the island of hope

"General Heng! look over there.. "

"ah.. wait! i am feeling very tired, my back hurts from sleeping on this tree, with my qi suppressed, I can't even heal myself."

General Heng said while putting his left arm on the waist.

"but General.. at least have a look." the guard said pointing to a large temple like stone structure, a few kilometers left.

"huh?.." he looked at the man, whose soldier armour had been destroyed by the carnivorous plants, and looked over where he was pointing.

"!!!" his eyes widened. "W-Whaaaaat?"

...

Lian family is the current ruler of the Kingdom of Zenos. they hold the most strength in the entire kingdom, many generals and their troops working for him.

General Heng is the Emperor Lian Yang's most loyal subordinate... or at least they think so.

it had been a century since he started serving the Lian family, he is a sharp old man, his white long hairs tied in ponytail, and beard shaved in a goatee he looked a few hundred years old ofcourse his appearance wouldn't lie about his age.

30 years ago Emperor Lian Yang, looked around the documents and letters of the family ancestors, and found out about the legacy tomb beneath the Royal Castle.

The underground tomb is well designed and propositioned, various traps and defense mechanisms were at work, there were rune characters and ancient letter flashing everywhere around the walls, very dense death qi and blood mist made the expedition harder.

after researching for a few months they got nothing, just a few heaven grade weapons, and some pills, and some wierd artifacts that, they don't sure about the uses.

they also recovered a few letters and scrolls, the scroll seemed to be containing martial techniques, but unfortunately for them they couldn't read a single word.

but the handwritten letter of their ancestors were written in their traditional language.

the letter stated some crucial information about their bloodline, the protection formation that had been passed down for centuries and more...

there is also a mention of a island, 'the island of hope' , and also this temple like structure.

...

"Ahem!" general Heng coughed and with his relaxed expression,

'first this island, and now this temple there must be some sort of connection to those notes,' the general was sure about anything, at least he could say this is a hybrid island, with this isolated environment and the suppression the beasts are here naturally stronger and efficient in combat.

for example last night they encountered some spirit monkeys,

in the main continent the spirit monkeys are one of the weakest beast they cant even be a match for first stage, level 3 cultivators.. like Ethan.

of course Ethan is far stronger than a ordinary 3rd level, with his sword arts he can rival early 2nd stage cultivators, and with the talismans from the store he is a lot stronger, well.. back to the point.

they had a very hard time dealing with the spirit monkeys, not only they are bigger in size and also very strong, if they were to compare it, it has the strength of a late 3rd stage cultivator.

this land has it's uniqueness and usefulness, just the fact is that they are the intruders.

the general, ordered the soldiers to back the belongings, foods. as they moved on.

...

meanwhile at the temple, the soldiers were standing around the door frame at the first floor, the portal has already disappeared.

the team with Mr Yan already knows that without external help it's impossible to leave the island, there seems to be some barrier that prevents anyone to enter or exit, as their only hope Mr Yan has disappeared, there is nothing they can do but to find or wait for general Heng and the other teammates

luckily the temple could be regarded as a safe zone, as there weren't any beasts and carnivorous plants nearby.

...

after being sucked into the portal Mr Yan found himself on dark room, fortunately his qi functioning was cleared and his strength of a 7th stage cultivator was back,

but as he had no idea about his current location or time.

with his spiritual sense intact he scanned the entire room,

the entire room is made of huge blocks of limestones, there were countless runes engraved on the surface of the walls that were out of his understanding.

he sighed as he helplessly sat on the floor while gazing at the ceiling, he foucused to recall about the island he heard from the Emperor...

Mr Yan is the one of the strongest and youngest cultivator, who reached the peak 7th stage cultivation, he is less than a hundred years old, but looked a like middle aged man, with thick black hairs, that messed up during their journey.

his body is muscular but bulky, he was indeed, what you can call handsome, dark eyes that contrasts with his fair skin.

why he followed General Heng to this island? well, that's something between him and the Emperor himself, he had to follow his order without any question.

...

Meanwhile General Heng and his team arrived at the temple,

"this is it! it must be the temple... the runes, that's it."

"General Heng! look they are in our unit."

the soldier extended his arms showing pointing the rest of the teammates on the first floor.

"hey you come down here," general Heng shouted at the soldiers who was sitting there in lotus position closing their eyes.

one of them opened his eyes and looked at the general, "G-General Heng?"

the general snorted and looked at the other one,

"all of our teammates here?" one of the remaining people on the other team asked while counting.

"Sir there is one missing."

"who is it?"

"Bai Yijun, sir.."

the general looked the 5 people carefully, and asked,

"What about Mr Yan?"

"T-That..."

"what? seen him anywhere?" the looked at the people suspiciously.

one of them stood up and went down the stairs and bowed to the general.

"Actually all of us regained consciousness near the shore, and Mr Yan is the one who led our team members to here-"

before he could finish general Heng interupted. "what? where is he ?"

"t-that.."

the general frowned from his behavior.

"what is it?"

"general last night when we found this temple, while we were looking for an way to enter, Mr Yan disappeared."

"!!!"

"what the heck, do you mean by disappeared? are you kidding me, believe me i will bury you alive" General looked at him with his eye emitting sharp killing intent.

"i-i am not, G-General Heng please believe me, you can ask the others..." the man knelt down, shuddering in fear.

"hey, all of you where is Mr Yan?"

"S-sir.. we are sorry.. but we don't have a clue, he suddenly disappeared."

"tsk,.." the general clicked his tongue while gazing at his soldiers.

...

"Mother, it's getting late i should take my leave..."

Ethan said while getting ready to leave as soon as possible... of course that's because the situation had turned awkward.

"W-Wait!... Ethan let's have lunch together, it's already time."

Elizabeth said desperately, wanting to spend more time with him,

that's right she wasn't bothered by all that happened, it's like a 180° change of attitude.

"...un" Ethan nodded without thinking much.

after sometime at the dining table downstairs, they both sat on the opposite, facing each other.

Elizabeth slowly chewing the meat, in a solemn manner,

while Ethan was also using fork and knife but was eating in a hasty manner, like a starving old man.

"it's very delicious mom, what is this mom?"

"this is the thunder sheep's meat.'

"ah.. "

the head maid Amelia smiled looking at him enjoying the food

"Mothe-" before he could say something she interrupted, "finish your food and we will talk later.

after they both returned to her room after lunch, they both fell on the couch with exhaustion,

"haah.. that was good.."

"do you want something to read, i have a lot of them.."

"..un"

she went to her small collection of books, and took out three of them.

"here.. these are my favorites you may like it."

currently she wasn't acting like his mother at all, she handed over to him, with a bright smile on her face.

"mom, there is something i wanted to talk to you about." he said while holding the books.

"don't worry i will keep an on him, and won't get into trouble."

he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to sit next to him, he made her blush by his sudden move.

"mom.. you know it's been years, i am stuck at the elementary qi realm, there was nothing i can do."

Elizabeth touched his cheeks with her soft hands and aaid

"Ethan... it's fine,"

Ethan felt a urge to cry, but felt odd as he wasn't really upset or something.. it was Ethan the previous owner of the body.

"mom, i found a way to breakthrough."

"W-What? you what?"

"yes mom i really found a way to breakthrough."

she looked shocked as tears slowly started to flow...

"mooom?"

"hehe.. it's just tears of joy, well tell me what is it?"

"well it's a treasure ingredient herb."

"A herb huh?, I never heard of any herb, that can assist someone to breakthrough, at least not for the 1stage cultivators

when you were stuck at the 3rd elementary qi realm, i summoned many alchemist, physician, and experts to help but they couldn't do anything to help, now you..."

"well you might never heard of it, this treasure is called 'supreme yang lotus',

i am stuck because of my inability to gather yin-yang qi directly from the surroundings, this would work as a internal supply."

she was enlightened, and upset at the same time, why didn't she thought of this before...

"Okay, i will arrange that for you ASAP!"

"no.. mom, i am planning to visit the Phoenix city."