Chapter 1016 More Affinities Doesn’t Define Greatness
BOOM—!
A stone statue shattered in a celestial stone hall.
A towering being, as mighty as a mountain, snapped her eyes open as her gaze fell at a corner of the hall where a statue broke apart.
There were thousands of stone statues in front of her. Some were tiny while some were half her size as she sat in a lotus position.
A medium-sized piece broke in a corner. It was a sight that has never happened before.
Staring at it with her deep crimson eyes, the Giant lady saw a gray orb bobbing up and down in air in place of the statue.
Opening her palm, it shot towards her and hovered over her palm.
The lady gazed at the orb and with a neutral look, unbothered by the anomaly that had occurred a few breaths ago.
A gray mist covered the orb, but after injecting a bit of her energy into it, the lady saw a scene uncovered within it.
In a bright hall, a pair of purple eyes were peering right at her, indifferently.FOllow 𝒏ewest stories at n𝒐(v)elbin(.)com
Squinting her own eyes, she stared at the man with silver hair, wondering whether it was him that was the reason for the statue's destruction.
Soon, she got an answer.
"So you are the one pulling the strings. I'll remember you."
"!!"
The lady frowned. An ant dared to threaten her?
Her, who was so sought after by Gods in the higher plane, and the strongest being in the Sacred Celestial Realm?
The lady extended her index finger towards the orb and was about to channel her spiritual power into it. But, right then.
BA-DUMP—!
'Huh?'
Her heart, body, mine, soul… all senses screamed at her to stop!
Such an adverse reaction… how was this possible!?
The lady tried to channel her spiritual power again at her index finger, but once again, her survival instincts took over her and stopped her at once.
From the orb, the lady could see a pair of cunning purple eyes look down at her.
"You'll pay for this audaci—"
BA-DUMP—!
A pair of abyss-like dark eyes gazed at her and made her heart jump.
On the shoulder of this silver-haired man was a purple-haired woman, who gazed right into her crimson eyes and gave off a scary feeling.
'How… what…'
Where did these monsters come from? Why were they giving her such an ominous feeling?
The orb in her hands dissipated in the next instant and the connection was cut off.
The lady continued to stare at the empty space in front and kept wondering who these people were.
A few breaths later.
She placed her palm on her chest. She could feel her heart still thumping intensely. There was still a lingering fear within her.
"Whoever you are… making an enemy out of me wasn't right."
The lady muttered as a murderous glint flashed in her eyes.
She stood up from her lotus position and walked out of the hall, not avoiding the statues that lay in her path and shattering them.
A lot of soul-scaring cries rang out in her ears as this happened, but she did not care.
…..
Lith stared at the paper in front of him. The spell was erased from it after a few seconds of interaction and he saw a blonde-haired, crimson-eyed woman through it.
It was like a video call, but with someone in a higher realm.
Now that he knew the culprit of this lady that had turned into a demonic tree, Lith could free her from her curse.
She was linked with this entity, and through the spell inscribed on the paper, Lith entered within this link and got himself connected temporarily.
Once the connection was cut off, the spell vanished and erased the link with it as well.
The lady was free from the higher being's grasp and doing anything to her won't result in any backlash.
Lith wasn't proficient in curses to remove it. So, he called someone who was.
Ringgg… Ringgg…
Beep.
"Hello— woof! Woof!"
A puppy's woofing sound cut the soft, indifferent voice.
"Zen, be quiet."
"Woof! Woof!"
"No, no treats."
"Woooo…"
"Keep rolling near my feet. I'll not give it to you."
"Woo…"
"I'm sorry about this, Your Highness. Please ignore the cries in the background."
A smile unknowingly crept on Lith's face as he heard this. Whatever was happening, he was all in for it. Sylvia was showing more emotions than usual, it was a good development.
"Sylvia, where are you?"
"I'm at— waaooouuuu…!"
A different puppy's voice cut off Sylvia this time.
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
"Ren?" Lith asked.
"Woooo!" Ren howled from the other side.
"Oh, it's you."
"Woof!" It was indeed him!
"Good to know."
"Wooo… woooo…woooouuuu…"
"You miss me? That's good to know too. Anyway, stop talki—
barking, and let Sylvia speak."
"Woo…"
"I'll send you back to the golden-haired monster if you don't."
"…"
Beep.
"What? He cut the call?" Lith stared at his phone with amusement.
Ringgg… Ringgg…
A call from Sylvia arrived right in the next instant. Picking it up, he heard,
"So sorry about that, Your Highness."
"Don't worry. Ren can be a handful sometimes. Make him stand in a corner or throw him into a pond. He wouldn't bother you then."
"I've sent him and Zen into the Black Rose Forest. They won't bother again."
"Good. Anyway, you know how to deal with curses, right?"
"I'm not the best at it… but I can work with a few…"
There was still the fact that Sylvia wasn't able to free herself from the curse that plagued her for thousands of years.
She thus didn't call herself an expert despite having a mastery over it. Lith was aware of it.
"No worries. Come to me, you should be able to handle this one."
"Okay. I'll be there then."
Beep.
The call was cut off and right in the next instant, Space twisted beside Lith and Sylvia walked out from thin air.
Instead of a maid uniform, she was in a black robe that clung to her body in the right places and brought out her curves along with a black pointy hat.
To this day, Lith had no idea why Witches wear pointy hats. He wasn't complaining, he just didn't know of it. He decided he would ask Sylvia about it later.
Sylvia bowed before Lith and greeted him.
Lith returned the greeting and pointed at the unconscious face of the woman turned into a demonic tree.
"Can you fix her?"
"I can try."
Sylvia didn't deny or agree to ensure Lith didn't have any expectations. Just by looking at the woman, she had a feeling that it wouldn't be easy to convert her back, hence she wasn't sure and gave Lith an ambiguous answer.
"Go ahead."
Lith backed away after saying so and let Sylvia do her work.
In the meantime, he looked back at the two people at the hall's entrance. They were still in place and intensely staring at him.
He could feel their gazes on him for quite some time but didn't address them because he was busy.
Walking close to the Giant girl, who's name he didn't know till now, Lith said, "Don't panic. Your aunt should be healed in a while."
The girl nodded slightly and tried her best to not cry. Her mind was blank right after she felt a change in her aunt's body. She didn't know what it was, but the malicious energy from before had vanished.
The girl had no idea how to thank Lith. She wasn't in the right state to do anything, thus she heeded his advice and stayed put.
Lith then turned to look at Lucas.
He was a head shorter than him, muscular and ripped.
Lith could feel the aura of ten elemental energies from within him. It was quite a surprise to see someone like that.
There was no one in the world who possessed an affinity of more than seven. Even his aunts and wives didn't have that.
Heck, his aunts didn't even have six.
Affinities were important, but not as much as people put emphasis on it.
One could think of it like this. They had just graduated from high school and had a lot of career options available to choose from. They could go into business studies, economics, medical, engineering, etc.
People with one affinity meant they had talent in only one thing. This meant that they could only ever be a businessman or a doctor or an engineer or a lawyer.
People with two affinities could become engineers and businessmen together, but the amount of effort they would need to put in would double as compared to someone with one affinity. The difficulty to cultivate both would rise sharply.
At times, they would be forced to work on something they don't want to as well, breaking them apart.
With each affinity rise, the difficulty increased like an exponential curve.
The people having six plus affinities were doomed. They had to work harder than most if they wanted to reap the advantages of their affinities, otherwise they would just become average if they only worked on one or two and ignored the rest.
After highschool, you went to pursue a business degree, put your heart and soul into it during the first month and vow to become the best businessman, but right then, you are shifted to an engineering class the next month and have to focus on advanced calculus.
You still work hard and vow to be the best engineer. But the month after, you're shifted to a medical class where you are forced to dissect cadavers and focus on medical knowledge.
Initially it would be rotating monthly, but after a while, everyday, you would be thrown from one stream to another like a ping pong ball. The juggling will take a mental toll and one day, you'll break.
More affinities were thus a blessing and a curse. But at the end of the day, the path to greatness all depended upon oneself.
A person who studied med, engineering, and business together could be successful, but it wasn't guaranteed.
Likewise, a person who just studied med could become the greatest out there ever. He could be the best doctor in the world that could heal anything. With that, he could also amass so much money that he could have the best engineers and businessmen at his disposal.
This applied to a mortal.
The world of cultivators saw even more astonishing miracles.
Keeping his thoughts to himself, Lith stared at Lucas.
He could see him sweating in nervousness.
Lith had an indifferent look on his face, opposite to the smiling, gentle one he usually showed to his wives and maids.
Lith parted his lips, and the words he said next shook Lucas to the core.
"So… what's your goal?"
"!!!?!?!"
…..