Sudden Appearance

Li Bai struggled to get out of Jin He's grip! She was much too strong! He tried many tricks to make Jin He release him. Alas, his efforts were useless in the face of raw strength.

"Who are you?!"

Jin He shouted in front of Li Bai's face. She was angered to see someone other than her master show up in the room. Only Jin He knew of her master's secret - his soul retained memories.

She and her master had an agreement, and it was to make Jin He wait for him inside the ring everytime he reincarnated. The time within the ring was suspended, so it was only natural that Jin He didn't age nor starve inside this ring.

"Wait, could it be?"

All puzzled inside, Jin He loosened her grip on Li Bai's small childish neck. Li Bai took this opportunity to escape and slipped right past Jin He's fingers.

"Yes, Jin He. It is I, your master."

Jin He was shocked by this discovery and immediately kneeled.

"Ah, master! Please forgive me for my impudence!"

Li Bai shook his head and spoke.

"No need, no need. Stand up, Jin He."

Jin He was still confused inside. Why was her master not emitting a powerful aura? Was her master weak?

She hesitantly stood up and looked at Li Bai weirdly. Li Bai saw her face and explained.

"So you see, Jin He, your master is weak right now."

Jin He was confused. She trained the whole time she was left alone in the ring! But the Earth energy had run out so Jin He wasn't able to progress anymore. Still, there should be plenty of Earth energy outside of the ring, so why has her master not trained yet?

"Jin He, calm down. Soon enough, I will be stronger than you again."

In truth, Li Bai was just speaking to put Jin He at ease. He actually didn't know if he had any chance of training. Jin He was once an arrogant prodigy that looked down on everyone she met.

Until one day, she met Li Bai's past self. She had been beaten so easily, and so she wanted to train under him. Li Bai's past self initially refused, but when he saw Jin He's persistence, he eventually gave in.

Since then, whenever they would meet inside the ring, Li Bai's past selves would always be stronger than her. Granted that the current master she was seeing right now was still ten years old, and the past times that she saw her master, he was about twenty already.

Jin He's body would age whenever she wandered outside the ring, so her body's age was still young, at about twenty-three.

If she found out that Li Bai was a failure, she would undoubtedly storm off. Jin He was, of course, the former princess of the strongest kingdom in the continent, Jin Kingdom, before she took off to follow Li Bai's past self.

Even now, Jin Kingdom still stood tall, being the kingdom with the longest time in power, with no signs of deteriorating anytime soon. If they saw Jin He, one of their ancestors, they would certainly blow a gasket.

The most desirable result would be to keep Jin He in the dark before he rose up to fame. Jin He only followed Li Bai's past selves because they were strong, what reason would she have to follow him, not being strong himself?

Although, it was only Li Bai who thought that way. Jin He couldn't care less anymore about whether Li Bai was strong or weak, she had already resolved herself to follow him until she died. At first, yes, she thought about it like that, but now, she felt some sort of connection between them that she couldn't break herself.

Jin He suspected that Li Bai was thinking about how she would react should she find out that he was trash, and tried to comfort him.

"Master, although you are weak right now, very soon, I know you will be back to your former strength!"

Li Bai was shocked. He didn't expect that kind of reaction from the arrogant princess herself! He felt less tense around her now.

"Jin He, to be honest, my current body is an abnormality. As such, I cannot train like I used to. So if you want to leave, then now would be a good time to."

"Don't underestimate my resolve, master."

"Ah, I'm sorry, sorry."

.....

After a long talk, they acted like they were friends that just reunited, not like master and disciple.

"So, master, what are you doing here anyway?"

"Ah, I have just acquired the ring again and I wanted to test it. I also wanted to see if my treasures got stolen by some random person."

"If you're talking about your treasures, they're right there."

Jin He pointed to a corner in the white room full of gold and whatnot.

"I've already seen those, actually, to be honest, you are the one I am most surprised to see. Rather, why are you here?"

Li Bai expected Jin He to be in another room since this was the secret treasure room that he made. He made some more rooms beside this one when he was creating the Silverstone Ring, just to be safe.

"Ah, because I drained all of the remaining Earth energy in my room. Actually, in here as well."

Li Bai's eyes widened.

"You... drained the remaining Earth energy? But the Earth energy in the ring is supposed to be endless!"

"What?!"

Both Li Bai and Jin He was baffled, the reason being that supposedly, the infinite Earth energy source inside the ring had vanished.

Li Bai closed himself off before entering the ring, fearing that the enormous amount that accumulated inside might force itself inside him. As such, he could not detect whether the energy really did run out or not.

However, Jin He had not closed herself off, and instead just didn't feel any energy at all, which made no sense to both of them.

So, to assess the situation, Li Bai had to open himself up to the energy in order to feel the flow like before. As weak as he is, he resolved himself to do it.

Li Bai opened his pathways up, and a huge amount suddenly flowed inside! He quickly closed himself off again, feeling that his organs might explode if he were to continue this recklessness. Nevertheless, he collapsed, but he himself was not conscious of this. In fact, he was not conscious at all!

During his unconsciousness, Li Bai found the true reason out. It isn't that the energy within the ring had run out, in fact, it had accumulated for quite a long time! The real problem was with Jin He herself. She had been meditating for too long that her pathways closed off by themselves!

The Earth energy inside Jin He had been fully refined by now, so all she needed to do was reach an enlightenment in order to reach the next realm! She had already long reached the peak of the Godly Mark realm, the realm next to the Heavenly Mark realm. The next realm was the Immortality Mark realm, but virtually no one except for Li Bai's past lives has ever reached this before.

The Immortality Mark realm didn't make one immortal, quite the contrary, it shortened one's life! That is, if they didn't move to the next realm before they died!

The next realm was the True Heavenly Mark realm, which was the highest Li Bai could achieve. He almost always died in the Immortality Mark realm before he could climb up more.

Being at the peak of the Godly Mark realm was impressive enough though because, in the whole continent, only a couple of hundred has even reached the Godly Mark realm, not to mention its peak. Therefore, it was generally considered better to stop cultivating at the peak of the Godly Mark realm than risk oneself in the Immortality Mark realm.

Li Bai woke up lying on the white floor in front of Jin He. It seems she had rushed towards him. He sat up and spoke.

"Jin He disciple, I've discovered the problem. It isn't that there is no Earth energy in this ring anymore. In fact, it is plentiful. The problem lies with you. You need to stop meditating and look for chances to break through."

Jin He widened her eyes. For all this time, she thought that the reason she couldn't feel the Earth energy anymore was that she had already drained it. Who knew that it would be enlightenment that she needed?

She cupped her hands and bowed before the small child in front of her.

"Jin He thanks master for his advice."

Li Bai stood up and turned his back against Jin He, walking towards the door. He spoke as he walked.

"Jin He, my disciple, will you come outside with me now?"

"Ah, later, master."

.....

The guard saw Li Bai disappear right in front of him! He was startled. The ring that was originally on Li Bai's finger fell on the stairs and rolled down. The guard hastily chased after it.

He caught up with it just in time before it made it onto the first floor. He examined the ring and looked at it, searching for any abnormalities. He didn't find any, all he saw was a broken storage ring.

He rushed towards the tall tower's administrator's office and knocked on the door.

"Ahem, yes, come in."

The guard slid the door and walked into the dark room. The only source of light was a faint fire in the corner of the room. The administrator was sinisterly leaning on his arms which were on the desk.

"Well..."

The guard immediately got nervous and became hesitant to speak. It is said that the administrator's rank surpassed the Fourth Level Mark. Breaking through was no easy task, so this was already a massive accomplishment in the eyes of commoners like the guard.

The administrator became impatient and fixed his posture. He then opened his mouth.

"What?"

The guard felt a chill go through his spine and shook unconsciously. He scratched his head and began reaching for the ring inside his pocket.

"Well... I-I came here to report a sale..."

The administrator interrupted the guard's sentence, smiled widely, and began speaking.

"Isn't this the wrong place to report a sale? Hmmm?"

The guard's legs almost gave in to the terror that he felt. He knew that the administrator's time was precious, but he was wasting all of it by being hesitant.

"B-But you see... I received payment..."

"And?"

"But the item is still in my hands..."

As soon as the guard's sentence was finished, the smile on the administrator's face disappeared. He was aware that only high-ranking people bought items within this tall tower.

He also recognized that the guard reporting to him was stationed on the third floor, judging by his uniform, because within the tall tower, the guards on different floors had different uniforms.

The third floor was already high, that was why the administrator was startled. He glared at the guard.

"Why? Why do you have the item that someone supposedly bought?"

"It-It's because when the buyer wore the item... he d-disappeared right in front of me, leaving th-the ring..."

The administrator looked at the guard in disbelief. He raised his eyebrow and invited the guard to sit beside his desk in front of him. It was obvious that he didn't believe this measly Second Level Mark guard.

"What is the item, exactly?"

"It's this, sir..."

The guard took out the ring and placed it on the desk, which surprised the administrator.

The administrator picked the ring up and started examining it, but no matter how he looked at it, it looked like a regular old broken storage ring. He didn't see any engraved scriptures.

He deduced that the person's sudden disappearance had nothing to do with the ring, but rather the person instead. After all, the customers that bought in the tall tower were all nobles, and some of those had quite a few peculiar tricks.

"Hmmm, and who is this customer you spoke of?"

"It-It's the trash- I mean, the young master of the Li clan..."

The young master... Li Bai? Everyone in town knew how low Li Bai's cultivation level was. Anyone in town would be able to beat him to the ground, not to mention this guard... He was suspicious of this guard. Maybe he took advantage of Li Bai's weakness and stole the ring back after getting payment.

"What was his payment?"

"Ummm... ten Marking Pills..."

"What?!"

Even the administrator was startled now. Ten Marking Pills is undoubtedly the most expensive payment they have ever received! It was certain that currying favor with the supposedly measly Li clan was the best course of action.

If the case really was that the guard stole the ring back from Li Bai after beating him up, then he should receive capital punishment for ruining their chances with the surprisingly rich Li clan! However, if that really was the case, then this guard shouldn't have gone to report this weird occurrence to me...

The atmosphere went silent for a while. Both the guard's and the administrator's expressions darkened as time went on. The administrator glared at the guard from time to time, but other than that, nothing was happening.

Suddenly, the ring on the administrator's desk glowed wildly, brightening everything inside the room! The desk on which the ring was put on shook frantically, which made both the guard and the administrator stand up in shock. The two slowly retreated to the door leading outside, with each step getting faster and faster.

The guard looked at the administrator and was baffled, seeing him so scared like that. However, he had no time to pay much attention to this, as he too was terrified of what would happen next! He was a witness to Li Bai's disappearance after all, he thought that they were next!

The desk stopped shaking, and the ring hovered in the air. The two were frightened! The ring could fly?! If so, if it were to give chase to the two of them, no matter where they went, they would always be in the range of the ring!

A projection of Li Bai's body appeared, wearing the floating ring. The projection was standing on the desk, making it obvious why the ring was floating. Was Li Bai wearing it this whole time? If so, where did he go?

The projection finally became solid, and there Li Bai was, standing tall despite being a small child. He jumped off of the desk and looked around.

The two were shocked! How did Li Bai get here?