Chapter 50: Paradise Palace

The next day after their little training session, Hai was peacefully eating some fruits for his breakfast along with everyone.

"Guah…" A weak groan from a seemingly dying animal was suddenly heard at the dining table.

Turning to the side, Hai saw Hong Li-Wei lying on the table, much like a corpse, and Kryn was also the same, but she didn't groan.

"You okay, sweet?" Hai asked while taking another bite of his apple.

Hong Li-Wei raised her head from the table just enough for her to glare at Hai.

"Yes, Mr. Sadist. I'm very much okay, thanks to a certain someone torturing me yesterday." She said while remembering his lessons after both she and Kryn showed their genius selves by learning new ways of manipulating mana on their own.

"Oh dear, who would be so cruel as to torture such a beautiful bunny?" Hai asked while putting a hand on his mouth.

"…" Everyone at the table silently looked at him in disbelief at his thick skin and shamelessness.

"It was you, you demon." Hong Li-Wei stated while narrowing his eyes and glaring harder at him.

Kryn also rose her head from the table and stared at him.

"Me? Impossible. Yesterday I was having fun with a cute little girl and my beautiful bunny girlfriend. I couldn't possibly torture someone in the meanwhile." Hai pointed at himself before shaking his head and saying that it wasn't him.

"…" A vein bulged on Hong Li-Wei's forehead, but she chose to not comment on it.

"By the way, Mr. Lovely." Chang Hua suddenly interrupted their talk while putting down a bowl of rice and looking at Hai.

"Huh?" He just looked at her and waited for what she was going to say while ignoring two girls glaring at him.

"I will be taking you all on a small tour through my estate today. I want you to know a bit about the palace because if someone tries to cause you any trouble, you will have an idea of who to talk to and what you can and can't do." Chang Hua stated while getting up.

"Shall we go?" She questioned while looking at everyone.

Hai took one last bite of his apple and shattered it into small ice particles before getting up.

"Yeah, show us the way, master." Hai commented playfully while walking towards her.

Chang Hua just smiled at his words, but didn't comment further and went towards the door.

Everyone also got up and followed her to the door.

Kryn who was walking alongside Hong Li-Wei, suddenly walked faster and arrived close to Hai.

"Huh?" Hai looked downwards when he felt someone tugging his pants.

When he looked at the culprit, he saw Kryn extending her arms toward him.

"Carry." She said with an expressionless face, but slight red cheeks.

Hai just smiled at her and picked her up before putting her on his shoulders.

Hai thought, fully aware that the girls would probably hear his thoughts.

He decided to run a few more tests and see who, when and where they can hear his thoughts.

And although the idea of someone else hearing one's inner thoughts would be disturbing to other people, Hai wasn't that much bothered. He has lived for nearly a century with the system possibly spying on him and having to hide his own thoughts, sometimes even from himself, so the girls hearing them isn't that much worrying for him.

Besides, if he wanted to, he could make sure that they wouldn't understand a single thing of what he is thinking. Although he didn't meet one yet, Hai was always on guard against mind-type mages, one of the most hated mages on this planet.

They could do things like mind reading, telepathy, mind control etc, hence Hai developed measures that allow him to hide his thoughts, program his brain to think in certain ways or codes that only he understands, or even forget something and only remembers after a certain period of time or through a trigger.

Also, Hai found this (most likely) system's feature, something rather useful.

When he talked with Elena about him opening himself, he honestly didn't know if he would even be able to do it someday, like, he wants to, but his thoughts are so complicated when he thinks about telling them something, that Hai nearly gave up several times.

Hence, them hearing his thoughts will probably save him some trouble.

And from what he has seen so far, everyone in this group aside from Jia can hear it.

He won't question Elena nor Hong Li-Wei as to why they didn't tell him about it as he knows that they have their reasons. He will wait for them to tell him about it, as he knows that he can trust them.

And about Bing Qing and Stella hearing his thoughts…

That is also good.

If Stella were to somehow turn against him and use her family to try to do him or his loved ones any harm, controlling her by making her think she knows what he will do, is going to be easy. And the same thing goes to Bing Qing.

The easiest way to make an enemy fall is to make them assume they know what is going to happen and that they can deal with it.

Coming out of his thoughts, Hai noticed that some of the girls gave him a brief glance, to which he kept smiling while pretending he didn't see.

Looking at him from the corner of her eyes, Chang Hua shook her head inwardly. She still can help but be skeptical at how Hai can deal with mind-related things so easily and as if they are just your casual everyday's stuff.

After exiting the mansion, she used her aura and made a whitish platform.

"Everyone, get on." She said while jumping on the platform.

Hai followed suit with Kryn sitting on his shoulders and holding his head.

Shortly after, everyone got on the platform and Chang Hua started to show the amazing control she has over her aura.

Controlling the platform, it started to fly at a reasonably high height and it then went towards what appeared to be a small city located a few kilometers away from the mansion.

Chang Hua went beyond just controlling the platform and made it a cube that turned invisible from the outside.

Hai looked at his aunt's aura control and once again felt amazed at it.

Few are the ones who truly master the control over their energy. Most just learn fancy and powerful techniques to throw devasting punches or cast city-leveling magics, and they end up with a mediocre control over their own energy, thus resulting in them being a good punchbag.

Looking outside, the girls admired the strange yet beautiful scenery that is the palace.

A palace is a place where people go to study the deep paths of magic and martial arts. As such, palaces generally tend to be eccentric places due to all the different people from different races and places that come here.

One such example is the sight in front of them now.

In front of the group was a classical chinese pagoda.

However, the pagoda was everything but simple.

The chinese pagoda was built with wood that had some dim blue lines running through it; LED-like screens for the multiple edges that glowed in neon colors and holograms floating in a circular manner around the pagoda, advertising what services the building offers.

Another example was a fantasy-like tavern which its roof was covered in grass and plants, making it so it's hard to see from above.

This tavern also had some holograms serving as signs and sharing the menu available in the establishment.

There were also many other very unique establishments, but while the group was paying attention to them and Chang Hua patiently answered their questions, Hai was paying attention to the people who were walking on the streets.

All of them without exception wear a robe with or have in their clothes an emblem of a white lily at the top of a mountain.

Hai saw people of several different races ranging from the common troll, orc, elf and human to more exotic and rare ones like fairies, drows, druids, and some others.

'The work to maintain a balance with all those races in the same place must be immense.' Hai thought.

Although some races have no problems with each other, there are some like drows and elves who don't quite mix well, and this is putting it mildly.

While looking at the people on the ground, Hai also caught sight of several of them with cybernetics implanted in their bodies, however, most of those were only some minor ones, like: fists, feet, a few bones, ears, or even fingers.

With his sight, Hai could see that those people limited themselves to only implanting small and not-so-impactful cybernetics on their bodies as the cybernetics hinder one's energy flow and makes it difficult for one to progress, as they would need to strengthen the few remaining "original" organic parts that are in their cybernetics.

And this is why most of the mages and martial artists don't use cybernetics aside from the ones to connect themselves to the Nexus Net.

Hai stole a peek a Stella who was looking at some buildings with a calculating gaze and nodded inwardly.

Vampires are a generally feared race due to their regenerative ability. This ability of theirs allows them to use cybernetics more efficiently as they can integrate themselves better with it and can even use aura or mana without much problem, they just explode their cybernetics until they learn how to manipulate energy inside them with their cybernetics naturally.

So, vampires can take the best of both worlds. The stronger body granted by the cybernetics, and the further strengthening of their bodies given by martial arts or the devastation given by magic.

Though Stella is rather weak compared with some vampires of whom Hai has heard of.

"And that there is called Meditation Lake. It's where-"

"Elder Chang Hua." As Chang Hua was explaining a few of the most notable spots in her estate to the girls, a familiar annoying voice was heard across her estate.

*SIGH*

Sighing with visible irritation, Chang Hua turned to Lin Feng who was floating a few meters away from them and looking directly in their direction.

"What do you want now?" She didn't even bother in calling his name as she knows that the conversation is going to be annoying anyway.

Lin Feng didn't express the anger that both Chang Hua and Hai expected, but instead gave them a few words which made both raise their eyebrows.

"The palace master has called upon you to explain yourself about your little guests. She has asked me to take you to her place." Lin Feng said while smiling and making sure that his voice could be heard loud and clear.

Chang Hua held in the urge to sigh again and her face turned serious.

"Watch your tongue, 'elder' Lin Feng. The palace master doesn't call anyone to explain themselves about their rights. Your words are implying something which the palace master didn't convey. Are you ready to bear the consequences of your poisonous tongue?" She asked while narrowing her eyes.

If the palace master were to get wind of this, then Lin Feng wouldn't just walk away scoot-free.

Lin Feng clicked his tongue after being called out for it, but didn't reply to her words.

"Follow me." He turned around and flew towards the center of the mountain.

That is what he tried to do.

*BAM*

"What?" Lin Feng blurted out after falling from the sky.

He looked around confusedly and saw the people's faces when looking at him.

After seeing their expressions, Lin Feng quickly recomposed himself and took off to the sky again.

Turning towards Chang Hua and her group, he simply coughed while feigning that nothing happened.

"As I said: follow me." He turned around and once again fell like a rocket to the ground.

Chang Hua smiled while holding back her laughter before she turned towards Hai.

Hai had one finger of his right hand pointed downwards. Then, he stopped and simply put his hand in his pocket.

Right after, Lin Feng felt as if an invisible force had been lifted off of his body.

"What?" He blurted out, but after hearing some stifled laughs, his face flushed red and he vanished from where he was and appeared in the sky again.

Without saying another word, he silently flew toward the center of the mountain.

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A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!

So, what do you guys think about this chapter? This one was more of an info dump though, but I think it was necessary to explain some things. Also, you all should know it already, but I'm terrible with scenery and such, so I most of the time leave it to the readers' imagination. Please comment what you guys thought about the brief sightseeing the group had and what could be done to make it even better.

Comment what you thought about this chapter. If you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.

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