Death... and me

After that, Rean and Roan's vision went dark once again. When they finally returned to themselves, they were lying on the ground near the Soul Gem Orb. Kentucky, Celis, Liza, Luna, and quite a few of the kids were looking at them. None of them seemed worried, though. That's because Sister Orb explained to them that they were fine.

[Oh! It seems like you're back. That's great. So, how was it? Did it clear up some of your questions?] Sister Orb asked, who seemed excited.

Kentucky sighed in relief after seeing that they were awake. "I have to say, although I wasn't worried about you, I was still worried about the time."

"Time?" Rean and Roan were slightly surprised to hear that.

"That's correct." Celis agreed with Kentucky, saying, "You two have been in a sleeping state for four weeks straight. We only have two more days before one month mark where the kids will be thrown out will come."

"What?!" Rean and Roan were taken aback to hear that. That's next to no time at all!

Kentucky then said, "Alright. As long as you are back, that's enough for us. Besides, it might not be too bad since it confirmed that the Soul Rulers can't find the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm's location even after all this time stationed in their territory." Kentucky seemed very pleased with that already.

Celis then asked Rean and Roan, "So, what did you see?"

The twins looked at each other before saying, "Sorry, but we can only discuss it with Kentucky at the moment. I hope you don't mind." Rean tried to be polite as he said that. As much as Celis was connected to Kentucky and themselves, they had just met each other."

Celis didn't seem to be too surprised to hear that, responding, "That's fine. I'll leave you guys alone for now." With that said, Celis moved his roots, bringing his enormous body away as if it wasn't anything difficult.

After that, Kentucky looked at them and asked the same question, "So, have you gotten more answers?"

Rean nodded, saying, "Yes. A lot of things were revealed this time."

Kentucky, who also knew about everything, couldn't help but ask them to tell him. The twins then used Spiritual Sense messages to show Kentucky what happened in the past between Soul Gem and his organization. Only then did he get a general picture. "To think such a thing happened. Too bad that the recordings stopped right at the moment he embraced the Soul Gem Orb. I wanted to see what happened after that."

Roan nodded, saying, "Indeed. Nevertheless, it isn't hard to guess that whatever had happened separated the Universe into two right after. As for whether the Soul Gem Orb is Soul Gem himself or not, we can't be sure about that."

Rean also added, "We now know that the ones who attacked us were probably the Wafrol Forces' members. I can't imagine why anyone else would want to destroy the Soul Gem System."

[That's not entirely correct,] Sister Orb responded. [You have to understand that a lot of time has passed already. There's a very good chance that the Wafrol Forces doesn't even exist anymore. Perhaps the ones who attacked you had other agendas when they tried to destroy us. Of course, the Wafrol Forces are still the main suspects.]

"That makes sense." Roan agreed with Sister Orb. "Now then, let's check the system again and see if there's anything else we have access to."

The twins then sent their Spiritual Sense and Energy into the Soul Gem Orb and accessed the authority options. Unfortunately, the only thing available was the same Unification Plan option. Not only that, but it had a large line over it as if it had been crossed out. Even after trying to select it, nothing happened.

Surprisingly, it didn't stop there. Back then, Rean and Roan could ask questions to the Soul Gem System, and it would at least tell if they had the authority level to get an answer or not. However, the Soul Gem System didn't react at all even after they made several inquiries. It was as if it couldn't even hear their voices.

"Could it be another side effect of the system upgrade?" Rean asked after pondering about how everything had become harder now.

[Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything about it. It's the System's will, and I can only follow its commands.] Sister Orb was also of little help.

In the end, Roan shook his head. "Whatever. In the end, we've gotten a lot more answers from that vision than we expected." After that, he changed the topic. "Now then..." Roan looked at all the kids running everywhere and said, "What will we do with this bunch?"

Celis, who had left so that Kentucky, Rean, Roan, and Sister Orb could talk, came back at this moment. "If it's just food, I can provide some of my sap. For kids like them who have no cultivation whatsoever, half a drop is more than enough for them to not feel hunger for an entire day."

Kentucky confirmed that it was true. "As a World Swallowing Cedar, Celis absorbs all the nutrients you can possibly imagine. His sap is that good. Also, considering his size, this much sap could be regarded as a single drop in the bucket even after taking all the 3589 kids into consideration."

"That's good," Rean said as he sighed in relief. Food would be quite a problem even though they prepared it beforehand. "However, we still need to find a place for them to stay within these next two days. Otherwise, the System will immediately throw them all out."

Roan then moved to the Circuitry Teleport Formation before saying, "First, we need to leave this place. Don't forget that our exit is still inside the Soul Rulers' territory. Not to mention that if we're at risk, we won't be able to enter the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm anymore."

"That's right." Rean also headed above the teleport formation. "Sister Orb, do we still have enough Spiritual Energy outside to not need Spirit Stones?"

[Yes. Celis spent a really long time in this place, so it became a natural gathering of Spiritual Energy. Although the level of Spiritual Energy outside can't be compared to Rank Seven or Eight Spirit Stones anymore, it is still in the realms of a Rank Five or so.] Sister Orb continued, [Of course, this level will quickly decrease since it's still too high. I would say that the average concentration of Spiritual Energy here in the future will be between the Rank Three and Four Spirit Stone level.]

Rean shrugged his shoulders, saying, "That's not our problem. They used Celis for too long already. It's already time for them to cultivate slowly like everyone else. Just use the outside Spiritual Energy and fill up the Circuitry Teleport Formation."

[Alright. Rank Five Spirit Stones are able to charge the Circuitry Teleport Formation up to 21000 kilometers. If you want to teleport further than that, Rank Six Spirit Stones will be necessary,] Sister Orb explained as Spiritual Energy was siphoned from the outside world into the formation.

Rean and Roan didn't mind that much. After all, the Circuitry Teleport Formation had a limit of 3000 kilometers anyway. Not to mention that Rank Six Spirit Stones were way too unrealistic for the twins at the moment.

Eventually, the teleport formation finished charging up as the twins disappeared with a flash of silver light. Rean and Roan didn't even wait for their vision to clear up as they entered the Dimensional Realm again. Sure enough, the Spiritual Energy concentration outside decreased a lot after this first teleport, being equivalent to Rank Three Spirit Stones now. Nevertheless, that was enough for the Circuitry Teleport Formation to send them another 1000 kilometers further.

Rean and Roan didn't want to risk it, though. After all, the Soul Rulers' Ancestors were all above the Elemental Transformation Realm. Who knows what kind of detection ability they had? Perhaps just a few thousand kilometers was far from enough to escape from them.

From this point onward, they couldn't use the outside energy anymore since it wasn't strong enough. With that, they used the Rank Three Spirit Stones that Rean had gained during the auction house back in Vanesi City. There were more than ten thousand of them, so Rean didn't care. As always, 1000 kilometers was the limit for Rank Three Spirit Stones, costing exactly 1000 of those stones to teleport.

Nevertheless, Roan told Rean to not mind it and keep using it to teleport another 10000 kilometers away. Roan was a lot more interested in guaranteeing their safety than saving Spirit Stones. After all, he preferred life and death situations to train. However, fighting the Soul Rulers wouldn't be a life and death situation at all, but just pure suicide.

14000 kilometers away from the Soul Rulers' territory, Rean and Roan finally decided to stay out of the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm. For the first time, they allowed their eyes to adapt to the outside world to at least see where they were. However, they were shocked by the view in front of them.

"This..."

The ice world...was no more. As far as their eyes could see, there was a patch of green. There were almost no trees, but it was still a stark contrast to the ice world they had always known.

Roan immediately noticed another point, saying, "That's not all. Try to feel the Spiritual Energy in the area."

Rean nodded and absorbed some of it. Sure enough, Rean noticed it straight away. "Higher than Rank One but below Rank Two. The concentration is somewhere between. Incredible."

Little did they know that what they were seeing wasn't the only place like this. The entire world...had transformed.