to a being in the Abyss realm and only manifests when he is unconscious."
She took a deep breath in, the abyss realm, that dreary place that took everything from her. Her friends, family, and... She couldn't help but look at Tian's handsome, aged face. It was after leaving that place that he separated from his friends and loved ones. They have lost so much in that world.
"Is that why he looks like he hasn't had any rest in weeks?" She calmed her raging emotions with deep breaths.
"A month, actually. It is fascinating that a mortal could survive a month without sleep without dying or going insane; his willpower seems to have grown over the month. It is abnormal." He smiled, not at all concerned about the thought of the growth rate being abnormal. In fact, he loved it.
"I think he has reached the limit his mortal body can handle. He should rest now. Truly the personification of the quote 'the mind is willing, but the body is weak." It was clear to him that the boy's mental energy and will were vastly superior to his body.
"Good, I would like to see it myself."
Before he could reply, she disappeared.
Alaric found himself fully engrossed in entertaining Eva, her laughter ringing in his ears and her bright smile captivating his attention. It seemed as though the rest of the world faded into a soft blur, allowing him to focus solely on her. However, he always sensed both of them on the edge of his periphery, though their presence was weak and easy to ignore, yet he couldn't react when one such figure suddenly appeared next to him in zero time.
The last thing he heard before his body made contact with the soft, inviting grass was a melodic, soothing female voice, gently resonating in the air. "You should get some well-deserved rest, young man; you have done enough," she said. As the words faded into the distance, a heavy darkness enveloped him, pulling him into unconsciousness.
This gave him a real sense of relief. For months, he had forced himself to stay awake, relying only on the [willpower technique]. That technique was a blessing, perfectly countering his flaw. Without it, he would have suffered the usual mental effects of no sleep. Strangely, the less he slept, the more his willpower grew, far beyond what was normal. Over the past month, he had gained more willpower than most mortals ever would.
Meanwhile, Eva stood frozen in place, her heart racing as she watched Alaric collapse onto the ground. The initial shock coursed through her veins, and she felt a flutter of panic clawing at her throat. Just moments before, she had been on the verge of asking him for the finer points of the intricate technique he had demonstrated, yet now, all she could do was stare in disbelief at his still form. Thankfully, she stopped herself from screaming after noticing her master.
"Why..." She began, her voice trailing off as a sudden, unexpected chuckle interrupted her. The unconscious boy sprawled on the ground stirred slightly, his hand lifting and shielding his eyes from the bright sun above, palm facing the cerulean sky. A peculiar aura enveloped him, twisting and swirling, causing the air in the immediate vicinity to flutter as if caught in a whirlwind.
Eva felt a ripple of instinctive alarm course through her, prompting her to take several cautious steps back.
"Ah, it happened again," he mused, peering curiously between his fingers at the vivid blue expanse above. "I thought it was just a fluke the first time." Enchanted by his surroundings, he continued, "So this is the human world. It's undeniably beautiful, nothing like that hell I've known."
He examined himself with evident bewilderment. "My hands are so tiny, too. A human child? I can't recall ever being this weak or this small. Is this truly what we strive to become?" His brows knitted together in deep confusion, but then, with a forlorn shake of his head, he concluded, "I doubt it."
Oliveria watched him closely, her brow furrowed as she saw the change happening before her eyes. 'He looks like a completely different person,' she thought, her eyes wide with disbelief. As she kept watching, her face fell as she realized what was happening. Tian had mentioned a flaw tied to a creature from the abyss realm, and now she understood what he meant.
His body, which had looked lean and fragile just moments before, started to change. Muscles that had been worn out from a month without rest now grew stronger and healthier. She could almost see them moving under his skin, healing quickly and becoming tougher.
The unhealthy, pale appearance of his complexion was also shifting. The dark circles that had settled like shadows beneath his eyes, clear indicators of his chronic sleep deprivation, began to fade away. As if life were flooding back into him, his skin transformed before her gaze, smoothing into a more pristine, healthier tone. It was as if he were shedding the effects of exhaustion right in front of her eyes.
Then, the most prominent change was the indication that he wasn't fully human anymore. Two small bulges appeared on his forehead on either side of his frontal temple, covered by soft-looking, pristine skin. It was evident that they were horns, struggling desperately to break free from the confines of his scalp.
"That's new." Tian's voice came from beside her, his sparkling eyes indicating he had just seen something for the first time. "The first time this happened, he didn't have that bulge on him."
'Alaric' stopped his musing, then sat up straight, looking at the two individuals in front of him. The aura around him intensified with malice that promised only destruction that would scare even the most hardened of mortal men away. Sadly for him, though, the two in front of him were far from 'ordinary'. The only mortal was 70 meters away and still slowly retreating.
With a malicious grin, he said. "It's you again, old man." The chill in the air was becoming denser around them.
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[A\N]: Eva heard the whispers of her great ancestors telling her to run... lol