Chapter 757: Returning

Moon sat down on the ground, taking a few minutes to breathe and let the tension drain from his body.

The battle had been intense, dangerous in a way few fights had been for him lately. He’d nearly lost a life twice, the leopard’s wind-boosted strikes coming within a hair of killing him outright.

He’d burned through many of his ace cards to win the duel. But in the end, he’d won, and in a life-and-death battle like that, winning was all that mattered.

"I can finally kill Surpassers," he murmured, a bright smile spreading across his face. "With only thirteen acupoints filled."

He understood better than anyone just how absurd his average acupoint strength was. It was off the charts, each of his acupoints producing combat output many times what a normal fighter’s did. Thirteen filled acupoints that let him fight and kill Surpasser-rank beasts, when an ordinary fighter needed vastly more just to reach the tier at all.

And no one knew. Determining how many acupoints a person had filled required a thorough, invasive inspection of the body, using a powerful skill at extremely close proximity. It wasn’t something anyone could do casually or from a distance.

More than that, it was taboo. Peering into another person’s body, reading their secrets, was a profound violation, an act that would deeply offend the other party. And no one wanted to offend Moon.

Of course, his powerful skills were also a massive factor in bridging the gap between himself and surpassers with more than fifty acupoints filled, but that didn’t diminish his acupoints strength whatsoever.

He was the rising star of New Avalon, with close ties to Alaric Sky, the previous rising star turned Light Sword Saint, and to Tom Glassy, the Glassy Group’s acting chairman and an Ascender. To pry into his secrets would be to make enemies of all of them at once. His reputation and connections were a wall around his true nature, and that wall grew higher with every achievement.

After casting his healing skills a few more times, mending the gash across his chest fully, Moon stood and tested his body’s integrity, rolling his shoulders, flexing, checking that everything moved as it should.

Satisfied, he walked over to the dotted leopard’s body and stored it in his ring.

He didn’t bother processing the corpse, extracting the core, harvesting the meat and materials. He left that work to others now. His time was too valuable to spend on such trivial tasks.

With the battle over, his curiosity turned inward, to a question he’d been holding since the merge but never got the chance to explore because of the sudden attack by dotted leopard.

His two acupoints that had held Lightning-Assimilation and Ice-Assimilation as their foundations, what had become of them now that the two skills had fused into one? He’d built each acupoint around a separate skill, and now those skills were gone, replaced by the single Cryothunder-Assimilation. He was intensely curious how his body had reacted to that structural change, whether the two foundations had merged along with the skills, or whether something stranger had happened.

The signs were good. He felt no diminished strength whatsoever. If anything, he felt stronger, the unified skill seeming to strengthen both acupoints rather than destabilize them, the Pseudo-Legendary foundation elevating what had been two Epic foundations into something greater.

He’d investigate the specifics later, properly, when he had time to meditate and examine the change in detail.

For now, he had somewhere to be.

"Let’s head back to Earth," Moon said, turning to Honeybun and Mirage. "It’s about time I met up with Selene and Yara anyway. I’ve been out here for days, and it’s not exactly safe to check my body in a place where monsters roam free, especially Surpasser-ranked ones. No sense pushing my luck twice in one day."

<My time has come,> Moon heard.

"No, Honeybun, we’re leaving, not fighting." Moon laughed, shaking his head. "Save it for next time."

He cast one final glance across the battlefield and set off toward the nearest gate, ready to return back to earth with his new skill, and bounty.

Moon arrived back at the base where the gate leading to Earth stood.

He checked in with everyone as he passed through, exchanging a few words, keeping up the personal touch that had earned him such loyalty. Then he asked after his second-in-command.

"Is Rowan around?"

One of the administrative Evolvers in charge of the base shook his head. "He’s out hunting, boss. Took a group with him, pushing hard the last few days ever since he got that new Spirit Art. If you want, I can call him back right away to meet you."

Moon waved the suggestion off with his hands. "No need. It’s good that he’s training hard. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him, and I’m not going to pull him off it just to say hello."

The administrator nodded, and Moon clapped him on the shoulder in passing, offering him some kind words, before heading for the gate.

He stepped through the portal and arrived back on Earth, Honeybun and Mirage tucked safely in his beast taming space for now.

His Arctic Fire-Prowler and the Arctic Grizzlers he’d left behind in the Sanctuary were stationed at the base as guards.

He didn’t need them with him personally, and they served as valuable insurance for his people, extra muscle in case of a surprise attack while he was away, especially given the Surpasser-ranked beasts that roamed the island. Keeping them stationed cost him no meaningful amount of mana, so there was no downside to leaving them on watch.

With his everything settled and his base secure,

Moon arrived back on Earth, the familiar surroundings of the gate’s exit greeting him, and set his course for home, ready to reunite with Selene and Yara after days away in the wilds of the floating island.

He paid his gate fee, and began to check out his phone for any new messages. And, there were several.