Chapter 45: 45. Reunion and Departure
The most significant improvement is his defense and fire element resistance. The fire element resistance did not improve much on his first visit, but it increased to an intermediate level due to being on the ground floor.
Kai is now capable of withstanding attacks from supernatural realm cultivators without getting injured. His strength did not increase, as he needed to form his essence, but he did not care about that. (A/N: Refer to chapter 25 for essence.)
"Senior brother Kai, your time is over." A disciple stood outside Kai\'s room and remained with him politely.
"Thank you for reminding me." Kai thanked him and left the refining tower. He went directly to his room and tried using his cosmic awareness ability. (Obtained in the will-cognition realm.)
He cultivates his willpower along with absorbing the fire element by using his parallel thinking ability. He reached the midstage of the will cognition realm, and he divided the willpower cultivation realms into low, mid, high, and peak levels to accurately grasp his process.
After using cosmic awareness, Kai got information about the past seven days. Yeah, he got information over seven days. The cosmic awareness ability lets him obtain information through cosmic entities. Everything that exists in the universe falls under the category of a cosmic entity, so Kai is capable of obtaining information about anything that happened in the real world.
(There is something other than the real plane, and it will be introduced in the future.)
The first time he used the ability, he was only able to obtain information for a few seconds, but it was a very drastic improvement. The reason was that he became familiar with the ability and also increased his willpower.
\'I should rest for this week and prepare for the opening of the secret realm\' thought Kai. While Kai was thinking, he heard a familiar voice.
"Kai, come out and open the door," Alex shouted from outside the room.
"Dad, Mom, when did you come to the sect?" Kai asked happily as soon as he saw them.
"Our first visit was with you; we didn\'t even report the completion of the mission," Riya replied with a smile.
"Okay, both of you come inside. We will continue our talk inside." Kai invited both of them.
Soon, the family gathered in a single room. Alex first asked about Kai\'s achievement.
"Kai, I heard you won first in the tournament. Keep up the good work." Alex said it proudly.
"Congratulations, baby. I never thought you would defeat everyone. I heard a lot of girls crazily talk about you." Riya said it happily.
"How did you hear the news so soon?" Kai asked because he wanted to surprise them by saying this.
"Well, a lot of disciples were talking about it since the secret realm is going to open soon. We found a person and asked him about the details; most of them became your fans." Alex explained the details.
"So, it is the reason. It seems I have become popular without any intention." Kai said it cheekily.
"Don\'t become complacent. You did not face any core disciples in the tournament, and all the core members will participate in the secret realm expedition. You don\'t know anything about them, but they know everything about you, so be careful in the secret realm." Alex explained the situation to Kai.
"Alex, keep quiet. Don\'t worry about that baby; there won\'t be much difference between you and them; you can defeat them easily." Riya encouraged him.
"Dad, mom, don\'t worry about me. I didn\'t use my full strength in the tournament." Kai replied proudly.
"Are you telling the truth? Since I heard your last attack is capable of seriously injuring a divine transformation realm cultivator, Alex asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, I had hidden almost 50 percent of my strength," Kai replied truthfully. He did not use anything related to willpower and only used Qi-related techniques, so he only used 50 percent of his strength.
"You only used fifty percent of your strength?" Alex asked again to make sure that he didn\'t hear anything wrong.
"Yeah, only fifty percent, and it is a hundred percent truth," Kai replied with a grin on his face.
Alex became speechless after hearing Kai\'s statement. He did not expect his son\'s strength to increase so much in such a short period.
"Okay, let\'s talk about this another time. First, both of you, where have you been for such a long time?" Kai asked doubtfully.
"We went on a mission. It is to find any suitable person with sufficient cultivation talent in villages." Riya replied in frustration.
"Did you go to the village for recruitment?" Kai asked in a joking tone.
"Yeah, our job is to recruit talented disciples for the sect from rural areas," Alex replied.
*HA HA HA HA HA*
Kai started laughing after hearing their answer, since both his parents did not like this kind of job.
"Hey, don\'t laugh. We are doing this job because of you." Alex said angrily.
"What did I do?" Kai asked in confusion.
"It was because of your birth that we had to take leave from the job for almost ten years, and they now want us to do this useless job," Alex explained.
"That isn\'t my fault. You were the reason." Kai counterattacked with these words.
Alex became speechless after hearing this; he didn\'t say anything after that.
"Okay, how long do you have to do this?" Kai changed the topic since the situation became slightly awkward.
"We still had to do this for ten years," Riya replied in a sad tone.
"Woah, ten years is a bit too long to do this boring job." Kai also understands their situation.
"Yeah, ten years is too long. So, we both decided to make this a vacation for us to visit other places. We won\'t be able to see you for the next ten years, so we come to visit before leaving." Alex said.
"Are you going to leave immediately?" Kai asked, a bit surprised. He did not expect them to leave this early.
"Yeah, the sect already gave us ten years of leave without any questions. Now, they asked us to do a job, so we decided to complete it as soon as possible out of respect. So, we will leave today," Riya replied.
"Okay, but since you came here, We will have a meal before farewell," Kai said, understanding their situation.
The family enjoyed their meal, and both Alex and Riya left the sect. They were going outside the Dragon Empire, so they wouldn\'t be able to contact Kai during these ten years unless they met by coincidence.
Kai went to sleep after their departure and continued his original plan for the next six days, which was to rest. Soon, the day of secret realm exploration arrived.
"Brother Kai, James came to visit you," James shouted from outside.
"Senior brother, did I make you wait for a long time?" Kai asked after seeing James. He is in the bath, so he arrived a little late.
"No, brother Kai. I don\'t mind that." James replied modestly.
Both of them went to the sect master peak. It is the gathering place for the participating disciples in the secret realm. A lot of people arrived and decided to watch the openings.
Kai and James went to the elder to report their names. It is mandatory to check on everyone to avoid any cheating and also to find any suspicious person. The disciples going inside the secret realm are mostly core disciples and the best disciples from the outer and inner sects, so they are very careful in checking since they are the backbone of the next generation.
"All disciples silence." The grand elder said as soon as he arrived, "Other than the participants, all other disciples move aside." He continued.
He silenced the crowd and ordered them.
"Everyone will be teleported to the secret realm using the teleportation formation, and everyone\'s place is random. Be careful and check whether your location is safe or not since it is also possible to arrive in a dangerous location at the very start. Don\'t kill each other; if there is a conflict inside, try to solve it using words.
In case words don\'t work, fight against them, but don\'t kill them or make them incapacitated." The grand elder explained, and he looked at Kai when he said the last line. It was like he specifically said that to Kai to make him understand.
Making a person useless in the secret realm is crueler than directly killing them. Since the beasts and dryads will not like him, he will die easily if he gets caught by them.
"All of you form a line according to your ranking and stand inside the formation. You have one month to explore the secret realm, and you should also always keep this token with you. It will remind you when the secret realm gate opens again." The grand elder explained the rules.