Chapter 16: Interlude
As Joshua frowned slightly and silently descended into the Lord's Manor, you all need to train hard. Look at Number 3, how fast her strength has improved recently. Even Bishop Atanis admitted that even if he were fully prepared, he couldn't defeat her."
Joshua shook his head, reached out, and patted Lin's shoulder. A gentle stream of Steel Force flowed into the other's body, repairing his minor wounds. While speaking, he focused his gaze and peered through the letter: "You possess Psionic Bodies, which is an excellent foundation. Train diligently, and in a few years or a decade or two, you might achieve Gold Ultimate Essence. If you can also thoroughly comprehend Qualitative Spiritual Conversion... Hmm, it's from Nature Mentor and another unknown Legendary expert?"
With just one glance, Joshua keenly noticed that this small envelope contained the power of two Legendary experts. Although it was only a trace, it was enough to give anyone attempting to open the letter a bit of trouble.
The only thing that puzzled Joshua was why they would send a letter... Although the Far South had not yet healed the wounds of war, magical communication devices should have been widespread there. Such a primitive means of communication as letters should have long been obsolete.
"Perhaps it's to show solemnity?"
Joshua thought to himself, and then continued to peer through the letter's contents.
"Impressive, settling it so quickly. It seems Faina has been working hard lately."
After a moment, the warrior thoughtfully put down the letter and let out a sigh of emotion: "To be able to withstand such a concentration of Ancient Dragon Blood is truly remarkable."
"Master, what does this letter say?"
Nearby, Ying, who had originally planned to wait for Joshua to open the letter and then sneak behind him to peek at its contents, was a bit frustrated because the warrior hadn't opened the envelope at all but had directly peered through its contents.
And although Lin pretended not to care, he also looked at the envelope in the warrior's hand with curious eyes.
"It's about Hill and Faina's wedding."
Waving the envelope in his hand, Joshua explained concisely: "Because Hill will formally inherit the status of his elders after the wedding and become the chieftain of a fairly powerful elven tribe, Nature Mentor and the current Empress will preside over the ceremony for him."
Elven tribes are quite united. The large and small elven cities and villages in the Far South Forest are scattered around the Mother Tree of Life in the Eternal Lake, and the many tribes are firmly united around the Elven Royal Court. The elves, whose population is extremely sparse compared to humans, know that if they don't unite, their future is destined to be completely assimilated by humans, just like those Prairie Elves and Half-Elves who have already been mostly assimilated.
For the entire world, this is not a bad thing, but for a race, being assimilated is certainly not a good thing. To maintain the independence of their culture and bloodline, the elves have worked hard over the past thousand years.
According to Joshua's understanding of elven culture, the Elven Empress or Elven King is like the head of a large family clan, with other tribes as family members. It is indeed their custom to preside over weddings and funerals for other important members.
"They're inviting me to attend... It would be good to go see the Far South, and it doesn't conflict with the time Carlis mentioned."
Joshua could see the implication behind this letter. Nature Mentor inviting him to the Far South was certainly not just for Hill's wedding. The Elven Clan definitely had something they wanted to negotiate with him, a Legendary expert. That's why they sent such a formal invitation. And this matter must be something that couldn't be clearly explained using communication devices and required a personal visit for discussion.
"Lin, go back and draft a reply for me, saying I agree."
After confirming that the schedule didn't conflict, Joshua made his decision. He casually handed the envelope, now drained of its power, back to Ying, and then pondered for a moment before saying, "When the time comes, you'll come with me too."
After speaking, he watched Ying and Lin cheer, revealing a slight smile. But then, the smile faded, and Joshua fell into thought again.
"The world Carlis mentioned is not far from the Mycroft World."
At this moment, the warrior was still recalling what the Steel Serpent had told him earlier about another world needing help. There were many details that puzzled him, and he didn't know how to explain them.
According to Carlis, the world where the World Will that issued the commission was located was not far from the Mycroft World. To be precise, it was probably just a bit farther than the Sixth Abyss, well within the observation range of the Observatory. However, during the Observatory's hundreds of years of observation, it had never discovered that living world.
Either the Observatory staff were negligent, or that world indeed had something unusual about it; otherwise, this situation couldn't be explained.
Secondly, there was the identity of the enemy. Carlis was also puzzled about this. It said that there seemed to be no trace of Chaos in that world, but the civilization was indeed undergoing cyclical rebirth and destruction, which was extremely unusual. It suggested that Joshua go see for himself and judge the specific situation, and the warrior agreed with this opinion.
After all, having seen the Black Mist, Joshua already knew that the enemy of civilization wasn't necessarily Chaos; it could also be Order itself.
The last point was a vague hint from Carlis.
"That world is very small... Unlike Mycroft and me, who have several continents and oceans, it's only a bit larger than a demiplane. It's a rare miniature world."
The Steel Serpent's words began to blur at this point, a sign that the connection was being affected by the Great Magic Tide and was about to be interrupted. It seemed to still be pondering its wording before slowly saying, "Departure is probably in about three months, Joshua. Make the necessary preparations..."
What preparations? The warrior thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he finally decided to ignore it. After all, no matter what preparations were needed, they were all for eliminating the enemy. He just needed to be himself.
Nearby, Ying had already taken the lead in opening the letter Joshua had handed back. Lin, watching beside her, asked with some confusion, "I know Nature Mentor; she's the big sister who came to our place last time and went to the Great Aias Volcano, right? But the other Elven Empress is also a Legendary expert? How come we didn't know that before..."
"Lady Galannod must really like that title of yours."
A big sister whose age was about seven or eight times his own... Joshua thought for a moment, then smiled and shook his head: "That's normal. The Mycroft World has a complete system of Transcendent inheritance. The surface-level Legendary experts are just the most famous ones of the current era."
"As a major race, it's impossible for the elves to have only one Nature Mentor. The successive leaders of their Royal Court have all been Legendary experts. But they are first and foremost the masters of the Royal Court, and only secondly Legendary experts. After ascending, they generally don't get to go to the front lines to fight."
Not only that, but other major powers were similar. Even the former Northern Empire, besides the Emperor on the surface, had an Ultimate-rank mage who could advance at any time. In the Eastern Plains, besides Barbarossa of the Sky-Piercing White Tower and Sage Faina, the Seven Luminaries Council, that ancient and silent organization, also had an unknown Legendary expert stationed there.
And in the various royal courts of the Western Mountains, there were quite a few Ultimate-rank experts. But since most of them were reclusive rulers, no one knew if there were any Legendary experts among them. Even so, the current Holy Sword Bearer and Mind Dominator William were both from the Western Mountains, and the Dwarf Artisan could barely be considered stationed in the Western Mountains region. They all had their own successors with Legendary potential.
Joshua knew that the reason why experts withered in the previous life, and Legendary experts only appeared one after another in the next generation, was mainly due to environmental issues. The harsh environment of the previous life, the impact of the Great Magic Tide on the world far outweighed the benefits it brought. The Abyss, the Five-Colored Dragons, and the various large and small cult forces had kept the people of the Mycroft World exhausted and busy. But this life was different.
Take the Church of the Seven Gods, for example. If Eagle hadn't self-sacrificed to maintain the world's flame, with a Legendary expert like him teaching, the Church of the Seven Gods wouldn't have fallen into the predicament of lacking successors. Loranda wouldn't have had to actively open the Abyss Gate to continue the world's flame.
"Think about it carefully, the Mycroft World is really hiding its strength well. No wonder it's the inheritor of the Era of Radiance. A lean camel is still bigger than a horse..."
Roughly calculating in his mind, Joshua was slightly startled. Because just the Legendary experts he could count on the surface already exceeded a dozen. Including those from the underground world, non-human races, and those who would achieve Legendary status in the future but hadn't yet, the number was even approaching thirty!
Thirty Legendary experts! Although about half of them were future experts, even if it were just the remaining half, if they worked together, an expedition to the Abyss wouldn't be a difficult task... For example, the Sixth Abyss. An Abyss Lord at the Deity level, plus five Demon Lords, was already an extremely terrifying force. Add three Dragon Kings, and it could be described as overbearing. But if such a force were besieged by twice or thrice the number of Legendary experts, they would probably have to flee in defeat to the depths of the Multiverse... Not to mention there were other Deities.
Of course, Joshua also knew that Legendary experts would never join forces so easily. Moreover, in the previous life, Goliath's faction also had many newly born Demon Lords. For instance, the Heart-Eater Demon, whose name he had almost forgotten, was one of them. With one side diminishing and the other growing, the Mycroft World weakened and divided itself through internal strife, while the enemies kept getting stronger. That was the real reason for the disaster in the previous life.
However, Joshua believed that with the changes he had brought, the number of future Legendary experts could only be greater than before, never fewer.
Meanwhile, at the Nissier Snow Mountain, the main campus of Winterfell Academy.
On a cliff face of the snow mountain, a black-haired Dragon Girl was lying amidst the ice and snow, gazing at the moon through the gaps in the clouds.
The silvery-blue moonlight fell like a veil, refracted by the snow and ice of the mountain, transforming into streaks of magnificent halos. Lisa watched this moonlight, so different from her homeland, her eyes flickering as if recalling past times.
"What's wrong, Lisa? Homesick?"
In her mind, the voice of the Flame Demon came. It sensed that Lisa's heart was not as calm as it appeared on the surface, so it asked.
"It's nothing, Mr. Syndicate... Just a little lonely."
Letting out a soft sigh, the Dragon Girl ignored the bitter cold of the surrounding snow and said quietly, "Although everyone at the academy is very kind to me, no one is willing to be my friend."
"I think it's not that they're unwilling, but that they don't dare."
Syndicate objectively pointed out Lisa's problem: "Your strength is far too great compared to these peers who are still in their training period. You're not on the same level. How dare they be friends with you... Even if there are those with similar strength, they see you as a competitor, just like the master's other students."
"But you're a celebrity on the forum. You have quite a few admirers. Don't you plan to respond to one or two?"
"But the ones posting on the forum are you, Mr. Syndicate, right? Posting my photos without my consent!"
Hearing this, Lisa couldn't help but blush and protest: "I still haven't learned how to post. Even if I made friends, they would be your friends, Mr. Syndicate, not mine!"
"Foolish." Syndicate shook its head disdainfully: "Someone like you, who watches the moon alone on a mountaintop, will never make friends in this life."
"Actually, having friends isn't that important..." In response, Lisa replied with a slight smile: "I have you, Mr. Syndicate, that's enough. I've long been used to loneliness. I've always been alone before."
Hearing this, the originally imposing Flame Demon fell silent instantly. The Dragon Girl didn't notice this and continued to envision the future: "In a few days, I'll go find Teacher Joshua. Your soul should have mostly recovered by now, enough to be independent from my body... Then, we can be friends!"
"Fool..."
Not knowing how to respond to the Dragon Girl's simple line of thinking, Syndicate could only reply with this single word. The cliff fell silent again.
But just as the Dragon Girl, while watching the moon and circulating the electric current within her body, was about to fall asleep, suddenly, Lisa and Syndicate simultaneously felt a series of massive tremors.
"What's that sound?"
Nimbly standing up from the snowdrift, Lisa widened her eyes and looked in the direction of the tremors. Syndicate also warily used its psychic power to scan the surroundings, searching for the source of the unusual sound.
"Zzzz..."
Then, they saw it. Accompanied by a distinct electrical buzzing sound, a huge steel shadow appeared in the mountain gorge. The shadow seemed to be taking a walk. It noticed the Dragon Girl not far away and began to approach her area.
"Zzzz."