The training in the Fay Sacred Realm continued in the same manner, alternating between the Dao of Fire and Lightning each day.

Years passed or maybe millions of years, it made no difference in this special dimension without time. Without his glove Pef wasn't really able to tell what events or objects were real or illusion, but one day something spectacular happened. He blocked the Blade Fairy in the arena, and held his ground...countering her Dao of Water with an exact opposite force.

"Stop, both of you! Sunny, you wait outside now." the Fay Goddess demanded in a clear voice as the arena vanished once more and the same flower garden re-appeared.

Pef just nodded and stepped once to enter the gilded pagoda where the Supreme Fairy resided. If she was there at all.

"Does this mean I reached my goal? I have become an Elder God?" Pef asked curious, mostly because he didn't feel much different than yesterday.

The beautiful statue measured him with a long stare. "What do you think?"

"I don't know how to measure myself. I had my glove do it for me all my life." he answered after a short pause.

"A small hint then. Check your inner world, and count." she proposed with a faint smile.

Pef shifted his focus inward, counting his Avatars, the number of galaxies and worlds...till he noticed two extra universes adjacent to his original one. They were barren and empty of stars...just two bubbles of void. With a frown, he moved an Avatar inside one of the new universes and began creating new stars and planets, then galaxies...

"I have three universes inside me now. I just didn't notice them." Pef muttered while scratching his head in shame.

"Well, that's how you know you have reached Elder Realm. Later on, your inner existence will become more and more important, but you'll have to force yourself to balance both realities and don't get lost into navel gazing. As for creating even more universes, it's straight forward. Just complete more Daos." The Tier 8 goddess explained with a stony face.

Pef bowed gratefully. "I think I should leave your realm and consult with my glove on my future path. As for your emotions, I won't let you remain a stone beauty forever. You deserve a chance to pursue happiness too." he added as parting word.

------------

With a mischievous gleam in her eyes, the goddess tapped her paper fan and returned our hero beside the water pond, then hid herself behind the fan. "Big words, Pef Xi. To think you're even more dangerous than your glove..." she murmured to herself, as another presence appeared into her garden.

This presence had a simple metal armor covering her and a short bob of black hair, and a straight posture as if on parade.

"Thank you, Lady Kalima. Sadly, I'm rather occupied at this moment, with the other problems. One day, maybe I can tell him..." the General said in a soft voice, though pain and tiredness could still be felt, by someone extremely sensible.

"It wasn't a bother, fellow Daoist. Your new Soldier is quite a joy to be around, and a breath of fresh air. Not so much your other child..." The Fay Goddess answered in a cold voice.

"I know. My gloves were never meant to become independent, too much potential for...oh well. At least it wasn't a Word Gun. I wasn't at my best when I created those children. Mentally, I mean." the old general offered as a form of apology.

"How are you holding up in the siege? I sense some distress." Lady Kalima wondered in a more worried tone.

"It is as exactly bad as you can imagine. But at least he won't dare attack me here in the Gap, and I can keep growing stronger. It is still the best plan that might work." the General said with a faint shrug.

"The Ghouls will launch their relief strike in about a dozen years...will they be able to reach you?" The Fay Goddess asked with little hope.

"You know they can't. Hualitep will block and massacre them again, unless the Serghoul has grown much stronger in the past million years?" The Veritas Legion General wondered idly.

"I doubt it. Even after he collects the deaths from the latest golith assault, it probably won't suffice. We can always try to appeal to the Silent Monk, or maybe the Taotie?" Kalima offered with a painful cringe.

The General hesitated for a minute. "The Monk is listening right now, so if he wanted to intervene he would be here. As for Taotie, it is also listening. Curious." she mused with her eyes closed.

"Pef Xi asked me about the beast...as if he knew it. And he did stay six months in the Mausoleum, long past the normal expiration date." Lady Kalima proposed with a raised eyebrow.

The General was the best Oracle in the multiverse, and her insights were always welcome. Not that knowing too much was always beneficial as her current predicament, hiding among the myriad of goliths, proved quite convincingly.

"He did indeed make contact with the beast, but it wasn't via conflict. Hmmm. A legacy of the Jade Emperor? Scrying the Taotie is difficult as always. Anyways, do try to breach the Gap again, in a decade or so. I'd like to see what my children are up to..." the General said as her projection wavered and distorted, and eyes began sprouting all over until it burst into motes of light.

"And the other monster arrives to crash my party..." Kalima grumbled as her garden exploded into a lightning storm, forcing the Hualitep to run away once more.

----------------

When Pef emerged from the fay water pool, he noticed the glove once more on his right hand, but feeling much different. Weaker perhaps, and yet...

'What did you do while I trained?' he asked inward.

'Also training, although in different way. Some good stuff, like actual golith combat logs from our General, lots of them. And less nice stuff, like courses in ethics and morality and religion...it seems I've been bad.' the glove disclosed in a grumbling tone.

'Oh, well you did do some bad things.' Pef observed with a bit faint amusement and a great deal of sadness.

'Yeah. Anyways, we have a new enemy. Well, an old one but I've forgotten about him, because my memory was damaged. By the Dragon Emperor.' the glove added in a more somber tone.

Pef sighed and took out a Godwine bottle and just drank it all in one go. It didn't have much effect anymore.

'Yeah. He was my top suspect as well, once I've learned of the current power ranking among the top cultivators in the multiverse. Our General isn't even in top five.' Pef said while looking around the mountain valley around the pond, and the millions of rather unfriendly Fay cultivators.

'She is the youngest Tier 8 though. Even Rejin and Sunny are older than her.' the glove replied with a careless tone.

Pef sighed again, just as the Blade Fairy appeared beside him. "Your presence here disturbs my people. This pond is our sacred place and our link to our Godmother." she proclaimed in a not-that-small of a voice. Probably meant to be heard by her people, going by how they nodded in tandem.

With a grin, Pef waved at the locals. "I hoped they were happy for my presence. I was actually considering staying around for a while and destroying some goliths. But...if I'm not..." he spoke just as loud, while shrugging empathically.

The air wavered slightly and Alchemist Rejin appeared as well, and measured Pef with a curious gaze. "Elder Realm already? It's barely been two years." he observed a little surprised.

Pef glanced at the water pond, then back up. "Two years? Time does fly when you're having fun. I guess it was mostly completing the Dao of Fire. And fighting the Blade Fairy every day. Not serious fights though."

"He also breezed through the Dao of Lightning and didn't even notice he ascended." the Blade Fairy added with a jab towards Pef.

Our hero just nodded casually. "Nobody ever accused me of being smart. Strong, brave, valiant, good looking, sexy and a great cook, yeah. As for brains, I let my women do the thinking for me. Or my orange glove, it is quite smart in fact." he proclaimed in a valiant pose.

Both Tier 7 deities glanced at each other and sobbed silently. There wasn't anything untrue in those words either.