Strange happenings.

After the ranting of the black-clothed man he and Jason finally reached the faction.

Jason had been on high alert as he expected the man to suddenly attack but was surprised to discover that the man didn't even make a move to attack.

'Seems he is scared to attack a handsome fellow like myself Again" If only Jason knew that the man had wanted to try a sneak attack on them but he could only discover that he had lost his affinity to the essence of nature he would be truly wrecked with surprise.

They reached a gigantic golden gate with countless dents that seemed to form a dragon design. It had two pillars on either side that were made of some brown rock, there were four guards clothed in black wear with a crescent moon emblem on them. They looked extremely small compared to the gigantic gate that towered over them.

Seeing the man in front of them crawling a guard stopped them, seemingly the leader because only he had three stars on his armband, unlike the others with just 1 star on their armband. He had extremely short brown hair, grey eyes and dried lips.

He said in a loud voice "What is going on here?"

Jason slowly dropped Logan to the ground and slightly he let out a breath before approaching the guard as he narrated all that happened from their journey to the Azure forest and all other events that transpired.

He showed his jade to the guards.

"What happened to him?" the guard in charge asked as he pointed towards Logan.

"I don't know what happened to him, he has been unconscious since I woke up"

"Okay, Van write a report and send these two to get treated."

***

Jason and Logan were taken to a room where a lady with black hair and grey eyes was, she looked to be in her mid-thirties and Jason could not help but slightly look at her chest... Cough... Cough...

She checked their pulse for any issues, after a while light radiated from her hand hovering over Jason's body before she examined Logan as well.

When she was done she realised there was nothing wrong with either of them "It seems there's nothing wrong with your friend, he is just tired and might have overdrawn his essence, give him some time to sleep and he will be as good as new"

"Okay miss, that's great news!" Jason said happily.

"You may go, leave him here"

"Err miss, you said he may have overdrawn his essence?" Jason asked quizzically.

"Yes, is anything the matter?"

"No nothing, I just wanted to confirm." Jason said as he stood up to leave "Thank you" he managed to mutter.

"You don't need to thank me, I'm just doing my job"

"Right, thank you once again," he said as he shut the door behind him.

As he went back outside he could not help but mutter to himself "Logan has an affinity to the Essence of nature? But if he had an affinity why would he keep that from me? I mean we're best bros! Anyway when he wakes up I'll ask him about it"

***

"What is the result?" a man clad in a grey robe. He had a white long beard and brown arc eyebrows. He asked as he gazed at the lady before him with a grim look.

"I'm sorry sir the result is negative!" she managed to mutter under the fierce gaze of the man.

Bang!

A loud sound echoed in the room as another man behind him punched the wall with his right hand creating a dent in it, the man was clad in a similar grey robe but seemed quite younger with grey hair and black eyeballs.

"Gary! Tell me everything that happened! How did you lose your affinity to the essence of nature? This has never happened before!" the man said with a firm tone laced in his voice.

"I don't know how it occurred, there was an elemental beast in flames that attacked me while I was there," the man in black that attacked Logan and Jason known as Gary said in a shaky voice.

"An elemental beast in flames? Tell me everything from the beginning!" the man with the white long beard said.

Gary recounted all the events that occurred.

"Lydia can you explain if there is a way to restore my son to normal? " the man with black eyeballs said from behind the first elder.

"I don't think there is a way, watch this!" Lydia, the lady that treated Logan and Jason said as she approached Gary.

White light radiated on her hand as she slowly moved it closer to Gary, but what happened next left them all speechless.

As the white light reached Gary and sunk into his skin a deep dark purple illusory auralike thing emerged and seemed to devour all the white light that came in contact with him.

All the elders slightly took a step back for the fear of the unknown.

Gary seemed to remember something as he looked at looked at the purplish thing emerging from his body.

"I recall something!"

"That purple thing! I remember something like that coming out from the creature's hand and it placed it inside me, I was in unimaginable pain and I didn't know why! But now seeing this it seems that figure in flames must have absolved all my cultivation and affinities to the essence of nature"

"saying it absorbed your cultivation must not be true! That's too exaggerating" the first elder said.

"But I felt it! My cultivation seemed to recede, level after level, from the intermediate realm, I could feel that I had returned one step backwards to the elementary realm, that was when I passed out but I could still vividly recall that feeling" Gary said in a pained voice.

All the elders looked at one another and there was a moment of silence before the first elder finally spoke. "We need to go to the place where this battle occurred!"

He turned and made a tearing sign in the air with both his hands. The fabrics of space around him seemed like a cloth as they slowly made tearing sounds. The fact that the elder has to exert so much force just to create a portal whereas the little girl from before only needed to say some words portrayed a little difference between their realms of cultivation which was like heaven and earth.

Soon a hole could be seen as the other side of the portal portrayed the image of the Azure Forest.

"Gary! Lead the way!"