The first person who managed to step onto the bridge quickly found themselves mesmerized, in the most literal way possible. From the outside, they seemed to turn half-transparent as they mechanically began walking forward on the bridge, while the participants suddenly found themselves in a completely different world. They couldn't tell the difference between the illusory life they were immersed in by Aerthus's powers and the reality they came from.

  The same happened with Lulu when she stood on its surface, swept away by the current of Aerthus's powers. Of course, she was the first to arrive at one of the bridgeheads on the Kingdom of Qun's side, and she did not hesitate before stepping onto it... just to be the first to experience a whole new existence.

  She was back in the city of Elzur once again, living in her vil, enjoying the setting sun from her balcony, sipping the finest wine the world had to offer, while wearing a loose, silk, sleeveless dress. She wasn't alone, as beside her kneeled Yanda, wearing almost nothing, just short underwear, while he fed her grapes, pcing them one by one between her lips.

  "Now this is what I call living to the fullest… Why would you want to leave?" Lulu giggled, looking at Yanda, stroking his head. "Stay beside me, and you can have everything! You just need to sacrifice some small things in exchange... no big deal."

  Of course, no answer came from him; he just put another grape into her mouth, and as she chewed on it. Yet... the silence became oppressive after a few minutes.

  "Why are you so quiet? Are you still embarrassed? You shouldn't be!" She continued, feeling that something was off, "I have power now; you can funt that sexy scaly body of yours~!" She giggled, stretching out her hand, caressing the vivid, blue scales on his chest. "You are so pretty..."

  It was that moment when Yanda spped her hand away, stood back up with a cold expression, and threw the grapes to the ground, scowling at her.

  "Don't you dare touch me."

  "What did you say?" She furrowed her eyebrows, sitting up. "You dare to say that again, hm?"

  "You are a selfish bitch." He continued, almost spitting at her.

  "It seems you need to learn your lesson once again?" Lulu stood up as the air around her began moving, and her skin began to glow in a white, blinding light, but Yanda just looked on with a calm, cold face, unbothered.

  In the next moment, Lulu's fist glowed as she sent it towards Yanda's chest, but the young man erected a water shield, quickly blocking it. The shockwave from the strike destroyed everything around them, crumbling the balcony into small pieces while the stone railing cracked and was blown away as if it were made of paper. Soon they stood in the air as the tiles below them disintegrated, turning to dust.

  "Hmf, don't think you can block me once again!" Lulu snorted, releasing a flurry of attacks, all shining in a bright, blinding light, one quicker than the other, yet Yanda easily blocked every strike of hers.

  "You are weak. You can't keep me." He answered, forming a whip out of the water, striking at her, and hitting Lulu square in the chest. The attack sent her flying backward, crashing into the vil, sending her through its walls while all the intact windows shattered from the force of her body bsting through it.

  "You!" Lulu screamed, flying back up through the rubble, holding her two hands out as light gathered between her fingers, condensing into a ball before shooting out a pure light beam, one that shone in a colorful glow as it passed through the air.

  "Not enough," Yanda answered, forming a whirlpool before him that looked like an endless blue abyss leading to the deepest part of the ocean as it easily swallowed the beam before slowly dissipating. "Now it's my turn." He lifted his left hand, holding a sve colr. "You have two options: put it on yourself, or I'll put it on you."

  "Try it!" Lulu chuckled, pointing her finger at him and shooting another beam, vaporizing the colr in his hand.

  "I hoped you would say that." A smile appeared on his face for the first time as endless waves of water began emerging from under his feet, as if the end times had come and all would return to the ocean. Then, a moment ter, massive sharks appeared from it, flying at Lulu with their jaws wide open.

  "Do not underestimate me!" escaped a scream from Lulu's throat, forming a light bubble around her, defending against the waves of water while trying to shoot down the incoming sharks, yet every time one was destroyed, another formed from his powers, turning the battle into a stalemate.

  As their fight raged on, high in the sky, two pairs of eyes watched on, like two omnipotent beings observing the world.

  "So the girl has a light affinity... Huh. Interesting! Is this her full potential?" Ren asked, enjoying the show.

  "No, this is just a small fragment of it." Aerthus answered, "But she can reach it and go even higher. This is just her subconscious manifesting it... She is a promising seedling, but... her personality is problematic."

  "Yeah, I can see that. Still, it can be fixed with time so she can be more accepting and break down her ego a little."

  "No, I did not mean that." Aerthus chortled, seeing more than Ren, this time around.

  "Hm? Then…?" Ren asked, a bit surprised.

  "Where are we?" Her Master asked pyfully.

  "In her own hallucination."

  "Yes, in a world projected by her mind. This is her world. Whatever happens here is her mind's doing." Aerthus chuckled as, down before them, Lulu got whipped again, tearing up her clothing.

  She had already received a dozen strikes by then, and her skin was swollen in many pces, surely hurting like hell. Still, she fought ferociously yet could not overcome Yanda, who easily beat her down, again and again, inching forward, sve colr in hand.

  "Wait… is she a masochist?" Ren gawked, finally understanding it.

  "Something like that." Aerthus said with a shrug, "More like… remember what happened with them? You told me how Yanda acted, and you liked the kid's reaction. Well, I think it left a great impression on her too."

  As they spoke, Yanda could finally bind her with his whip, holding Lulu in the air as her weapon slowly snaked around her, ever so tightly, reaching everywhere.

  "So what… you won… and? I can become stronger…." Lulu groaned, breathing heavily with a flushed face.

  "I can, but," Yanda answered, putting the colr on her and leaning close. "Now YOU are mine!"

  His voice sent a shiver down Lulu's spine, gulping loudly, yet her eyes were excited beyond belief.

  "Damn…" Aerthus and Ren said at the same time, "You were right, Master… She has a problem."

  "Yeah!" Aerthus grunted, "We need to straighten her out, and not just a little bit! Anyway, she has potential... Going by this fight, she will have a clear path to follow, and her body will remember the feeling."

  "You sure that's a good idea?" Ren chuckled, not watching anymore.

  "Not THAT feeling." He sighed, also drawing himself out of the vision, "What do you say? Are you up for the task of guiding her?"

  "Mmm…. yeah, why not? But only if I can guide Yanda, too. His hybrid being is of great interest to me. Speaking of him, let's see how he is doing right now!"

  When the surroundings changed, they looked down on the Shert River as Yanda stood on the water, watching a group of mermaids wielding tridents. It was clearly a standoff between him and the group of demons.

  "You WILL honor my mother's memory and ask for forgiveness at her grave!" Yanda's agitated voice echoed around the fake world.

  "Your mother whored herself out to a human, hmph! You should have been killed alongside her long ago!" Their answer came immediately, and soon a brawl ensued as Yanda wielded the river's water as a weapon, fighting off eight mermaids simultaneously, forming water clones of himself.

  "Do mermaids really have this kind of fishlike lower half?" Ren asked, looking down at the fight.

  "Yes. His mind won't lie, don't you recognize it?" Aerthus expined, "That must be his mother's appearance. Look at his enemies and focus on their lower halves... They are the same. Only the top is repced by different human figures, but their bottom is identical, meaning it is an image his mind remembered... which most likely is his mother's appearance."

  "Wait… you are right." Ren hummed, nodding her head, "Those he fights against are the bandits we encountered when we traveled towards the kingdom… huh."

  "His gift of maniputing water is strong." Aerthus commented, "His natural proficiency with it is at the Harmony level! How unique... The strength behind it is still low in the real world, but that is because his body cannot keep up. So his training should focus on raising his body to the same level his mind operates at."

  "Leave it to me. I have ideas on how to do it." Ren agreed with him, feeling fired up.

  "Speaking of ideas, do you have any new thoughts concerning the demons' path of cultivation?" Aerthus asked.

  "Yes, I worked with Shaman and Emi on that in the previous months. They have it easy... kinda." She sighed with admiration. "They do not need to cultivate in a way like we do. Their body absorbs energy if they meditate, absorb it from enemies they defeat, and… well, eat. Or from consuming others' cores. Their cultivation is based entirely on that... their cores. When a small demon forms its own, it can take a human form. When this core reaches full capacity, tribution descends on them. It destroys their cores, and if they can't reform it, bigger, stronger, increasing its potential, they are done for. Emi had already had two such tributions, and Shaman said he had four in his life, always feeling like he was almost torn apart, which is the feeling of their cores being dismantled and then reformed."

  "Then there must be a difference between their cores. That girl is strong, stronger than Edu."

  "I guess so too…" Ren agreed, "I don't know yet. I can't cut them up and see what their cores are like!" she joked, "But if we get demons as disciples, we can guide them, teach them spells, and with their core, they can manipute energy freely. I honestly… I somewhat envy how effortlessly they can learn spells."

  "Do not envy them." Aerthus said with a chortle, "If what you say is right, when a demon reaches its core's final form, and they can't grow it anymore, they have an even bigger obstacle before them. They most likely have a harder time stepping into the Demigod realm than we do."

  "You mean the Demigod realm has something to do with cores?" Ren asked, as this part was still a mystery to her.

  "Yes." Aerthus nodded, "At my level, we transform our bodies, the first step to reach the Demigod stage. It also means that we form a core, merging our energy points into one inside our bodies. As a human, and as being you..." He murmured, smiling to himself, "you will have an easier time doing this, especially because you discovered them in the Body Refinement realm and trained them early. You don't even know how big a boon this is for future cultivators. Because of how it works, the merger also requires the mind and soul to control the energy points, which is the hard part. It can't be learned... Whether it comes naturally for you or it just won't, and if it doesn't, then you are stuck." He sighed softly. "But with you, training them since early, you can build a rapport with your own energy points, which come back in the future, to help you advance."

  "I see…" Ren murmured, as this was the same method in her previous life. Forming a core was the whole reason for cultivation from the start, but back then, energy was scarce; only the most gifted individuals with unique bodies could access it. A Demigod back then was possibly weaker than Aerthus was at the time, due to their low-quality cores and ck of energy.

  "After becoming a Demigod, when your body has evolved and your core has settled, there is the old way to continue." Aerthus continued, "It means filling your core with energy, but it is almost an endless road. That is what my mentors always told me: it is an impossible task to fill it in and form it into a Godcore. Becoming a God…" he whispered, "Haaah... What is a God core? I don't really know because they didn't want me to pursue that route."

  "Yes… I bet…" Ren chuckled, remembering some ancient memories of hers. "If it could be done by everyone, we would have at least a dozen or more Gods roaming the world, living with us."

  "Maybe. But," He chuckled, "That's why my Mentors walk a different path."

  "Becoming an Immortal?" She asked with excitement, precisely what she was most curious about.

  "Yes. They break down their cores in the Demigod realm."

  "Breaking it… down…” Ren mumbled, thinking about it, before her eyes suddenly lit up like a lighthouse. "Of course! It transforms you by gradually breaking it down and fusing it with your whole being, body and soul alike!"

  "You…" Aerthus blinked his eyes in surprise, honestly shocked, "You are something else, alright…" He ughed dryly, not wanting to believe what she just said, "Yes, they indeed do that. It is a hard and dangerous endeavor! You are essentially breaking down your own being. You will kill yourself if you make a mistake, and if you damage it beyond what you can endure, you may survive, but then you will be crippled. Still... breaking one part off and fusing it into your body is a qualitative change. I can't speak more about it, as I have not yet experienced it and have not seen Demigods fight each other, except for some friendly spars. But the end result is that you have no core left in you, as it is destroyed and fused into your own being, making you… Immortal. Even if your body is destroyed, your soul retains the same properties and can reform a new container for itself. Or you can transfer it to another, make a new one from scratch, or just live as a soul! You can't be destroyed. I know this is a kind of an exaggeration, and I don't know the details, but from my point of view, the Immortal Realm is a perfect name for it."

  "Hahaha! Marvelous!" Ren ughed, filled with excitement. "I am sure to reach that Immortal level in this life! Being a God is old-fashioned anyway!"

  "Ahaha, it's good to see you so pumped up. Who knows, maybe you will overtake me? I am looking forward to it."

  "Nyahaha~ Sure! But… Why did you say demons have a harder time rising to the Demigod level?"

  "Because if their core is the same as ours when formed, it is still fairly empty. Taking control of it should be easier, but..." He expined, waiting for Ren, who indeed caught the details at once.

  "I see... They always fill it to the brim. And when they reach the threshold, taking full control over it is exponentially harder when it's full."

  "Yes." Aerthus sighed with a sad voice. "Emi's Queen suffers from exactly that alignment, sealing herself away to protect others. Her core, her powers are filled to the brim, but her body is gging behind... so she got stuck."

  "Speaking of them," Ren suddenly snapped her fingers, "Let's take a look at Emi."

  "She took the test, too?" Aerthus asked, humming, already searching for her presence.

  "Yeah, she asked me yesterday if she could do so, and I agreed." Ren nodded, "I am curious about what she experiences in her subconscious."