Chapter 42 - Departing Gift
With plain indifference, Cain lifted his foot from the Liang Tribe's squadron leader corpse. The high battle pumping adrenaline within his blood calmed down, and he took a moment to reflect.
He was still in his Draconic Lightning aura state. Now that he wasn't in a death battle, Cain focused entirely on the sensation of power this state was providing him.
'So, not even a fourth level is my match. Hell, my base state was matching that guy full power before he pulled out that skill. I expected the manual to be good, but this is basically a cheat for me.'
For a moment, Cain started to wonder if his genius Dragon siblings could even erupt with such strength.
Of course, he's aware that they all cultivate at least Divine Grade cultivation manuals and have other such godly abilities.
But when recalling Kali's words, it seems like they could at most skip several levels. And that's only because they have numerous other powerful abilities amplifying their combat prowess.
Compared to Cain, this was a striking difference.
One has to remember all Cain really has is just his Dragon Body, one Divine Grade cultivation manual, and his Chaos Energy.
Just his Dragon Body and Divine Grade cultivation manual alone, even Cain knows that wouldn't be enough to cross over several small levels.
Meaning the only other plausible reason is Chaos Energy somehow affected his combat prowess.
Cain certainly wanted to get to the bottom of this now. He didn't want to underestimate or overestimate his combat prowess. Either mistake would only lead to troublesome situations he knows he can avoid.
However, as of now, he simply has no way to know.
The only thing he could do now is increase his soul energy cultivation to access the other powerful layers of the Ancient Book and Chaos Energy.
Still, knowing that he can easily jump up three levels was good enough for Cain.
With a light sigh, Cain recalled his Draconic Lightning aura. Immediately when he reverted to his base form, a sudden chill shivered his body.
It was cold, so cold!
Despite having unnaturally high bodily defenses, this cold atmosphere could so heavily affect him.
At that moment, a glint twinkled within Cain's eyes. He swiftly snapped his attention over to the source of this chilling cold.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and his smile turned a bit wry at the sight just over twenty meters from him.
There stood Kali shrouded in chilling blue Draconinc Ice aura, ruthlessly shoving a sharp Ice pike right through the third level Liang member's heart.
The Liang Tribe member could only struggle for a brief moment. His eyes were filled with an incomparable amount of dread staring into Kali's ruthless smile.
Instead of a young maiden, it was like staring into a nightmarish hell best.
Then, with a mere twist of her Ice Pike, Kali shattered the man's hearts to bits and pieces!
As the light faded from his eyes, Kali dispersed her Ice Pike, allowing the Liang Tribe member's corpse to crash into the ground.
"Ahh…." Kali loudly sighed with intense emotions.
For her, that was truly exhilarating! Similar to Cain, she fought in her base form for a bit, enjoying the sensation of testing her bodily limit.
However, when the Liang tribe member unleashed his Martial Skill, she also had no choice but to release her Dracninc Ice Aura.
And it felt damn good to so. 'No wonder there's so many battle junkies in the universe. No other feeling can match this!'
After a moment of basking in the limelight of her victory, Kali had finally recalled her Draonicn Ice Aura. She then tossed her gaze over to Cain, giving him a grin more befitting of her image.
"Yeap, that fight was far, and I mean, far better than anything we experienced in the Spirit Opening realm. And as expected, our manuals are truly mighty."
At the end of her sentence, Kali has already neared Cain. She only tossed one look at the leader's mushed head before turning her gaze back over to the camp.
Tilting her head, she asked, "So, what should we do now? I'm thinking we just keep on crushing these camps and increase our cultivation. There's nothing really back for us in that Clan."
Cain only ponders it for a moment. As much as cruel the Liang Tribe members are, this war truly isn't their problem.
Even if the Liang Tribe had left them alone, Cain knows trouble from them would inevitably come. Their attitudes are a walking magnetic for trouble.
Still, to Cain, this a just a training ground. Neither he nor Kali owed the Kong Clan anything. Nor were they some kind of heroes or busybodies.
So with a light sigh, Cain said, "Indeed, there is nothing. Let's just clear out this camp and keep on fighting. This is also the best way to stabilize our foundations before breaking through."
….
Several minutes quickly flew by.
During this time, Cain and Kali ransacked the whole camp. Their harvest included various beast cores, crystal beads, healing pills, spatial rings, and other such valuable necessities.
After gaining this, Cain and Kali were originally planning to quickly leave the camp. However, for a moment, their interest got piqued.
Within the main tent for the camp, Cain and Kali stood over a desk that had two papers upon it.
These two papers were a document and a map. And as the sibling duo read these papers over, a devious glint sparkled within their eyes.
"Well, would you look at this, brother? They have the son of the Kong Clan leader and are planning to use him as a hostage. Quite vicious indeed. They want to not only weaken the Kong Clan foundation and destroy their morale. Heh, the most shocking thing is how nobody in the Kong Clan is even aware of this."
Kali said her thoughts out loud. Really, though she has the utmost disdain for a Mortal Planet, even she could see that the Liang Tribe are quite the cruel ones.
Kali only sees what she and Cain are doing as a mission to grow stronger and nothing more.
While the Liang Tribe truly wants to swallow the whole Tribal Domain, reforming everything under their control.
Growing up as a Princess in the Huang Imperial Palace, Kali never had to experience or even read about struggles like this. So it was quite the eye-opener to witness and even actively experience the struggles mortal realm cultivators go through.
At the very least, she could see that they all appear determined to strive for their goals and break past their boundaries.
As for Cain, he didn't particularly have deep thoughts about this. After all, he already grew up in a world where he learned about wars similar to these situations.
Cruel actions like this are a bit desensitized for Cain.
Rather than focusing on that, Cain thought about how this would benefit them. This is why an excited glint swirled in his eyes as he then said,
"Honestly, their tactics and their son aren't important to us. However, if we were to go here, the power of that squadron would undoubtedly be high. Plus, they would have far better info than what's here. So Kali, ready for a truly tough battle?"
"You don't even have to ask me that, brother. And hey, the Kong Clan can even consider this our going away present. I'm sure the Liang Tribe can't so casually recover after this setback."
Kali was already feeling incredibly pumped for their inevitable battle. She didn't even bother to question the risks or danger.
And it wasn't because she was wholly reckless or arrogant.
Kali simply had the utmost confidence in their combat prowess and techniques. She truly believed no Nascent Formation group could ever hope in taking them down.
After settling on this decision, Cain took the papers into his spatial rings. Then he and Kali promptly set off towards their next destination.
….
At this time, several Realms far away from the Heaven Sky planet, specifically, the Thunderous Collision Realm.
In the Huang Dragon Imperial Palace, everything seemed completely normal.
Despite a major meeting recently happening, the Imperial members were quick to adapt.
Of course, there were varying reactions to that set of news. Still, the Imperial members would quickly fall back into the daily routines.
However, unknown to the whole Imperial Palace, there was one set of news that would have violently shaken everything to its foundation.
Deep within the Imperial Palace, in a room secluded from nearly all Huang members, there was the only person who knew about this secret news.
And this person currently sat alone in the purple room.
This person alone would be enough to shake thousands of weaker God Galaxies star planets to their roots and make nearly everyone in the Imperial Palace deeply bow their heads in respect.
This person was an unfathomably beautiful woman whose appearance seemed to reach utter perfection. Every single attribute about her was something no mortal would ever be able to properly comprehend.
Her natural aura was heavily receded, yet anyone could feel the presence of a terrifying ancient monster from her.
This woman was, of course, the Ancient Dragon Empress, Shi Wei.
Currently, Shi Wei silently floated while maintaining a meditative lotus position. And all around here floated crystal purple orbs.
Even though nothing visually gave it away, one would still be able to tell there was a profound connection between Shi Wei and those crystal purple orbs.
Threads of invisible energy connected Shi Wei to those crystal purple orbs as her cultivation centered around this invisible energy.
But though it seemed like Shi Wei was cultivating, her mind was actually incredibly focused on another subject.
'It seems like my worries were a bit unnecessary. Little Cain and Kali are still going strong. Their soul incarnations slip still have no damages, and I can faintly feel their strength steadily improving.'
Indeed, ever since the sibling duo left for a journey, Shi Wei had actually never taken her eyes from them.
Even though she directly told them that she wouldn't get involved, it was a slight lie.
After all, how could she possibly let her dear grandchildren explore off completely alone?
If anything severely dire were to actually happened and she was a split second late to respond, the consequences could only be imagined!
Of course, Shi Wei had no intentions to step in at all during their journey.
This was only the absolute fail-safe in case Cain and Kali fell into an utterly irreversible situation.
Like this, Shi Wei spent the majority of her time with little to zero interruptions.
But finally, after a few days of silence, Shi Wei felt a very familiar pulse of energy from one of her purple crystal orbs.
A loving smile blossomed on Shi Wei's face. This person calling out to her was incredibly dear to her heart, and she happily welcomed this sudden call.