Chapter 154: A First Glimpse of the Power of a Domain 2

The dark elf Grand Elder was growing anxious as well.

But this was a Domain.

The moment anyone stepped into it, even he would be placing himself in danger.

He stared at the seemingly empty space before him.

To ordinary eyes, there was nothing there at all.

But that was only an illusion created by appearances.

Anyone who crossed that invisible boundary would immediately be drawn into the Domain.

Inside, Kent was running out of options.

“If I can still circulate my magical power... then maybe I can absorb these flames?”

It was a desperate idea, but at this point, Kent had little else to try.

In theory, every flame inside the Domain was controlled by the person who had created it.

Yet after so much time had passed without any direct attack, Kent began to suspect that the human Grand Elder had only just comprehended the power of a Domain.

Perhaps he could not yet control it properly.

Or perhaps he could barely control it at all.

Once that thought appeared, another idea suddenly flashed through Kent’s mind.

Kent had never been the sort of person to hesitate once he made a decision.

He immediately tried.

Only then did he discover just how difficult the task actually was.

The mental power he normally used to gather magical elements could not extend beyond his body at all.

It could only circulate internally.

Without being able to project his mental power outward, he had no way to draw in magical elements through the usual methods of a mage.

But when one path was blocked, another sometimes opened.

Kent decided to try circulating his battle aura instead.

Battle aura absorbed magical elements through the surface of the body, which was fundamentally different from the way mages gathered elemental energy.

Holding onto that slim possibility, Kent concentrated with all his strength and slowly began circulating his battle aura.

“There’s hope!”

Kent suddenly felt the source of his battle aura begin to turn.

Very slowly.

But it was moving.

At the same time, the extraordinarily pure fire-element energy surrounding his body began seeping into him little by little.

The energy passed through his blood, his meridians, and his bones before finally flowing into the source of his battle aura.

Kent quickly noticed something remarkable.

The elemental energy inside the Domain was astonishingly pure.

But there was also a drawback.

Absorbing it required an enormous amount of mental power.

If Kent had not also been a mage, he probably would not have been able to endure the strain at all.

Still, the results were extraordinary.

Under normal circumstances, less than one-third of the elemental energy Kent absorbed would survive the passage through his blood, meridians, and bones before finally reaching the source of his battle aura.

The rest would be gradually absorbed by his body along the way.

This time, however, more than half of the energy successfully reached his battle aura source.

And that was not even the most important part.

Kent was beginning to feel better.

The burning pain was gradually becoming less unbearable.

His body was slowly adapting to the environment inside the Domain.

By this point, Kent almost found himself hoping that the human Grand Elder could keep the Domain active a little longer.

If he could fully adapt to such an environment, then where in the world would he still be afraid to go?

Kent focused completely on absorbing the pure elemental energy around him.

As time passed, he could feel the oppressive force of the Domain gradually weakening.

Soon, his little finger twitched.

Kent was not discouraged in the slightest.

On the contrary, he was delighted.

After surviving this experience, his physical strength would almost certainly rise to an entirely new level.

But things rarely went exactly as one hoped.

Kent had only just managed to move his wrist when the scenery around him suddenly changed.

The Domain vanished.

The human Grand Elder stood not far away, his face deathly pale.

His clothes were stained with blood.

He stared at Kent in utter disbelief.

Kent was still standing there.

Alive.

And almost completely unharmed.

The human Grand Elder had paid an enormous price to forcefully release a Domain before he was truly ready.

He had used a secret technique that would permanently reduce his cultivation by an entire rank.

Yet even after paying such a price—

the Domain had failed to kill Kent.

“Pfft!”

The human Grand Elder suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood.

His expression became hollow.

Then his body slowly collapsed to the ground.

He simply could not accept what had happened.

And with that final mouthful of blood, the consequences of the secret technique became irreversible.

The human Grand Elder’s cultivation fell permanently to the eighth rank.

At his age, there was almost no possibility of ever recovering.

In fact, after suffering such a devastating loss of strength, he probably did not have many years left to live.

The dark elf Grand Elder, Daphne, and the Dragon Turtle all stared at Kent in astonishment.

He had emerged completely unharmed.

To those watching from outside, however, only a few breaths had passed.

That was one of the strange properties of a Domain.

For those whose cultivation had reached truly terrifying heights, especially god-level experts, ten thousand years might pass within a Domain while scarcely more than the blink of an eye passed outside.

“Hehe...”

Kent felt somewhat awkward under everyone’s stares.

The dark elf Grand Elder looked thoughtful.

Daphne’s face was filled with joy.

The Dragon Turtle looked distinctly uneasy.

Gohanni, on the other hand, appeared utterly dejected.

Faced with so many different expressions, Kent could only chuckle awkwardly before walking toward Daphne.

Only now did he truly understand what mattered most.

With the Dragon Turtle’s strength, it should have been possible for it to break through the human Grand Elder’s immature Domain.

Yet it had not done so.

Kent could more or less guess why.

As for the dark elf Grand Elder, he had simply been watching humans tear one another apart. No matter what title Kent held among the dark elves, he was still human in the end.

Only Daphne’s reaction was different.

That expression of pure relief and happiness touched Kent deeply.

Although a sense of disappointment lingered in his heart, he refused to let it show in front of someone who genuinely cared about him.

Quietly, Kent made several decisions of his own.

“You little girl. Look at you—your whole face is streaked with tears.”

Kent smiled as he gently wiped the tears from Daphne’s cheeks.

His tone sounded half teasing, half concerned.

Daphne’s eyes were still red.

She quickly wiped away the remaining tears and answered with obvious happiness,

“I don’t know why... When I saw you disappear, my heart hurt so badly. Really badly.”

She looked at him.

“But when I saw that you were all right, I just felt so happy. So very happy.”

Kent said nothing.

Yet those few simple words nearly brought tears to his own eyes.

Across two lifetimes, no one had ever worried about him quite like this.

In all the decades he had lived between those two lives, this might have been the most moving thing anyone had ever said to him.

Still, this was not the time to dwell on such feelings.

Kent turned away and took out a piece of beast hide.

Marked upon it was the location where he had originally found the Dragon Turtle.

“Grand Elder, the space in this area is extremely suitable for building a city.”

Kent respectfully handed the hide to the dark elf Grand Elder.

“There are salt deposits nearby, as well as hot springs. There aren’t many magical beasts in the surrounding region either.”

He gestured toward the hide.

“This is the map.”

The dark elf Grand Elder’s eyes immediately lit up.

After taking the beast hide and glancing over it, he quickly realized that it was indeed a map.

His excitement became impossible to hide.

“Excellent! As expected of our Honorary Elder.”

He looked at Kent approvingly.

“Don’t worry. The dark elves will reward you properly for this contribution.”

A smile appeared on his face.

“Perhaps Her Majesty the Empress may even wish to meet you personally.”

Strictly speaking, there was nothing wrong with what the dark elf Grand Elder had said.

But after what had just happened, the words sounded different to Kent.

They reminded him of a master praising a useful pet.

Good. You’ve done well. Here is your reward. Now keep guarding the door.

Even so, Kent showed no dissatisfaction.

He merely answered calmly,

“It would be my honor to meet Her Majesty the Empress.”

The dark elf Grand Elder gave a quiet sigh.

“About what happened just now...”

He stopped.

Kent’s calm tone had already told him everything he needed to know.

A distance had formed between them.

Yet the Grand Elder had his own difficulties.

The dark elf race was hardly united in every matter, and the longer one lived, the more difficult it became not to fear death.

He wanted to explain himself to Kent, perhaps even offer some words of reassurance, but for a moment he had no idea where to begin.

In the end, he turned toward the others instead.

“What are all of you still standing around for?”

His voice suddenly hardened.

“The City Lord has been involved in abducting dark elves. We are going to investigate this matter thoroughly.”

With that, the dark elf Grand Elder led his people deeper into Salt City to settle accounts with the human families involved.

Kent watched him leave.

Nearby, the pale-faced Gohanni finally lost the strength to remain standing and collapsed weakly to the ground.

Strangely enough, Kent felt much calmer now.

After a moment, he walked back to Daphne.

He looked directly into her face and asked softly,

“Daphne... if one day I return to the surface, would you come with me?”

Daphne remained silent for quite some time.

Then, at last, she slowly raised her head.

“No.”

Her answer was quiet but clear.

“I don’t want to go back with you.”