"Seriously? She still hasn't stopped looking at you. She must want something, don't you think?" Mei Ran asked, looking at the princess, who hadn't taken her eyes off Cairen.
"No idea." Cairen said, not seeming to care much.
At that moment, on the royal ship, the princess finally averted her gaze from him and looked at the crack from where a bluish-green Qi was leaking more and more. It seemed it wouldn't be long before it fully opened.
Then, at that moment, three more boats appeared together, they were much smaller than those of the three sects.
Mei Ran, as soon as she saw them, frowned and looked slightly angry.
"Tsk, that rat is probably coming…" she murmured.
Curious, Cairen asked.
"Who is this rat? And those three boats?"
"They're the three clans. Originally, they were three separate powers, but they end up joining forces when they need to compete with the sects. The power of one clan is insignificant, but if you put the three together, they're equivalent to one of the three sects."
"And the rat… well, he's the damn son of one of the clan leaders. I was born and raised there, but he started chasing me and tried to force me to marry him about five years ago. I ran away and ended up joining the Three Poisons Sect." Mei Ran said with a bit of anger.
Cairen understood and then looked down at the ground. At the moment, countless people were arriving, there were already over a hundred, and many more were approaching. Some looked up with admiration and fear, while others were sitting in trees waiting for something.
"And them?" Cairen asked.
"People from smaller forces that don't matter much and rogue cultivators. They don't belong to any force."
"They usually work as mercenaries, they're just here to try their luck. Most of them probably won't even survive." Mei Ran answered naturally.
Suddenly, the boats of the three sects and the royal family's ship lowered their altitude until they hovered just a few meters from the ground.
Elder Xu gathered with the elders of the other sects and the old man from the royal family after jumping off the ship and landing gently. They began discussing something, but it was impossible to hear from where they were.
********************************************
"The crack is unstable, the entrance is camouflaged, looking like an illusion. I feel the Qi escaping, it's pure water and wood Qi. Whoever created this wasn't an ordinary cultivator." The old man from the royal family said, hand on his beard, looking at a space ahead of them, though there was nothing different there except for trees.
"Let's wait for the entrance to open by itself and see what kind of space is formed. It's unstable, so let the rogue cultivators go first to test it. If we can enter, great. If not, we'll send the younger ones after we're sure the entrance is safe."
Elder Xu and the other two elders from the other sects agreed with the old man's decision.
The royal family was an unmatched force, even the three sects together might not be stronger than them, and that's why the conflict between the sects and the powers of the Rhyne kingdom was more peaceful than elsewhere.
The royal family controlled the other forces with absolute power.
****************************************
Time passed, and it was already getting dark. Cairen and Mei Ran began to understand each other more.
At first, Cairen would just ask something and speak little, but now, he was already talking about anything with Mei Ran. There was something in her personality that made Cairen feel comfortable enough to speak normally.
Mei Ran was resting her head on Cairen's shoulder.
"You know, back then you looked at the princess so much that I got jealous." She said with an expression trying to sound sad. But Cairen noticed the forced tone in her voice.
"You think I believe you?" Cairen asked, not minding how close she was. He had already pushed her off his shoulder three times, but she always came back.
"Heh, how mean. After doing so much, I ate—
Her voice was cut off when Cairen looked at her with a serious face again.
She gave a small smile and went quiet.
****************************************
On the royal family's ship, the four youths standing behind the princess approached her, still keeping a meter's distance and not daring to come any closer.
One of the four looked at Princess Ling with admiration. In truth, there was something more. Compared to the other three, who showed respect and even a little fear.
He suddenly spoke.
"Sister Ling, that commoner, do you know him from somewhere?"
She gave one last glance at Cairen, who was talking to Mei Ran and seemed very close.
"No. I don't know him. But he has an awakened bloodline." She paused, and all four were immediately surprised.
"Avoid any kind of confrontation with him, if possible. I have my plans." She replied coldly and firmly. Then fell silent again, lost in thought.
'If his talent and bloodline are compatible with mine… it doesn't matter what his personality is like. He'll be a good candidate to marry me.'
She then remembered her father's words.
"The Rhyne bloodline is too aggressive. You'll need to find someone who can control it."
At that moment, an enigmatic smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
That smile made three of them shiver down their spines.
'Little sister is plotting something again…' they thought.
Suddenly, everyone's thoughts and actions were interrupted.
Abruptly, the inheritance finally began to react.
The Qi that was escaping suddenly erupted with a shockwave, violently pushing all the ships away. The rogue cultivators and minor forces were flung far.
Meanwhile, the elders reacted quickly to protect their disciples, forming a protective barrier around them.
Cairen held tightly to the edge of the boat, watching the change ahead.
Down below, where there had been a normal forest, suddenly began to transform. The remaining Qi condensed and descended like a spiral until it formed a massive blue-green gate about thirty meters wide.
The gate lay flat on the ground, fully closed until it finished forming.
The gate was beautiful, made of dense Qi energy that caused massive trees to grow around it.
A thunderous rumble echoed as the gate began to open.
Immediately, hundreds of cultivators ran toward the gate, launching themselves in a rush into the entrance… but then, in the same instant—
Terrible screams arose. Dozens of bodies were completely torn apart. Blood splattered like rain on the green trees nearby.
Among them, even a rogue cultivator at the early stage of the Qi Liberation realm was ripped to pieces, the same realm the elders were in.
The old man from the royal family and the other elders observed the entrance with narrowed eyes.
"As expected. Only the young are allowed to enter. There's a selective force based on age and cultivation. Those below the second realm and above the third can't enter. But there doesn't seem to be a limit on how many may enter," the old man concluded.
He prepared to tell something to the five behind him but was interrupted.
Princess Ling had already leapt from the ship and jumped directly into the gate, vanishing completely from sight.
The old man sighed before telling the four princes to be careful. Then, the four followed after her.
After that, chaos broke out, disciples from the three sects immediately followed suit and jumped into the gate.
Mei Ran stepped back first and looked at Cairen with a smile before jumping into the gate as well.
Cairen, for his part, looked at the blood and remains of people around the gate.
"This is it… it's time to truly test the chains and finally temper my body." Cairen murmured before taking a deep breath.
Then, he jumped from the boat directly into the gate.
As he crossed the gate, everything around him began to distort.
Cairen blinked. And when his eyes opened again, he was standing in the middle of a vast lake.
The world around him was silent and vast. The blue-green water reflected the sky above like an endless mirror. But beneath the water, hundreds, thousands of upside-down trees stretched from the surface to the unseen bottom.
In the water, schools of fish swam below him. Some were the size of a finger, while others were even larger than he was. Still, everything there seemed to live in complete harmony.
Then he took an unconscious step, the water felt solid, didn't ripple at all under his foot. He looked around. He wasn't alone. In fact, everyone who had entered the gate was now scattered above the endless lake.
All observing the environment with caution and interest.
They were all transported to the same place, the only difference was the distance between them, spread across many meters around.
This was the scene, the most beautiful and peaceful place Cairen had ever seen. And yet, it gave a strange sensation that nothing was real.
Cairen was watching when suddenly he felt something on his shoulder.
A hand touched him. It was soft… but extremely heavy. As if hundreds of kilos had been placed on his shoulder.
He already knew who it was, and so he didn't attack. He turned slowly.
"Princess Ling. What does this mean?" he said, feeling uncomfortable, facing the girl who had suddenly touched him.
Indeed, it was Princess Ling.
She looked at him with cold, expressionless eyes. But Cairen saw a change in her gaze.
Both were slightly surprised.
Cairen had never cared much about these things, but he noticed the detail. Since he had woken from the dream, when he gained the first bloodline and left the cave, everyone had seemed shorter than him. He didn't know his exact height, but he was a bit taller than everyone so far.
But the girl in front of him was the same height as he was.
Princess Ling was also surprised, she was known for being tall. After her bloodline awakened, she grew and became taller than almost all the men she had ever seen, only shorter than her own father, the king.
"It means nothing. I just came to greet you." Her voice was clear and soft, which contrasted greatly with her indifferent expression.
Cairen frowned slightly.
'Almost sinking my body in the water is a greeting?' But he decided not to say it after all, she was the princess of this kingdom. He didn't want to make enemies unnecessarily.
"Well. Survive and show all your strength… I'm really curious about what you can do." She said without changing her tone, before stepping away without any warning. Walking across the lake toward the others from the royal family.
Cairen followed her with his eyes, confused. That had been strange, really strange. What was that interaction?
But his confusion would soon be clarified when he realized what that interaction had caused.