The Incident In the Upper Realm

After Lia had sat down next to Master Sal, Master Sal sighed and crossed his hands. "I know you probably have a lot of questions, Lin Ke, and I will try to answer you to the best of my ability, however, I ask one thing of you, and one thing only. Never speak to anyone about what you saw last night. No one." Master Sal urged.

Lin Ke thought about it for a moment, and glanced over at Lia. She was looking down at her hands with a sorry expression on her face. "Well, first off, what was that last night? Why was it so important that you had to lock me up for it?"

Master Sal furrowed his brows and thought. He was debating whether or not he should tell Lin Ke the truth. Finally, he said, "Promise me first though, that you'll never leak this secret to anyone."

"I promise I won't."

Master Sal takes a deep breath and looks intently at Lin Ke, whose face is dead serious. Perhaps he was looking to see whether Lin Ke was sincere in his statement, and what Master Sal saw was satisfactory in his opinion.

"You probably already realized this, but we are from one of the upper realms. Well, one of the upper realms as compared to this realm. As compared to where you're from, perhaps not…" Master Sal says.

Lin Ke blinks, and tries to keep a calm face. 'Upper Realm? What? Why does he think I'm from an upper realm? And an even higher one than him?'

Trying to seem as if he knew what Master Sal was talking about, Lin Ke interrupts. "What makes you think I'm from an upper realm?" He quickly adds, "Because, you know, I don't think I've done anything to expose myself. Plus, my cultivation level and artistic ability is kind of low for an upper realm don't you think?"

Master Sal looks at him with a weird look. Then he stops to think about what Lin Ke just said. 'He does have an insanely low, almost pitiful cultivation level… Plus, his artistic ability is nowhere near a match for the abilities of the higher Realms.' A surprised look flashes across his face. 'Is it possible? He's not from a higher realm? Then… then how did he break my World Prison Art? No impossible.'

Master Sal chuckles, "Who knows.. Eheheh. Maybe you're hiding your abilities…" He moves on quickly, "Anyways, we were from a high-class family in our realm and were well-respected with many allies. However, on the night that Lia was born, the moon split apart. It splintered, shattering into millions of pieces, and some of those pieces came hurtling down towards the ground. They came down so fast, no one could react, and before we could stop it, one of the pieces stabbed right into the newborn Lia."

Hearing this, Lin Ke looked at Lia, horrified. 'A piece of the moon? The moon was huge! How was she still here? Plus, when the piece came down, would it be flying down at terminal velocity? Does physics work the same way? How was she not severed in half?'

Master Sal continues, "Thankfully, it was a smaller shard and with the help of our physicians, Lia didn't immediately die. However, it was what happened moments later that was the most surprising.The shard embedded itself in her body, and rapidly, the wound caused by it cleared up. The spot where it landed, the middle of her chest, still has a faint scar from the incident though."

Lin Ke couldn't help but glance at Lia's chest, which was by no means small. It was a perfect middle ground, and- Lin Ke quickly shook his head, 'Lin Ke? What are you thinking about right now? Pay attention.'

Lia seemed to have noticed someone staring at her though, and looked up to see Lin Ke gazing at her intently. She blushed and looked away again.

Master Sal didn't notice this(thankfully) and continued to speak. "That night came to be known as the Lunar Destruction Night. However, what was even more surprising was that right afterwards, all the other loose shards from the moon gathered once again and rearranged itself into the moon. The shard inside Lia though, didn't disappear. There were a rare few children like Lia, and survived getting stabbed by the shard, and all of them, like her, were born that night. The total number is uncertain, but they all gained unusual powers. The Shard of the Moon had turned itself into a part of Lia's body."

Lin Ke felt so confused. He had so many different questions but didn't really want to ask and risk exposing himself for being ignorant. He decided to save it for later.

Master Sal continued however, "Due to this incident, all the children who had been blessed with this power were hunted down by those with ulterior purposes. Someone who had witnessed the incident in our household betrayed us and told of the incident to the other major families, causing them all to turn against us. We were unable to resist, and on one night, only a few days after Lia was born they massacred everyone in the family, only me and Lia were able to escape, perhaps along with a few lucky others, but we had to escape to a lower realm in order to remain undetected."

Master Sal finally finishes his story. "Do you get it now? Why can't you speak about any of this?"

Lin Ke thought over everything he had heard. He looks at Lia with a pitying gaze. Turns out, she had had such an unfortunate childhood, being unable to remember her own parents, and to be forced to flee to a small lower realm and live her life in fear that someone would find out about her secret.

Lia looks up and meets Lin Ke's gaze. She has a face of pure determination and resoluteness. "I'll definitely get more powerful! I'll get stronger, and one day, I'll get revenge for my family!" She clenches her fists tightly.

Master Sal glances at Lia sadly, and then turns to Lin Ke. "Well, what about you? Would you be willing to tell us who you are?"