Jelena and Vanya gulped at the display and the malice in Amelia's eyes which they had not expected or known she had in her.

Nicole however, frowned.

The pressure Amelia was giving off was that of the mid-stage of the Cosmic Armament realm and she just knocked out two Mid-stage Cosmic Phenomenon realm cultivators.

That was a whole realm above her.

And she had been holding back? This was insane.

So, truth-telling time;

Amelia had not been holding back in her attack on her cousins as they were both a whole realm above her. She had only said that to be intimidating.

The main reason her attacks had been successful was because of surprise and which stemmed from the fact that the two had not expected her to act.

Quite stupid on their part.

Since she had arrived, they had not been secretive about disliking her, and knowing that they were above her in cultivation, Amelia bid her time.

And her silence to their taunts was taken as acceptance of her inability to defeat them.

And in part that was true as Amelia merely focused on her cultivation, the speed of which had been a cause for the jealousy from all of them.

Anyway, her silence was one of the reasons that the brothers had not expected an attack and why she had been successful.

As for her speed in cultivation, first, they all had to accept that she was indeed a genius but so were they.

Even geniuses have limits and the fact that she was eighteen and at the Cosmic Armament realm made no sense whatsoever to them.

Once they learned that Amelia indeed had a Dual cultivating partner, they believed it was the reason for her drastic cultivation speed as she must have lucked out in a good partner.

Imagine their surprise and borderline shock to learn her partner was nineteen himself and his cultivation even surpassed hers.

First, they refused to believe and once they believed, it roused two sets of emotions,

For the brothers, it roused envy at the resources and fortuitous encounters Hal must have lucked out on, and following the events two days ago, the feeling only increased as they termed his speed to be a result of cultivating with their Aunt whose cultivation surpassed his greatly.

After all, they all knew how advantageous it was to have such a partner.

Of course, it is difficult to get such a partner.

Why?

Well, Dual cultivation is all about sharing, and even if the give and take are not exactly equal, it should at least be equal enough that one of the participating partners does not feel cheated.

So, no Cosmic Pagoda realm expert would want an Armament or Phenomenon realm partner as that would hardly help their cultivation.

In fact, that would hamper it.

And yet, that was the situation with Emily and Hal!

The mere thought of it made them green with jealousy.

Who would not want such a partner?

The thoughts were the same for the sisters but also different,

They were envious as well, but not of Hal but Amelia.

Their Aunt was not stupid and if she was still cultivating with Hal after the curing of her condition, then he must have something that covered up for the difference in their cultivation.

The only thing they could think of was 'Primal seed' but as that had once been proven to be useless against their Aunt's condition, then he must have something even better.

And Amelia was enjoying it.

It made them so mad.

Their Aunt, they could understand as she was perfect and the one they looked up to regardless of their different personalities but Amelia, who was half a Silva Duchy commoner, they could not accept.

She was enjoying resources they would kill for.

If anyone had lucked out, it was Amelia and that must be the reason for her fast cultivation.

Looking at their Aunt, they saw no sign that cultivating with Hal. was hampering her cultivation.

She left the Doxon Duchy as a Cosmic Aurora realm cultivator and returned in Twenty years as a Cosmic Pagoda!

That speed was mind-boggling.

Nicole might be cold and Vanya might act indifferent but they were both like Jelena and wanted Hal... In different ways of course.

For one, the other two had no intentions of flirting.

It did not matter how it happened as long as it happened.

Anyway, after the intimidating show of strength, Hal put his arms around the shoulders of both Amelia and Karmen,

"That's enough for now. Might as well save your strength for the Garden" he told Amelia and led them towards the Garden.

"Wait for me" Jelena called and joined them to walk towards the Garden.

Neither Hal nor Amelia acted like they had heard.

Karmen however, talked to the Antonov lady,

"Why don't you lead the way?"

"What?" Jelena asked.

Karmen turned around, leaving Hal's hold,

"You have been in there before, haven't you?" She asked and walked closer to her,

"Barely. I didn't go too deep. I was hardly strong enough or stupid enough to risk my life for some ingredients when I could get complete pills in the comfort of my home" Jelena said.

Karmen shrugged with a wide grin,

"Well, now you are strong and stupid enough to go in there for a piece of fruit, right? So why not go ahead."

Jelena folded her arms,

"I don't want to"

Karmen scoffed,

"Coward" she said and skipped to Hal's side and together with Jelena following close behind they entered the Garden.

The other Antonovs joined soon enough as Nicole had woken the brothers up and they glared at Hal's group, specifically Amelia all through the journey.

"Just you wait" Cheslav said with a frown but Hal's group. ignored him.

"So... we are in here now. Where's the peril?" Hal asked with skepticism.

Just as he said that, a thick grey fog began to roll over from either side of them, and the first thing Hal noticed was that it stripped him of any sense of where he was.

The effect faded away soon enough though.

"You just had to jinx it didn't you?" Amelia asked with a frown.

Hal put on his best innocent expression,

"How was I supposed to know the garden was waiting for a challenge?" He asked just as Jelena attacked the fog with Cosmic energy.

However, while Hal had expected it to pass harmlessly through, the fog actually absorbed it and shot it back at her.

However, the force was not the same. It was doubled.

She only leaped away just in time to avoid an absolutely bruising hit.

The fog got too close to Boryan and he summoned his war-hammer Cosmic Armament to try and strike the fog.

They all seemed to think it was something physical that they could actually hit.

However, that thought seemed to have credence when the fog grabbed his hammer from him and swallowed it up only to spit it back at him with enough force to burst his head... had it hit.

'Lucky Bastard' Hal sneered and then he said,

"Run" as he had no intentions of facing the fog when there was a clear path in front of him.

Also, it was getting closer and he did not wish to find out firsthand if it could swallow a person and spit them back out.

They all ran forward and continued to run for what felt like an hour while along the way they seemed to join up with others who must have been in the Garden long before them.

Eventually, they were in a clearing in front of a raised hill.

Looking to their sides, Hal, Karmen, Amelia, and the Antonovs noticed that they were far from being the only ones in the clearing.

There were thousands of people there and they all looked like they had been running for an hour too.

"Just my luck. I've been here since last night and was already close to the center of the garden only to be chased by some fog..." One said.

"Did anyone else notice that the garden has been... Peaceful so far?" Another asked.

Many more arrived after the thousands already there and soon, Hal was quite certain everyone in the garden at this moment in time were now in the clearing.

Clearly, he was not the only one who thought so as a weird Dude suddenly appeared on top of the hill which no one dared or thought to climb since their arrival, and was nodding satisfiedly at them all,

"Good. This should be enough to send a message"