5 years later---------Ray 3rd pov
Sigh. "Looks like it's almost time. It's been five fun years. I have taught you what I can in this short time. Make good use of what you learned, and don't forget to train regularly, as training makes perfect."
In the lodge house's living room, a teen and a lady were standing face to face. The lady's face was full of pride as she looked at the teenager.
Ray and his now master—or his ancestor. After waking that day in this lodge house, he never left it for the past four years, learning a lot of subjects and fields under the lady in front of him.
On the first day when she summoned him here, she intended only to help him a little by reinforcing his knowledge and correcting him in some parts.
But the kid didn't stop surprising her every day, so she took it upon herself to teach him all the things he could handle in this short time, taking advantage of the sleepless space (in this space, Ray doesn't need sleep and doesn't get tired), along with his high talent and astonishing photographic memory.
She taught him every possible theory and practice in all kinds of fields, from the cultivation of humans to the functionality of the body, passing by planets, to arts and crafting (alchemy, singing…), and ending in metallurgy (item and spiritual tools crafting). She even taught him cooking arts, turning him into a walking multiple-field library.
And in some cases, he was an expert himself.
The problem here was her sadistic and Spartan way of teaching, as she wouldn't accept anything from Ray below the master level, or punishment was in order. And every time she came up with something new to tort—
cough—
All that was not a waste of time or the hard work he pulled through. If Ray was once an easy-going, mature kid with a hot head, the training with her pushed him to become calm and very stable, as his personality gained more from the tight and disciplined time he spent here.
"Thanks for having me under you for these years." Bowing his head, he continued, "If Master needs any help from me in the future, just call me up, even if it's little."
She waved her hand. "It's okay. I enjoyed myself as well, as not every day do I get a disciple who can keep up with my way," ending her words with a mischievous smile, making Ray flinch.
"G… good to hear that."
As he was talking, his body started to fade away.
The lady noticed this, patting his head with a kind and loving smile. "Go live your life, and remember, you're my disciple, so don't look down on yourself, and never let others do so. From today on, you will use **** as your family name, as a master for a day is a mother for life."
The lady smiled, knowing he couldn't hear it for now. "You will know it when the time is right."
Ray felt moved, but before he disappeared completely, he chuckled, adding, "As pushy as ever, Master Elina."
— 3rd POV, Plana Dimension —
Plana Dimension, a few moments before Ray wakes up.
In what was once a grass field now stood a tree towering past the clouds, visible from all over Plana, surrounded by a naturally formed small forest, with only two indistinct man-like structures on both sides, hidden between the trees and bushes.
In the middle center of the giant tree trunk—or what was now known as the Sleeping King Tree—a glowing globe kept shining in multiple colors, adding a mystic touch to the beautiful view. The tree itself felt like it was created from some kind of brown gem, and its leaves had a green sheen full of vitality. The most striking feature was the glowing, unknown fruits in all kinds of colors on its branches.
The tree was not the only change in this place, as all types of trees and plants had started to appear around it, leaving only a small platform with visible grass at the feet of the tree, turning the whole place into a small forest that put any place in the Douluo Continent to shame with its beauty. And that was only talking about the change around the tree.
Also, the most noticeable visible change—the invisible changes on the other side—were much stronger.
The dimension itself gained more capacity in mass and energy concentration, followed by the appearance of strong creatures—not intelligent ones like soul beasts, but normal animals like birds and bugs that gained access to the energy around them, achieving far-reaching lifespans and power in general, and that, to some extent, elevated the natural ecological system.
And by extension, it put a challenge on the new residents of both sides (humans and beasts).
For the humans who took this place as shelter, they were now the most powerful organization known on the mainland for the last ten years.
Yes, what was four or five years for Ray was actually ten years on the outside. But in Plana, time was far too slow, as it had already been thirty years since Leo fell asleep.
Which they put to great use, as now Plana was completely different from what Ray remembered, with more human presence and construction.
As for the beast side, Dai, Sophia's child, was the golden player, as because of how much closer he was to Leo and the time he spent inside Plana—and probably being the first beast here—he gained passive control over any kind of beast that entered willingly, meaning he became their small king.
Something only discovered after some of the rowdy beasts he saved started to think of controlling Plana, and he noticed, outright exiling them along with erasing their memories and those of their subordinates.
A move Sophia didn't expect from her sweet child, but enough investigation gave her a clear image—Plana was actually teaching her child how to rule his kind.
Back to the present, below the tree, a pair of deer were lying down in the shade. The older one, Sophia, would look up at the tree from time to time, while the little one just snoozed beside her.
It was Sophia and her child. In these years, they didn't change much in form and look, except for gaining more size, but they had absolutely changed.
Thanks to the contract and the purity of soul power here, Sophia raised her age to 400,000 years, which was a huge leap in a short time—and that was without a bottleneck or any kind of tribulation.
And the most surprising thing was her child, as he raised his age to almost 100,000, only by absorbing heaven-and-earth energy and consuming some planets.
But in interactions and personality, it was a completely different matter.
With Ray sleeping, organizing, and deciding, making Plana fall on her lap, and with repeated interactions with the humans, she showed a high level of knowledge.
Something was affected greatly by the giant building beside the tree. At first, they thought of it as a residence Ray had prepared, but on the contrary, it was actually a library, with all kinds of knowledge and books.
So thanks to this library and the contract formation on the other side, the humans in this closed dimension, in just thirty years of inner time, became a fearful entity that existed to hunt evil soul masters.
Well, at least that's what the people in the DD world thought—just a group who hunted evil soul masters. That was what the outside was certain about.
Back to Plana, out of respect, the residents didn't touch the area the tree was in, along with its forest.
To the extent that they called it the Holy Forest, and only entered when they needed a contract higher than the fifth ring, or in the case of a partner contract, as they had already replicated minor versions and used them in the twin cities.
So instead, they decided to build their new homes at the shore or close by the extending forest. The only exception to enter the Holy Forest was to pay respect to Sophia or ask permission to enter the library.
And finally, the last interior permission they accepted was to purify devil soul masters after hunts.
After Leo fell asleep, Sophia figured that she could mark the people the same way Ray once did for her and her child, allowing them free entry and exit, while the rest could just use a fixed gate to go in and out.
Under this discovery, the old man they rescued from the dark soul masters asked for permission to hunt the evil soul masters, followed by some people with the same mindset as him to exterminate the bases he knew of.
Knowing how he suffered under them on the same level as Ray, Sophia accepted, under the condition that they did it the same way Ray did.
To her surprise, they were actually quite accepting after hearing about the Devouring Tree.
Sophia took them to the tree and explained what to do and how to use the leaves, then finally retreated to Plana again.
The group started by capturing the base the old man knew, saving the people, then stealing every possible piece of information from the imprisoned evil masters, and then repeating the process.
The people they saved, bound with no place to return to, chose to follow the group, and by extension, either joined the hunt or chose to stay in Plana.
Now, after almost thirty inner years—roughly ten years outside—the group became an organization that forced most evil masters to hide deeper, something even Shrek Garden couldn't do.
Sadly, they also figured out a way to poison other soul masters on a soul level, something Sophia thought was impossible (based on Ray's memory). Thankfully, they discovered a spring in the forest that could purify the soul from any negative effects.
Now, with the condition of a safe life met, the residents of Plana almost hit over five million, with two cities and almost three-generation families as normal, making it almost like a hidden clan.
And that's not even talking about the advances they achieved in all kinds of fields, along with the mindset they now had.
Sophia and her child were lying at the feet of the tree when, out of nowhere, a spiritual beat coming from the tree alerted not only them, but also the powerhouses in the far cities.
Both Sophia and her child stood up, looking delighted. The little deer jumped around in excitement.
"Mom, is big bro waking up?"
Sophia nodded. "Hope so, as almost thirty-one years have passed. I am really starting to get angry."
She looked up just in time to notice the sphere shrinking.
In all honesty, she liked her life in this place, despite the work she had to put in during the first years. Now that things had settled down, she could laze around and not care about anything.
But as time passed, she could feel the changes happening around her, and she could feel Ray's link to this place getting stronger. His cultivation started to rise after the change of his body stopped nine months ago. Now he had just hit the fiftieth rank not two days ago.
What surprised her was that he gained his Fate Rings directly after breaking through, each with ten thousand or more years in age (the second was 40,000 years old, the third and fourth were 50,000 years old, and so on).
Back to the glowing globe—slowly but surely, the glow started to disappear along with its shrinking size, leaving behind a teen with a strong body, black hair with red-gold ends reaching his waist, healthy tanned skin, gold-green glowing eyes, and three unique pairs of dragonfly wings on his back.
With the tree-like crown floating above his head and the place he stood upon, it looked like a scene of a fairy king from some fairy-tale books, waking up from a long slumber.
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