Chapter 162: 20 Years, Peak-Gold Rank, Setting Down Da Mountain
"???"
Pan Nu was taken out of her thoughts by the calming voice of her master as she stared into those crimson eyes that seemed to be peering into her very soul.
"I know I, along with the rest of those silly women, are the only people you have truly interacted with over the last decade. But if you want to say something, then there should be nothing holding you back."
Azmodeus spoke such words with a small, imperceptible smile before returning his focus back to the menu that he liked reading for a reason unbeknownst to even himself.
"..."
Pan Nu observed the side view of her master as she couldn\'t help but get lost in his mystical voice every time he spoke.
She forced her gaze away from that hateful man as she understood what it was that her troubled senior sister had gone through over the last century.
Rou Tian felt the sympathetic gaze focused on her as she turned her dazed face away from her master, instantly understanding what her younger junior sister was trying to convey.
Finally, someone understands what I\'ve been going through in solitude…
She wasn\'t one to visibly express any emotions, but if one looked close enough, then they would see tears building up within those brown doe eyes of hers.
-
After developing a deeper connection with her senior sister, Pan Nu turned her head back toward her master, as she knew what the answer to that question was.
And her extremely well-thought-out answer was…!
"I think it feels exactly the same as before…"
Utterly ridiculous…
Azmodeus looked away from his menu as he saw the serious look on his youngest disciple\'s face.
She\'s not kidding, is she…?
He didn\'t know why he was shocked by the eccentricity of the women around him, but it always seemed to leave him baffled with each progressively silly thing that they did…
"Just eat to your heart\'s content for today… And tomorrow, we will go over a few normal human interactions that one might have if faced with such a question…" Azmodeus sighed as he looked away from that weird disciple of his.
"...Yes master…"
At her master\'s words, Pan Nu assumed she had answered the question incorrectly as she dispiritedly ate away at all the desserts being brought in on elaborately decorated plates by the waitresses.
That glum attitude of hers likely would\'ve lasted for the rest of the night if not for the magical effects that Azmodeus\'s pats were capable of inducing in every victim caught in their grasps…
The night continued without a hitch, as everyone had their fun before going back to their respective cultivation spots, all of which just so happened to be in the same building as Azmodeus.
Every single one of the girls managed to get a room right next to his, whether that be through the pulling of strings like what Chi Wu had done or through the more conventional route of signing up to become members of the Emonius Triade, like what Yang Hua, Nao Long, and the rest had done.
But regardless of the exact location of the cultivation sessions, everyone quickly got straight to the arduous art of cultivation, all while staying in close proximity to Azmodeus.
It was with this setup that time continued to pass for those related to the man who would soon take the entire Astral Plane by storm…
...
In the blink of an eye, 20 years flew by.
On the day that marked three decades since coming to the Astral Plane and taking the Astral Trial, Azmodeus decided to make a big choice for his continued stay inside the Emonius Triade.
That exact choice was to set down \'Fallen Inmortal Mountain\' at a location north of the main buildings, outside the generally populated areas.
This action was long overdue, and after such a long period of time inside the Emonius Triade, Azmodeus managed to garner himself quite a reputation. This was mainly due to all the times he sent out one of his Primordial Essence Clones to do various quests for the organization.
Although most of these \'quests\' were really just ways for the sect to request the acquisition of spiritual stones through exploring and traveling the kingdom, it was still good enough to allow Azmodeus to come back with \'Obtained Boons\'.
Of course, the likelihood of him actually finding anything like a spiritual stone in the Azura Kingdom was extremely low. But if there was one thing that he had in surplus, it was \'Relinquished Goods\' from all the beings he had killed in his lifetime…
And it was with these \'relinquished goods\' that he was able to gain the favor of not only Wu Zheng, the leading Vice Headmaster, but also the Middle-Gold Rank Headmaster, Chao Yuen. He was someone who had just returned from his expedition in the \'forbidden regions\' of the Azura Kingdom.
Azmodeus was quite curious about these \'forbidden regions\' that everyone seemed to be intent on exploring after taking requests from the kingdom.
However, after sending out a number of clones and Mirror Mirage\'s a few thousand miles out, what he found was… nothing much…
All he found was a shrouded land, enveloped in a deep veneer composed of fog and mist, with every inch of the land nothing but a mystery for as far as the eye could see.
There may or may not be anything within that large smoke screen, but that was something that didn\'t really matter for the current Azmodeus. So after finding nothing of value, he diverted his focus elsewhere while keeping a few Mirror Mirages in the Forbidden Regions.
As for the rest of his Primordial Essence Clones and Mirror Mirage\'s, they were going about their tasks per usual, \'cleaning up\' the lands and killing anyone that so much as looked at them the wrong way.
Such actions may seem a tad bit cruel, but the world of cultivation was one where there was no room for soft-heartedness if one wanted continued progression.
And it were these decisive actions taken by Azmodeus that allowed him to achieve the Middle-Gold Rank, Late-Gold Rank, and Peak-Gold Rank over the last three decades!