Tomorrow at 06:00 AM...

Peep! Peep!...

"What a pain in the ass." Felix mumbled in annoyance at the sound of the alarm while covering his head with the bedsheets.

He didn't feel like waking up as he truly didn't sleep that well.

So many thoughts and questions were roaming in his mind about the fact that he was currently practicing two separate cultivation systems.

Before, he had in mind to unlock the poison manipulation 'ability' and etch it in his 1% human bloodline.

This would keep recurring on every stage with a different primogenitor bloodline, making him get multiple free elemental manipulations.

But now? He wasn't so sure of that happening and he was hoping to see what the Jörmungandr had to say about it.

That being said, his eyes were still refusing to open up, protesting that the three hours of sleep wasn't doing them anything.

'Sir Felix, you have received a message from Sir George.' The Queen asked, 'Should I read it?'

"No need." Felix murmured softly.

He wasn't worried about ignoring the instructor's massage, as he knew that it was most likely going to be a reminder about the helicopter departure. They were already informed that it was going to lift off at 06:15 AM sharp.

This meant, he still had like 7 minutes of sleep and Felix wasn't planning on wasting them.

...

At the roof of the highest building in the camp, two large-sized army helicopters were parked on a platform, that had the letter 'H' written on it in white.

In front of it stood the fourteen members of the national team, Felix included.

Unsurprisingly, four members were wearing a different colored team outfit than the rest, entailing that they were the chosen substitutes in the team.

But unexpectedly, those four were Sarah, Dale, Isabella, and Amelia!

The fact that Lexie and Nathan were chosen instead of Sarah and Amelia created quite an outrage outside of the camp.

The Maxwell elders and The Lauder elders didn't approve of George's personal arrangement in the slightest.

While the Maxwell elders only made their displeasure heard, the Lauders took it a step further and sent an elder personally to the camp in order to change George's mind.

Alas, that didn't work as George was adamant in his choice.

Though, he did explain that he chose the team based on composition instead of who was the strongest.

Thus, he couldn't add Amelia and Sarah as they were elemental rangers just like Walton, Felix, and Adam.

He felt that it was over the top to add those two when he already had a monster like Felix and Adam with his destructive abilities.

It was better to keep Nathan as the 2nd front-liner with Noah, and Lexie as the 2nd buffer of the team with Lena. Olivia was counted as a healer.

It was a no brainer that Kenny and Johnson were going to be part of the main team after seeing that the competition was going to be held in the wilderness and for an entire week.

Assasins/scouts like them were most desirable in this kind of environment.

That being said, he did give an opportunity for Sarah and Amelia to challenge either Walton or Adam to replace them.

But...They still lost horribly. By then both the girls accepted being as a substitute for the team.

After they heard what had gone down, Maxwell's elders backed off as they understood that his take was indeed reasonable and justifiable.

They might feel pricked by having Sarah not participating in the competition, but they understood that at the end of the day, this was the National team, not Maxwell's team.

Unfortunately, the Lauders didn't share the same thought process as the Maxwells.

In their eyes, they only had Amelia in the team, and if she didn't make it to the main roster, it was the same as not participating in the World's competition.

They sure didn't give a shit about the fact that their junior had lost against Adam and Walton, as they believed that Amelia could wipe the floor with Nathan and take his spot.

Too bad, just as they didn't give a shit about George's arrangements, no one bothered to address their wants and wishes.

As no matter who they went to voice their complaint, they were always sent back.

Just as the Lauders were planning to involve the media in their drama, the Governor of the state himself, interfered and threatened to have Amelia kicked out of the team if they keep pestering them over this issue.

After so, not a single peep was heard from the Lauders' elders.

"Alright split up into two groups and take a seat." George clapped his hands twice as he said, "Be quick, we still have another flight waiting for us."

Hearing so, Felix was the first to walk up to the helicopter in the right, followed by half of the team. The groups were already made before to avoid confusion and wasting time.

After Felix fastened the seat belt, he requested from Olivia, who was sitting in front of him, "Oli, wake me when we land."

Olivia felt a sudden shiver at hearing him say so. She realized that he said almost the same sentence during their ride on the bus to the camp!

And the ambush which followed after was still fresh in her mind.

"You jinx! take it back, or I am not sitting with you!" Spooked, Olivia chewed on her lips while inspecting everything in the helicopter with a shifty look.

Understanding what she meant, Felix didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He knew that Olivia was a believer in superstition, and if he didn't take it back, she would probably be frightened the entire journey, worrying that an accident or another ambush might occur.

Thus, Felix turned to Noah, who sat on his right shoulder, and repeated the same request word by word.

As expected of Noah, he simply gave him a head nod without glancing in his direction.

"You jerk!" Olivia huffed through her nostrils in anger as she unfastened the seatbelt and jumped from the helicopter.

She swiftly went to the other helicopter and requested Adam to change seats, who gladly accepted.

"Brother Felix did you have breakfast yet? I can share with you my breakfast."

The moment Adam stepped into the helicopter, he began chatting enthusiastically with the dumbfounded Felix.

He truly didn't expect Olivia to actually retaliate by sending him Adam, who was always a pain in the ass for him.

However, instead of feeling annoyed, he was actually delighted by her finally learning how to strike back when bullied instead of just taking it to heart.

'Good on you little Oli.' He smiled faintly while closing his eyes diving into his consciousness, thoroughly ignoring the existence of Adam.

So far, Felix still didn't know if Adam's real personality was always this friendly and tolerant or he was simply hiding behind the facade of politeness.

Whatever it was, Felix would keep ignoring him until the day that facade breaks.

...

Inside the consciousness space...

Felix's body could be seen dropping from the air just like when he always enters his consciousness.

Alas, the lake which he always fell into, was nowhere to be seen!!!

In its place stood two humongous palaces, which took the entire space of the consciousness!

THUD!

Falling face-first, Felix smashed into the dome of the Jörmungandr's palace and started rolling down with a terrifying speed!

It didn't take him even a second before reaching the edge of it and getting hurled into Asna's palace akin to pitched baseball.

BOOM!

His body smashed into the chest of a breathtaking giant statue of Asna, which was holstered into the wall of the palace just like tens of different statues.

Felix still had his eyes closed unbeknownst to any of this.

His body simply kept its journey of colliding with anything in its path of descending, statues, tiles, even some sharp pointy spears, which sliced Felix's clothes and flesh as he passed by them.

Thud!

By the time Felix made it 'successfully' into the ground, which was just his soul barrier exposed, his body was broken, wounded, and bloodied.

His condition couldn't get any worse. Felix, who was regaining consciousness after reaching the ground, was going to experience the agony of every wound on his body stacked all at once!

A moment later...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! MY F*CKING SPIIIINE!

A high pitched shriek resounded in the palaces, waking up both the Jörmungandr and Asna from their slumber.

Just because they were superior beings, it didn't mean that they disliked sleep. Heck, they probably were more familiar with sleep than Felix.

"Why is he screaming again?" Annoyed, Asna yawned while opening her eyes groggily. However, soon she closed them back again too lazy to care.

Meanwhile, the Jörmungandr didn't feel like going back to sleep after waking up. Thus, he teleported outside of his palace and gazed at Felix, who was stealing mist from the gate of the palace to replace the injured parts of his body.

His pained and nasty expression was enough to show that he wasn't loving the unexpected pain.

"What's with the ruckus?" The Jörmungandr asked from high above.

Breathless, Felix pointed his shaky finger at the palaces and replied with a bit of difficulty, "Elder, I injured my body on the way down." He winced in pain as he asked, "Elder, what's going on here? I doubt that you guys need such big palaces to stay in."

If it was Asna, he would have already snapped at her, but for the Jörmungandr, Felix just pushed his aggrievance deep within his heart, not daring to snap at the elder.

"You should ask that mannerless child." The Jörmungandr huffed in disgruntement. 

Felix didn't know what Asna did to make the Jörmungandr's favorable impression of her take nosedive.

But, after remembering that this was Asna, he suddenly felt like it was only a natural outcome. With her personality, only nut heads would enjoy having her around.

'Asna, didn't I tell you to behave?' Felix sighed as he spoke in his mind, 'He might have agreed to stay one year, but if you annoy him, he will be gone the next day.'

Hearing his voice in her mind, Asna couldn't continue her sleep. Especially when she realized that she was being accused wrongly!