Sovereign of the Ashes

Sein reunited with his mentor at Collector Starport in the Valthwain Star Domain.

She had arrived before him.

It seemed Lorianne had received the letter Sein sent before leaving Divine Descendants World.

After more than a thousand years apart, both of them had changed considerably.

The most obvious difference was their respective life levels. Lorianne had reached the peak of Rank Four, while Sein had already advanced to the peak of Rank Five.

Before their reunion, Sein had imagined all the things he wanted to say to her.

Yet when Lorianne finally appeared before him, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Lorianne seemed to feel the same way.

In the arrival area of Collector Starport, the two simply stood there, gazing at each other in silence for a long time.

***

“I really didn’t expect you to have already advanced to the peak of Rank Five,” Lorianne teased after the two settled into a tea house inside the starport.

Generally speaking, once knights and mages reached Rank Two or higher, they no longer needed to replenish their energy through food.

They could sustain themselves by drawing elemental energy or battle qi directly from the surrounding environment.

This was even more true for Rank Four and above beings.

Even so, the unique tea houses, coffee shops, and guild halls found throughout Magus World still held a strong appeal for them.

That remained true even here on the dangerous front lines.

The tea house Sein and Lorianne had entered was a good example.

Apart from the two of them, quite a few beings of Rank Two or higher were seated throughout the establishment.

Of course, most of the customers were still below Rank Four.

As for law-wielding beings, Sein detected only one other besides himself and Lorianne.

Through the Faceless Mask, he noticed an extremely low-key Rank Four male mage dressed in a black robe.

The man sat alone in a corner of the tea house, quietly savouring the fruit tea before him.

Naturally, Sein and Lorianne had both suppressed their auras. The strength they radiated was only at Rank Two, allowing them to blend in with the majority of the tea house’s customers.

Sein replied to his mentor via mental focus, “You’re not doing too badly yourself, Master Lorianne. You’ve already reached the peak of Rank Four.”

“Why didn’t you mention it in your previous letters?” he asked.

Lorianne picked up the glass of fruit tea before her and took two small sips through the straw.

“I wanted to surprise you. But instead, you’re the one who ended up surprising me,” she said.

Sein had never told Lorianne that he had reached the peak of Rank Five, much less that he had already set foot on the path to Rank Six.

It seemed mentor and apprentice had been thinking along exactly the same lines.

Sein had originally planned to impress his mentor by revealing that he had already begun preparing for his advancement to Rank Six.

However, when he looked at Lorianne, who was still at the peak of Rank Four, he hesitated and ultimately kept those words to himself.

At that moment, Lorianne’s gaze drifted toward another corner of the tea house.

For some reason, whenever Sein was far away and they could only communicate through letters, she often found herself missing him. Sometimes, she would even absent-mindedly replay the old recordings stored in her crystal ball.

Yet now that Sein was finally sitting before her again, Lorianne felt strangely flustered and could not quite bring herself to meet his eyes.

She could only turn her attention elsewhere and compose herself, trying to maintain the “dignified and unfathomable” air expected of a mentor.

Following her gaze, Sein looked toward a nearby corner where several Immortal Realm cultivators were seated.

The cultivators who had arrived on the Magus Civilization’s battlefield had quickly become fascinated by its unique culture. At the same time, they had also brought many of their own customs and traditions with them.

The relationship between these two top-tier civilizations had long since extended beyond military cooperation.

A lively cultural exchange was taking place as well.

Elegant and relatively quiet establishments like this tea house had become especially popular among mages from Magus World and cultivators from the orthodox sects of the Immortal Realm.

To be honest, the elemental fruit teas and magical food served in these establishments were not necessarily superior to the potions brewed by apothecaries or the elixirs refined by Immortal Realm alchemists.

Everyone simply enjoyed the atmosphere.

The Immortal Realm also had Fasting Pills, and Rank Two and above Golden Core cultivators generally no longer needed to eat. Even so, they still enjoyed trying new things.

In contrast to these quiet tea houses, the taverns, brothels, and other establishments introduced by rogue cultivators and members of the Yao Clan had also become wildly popular among the knights and mages of the Magus Civilization, as well as the countless creatures of the Magus Alliance.

The boisterous atmosphere of those taverns, where people tore into big slabs of meat and shouted over one another, would probably give a mage like Sein a splitting headache the moment he stepped inside. The knights, however, absolutely loved it.

Some of those taverns, pubs, and brothels even served as places where quests could be accepted and assigned.

Although the cultural exchange between the two civilizations had occasionally led to minor conflicts, it had mostly fostered a sense of mutual recognition between their people.

Of course, this only applied to the Immortal Realm Civilization.

Only another top-tier civilization standing on equal footing with the Magus Civilization could produce such an outcome.

After all, the Magus Alliance had existed for many years and contained countless member worlds. Yet how many of those worlds had ever managed to leave such a visible mark on Magus World?

Actually, this was more than a simple cultural clash. In some ways, it was a slow process of cultural domination and assimilation.

The leadership of the Magus Civilization expected its member planes to follow its rules and gradually embrace the values, customs, and atmosphere of Magus World. The influence was subtle, but constant.

Once the members of the Magus Alliance began instinctively aligning themselves with Magus World, it meant that the alliance’s system of rules had truly succeeded!

To lower-ranking beings, the exchange between civilizations might simply seem novel and exciting, but to powerhouses who had reached a certain level, what they saw was influence on a civilizational scale.

The Immortal Realm Civilization, for example, was amazed by how thoroughly Magus World had won over so many of the Magus Alliance’s weaker members.

In terms of the strength of their respective homeplanes, the Immortal Realm was undoubtedly far superior to Magus World.

There was no denying that.

But once the entire Magus Alliance was taken into account...

Throughout this Clash of Civilizations, the forces fighting at the very front, and suffering the heaviest losses, were not the knights and mages of Magus World, but the legions of the Magus Alliance.

At his current level, Sein could barely be considered an upper-middle-ranking powerhouse.

After travelling through so many star domains and interacting with numerous top-tier beings over the years, his perspective had broadened considerably.

Looking around the tea house, Sein could not help but remark, “I never imagined the Magus Civilization and the Immortal Realm Civilization would achieve such a high degree of cooperation. I used to think that, as two top-tier civilizations, there would always be some degree of suspicion between them.”

“I only hope the Magus Civilization and the Immortal Realm Civilization never end up going to war,” he mused.

Of course, he conveyed those words to Lorianne via mental focus, ensuring that others could not overhear them and draw the wrong conclusion.

Lorianne suddenly snapped back to her senses. “Huh? What did you just say?”

She had clearly been lost in thought.

Sein blinked at her. He picked up the fruit tea before him and took a small sip.

“It’s nothing important,” he replied.