Chapter 159 - "... What Is A Farm Doing Here?..."

"But let's get to something stupid you did." Red pours cold water on Fumio's mood.

"W-what do you mean, boss?" Fumio is confused and self-conscious at the change in Red's stare.

"Your meridians. You tried something with them, didn't you?" Red asks.

"I…" Fumio remembers something but he is not sure if it is what Red is referring to.

"Something stupid like drawing a Spiritual Energy Gathering Seal in your Inner World using your meridians?" Red clarifies.

"Ah…" Fumio looks away in guilt.

"It's not a big deal, though." He shrugs.

"Well. How did it feel?" Red asks with an interested smirk.

"I felt I was being electrocuted. BUT. As soon as I felt something was wrong, I stopped. I'm sorry. I won't do it again." Fumio apologizes.

"Don't apologize to me." Red scoffs.

"But watch out next time. You don't want to cripple yourself… Because that would really be funny." He chuckles.

"…Okay…" Fumio did not expect that his experimentation was that dangerous and is weirded out by Red's reaction.

"Anyways. You should have told me first. Because while acting on that idea without my supervision was beyond stupid, the idea itself was pretty smart. I can't believe you came up with it on your own." Red pats the Fumio's shoulder in approval.

"I… thank you?" Fumio does not know if he is being commended, or still being reprimanded.

"Uhh... You said it was a good idea? How so?" He asks.

"You tried doing it while using the Celestial Body Cultivation Technique?" Red asks.

"That's right." Fumio confirms.

"That's the mistake. You should have done it with the Basic Breathing Technique." He suggests.

"Huh…" Fumio slaps his forehead.

"Maybe because I'm doing BBT all the time without thought, I almost forgot about it." He chuckles.

"Uhn. Try it later. BBT plus Spiritual Energy Gathering Seal in your inner world, might be equal to two-thirds to even three quarters the efficiency of Celestial Body Breathing Technique." Red nods.

"I will, boss." Fumio cannot wait to try it. This discovery can only mean that he no longer has to pause his cultivation whenever the skies are cloudy, blocking the moonlight which is the most important part of his Celestial Body Breathing Technique

"Good job today." Red pats Fumio's back once again.

"Just one round?" Fumio asks. The spar only lasted for a minute after all.

"For today, yes." Red nods.

"Just look at those two old geezers. They look like dogs that are standing in wait for their owner at the front door. I can't concentrate." He points at Havvah and Ahdem.

"PFff… *cough*" Fumio chokes on his spit.

"Oh. That's mean, boss..." He says but he cannot help but snicker at Red's perfect description.

"What?" Red asks the couple as he and Fumio join them. 

"..." The couple has a lot of questions but they do not know where to begin.

"Okay." Havvah soon finds which question to ask.

"I've been thinking about everything we talked about earlier." She starts.

"Fumio-san. Earlier, you asked me and Ahdem if we ever met someone who is not a superioris, nor an angel, nor a demon, and yet possess powers. Were you referring to yourself?" She asks.

"Or you, 'Boss'?" She adds as she looks at Red.

Fumio looks at Red, to which Red nods in permission.

"I was." He answers Havvah's question.

"And you even said it sounded crazy." He adds.

"…Fair…" Havvah admits easily.

"But you have to admit. It would sound crazy to anyone." She argues.

"It does." Fumio admits, seeing Havvah accept her mistake without ego.

"But how?" Ahdem asks, sharing the same curiosity with his wife.

"Training." Red reveals.

"Training…" The couple feel like Red is making fun of them.

"It's true." Fumio nods.

"I was a typical non-superioris just… ten months ago, and now, I can do much more than what you just saw me do."

"Well… Ten 'real world' months. You've spent a considerable amount of time training inside a pocket dimension like this." Red corrects him.

"Ah… Well. It doesn't make much difference." Fumio shrugs.

Ahdem and Havvah, seeing no signs of deception from Fumio, just pure pride, are shocked by the information.

"H-how is that even…" Ahdem cannot even properly express his disbelief.

"I believe only the S Class have as much variety in abilities as what we've seen you two display. But even their abilities are just varieties of their innate powers. A fire type superioris cannot and will never summon water." He still cannot wrap his head around what he witnessed.

"Remember, not superiori…" Fumio scratches his cheekbone to cull his frustration.

"You know…" Red takes the couple's attention.

"I wouldn't normally care about you two. Even if you're  the oldest humans, or even being the seeds of humanity. But I can feel that you have the potential to practice my 'Arts'. I would really be the biggest sinner if I don't help you two access that potential." Red starts his spiel.

"W-we can do… that?..." The couple is stunned.

"Yes. Remember what I said about becoming gods, or at least becoming powerful enough to traverse the universe?" Red asks them.

"Yes. You mean to say that if we practice your 'arts', we can do that?" Havvah asks suspiciously.

"I'm not promising that, but it's a starting point." Red shrugs.

"Becoming gods…" Fumio snickers at how ridiculous it sounds.

"..." Ahdem and Havvah secretly share Fumio's reaction.

"Buddy. They're special." Red scoffs at Fumio.

"Look at what you've accomplished in less than two years. Now, imagine these two, cultivating for say... a hundred thousand years…" He explains.

"..." Fumio is stunned.

It only took him a split second of pondering to see the possibilities and potentials of the couple.

"That's right." Red smirks.

"Work hard."

"I will…" Fumio looks at the couple with burning competitiveness.

He is jealous that unlike the two, he has to cultivate hard to expand his lifespan.

"..." Havvah and Ahdem are almost startled by the change in Fumio's eyes.

At the same time, the young man's reaction tells them that Red's words are not ramblings of arrogance or delusion.

"So. What about it? Forget about becoming gods or finding God. What's important for now is that with my Arts, you can involve yourselves more actively in protecting humanity when heaven and hell descend once again." Red asks the couple.

"Such power is not free." Ahdem expresses his suspicion.

"And I hope your 'art' does not use human souls." He adds.

"Eh?! Would someone like Fumio do something so abhorrent?" Red gasps and holds his chest in mock offense.

"But… you know… I wou-" Fumio is about to say he could if he wants to using demon cores, but *thck* Red slaps the back of his head.

"W-we use the dormant energy around us." So, he corrects himself immediately.

"No souls involved?" Havvah gets suspicious at the reaction and asks Fumio who she can see through instead of Red who she cannot.

Fumio long realized that he cannot deceive the couple, so he crafts his reply carefully.

"Not since I started training did I use souls, nor sacrificed any lives to empower myself. And I definitely will not in the future." Ahdem and Havvah feel that Fumio is a hundred percent truthful and they sigh in relief.

"I know that you are suspicious. And even more curious as to how in your long lives have you not even heard about the things you've seen today." Red says.

The couple nod.

"Someday, once you earn my trust, I will share more of my secrets." Red says as he starts to head towards the portal.

The couple and Fumio exchange looks before following Red.

"Stay here for a while please." Red stops them however.

"I want to try something." He says one more time before diving out of the portal and closing it behind him before the others can react.

"What the… how do we get out?!" Ahdem panics.

"You trust him that much?" Havvah notices Fumio's relaxed expression.

"Yeah." Fumio casually admits. 

Somehow his expression calms the couple down.

"So, uh… kid. How do we earn his trust?" Ahdem asks.

"I'm not sure. And I suspect that Boss does not find me any more trustworthy than you two." Fumio shakes his head.

"..." The couple is stumped.

"You can start by not saying anything to anyone about Boss and everything else connected to him." Fumio advises however.

"Obviously." The couple are a bit offended that Fumio thinks he has to remind them.

This triggers an uncomfortable silence.

"Hmmm…" Ahdem walks closer to the edge of the treasure dimension to take a look at what is below or under the wide expanse.

Unfortunately for him, "Oh…" he bumps into an invisible barrier.

Havvah also gets interested and tries to knock on the barrier. While she feels her hand being stopped, she actions does not produce a sound.

"Huh…" She grunts in fascination.

"I tried attacking it, but… I don't think I can break through it even if I go all out." Fumio comments.

"Well. It's made by Father." Havvah shrugs.

The next moment, *GRRRRRR* the trio hear a rumbling sound and at the same time a strong vibration in the dimension.

Even Fumio, who was confident, is starting to panic.

"Whoah…" Havvah and Ahdem step back from the edge hurriedly, away from the invisible barrier as they immediately notice it starting to distort.

The trio can only watch and wait.

A few seconds later, the distortion stops and *vvwwhooommm* the invisible barrier disappears, revealing another vast expanse behind it, one that is as large as the dimension they are in.

What stuns the trio further, is that they see that on the edges of the expanse, are what look like giant shelves made of white stone, the size of skyscrapers, with each shelf compartment containing what looks like farms or gardens.

Suspended above the skyscrapers, is what looks like a transparent water tank, the size of a small water dam.

Finally, in the middle of the expanse, is what looks like a small settlement made of a few small houses.

"My word…"

"What is going on…"

The couple are lost looking at the beautiful view.

"The… farms…" Fumio dazedly says.

"Obviously. But what is a farm doing there?" Ahdem asks.

"That… is where I trained…" Fumio recovers.

"What do you mean?" Havvah asks.

Fumio does not answer and instead, summons a small fireball and proceeds to throw it towards the cabin he used to live in during his hell training.

"What are you doing?!" Ahdem asks in panic as they watch the fireball sail in the air and exploding softly on the roof of Fumio's cabin.

"Just testing if the barrier is still there." Fumio explains as he crosses where the invisible barrier used to be.

"It seems like Boss just merged two wood fragments together." He says as he starts to stroll to his cabin.

The couple immediately gets what Fumio is saying and they follow him.

"Fascinating.." The couple are starting to become numb after everything that they have witnessed today.