"MASTER!!!" Long Tao's voice came out before his thoughts caught up to his instincts.
He rushed back like mad, wind tearing through the soles of his boots, crossing the distance of some three hundred yards in the blink of an eye and nearly shattering half of his meridians in the process. His blade was already drawn, suffused with enough Qi to level a twenty-thousand-feet tall mountain, and he was just about to point it at the scourge who dared attack Master when he realized... there was nobody there.
Well, there was someone--his Master. He stood at the center of the raging inferno that reminded him of visions of Naraka, with all-consuming flames spreading in every direction and standing as tall as giants. Due to the sheer scale, the air itself was distorted, and the sky had turned crimson red in the matter of moments.
The ground below gave way as the dirt began to melt, turning into sludge as though mixed with water. Long Tao didn't even know how that was possible.
And, at the center of it all, standing wholly unharmed was his Master. He had a rather apologetic and concerned expression as he looked around at the raging fires, comically trying to use gusts of wind made by Qi to calm it.
As his thoughts caught up to his body, Long Tao examined the flames and discovered it--the trace of Qi so familiar he would never mistake it, his Master's. It was everywhere, rooted in every ember, in every spark. This whole thing was his Master's doing... somehow.
"Master," he called out, startling the man. "Steady your breathing. Latch to the tethers of Qi and undo the flames."
"A-ah!" finally having some direction, the man closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Not a moment later, the inferno that seemed ready to consume the entire world... vanished.
In the blink of an eye.
Long Tao's breath got caught up in his throat. He knew both his Master's talent as well as his prowess, and though the man has come a long way from how he was when the two met, those flames... they were not the product of him, but rather an art.
They were magnificent, reminding him of a particular figure that he met in his early days as an Emperor--Lu Su, his third Dao Companion.
To this day, she was the most talented Fire Qi martial artist than Long Tao had ever seen. Her flames were simply... different. Unique. Until her death, he was only ever able to defeat her by using Dao. Trying to fight her just using Qi was beyond suicidal.
He thought he'd never see flames like that again--ones that were soulful, not merely product of elements. Flames with intent.
"MASTER!!"
"ARE YOU ALRIGHT, MASTER?!!" before long, the locust of children descended, having rushed over as well, swarming the man before he could utter a sound.
Light was the first, leaping directly into his chest like a cannonball and knocking him down, prompting other kids to jump him and start examining him from head to toe for injuries.
Long Tao smiled, shaking his head. Apparently, he'd gotten used to the ridiculous image of Disciples just crowding a Master with no regard of authority. He himself had a number of Disciples in his past life, but even the ones he cherished the most would have, at best, been crippled had they ever treated him so casually.
"GET OFF!!"
"Ha ha ha~"
"Master got mad~" as the man blew his top, the kids turned to laughter while quickly dispersing as though running away. In the meantime, the man stood up, dusting his robes off and huffing and puffing as though actually mad.
Sighing, Long Tao walked over to the man, looking at the slightly pale face. He'd only used up about a tenth of his Qi... what would have happened if he did what Xi Zhao did, and used every ounce of Qi with that art?
The surprises with the man in front of him never seem to end, it seemed.
"What?" Master spat out.
"Not much. Just wondering if you could teach me that."
"... tsk." though he clicked his tongue, he procured a tome--one of his thicker ones--and handed it over. "Thank you," he added.
"You would have figured it out quickly enough," Long Tao said, taking the tome.
"Haah, I'm hungry. I'll go eat something."
Rather than following, Long Tao opened the tome and slowly read through it, realizing something rather grave: though the art itself seemed to be qualified as 'quasi-Divine', what his Master conjured equaled a Divine-tier art.
He also realized another important thing: the art itself was spectacular, but not to the degree of manifestation. Which meant that the gap was made up by his Master... somehow.
... but, even before that, Master procured another borderline-Divine feat. Were Divine-level things supposed to be this common? Of course not. In his previous life, before ascending, Long Tao had seen just one--Imperial Crown of Gold. At the time of his ascension, this entire world was ruled by the Empire of Dawn, with all sects and smaller kingdoms acting like tributaries. One of, if not the main reasons for it was precisely that Crown. As the only Divine-tier artifact, it was capable of completely suppressing any lesser one. Or even dozens of them at the same time.
And yet, here it was again--another item that, with a few changes, could become Divine-tier. Sighing, he put the tome away; there truly could be 'too much' of something good. If they were not careful, beyond just the strange and bizarre assortment of talented kids, the even stranger knickknacks that his Master carries around might invite even more trouble.
Before long, all the kids had tested themselves out, and the worth of the Master's strange comprehension array was beyond evident. What would take a year or two for even more talented ones only took an hour to understand.
Long Tao thought it would take at least a few decades before they were ready to ascend, but at this rate...
**
"... what the hell happened here?" that was Jin Hua asking a question that did not really have an answer.
Yun Qi crouched to examine the scorched ground, but even the remnant force was enough to singe the tip of his finger. Not to mention the burned land, there was also that massive gash that looked more like a natural crevice than a sword cut, yet was most certainly sword cut as it still held some remnant Sword Intent within itself.
"A battle of some kind," Yun Qi said.
"Oh! A battle of some kind!" he sighed, standing back up. The way she dispersed sarcasm reminded him ever so slightly of that man. "Why didn't I think of that?! Geez! How silly of me!"
"Are you done?"
"Haah. Sorry. Just getting frustrated. I mean, how aren't you? Those dogs have all locked themselves up and aren't leaving. At all."
"It doesn't matter," Yun Qi said. "Most of the remaining ones are just irrelevant remnants. And those who aren't... a day will come soon enough, anyway."
"Oh? I've sensed it but you're really ready to break through?"
"Thanks to you," he said, looking over. "Will you ever tell me how you procured such a high-quality method?"
"A girl has to have her secrets, Qi," she said with a grin.
"A girl? Very well. Let's go. I want to reach Soul Ascendance Realm before we reach the island. I have a strange feeling that the place will become... complicated." "