Immortal Kingdoms

"How is it?"

Wendy asked anxiously a few minutes later when Leonardo finally opened his eyes.

Leonardo smiled faintly in response. "I've found quite a few, do you have an estimated map of the region?"

"That's good! That's good…" Wendy sighed in relief, her tan skin glistening in sweat from nervousness. Leonardo was momentarily dazed as he observed the journey of a particular drop of sweat traveling down a smooth path through a deep valley and into an abyss unknown.

What a smooth journey that was, he thought to himself before shaking his head from such thoughts.

"Ahem, a map please?" Leonardo reminded Wendy who seemed to be lost in her emotions for a moment.

"Oh, right," Wendy got her act back together and smiled faintly, heading off in a certain direction. "Come find the Tribe Elder, she's the one who knows the most about writing and reading after all, others don't have the time to waste on that stuff."

Only now did Leonardo realize that despite their strengths, they were a group of illiterates.

If this was the case, how would they read, comprehend, and transmit cultivation methods even if he taught them? This is quite problematic.

Leonardo touched his chin, deep in thought as he advanced forward. First, he was brewing over a way to cultivate a soul pearl without having to split a portion of one's soul, as the damage would have been nigh-irrecoverable, not to mention that Leonardo didn't know the capacity limit of energy a soul pearl could withstand.

Was peak mortal cultivation the limit? First cycle saint? Two cycles? Three? High Saint? Perhaps it was factored based on the person's soul?

These were all questions unknown to him that he needed to slowly research over the years, meaning it wasn't a pragmatic solution to the current situation. Suddenly, he thought about Juvia's grand formation that integrated her Ode of the Elements, can he do the same thing but with his desolate martial intent?

Perhaps he could flood out all the harmful energies on a specific surface area and help the tribes construct a city.

While Leonardo was deep in thought, Wendy escorted him into a wooden hut in a fairly isolated region from the other houses.

"I was expecting you."

The voice of an old woman reached Wendy and Leonardo, snapping the latter from his thoughts as he composed himself and went inside.

He saw the little girl from earlier seated across from an old lady, a beast hide separating the two, and countless yellow scrolls were stacked up on the beast hide.

"Big brother!" The girl exclaimed in surprise.

Tap!

The old woman slapped the woman's head with what resembled a wooden ruler as she chided, "Focus on your studies, silly lass!"

The girl held down her head and pouted, not daring to respond.

Leonardo chuckled at this scene and said, "If you can learn how to read and write in the future, you'll become very strong!"

He then approached the girl, bent over, and lightly brushed her hair.

She truly reminded him of Leona, making him wonder how that girl was doing now.

The girl muttered, "Reading won't give us strength, only the Divine Pool does…"

"Oh? Who said that?" Leonardo raised his eyebrows, acting surprised and filled with disbelief. "Here, doesn't that scroll say that reading is the basics of cultivation?"

Leonardo picked up an old and yellowed scroll from the pile, its age surprising even himself.

"Big brother, look at big sister Wendy, she's so powerful but she didn't have to learn how to read!" The little girl crossed her arms, her eyes sparkling with worship when she spoke of Wendy.

Wendy and the Tribe Elder smiled bitterly, not knowing how to respond to this.

"Tsk, you're only saying that because you never saw what a cultivator can do, but your big sister Wendy just saw it!" Leonardo argued back, his expression unyielding too.

"Ah!" The girl cried out in shock, quickly turning to her big sister Wendy.

Wendy coughed lightly, a bit embarrassed, "It's true, your big brother is actually a powerful cultivator…"

"More powerful than big sister?"

"Eh… Maybe?"

"But… But he couldn't even open the Patriarch's door!" The little girl around strongly.

Leonardo felt a pang of pain, so she knew all along.

Wendy struggled to maintain her stiff and natural expression.

Leonardo snorted, "It's just a door! Can you do this?"

Leonardo then pointed out one of his fingers. Then, some of the remnants from the pure thunderforce began to dance over the tip of his finger. Then, with a bit of an influence from his will and spiritual force that lingered within, the pure, electric blue lightning began to morph into a pair of small birds that flapped their wings and flew around in the closed space of the hut.

Their sparkle illuminated the room, amazing even Wendy and the Tribe Elder with the motes of light that sprinkled down like a shower of stars.

These stars dropped down on the little girl's one-piece dress and adhered to its surface, pulsating with light with a few intervals of growing dim. A bit of desolation was mixed into the thunderforce to absorb, assimilate, and rechannel the chaotic energies around the little girl.

"Whoa!"

The little girl sprang to her feet and began to run around, jump, and spin in place to see whether or not these sparkling things would fall down.

Leonardo put up an arrogant and proud expression as he snorted, "Can your muscles do this? Huh? Huh?"

"Since your big brother is so weak, give them back to me and ask your big sister to make some for you, how about that?" Leonardo raised an eyebrow when he saw the little girl too engrossed with this little trick to even bother with him anymore.

"No! Big brother is powerful too! Little Yue means it!" The little girl jumped in fright, quickly rushing to hug Leonardo's leg with a pitiful expression.

Wendy could hold it in no longer and started laughing, years of worship were wiped clean with a single finger of Leonardo's, but she was also shocked by the miraculousness of cultivation.

The Tribe Elder was a bit worried…

"Is this really alright?…" She didn't wish for the worldly energy to draw those chaotic energies to Little Yue.

"No worries, auntie. The laws infused with this little trick are on a higher tier than the laws of this place, and things seem to work the way I expected them to." Leonardo nodded in satisfaction as his idea could be implemented successfully.

"Higher laws?" The Tribe Elder was intrigued and surprised, "Did the cultivation world outside already progress to that extent?"

"Tribe Elder, Leonardo told me earlier that although technically he could be considered to come from past the Sky Mountains, he actually came from the higher realms, what is that?"

Wendy suddenly remembered this crucial question in her mind and asked.

"Ah!" The Tribe Elder's body shook as she dropped her scrolls, her withered skin trembling. "Y-you said the higher realms?! Are you absolutely sure?!"

This reaction shocked Wendy speechless.

"No wonder… No wonder… I see, I can be relieved," tears actually accumulated in the Tribe Elder's muddled eyes when she suddenly came to a sudden realization, "Wait, what do you mean by what you said earlier? As expected?"

The Tribe Elder looked from Leonardo's satisfied expression to the glittering stars on Little Yue's dress, an inconceivable thought in her mind, "You don't mean…"

"Yup!" Leonardo confirmed her thoughts, "I might have a way to cleanse a massive surface area on the outside world for your tribes to live free from worries."

Leonardo felt that he should do something for these kind people who suffered too much, perhaps to atone for the countless lives he took while under the influence of the bloodthirsty martial intent, but he wanted to leave a good seed in this planet, and not just a name that brings horror and fear in the hearts of the people.

Leonardo planned to build a grand formation with the Divine Pools as the nodes, and an even greater Divine Pool as the eye of the formation to constantly purify the chaotic energies, allowing the people of the tribes to slowly temper their bodies to the point where those chaotic energies don't threaten them anymore.

It would be a long project, but Leonardo believed that the reason these people couldn't adapt to the harsh environment lies in the density and ferocity of these energies, killing people before they had the chance to slowly temper themselves in a similar manner to the Divine Pool.

The Tribe Elder couldn't believe her ears, let alone Wendy and Little Yue who stared at Leonardo in disbelief.

However, Leonardo was nothing short of omnipotent in Little Yue's heart so she didn't doubt him the slightest, her eyes sparkling.

Leonardo laughed, saying, "If only I had someone who can read and write to help me with the formations later after I find the Divine Pools, sigh…"

Leonardo's expression was downcast with lamentation…