30 The Old Man's Return - Part 2

Asura Ryuu opened his eyes and saw the old man deep in thought. When he noticed Asura Ryuu being awake, the old man's eyes suddenly turned full of suspicion because Asura Ryuu's eyes were crystal clear and had those red dots within that he didn't notice before.

"Why did this happen?" he thought.

The reason was, yet again, the Dragon God. Asura Ryuu asked the Dragon God about it, but he either really didn't know or just didn't want to tell him the reason. What was the truth remained unclear.

Asura Ryuu nonchalantly jumped off the chair and greeted the old man as naturally as he could: "Hello, teacher."

Old man: "What did you feel when you sat on the chair?"

Asura Ryuu: "Uhm... I felt sleepy and comfortable. It was very comfortable actually!"

Old man: "..."

"Come with me!", the old man said and disappeared from the balcony, appearing in front of the entrance of the mansion where the Xun siblings slept and Asura Tenka carved something out of the wood.

The old man shook his head when he saw the siblings sleeping with no care in the world and then glanced at the three figures carved out on the table and the fourth one in Asura Tenka's hands. They were the figures representing the four of them - Asura Ryuu was still 'in process' while Asura Tenka, Xun Meng and Xun Bao were already done. The four figures were exactly the four children with their torn-up old clothes.

There was no color on the figures, just the raw material they were carved out of. The old man just sighed once again when he thought of a reason why this little kid could do that.

"Her Spirit Power must be pretty high as well when she has so much attention to detail and focus at this young age.". That was the conclusion he came up with while analyzing the level of detail on the three figures.

Just at this moment, Asura Ryuu opened the doors and came out. He noticed the figures and a hint of surprise rose in his eyes: "When did she make them? I didn't notice..."

He pondered a bit as walked toward the old man and Asura Tenka, and he suddenly thought of something.

"How long was I asleep for on that chair?", he asked.

Asura Tenka replied absent-mindedly: "Day and a half."

"Day and a half? It was only a blink before I saw the old man come back... How did the time pass so fast?!"

Just at this moment the old man interfered: "How long did it appear to you?"

Asura Ryuu stared confusedly at the old man but answered anyway: "About a minute?"

Old man: "..."

The old man's eyes showed doubt at first, then turned to incredulity and then shock. "Right.", he said, and nothing more came out of his mouth.

The old man and Asura Ryuu just sat by the side and watched the mesmerizing moves of Asura Tenka's hand. It was a feeling very similar to watching an artist create work with profound movements of his hands. Every move held a deeply planned meaning and intention that it didn't resemble pure carvure anymore but seemed more like the Goddess at work who designed humans.

Asura Ryuu and the old man silently watched that with a great deal of attention and the first one to lose focus was the old man who glanced at the Asura Tenka and her face while she was working. What he saw should have surprised him, but since he already emptied out his 'surprise reservoir' on Asura Ryuu and the first time he saw the figures, nothing manifested this time except the faint sigh.

Asura Tenka's face was serious but not wrinkled. It was a face of those who focused their entire attention into what they were doing with all their hearts to the point of forgetting themselves and their surroundings. The old man glanced at the figure in her hands and saw that it was a figure of Asura Ryuu. The current part where the broken knife was pointing on was Asura Ryuu's face.

The old man's eyes shone with 'Ah, I understand' and he once again glanced at Asura Tenka. As it came to the point where she needed to carve out Asura Ryuu's face, she suddenly turned around and stared directly at Asura Ryuu as her brows furrowed a bit and her eyes bore deeply into his face as if trying to carve it in her mind. Both of the two watching her found her current expression cute, as if she was a little innocent angel with devilish charm. The charm of a person didn't depend on their looks but rather on the surrounding aura around them, hence why her devilish charm remained the same as before even though she was practically a 'baby' in this world.

Her head turned back to the figure as she resumed her work once again as if nothing happened. It wasn't clear whether she consciously turned her head around to see his face or she just felt Asura Ryuu's presence and subconsciously did it. It took her another hour or two to finish her masterpiece and only then did she notice the presence of the two near her.

She stood up after putting the finished figure and the knife away and bowed: "Hello, teacher."

Her eyes only glanced at Asura Ryuu, but she said nothing, as if he wasn't there.

"Is she mad about what happened?", Asura Ryuu thought.

The old man nodded in response and waved his hand in front of the star-shaped necklace around his neck. As he did, the necklace shone with crimson light and the emblem of the Crimson Star Academy appeared in the crystal core for a moment before disappearing. What appeared with the disappearance of the emblem was a two-meter stone that resembled a monument. As soon as it appeared, Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka gulped because they recognized what it was - the Spirit Power Measurement Array.

The old man luckily didn't see their expressions because he would know they recognized this thing but only pointed at it with closed eyes.

"Go place your hand on it."

Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka glanced at each other, obviously nervous because of how the old man would react. One could suppress their cultivation, but there was no way to suppress the strength of their Spirit Power. The reason why the old man closed his eyes was because he didn't want to see what happened.

Asura Tenka was the first one to place her hand with resignance and variness. As soon as she came in close proximity of the stone, it began reacting and emitting an aura even though her hand had yet to touch it. Because the old man only felt the changes in the surroundings with his perception, he was confused: "Strange, the reaction shouldn't be this weak."

He opened his eyes to see what happened, and it was just in time to see Asura Tenka's hand a few centimeters away from the stone monument. Precisely at that moment, his old heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly erected a barrier around the entire Lifeless Valley with the strongest power he could muster.

The skies changed the color as the golden-colored non-transparent barrier appeared around the entire area of few hundred kilometers squared.