After some time at sea even ink-star had begun to get bored; so to kill time he started taking naps on Arc's head which brought some laughs to Aurora
Arc was fairly unbothered during this trip spending his time either educating ink-star, painting and cultivating
Him and Aurora hadn't been together since there wasn't any real privacy on this ship and while Arc knew the sect master knew
Walking into his master's room every night and not leaving until morning would be a clear way to get caught by the others who didn't know
Not to mention Aurora herself is unaware that the sect master knows, making her continue to play the role of "perfect daughter" around him
Arc did occasionally glance at the sect master and wonder what gave it away, when he did he find out about their relationship?
Arc removed those thoughts from his head, when or where it didn't really matter; as long as he advanced to golden core the sect master wouldn't be able to get in their way
With that being said Arc returned to his room within the ship and spent the rest of the time cultivating waiting to arrive
The amount of spirit energy he was bring in was extremely high, so much so that he was unable to absorb all of it
This added with the world energy he was continually absorbing and converting into spirit energy , caused the amount of spirit energy within the boat to increase gradually
At some point the other disciples just assumed that someone on the ship activated a spirit energy gathering formation
The only people who knew it was a byproduct of the insane energy absorption of Arc were Aurora, the sect master and wuji
Wuji only was made aware due to the old man within his ring and after finding out about it, he would sit outside of Arc's door and use the increased spirit energy to cultivate
This continued until they hit landfall, from there the outer disciples and the handyman disciples began docking the ship and preparing the carriages for the rest of them
When Arc saw them bring out the carriages from the inside of the ship he was shocked by their size they were massive, they looked more like houses than carriages
Arc also saw that was "manned" them weren't horses but mechanical dragons covered in formations and made entirely of mithril
Arc wasn't aware just how power they are but seeing how they sect pulled them out, they were mostly false core level, making them a so called "nuclear deterrent"
It seemed that the sect was going all out in showing their wealth and "military strength"
Without a doubt every major faction on the continent was paying attention to the current events
Since the black mountain sect is going in guns blazing, it could be seen as a sign of strength and dominance
They couldn't risk having the other factions misinterpret their going to the event as submission, thus they squashed it using the wealth accumulated over the thousands of years their sect has existed
When Arc and the other core disciples entered the cartridges, Arc united with Iris and they found a seat next to Aurora
Since they still had a while to go before arriving Aurora began a lecture on cultivation and combat,
Since they were in close proximity they outer and handyman diciples listened closely seemingly trying to commit this to memory
Many of the topics were far beyond what they could currently understand but they believed if they memorized it; this would aid them in the future
The sect master joined in the lecture adding points to Aurora messages, seemingly glad she is taking this very seriously
Arc habit to write down his thoughts was brought out, he began to take out notebooks and was writing everything down,
Iris seeing the leaned over to him, before whispering
"can i take a look of your notes after"
This reminded Arc of his time at school back at earth, he laughed lightly to himself before nodding his head to her
With that being said they continued the lesson and Arc found that his "systemic" cultivation knowledge was fairly behind the other core diciples
While he did read and research many of the books in the library giving him an advantage over the average cultivatior in the sect
He isn't like the librarian who can see the flow of all the energies even when not cultivating
That ability added to the fact he read everything in the library brought his understanding of cultivation a level much higher than his realm
Even his own "perfect foundation" was founded on incomplete studies and relied heavily on luck
This humbled Arc and he seemed to calm the arrogance that had been growing in his heart as of late
After a while the lesson started to deviate until it ultimately changed topics the moment someone asked the question
"How did the first humans cultivate?"
This brought a curious thought to the heads of all the disciplines present as they have spent years studying
How did it start?, how much has truly been accumulated over the eaon for them to have reached this level?
The sect master rubbed his chin slightly seemingly deep in thought, as he spoke
"That happened so long ago that no one truly knows"
"But i can share with you the rumored "myth of creation" Luton heard while traveling through the cosmos and the astral realms, but there is no confirmation whether it is true"
At this point even Aurora was interested, as she had never heard of a creation myth from Luton
Seeing everyone wanted to hear the myth the sect master nodded his head gently before narrating
"At the beginning there was nothing, then from nothing a being beyond time and space appeared"
"She had mastery over the laws of life and space, after awakening within the endless nothingness; she began creating the universe"
"After the first world began to exhibit life, she disappeared just as swiftly as she once appeared;
"only to be heard or seen when the universe was in danger for it was her child, this "relationship" caused her to be referred to as the mother"
"On this first world the spiritual energy was beyond what anyone could ever comprehend"
"The universe still in its infancy had yet to expand far; thus the energy that would've been across the cosmos was concentrated upon a single world"
"This world is referred to as the primordial world, though many are sceptical on its existence"
"Due to the high concentration of energy in this world, evolution happened rapidly; far faster than it was meant to"
"Monster's and demon beast were born, with powerful and large bodies that relied upon the spirit energy to survive"
"They were vicious and destructive creatures, that fought each other endlessly ; not much is known about them other than that"
"Anyways in this same world something interesting happened, the first spirit beasts were born"
"A snake, a lizard and a fish; these creatures being the first intelligent life in the universe began researching and studying the demon beasts that lived in their world"
"As their research progressed the universe expanding had continued, the spirit energy within the world was slowly decreasing"
"This beasts began losing their source of energy, soon attempted to kill each-other so as to decrease the amount of energy being absorbed"
"They believed if they killed all the other races, even if the spirit energy dropped significantly their species would survive"
"The three spirit beasts realized that if they remained within the primordial world, the demon beasts would slaughter them"
"So they flew into far space together towards the expanding universe; it is unknown when the three met in the primordial world, but all records and myths after that seems to show them working together"
"When traveling through space they would visit every new world they would encountered, spreading the cultivation techniques each of them had made"
"This is the creation myth and the myth of how cultivation began, the story does continue a little further, anyone want to hear the rest?"
The sect master asked teasingly, as he saw that everyone was invested in the story
Hearing their confirmation, the sect master continued,
"soon they were known as sages and teachers to all the cultivators and mortals they encountered"
"Yet it wasn't all great for them, they had begun growing old; having lived inconceivably long lives they had felt great fear and confusion to the changes"
"At first they didn't understand what was happening, soon they would gather together and research what had happened"
"After discovering that age was finally catching up to them, they decided to take a gamble"
"Creating a new spell; that was fueled by their blood, their bloods mixed and the spell's effect activated"
"The exact purpose of the spell was unknown; most likely a method to prolong their lives, but it failed to do so and the three eventually died of old age"
"It instead did something else entirely, it created a species of animals that would always become spirit beasts at adulthood"
"The dragon race was born, this was monumental; a perfect species that never should have existed"
"It was considered so important that "she" returned, upon appearing the mother seemed extremely proud that they managed to create such a special race"
"She promised the three ancestors of the dragon race, that once they passed they would reincarnate and live again as dragons"
"She then gave the dragon race a final parting gift, the memory inheritance"
"the dragons would be able to bestow small parts of their memories to their offsprings; preventing powerful techniques or important information from being lost"
With those words spoken the carriage turned silent, none present had ever heard this rumor on the creation of the dragons
They began wondering whether it was a true story, or if the myth had any bearing of what truly happened
The dragon inheritance was real, and dragon's by nature were all spirit beasts
So it was very possible this myth came directly from the memories of first and second generation dragons that was then passed down
Yet that did not make it trustworthy, for dragons are also known for their endless pride and arrogance
It was very possible they twisted parts of the story as a way to show their superiority to the other species
Wuji then asked the sect master
"Master, do any of those demon beasts from that world still exist?"
The sect master shook his head, as he responded
"the reason they were able to live such longs lives was due to the high amounts of spirit energy"
"Their species had all disappeared around the same time the dragon ancestors died of old age"
Another core disciple them spoke clearly confused
"I thought powerful cultivators could live forever; if someone becomes an immortal they can still die of old age if spirit energy runs out?"
This time Aurora answered
"When one becomes a heavenly immortal their body no longer requires spirit energy,"
"they can absorb all the energies of the universe, but i'm guessing that realm didn't yet exist"
The sect master nodded,
"The first spirit beast were far more talented than anyone of us, but they had to create the cultivation systems from scratch"
"Causing them to exhaust most of their potential when they reached the stage of earth immortal"
"They paved the way for us, and countless other beings across the universe to cultivate to immortality
but weren't able to reach it themselves"
With that being said the story was finished and so was the lesson causing the carriage turn silent as they all thought to themselves about what they had heard
There was only one thought that was bouncing around in Arc's head, 'heavenly immortal's don't rely on spirit energy, they like me use world energy'
'Does that mean I will have an easier time breaking through to the heavenly Immortal stage?'
Arc didn't seem to believe that, ever since discovering that he skipped his "physiques" tribulation he couldn't help but feel it would come back to haunt him in the future
Arc then realized something smiled lightly, as he thought to himself
'Well me even reaching that realm is highly theoretical'
'that tribulation is something that even the strongest cultivator in our realm, the Emperor of central continent hasn't faced yet'
Arc felt more relaxed and gradually his thoughts began to wonder, thus he was unaware of the strange face ink-star was making
Ink-star knew of the memory inheritance because he himself had one, but for some reason unknown to him it was left incomplete,
much of the information was broken or distorted not leaving much that was understandable to him
Upon hearing this myth, he began glancing towards the memory inheritance to see whether this portion had a complete record
What he found instead confused him, the information before him seemed to change endlessly; it was repairing itself
Ink-star was left completely speechless, wondering what changed in the inheritance that it is now fixing itself
That feeling persisted for several days until he felt something that brought a chill to his spine, he instinctively curled up after jumping into Arc's robes
This caught Arc's attention as he tried to use his connection to ink-star to communicate with him
Ink-star didn't dare respond via the connection as he shook, Arc seeing this began feeling worried
Due to the close proximity the other were able to see that Arc's dragon was freaking out for some reason
they didn't understand why, but the sect master ever cautious, stopped the carriages and activated defensive formations
"Dragon's have acute senses, and we are near a drop off point of the astral realm, so we can take a rest here and wait out whatever is out there"
Wuji then asked curious
"Master, what is a drop off point?"
"A drop of point is a place in the physical universe that is easily accessible from the astral realm"
"It's basically a weak point in space, thus it's used for quick entry and exist, as going through the astral is faster than through the physical world"
He answered calmly before dismissing everyone to their rooms, as the carriage was more than large enough for them to each have private rooms during this time
Aurora took advantage of this and followed Arc into his room, everyone who saw just assumed that she was being a caring teacher
While the sect master felt somewhat bitter to this as he watched Aurora enter with a slight jump in her step; he felt like a father with a rebellious daughter
After closing the door behind them Aurora tried to cuddle with Arc only to find that he looked extremely worried
"What wrong, we have activated all defenses and are still fairly far from the drop off point; it's pretty safe here especially with me around"
Aurora spoke slowly while running her hand through his hair seemingly attempting to calm him down
This did work somewhat, causing Arc to take a deep breath as be brought ink-star out of his robes; who continued to shake however
"Ink-star what is wrong, why are you shaking"
Aurora asked now becoming worried
Ink-star seemed to struggle to put it to words as he brought it out,
"i feel something, it feels like dad but stronger"
At this moment Aurora calm demeanor vanished as her face turned serious as she asked
"Does it feel as strong as me?"
Ink-star shook his head and before Aurora or Arc could feel any relief he spoke once more
"Stronger much stronger"
With those words said Aurora had deducted what ink-star had sensed, since Arc had a connection to the painting known as ink-star
It would stand to reason that the dragon who's horn was used to paint it would also have a connection to him
Aurora's thoughts raced as she wondered what she could possibly do to help
Her eyes turned sharp as she grabbed Arc's hand, and before Arc could comprehend what happened they were before the sect master
Aurora turned to the sect master and said
"Me and Arc have to do something real quick; just wait here, and if we are late leave without us and we will meet you there"
Before he could even respond he found that both Aurora and Arc had vanished before him, he couldn't help but feel speechless as he thought to himself
'….. did they just elope?'
Aurora flew rapidly seemingly heading back towards the sect, since she was aware that this dragon was something even Luton couldn't handle alone
Before she reached the boat, a chill ran down her spine as a massive pressure struck her body
This pressure forced her to land and she turned to see that Arc was hardly breathing, it was suffocating him
She quickly put a barrier on his body before turning around to see something despair inducing,
It was large, covered in black scales with large powerful wings upon its back, and a long scaled tail behind it's body: the Abyssal dragon had arrived
At this moment Aurora felt shame as she realized the mistake she had made
The fact the dragon appeared so quickly was that it had already entered the world; it was watching them quietly seemingly looking for an opportunity to strike
Aurora had made the wrong choice by running away, from her own experience Abyssal creatures lacked reason or control
Dragon's were also extremely prideful, these two traits combined means; a prideful and arrogant monster with little to no self control
With that in her mind she never expected that not only would this monster have such self control but the awareness to act in such a manner
Aurora wore her armor as she pulled out her sword standing before Arc and ink-star, she felt afraid but tried to appear strong as to not worry Arc
She looked deeply into the eyes of the dragon and saw inconceivable rage, yet for some reason she also saw doubt within its eyes