"..."
Huang Zihuan struggled to push himself back to his feet. The combined qi of two Semi-Immortal-level beings had warped the air itself, bending it from the force of their fluctuations. He watched as the Borders arranged in sequence lit up, glowing in a ring from north to south. When they connected, the whole thing sealed into a vast dome that hummed with something ancient and unsettling.
Grandeur and pressure. Even a Grandmaster or Sage would feel their legs want to give out before a Border like this.
"...Release the power of the Eternal Myriad Heavens in your body."
Bai Fanxian surveyed the completed Border with quiet satisfaction, then turned to give the order. The Dragon Queen's eyes fell. She didn't want to do this. The Eternal Myriad Heavens in her body had been unfinished from the beginning. In that desperate moment, she had been made to swallow it before it was even fully refined.
"..."
But her master's eyes were serious. The Dragon Queen swallowed her complaints and released the power she had been holding onto carefully.
*VRRRMMM...*
The moment she did, the air on the island began to shift. Trees and grass stirred as if something delighted them. Their branches stretched upward, competing for the sky. Withered leaves swelled back to a deep, living green. The atmosphere changed, cool and rich, nothing like the salt-heavy air of the sea.
Bai Fanxian wasn't about to leave all the burden to Little Red alone. She began drawing out the power of the Eternal Myriad Heavens held within herself. A current of qi mightier and heavier than any mountain rose and poured outward. When it met the same energy coming from the Dragon Queen, the two flows collided and merged like old friends finding each other after years apart.
When the two streams became one, every character etched across the island blazed with blinding light. Huang Zihuan watched them move across the ground like living things, drawing in enormous amounts of life force. In under three minutes, a dragon's roar rolled out from somewhere deep within the Border.
Then silence. The island returned to stillness, as though nothing had happened.
But for the three of them standing on the beach, no Heaven Sense was needed to feel the transformation that had just moved through this place. Qi was flowing freely through the air now, and Huang Zihuan's body was absorbing it with every breath, every pore open to it. Before he could make sense of what was happening, the cultivation level that had been stuck for so long lurched upward through several major stages at once.
His thoughts reeled. He had reached the peak of the Martial Master class. One more step, and he would enter the Grandmaster realm.
Bai Fanxian glanced at him and gave a quiet nod of satisfaction. This old man had been with her longer than anyone except Hui'er. His body must have been absorbing the residual effects of the Eternal Myriad Heavens that she released around her without either of them realizing it.
Add to that the months he had spent living inside the previous Border. He had only needed the right push.
If she were being honest, the person in this era she felt most indebted to was this elderly butler. He was always there, always taking care of things she never had to ask him about.
He deserved more than what she had given him.
"Huang Zihuan."
He hadn't expected to be called. The old man came to her quickly and bowed.
"What can I do for you, my lady?"
*FWOOSH!*
Before he could right himself, Bai Fanxian pressed one finger to the center of his forehead.
A character — similar to those inscribed throughout the Border — appeared and flowed in a line straight into Huang Zihuan's mind. By the time he came back to himself, he had no idea what had just happened.
"How do you feel?"
"...Pardon?"
He hadn't realized yet. But then, slowly, his feet left the ground without him willing it. His body could fly — and he hadn't even entered the Grandmaster realm yet!
"Little Red... attack him once." Bai Fanxian turned to the Dragon Queen. Little Red hesitated. This old man had always brought her grilled meat and sweets.
But she couldn't refuse. She could only hope her master had this handled.
*Dragon's Breath!*
Crimson flames poured from the Dragon Queen's mouth and went straight at Huang Zihuan, who threw his arms up in a panic, fully aware there was nothing he could do.
But then —
The fire cleared. The old man in the sky, arms crossed over his chest, was completely unharmed.
Huang Zihuan blinked, then blinked again. Not a scratch. Not even a singe on his butler's uniform.
"...Master, what does this mean?"
Little Red's body shrank back down to her small form, and she flew in slow circles around the old man, eyes wide.
"At least my butler should be the strongest within his own territory." Bai Fanxian smiled faintly. What she had done carried a specific meaning.
She had bound the soul of the Border to Huang Zihuan completely!
This was only possible with a Border that had a soul. And it meant that within this Border, second only to Bai Fanxian herself, her butler held the highest authority.
This was nothing like the secondary access she had granted before. This time, the Border's energy would flow directly to Huang Zihuan. His power and the Border's power would be one and the same.
Even a Semi-Immortal, standing before the elderly butler inside this Border, would have to tread carefully.
There was no way Bai Fanxian had missed the old man's feelings of inadequacy. No matter how practiced he was at keeping his expression composed, the faint tremor beneath it was enough for her to sense.
"Try imagining how you'd use your power."
She suggested. At both of Huang Zihuan's fists, fireballs appeared. The same technique he had used before.
Except they weren't small qi fireballs anymore.
They were towers of crimson fire stretching up toward the sky. The grass and trees nearby ignited. The air around them was burning, feeding the flames, driving them larger and larger by the second!
"...!"
Huang Zihuan cut the technique off. He stared at his own hands. The power hadn't come from inside him. He could feel it — energy flowing in from all around, inexhaustible, as though it would never stop no matter how much he drew on it.
"My lady... what is this?"
"If your body keeps absorbing this pure energy, both your physical strength and your true cultivation will grow."
Bai Fanxian paused, then added:
"And with this level of power, handling things on this island will be much easier, won't it?"
This was no longer like managing the house. A single mansion, even a large one, Huang Zihuan could manage on his own without issue. But an island was different. Being able to fly, or move things with pure force, would make the day-to-day of this place far more manageable.
"...Thank you, my lady."
The old man closed his eyes and bowed until his back was nearly parallel with the ground. He understood now why she had brought him today. And he understood she had never once forgotten everything he had done behind the scenes, not a single bit of it.
"Mm... we have guests."
Bai Fanxian said it without turning around. She walked back toward the mansion, which was signal enough for the old man to go handle it.
.
.
.
"...Is this the place, Chief?"
On a small passenger boat carrying only three people, Li Xinmei in a black suit turned to ask Chunfeng, who sat with his arms crossed and his eyes forward.
"Why did you come along anyway?"
The two of them were Chunfeng and Li Xinmei. After Bai Fanxian's words the previous day, something had been nagging at Chunfeng. He had eventually made excuses to slip away from work and make the trip out to the far eastern border.
But when he arrived, Grandmaster Bai's reported residence was empty. After some searching, he came across a familiar face — Zheng Renyi, the Sword Master, sitting with a cup of tea at the nearby clinic — who filled him in on the situation.
Learning that Bai Fanxian had personally invited him, the old man had no qualms about telling him she was at the private island. As for when she'd be back, even he didn't know.
When he could no longer ignore it, Chunfeng gave in and hired a transport boat from the pier.
"Young man, you know the island's owner?"
The elderly captain of the small white transport boat started up a conversation, then went on without waiting for a reply.
"Ever since the old owner passed, not many people head out there anymore. Even the servants that were left all ended up leaving."
He settled into the recent rumors he'd collected.
"A few days back, some fishermen said they heard roaring coming from that direction. Some of them think it's spirits crying out. Might be something bad happened there. You two watch yourselves."
He said it all in a perfectly casual tone, apparently unconcerned that the one woman in the boat had begun to tremble.
"Why are you only telling us this now?!"
"Xinmei."
Chunfeng gave her one look. She was the one who had pushed to come despite his objections, and she had promised not to cause trouble.
Li Xinmei bit her lip and sat back down. But her eyes kept drifting toward the shape of the island growing larger in the distance.
"...There aren't actually dangerous creatures out there... right?"
The near-death experience had taken some of the edge off her. She had come this time to apologize and to thank Bai Fanxian. But the memory of that demonic beast at close range still lived somewhere under her skin.
And while she was still caught up in that thought —
"Hello there... do you have business here?"
A calm, courteous voice came from the bow of the boat. Chunfeng's hand moved before his mind caught up. The pistol from his chest holster was out and aimed at the source before he realized what he'd done.
Huang Zihuan was standing there. He looked as though he had simply always been there. But that was impossible. There was nothing but open sea around them!
"Oh my... that's dangerous. Let me take care of that for you."
The elderly butler snapped his fingers once. The silver-black pistol floated free from Chunfeng's grip without resistance.
Chunfeng's eyebrows rose. Wasn't this man's record listed as Martial Master class!?
How was it that after only a few days apart, this old man seemed so much stronger he was unrecognizable!