-----

  (Bing Xue’s POV)

  After telling my family about this, they seemed to have found it to be quite a good idea. Not only because we would get to rest and rex iween all the chaos. But because it would also apparently give them a lot of time to train, cultivate, a used to their abilities and skills.

  And I couldn’t agree more with them; they indeed required quite some more time to get that done; a couple of months where they’ll trai, then tiraining and uanding their abilities might be what they need.

  I also unicated this to most of my disciples, and most of them also asked me to please allow them to stay in my Inner Realm for this “vacation/training”.

  Nichos, Yanise, John, Francisco, Aiyana, Jackes, Peperina, and a couple more ended up all staying in here. I was rather excited we would spend five months of pure training, so I created urainihods for everyone.

  It has roughly been a week since everything started, though, and after this m’s breakfast, I walked ay Pace within the Inner Realm. I appreciated the beauty of this world I’ve created, which I’ve shaped carefully through my life in Murim so its growth would be optimal for my own.

  Every piece of an Inner Realm affected how the growth of an Immortal progressed. Using special Spiritual or Immemorial Treasures, whie in the shape of nature itself, be it trees, entire forests, bodies of water, or even mountains, it is possible to directly enhan Inner Realm atmosphere and biodiversity.

  Which, as a result, also increases the power of the Immortal; a healthy and lively Inner Realm always means ohing: the Immortal is powerful, incredibly strong. Meanwhile, when an Inner Realm looks badly taken care of, the Immortal will oftentimes be a weakling.

  I ’t say I obtained everything here honorably though; I did steal most of this from other Inner Realms; I went as far as dev them and assimiting them into my own, something possible as long as the bubble where the Inner Realm’s dimension is stored is not destroyed when an immortal is killed.

  However, not every Inner Realm could be absorbed; usually they had to be around the Path I was cultivating or close to it. Meaning that a Water Path Inner Realm wouldn’t be very beneficial for me back then, and it would only bee detrimental as it would mix my Dao prehension and take me further away from enlightehrough specializing.

  But well, that’s in the past. Upon achieving Rank 21 and achieving the Primordial Immemorial Venerable Realm, I had no such issues anymore, and my Enlighte now enpassed the ey of the Heavenly Dao; all Paths could be assimited and learned seamlessly over time.

  “Ah, there she is.”

  I walked past a huge, beautiful forest full of autumn leaves; this was the Perpetual Autumn Fire Forest. All trees look like they are going through autumernally and, when touched, release fmes.

  A dangerous post people to train on, except someohat had been rapidly assimiting the element of fire, a cute girl that had grown more and more decided to bee stronger. Someone who, despite her initial meek personality, had a heart of gold.

  FLUOSH!

  Peperina was sitting cross-legged in the forest’s ter, where the trees were at their highest heat level; stantly, fmes flowed towards her, attempting to burn her body.

  However, she was rapidly assimiting the fmes into her inner Martial Core, Soul, and Body, refining them while meditating.

  The pain of being burned remaihough, and she had to ehrough it as she assimited the fmes and cultivated.

  The Perpetual Autumn Fire Forest is among the highest-ranked Immemorial Treasures I have, which tains a rge quantity of Immemorial Ki of the highest purity imbued with the Dao of Fire.

  Therefore, it is a perfect pce for any Fire Path Cultivator to tinue on their cultivation journey, Peperina had been staying here for the entire week, taking breaks to e eat and also for us to spend some time alone chatting and expl my Inner Realm.

  “Hm, I see…”

  I nodded, notig that her body was gaining several near-invisible marks; these were something simir to runes imprinted into her body, but I called them Dao Marks.

  Part of why physical objects were imbued with certain Daos was because of this tration of essehat mas as tiny marks inscribed into all things.

  By now, she had probably refihousands of Dao Marks of Fire.

  Slowly, she opened her eyes and sighed in relief; the fmes arouopped flowing, and the forest became silent once more.

  “Ah, Bing Xue, good m,” she said. “I ended up spending the whole night in here… I had entered into some sort of tra was like… I had bee a fme myself, a spark that burhrough history.”

  “Oh, so you went through an Enlighte of the Path of Fire, I see,” I nodded. “Well done. You’ve worked hard. But I believe fire alone is not the Path you must take.”

  “I believe the same; the powers my father ied aren’t just fire-reted, but the trol of the elements themselves… I mean, mostly metal, but mine has maed slightly differently, right?” she asked.

  “Yeah, we’re still trying to figure out how to release all of that hidden power,” I nodded. “But your practice so far has bee.”

  “Yeah, look what I do now,” Peperina smiled, lig her lips as she pced her hands into the ground.

  “{Worldsmith}!”

  RUMBLE!

  The ground shook, as roughly twenty meters from her, a rge wall of stone was lifted, and then a giant hand too.

  She was also able to do the same with the trees; those around us suddenly transformed, shaking into giant hands, wooden bdes, or spears.

  “Iing! So ye has increased to twenty meters?” I wondered.

  “Hahh, yes, but it’s tiring… Ugh…” She groaned as she let go of her powers, the ground and the trees returning to normal. “Back then, when I fought Inferno, I was able to use Worldsmith to manipute his on and armor into a living, destructive liquid metal that helped me kill him. But that was actually a very weak way to use this power. I could probably exert a stronger authority around my surroundings, but I o keep cultivating. Skills or Leveling alone won’t do. This is… a power more intrinsic; it exists within the depth of my own soul.”

  “Indeed, you’re n,” I nodded. “While Shapesmithing Arts is what you use to modify your ons or armor and ge their appeararucture, or even magical properties, it doesn’t work on others, right?”

  “Yeah, it only applies to things that belong to me,” she nodded. “However, Worldsmith is its "upgrade," a power that verged the legacies of my two parents together… I don’t want to let them down, so I o tinue practig it.”

  “It seems you’ve gained a lot of resolve, Peperina,” I giggled. “You’ve ged more than most other people I’ve known since I came back.”

  “A-Ah, really?” She wondered, suddenly blushing and feeling embarrassed. “M-Maybe… I mean, I wouldn’t say I ged, more like I just let out what I had within me.”

  “So you’re saying you were always like this deep down…?” I wondered.

  “I mean, kind of,” she muttered. “The whole cute girl is mostly like, a thing I do just so people like me more. But this overly niess and all, it’s just part of my job as a Guild Receptionist.”

  “I see…” I nodded.

  So those are her thoughts regarding the matter, huh?

  There is some truth amidst her lies, but I clearly detect when someone is pretending or ag.

  She wasn’t ag or pretending back then; Peperina simply is too embarrassed to accept that she has a cute side.

  Is she trying to look and be rougher for me, or perhaps to protect her parents?

  After what we went through ba Elios, it wouldn’t be surprising that she’s f herself to act more "mature,” maybe.

  But I wasn’t anybody to tell her how she should act; I am only guiding her because she wanted my help.

  “How do you feel then?” I wondered. “About your current strength? Not only there is this power, but also the Spiritual Divinity that the Hare left behind with you.”

  “Oh that, that’s a whole other subject,” Peperina giggled. “I have yet to perfect or train that one, but it is reted to Moonlight, right? I’ll have to do it at night then.”

  “Seeing how far you’ve e, I think you’re soon to hit a wall regarding your prehension of the Fire Dao,” I expined. “If you want to further specialize, you’ll need more materials and assimite them through a special Ritual Formation to ge your physique.”

  “So that’s what I o do, huh…” Peperina didn’t really like the idea. “Aah, I don’t really like the sound of it… Not o! ’t I do something differently?”

  Despite how she tried ag “mature”, she was still very cute.

  “Hm, certainly,” I said. “You try to also gain enlighte in the Dao of the Moon. Once you’re doh that, perhaps beginning walking the Path of the Dao of Earth wouldn’t be so bad either.”

  “The Moon ah?” she wondered. “I see… Is Earth because of Worldsmith?”

  “Yes, we still have yet to see its full power, but it seems to enpass every element,” I expined. “In a way, it could be said you are capable of uanding and prehending most Daos to aent thanks to this talent.”

  “Oh wow,” she gasped.

  “However, it won’t be an easy task,” I said. “As there are so many elements, it’s quite ridiculous to even think you just begin to prehend them all; you’ll end up spending hundreds of years only doing this. So it’s not cost-effective nor time-effective… You’ll have to first enlighten yourself with the Dao of Earth and perhaps Nature. Once you get Earth, Nature, Fire, and Moonlight, I believe you’ll be able to pass the wall I see within yrowth and break it apart into pieces, asding further into higher realms.”

  “Ohh,” she nodded, lookied. “I really want to get even stronger… Fighting on the Sed Floor taught me quite a lot of things. About how this Tower works and about our future. If I don’t fight and tinue growing stronger, when a foe that could threaten my parents or those I love appears... I won’t be able to do anything, and I’ll feel so useless. I don’t eople to die helplessly anymore, seeing how most of my tribe was sughtered, all because they were peaceful, because they didn’t choose to fight…”

  So that’s how it is; I think I uand her mentality a bit better now. She wants to honor her tribe, which had perished almost pletely aside from a couple of them that mao escape to the first Floor or the third Floor of the Tower.

  My guess is that she desires to grow stroo bee a symbol for her kind and perhaps for all other “small” and “weak” races simir to the Rabbit-kin.

  She kind of wants to bee a figure people rely on and someohat will teach them that they o fight back.

  Perhaps that’s it.

  What a noble cause. In Murim, you would never see someoh su i yet beautiful, righteous resolve.

  She is, without a doubt, an exempr member of the Heavenly Court Sect!

  “I promise you to guide you oh you’ve chosen to walk through, Peperina,” I said. “As your master, it is my duty.”

  I extended my hand towards her as I helped her stand up from the leaf-covered forest floor.

  She blushed a bit as she held my hand and stood up.

  “Thank you, Bing Xue… Since you showed up that my life ged a lot,” she giggled. “I kind of feel guilty that I am being helped so much by you… H-Have I ever done something to deserve this much kindness?”

  “Yes,” I nodded. “Being born, perhaps. As the Empress of Heaven, I am dutiful to guide lost souls, those that suffered, those that saw their families die… You e from a tribe devastated by cruelty and misery. You might have sin the ohat killed them, but that doesn’t mean that the pain your family went through is gone. Isn’t that enough of a reason for me to extend a hand? Maybe I’m ioo kind… But that’s why I am s. This power is not to be a tyrant, and it is not to torment is. I became stronger because I wao be kind and selfless.”

  “Ahh,” she gasped, looking at my eyes with such surprise. “You're truly someone incredible… I… I uand now. Thank you…”

  “It’s alright, Peperina! You make me so proud,” I giggled. “Shall we get moving then? I think Nichos is nearby, inside a volo.”

  “Sure… But wait! Wait a bit, Bing Xue,” she called, grabbing my robes.

  “Yes?” I wondered.

  “Um… you lower your head a bit?” she wondered, looking embarrassed.

  I did as she asked; I was indeed quite tall pared to her.

  And when I did so, well…

  “Mooch!”

  She kissed my lips. Her little lips were soft and warm; it was a brief kiss, but it was sweet.

  “Peperina…”

  Despite all of my wisdom and experience, when I was kissed by a cute girl, I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

  “There… I gave you a kiss,” she muttered, blushing. “I-It’s the least I could do… after everything. I… I always say I want to take my time with this, but I just couldn’t help it anymore.”

  She held my hand.

  “ I kiss you a bit more?”

  “…Of course.”

  I smiled, embrag her as I hugged her and lifted her off the ground, and we kissed passionately in the middle of the autumn forest.

  I held her gently; her body was small and delicate to me, so I held her gently like a little cotton ball; her little lips, however, were fiercely kissing mine.

  “Hmm~”

  She moaned lightly as I grasped her buttocks tightly; they were big, and I couldn’t help it in this position at the end.

  This rabbit girl mercilessly pyed with my mouth and my tongue, sug my tongue and then lig my lips with her own.

  Her kisses were so sweet and full of heated passion, I couldn’t resist her.

  Eventually, after a couple of minutes, our lips separated.

  “Hahh… Hahh… Ah, that was my first kiss,” she muttered.

  “Fufu, you were quite amazing for your first time~!” I giggled, kissing her nose. “And so cute! You’re so cute! I ’t stop hugging you~!”

  “E-Eeh? I-I’m trying to be a bit more mature, and you’re callie all the time, Bing Xue!” She pined adorably, as she didn’t fight back my hugs.

  “I promise to protect you and love you, Peperina.” I said, looking at her eyes as I caressed her tender face.

  “I-I promise too,” she nodded. “A-Ahh, this is so embarrassing…”

  She ended c her fa embarrassment, as if she hadn’t beeing my lips with her kisses a few seds ago!

  -----

  Pach