Heaven, Earth, Me

Chapter 1110: Cultural Exchange.

After the explanation, Tatyana pondered what to do. There were several options. The first and most straightforward would be to obtain the methods that helped Garel reach his current strength. Knowing them would allow her to analyze them and determine what they've been using.

The other was to meet someone with even more authority than Garel and continue investigating until they came into contact with the ruling families. Garel had influence, but he was a regional lord. Meaning he just controlled a country-sized region. 

There were Regional Lords, Continental Lords, World Lords, and finally Supreme Lords. Anyone below those ranks was inconsequential for Tatyana's group. "Hm…" Tatyana tilted her head after a few moments and muttered. "There is no need to choose, no? I can do both."

Her gaze fell on the man, and she smiled. "Garel, show me how you managed to reach your current level of strength. What did you use?"

Garel felt a bit troubled. "Lady Tatyana. It is not that I don't want to tell you, but I can't do that right now."

"Hm~?" Tatyana blinked, curious. After their conversation, she was sure that this man was talking to her honestly. Hence, she didn't dismiss his words and listened. "Why?"

When Tatyana asked why, Garel sighed in relief. He had been honest with his words, but he was fearful that the red-eyed woman would be irrational and demand it either way. With a chance, he explained. "The, as we call it, [Nascent Spring], opens once a year. As a Regional Lord, I only have access to it one day every ten years. I've already consumed the quota for my son, who should be returning in a few days."

Tatyana clicked her tongue. "Did we come right as your turn for that place arrived?"

Garel shook his head. "That's not true. I'll have access to that spring once more in a few months. However, it has been a tradition in our family since the beginning to always have at least one day available until a month before it opens. That way, if there are conflicts, we can use that spot and adapt."

Andrea asked what Tatyana was about to do. "How do you strengthen your personal strength during the years that you can't use the spring?"

Garel smiled. "Well, we use strange papers and techniques. Each of them are only suitable for one person, so they are basically worthless for you, Ladies." 

Tatyana rolled her eyes and said bluntly. "Take them out. I want to see not only that, but also what other treasures you use."

The middle-aged man raised his eyebrow, surprised. Still, he had no reason to refute her words. Looking at the side, he called for a maid. "Maid, go and take my seventh chest."

A maid standing at the side of the living room bowed and left to take it. In the meantime, Garel asked. "Do you ladies want to taste the cuisine of my house?" He bragged a little. "I have hired one of the best cooks from the common world to cook my meals, and other lords are even slightly envious of the food I eat daily."

The girls blinked and smiled faintly. 'That cook is probably not worthy to even lick the soles of Yasenia's feet in terms of skill.'

They didn't decline, though. It was an experience to taste foods all around the heavens.

Their nod came as a surprise to Garel. He thought that these ethereal women would be pure and exempt from worldly desires, like goddesses high up in the sky, looking down on mortals.

The corridors of the mansion were gorgeously adorned with pieces of art the girls were unfamiliar with. There were some sculptures with abstract shapes, paintings that seemingly had some smears on a canvas, and other strange decorations. Angel asked, curious. "Garel, why do you have so many strange things on the walls? Are you too poor to afford complete pieces of art?" 

Garel laughed awkwardly. "Those are complete pieces, My Lady." He looked at them as they walked through relatively long passageways. "That one over there is called Dotted Line Horizon. While simple, it represents the exceptions that mix our past and future…"

He spoke for around two minutes about the simple artwork, making our girls look at him strangely. Evelyn was blunt. "Hey, did you get scammed? That's an artwork that I could do in a single second, and I have not practiced art for several years!"

Garel looked at them with a smile and commented. "Well, our cultures might be different. All the guests I've had sincerely praised them."

Evelyn blinked and hummed. "Fair enough. Our art style is closer to realistic portrayal. The more alive they look, the better. For example…."

Evelyn waved her hand and took out a painting of Yasenia. In the painting, Yasenia was sitting on a chair with a black and brown smeared background. She gently cradled Skye and looked down at her with a maternal face. Her long and smooth black hair fell to the sides, some of it cascading down behind Sky and creating a gorgeous black curtain. 

Her long and gorgeous dragon tail rested coiled on the ground, while her body was covered in modest white and blue attire. Even with her usually seductive appearance, in this painting, she exuded pure love and softness for her child. 

The painting was hyperrealistic beyond what even photographs could achieve. It felt like the woman and child in the painting were alive and breathing, just frozen in time in that perfect moment that transmitted the deep affection between mother and daughter.

The painting instantly enthralled the maids and guards of Garel's mansion. Their eyes were glued to it, and they could not look away. 

Garel, while he had a relatively strong soul, was also immediately charmed by the beauty of the woman in the painting. "This… Who is she? Such a beautiful woman…"

Evelyn smiled softly and answered. "She is Yasenia Dravory, the head of our family." She added. "Before you ask, she has been in closed-door cultivation for a long time."

Garel felt a pang of disappointment. He would've loved to meet with the woman in the painting. 

After a small pause, they arrived at the dining hall. It was already prepared and had enough chairs and tables to seat all of them. The walls in the hall were wood-like, with a rustic appearance different from the smooth lines and predominantly white, black, and dark blue colors outside. 

The tables in the room were circular, each with enough space to fit around ten people. There was a stage at the end of the room, and the tall ceiling allowed for decorative windows. The chairs were comfortable, with soft cushions hidden below an elegant outer leathery cover. 

Sadly, Garel had no chairs prepared for creatures like Selena, who was a lamia, or Alaia who had wings and a dragon tail. So, a few of the maids could not sit down on the human-specific chairs.

Noticing the problem, Garel frowned. Tatyana intervened at this moment. "Don't worry." 

She waved her hand, and all the chairs where some of the maids and girls could sit changed to perfectly suitable ones. Garel was stunned. 

He had noticed that they could summon objects from nothing, but to his knowledge, only the exceedingly rare Spatial Rings could do that. Did this mean that each of them had a spatial ring with them? If that was the case, just those rings could fetch enough money to buy all his properties several times over!

Garel waved his hand, activating some sensors in the room, and a large black screen slowly fell on the stage. The girls looked at it curiously before images suddenly popped into the black screen. 

Surprise filled the girls. Curious like always, Andrea asked. "What is this? A peering treasure?"

Garel blinked, surprised. "Do the ladies not know what a television is?"

Andrea and the others shook their heads. Knowing that they came from a different part of the universe and probably had different cultures, he was not that shocked. Garel proceeded to explain a little bit about how the technology worked. 

The girls listened attentively, even after the food arrived. Once all the dishes were placed down, Garel stopped his explanations and smiled. "Well, I hope the ladies like the food."

However, he saw that they were all looking at it and not picking up their utensils. "Um… Is there anything wrong?"

Tatyana looked up from the food and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Lord Garel. However, we can't eat this food. This is mortal food, and carries impurities with it. Our bodies would be contaminated if we eat it."

It was the truth. As cultivators, only spiritual food was something that they could eat. Mortal food was similar to a normal human eating mud. It neither filled their stomach nor was it healthy for them.

The man was surprised. "What do you mean, Lady Tatyana?"

Seeing his puzzlement, the girls couldn't help but marvel at the differences between their "normal" cultivation culture and this one. Knowing that mortal food could harm cultivators was a concept that even mortal children knew. 

Reciprocating Garel's forwardness when explaining what a television was, Tatyana explained about their condition. 

Garel was stunned. "Such a thing is possible, huh?"

After being told that information, he didn't insist and instead continued explaining how the technology worked, entertaining his guests until the things he asked for arrived. Eventually, the maid came accompanied by three burly men. Each of them held the metallic black box until reaching the Lord. Then, they dropped it, making a loud sound.

Garel saw the three tall men looking at the women with a slightly conceited expression and almost rolled his eyes. 'These women had neutralized part of my army with a single hand gesture, and you think you are strong for carrying this box? Ignorant!'

Garel stood up and pressed his hand on a black screen. A scan passed through his hand before the mechanisms started moving on their own. Andrea's spiritual sense dug deep into the box, seeing how the individual components moved through electric charges, making her feel even more marveled at the ingenuity of the systems. 'So many small components making individual tasks.'

Between the girls, someone who was paying close attention was Kali. Unexpectedly, the way these small electronics worked reminded her of how her smallest parasites worked. Seeing the way they moved, gave Kali quite a few ideas. Other than Kali and Andrea, Evelyn and Angel would be the ones interested the most.

Eventually, the box opened and revealed a mostly empty compartment. Inside it, there were three books, not thicker than two fingers. The second the girls saw them, they instantly understood that these books were Cultivation Techniques. 

The language, energy signal, and even the way it interacted with the surroundings pointed at that. Garel smiled and said. "These three are the books that allowed my family to remain at our current level. They are one of the most precious things that keeps us afloat."

Tatyana asked with a small smile. "Are you not worried that we will steal them?"

Garel laughed. "How could that be? The ladies have such a profound strength that I can't even begin to fathom it. A little book like this must be nothing for you."

The girls raised their eyebrows and shook their heads. 'If you knew what they truly are and our objective is, you wouldn't be thinking like that.'