49 Chapter 49. Six years

And just like that, six peaceful undisturbed years passed inside Sapphire city. During these long six years, Leo, Aurora, and Lex had grown quite a lot. Ophelia had stayed for a month in Sapphire city as she desperately tried to get Leo to join the sect but she was forced to ultimately give up and settle with only one heaven-defying talent as Leo seemed to have no plans on joining them at all.

During the first three years, Leo managed to reach peak emission realm without any help from materials which baffled Alfred as most people usually required many materials and a specific pill to meet a certain requirement to reach refinement energy realm. Alongside that, he had also spent most of his free time scavenging the city for arts and ended up making some of his own. He managed to obtain two black rank arts and five white ranks and created many arts of his own which he improved each to black rank.

It also turned out that through further study, Leo found out a use for the unsealed energy which he obtained from the seal doors. They were mostly used to execute the arts that he had obtained in the mansion which he shared with Aurora and on the other hand, they could also be used for empowering Leo's arts. With a whole six years of training, Leo managed to bring about a fifty percent increase in strength in his art's power but of course, this was extremely wasteful as there was not an unlimited amount of energy.

After finding out the use, Leo also found out that the energy that he took in every day was partially converted into this energy, which he called 'Nether energy', that came from the mansion but it was an extremely small amount of energy was produced each time, a hundred arts worth of energy was used in forming a strand of the nether energy.

For the last three years, Leo managed to reach early refinement stage two and managed to achieve upgrade the initial black rank arts that he was learning to low purple rank and the Nether God's Nihility Fist was improved to middle stage mastery. If these arts were to be exposed then it would cause a huge uproar in Sapphire city. Purple books were extremely rare in Sapphire city, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And it was not without meaning, the power that a purple art could bring was immense. If it was a one on ten battle, the power of a purple ranked art would mean instant defeat for the five men, of course, this was presuming they all had the same cultivation. He managed to upgrade four Aranea Sect arts to purple and also decided to rename them as he thought that it did not suit then; spider slash now became Silent Slash, spider's poison web became Widow's poison fog, and finally, spider's eight leg movement became shadow eight steps. He also imparted these arts to both Lex and Aurora.

Aurora had grown a lot on her own. She became more beautiful like a blooming flower that had emerged from its bud. Her face grew fairer and graceful while her body developed along with her chest. She also managed to break through to beginner refinement realm stage one after these years.

Lex was the one with the most considerable growth so far. He had grown from a tiny infant into a small six-year-old child and Leo spent a portion of his time training Lex. And not to say the least, he was extremely happy with Lex's progress. Lex had been given ten-ringed gold talents as Leo wanted his brother to learn good morals and not become a haughty and arrogant character.

At the Decan clan, stood a large pond and in the middle was a large bamboo house that was connected to the mainland by a beautiful brown vine root bridge.

On the shore was a young boy and a small child. The boy was wearing a simple black shirt and loose black harem pants. His outstanding clear and beautiful golden eyes were observing the world as his bold brown hair fluttered in the wind.

The small child wore a yellow shirt and black pants. And just like the young boy in front of him, he was also outstandingly handsome and each had similar features. He had clear electric yellow eyes that were fully concentrated on the young boy's hands. What was unusual about this boy was his hair, he had beautiful brown hair but there was a section on the left side of his head that was red hair.

The boy placed his hand on the water surface and then sent a wave of energy into the lake which caused calm ripples in the water. As he raised his hand, he had a ball of water on his hand. He then started waving both his arms and the water slowly started changing forms and even took the shape of different objects.

After playing around with it, he suddenly pushed his hands out and a fire, a cloud of wind, a ball of lightning and a wall of dirt appeared.

"Leo!" a voice called out from far behind him.

Immediately, the weird scene in front of Leo calmed down as he lowered his arms and everything turned to normal.

A young girl came out of the thick array of trees. She was extremely beautiful with a face that could topple empires. If any man were to see her, they would have fallen for her at first sight. She was wearing a comfortable pink full-sleeve shirt and a dark blue skirt. As she walked out happily onto the bridge.

"Aurie, hey. How's your training going? Have you got your doctor skills up to stage 4 yet?" asked Leo.

"Not yet, I still feel like I'm missing a little part of it. Hey Lex, how's your training going?" asked Aurora.

"Not sad, sister Aurie. It's slowly improving. Brother has been teaching me about energy control and I'm trying to learn them right now, he keeps telling me to strengthen my foundation," replied Lex as he sheepishly smiled.

"Well, that sounds fun. I should join in. It's quite boring having to study medicine. Let's have a duel and practice," suggested Aurora as a playful plotting smile appeared on her face.

"Oh heck no! Why would I try to fight someone at refinement when I am just at gathering realm? I'm not that stupid, I know my limits," Lex spoke shakily as he immediately rejected the offer and retreated behind Leo.

"Hehe, I'm just joking. But if you want to then I don't mind. I'll lower myself to your cultivation,"

"Haha. That won't work Aurie, although Lex is only at gathering, he can fight people from condensing realm and probably escape from a peak condensing expert," commented Leo.

Hearing this, Aurora did a facepalm as she could not believe her stupidity, "Of-course, why did I think that Lex would be a normal cultivator when we both are learning from you."

"Anyways, I've brought some food from the city markets. You guys should take a break, let's eat together," said Aurora as she brought out a large picnic basket in her hand.

"Thank god! Sister Aurie is the best. I've been starving the whole time," said Lex as he immediately charged and took the basket and started ripping it open.

"Aurora, are you close to breaking through to middle refinement stage one yet?" asked Leo.

"About that… I need a little help on that, I think one of my energy pathways is a little clogged, so I don't have full confidence yet," replied Aurora as she spoke with a slightly downcast tone.

"Oh, ok then. After we eat, I'll see if I can help you," Leo spoke with a relieved tone. He raised his head and looked up to the sky as he asked, "We have about a month before we leave the clan. How are you feeling?"

"I'm glad that we are leaving. I don't like this city as much as I had thought I would. But before we go to the Iudex sect branch, I want to go and visit the village. I miss my parents," said Aurora with all seriousness as nostalgic memories of her times back at the village began to fill her mind.

"Interesting… We will have to leave the next week then. We cannot miss the appointment that we set with Ophelia. I agree with you though. I also want to pay a visit to Mino. I want Lex to pay his respects to our parents and see their graves for himself. I'm sure mom and dad would love to see him right now as well," replied Leo as he began to plan the future.

Although Ophelia had not managed to recruit Leo into the sect. She managed to get Aurora and Lex, who was asked personally by Leo after Lex had taken his affinities tested. They had planned for Aurora and Lex to meet Ophelia at the Capital and she would take them to the Iudex sect from there.

"The earlier we leave the better," said Aurora as she reached out for Leo's hand and started dragging him towards Lex and they all began eating.