Ascension: Online

After the short conversation with the girls, we soon set off for the Blessing Nature Sect. Koroth was now completely recovered, and even though I hadn't witnessed it, I knew exactly what happened.

How? Because I instructed him to make his moves.

Back then, during the flight, I had purposely signaled for him to push himself a bit, causing him to cough blood. I accomplished this quite easily, since the elders were all flying up ahead without bothering to look back at us.

Now, why did I have him do such a thing?

The main reason was obviously to secure the girls some rest, but the other reason is beneficial to Koroth himself as well — getting him that pill he needs.

By having him display his pink blood to the elders, they will know he's a demon, a race that was pillaged and hunted down in Azrine. However, they couldn't just outright kill Koroth here — after all, they had already accepted him into the sect. It wouldn't look good for their reputation if word of this gets out.

Besides, Koroth could still be cured — made full-human, just with… some overpowered physical abilities. This can be done with ease using a Convergence Pill. The sect, being the Blessing Nature Sect, would definitely have this pill, since alchemy relied on herbs and — well, nature.

In other words, as long as everything went to my calculations… Koroth should have been cured by now, completely.

This was quite a daring strategy — originally, my plan was to have him enter the sect first then earn it as some sort of reward, but this worked too. Seeing as how Koroth was up and running again perfectly fine, I assumed my plan was successful. The thumbs-up he discretely sent me was an added bonus.

"Everyone ready?" Elder Han asked, looking around at us.

We all nodded firmly, signaling that we were good to go.

"Alright. Climb onto one of our Star Shuttles, two each."

We did as told; Hina-nee and I climbing onto Elder Ning's, Nadeshiko and Furuwa climbing onto Elder Han's, and Koroth plus Ming Yi on Elder Zhang's.

"Are we not flying on our own anymore?" Furuwa asked.

"You're welcome to try if you want to," Elder Han chuckled. "But there's no point testing your limits anymore after Elder Ning's first disciple here exposed everything."

He glanced down at me, laughing heartily. I averted my gaze.

"Come on now, sit properly. Cross your legs and do not move no matter what," Elder Ning said to us. "Make sure you are in the direct center of the Star Shuttle, just to be safe."

Once we were all set, we began our journey for the Blessing Nature Sect.

*****

"This feels… really weird," Hina-nee murmured from beside me as we sat on Elder Ning's Star Shuttle. "It's like we're not sitting on anything at all."

"I mean, it IS a leaf…" I scratched my head as she clung to my shoulders.

"You two need to relax and focus on your surroundings rather than what you're sitting on. Look at Aisa, quiet and observant," Elder Ning laughed. "This is Azrine, the Land of Nature. The beautiful and wonderous imprints of Mother Astrasil are everywhere. It would be a shame not to admire them while you have the chance."

Mother Astrasil? Oh… the massive tree at the center of Ascentia… I could see it in the far, far distance from where I was. But despite how high we were already flying, above mountains and hills, I could still not see the top of Astrasil, piercing through the clouds.

"Hey, Elde- I mean, Master. Can we go higher?" I asked, not caring that I sounded like an excited little kid right now.

She turned around and smiled, then snapped her fingers.

Immediately, our Star Shuttle rose in elevation, heading higher and higher, until at last-

"Wow…" Hina-nee and I gasped in awe at the scenery that unfolded before us as we rose above the clouds.

Thousands upon thousands of miles away, an enormous tree lay. Its snow-white bark stood majestic and divine, accompanied by billions of beautiful silver leaves fluttering among the gentle wind.

Above the clouds, above the heavens — that was the world tree known as Astrasil. It was so huge that despite us moving at normal speed still, it was as if we had slowed down to admire its grandiose.

"This is just during the day. Wait until you see it at nighttime," Elder Ning said, grinning mischievously.

"When will we be able to do this again…?" Hina-nee asked, eyes sparkling.

"Hm… you know, if you perform well at the sect, I can take you on my Star Shuttle from time to time as a reward," she winked. "Only if you do really well, though. So try your best!"

"Yes, Master," Hina-nee and I replied in unison.

We descended soon after that, returning to the others. What we saw up there was a sight for us alone.

*****

Hours later, we arrived at a series of beautiful floating islands. They were enormous chunks of rock, hovering above the ground. To describe it more poetically… they looked like massive icebergs, except instead of hovering on water, they were hovering in mid-air — and of course, they weren't made of ice.

Beautiful waterfalls rained down from the edges of the rocks, and the sound of nature could be heard everywhere.

"Here we are," Elder Ning said, smiling faintly at the sight of these enormous levitating rocks that formed a kind of spiral ascending staircase.

I blinked. "Wait… this is the Blessing Nature Sect?"

She laughed. "Yeah. What were you expecting, my dear disciple?"

"Uh… I don't know, a large school of some sort…?"

"For one, a single building would be far too small to capacitate all the disciples in our sect, and for two, the location of the sect is very carefully chosen, you know. When the founding father of the Blessing Nature Sect came across this area, these floating rocks were already there. He just built the sect on top of them."

"Why here? Is the Essence here rich or something?" I asked.

"Bingo. There's more to it than just that, but I can't deny that's one of the main reasons. In a place of rich Essence, one can replenish their own Essence faster through rest, and the speed at which they cultivate will also be significantly improved. Naturally, a sect built upon these features will be attractive to aspiring young cultivators."

"Cultivation… how do you exactly do it?" Hina-nee asked. "I know it's essentially just getting stronger, but are there any specific methods?"

Elder Ning sighed. "I'm not sure how you managed to get to where you are today with that lack of knowledge, but I've already taken you in as my disciples. Teaching you everything you need to know is part of my responsibility. But! That said… we should head inside first, then talk. There's a welcome ceremony waiting for you, after all."

At this, Hina-nee and I exchanged glances. "Welcome ceremony?"

"You'll enjoy it. I'm sure of it. Even I look forward to every year when this happens, so I believe my disciples will as well."

"Hey! Elder Ning!" Elder Han yelled from ahead of us. "You guys ready, or what?"

"Coming," Elder Ning replied hastily, turning around and snapping her fingers to control her Star Shuttle. "Now then… up we go."

*****

It didn't take us long to reach the lowest 'rock'. The lowest point of the enormous boulder's bottom side was about 5 meters up from the ground, but in reality, to reach the surface of the rock where things actually were, you had to go another 5 meters.

To sum it up, these rocks were like ice cream cones: a flat surface, but a long tail below it. Of course, the end of the tail wasn't sharp and was quite round, but that was about the only difference other than the fact that it was not a perfect cone shape.

A few minutes later, we arrived at the surface of the rock. Elder Ning 'parked' her Star Shuttle on the ground, then got off of it. Hina-nee and I did the same.

"Wow… can't tell you how much I miss being on solid ground," Hina-nee stretched her muscles and moaned. "Riding the Star Shuttle was quite an exciting experience, but I'm not used to it yet, unfortunately."

"You will soon, after getting your own Star Shuttle," Elder Ning chuckled. "It won't be long until then. In our sect, disciples receive their own Star Shuttle when they reach the Soul Master realm — the realm right below mine."

Soul Master realm… if I remember correctly, that was Level 75, speaking in video game terms.

"Elder Ning, the patriarch wishes to speak to you," Elder Zhang walked up to us and said, sending me a sideways glance as he did so.

"I see. I will be back very soon," Elder Ning said to us, then turned to him. "Elder Zhang, please show them around the sect and lead them to the welcome ceremony while I greet my father."

He nodded. "Of course."

As Elder Ning walked away, he turned to us, coldness and hatred in his eyes, masked behind his calm demeanor.

"Now then… follow me."