Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 469: Helplessness.

"Did you miss me, kid?"

Ozul could recognize that voice anywhere.

Looking up in the sky, they noticed an old man floating in the air together with another young man slightly behind him.

Except for Ember, Rai, and him, no one in the estate had even realized the presence of these two entities.

’I can finally feel it...’ Ozul clenched his fist, as his eyes fixated on the old man.

Old Gu wasn’t completely transparent to him anymore.

He was a wall now; one he still could not look past, but still visible to him!

’It is the same as the Celestial Phoenix, yet completely different?’ He kept comparing the two together.

’No.’ Shaking his head, he realized they had nothing similar, ’Both are too strong for me to gauge their actual strength, that’s the only similarity.’

"I expected better reactions to my presence," Old Gu spoke again, his voice reaching the others in the estate as well.

Ember and Rai recognized Old Gu differently from Ozul.

"The troublemaker from the Sect. I should have known better..." Ember finally spoke, squinting her eyes at him.

Rai eyed her strangely, her guarded reaction was out of his expectations.

"He was banished to the Broken World but returned not too long ago. In fact, he came back with the Dragon Hatchlings from that Realm," He quickly revealed what he knew.

Although he too had become a Sage now, he felt something awfully dangerous from that old man floating in the air.

They knew too little about him, something Rai was only realizing now.

"The information was wrong. He is not a Sage," Ember explained, much to Rai’s shock.

This Realm knew about Old Gu only as an eccentric Elder from the Immortal Sect. He had created so much trouble for the Sect that they had no choice but to banish him to a Broken World for over a few centuries!

"He... is an Empyrean as well?!" Rai exclaimed, his playfulness disappeared as soon as reality set in.

But Ember didn’t answer him; she wasn’t certain herself.

The young man standing behind the Old Gu was already an Empyrean from her estimations, so what did that say about his master?

Everyone previously thought of him as a Sage who used some rare treasure to hide his cultivation base, but now that she was an Empyrean, it became apparent that there was no such Spiritual Tool on him.

They couldn’t read his cultivation simply because he was too powerful for them to do so.

And this fact, to her dismay, remained unchanged in front of her.

She still couldn’t gauge that old man’s strength!

Ozul remembered Minho as well. In the spur of the moment, that man would have killed him if not for Jinx appearing at the right time. His only crime was that he had called his liege ’an old man.’

’Now that I know that she is the mother of Celestial Beasts, it’s no wonder that she could stop an Empyrean...’ Ozul vividly remembered how time appeared to pause when she gracefully landed on the dagger aiming for his throat.

"Why are you here?" Ember asked while she kept thinking of all the ways this situation could be played out.

After all, her opponents were not something she could take on alone. She had just stepped into the Empyrean Realm while that young man’s exact cultivation stage couldn’t be judged either, much less Old Gu.

"Huh?" Old Gu looked down at her, "Oh, you are here too."

Ember’s hands clenched, eyes twitching in anger; there wasn’t anyone else in this Realm who would disregard her presence like this.

"Young lady, I’m not here for you. So don’t mind me," Old Gu waved his hands at her as if telling her to leave them alone.

Rai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this.

Gritting her teeth, Ember’s aura started leaking into the air, reminding everyone that she was an Empyrean now.

"This is my home! State your reasons for trespassing or I will have to force an answer out of you!"

She wasn’t confident to back her words, but her pride as an Empyrean wouldn’t let her stay quiet.

"Ho? What can you even do?" Old Gu taunted. He had seen many Empyreans born and perished before him, what was one more to him?

"You-"

Ozul realized the intensity of the situation, he spoke up before a fight erupted,

"He is here for me."

"For you?" Ember and Rai both looked at him with puzzled expressions.

"I’m not sure why, but it is me," he nodded, looking at the smirking old man in the sky.

’At least I can feel a superficial layer of your emotions now,’ Ozul thought, satisfied with even that much of an improvement.

Old Gu used to be the only person whose emotions he couldn’t read before.

From that, he could only guess that the old man didn’t have any evil intentions yet.

"Don’t kid yourself, brat! I was merely passing by and decided to entertain myself a little," Old Gu spoke as he gradually descended to the ground together with Minho.

As the two now stood before them, even Ember felt a little helpless against their momentum. She repeatedly eyed Ozul, wondering just what business he had with this ’Elder of the Sect.’

"Come with me, let us have a chat," Old Gu grinned, gesturing to Ozul to follow him.

But Ember intervened just at that moment, "You will take him nowhere. Don’t follow him, Ozul."

Unfortunately for her, Ozul shook his head, looking at her as he asked, "Can you even stop him?"

He knew very well that it was out of her hands at this point. Even though he could not begin to guess their cultivation level, there was a clear difference of power between Ember and Minho.

’If only Jinx was here...’ Ozul sighed, looking around but not seeing the black cat.

His question, however, shook Ember’s resolve.

She knew that even if they were to fight, it would erupt into a disaster that she would not be able to handle. At that point, even the Celestial Phoenix would get involved.

’Wait... Why isn’t the Phoenix already here?!’ she suddenly realized the absurdity of the situation.

There was no way that the Celestial Phoenix hadn’t realized the presence of such individuals in her territory; she should’ve already started spewing soul-erasing flames at them.

’That only ever happened when...’ Ember felt a deja vu as she remembered the only other time that the Phoenix did not act even when her territory was intruded. It was the day she had lost her cultivation because of that man from the Land Above Realms.

Before she could come to a conclusion, Old Gu’s hearty laugh resounded in the air.

"So you do realize the hopelessness of your situation," he turned around, "I expected nothing less. Well, hurry up, this place has too many ears and I am quite an impatient old man."

Ozul gave Ember a glance and sighed before following Old Gu and Minho out of the estate. Now he was regretting stopping by here before his next target.

Although he did not know why Old Gu was here for him, he did not think it would be for any good reason, considering his eccentric character.

In an instant, the three disappeared from the estate, leaving Ember, Rai, and the hidden Transcendents in an awkward silence.

Rai knew better than to crack a joke seeing how Ember was gritting her teeth to the point of veins on her head.

"Find out everything about that old man! He even has an Empyrean following behind him like a servant, did the Sect really think no one would know he isn’t an Elder!?" shouted Ember as soon as their silhouette disappeared from the horizon.

The other Transcendents were on edge as they faced the anger of an Empyrean, but Rai stood calmly beside her.

"It’s more likely that the Sect Leader hid it from everyone. From our reports, that old man was always at odds with the other Elders, yet the Sect Leader never did anything about it." Rai explained his opinion.

Ember nodded, "Still, gather everything on him. I want to know which Realm he belongs to and what is he doing here!"

It was evident that he wasn’t originally from the Realm of Abezan at the very least, because it was widely known to only have two Empyreans: the Leader of the Wilderness and the Sect Leader of the Immortal Sect.

She didn’t like being in the dark about anything.

’Is he also from the Land Above Realms?’ The possibility flashed through her mind as the hateful appearance of another such man appeared in her mind.

"It seems I will have to meet those old fogies now. Inform me as soon as they finalize the location of the meeting."

Rai gave her a look, not commenting about the aura she was unconsciously leaking, "Will he be fine?"

Even to him, it was frustrating that his people were dragged away right in front of them and they could only stare.

Ember shook her head, a murderous glint flashed past her eyes, but she controlled herself nonetheless, "He seemed to know the old man. From how calm he was, there shouldn’t be any problem."

However, she was missing an important point which Rai didn’t forget.

’Isn’t he always like that, eerily calm and cold?’

Choosing not to correct her, he began instructing his men. He finally had something better to do than mere paperwork.

Ember stood there on the ground, looking at the sky with endless frustration coursing through her body.

No one in the estate dared to go near her, not even the trio after they were informed of the incident.

’Phoenix... is that how you felt back then?’

It was an anger unlike anything; not being able to protect her own subordinates and being forced to stand aside.

’More. I need more power...’