Chapter 69 - Revealed Secret

The next day at dawn, Hei and the rest of his family were already awake and ready to go. They had gone to bed early last night and were full of energy. So they joined the rest of the Flower Sect group that was waiting outside the royal palace.

Around, various groups were moving away from the palace to return to their respective sects. Since the sect leaders themselves had come for the king's celebration, they wanted to return as soon as possible. Even if they didn't leave their sects unattended, they couldn't help but worry. The same was true for the sect leader of the Flower Sect, which, however, had a bit of serenity since he had left four elders to protect the sect.

"Sect leader, I have something to ask you," Hei said as he rejoined his group.

At Hei's words, the sect leader turned to look at him in surprise. It was unusual for him to request anything from her first.

"Tell me well, Hey. What do you need?"

Hey, before answering, looked around quickly to make sure there were no people outside the sect.

"I'm going to get away with Lian and the baby elephant while you return to the sect. If I don't hurry, someone could reach the adult elephant pair before me. I can't risk it, so I ask you to take care of Shui and my other spirit beasts in the meantime. Can I trust you with this task?"

The sect leader frowned when she heard what Hei had to say.

"Do you want to go, just you and Lian? Even if you go there to bring their baby back, it's dangerous anyway. We are talking about two second-level spirit beasts. Furthermore, even if you are a disciple of the Flower Sect, there are always hidden dangers if you travel alone as you are only in the fourth stage. Are you sure about your decision?"

"There are no problems. I carefully evaluated everything. I run no danger, be serene."

"If so, then I guess I can't force you to change your mind. All right, go ahead. Indeed, if you leave now, you would get an advantage over any interested parties. After all, by investigating the groups of spirit beast hunters, it is possible to arrive at the position of the two adult elephants. Even if the kingdom has vetoed about it, with the right price, it is possible to make a person speak. Furthermore, if the other two elders and I return to the sect, they will never think that in the meantime, you have gone alone there. "

"Thank you, sect leader." Hei bowed slightly.

Then he went to the stables to communicate the news to Shui and the others. As expected, Shui and Mi were eager to go with them, but Hei categorically forbade them that. They had to stay with the new arrivals and take care of their respective groups as they were leaders. Fortunately, the two of them understood their position and followed Hei's command.

Once the buffaloes were tied to the carriages, Hei proceeded to instruct the other spirit beasts about how they should behave during the journey. In his absence, Shui would have the supreme command, and they should do everything it asked without retorting. He promised them that once they arrived at the sect, they could relax and enjoy their new home.

In order not to arouse suspicion, Hei and Lian left with the Flower Sect group. After leaving the capital behind, the two youths went down with the baby elephant. They soon disappeared into the surrounding vegetation while the sect leader, the two elders, and the remaining personal disciples watched them leave.

They, especially the personal disciples, weren’t sure that Hei and Lian could succeed on their own. But there were no other alternatives, and the sect leader understood this well. After all, although she had the authority, he couldn’t make Hei obey her order as with the others.

*

In a vast forest dominated by vegetation, two youths were walking at a fast pace while in their midst, there was an elephant baby who was joyously bellowing every step it took. It recognized its home and was gradually accelerating, eager to meet its parents.

The various animals and spirit beasts of the area recognized the baby and moved away from them. They could still remember the fury of the two forest rulers when a group of humans managed to steal their baby.

But if the others were moving away, the herd of elephants ruled by the baby's two parents were approaching at high speed to where Hei and Lian and the baby elephant were.

Suddenly, about fifteen elephants appeared on the horizon. However, after approaching a little, only two of the elephants continued on their way while the others arranged themselves in a circle protecting the few little elephants inside.

The two elephants were much more giant than the others, approaching four meters of height with ease, and their tusks were more than three meters long. From their body, a furious murderous aura was raging as they bellowed at their baby who, in turn, responded to their calls.

Hei, however, stopped the baby elephant from rejoining its parents. If he let it go right away, its parents wouldn't listen to him at all. But his action was seen as an attempt to hurt their child in the two adult elephants' eyes. So, they increased their speed even more and prepared themselves to attack.

At that point, Bao Bei intervened. An intense aura spread through the forest, and all the animals and spirit beasts within that range could do nothing but shiver with fear as they huddled on the ground. Even the two second-level elephants suddenly stopped their run as they watched the young human in front of them in shock.

How was it possible that he could emit such an aura? And above all, it wasn’t the aura of a human but that of a powerful spirit beast.

"It's okay. I didn't come here to hurt you or your baby. I just came to bring it back and offer you a proposal,” Hei said, taking advantage of the two adult elephants calming down.

At his words, the two elephants were surprised because, although they didn’t understand human language, they managed to understand the words of the human before them. Therefore, they began to issue various trumpetings asking to release their puppy first, and then they could talk.

At their request, Hei finally let the baby elephant go and waited several minutes to let the parents and child be able to hug again. When the two adult elephants found that their child wasn’t injured, only then did they turn to Hei again.

"As I told you, I am here to bring you your baby back, but at the same time, to offer you a proposal. Humans know that there are two second-level spirit beasts. In a not too distant future, they will surely come here to kill you and take your spirit cores. At that moment, they will surely kill every other specimen that will try to resist."

Listening to his words, the two adult elephants bellowed furiously and trampled their muscular legs against the ground, making the surrounding ground tremble.

"That's why I offer you an agreement. Not all humans are like that. The group of humans I belong to proposes an agreement. If you are willing to fight for them if necessary, they promise you a safe place in their domains where you won’t have to worry about being attacked. Of course, you can bring your whole family with you."

The two adult elephants looked at each other momentarily and what was the male among them, bellowed again. It was asking how they could trust humans.

"If you don't trust humans, trust me then. I have no intention of hurting you, so I brought your child back to you. Moreover…"

Then he let Ye and Xing out of his clothes and then ran a hand through his hair and took his mother and showed her to the two second-level spirit beasts.

Instinctively, the two elephants dropped to their knees and bowed their heads. From the slight aura that emerged from Bao Bei, they could clearly understand that she was a spirit beast far superior to them.

"This is my mother, while the two of them are my sisters. As I said, I'm not going to hurt you. If you don't want to, you can always refuse. However, what I have told you will happen; it is up to you to decide whether to let it happen or not."

Hei ended his speech and sat down with Lian. He put his mother back on his head as he gently stroked his two little sisters.

The two elephants continued to talk to each other as they glanced from time to time at Hei. From the way he was holding and caressing that little spider and that little snake, they could see how affection the human before them felt for those two spirit beasts.

In the end, after several discussions and having their every detail told by their baby, they came up with their answer. They would accept, but if something harmful happened to their herd, they would leave, regardless of which humans they had to kill.

Satisfied with their words, Hei smiled and prepared to arrange preparations for their return.

*

The return journey was very chaotic. Instead of climbing on the back of Bao Bei, Hei and Lian climbed on the back of one of two second-level elephants. Next to the parents and their baby, there were also the other elephants of the pack.

Given their size and numbers, their group was quickly spotted, and news soon spread that a herd of elephants was traveling the kingdom. Fortunately, the Flower Sect immediately announced that there was nothing to worry about, and it was they who were leading the herd. To be sure, the sect leader sent the seventh elder to protect the group nearing the sect.

But in the end, nothing happened, and the herd of elephants finally arrived at the Flower Sect, where they settled nearby in the territories bordering the spiderweb house. The other spirit beasts had also settled down nearby and welcomed the new arrivals.

Hei also wanted to join the festivities and officially welcome the new arrivals but was immediately summoned by the sect leader on his return. Therefore, he went with Lian to the residence of the sect leader, eager to hurry and return home.

When he found himself in front of the sect leader, Hei noticed that the woman had lost her usual serious and detached temperament. Indeed, it contained an excitement never seen before.

"Excellent job, Hei. You managed to bring the elephants to the sect. The news that we have tamed the two second-level spirit beasts has already been around the kingdom and has spread to the remaining two kingdoms, too,” the sect leader commented as she looked intensely at Hei.

"I guess you didn't call me here just to congratulate me, did you?" Hei asked.

From the attitude of the sect leader, he could notice that something had happened and decided to go straight to the point.

"Yup. All right. I'll be direct then. Hei, the king, asked if we could use elephants and your other spirit beasts if there were a danger to the kingdom. Of course, you will have your reward. "

At the words of the sect leader, Hei frowned as he answered.

"No, as I said, they aren’t tools. I agreed to bring them here because you promised me that you would give them a safe home. So if there is a danger to the sect, they will protect it because their house is in the sect. But I won’t allow them to be used as tools at the service of the king's power craving."

"I figured you'd say that, but listen to me before you decide. What I'm about to tell you is a secret known only to the major powers of the Rainbow Island. That is the reason behind the actions I have taken so far and behind the king's request. It's about the token you saw at auction."

When he heard the token being named, Hei's anger subsided momentarily, and he became silent to listen to the sect leader. At his side, Lian also laid her eyes on the woman.

"The token you saw at the auction comes from the formation used by the sect for the inner members' evaluation. The dream trial and the combat trial are governed by an entity known as the Artifact Spirit. It dwells in every islands' formation, though it has to divide its conscience to operate so many formations in different places. But this token was given only to us martial artists of the Rainbow Island. Do you know why? "

Obviously, Hei didn't know why. It was just a rhetorical question to emphasize her speech. The sect leader, therefore, spoke again.

"Secret Dimension. In ancient texts, it is said that the Serpent of Darkness reached the divine degree, killing the Hero of the human race and the Demon Emperor. During the final battle, a large portion of land detached from the continent and disappeared forever. However, these portions of land haven’t disappeared but exist at different points in space. And these points took the name of Secret Dimensions.

The main reason why the Sun Empire came to the islands was to look for such dimensions. But they weren’t able to find one and left, leaving us alone. And the reason why they seek these Secret Dimensions is that those guard the corpses of divine beasts as well as the treasures of human and demons martial artists of one hundred thousand years ago.

Several years ago, we found a rift in space. Asking for help from the Artifact Spirit, we discovered that a passage was being formed towards an unknown Secret Dimension. You must know that on the Continent, the number of Secret Dimensions is very few, but each is invaluable.

Bloodlines, rare weapons, medicines and pills that go beyond the second rank, reaching up to the sixth. This Secret Dimension represents the opportunity of a lifetime for us Rainbow Island martial artists. All the big and medium sects, together with other influences, have united their resources. With the help of the Artifact Spirit, we have succeeded in creating a formation that could stabilize the connection towards the Secret Dimension.

The problem is that the passage is still unstable and would collapse if someone of the second rank or higher entered inside. For this reason, we had to focus on the younger generation. At the same time, the Artifact Spirit has given us these tokens containing its aura so that participants can safely cross the passage without being swallowed up by the space. So a big fight broke out to get as many tokens as possible. We Flower Sect have managed to get four.

With only four seats, we must necessarily send the best of the younger generation for more possibilities. That's why I'm insisting that you and Lian get stronger as soon as possible."