Muku carefully made his way through towards the portal.

He had to be wary of the phantom Monarch after all.

But then again, what could he possibly do if the Monarch personally showed up? Well whatever, that didn't mean he could be unnecessarily careless.

Even if the Monarch was taken out of the picture, beimg careful was still not a bad thing.

{So have you thought of a name for the child yet?} Audrey asked from within the embryo.

He had made it so that they could see what he was doing and could speak to him.

"No. Not yet. I wanted your help with that actually. I just couldn't find the time to seat down and discuss it" Mikei replied in a low voice.

{Oh. Well, we're all here and it can be said that there's time right now. Why not do it now?} Audrey replied.

The others agreed. They were more than happy to help. It was basically practice for when they had to name their own kids if they didn't like Muku's name and suggestions.

"Well, I guess we can do it. However, why the sudden interest?" Muku asked.

{Well, a small incident occured here. Sarah happened to walk in while we were talking. As you know, we're invisible to her. So she could only hear our voices and not see us. Then there was not being able to lock onto where were. She likely got overwhelmed by that and... She fainted} Audrey explained.

"What? But didn't you all notice her?" Muku asked

{We did, but we all forgot that she couldn't see us anymore. So we continues talking. Hearing our voices at once from all directions must be similar to a mental attack for weaker people. Anyway, as an apology, I want to give her her child's name today" Audrey spoke.

"Ah. I can see how that could happen. And okay, let's do it. I want the name to start with J in honour of his father. Any suggestions?" Muku asked.

{Hmm. What about Jackson?} Audrey suggested.

"Okay. What? Did you just combine Jack and son?, sure it's a name but it feels like you definitely combined the two worlds" Muku was flabbergasted by how terrible she was at choosing a name.

He never expected that from her. Maybe Layla was lucky that it wasn't Audrey who named her, it who knows what simple name she would have had.

{Cough. No, no. I didn't do that. You're thinking too much. But fine, since you don't like it, I'll let the others suggest something} Audrey replied in an embarrassed voice.

She really wished she could go back and change her suggestion or say something else. Or maybe not say anything at all since she knew clearly that she was terrible at naming things.

Anyway, to not make her feel any more embarrassed, the others started suggesting names.

More than thirty names were suggested in just three minutes.

As they did that, Muku reached the statue he and the others defeated.

He requested entry like he was told to. And it was provided like he was told would happen.

After that he slowly proceeded forward. He was really nervous at that point.

After all, no matter how strong he was. He couldn't afford to get more enemies at the time being. He currently only had a few but each and every one of them were Monarch-level.

There was Legion but he wasn't sure bout whether that thing was still alive or not.

Anyway, after calming his nerves he finally walked through the portal which wasn't giving off a threatening aura like before.

It didn't take long to reach the other side and as a portal veteran at that point, he didn't feel weird at all.

He was ready to swing a few times before retreating after reaching the other side of the portal but he was met with an unexpected situation.

The expected guards weren't present. The expected majestic beauty wasn't present.

Sure, the ground was made of clouds with looked quite magical but it was all ruined by the ruined world he was looking at.

Broken down huge trees, ruined buildings, the scent of death and destruction in the air, and huge beast skeletons from many different species laid out everywhere he looked.

This wasn't the high realm he was promised. Sure the divine mana there was in abundance to say the very least. He could feel his cultivation improving by just standing there. It was super slow but it was worlds above what he felt in the Beast Forest.

But that was beside the point when he was in an obviously unsafe environment.

He felt even more alert than when he expected to be greeted by an army.

After all, that situation would at least have order and he would know what to expect. But this was different. This was practically falling down into hell. He had no idea what to expect.

As he cautiously looked around after finding a random huge skull to stand on top of.

One would expect him to hide right? But what would that do when

people at his level have long made mana sense their base "eyes"?

So even if he hides, he'd still be "seen" if the other party is strong enough.

So it was better to do his thing while watching out for ambushes than give himself false safety.

"Well this is unexpected. What do you the most happened here?" Jade asked while standing beside Muku.

She and the others had just come out of the embryo.

They figured it was better to deal with this new development together in one place.

"If I had to guess, I'd say there was a civil war of sort. Beasts can't live in harmony for too long. Their urge to fight and conquer is too strong. I think someone started something and soon after everyone was involved and this happened. Hell, even humans couldn't live peacefully for too long despite not having real power back then. So what of those who actually had power?" Raya was the one who replied.

At first it seemed like she looked down on beasts and preferred humans but after she finished, the group realised that she dislikes both equally.

Which they understood honestly. After all, both groups simply sucked.

"Oh?... Looking at the damage on the skeletons and the lack of human skeletons or something like that, I support your guess. Now only one question remains..." Muku spoke.

"And what's that?" Raya asked.

"Did they wipe each other out or did some survive? And if any survived, are they stronger or weaker because of the experience?" Muku replied.

"Umm, isn't that two questions?" Hope cutely asked.

"Yup, that's definitely two" Jade supported.

"No it's not. The other is a follow up if the first one. So it's like part 2 or something" Muku defended.

"Still another question" Jade argued.

"Okay, is episode two in a series another movie or the continuation of the first episode?" Muku argued back.

"Not another movie but definitely another episode" Jade didn't give up.

"Okay, okay. Just agreed to disagree and let's move on. This isn't the time or place" Audrey intervened before Muku could say anything, she knew that he was just as stubborn as Jade was so if no one said anything, they would go on and on.

"Fine. I'll let it go. I still believe I was right though" Muku spoke.

"Me too" Jade replied and sparks started flying between the two again.

Audrey found herself placing her hand on her aching forehead. Well, it wasn't aching for real. But if she was a normal human being, it definitely would have been aching from constantly having to act like the group's mother all the time. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

To think even her husband is so childish. Is this what it was like having a younger husband? Then again, aren't men childish no matter their age?

Did that mean she will have to deal with his childishness forever? After all, for them, living forever was a real possibility that got more and more solid with each breakthrough.

She didn't know how to feel about that. Should she be happy or sad?

Well, whatever, that was cute Audrey's fault.

"Audrey, Audrey, Audrey..."

Just when she returned from her thoughts she was met with Muku calling her over and over again.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. You zoned out and we were worried" Muku replied with a look of concern on his face.

"No, it's nothing. Sorry to worry you. I just got lost in random thoughts" Audrey replied reassuringly.

"Oh, okay. That's good. Anyway, me and the others decided to go look around in groups of four. How does that sound to you?" Muku brought her up to speed.

"That sounds good. But aren't we one person short?" Audrey asked.

"That's no problem. The group will have me and Raya. Specifically Raya. She can get away from anything with her space element. Not to mention that we all have access to the embryo from anywhere at anytime. So it's really not too dangerous if we don't meet any unreasonably strong opponents" Muku replied.

"Oh. That's good then. Let's do it. Who is going with who?" Audrey asked.

"Let's draw lots" Muku replied instantly.

The girls tended to get jealous when he chose someone specifically, so he used such mini games to decide things whenever possible.

And it was really effective at keeping the peace...