Death... and me

The twins were then brought to an inconspicuous corner where a few other cultivators could be seen. Like Hurio and his sister, they all had the same brown hair and brown eyes. Of course, they also looked at Hurio with multiple expressions once they saw him. Some seemed angry, others looked felt he was an idiot, while some simply sighed. However, one thing was sure, none of them liked the fact that Hurio was here.

It was then that a younger woman came forward to ask, "Why did you come? You know how important you are to us. What if you had died?" From how she spoke, she seemed to have a closer relationship with Hurio, just like his sister.

Hurio rubbed the back of his head in response, saying, "I couldn't resist, Lilia. While everyone is here, trying to find Fallen Light Star Fragments, I'm the only one left behind. I'm not even sure why that is, so it didn't feel right."

*Smack*

*Ouch!*

Hurio's sister once again hit him after that, saying, "Didn't feel right? And you think it's right for you to risk your life like this? Remember, if you're gone, we're done for. You know that, but you still came. If killing you was an option, I would cut your head off right now."

Suddenly, an older voice intervened. "That's enough, Mira. Since he's here already, there's nothing we can do anymore. In a certain way, it's our fault for hiding our reason to come here from him. If it were you, would you stay still?"

"But Elder Lamanto..." Mira still found that he was being too lenient to Hurio. "Sigh... fine, I won't say anything anymore."

Rean and Roan looked at each other after that, having no idea what was happening. It didn't seem like it was an issue with Hurio's strength. After all, they could tell with their Divine Senses that some of the people there had lower cultivation than Hurio. That girl called Lilia was only a Middle Stage Saint, for example.

There were also three more people below in cultivation than Hurio himself. Of course, just like Hurio's sister, there were others who were above him. It was obvious that the reason they didn't want Hurio to come was something else.

Lamanto then looked at the twins and the big black and white bird behind them. "So... who are you two exactly?"

Mira then proceeded to explain about them. Naturally, Lamanto and the others were surprised to hear of Rean's Elemental Affinity. "Light Element Affinity? That's the first time I've seen one. But then again, there are many other odd elemental affinities out there I have never seen before as well."

Lilia agreed with the elder, saying, "No wonder they can detect Fallen Light Star Fragments as well. Everyone is always more sensitive to the same element as their affinity. His senses might be even better than our tablets."

Rean and Roan were still confused. "That's good and all, but can someone explain what's happening here? We don't need to know anything about your family or whatever. We just want to know about that barrier. From what we can see, it's possible to head to the other side, but the opposite is different."

Lamanto pondered in silence for a bit before saying, "I can't tell you much about us. All you need to know is the part that Hurio told you already. We're also looking for Fallen Light Star Fragments. Now that we got ahold of him, there's no need for you to follow Hurio or Hurio to follow you anymore."

Lamanto then looked at the barrier, continuing, "As for the barrier, we're as clueless as you are. We have never heard of such a phenomenon before. Perhaps the top ten powers don't know of it either. Otherwise, they would have acted already after all these months."

Rean couldn't help but ask, "Are you telling me that you guys have been stationed here for several months?"

Lamanto nodded in response. "Exactly. Although we don't know if the top ten powers' disciples know something, the fact is that they haven't entered the barrier at all. If even they don't dare to head to the other side, then almost no one else dares to either. Most of those who did, which you can see on the other side, are not able to come back. A few of them decided to explore the depths, so we don't know whether they're still alive or not."

Roan found it strange. "That doesn't make sense. This kind of situation would usually be followed by the thought that some treasures might have appeared or something like that. How come almost no one wants to risk it?"

Lilia answered that question, saying, "It seems like you're really not from here. For us, the top ten powers have a big influence on the rest. If they don't act, then the others won't. In a certain way, everyone else is waiting to move behind the top ten powers' tails and hope to get some scraps."

Roan then pondered over it for a bit before telling Rean through their Soul Connection, 'It seems our time with Hurio is over, so we should cross it ourselves. Whether we can come back from beyond the barrier or not doesn't matter. We need the Fallen Light Star Fragments since we're very close to the Elemental Transformation Realm already. Not to mention the Freezing Star Liquid from the auction.'

Rean knew what Roan was thinking. 'The Circuitry Teleport Formation, right? It has never found any barrier that it couldn't go past through, so we could come back using it.'

Roan was satisfied that Rean understood. However, it was then that Sister Orb told them. [You can forget about using the Circuitry Teleport Formation to come back from beyond the barrier. That thing is scrambling the spatial laws around it. With that being said, the teleport that was supposed to send you two through will fall short and will only make you appear right in front of it.]

The twins were taken aback after hearing that. 'Well, that makes things a little more complicated...'