Death... and me

After that, Laro sent Old Worm a Spiritual Sense message.

'Is this good enough for you?'

Old Worm nodded with his expressionless face.

'Yes.'

Rean's group then looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Naturally, everyone else looked at them as well. After all, they were able to catch the ancestor's attention to a certain extent. Some were even jealous.

Nevertheless, with that out of the way, Rean's group had their green card to keep their training as they saw fit. Jana then told everyone to disperse, leaving only Rean's group behind.

"Since your cultivation is directly linked to how many Lakures you can heal at once, the ancestor asked me to give you these life-absorbing crystals. In the end, he needed most of them, but the rest can stay with you."

Rean's group, especially Kentucky, looked at the Lakure Race members who brought many of those crystals over.

"This... How many are there?"

"There are 55 remaining crystals. However, there will be no more after this since it isn't worth the materials used to make them. Also, now that they aren't in use anymore, they will gradually lose their power. With that, you better use them in less than a year. Of course, you can bring them to absorb more life again, but that'll kill everything around them, as you've seen before."

Rean shook his head as he said.

"It's fine. As you've noticed, we're giving it to Kentucky. It's very beneficial for his growth. I'm sure he'll be able to consume everything in less than a year. As for us, we can't use its energy for some reason."

Jana nodded as she replied.

"Only someone who is at least in the Elemental Transformation Realm can make use of the crystal's energy. Our ancestor is obviously someone like that. However, I'm quite impressed that your demon bird is capable of such a thing."

Rean shrugged his shoulders as he said in response.

"Not really. Most of the crystal's energy is lost, so it's far from perfect. Nevertheless, that's good enough."

Of course, she knew that. What she didn't realize was that the twins benefited from it as well. Though, it was mainly because it didn't seem that the twins' cultivation was any faster than Malaka, Calina, or the geniuses of the Lakure Race. Little did she know that the twins' Spiritual Pools were far larger than everyone else. That's why it seemed like they cultivated at the same speed as others. Otherwise, they might have reached the Core and Soul Fusion Realm by now.

Jana then turned around and left with her subordinates. From that point onwards, the center of the valley was free to be visited as long as no one got close to the natural formation's core. After all, who would be idiotic enough to attack someone like Laro? That would be a huge joke.

Another thing that changed was that Laro allowed the cultivators to head out of the valley and do whatever they wanted. If they didn't want to come back anymore until the natural formation disappeared, that would be fine as well. No one would be following them.

However, Erbec and the others knew that their relationship with these Lakure Race members was the key to negotiation. At the same time, it was linked to the rewards they would receive themselves for achieving such a result. There was no way they would go out at this point. The same could be said to the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators present.

It was then that Roan came to see them.

"As you can see, the natural formation is quite dim now. We can even see the other side. Why don't you have someone go to the natural formation's border and check if the scouts can see the other side? You might not be able to talk or use Spiritual Sense with them. However, you can totally write words on a board and use those to communicate."

Erbec and the others nodded.

"We've already arranged that. The sects and Royal Family members will each send a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator to check the barrier later today."

Tiria, who was there as well, nodded.

"Juvian will be going there on our Dalamu Sect's behalf while I wait here. If everything goes as planned, we can already start the preliminary negotiation."

Roan was satisfied with the answer.

"That's good, then."

After talking about a few more things, he soon made his way out.

Suddenly, a little girl came running in Roan's direction.

"Roan!"

Roan then looked at her.

"Oh. It's you, Sana."

It's been seven years already, so Sana had grown up quite a lot. Sure enough, she was brought out of the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm when she was only four years old. That being said, Sana only had a few memories of that place. At some point, she ignored those memories as she spent more time with everyone. Even if she asked about it, they could just say that it was just her dreams or something like that.

"Where are Rean and the others?"

"They're training, as always. I'm going back to do the same as well."

Sana became disappointed.

"You guys only know how to train, train, train, cultivate, cultivate, cultivate. You're too boring!"

Roan didn't seem to care as he said.

"And you should be doing the same. Well, I can see you've reached the Organs Change Stage of Body Transformation, so your results aren't too bad."

Sana was one of the quasi-inexistent kids in the whole place. There were just a very few exceptions due to different reasons. Naturally, she almost didn't have anyone who she could play with. That's why she was more attached to Rean's group since they took care of her since she was a baby. As for Sister Orb, she had never seen her again. Even she began to think that Sister Orb was nothing more than a dream.

Well, Sister Orb was pretty gloomy about it. But she knew that her existence couldn't be disclosed, so she always stayed silent.

Roan entertained the girl for a few more minutes and finally left. Everyone only had one more year or so in this place. They had to make sure to use the time to the fullest.

A day later, Juvian and the other experts from the sects and Royal Family arrived at the border of the natural formation. Sure enough, they were right. It was now possible to see the other side. It's just that their Spiritual Sense and voice couldn't pass through it.

It didn't take too long for them to find a few more cultivators inside the natural formation. As one could imagine, they didn't bring everyone to the valley three years ago. That would be idiotic in case they were attacked and died. Someone had to stay out to tell others what to expect. However, it was now unnecessary.

After some time, they also found the area where the Jialin and Guntao Saint Realm forces were attacking the natural formation. Naturally, Ernian Sasamil and his forces were there as well.

They had been thinking of the worst-case scenario until now. After all, it was now possible to see the other side, but their experts never appeared to see them. Only those low-level ones could be talked to, but even they didn't know what happened to the high-level ones that went to the valley. Naturally, everyone was taken aback when Juvian and the others appeared.

Without being able to talk or use Spiritual Sense, they could only use big written words to communicate with one another. Well, that was enough since they had a lot of time. Eventually, Erbec explained the whole situation after a few hours.

'I see... Lakure Race, huh? An expert that is probably above the Elemental Transformation Realm as well. However, they don't want to start a war. The deployed natural formation was so that they had enough time to bring their experts out of the underworld and free that ancestor. That's too big for me to decide what to do on my own. This time, I'm sure the family will send someone at the Elemental Transformation Realm to preside over this situation. As for our own ancestor... I wonder if he would come out too...'

Erbec then looked at the experts on the other side before writing in the air with his Spiritual Sense.

"Very well, I'll tell the Sasamil Family about it, so you just need to wait a little more. Wait here until they send a higher-ranked representative."

Juvian and the others nodded in response.

"Alright."

With that said, Qia finally had time to ask her own questions. She had stayed here all this time, waiting to receive any news from Rean and the others. It had been almost ten months outside the formation, so she was worried sick.

Juvian laughed as he then told everyone thing Rean had done for them. Well, he already said the same thing to Erbec anyway.

"He got to stop the battle by intentionally receiving... a beating?"

Naturally, her expression was as perplexed as the others when they heard that.

Juvian took his time to talk with Qia since she was Rean's 'wife.' No one bothered with that either.

Qia was basically the only one on Rean's Formation Team in this place. Droman was responsible for the entire Communication System, so he had to go back to the sect at some point. Still, he received the information about the situation a few days later. Obviously, Havek Sasamil got it as well.

"Hahaha! As I told you, my rival wouldn't die that easily. Just wait until he sees how much the project has advanced in the past nine months."

Droman nodded as he said.

"It's good as long as he's fine. It's just that... How will he free himself from there if he has so many Lakures to heal?"

Sure enough, that was one of the main questions in everyone's minds.