Petra stayed at the edge of the clearing, sitting on top of the centipede's head.
She watched silently as the group of people from the empire discussed how to deal with her.
While waiting, she turned her attention to the group of cultivators. She felt like these people were a lot more troublesome to deal with.
After all, the world of Pillomal was a world of cultivation. Although it was filled with countless mystical species, sword wielding heroes, and great magicians, it was the cultivators who lived in seclusion that sat silently at the top.
Unlike those legendary heroes and great magicians, cultivators had ridiculously long lifespans. The accumulation of experience and knowledge was something that the average person couldn't compare to.
Although these people all looked like teenagers, it was possible that some of them were hundreds of years old.
She frowned.
Although Petra didn't know what that plant was, she really wanted it. Her greedy little heart was reaching out its tiny claws. She didn't think the group of people from the empire were stupid. Since they stayed behind, they must have a way to deal with the cultivators.
The little girl crossed her arms and frowned. Her little face scrunched up in frustration. She was in a dilemma.
Just as she was thinking, a little figure trotted over from the group of cultivators.
She was about Petra's size, with long blue hair that reached her feet. She wore a long green and white robe that dragged behind her as she walked.
One girl sat on a centipede and looked down, while the other stood before the centipede and looked up.
The two little lolitas stared into each other's eyes.
The light of intelligence that shouldn't belong to a girl of their size flashed in each other's eyes.
"Nilla."
"Petra."
These two little baddies suddenly felt like they had met a soul mate. One was an old soul transmigrated into the body of a child, the other a talented cultivator whose mind outgrew their body. The best thing was, both of them had the same problem, and that was their bodies would grow very slowly compared to their minds.
Without a word, the blue haired little Lolita struggled to climb up the centipede's towering body. Her little legs flailed around as she climbed up the carapace. She plopped her little but down and offered her new green haired sister one of her snacks.
Petra took the stick of candy that was offered to her.
She then offered one of the Bamboo Sugar Sticks that she had picked up on the way.
The two girls nibbled on their snacks.
They looked like two little chipmunks, just minding their own business, filling their cheeks.
In the crowd of cultivators, the corner of a young woman's mouth couldn't stop twitching. She really wanted to scream at her grandma, but she felt like she was too embarrassed. The green haired little girl couldn't be more than 10, right? If she knew that the blue haired Lolita next to her was over 300 years old, would she burst into tears?
What the young woman didn't know was that this ancient lolita could actually tell that this unimpressive little green haired girl was similar to herself. She had recognized the light of wisdom in Petra's eyes the moment she arrived. As a fellow sufferer, she felt like the duo needed to stick together, because their unaging bodies were a constant reminder of the unfairness of life.
Back to the centipede.
The little girl with blue hair asked, "Do you want that rose?"
Petra blinked.
"What does it do?"
"You don't know?"
"Mmhmm, my beast just wanted it, so I came."
"Your beast? This centipede?" The little girl tilted her head.
"Mhmm"
"What's his name?"
'Name?" Petra was stunned. She had yet to think about it. "He doesn't have one yet."
Nilla blinked. "Why not?"
Petras' face reddened. "I forgot."
"Pfft, hahaha! How do you forget to name your pets! Hahaha!"
Petra covered her face. Her little head drooped down, and the big frog took that opportunity to climb up the back of Petra's head.
"Huh?!"
Nilla's face changed.
Her little body pulled away.
Petra narrowed her eyes. She took the frog from her head and held it in her arms, thrusting its flabby body towards Nilla.
Nilla jumped back.
"Slimy!"
Petra cracked a smile, she knew it~
This old monster hated slimy things.
The group of cultivators then watched the comedic scene of one little-green-hair chase around another little-blue-hair with a frog.
After the two were exhausted, they lay on the centipedes' back, talking about the Nine Turns Golden Rose.
The nine turns golden rose was a very rare plant.
It had the ability to cause those who ate the heart of the golden rose to de-age. After that, you would gain a significant lifespan and strengthen your body. It was kind of like compressing your current life into the body of half your age ago.
It was also one of the ingredients of a very expensive potion. The potion was called the Golden Life Potion. It could cause a beast to undergo atavism.
Many beast tamers went crazy for this potion.
Petra was interested. "What if you gave it to a creature that was already atavistic?"
Nilla shook her head. "I don't know, but the ingredients for that potion are ridiculous. If you're not from a powerful background, it's probably impossible to even find it."
Petra nodded. Something that could cause atavism was indeed a treasure, but the requirements would naturally be insane.
Nilla continued, "The most difficult ingredient is called Ellian's Heart of Poison. Although you only need a drop, it can no longer be made, so you have to find some of it that was stored. This is an extremely difficult substance to create. Back in the sect, we don't have a single person who can concoct it."
Petra paused, suddenly interested. "Do you have the recipe for this Heart of Poison?"
Nilla looked at her strangely.
She suddenly thought back to the knight who had initially approached her. He had retreated in such an odd way, could this little girl like to play with poisons?
An even more ridiculous thought suddenly appeared in her mind. She looked down at the massive beast that no girl her size should be able to control. 'Could she have 'that' physique!?"
The blue haired Lolita suddenly took a long look at Petra.
Her little eyes shone with an ethereal light.
She scanned her closely, focusing on the small bumps around her temples and her bright emerald hair.
'Is it possible?'
She smiled. "I do have it, but if you ever make it, make sure to give me some, OK?"
Petra smiled. "Sure!"
Nilla pulled out a recipe from her spatial ring.
After watching the little girl pull a recipe out of thin air, Petra's eyes suddenly widened. Was this the legendary spatial ring!
Spatial Rings were portable spaces that could occasionally be seen on the fingers of the top-level powerhouses. The crafting method was unknown, but people usually said that they were treasures from outside the continent.
The problem was, if one wanted to leave the continent, they had to sail through the Storm Sea and escape the Sea Dragons.
This kind of expedition was only attempted once every 10 years, using the most advanced sailing technology of the Hellion Empire.
Whenever a ship made it back, there would occasionally be spatial rings, but this was still not a certainty. Many expeditions failed, and those that didn't wouldn't always bring back a spatial ring. Even if they did, the cost was something that normal people might not see in their entire lifetime.
Seeing one with her own eyes, Petra was naturally interested.
Nilla chuckled. "Sister, I have no doubt that you'll have one of these one day. For now, just focus on cultivation and getting stronger. Even if you did get one, it would be hard to keep right now."
Petra nodded, she was right.
Petra took the recipe and looked through it.
Her first thought was that this Ellian guy was really something. The crafting process was not only complicated, but also ridiculously long.
There were a number of fields you needed to learn just to begin crafting. One had to know Medicine, Alchemy, Weapon Forging, something called 'Void Mixing', 'Micro-Spatial Stabilization, and how to use a 'Chrono Matrix'.
Nilla gave this to Petra as a joke, but seeing her new little friend look at it so seriously, she laughed. She probably had a beast at home that needed to go through atavism. Unfortunately, many of the methods in that recipe had been lost to time. Even on the Cellistan Continent, it would probably be impossible to learn these things.
As for the 'Chrono Matrix', that was an ancient device used by the high elves to control time in a small area, and divide that area into even smaller pockets of mismatched time.
After Petra finished reading, she returned the recipe.
"Why do you keep such a ridiculous thing on you?"
Nilla laughed.
"Who knows! Maybe one day, someone will really be able to recreate the founder's recipe! Haha!"
Petra tilted her head. "Founder, you mean the founder of the Greenhand Sect?"
Nilla nodded her head.
"Yeah, that's right. Are you interested? We recruit disciples once every five years. If you're interested, then next year is when we recruit!"
Petra shook her head.
She somehow smelt the lure of fate.
"No need. I prefer to be alone."
Nilla nodded. Although this girl would probably need a lot of resources in the future, if she really had 'that physique', then it meant that she was from 'that family'. Feeding such a big glutton was definitely something she couldn't do.
Nilla suddenly stood up.
The forest wind swayed, and the luminous plants all seemed to pulse. Waves of light were drawn towards the center of the clearing, where the Nine Turns Golden Rose was rooted.
Nilla returned to the group of cultivators after thanking Petra for the food.
Petra smiled, happy to meet a new friend.
She then turned her attention to the increasingly bright golden rose. There were nine of them, and between the three groups, nine was far from enough for one for each person.
Petra smirked.
She kicked the centipede like a horse, commanding it to leave immediately.
The group of cultivators mostly ignored her, but the group from the empire seemed to be on high alert. The man named Theo was especially cautious, keeping his heightened senses focused on finding any signs of poison.
To their surprise, the girl just disappeared into the forest.
However, their momentary confusion was interrupted by a bright flash of light. The golden light that bloomed from the nine roses bathed the forest and momentarily blinded the surrounding onlookers.
When they regained their vision, the six golden roses were flying in different directions, trying to spread their seeds.
The princess from the empire widened her eyes.
"Why are there only six!!"
The others were all shocked and confused, immediately looking at the opposing group for an answer.
As the situation became tense, Nilla, the one with the highest cultivation, and the only one who saw it, smiled faintly.
She looked in the direction Petra had disappeared.
'That's really cheating, isn't it?'
The moment the light bloomed, a long and insanely fast tongue shot through the forest and latched onto three golden roses.
In that instant, three of the nine disappeared.
Nilla smiled
'What a tricky little girl~'
* * *
Petra moved through the forest and returned to the main road.
She played with the three glowing roses in her hand.
She put one of them away in a secure box, she dissected the second, and she fed the third to the centipede.
Although the rose by itself only had the ability to 'compress' one's age, Nilla never said what it would do to a beast if eaten. As one of the ingredients of the atavistic potion, it shouldn't just compress a beast's age.
Judging from the excitement of the centipede, this golden rose was something that it really needed.
The massive centipede happily devoured the golden rose.
Its body began to shake, and something seemed to be forming on its skin.
Petra could feel the information about the centipede become chaotic through the channel that connected the two.
After around five minutes, some of the information stabilized.
The thick layer of keratin that had formed around the centipede cracked and split. The centipede emerged, looking no different from when it started. Its size had gone from slightly over ten meters back to ten, but other than that, its outward appearance remained unchanged.
Petra, however, understood the change from reading the information.
The River Winding Centipede had awoken its innate ability.
The River Winding Centipede was a creature that could extend down rivers and fall into hibernation within them. This size far exceeded the length of the current centipede, but Petra had always thought that it was a matter of it being too young.
In a sense, she was right, the centipede would grow as it aged, but this wasn't where its legendary length came from.
Its innate ability allowed it to stretch its exoskeleton to almost five times its normal length. This means that the River Winding Centipede could go from a 10-meter-long giant, to a 50-meter-long behemoth.
Petra was in awe.
If it wasn't for the fact that such a massive beast would attract a lot of attention, Petra would want to test it out and shoot herself into the sky.
Petra threw these silly little thoughts to the back of her mind and continued forward.
It was only a matter of time until those snobs from the empire figured out that she had the missing three roses.
As the centipede moved, Petra discovered that the running speed of the big bug was almost three times faster.
This came as a pleasant surprise to the little girl.
One girl, one frog, and one centipede disappeared down the forest road...