Mythics and Humans

When Shen Li returned to the Void Ship an hour later, she was surprised to find several mortals on board.

There were about eleven of them in total in the main cabin, all youngsters below the age of nineteen. Most of them were huddled together and appeared fearful, wary. Others, much bolder, were exploring the walls of thr compartment they were stuck in. They threw curious glances at her when she appeared.

"Excuse me, you're one of them, right?" A chubby guy asked. "What the hell is going on here, and who are you guys? We've been kept here for a while now and my friend–"

Shen Li frowned. With a 'blink', she vanished on the spot and appeared in Chen Qingke's private cabin, easily bypassing the guard array meant to restrict random entry.

"Oh...."

"You...."

The both of them spoke at the same time and fell silent.

Di Tian was in the room, seated cross-legged on a pillow opposite Chen Qingke. He blinked innocently.

After a brief spell, Shen Li spoke, "Who's he, and why are there mortals on board?"

"They're the mortals we extracted from the rubble," Chen Qingke said, gesturing at Di Tian. "He's one of them." Inwardly, he was irritated. He didn't appreciate the security breach; the fact that she could do so made him feel uneasy. What if she decided to assassinate him?

Then again, this was one of the reason why cultivators of her Dao system were feared. Their unorthodox methods had frightening applications.

"I managed to find a relatively safe node to observe the Chaotic Space relative to this planet zone," Shen Li noticed his dissatisfaction but did not comment on it, changing the topic. "I can confirm that a fifth stage cultivator definitely fell into it a whole ago and was annihilated by the destructive energy."

Di Tian found himself feeling a sense of relief. The said person had to be the unknown man who attacked them.

From his conversation with Chen Qingke over the last hour, he had learned some important information about the identities of these immortal-like people over the past hour.

For one, he learnt about the existence of several civilizations outside the planet. Apparently, the humans on Earth were not the sole sentient beings in the universe!

Other sentient species, each possessing unique features and abilities, existed. Of course, humankind conveniently chose to classify them all under the tag–Mythics, further grouped into Demon Beasts, Monsters and Devils.

Surprisingly, some of the fables on Earth were spot on and provided great reference. For example, Dragons and Phoenixes were actually real Demon Beasts in the vast universe. Creatures like Elves, Werewolves and Vampires that possessed humanlike features but not quite were known as Monsters, while Devils consisted of Asuras and the likes.

As a matter of fact, humans only summed up to a measly twelve percent of the total sentient population in the thirty-three realms. One could easily assume from this information that they were most likely pushovers in their respective territories.

But it appeared that humans anywhere in the universe possessed a common trait; tremendous growth potential and adaptability. Similar to the trajectory of mankind's development on Earth, the humans in their various planets and domains were able to hold their own by utilizing every means they could.

One major detail was that a number of realms in the universe had Qi or spirit energy, a special form of energy that could be absorbed by some. Such beings were known as cultivators and

possessed heaven-defying, earth-shattering abilities, wielding this energy to manipulate the rules of the universe.

Mythics seemed to be especially favored species as they could utilize this special energy in the form of innate abilities they were born with. On the other hand, humans in the realms that had spirit energy had to painstakingly develop their own methods to harness spirit energy too.

But their efforts were rewarded, and after overtime fine-tuning, several systems were established that allowed humans to also walk the cultivation path. Of course, these systems were not perfected yet as the ultimate cultivation level hypothesized had not been reached by any being yet.

The tenth level, where one would transcend the constraints of the universe's rules.

So far, the power balance in the universe was a delicate tie. There was an hidden race between the Mythics and humans; to produce a transcendental being from their ranks that would reach the ultimate level and get rid of the other once and for all.

On the end of humanity, there was an organization known as the Universal Council, a neutral force that protected the interest of the human race and served as the ultimate Guardian. It was just akin to a coalition body that eventually grew into a supreme authority of its own.

Still, the core strength of this body was its constituent members, with each cultivating human organization having representatives in it to protect their interests. For example, Shen Li, Chen Qingke and Fang Ao were members representing their respective sects and organizations in the Universal Council.

Presently, they were on an official assignment. As for what it was exactly, it remained to be mentioned.

Chen Qingke hadn't actually revealed all this information to Di Tian intentionally. It had involuntarily come up in bits during what was supposed to be a questioning session, but the roles switched up a bit when Di Tian grasped a bit of the cultivator's personality. He turned out he was a chatterbox like Jiang Po and was only too happy to reveal information that wasn't particularly sensitive.

Shen Li glanced at Di Tian, noticing he was spaced out. She waved her hand and a gentle force wrapped around his body and teleported him to the main cabin, where the other mortals were gathered.

"Phew, man. You're safe, I was worried," Jiang Po pounced on Di Tian the moment he saw him, encompassing the latter in a bear hug. It turned out he was the mortal that was questioning Shen Li earlier.

"I'm fine, you can release me now," Di Tian said, feeling some relief upon seeing that Jiang Po had no visible injuries.

Like most of the mortals present in the cabin, Jiang Po had been in near-critical condition upon extraction from the rubble. Despite Di Tian's timely shielding, Jiang Po's body still took quite a bit of damage.

Luckily, Chen Qingke fed all the injured youngsters some unknown pills that rapidly healed their injuries. Di Tian didn't know what mystical combination of ingredients it was, but he supposed it was not completely unexpected for these immortals to have such means.

"So, where were you?" Jiang Po continued, asking three more questions in quick succession. "Also, do you know who these people are?"

"Err, I'm just as clueless as you are," Di Tian smiled wryly.

Jiang Po moved closer and lowered his voice confidentially, "Actually, we have a way out of here."

"Escape?" Di Tian was surprised at the notion, then realized it was logical. Chen Qingke's easy nature had made him relax subconsciously, but it was a fact that they were being held hostage in this strange vehicle.

"I'm not sure that would be necessary, but what do you have in mind?" Di Tian lowered his voice as he replied.

"What do you mean? Of course it's necessary," Jiang Po retorted. "Particularly as some of us have an idea of why we're being kept hostage. They've caught on to us."

"On to us? How?" Di Tian blinked, "What are you talking about?"

"I'll show you," Jiang Po gestured for a teenager behind him to move closer, pointing at the metal-like material they were sitting on. "Huang Shang, come repeat what you did earlier."

The kid recoiled. He was skinny and appeared a tad more frightened than everybody else.

"Come on, do it," Jiang Po's whispering tone turned urgent. "Please?"

Under Jiang Po's expectant eyes and Di Tian's curious gaze, he gritted his teeth and stabbed his fingers into the metallic surface beneath him.

To Di Tian surprise, Huang Shang's hand passed through like it was incorporeal.