A harrowing sight greeted Xie Mei and Han Junqiao as their excited gazes fell upon Theodore, who had only just returned. Lying at the core of the Array was a heap of flesh, blood and bones, barely covered by the clothes which their lover had been wearing today.
"What happened? That can't be Theo... r-right?"
All blood draining from her face, Xie Mei scrutinized the new arrival carefully, desperate to find something that would prove her wrong. But before she could properly do so, she noticed her sister fainting out of the corner of her eye and hastily caught her before she could hit the ground.
'That was close!'
Staring at Han Junqiao in her arms with worry written all over her ghastly white face, she felt caught in between a rock and a hard place. Should she just lay her down for now and carefully approach that which had appeared? Or would keeping her company until she woke up again be the wiser choice?
Before she could make up her mind, suddenly, she realized that the meat pile was squirming unnaturally. Then, to her astonishment, within less than a minute, Theodore's regular shape recovered from his state of near complete destruction and reappeared before her.
"... my apologies for the unexpected scare. I should have warned you in advance, or told you that a setback like this isn't worth mentioning... Well, anyway: It's my fault this time."
His smile a bit awkward, he stepped forward and wrapped both Xie Mei and the unconscious Han Junqiao into a gentle hug. In truth, he had started to message the two of them on Kiran's network the moment that he had come back and seen them staring at his 'remains'–but they had been too preoccupied with what they were witnessing to check their inbox.
"How did you...? You know what, I don't care. I'm just glad that you're fine..."
At first flustered and confused, but then merely shaking her head in profound relief, Xie Mei snuggled closer to him, a few tears stealthily dripping down her cheeks.
It didn't take too long for Han Junqiao to reawaken. The moment when she did, though, she practically tackle-hugged Theodore and bawled like a crybaby, very unlike her usual demeanour. But neither he nor her sister made fun of her for it, as she had truly been under the impression that he had died.
'After this, I need to properly teach them about how difficult it is for those like me to die. Recovering from a nearly ruined state to my peak form won't be out of the ordinary, so they should get used to sights like this...'
As he was comforting his lovers, he recalled the earlier encounter, as well as the way in which he had escaped his demise. Admittedly, he had come a lot closer to a brush with death than he would have liked, yet that was solely because he had yet to properly become a cultivator. Once his enormous investment finally began to pay off, future battles–for a time–would certainly be a breeze.
To be honest, Sverre Úlfr was no one special amongst the Supreme Pillar heirs. In fact, he was so unremarkable that the intelligence department of the Winters hadn't bothered to inform him about this individual at all. Having met him, he clearly understood why: The man was a complete disappointment. If he hadn't been born with outstanding Talents and to powerful parents, then relying exclusively on his mental capabilities, he wouldn't easily win against most ordinary Heaven's Chosen.
From the very start, he had been led by the nose by Theodore's group and Eleanora, never truly realizing that even when they began to surround him and beat him up, they were still merely acting. He was the one who had enjoyed the initial surprise attack advantage, yet he hadn't managed to truly hurt any of them–and had lost his 'second life'.
Truly, Sverre could be considered a bottom of the barrel Supreme Pillar descendant, whilst Eleanora was relatively outstanding amongst her peers. As for Theodore... well, he could more or less come to a draw with Sverre when he couldn't even control Energy yet.
Nearly all of his means had been unavailable, leaving him with an extreme lack of options, whether that be offensively, defensively, or in any other way. Energy was a cultivator's bread and butter, and he had yet to make it to the cashier.
'Fortunately, I could rely on indirectly manipulating the pure Energy released by the Energy Veins inside of me. I had a little bit of experience with it in my illusory lives, but back then, I hadn't realized how much of a game changer it could be, especially early on during my cultivation journey.'
If he continued on his current path, he was certain that we would eventually become the person with the deepest understanding of Energy Veins as a whole–and would also unearth a plethora of other abilities, aside from these rudimentary ones.
Reinforcing his body temporarily and wrapping it in pure Energy were both very practical currently, and wouldn't entirely leave the spotlight even once he made it to far higher stages. However, he was certain that he had merely scratched the surface at this point.
'Still, that alone has allowed me to temporarily withstand the Lesser True Void. Admittedly, if I hadn't made plenty of preparations in advance, I could have died right then and there. But in any case, buying a few seconds of time in a domain like that is already an inconceivably precious gain.'
Before he had set off, he had made sure to have an emergency Teleportation Array Disk at hand, one that had been pre-programmed to bring him back to Chulong City after a tiny amount of Energy was injected into it.
The only reason as to why he had allowed himself to take a risk like this was the Regression Talent which he had snatched shortly after the start of the Heavenly Succession. If it came down to it, he was confident in being able to kill himself faster than an enemy would be capable of eliminating him. Due to not yet having reached the Soul Sculpting Stage, that would instantly bring him back to those early days in Shanxi Village.
'Fortunately, I didn't need to retread my steps this time. When I get the chance and have accumulated enough Talent Energy, I should upgrade my Regression Talent. But I would need one quadrillion for that purpose, and I'm still extremely far from that...'
Shaking his head a little, he mentally heaved a sigh. Then, a small smirk couldn't help but play across his lips.
'I wonder how that Úlfr is doing. Has he noticed that he was the only one to lose out?'
-----
Having ensured that his close surroundings were safe, Sverre plopped down on a rock which had been warmed up by the sunlight and enjoyed the gentle breeze brushing past him. The prior confrontation had taken a lot of out him, especially his transformation into a Celestial Wolf.
Still, that wasn't anything that a day's rest couldn't fix. What was more vexing was that he had actually used up his most reliable ace this early on–this couldn't bode well.
'At the very least, those two should have been forced to contend with the void by now. Right about now, that should mean that they have to waste their items as well! This way, we'll all be considered to have lost–just as planned.'
Smirking in a self-satisfied manner, he patiently awaited the good news. Yet, no matter how long he persevered, no notification ever popped up. When quite a few hours had gone by, he finally couldn't help but furrow his brows, sit up and stare distractedly at the horizon.
'Could it be that they had other cards to play? But which ones? How come I don't have anything like that?!'
The longer that he thought about it, the more jealous and frustrated he got. They all came from the same kind of background, yet he was the sole one lagging behind! This realization made him furious, a deep killing intent boiling within him.
"Those bastards! Why is it always me?! It's always... been like this..."
At first, he was roaring angrily without a care to let off some steam, yet when he recalled his early days, as well as those monsters who he had grown up with, a deep powerlessness arose in his heart, quenching the excessive heat nigh instantly.
'... even my eldest brother would have to take Theodore Winter seriously. Why did I think that I could compete with him? And that woman... was definitely from the Dragon Family, but I forgot her name. Still, even the weakest of them can easily strong-arm me into submission. I shouldn't have attacked either of them in the first place. If I had reached out to them for a partnership without revealing my real capabilities, I likely never would have needed to pay this price...'
Analysing everything in hindsight, he came to understand where he had gone wrong. Whilst the awareness definitely didn't serve to console him, it at least made him more clear-headed.
'I'll need to be extremely careful from now on.'
With a grim look, he got up from his resting place and scouted out a concealed location with sufficient Energy concentration to seclude himself in. If he couldn't make it far by rushing into everything head first, then in the future, he would try to keep as far away from all confrontations as possible!
-----
At around the same time, Eleanora's true self opened her eyes, having fully absorbed her clone and its memories. None of what had occurred had particularly surprised her, yet it couldn't be said that everything went as she would have liked best.
Just like Theodore, the survival of the Longxin World's population was what she would have preferred, as that would directly have helped her in growing stronger. But the past couldn't be changed. If a relatively competent foe wanted to make it difficult for them, then at this point, there was nothing that they could do in response to that.
'That Úlfr isn't much of a concern. Almost certainly, we'll never meet again. And even if we do, by that time, I can simply squish him like a bug. Those two girls that Theodore brought with him, though... they're quite interesting.'
Experienced as she was, it wasn't difficult for her to tell that Cheong Suhyeon was following the path of the Faith Receptacle and had extraordinary aptitude for it. That alone would already allow her to partially catch up with herself in the far future, therefore someone like her being Theodore's Retainer would make it far more difficult to battle him in the future, should she ever need to.
Vigdis, on the other hand, was almost a complete mystery to her. At first glance, all that was outstanding about her were her Resolve Realm cultivation, which marked her as someone with a truly impressive will, and her runic tattoos. But Eleanora's gut was telling her that this wasn't all that there was to Vigdis–and a Supreme Pillar heir like her would take their instincts a lot more seriously than most.
'Those two aside, what Theodore has shown himself to be capable of in his current state is outright terrifying. If we were at the same cultivation stage, I'd have to utilize all of my means to escape with my life! Truly, I cannot afford to waste any time at all.'
No matter how well along they seemingly got, neither of them would allow themselves to be put in a position of absolute weakness before the other. After all, there was no way to know what their rival might pull off once they felt certain of their success! The sole way to ensure stability was to be powerful enough to make them worry about the consequences of taking action against the other. In a way, they were constantly in an arms race, yet their might was what ensured lasting peace.
'It may take a while, but I'll definitely invite him over for tea sometime~'
Smiling slightly, she recalled her little joke from earlier, then shook her head in amusement. There were still many matters to discuss between the two of them, so using it as an excuse to meet up would be convenient. And because she had knocked on his door the last time, it was only fair for her to host their second formal rendezvous.