Listening closely to the hushed murmurs of the soldiers as they shuttle back and forth from one district to the next, the most you'd pick up is the hot news of chaos in the Levi Sector.
Listen more closely and you'll hear a frequent mention of names like Memento Mori, and Leonardo, among other things.
Stephan is but an ordinary, honest to god soldier who always kept to himself. A funny guy, always humble to others, almost as though he'd allow anyone to walk over him. Today, as usual, Stephan was helping out as best as he could by doing chores and cleaning the bedding of his comrades.
He overlooked the typical fluids that usually signified a pretty hot night even as he made his way around the room. While cleaning, his ears were ever attentive to the discussions of his 'friends', and a piece of news greatly shocked him.
Flustered, Stephan almost tripped off the bedding, drawing the attention of everyone else in the room.
"Hey Steph, you okay buddy?"
"Don't mess up the sheets man! I have a good guest coming in tonight! Haha!"
"Yeah— haha," Stephan laughed awkwardly. "Sorry guys, I'm not feeling well today, I'll come back to help later…"
Dropping these words, Stephan hurriedly dashed out of the room, rushing to his place of stay even as the words of his comrades lingered in his ears.
The other soldiers were caught abacweirdly eyeing the other. However, they quickly forgot about it and continued to discuss animatedly about the bad luck that befell the Levi Sector.
When Stephan rushed into his bedroom, he slammed the door shut quickly and anxiously. Then, he flipped the bedding of his bed, a pitch-black dagger hidden below the covers.
Taking a deep breath, Stephan picked up the dagger with a pair of trembling hands. Nonetheless, the resolution was evident in his eyes even as he began to roll up the sleeves of his military uniform.
Taking the dagger in his shaky hand, Stephan prayed inwardly and began to carve words on the flesh of his arm. One letter at a time, even as blood flowed and he bit down on his lips.
The letters quickly rotted on his skin, turning a poisonous black. The more he wrote, the less he felt from his arm. Eventually, he wrote three words.
Leonardo. Levi. Sector.
"Hah!" Stephan breathed out, sweat drenching his forehead. This wasn't all, though.
Next, he held the dagger to his heart, muttered a few words, and stabbed fiercely. The dagger instantly zapped Stephan clean of his energy, essence, and spirit while the words on his arm flared up into a frightening inferno.
There was no odor of burnt flesh nor ashes that remained behind. In fact, it was almost as though Stephan was being burned away from existence as pain wracked his entire body. In moments, the man was gone from this world and the dagger dropped with a clang, quickly disintegrating.
Miraculously though, as the energy fluctuations attempted to leave the protective formation and carry the message, it went smoothly without a hitch.
Obviously, there was a hidden hand in the dark allowing these people to smoothly send out the signals. Stephan wasn't the only one to suddenly disappear from the outer regions, a minimal estimate puts the number of disappearing soldiers around the threshold of thousands.
…
In the garden of the pagoda's fourth layer, Leonardo leaned back against an ancient tree while he enjoyed the shade and the fresh taste of spiritual fruit not unlike grapes. The sweet, juicy flavor is something he missed dearly.
Ever since he was apprehended by the Realm King of the Middle Dimensions back in the day, ever since leaving Arcadia and that forsaken stellar world, he hadn't enjoyed such delightful delicacies.
"Just saying," Leonardo suddenly spoke up, "I won't be joining the fighting. At least, not overtly."
"I know." Emily rolled her eyes as she stood in the distance, exasperated about Leonardo explaining the obvious.
She set a curious eye on Leonardo. "Aren't you worried the fighting might shake the grass and startle the snake? I mean, what if the conflict between my army and the hidden sect disciples expose the whereabouts of your two companions?"
Leonardo chewed at his grapes as he silently contemplated this warning, smiling a moment later as he said, "They'll be fine, a few divinities out on scouting won't pose a threat to my woman, especially when she's accompanied by that subordinate of mine."
Even though he said this, Leonardo was fighting every urge in his body to go over and take a look.
He knew how headstrong Nier can be, and if they met now, she would insist on following him around.
"What makes you so confident?"
Emily was intrigued by the source of Leonardo's confidence. So, while she tacitly allowed the secret messages to leave her protection formation, she decided to entertain herself in a session of questioning.
Leonardo didn't mind her question, he had already exposed the techniques anyway so he said, "Each of my close subordinates is special. For example… Do you remember Rosaline from back then? She has the full Lotus of Heaven and Earth sword technique imprinted in her body and mind."
Emily was shocked. "Are you saying this isn't the technique you cultivate?"
Leonardo gave her a weird look. "Why would I give you my personal technique? I've only passed it down to one person so far, my daughter. Ah, given the time dilation inside and outside the Core Mainland, she should be around sixteen years old now."
Emily found herself rushing next to Leonardo in no time, looking him up and down with wide eyes as she asked. "You have a daughter too?!"
It couldn't be helped as according to the common sense of cultivators, the more talented they are, the more they delay things such as having children.
Emily didn't know that Leonardo's race didn't bother much about talent and accomplishment, but focused more on bloodline purity. Even if the person didn't cultivate, the potential in their bloodline would be there for when they eventually start cultivating.
Hence, Leonardo wasn't worried about Aria's future accomplishments, but he was curious about where his mother, Nightshade, Wendy, and Aria went to after leaving Earth, prior to its destruction.
After the shock, Emily quickly realized the important point of what Leonardo said.
She inquired, "How many other techniques do you have then? I mean for your subordinates."
Leonardo gave Emily a look. "I have seven of them, but I haven't found people worthy enough for these techniques yet, so far only two of them."
Before she could say anything, he added, "Forget about it, it's too late for you to receive one of the seven techniques since you've already achieved rebirth without it as a foundation. At most, you can master the seventy-two strikes of the Earth Lotus, that would be your limit no matter how far your cultivation goes."
Leonardo shrugged with a sigh. "Even then, these should be enough for you to dominate the entire Core Mainland when your cultivation reaches the peak of this world."
Actually, Leonardo already had a candidate in mind for the Third Twilight spot; Merlin.
That woman's brain functions on a whole different dimension from ordinary people. After consuming the 5th-tier medicine, Dew of Life, her constitution should permit her to cultivate normally.
Leonardo already tasked Rosaline to supervise Merlin's cultivation as he delivered a magic-oriented cultivation technique for Merlin's sake. This should help her build a good foundation for when Leonardo eventually optimizes a cultivation technique derived from combining Dizmason's inheritance together with Wendy's co-soul.
Even now, Leonardo's split soul was ever-calculating these techniques whenever he wasn't occupied with more pressing matters.
Emily's expression darkened, understanding the hidden message in Leonardo's words. If she wanted to fully master the technique, she must destroy her star core and recultivate from the absolute start.
That's easier said than done, especially when she's surrounded by enemies on all sides.
Emily sighed. "Forget it! I'll be content with what I have."
Even as she spoke, a crazy idea came to her mind.
She could always dual cultivate with Leonardo and complement the lacking laws in her body of law from Leonardo's body of law, and as time progresses, she could make up for the lacking foundation.
However, she wasn't so desperate as to resort to dual cultivation. As Leonardo mentioned, the nine strikes he promised her, together with their variations, are more than enough to dominate the Core Mainland in the future.
"Wait," Emily suddenly realized. "You're leaving the Core Mainland in the future?"
How can she dominate this place if she had Leonardo and his seven freaks of subordinates to worry about?
Obviously, he was implying that he wouldn't stay forever.
"What's so good about this place?" Leonardo shot back at her. "This entire plane can only support one Mainland, and it's barely hanging on. If this Core Mainland doesn't crumble onto itself one day, then it'll most likely end up being refined by some powerful existence instead."
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