Chapter 534: Empyreal Oblivion And The Masked Figure

"That was an amazing display of strength, Sister Rose. You got me excited for a battle for a moment," Valeria said to Rose with a wide grin as she looked at the scattered corpses of the monsters. Since it was Rose who had killed them, the bodies didn't turn to dust; instead, they had burning holes in their chests or other vital areas.

Some of the monsters' bodies had been ripped open by Rose's spear, killing them instantly.

"Well, after my cultivation reached the second-level Spirit Master, I couldn't control my strength properly. It will take me some time to get used to my newfound power," Rose replied with a humble smile. She liked to maintain good relationships with her sisters and didn't enjoy showing off her strength.

"I guess the same thing is happening to all of us right now," she continued. "The sudden increase in our power is making it harder to control our strength."

"Indeed. You're absolutely right, Sister Rose," Valeria nodded with a kind smile. She wasn't surprised since she had experienced it firsthand herself. "The sudden surge in our abilities is indeed making it difficult to control our power properly. I hope we get used to it soon, before we accidentally hurt our family members."

A few moments later, Leah looked at Lily and Emma and asked, feeling uncomfortable speaking to Valeria due to her overwhelming status, "Have any of you managed to locate where Yuan and the others are? We haven't seen them for a long time now. I hope they're doing well as we speak."

"Well, we're as clueless as you are about this," Lily replied casually, releasing a small sigh.

"You're right. This Secret Realm is quite vast, after all," Leah sighed.

A couple of minutes later, Rose stood up and looked at Lily, Emma, and Valeria before saying, "Since we've reunited, shall we go and look for the others? It wouldn't be wise to waste our precious time. Wouldn't you all agree?"

"Sure. Let's go look for them! I'm missing my mother-in-law's cooking...!" Emma exclaimed, tossing her flying sword into the air before jumping onto it.

The others followed suit, tossing their swords into the air and leaping onto them. Since Valeria and Leah didn't yet know how to fly using a flying sword, Lily and Rose carried them on their own swords.

As they flew through the air above the forest, Lily and Rose used the opportunity to teach Valeria and Leah how to balance themselves on the flying swords, as mastering this would make it much easier for them to learn to fly on their own.

After a few hours of flying, Valeria and Leah began to balance themselves on the swords without Lily and Rose's assistance. If they were about to lose their balance, Lily and Rose would quickly grab them, preventing them from falling.

—

"Your Majesty, we've entered Lord Walton's territory. We will soon arrive at Roth City!" the captain of the royal knights suddenly informed King Richard, Concubine Aurelia, and Prince Tristan, who were getting bored inside the cabin of the luxurious carriage they were riding in.

"How long will it take us to get there, Captain Claus?" Prince Tristan asked, feeling embarrassed as Aurelia continued to tease him.

"With our current pace, we should arrive before dawn. But if we increase our speed a bit, we could get there sooner," Captain Claus replied after a moment of thought.

"I see... I'll look into the matter. Don't worry; if we find anything, I'll inform you immediately," King Richard responded after a moment.

"I will be forever grateful to you, Your Majesty," Lord Walton said, bowing his head slightly, his heart filled with gratitude.

Shortly after, they arrived at the mansion, and Lord Walton immediately ordered his chefs to prepare food for the guests.

—

Yuan was sitting in a lotus position in front of the stone tablet, seemingly deep in a trance. Despite his eyes being closed, he could still see the stone tablet in his mind, and every sword mark appeared vividly, almost as though his eyes were open and he was staring directly at it.

The sword marks were deep and refined, almost as though they were not made by a sword but carved into the stone tablet by a great artist. Each mark was clean, without any flaws, as if they had been polished to perfection.

Then, all of a sudden, the sword marks on the stone tablet began to disappear one by one, surprising Yuan with this unexpected phenomenon.

A few moments later, all of the sword marks vanished from the stone tablet, leaving it completely clean and untouched, as if it had never been struck by a sword.

Seconds later, Yuan saw a figure suddenly appear before him, facing the stone tablet. The figure wore the same white mask as the phantom that had brought him to this place, and in its hand, it held a very familiar sword. Yuan recognized it immediately—Empyreal Oblivion, his own soul weapon.

Yuan was shocked by this, but he was unable to utter a single word, as if some mysterious force was preventing him from speaking. He tried to ask the figure why it was holding his sword, but no sound came from his mouth.

He then watched the masked figure raise the sword and strike the stone tablet repeatedly, creating multiple sword marks. Each movement was as graceful as a calligraphy expert stroking a brush on paper. For a moment, Yuan thought he might be hallucinating from staring at the stone tablet for so long.

However, everything was too vivid to be a hallucination; it was as if he were standing directly in front of the masked figure, watching the scene unfold. He could even hear the sound of the sword striking the hard stone.

Soon, the stone tablet returned to its original form, covered in multiple sword marks. But once again, the sword marks on the stone tablet disappeared shortly thereafter.

Once they had completely vanished, the masked figure repeated the process, striking the stone tablet multiple times with the exact same movements, as if a video were being replayed from the beginning.

This scene repeated itself thousands of times, and Yuan finally understood that he was experiencing enlightenment once again. What he was seeing and feeling was the process of enlightenment—it was as simple as that.

The same scene kept repeating, as if Yuan were caught in a time loop, watching the same sequence unfold tens of thousands of times. With every strike, he sensed the Sword Aura from the sword and the marks more clearly than before.

An unknown amount of time had passed when Yuan found himself able to move within this state of enlightenment. He immediately stood up in his mind and approached the masked figure.