The Path To Supremacy Is Through Cowardice

When he saw the scene in front of him, Astral's mind shut down. He was shocked to see Andra and Blade expressing their feelings for each other. Even after many conclusions, he hadn't considered this...

Andra's sharp gaze honed in on Astral, who stood motionless with a puzzled expression as her lips parted with Blade's, leaving a trail of glistening saliva.

"Bloody bastard..!" Andra's anger suddenly became apparent as her expression darkened. "You want to be our master but the moment something life-threatening takes place, you become useless!..."

Andra forgot about the strength disparity between them for a moment as she stared him down, killing intent practically oozing from her eyes.

Even under her killing intent, Astral remained stuck in his thoughts. Ignoring Andra's words, unintentionally, only fueled her rage.

"Come on now..." Blade's voice suddenly entered the duo's ears. His voice brought Astral back to reality as Blade said with a smile and his eyes forming crescent shapes. "Master is simply shocked that I was able to survive."

"To be fair, even I would have given up on someone whose heartbeat had stopped, and whose corpse had already begun turning cold."

He ruffled Andra's lustrous blue hair when saying this. A smile that made someone like Astral uncomfortable was ever present on his face.

'My disciple... something about him has definitely changed. Though it's too soon to say, his eyes seem much calmer than before, as if the whole world is in his palm?'

The dark purple pupil carried with it a sense of ancientness. If one was to see it, one would find themself lost, unable to distinguish what was true from false.

Sigh!

"Nothing I could do could help. As for how you survived an attack that was destroying you from within... Why don't you enlighten me, disciple?" Even under Astral's probing gaze, Blade remained indifferent.

"Every gain must be offset by an equal amount of loss. This is how the universe works..." In response to Astral, his words only served to perplex the master.

Andra had long given up trying to understand Blade's words; she would rather stop thinking and enjoy the sensation of being in the embrace of the one she loved.

"Anyway, none of that matters. At the very least, you've survived and appear to have grown significantly stronger; perhaps it's time to go out and look for some opportunities; after all, 'that' place is set to open soon..."

"That place?" muttered Andra. "Yes, it is a place that only geniuses under a certain age can enter, and it is filled with countless treasures, which obviously implies that it is riddled with numerous dangers, the most dangerous of which are other cultivators."

Hearing about this place for the first time, Blade's interest peaked. "This place you speak of, to enter, what exactly is the age limit...? Aren't you quite young yourself, so are you too going to enter?"

"One needs to be under one hundred and fifty years. Even though I am only one hundred and one, it isn't a given that this place would open in the next forty-nine years but, even if it does, I'll not go."

"It's too dangerous... When many geniuses interact, countless arguments followed and even if I am the strongest of this generation, most likely, I'll offend some old monster who could kill me with a wave of his hand. Then, why would it matter if I'm soo strong."

"I'd rather take the most direct route to the summit. Little disciple, you must understand that everyone in this Sect either fears me or looks at me with awe. Those who are afraid of me are the ones who are the most powerful."

"The reason is simple: as one grows stronger, they become more cowardly. The path to supremacy is true cowardice, and I much prefer to be cowardly from the start. I'm not going to offend anyone... I'll simply avoid all worldly concerns and quietly cultivate Immortality!"

Pfft!

Blade tried but couldn't stop laughing when he heard this master of his rant about the benefits of cowardliness. Wasn't this similar to himself when he first arrived in this world?

Only studying Immortality, even promising to wipe out all life on this planet to gain infinite Life energy.

"Master, if it had been me a few months ago, I'd have fallen in love with you. Two people thinking soo alike... It's much more romantic than falling in love with the other party's looks."

"I'm not all that attracted to men, so I'm glad you've found someone who satisfies the 'path' you wish to take..." Astral said dryly while looking at Andra.

...

...

While submerged in the waters of a beautiful lake that glistened in the sunlight, Athena drew in the surrounding Law Qi with her eyes closed.

The lake's water was reddish and radiated a lot of heat. Athena's figure was near the lake's bottom, near a mysterious flaming pearl object.

She sat in a meditative posture, calmly absorbing the pearl's Fire Qi.

In the skies, a slender female wearing a martial art style hanfu was watching the scene unfold. She was rather short, and even though she was fairly developed, she retained a child-like height.

"Where did this girl come from...? Even though the Sect Master said not to look into the past of anyone who joins the Sect, we'll take what we can get, but isn't this too much?"

Despite her outward appearance, she was regarded as one of the most experienced and powerful Elders within the Heavenly Celestial Sect.

One could only imagine how much experience she had in this world as one of the most powerful Elders, only second to the Sect Leader and the Overseers.

But, in all her years, she had never met someone like Athena. In fact, seeing the speed with which Athena cultivated made her Dao-Heart waver.

Two months ago, the word traveled around the Elders that an incredibly powerful contestant in the Martial Lord realm at the age of eighteen had appeared. When word got out, the whole upper echelon was left shocked. Wasn't this too exaggerated?

The news of Blade, a seventeen-year-old Martial Master was already enough to shock the world but this...! An eighteen-year-old Martial Lord, of course, the Heavenly Celestial Sect needed to suppress this news.

'This speed at cultivating... To learn my Battle Art one needs to be a Martial King or higher and I expected that in a few years, with her talent, she'll enter the Martial King realm but... With this speed, would it even take a full year?!'

In a mere two months inside this special lake filled with Firey Qi, Athena's cultivation skyrocketed to the peak of the Low-Level Martial Lord realm.

'But with such a fast speed, there must be some type of equal exchange.' This Elder's face changed in an instant. Down below, in the depths of the lake, next to Athena, cracks began forming on the surface of the mysterious pearl...

Boom!

Underwater, there was a muffled explosion. Athena's eyes opened simultaneously as a red flaming aura engulfed her body for a brief moment before being absorbed completely, integrating with her body and strengthening her bones and muscles.

Sigh!

"Even though the cultivation speed is too perverted, the amount of resources required is also excessive. I'm afraid that..." The Elder mumbled something.

"I guess I've got no choice but to try my luck." The Elder was startled to hear Athena's voice. As she floated out of the lake, she asked her master, "Master, are you going to let me leave the Sect now? I'm confident that with my luck, I'll be able to take advantage of some fortuitous opportunities."

Athena's voice was tinged with excitement. She was bored with this place, only wishing to leave as soon as possible. By now she had completely understood the reason behind the sudden acceptance of disciples and also understood where she wanted to go.

'To the Limitless Sky Sect where the Young Holy Child Blade Pure-Heart is...!' Athena smirked when thinking this. It was just that...

"Why are you acting as if you've never seen the outside world? You joined my Heavenly Celestial Sect and just as quickly, you want to leave... Is this master not enough for you?"

It was just that her master seemed heartbroken by Athena's constant begging to leave the Sect so soon after entering. Was it due to her being Athena's master?

Tch!

"Master, we both know it has nothing to do with you."

"Your disciple simply has an adventurous personality... plus, isn't it obvious that I'm now in need of an opportunity to improve my cultivation?"

"You don't want this disciple of yours to die when the Holy Lands open or do you?!"

Hearing Athena's words, the Elder couldn't help but heave a sigh. Gazing at Athena's persistent glowing crimson eyes, she waved her hand, causing a mysterious scroll to appear.

Grabbing the scroll and opening it, Athena gave her master a bright smile beaming with joy.

At first, the item seemed like a normal scroll but, she understood that once she infused some of her Law Qi into it, the scroll would lead her in the direction of a treasure useful to her. For example, she had Fire Qi, so she'll be led to a treasure that also deals with Flames...