Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)
Chapter 288: Travelling together

1019 WHITEMONTH

Usually in this kind of month, winter wind would blow inside his castle as the servants would begin opening up fire places and the courtyard of his gardens would be filled with white snow that carpeted the walking trails.

but now all he could feel is heat. This is Zettel and not Aetherland.

Though the heat doesn't bother him much, he could not say the same about the two people behind him, sweating profusely, their clothes wet with their sweat.

They pant with every breath taken and one could see the effort both of these men employed to keep walking. Step by step they walk enduring the heat.

The Xenos desert.

It is one of the hottest places in Human Continent, and maybe the hottest place in the human continent.

No one knows how this desert is formed. Any scholars who learn history will tell that Xenos desert is the remnant of the ancient ruined Empire, the Xenosian Empire.

Mikael once told the story to Arial. It is one of Arial most favorite story about the First Generation.

The story goes that the King of the First Generation destroys the Xenosian Empire in one day, sending spears of Gods from the Sky obliterating everything to dust and ashes.

Clouds parted, firestorms surged up into the skies and pieces the Heavens and mountains melted down.

A mighty empire, turns into sand.

Arial then shakes his head and focused on the now.

He looks behind him and seeing the two men struggling to keep walking, cast doubt on Arial. Will they reach the Heaven Mountains in time with this speed? Arial mused

Who knows? Maybe they have already started the Martial Art Meets?

Arial sighed and keep walking forward.

In the past month they have encountered many bandits along the way. Fortunately, most of the bandits they encountered are mostly weak bandits.

Arial could say that both of these men behind him could be considered as strong or maybe even important figure in the martial art world.

But Arial knows that their strength compared to him is nothing threatening.

'Is it going to be long?' Arial ask as they passed another wall of sands. The wind whipping his clothes felt like serrated knives slowly slicing his clothes.

Liao Ming walked beside Arial as he climbs the sand walls and he reply

'Do not worry my lord. The Heaven Mountain is in the middle of the Xenos Desert. In one-day journey we will reach there.'

'Hmm' Arial said. Then he asks Liao Ming

'Can you tell me a little about the Heaven Mountain?'

'Of course, Lord Arial.' Liao Ming said, eager to tell the story of the miraculous Heaven Mountain.

'It is said it is the only place in the Desert that have sparkling clean water, and it is highly beautiful.'

'The Heaven Mountain is a treasure of the desert. It has tall waterfall, high hills, forest, bamboo tree, stones, bag stones, dark caves and huge caverns, an oasis for the thirsty, a sanctuary for those who want to train their arts'

'No one knows how it is created or why it is the only place around the desert that has trees like the Kingdom but no one cares about such matter my lord. Of course, the most mysterious is the source of water. Behind the Heaven Mountain is the vast desert. And in front of it is also the vast desert but then where is the source of water for the Heaven Mountain?' he asks, slightly smiling in a mysterious manner.

'No one knows, even until today. Many scholars had tried to unveil the secret of the water source of the Heaven Mountain and no one had succeeded'

Arial nodded.

He had heard and read about the Heaven Mountains description and from the description Arial believes it is kind of like the mountain range in the human continent.

Yet, weirdly, this mountain range is in the middle of the desert.

And what is even more strange is it is the only place that have such abundance of water in the large stretch of sands all over the Xenos Desert

'Is there any city in the Xenos desert, Senior brother?' Liao Ming shakes his head. Arial is also curious of this matter.

Liao Ming then said to his brother.

'No, there isn't. Most of the people in the desert live a nomadic lifestyle, always moving. But mostly around the Heaven Mountain there is some small settlement after all the Heaven Mountain has a water source.'

Yanghua nodded listening to the explanation.

Arial knows why Western Serpent picks the Heaven Mountain as the place of the Martial Art meet.

It is because Western Serpent live around the Western Sea. The Western Seas is close to the Xenos Desert and she must have been coming countless time to Xenos Desert before.

She might even have her followers waiting for her there and probably one of her headquarters.

Xenos desert is a tough place to live and harder to traverse. O

Only the strong dares come. Maybe it is a sick way for Western Serpent, a test for Western Serpent to differentiate the weak and the strong

That is why she made the venue on the Heaven Mountain.

Only the strong can come to her martial art meet. The weak should not even dream of coming.

This is surely her intention.

'We need to take a rest a few hours from now before we resume our journey tomorrow' Arial declared as he looks in the distance

The sun is coming down. The cold air is descending upon them. Both of the people behind him nodded.

Arial could also use this spare time to train again.

Yesterday he has managed to fuse the two sword techniques, the Sweeping Star and Light Strike into his Heaven Punishment style.

He notices how his sword style become faster and more unpredictable but even that is not enough for him.

He wants it to be more unconstrained, more carefree, slow but effective, fast but not imprecise, he wanted it to be more perfect

Today he is about to try once again to improve Imposing Presence. Of all his technique this is one of the most difficult techniques he has ever trained in.

And since he creates the technique, it is relying on his understanding completely if he wants this technique to become high level technique.

Liao Ming and Chen Yanghua set their tent a few meters apart from his tent because they all know that he is always practicing at night and they know how fearsome the aura he emanated.

They could even get caught up in it so they already distance themselves away. Arial check before he begins his training.

Sometimes, in the desert there is sandstorms that appears in the night. In such cases, Arial usually would burrow himself under the sand and waited until the sandstorm passes him by.

After seeing that nothing is wrong outside his tent, he closes the curtain of his tent and then went to the center of his tent and begins by sitting cross legged.

He takes a deep breath, as he slowly closes his eyes.

His skin is feeling the wind, he feels the movement of the blood coursing through his vein, feeling the power of the universe coursing through him and then he falls down into an eternal darkness.

When he opens his eyes, he is now inside the Imaginary Scape. And how does the Imaginary Scape appear in his mind?

Emptiness. All there is in the Scape is soul sucking darkness. Arial have familiarized itself with the feeling of falling and he did not panic or anxious lie the first time he enter this state.

He thinks of a water fall and suddenly the scenery changes and clouds formed, light appears and a water fall formed itself.

'This is better' he thought to himself. Arial then leapt to one of the rock and he sits cross legged in one of the rock.

Then he thought of another task and one clone is formed in the creek below the waterfall.

Arial think of the Firehorse horde and suddenly his clone is on a collision course with the horde of stampeding angry firehorse, rushing toward his clone.

Arial eyes narrowed

Arial let the situation to simulate itself

Again. Again. Again he thought. Every time his clone failed to stop the horde with Imposing Presence Arial changes again his thoughts.

Trying to choose, to determine the most effective way to employ the technique while releasing Killing Intent powerful enough to subdue the Horde of stampeding Firehorses.

'This is hard' he thought to himself

To fuse Heave Punishment Style with other swordsmanship technique is not a hard task for him

The reason is because Arial had memorized all the swordsmanship technique in the Vern Imperial Library and he understands the basic of swordsmanship and so naturally it comes easy for him to fuse it.

But Imposing Presence proves to be difficult for him to understand.

But still he perseveres.

On the outside however the two man look at Arial tent and they could feel the energy in that tent rising and began spreading outward.

Feeling a little startled, they look at the tent and to their shock they could see the sand around the tent is rising up higher and higher until it rises up above the tent itself.

'It seems Lord Arial is improving' Liao Ming said

'How do you know, Senior Brother?'

'A few days ago, he also trained and did you see the sand rising up higher than his tent? No, right? Today the sand is rising up surpassing his tent. With this alone we can be assured that Lord Arial is improving. Truly an expert. So young to be so talented.'

Liao Ming sighed. Truly the world is vast.

But he did not become jealous or envious of Arial. After all, in this journey how many times have Arial save him from the bandits.

He of course was grateful and feeling thankful to his benefactor

Liao Ming looks at the far horizon.

Tomorrow they will reach Heaven Mountain. Judging from Arial urgency to quickly continue their journey, Liao Ming is sure that Arial is participating.

Maybe a new legend will be born that day, he thought to himself and he smiles.

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