With their relationship already exposed, they no longer his it from Seraph. Although Sylvia was several years younger than Song, they were from the same parents, and were very close.

"I wouldn’t have want to hear that you spread this, okay? Be a good boy."

The woman warned, her expression subtle.

Seraph nodded, turning to stare at a painting on the wall.

"Good. In that case, I should reward you for protecting Sylvia and helping her complete the mission."

Seraph wasn’t pretentious and nodded. What he had done was indeed deserving of a reward. He had ensured they escaped from a King Stage dragon, after all.

Elder Song clapped once, and a maid quickly appeared, holding a simple storage ring in her hand.

Seraph raised a brow and collected it from her. Peering inside with his spiritual sense, he was astonished.

"Eeh? This much?"

Although he hadn’t seen gold spirit crystals before, he knew about them. Now, there were hundreds of these crystals in the storage ring.

Elder Song shook her head, chuckling. "It’s not much. Just a mere 555 gold spirit crystals. That’s my token of appreciation."

Seraph sighed, taking another glance at the spirit crystals. Then he asked. "Why 5-5-5, though? Is Sister Sylvia’s birthday on that date?"

Throwing a sarcastic line, he smirked at Sylvia.

Unexpectedly, the two sisters were still surprised. Sylvia’s mouth opened in shock.

"How... how did you know?"

Seraph looked at her, wanting to tell her it was a random guess. However, he knew Sylvia would endlessly pester him with questions about his answer.

So he changed his answer.

"It’s a special skill of mine. However, I don’t want to disclose anything about it."

Sylvia nodded, while Elder Song’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t believe, but she also didn’t pester him.

"Well, now you know a lot about Sylvia."

Although the girl was embarrassed, her expression no longer cracked.

Seraph left first, returning to the disciples’ residential area after bidding farewell to the two sisters.

Despite his exhaustion and obvious desire for sleep, he didn’t want to miss dinner. Therefore, he headed to the cafeteria and served himself something enough to keep him filled for the night.

Upon returning to his room, he took a light shower, changed into light robes, then sat in a meditative pose on his bed.

’Halo has been unusually silent, but I believe he’ll come back soon. I should practice my soul connection before I sleep.’

He closed his eyes, slowly registering the thoughts in his mind, then discarding them.

From the danger of the mission, to the relationship between Elder Song and Sylvia, to the rewards he had received, then to his plans to visit Ariana the next day...

He emptied everything.

The next moment, Seraph felt like he had left his body. It was as if his consciousness wasn’t bound in his physical body any longer, and he could spread infinitely like a vast ocean of water.

The feeling was surreal, but he had no explanation to it, and didn’t have a specific thought about it too.

He simply flowed with it, letting his senses expand.

Unknown to him, everything around him trembled violently as if something was applying pressure on them.

Even the outer court dormitary trembled, the structure groaning under an invisible weight.

The other inner court disciples who were still walking about in the perimeter were stunned, seeing the ancient building quake.

"Is that... soul pressure?!"

"Isn’t it that weird white-haired guy who lives there? Could it be him?"

"Wahh, he’s just a new disciple though. A little over a week. It’s probably something else."

"Yeah, it can’t be him. Even we old disciples haven’t gotten a stable contact with our soul."

While they discussed, the pressure continued to intensify until Seraph fell asleep.

In the room, his body fell backwards, landing softly on the bed.

His expression was peaceful and relaxed as he slept soundly.

Suddenly, a dim light glowed in the room, and a feminine figure with indistinguishable features emerged from thin air.

The lady walked up to Seraph, staring at his sleeping figure silently.

After almost an entire hour of not moving, she finally leaned forward and took a strand of his white hair.

Then, she vanished into thin air.

...............

The next morning, Seraph woke up feeling refreshed. With a yawn, he lifted himself from the bed, looking around the room curiously.

It was completely disorganized.

Some of the materials he placed on the table had fallen, and the walls were cracked as if the building had suffered an earthquake.

"What the heck...?"

Running his hand through his hair, he groaned lazily, then began arranging the room. After putting everything in place, he took his bath, then went out of the building.

To his surprise, he found several disciples crowding the building and discussing something.

When he stepped out, it felt like he had become a celebrity alighting from their expensive car and being swarmed by a flock of reporters.

’As if.’

None of the disciples came to ask him anything. Only Right appeared after some time, an incredulous expression on his face.

"You were in the building all night? Weren’t you woken up by the rumblings?"

Seraph blinked innocently. "What rumblings?"

Sighing, Right explained. "According to those who witnessed it, the building shook yesterday night, as if it was under a heavy strain. Someone even said it felt similar to the soul pressure Elder Simone displayed."

Something flickered in Seraph’s eyes. "Something similar to soul pressure...?"

Only then did he remember what he had felt while meditating the night before. The feeling of becoming a vast ocean of water.

’Is that it? I unlocked soul pressure that fast?’

He felt his heart thump louder, and his chest swelled with something—pride? 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

He didn’t dwell on the feeling, though. Instead, he turned to Right.

"How’s Left now? How did your mission go yesterday?"

The boy gave a faint smile and answered.

"Well, he’s in the medicinal bath we prepared with the herbs we got yesterday. His condition has improved, though the pace is a bit slow."

Seraph patted his shoulder with an encouraging smile.

"Don’t worry, it wouldn’t take time before he is completely healed, alright?"

Right nodded, then glanced back at the cracked building.

"Uh... do you still want to stay here? I don’t know why you haven’t moved into the inner court dormitory yet."

Seraph clicked his tongue, shooting a mild glare at the white inner court dormitory in the distance.

"That place would be too crowded. I prefer being alone. Don’t worry, I’ll find someone to help me repair this place. It hasn’t collapsed at least."

Right still didn’t agree with him, but didn’t say anything.

Their stomachs grumbled at the same time, causing them to lock eyes in understanding.

Without a word, they left the area and headed to the cafeteria.

After enjoying a hearty meal with Right, he finally left the Soul Peak.

Yesterday, he had received permission from Elder Song to leave the Soul Peak and visit Ariana, even receiving a stamp from her.

The distance between the mountains wasn’t significant, so it barely took him an hour to reach the base of the Winter Peak.

There, he was stopped by a warden that had appeared mysteriously.

"You aren’t a disciple of Winter Peak. Go back."

The old woman said coldly, giving Seraph a poor first impression of the Winter Peak.

"I have permit from an elder. This is—"

Before he even took it out, the woman interrupted him. "Hmph! Your elders even dared to allow you? You Summer Peak dogs are still lusting after our Winter Peak beauties. Get back before I eject you myself."

Perhaps because he wasn’t wearing his inner court disciple robes, the woman didn’t really show any respect to him.

Seraph’s face darkened, but he maintained his smile. "I’m not from the Summer Peak. I’m from the—"

"Oh? The Solstice Peak has even gotten bolder. After I personally warned them not to loiter around, you came here with another fake stamp? Hmph, courting death!"

Gritting his teeth, Seraph finally lost patience.

"Enough of the rantings, granny. I’m from Soul Peak and I have permit from Elder Song. Now step aside."

"Wha...?" The old woman was stunned for a moment, then sized him up. "There’s no way you’re a Soul Peak disciple. Those guys comport themselves well and wouldn’t lower themselves to go as far as coming here to spy on our beauties."

Seraph clicked his tongue. ’Isn’t this woman too paranoid? What’s so special about the Winter Peak anyway?’

It was at that moment that something shot straight at him. His eyes widened, and he prepared to retaliate, thinking it was an attack.

However, his sharp eyes caught sight of long silver hair, so he paused.

Instead, he smiled and spread his arms. The next second, the moving projectile barreled into him.

"Big Brother!!!"

Ariana’s excited voice, like a girl who had been presented with the greatest gift, rang out as she hugged him tightly.

Seraph smiled and patted her head fondly. "Ariana."