Time Really Does Change People

Before heading to the Battle Temple on the 1st level, Yaan spent some time practising his sword arts. This practise allowed him to gain a deep understanding of his improvements, not just in terms of his cultivation, but also around his illusion dao comprehension. Of course, dao was a mysterious and illusive concept, it would take longer than a few hours to properly digest and apply his improved understanding of the dao of illusions.

Aside from this, he also wanted to move his body for a bit before returning to battle. Yaan had been essentially sedentary for the last nine years, he needed to spend time readjusting to the feeling of moving around with his physical form.

Luckily, as a 3-Star Realm demon, the fact that he had spent nine years unmoving was not a serious problem. During his long period of time spent in the True-False Illusion, he had entered a sort of coma-like state, causing his bodily functions to slow down and almost freeze for most of those nine years. After replenishing his severely exhausted energy by meditating for a few hours, Yaan more or less felt fine.

And so, Yaan headed to the Battle Temple. The very moment he walked inside, a familiar voice called out to him.

"Hmm. You sure took your time."

Yaan stared forwards blankly as he found himself standing face to face with Zue Yin. She was leaning against the wall to the side of the reception hall, raising an eyebrow as she examined him, seemingly casually.

Yaan didn't take long to snap back to reality.

"Oh, it's you. Now that I think about it, don't you owe me some resources?" Yaan nodded to her and walked across as he was reminded of this matter.

Previously, before he entered the Temporal Acceleration Pagoda, he paid Zue Yin to run a few errands for him. These errands included her selling many of his resources and buying things he needed in exchange. He had already paid her for this, but he ended up being taken to the 9th level pagoda and entering the True-False Illusion Formation before he had the chance to receive everything.

"Seriously?" Zue Yin's eye twitched. She looked like she was forcefully suppressing her anger.

"You vanish for nine years without a single word or explanation, and that's seriously the first thing you say to me after suddenly showing up again?"

"Ahem…" Yaan cleared his throat, seeing that she was clearly getting annoyed. In an attempt to pacify this fiery girl so that he could hopefully retrieve his resources from her, he replied:

"Zue Yin, it's been a while…how have you been?"

"…"

Seeing Yaan's forced smile, she felt completely speechless.

"I almost thought that you'd died during your training! I asked the spirits countless times, but they refused to tell me anything…the only reason I had for believing that you might still be alive, was because your name has remained on the bottom of the 1st level ranking for the past nine years. Only, somehow, you've had constant immunity. And now, you show up, your name is highlighted in gold, and you're apparently an inheritor candidate? What the hell happened?!"

Yaan blinked in surprise.

"Wait, so everyone knows I'm an inheritor candidate?"

"…"

"Ahem, well…I was busy training."

Seeing Yaan standing there seriously, as if this was a satisfactory explanation for the oddities of his absence and reappearance, whilst still looking like he was waiting for her to repay him, Zue Yin stared at him for a long time. Eventually she shook her head and sighed. She pushed herself away from the wall, then with a wave of her hand, a spatial ring flew towards him.

Yaan caught it quickly, slightly surprised, but of course happy, that she had actually paid up. After all, there was no official contractual agreement between them, and it had been nine years…it wouldn't be all that strange if she refused to give him those resources.

Actually, Yaan was slightly surprised by Zue Yin herself. She was restraining her aura, but he could feel that she had improved her strength greatly. Not only that…

"You've grown up." Yaan stated plainly.

He wasn't referring to her appearance, that had hardly changed. She still looked like a 16 year old girl, though her beauty had improved to another level once again, likely a side effect of her improved cultivation.

No, what had matured, was her personality, her demeanour, and her self control. The Zue Yin of the past would have definitely screamed at him, but this girl…no, this woman, didn't yell from start to finish. Even when she ranted slightly, she kept her annoyance under control, and the emotions that did slip through stemmed more from her confusion than anything.

After all, an inheritor candidate? After researching it, she learned that Yaan was only the second one, whilst the other was a resident of the 9th level!

She was shocked, but she hid away this bafflement and faced Yaan with a calm gaze.

"Will we continue to cooperate?" She asked directly, then added: "You're an inheritor candidate, whilst I'm a resident of the 6th floor and I've lived in 4th Canyon for nine years now. We can certainly be of use to one another."

'Time really does change people.' Yaan sighed deeply. In the past, he had always viewed Zue Yin as a naive young girl, despite her being older than him.

Now though, as this woman faced him calmly, keeping her emotions completely under control, he could only see her as someone who had grown through harsh experiences.

And indeed, that was certainly the case.

Zue Yin did not have an easy time since Yaan left.

As a Qi refiner, she was already suppressed by this environment. Qi refining resources were lacking here, whilst the spiritual pressure and gravity that continued to increase further on every consecutive level, suppressed Qi refiners to a greater extent than body temperers. If it were not for her continual refinement of her bloodline, she could never have reached the 6th layer in only nine years.

However, the struggle of her cultivation was only a side note.

When Zue Yin first entered the 4th Trial Realm, she was afraid. She was afraid of the danger, the battles, the people, but more than anything else…

She was afraid of being alone.

In Yaan's eyes, the Zue Yin of back then was naive for trusting in him and sticking to his side for seemingly no reason. She also knew that her behaviour was not befitting of this environment, but she could not help it.

Because she had never been alone like this, not since the day of her birth.

Zue Yin was a member of the Zue Clan. She was born into the clan, raised by the clan, nurtured as a genius of the clan. She had loving parents and a doting, powerful grandfather. She was admired and respected by her peers, treasured and taught by her elders.

Even when she left the clan, she was always under the supervision of a clan elder, someone who cared deeply for her safety.

But in this inheritance, she had nobody. In this inheritance, she was surrounded by people who could kill others without so much as blinking, people who had never known the love of a caring family, people who only valued themselves and cared for nothing else.

Even though Yaan was basically such a person too, at least he was someone she knew! Zue Yin couldn't help but cling to the notion that perhaps, the two of them shared some kinship, as they had both been born and raised in the Greenwood Mountain Range…right?

Over the past nine years, this way of thinking gradually crumbled down. At first, she struggled greatly. She hated to admit it, but the isolation and solitude caused her to break down multiple times in that first year.

But after breaking down, she recovered, pulled herself together, and continued on.

She distracted herself from the loneliness by cultivating madly, with far more dedication than ever before in her life. Sometimes she fought in battles, but to begin with, she avoided reaching the higher floors.

As her strength built up over time, so did her mindset. She became more resolute, more daring…and she finally felt that she somewhat understood Yaan.

As the two stared at one another here and now, Yaan did not know that Zue Yin was also sighing to herself on the inside.

'Compared to Yaan, I took far longer to develop such a mindset…I can only imagine that his experiences early on in life must have been cruel, for him to become so ruthless and devoted to becoming stronger at such a young age.'

After thinking about it briefly, Yaan agreed to Zue Yin's suggestion. Her understanding of this 4th Trial Realm should have definitely reached a much higher level now, whilst she probably had a good grasp over the information regarding the key figures in the upper levels, as well as the general range of strength seen on each level.

Yaan originally planned to battle so that he could gather resources to cultivate, but now, he wanted to sit down with Zue Yin so that he could pick her mind.

Unfortunately, Zue Yin had other thoughts.

"I'm not talking to you in a reception hall, or anywhere on this lowly 1st level. Everywhere is too impoverished down here, get a place on the 2nd level, then we can talk. I know you have your difficulties as an inheritor candidate, but the 2nd level should be fine, right?"

Yaan smiled wryly. It seemed that this side of her had not changed.